As we approach the end of our fourth week at school, I am immensely proud of how well the children have settled into their new classes. They have embraced new routines with enthusiasm and confidence and are already making great progress in their learning. 

This term, our Character Virtues have focused on Caring, Helpful and Kindness. Every child works hard to demonstrate these virtues in all aspects of school life, whether in the classroom, on the playground or in the dinner hall. It is fantastic to see our behaviour reward ballot boxes filling with tokens each day, as children strive to earn the opportunity to adopt either a gorilla or a turtle. These virtues are not only being demonstrated by our pupils, but by our wider school community too. Thank you to our wonderful parents and families for your kindness and generosity this week. Glascote Foodbank was overwhelmed by the volume of donations received, and it was a joy to see so many families support our Macmillan Coffee Morning. An incredible £209! A special thank-you goes to Pip for her kindness in baking the delicious cakes and preparing the refreshments for everyone to enjoy.

We are also delighted to share some exciting personal news from within the GVPA family. Miss Matthews and her partner are expecting a baby boy in February 2027. We know you will join us in congratulating them on this wonderful news. Information regarding the appointment of a new Reception teacher will be shared with the Reception parents in due course.

Attendance continues to be a real strength at GVPA. Our attendance to date stands at 97.1%, which is above our school target of 96%. Thank you for your continued support in ensuring your child attends school every day and arrives on time. Excellent attendance gives children the very best opportunity to learn, flourish and achieve their full potential.

Finally, as you read through this newsletter, I hope you enjoy looking back at some of the many highlights from the last two weeks. There have been so many memorable moments in school, and I am incredibly proud of everything our children have achieved already this term.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support of our wonderful school community.

Mrs Burke 

Miss Matthews and Mrs Guild are super proud of Reception Maple and how they are continuing to embrace new learning and challenge.

Phonics and reading

Phonics has become part of our daily routine. We are progressing well learning our sounds and our blending skills are developing nice- we are especially good at sound talking! We have been matching pictures to the correct initial sound, practicing our letter formation of new sounds, and we have even learnt our first tricky word!

The children are also thoroughly enjoying their reading sessions in school. Thank you, parents, for embracing reading at home and writing in your child's diary. Please remember, our goal is for your child to read their school book at least three times per week!

Writing

Last week, we read The Three Little Pigs. In our books, we have drawn the pigs, the house of sticks, where the pigs will hide from the wolf, and we’ve even drawn plans for the pigs to help them construct a new, wolf-proof house. The children have really impressed Miss Matthews and Mrs Guild with the application of their phonics learning in their writing, with lots of children writing ‘p’ for pig!

This week, we have been reading Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchings. We have drawn Rosie, the farm, a new destination for Rosie to walk around, and something exciting that she sees on her walk. The children loved our story this week, again blowing us away with their fabulous phonics application! Well done, Reception Maple.

Reading & Phonics

In Reading, the children have been recapping Phase 4 words and practising reading longer words using the chunking method to support their decoding skills. During Phonics lessons, the children have been writing dictated sentences, carefully sounding out words and applying their phonics knowledge independently. The children are now reading three times a week and we have already seen fantastic improvements in their fluency and confidence. Well done, Year 1!

Writing

This week, the children have been introduced to some new, fancy grown-up grammar in Writing. We began by exploring the story Astro Girl and looking closely at the front cover to identify the nouns we could see. The children then wrote their own sentences using these nouns. Once they were confident with this, we built upon their knowledge by introducing adjectives to add more detail to their writing. The children were given a selection of words and had to choose an adjective that best described each noun. We then applied this learning the following day by writing in role as Astrid, using our adjectives to make our writing more interesting and descriptive. The children were absolutely amazing! Alongside this, we have been working incredibly hard on our handwriting and are practising four times a week to continue improving our letter formation and presentation.

Maths

In Maths, we have been continuing to solidify our understanding of place value within 10. The children have been working hard on identifying one more and one less than a given number and developing quick recall of these facts. We have also been exploring the concepts of more, fewer and the same, comparing different amounts carefully. This learning will support us as we introduce inequality symbols next week.

