A very warm welcome to all of our new Reception families as you begin your journey with the Garden Village Primary Academy family, and welcome back to our Year 1 and Year 2 parents. It has been wonderful to see our school full of smiling faces again.

I am delighted to share that every child has transitioned into their new class wonderfully. Over the first two weeks, staff have been busy supporting children to settle into their new routines and expectations, and learning across the curriculum has already made a very positive start. We would also like to extend a warm GVPA welcome to Miss Guest, who has joined us as our new Year 2 teacher.

Thank you for ensuring that children have returned looking so smart in their school uniform. Your support with this means a great deal, helping children to feel a strong sense of pride and belonging within our school family.

We would also like to thank parents for their perseverance with the recent changes to booking snacks through Arbor. If you are still experiencing any difficulties, please do not hesitate to contact the school office for support.

Our attendance target remains 96% this year. Excellent attendance and punctuality are crucial in enabling children to achieve academic success, build positive relationships and enjoy a happy school experience. Our new Attendance Policy can be found here: Garden Village Primary Academy - Policies

There have already been many highlights from the first two weeks of learning at GVPA, and I hope you enjoy reading about them in this fortnightly newsletter.

Mrs Burke

Miss Matthews and Mrs Guild are incredibly proud of how well every child has settled into Reception Maple. The children have embraced new routines with enthusiasm, shown kindness and confidence, and have made a wonderful start to their school journey. Here are some highlights.

Phonics and reading

What a brilliant start to phonics and reading Reception has had! The children have embraced the new, whole-class learning and are settling into the new routines well. We have all done fantastically at learning the very first sounds s/a/t/p. 

Writing

This week in Draw, Talk, Write, we have read ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen and learnt the vocabulary ‘hide’. The children have drawn the bear, the snowstorm and a hiding place for the bear. Reception have even applied their phonics learning to their writing! 

Reading & Phonics

In Reading and Phonics, we have been revisiting our Phase 3 and Phase 4 sounds and tricky words to ensure that everyone feels confident and ready to move on to Phase 5. The children have been amazing during our whole-class phonics lessons, showing fantastic engagement and determination. We have also started guided reading sessions, and it has been an absolute pleasure to hear the children reading aloud. They are growing in confidence every day and are making us very proud.

Writing

The writing focus over the next two weeks is the story The Naughty Bus. Mrs Stamp arrived to find a mysterious gift on her desk, and the children became detectives, using clues to work out what it could be. To their delight, it turned out to be a Naughty Bus! After reading about all the mischievous adventures the bus gets up to, the children have been busy writing their own sentences. We have been focusing on using capital letters, full stops and finger spaces correctly, and the children have worked incredibly hard.

Maths

In Maths, we are consolidating our understanding of place value within 10 to ensure the children have strong foundations before moving on to new learning. We have also introduced our ‘grown-up’ Maths booklets, where the children complete a page each day linked to the skill they have been taught. They have approached this new responsibility with great enthusiasm and are showing excellent perseverance.

Art

In Art, we have begun our exciting new unit on lines and shapes. Throughout the term, the children will learn a range of artistic skills that will help them create a final project at the end of the unit. This week, we have focused on exploring and creating different types of lines, and the children have loved experimenting with their artistic ideas. We are looking forward to seeing their skills develop over the coming weeks.

Miss Guest is incredibly proud of how well Year 2 have transitioned into their new classroom and embraced the exciting move upstairs. They have shown great maturity, enthusiasm and confidence, settling quickly into their new learning environment and making a fantastic start to the year.

Reading and Phonics

This week in Reading and Phonics, we have started our new reading groups and have been focusing on developing our reading fluency, accuracy and comprehension skills through our regular reading practice. In phonics, we have begun reviewing our Phase 5 sounds and spelling patterns from Year 1. The children have been revisiting familiar graphemes and practising using them correctly in their spelling and writing.

Writing

In English, we have begun exploring our new class text, The Bear Under the Stairs. To spark our curiosity, the children discovered something hidden under a blanket and sorted different types of sentences linked to our mysterious find. The following day, we found a drawing of a bear, a pot of honey and a note, which led to lots of discussion and prediction about our story. We also learnt about homophones, including the words bear and bare, and practised using them correctly in sentences.

