Friday 9th February 2024

Dear Links Families,

 

A message from the Executive Headteacher;

It doesn’t seem possible that we are breaking up for the half term break today. The time has just flown by. I continue to be impressed with how hard the children have been working and how polite and friendly our children are. A number of our year groups have been out on educational visits recently and the reports that we have received back about their behaviour has been delightful.

Thank you to you, as parents and carers, for the way you support your children’s learning. The partnership between home and school is crucial to the children making good progress. We couldn’t do it without you, so ‘thank you’.

In various letters in the autumn term, I wrote about the importance of attendance, so I am pleased to tell you that our attendance for the autumn term has shown significant improvement on last year, so again I say thank you for the part you as parents and carers have played in this. There is still some room for improvement, but we are very much heading in the right direction.

Finally, a huge thank you, on your behalf, to the staff whether that be the admin and premises team, classroom support staff and teachers for their hard work this half term and my thanks in particular to Mrs Anderson and Mrs Murray for the excellent way they lead the school on a day to day basis.

I hope you and your families have a great half term break and look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday 20th February.

Thank You

Mr Roughley

Despite this being a short half term it has been a very busy but successful one.  It has been a half term full of exciting learning experiences from writing about the adventures of Florence Nightingale in year 2 to amazing science experiments in year 6.  This week, Year 3 dressed up and roamed around the school in togas for their Roman day while Year 1 visited Fulham Palace to take part in a workshop about their topic Toys. Year 4 visited the BFI to learn about Antarctica and also got to see a presentation from a scientist who visited basecamp during the winter months.  It has been delightful to see the children’s responses and enthusiasm for their learning but we still have more to look forward to in the following half term.  Year 5 will be singing at the Royal Albert Hall in March and we also have World Book Day and STEM week to look forward to too.  We can’t wait!

Half Term and INSET day

Just a reminder that next week the school is closed for half term. The school will reopen on Tuesday 20th February 2024, as Monday is an INSET day for staff training. 

Playscheme

We have had a blast sharing a fantastic half term with your children and hope they enjoyed it just as much as us. Thank you so much for your support! 

 

The booking form for the next half term is now open. Click below to secure your child's spot.

https://www.links.merton.sch.uk/Breakfast--After-School-Club/

 

Additionally, the Easter Playscheme booking is also open! Don't miss out on this opportunity for a week full of activities and fun. For more information and the booking form, please click on the following link.  https://www.links.merton.sch.uk/Playscheme/  

 

 

Children’s Personal Belongings 

This week we have had a couple of issues with children bringing sweets, money, toys and cosmetics into school. Please make sure that your child doesn’t bring them in as they will be confiscated. 

World Book Day 

We will be celebrating World Book Day at Links on Thursday 7th March 2024! We will have a week full of fun reading activities (including an Author Visit, Story Swap and more!), promoting pleasure for reading. We will have TWO competitions for everyone to join in with - Reading In Unusual Places and Story in a Shoebox (posters attached)! Children are welcome to dress up as their favourite book character on Thursday 7th March - please do not feel the need to buy any new costumes, home made are best! 

 

Links Values Award

Our Links Values Award winners this week are;

• Nursery - Khalil for his wonderful participation during circle time; dancing, singing and making music with instruments.  
• Rainbow - Mariesha for caring about the classroom environment.
• Sunshine - Dmytro for being a dedicated learner.
• 1EJ - Maria for showing an exemplary attitude on our school trip.
• 1W-  Ada for always showing respect and kindness towards her friends.
• 2B - Junaid for his kindness and respect while working with his partner. 
• 2T - Christian for using powerful words when writing her story. 
• 3B -  Erica for being a kind and respectful friend to all.
• 3P - Jack for excellent contributions to class discussions.
• 4M - Piranith for engaging in class discussion and taking pride in his work.
• 4T - Zaeem for always showing kindness around the school.
• 4T - Haroon for making a great effort to be sensible and respectful on our trip.
• 5KG - Poppy for displaying resilience and determination, especially in maths.
• 5M - Gauresh for taking on board feedback in writing with great results.
• 6M - Cherry for her great effort in all her learning this week.
• 6G - The whole class for showing the Links Value Respect all week!

 

Well done for demonstrating our Links Values. We are very proud of you all!

 

House Points

Today the winning house received an extra special double playtime! Well done to the yellow house! 

 

This house points totals for the end of his half term are;

Yellow House - 5281

Green House - 5224

Red House - 5051

Blue House - 4981

Weekly Attendance 

This week’s attendance figures for each class are;

• Rainbow - 94.6%
• Sunshine - 92.4%
• 1EJ - 97.7%
• 1W - 91.3%
• 2B - 98.9%
• 2T - 100%
• 3B - 94%
• 3P - 87.5%
• 4M - 94.8%
• 4T - 98.6%  
• 5KG - 98%
• 5M -  93.2%
• 6G - 97.5%
• 6M  - 96.3 %   

 

Congratulations to 2T  who achieved the highest attendance this week, with a fantastic 100%. Lincoln the Bear will be spending the first week back with Year 2, learning about their new topic ‘Our World’

 

This week’s 95% Attendance Tickets go to 1EJ, 2B, 2T, 4T, 5KG, 6G and 6M. 

 

Today we held the end of half term raffle draw. We are excited to announce that Sunshine class, in reception, were the lucky winners. Today they received the mystery treat of a movie and popcorn! 

Wishing you all a safe and enjoyable half term. 

Natalie, Vicki and the Links Team