Geography

In Geography, the children have been learning about aerial maps and what they can show us. They labelled a map of the local area, identifying as many features as they could see, including locating the school and recognising features around it. The children then took on the challenge of creating a ‘messy map’ of our classroom. Using a range of resources, they worked collaboratively to create their own aerial maps, thinking carefully about the layout and position of classroom features. It was wonderful to see their creativity and teamwork in action.

Thank you for your continued support. We are so proud of all the hard work and enthusiasm the children are showing and look forward to another fantastic few weeks of learning in Year 1!

Miss Guest is so proud of every Year 2 child. From the moment they walk up the stairs in the morning, they are ready and excited to learn. As always, they are great role-models to the younger children in school. Here are a few highlights from the last two weeks:

Reading and Phonics

In Reading and Phonics this week, we have continued working in our reading groups, focusing on developing accuracy, fluency and comprehension skills. The children have been practising reading with confidence and discussing what they have read to deepen their understanding. In phonics, we have continued to review all the Phase 5 sounds learnt in Year 1 and have been applying this knowledge to our spelling and writing activities.

Writing

In writing, we have continued our learning based on The Bear Under the Stairs. The children were excited to discover that the mysterious bear was actually just an old rug! We also found out that all the food that had been left for the bear had become rotten and very smelly. Using the story as inspiration, the children carefully planned and wrote their own versions of the tale, creating imaginative ideas and using descriptive vocabulary to bring their stories to life. The children enjoyed exploring the characters' feelings and retelling the events in their own unique way.

Maths

In Maths, we have continued our place value learning, focusing on flexible partitioning and understanding that numbers can be split in different ways, using practical equipment to represent these numbers. They have also developed their estimation skills by placing numbers accurately on number lines. This has helped to strengthen their understanding of number value and relationships between numbers.

Music

In Music, the children used a variety of percussion instruments to create and perform animal sounds inspired by a safari adventure. They explored how different instruments can be used to represent the movements and noises of different animals, listening carefully to the sounds they made and experimenting with ways to change them. The children enjoyed being creative and worked together to bring their safari soundscapes to life.

Gruffalo Granny

Gruffalo Granny

To celebrate the launch of Gruffalo Granny, Year 1 and Year 2 took part in a special online event featuring authors and illustrators Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. The children enjoyed listening to the new story being read aloud and were fascinated to see how the illustrations were created. They also followed along with a drawing session led by Axel Scheffler, learning how to draw characters from the story and developing their own artistic skills. It was a wonderful experience that inspired a love of reading and creativity across both year groups.

Harvest 2026 - Glascote Foodbank Donations

On Thursday 24th September, we were delighted to welcome Bev from the Elim Church, Glascote, to GVPA to lead our Harvest Assembly. Bev spoke to the children about the meaning of Harvest and helped them understand how the food and other donations they bring to school can make a real difference to people in our local community.

On Friday, Bev arranged for the Foodbank van to visit school to collect the many kind and generous donations from our families. The Year 1 children thoroughly enjoyed helping to load the van and were excited to play their part in supporting others.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to our Harvest collection. Your generosity and kindness will help support local families and individuals in need, and we are incredibly grateful for your support.

Thank you to all the parents who are able to walk, bike or scooter to school. Thank you for your support in encouaring the children to walk their bikes/scoters once in the school grouns. This week, a parking attendant arrived at school unnanouced. Thank you for parking respectifully. .

Pre-loved uniform is available for you at no cost in the meeting room at the front of school. Thank you for your kind donations of uniform, hangers and a special thank you to Lottie's mum in Year 1 for the rail!

This week, Mrs Burke was super busy working with Headteachers from across the Fierte Multi-Academy Trust and all primary schools in Tamworth.

On Tuesday, Mrs Burke was invited to join the Collaborative Picture Building morning at Anker Valley Primary Academy to support the school in their journey of continuous school improvement. It was a privilege to work in the school and  forward think about the growth of GVPA when it is double in size!

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

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