Maths

In Maths, our focus has been on place value. The children have been using concrete resources and place value charts to represent and build numbers up to 100. Through practical activities, they have developed their understanding of tens and ones and have enjoyed creating different numbers using a range of manipulatives.

Science

In Science, we have begun our new topic about Animals’ Needs for Survival. We started by discussing what living things need to survive and recapped some of our animal knowledge from Year 1. This week, we focused on mammals and explored their basic needs, including food, water, air and shelter.

Book Bus

We would like to extend a huge thank you to all of our parents and carers for supporting your child in purchasing a new book from the Book Bus. At GVPA, our curriculum is underpinned by rich reading experiences, and it was delightful to see so many children excitedly choosing and reading their new books for pleasure. Thanks to your support, the school has been awarded £128 commission, which will be used to purchase additional books for our classroom reading areas, helping to further foster a love of reading across the school.

Birthday Books

Next week, we will be celebrating our first birthdays of the year at GVPA!

To help keep all of our children safe, we kindly ask that sweets and cakes are not brought into school due to allergies. Instead, families may choose to donate a new Birthday Book to their child's class. A special bookplate will be added to the front of the book to recognise the donation, and the birthday child will enjoy sitting on our decorated birthday chair while their chosen story is shared with the class. It is a lovely way to celebrate their special day and help grow a love of reading for everyone.

We would like to encourage all parents and carers to check whether their child may be eligible for Pupil Premium Funding. This valuable funding helps us provide additional support, including 1:1 reading opportunities, curriculum support, and funding for one after-school club. If you think your child may be eligible, or would like to find out more, please use the link below to complete a quick application. Your support could make a real difference to your child's learning and wider school experience.

Apply here: Apply for Free School Meals - Staffordshire County Council

As our school community continues to grow, we would like to thank parents and carers for their support with our drop-off and collection routines.

A member of staff will always be stationed at the gate to help ensure that only authorised adults enter the school site, keeping all of our children safe. At the end of the school day, once a child has been handed over, responsibility for their supervision passes to the parent or carer collecting them, so please ensure that your child remains within your sight at all times.

For the safety of everyone on site, from Monday 14th September, all bikes and scooters must be walked to and from the playground when entering and leaving through the green gate. Your support in ensuring that children walk their bikes and scooters is crucial in helping us keep everyone safe and avoid accidents. Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.

Thank you to all of our parents and carers who park considerately on Eagle Drive and walk down to school. Your support helps to keep the area around the school safer and less congested during busy drop-off and collection times. We kindly ask that, wherever possible, you avoid parking in Mavesyn Close (opposite the school), as this area can become particularly busy and may present a risk to children and families travelling to and from school. Thank you for helping us to keep our school community safe and ensuring a positive experience for everyone.

We are excited to be launching a pre-loved school uniform provision at GVPA to help support sustainability and the recycling of nearly new uniform items. In preparation for this, if you have any spare children's clothes hangers that you no longer need, we would be very grateful if you could kindly donate them by dropping them into the school office. Thank you for your support in helping us create this.

GVPA is proud to be the tenth school in the Fierte Multi-Academy Trust, providing our children with opportunities to be part of a wider family of schools. The Trust have a central office based at GVPA, so our pupils have the unique privilege of regularly meeting Trust leaders, including Mrs Hamblin, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Mr Hand, Vice-CEO. These valuable connections help our children feel part of something bigger.

For further information about the Trust, please use this link: Fierté Multi-Academy Trust - Home

24.09.26 Foodbank Donations (Harvest Assembly) – more information to follow

25.09.26 MacMillan Coffee Morning (9:00am-10:00am all parents invited)

30.09.26 Little Wandle Phonic Parent Workshops (Reception, Year 1 & Year 2)

02.10.26 Friends & Family Assembly (Year 1 and 2 parents only)

12.10.26 NHS Flu Vaccination (details sent directly from NHS)

19.10.26 Parents Evening (4:00pm-6:00pm)

21.10.26 Parents Evening (4:00pm-6:00pm)

22.10.26 Friends & Family Assembly (Year 1 and 2 parents only)

22.10.26 Spooky Lunch

22.10.26 Last Day of Term

23.10.26 School Closed – INSET Day

Telephone: 01827 214630

Office Email: office@gardenvillage.fierte.org

Headteacher / SENCO: headteacher@gardenvillage.fierte.org