Happy Friday everyone!

Time is whizzing by and half-term is in sight. We have had another busy week at Abbeys. We have been lucky enough to appoint an Academic Mentor, using the Covid Catch up funding. Miss Begum starts with us next week and her focus is to support identified pupils with a focus on catch up intervention. She will be based in year 3/4/5 and 6. Welcome to the team Miss Begum!

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Lorena Canals "Happy Heart" Rug - Interismo UK Please welcome Baby Cleo Noelle Warburton to the Abbeys Community! Cleo was born on Saturday 1st October, weighing 7lbs 6oz. Mother and baby doing well. They say that Saturday's child will go far in life.... and I am sure she will.

CONGRATULATIONS

MR and MRS WARBURTON.

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A huge shout out to Abir in Westminster!

He has achieved his red belt in Karate.

Well done Abir!

BUT he is not only a Karate expert.

Abir also achieved a certificate of achievement in football as well!

Please, please, please email me your SHOUT OUTS!

We really enjoy sharing news about our pupils!

Lily Strafford competed at the Racing BMX British Champs this Summer and made the final! She finished 8th in the country.

Lily also competed in the East Anglia championships at the weekend and came 1st becoming the 10-year-old EA Champ. She competed both regionally and nationally and has qualified to go to the World Championships which will be held in Scotland next year.

Lily is a very driven and focussed athlete who works hard trying to improve every aspect of her racing from her explosive power out of the gate, bike skills, racing technique and overall speed.

Well done Lily! We are all proud of you!

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This fabulous biography about Queen Elizabeth II was written by

Crystal in year 2.

EXPLORING THE CURRICULUM AT ABBEYS

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been out and about in classes, looking at the environment and discussing learning with pupils and teachers.

In Early Years, it was lovely to see the children being resourceful, following the Golden rules and exploring all areas of learning. I quickly found myself in the Doctor's role play area, being treated for all kinds of things. One child even wore a face shield. It was very realistic!

One of the hardest transitions in school is between Foundation Stage and year 1. It was lovely to see the children in Woburn and Westminster writing biographies about the Queen. They were all engaged and enjoying their learning. Even though their hands hurt from all the writing!

In years 3 and 4, it was nice to see the pupils comparing the story of Cinderella to an Ancient Egyptian version. There was a Fairy Godfather! They were so engaged in their learning, they didn't realise I was there.

Lastly, in years 5/6, I saw the children writing non-chronological reports about their own Mythical creatures. They had been really creative and designed their own creatures and were writing about them.

Overall, high levels of engagement- particularly in Early years, excellent behaviour for learning and very happy, purposeful learning environments. Well done everyone!

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Ancient Greek - During our Ancient Greek hook day, we learnt lots of useful information that would help us with our learning and played some games, that the Ancient Greek people did in their spare time. My favourite thing about that day was being able to act out scenes. We were called up in different groups to take on different characters throughout the day and we were able to hold some of the old props and wear some of the heavy armour. Some of us also got to dress up in clothes that were similar to the clothes back then. Freya B- Year 6

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HARVEST

What an amazing Harvest collection we achieved this year!

Thanks to everyone who donated. This food will go to St Mary's church and back out into the MK3 community.

Thank you.

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Today we have been wearing yellow to raise awareness for mental health and well-being. Did you know- One in six children aged 5 to 16 were identified as having a probable mental health problem in July 2021.

That’s five children in every classroom!

At Abbeys we are committed to supporting all our pupils and staff. We have specially trained staff-

Mrs Fellowes- Mental Health Lead.

Miss Dean- Mental Health First aider.

Miss Henry and Miss Proctor are currently leading on mental health and wellbeing at Abbeys- they are also training to be Mental Health First Aiders.

Our inset day on October 21st is dedicated to pupil mental health and developing this within the curriculum.

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The book fair was a great success. We raised £381.46 which will enable us to purchase some new books for the school Library.

Parent's evening was also very successful, we had a great turn out and lots of positive feedback.

71% of Parents/ Carers prefer the opportunity to attend Parent's evening in person- so we will continue as we are rather than switching to online like some schools. Our next Parent's evening is in Spring Term, but if you have any concerns or queries before then, please do not wait, the door is always open.

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IT ALL WENT A BIT CONKERS!!!

All in all, we had 55 entries in our biggest conker competition. It was great fun...however there was a clear winner.

In 3rd place was Liana in Westminster with a conker weighing 32 grams.

In 2nd place was Charlie B with a conker weighing 33 grams.

BUT in 1st place with a conker weighing 42 grams was Kane in Fountains. CONGRATULATIONS KANE! What an amazing effort.

A special shout out to David in Woburn for lugging two huge bags of conkers into school and to Lacey Smith who had the smallest conker weighing 5 grams.

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DOLCE
We are switching to a new lunchtime provider.

Dolce have a fantastic menu, online ordering system [for last minute orders] and after Christmas all food will be cooked onsite at Abbeys. We are having some work carried out in the School Kitchen to enable us to cook larger quantities onsite and in the future will plan to cook for other schools too.

You will receive more information about the switch over and about how to order online.

Visit- https://www.dolce.co.uk/parents/ for more information.

We have a new Chair of Governors! Mrs Carol Burns. Carol has been on the board of Governors for a few years now and she has been elected as Chair. You are able to contact the School Governors at anytime.

Email- Governors@abbeysprimary.org

Early years pupils will go outside whatever the weather! We need donations of wellies, so that they can go outside into the forest area! If you have any pairs that you are willing to donate, please bring them into the office.

A note about PE Kit........

Pupils coming in to school in their PE kit is working really well.

It is really important that the PE Kit they wear is appropriate. Trainers should be laced carefully and they should be in a black tracksuit with a white T shirt.

It you need any help with this, please visit our uniform exchange.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

The value for October is respect. Well done to all the A'Stars this week!

Jaycee, Evelyn, Scarlett, Keegan, Mircea, Lexi, Andrzej, Shona and Naveena.