Dear Parents
Happy New Year to you all and welcome back to our third term together. I hope you have all enjoyed a happy Christmas with your families, have recovered after the New Year celebrations and your children are all looking forward to coming back to school tomorrow.
Nurture Group
We are excited to expand our support services over the next few weeks with the introduction of a new Nurture Group. This joins our existing specialist programmes, including Morning Movement, Lego Therapy, Drawing and Talking, and ELSA.
To ensure these sessions provide the best possible support, we review our groups every term. This means that attendees may change periodically so that we can reach the children who need specific support at the right time. After a child finishes a block of sessions, we collaborate with teachers to review their progress. This helps us decide whether to continue the intervention, try a new approach, or provide a break, ensuring our resources are always directed where they will make the biggest difference.
To support the setup of our new Nurture Group, I am kindly asking for donations of the following items:
- Dolls and/or dolls house
- Pop up books/books for key stage one age
- Lego/Duplo
- Dressing up clothes
- Puzzles for key stage one age
Please ensure that before you donate any of these items that they are clean and in full working order/have all the pages/pieces etc.
Snow
I always aim to keep the school open during periods of snowfall unless closure is unavoidable for safety reasons. Should we need to close, we will notify you immediately via MCAS/email, and Facebook. To ensure children don’t miss out on important learning, we will transition to remote education, with all lessons hosted on Google Classroom. I expect all children to sign in and participate in these virtual sessions so their progress remains on track.
Refinement of the Behaviour Policy
Following our September systems review, we have successfully implemented our new behaviour reward system. Children are recognised with ‘Stars’ for embodying our Learner Profile Attributes and Approaches to Learning (detailed below).
| Learner Profile Attributes | Approaches to Learning |
| Balanced
Caring Communicator Inquirer Knowledgeable Open-minded Principled Reflective Risk-taker Thinker |
Communication Skills
Research Skills Self-Management Skills Social Skills Thinking Skills |
Parents are encouraged to view their child’s Stars through the ‘Behaviour’ section of the MCAS app. We continue to celebrate individual achievements in our termly assemblies.
Moving forward, our newly elected House Captains will announce weekly House totals during the Horsmonden Hero Assembly. In collaboration with the Horsmonden Huddle, we will soon determine a termly reward for the leading House.
To further support a positive school climate, I have reviewed our policy regarding consequences for poor behaviour choices. This ensures clarity and consistency across both lesson times and playtimes. An extract of these procedures is provided below for your reference.
The following steps may be taken to address negative behaviour. These are not always applied in a fixed order, as we tailor our response to the specific incident:
- Guidance: A verbal reminder from staff regarding behavioural expectations and the Learner Profile Attributes.
- Environment Adjustment: Moving the child to a different area within the classroom or to another classroom to complete their work.
- Time for Completion: Requiring the child to stay in during break or lunchtime to finish missed work.
- Leadership Involvement: Sending the child to work with the Principal or Vice Principal, which may include a formal break-time detention.
- Documentation: Recording negative points on Bromcom (visible via MCAS) or using behaviour books to maintain communication between school and home.
- Parental Engagement: Inviting parents to a formal meeting with the class teacher or senior leadership team.
For more information and to read the full policy, please see the link here.
Through formalising the use of negative points as well as playtime/lunchtime detentions children will clearly understand the consequences of any negative behaviour choices as well as being given the opportunity to fully reflect on their choices. Please ensure that you monitor your child’s points in the ‘Behaviour’ section of the MCAS app to ensure you are aware of any positive or negative points they receive.
Associate Teachers training with KMT
Mrs Taylor, our Associate Teacher in Year 3, will be away for the next five weeks to complete a mandatory training placement in a different key stage and setting. She will return to Year 3 with Mrs Huby for the rest of the year immediately following this period.
During this time, we are hosting Miss Cain as part of a reciprocal training agreement. Miss Cain will be working with Miss Foord in Year 1 for the next five weeks. After an initial visit before Christmas, she spent today in school training with our staff to ensure a smooth transition into the classroom.
As always, if you have any comments, please do not hesitate to get in touch. I am available most mornings and afternoons on the school gate to answer any questions and listen to feedback. Alternatively, please make an appointment to see me via the school office.
Have a lovely evening and I look forward to seeing everyone back tomorrow morning at 8:40am. Given the forecast for freezing temperatures and potential snow this week please allow extra time for your morning journey to ensure everyone’s safety.
Kind regards
Hayley Sharp
Diary Dates 2025 – 2026
| Tuesday 6th January | Start of Term 3 |
| Tuesday 10th February | Internet Safety Day |
| Thursday 12th February | Year 3 Class Assembly @ 9:00am |
| Thursday 12th February | End of Term 3 for children |
| Thursday 12th February | FoHPS Disco, 3:20pm-5pm |
| Friday 13th February | INSET Day for staff |
| Monday 23rd February | Start of Term 4 |
| Thursday 5th March | World Book Day |
| Friday 13th March | Fabulous Females, 2:15pm – 3:00pm |
| Wednesday 25th March | Parent Consultation evening, 3:30pm – 6:00pm |
| Thursday 26th March | Parent Consultation evening, 3:30pm – 6:00pm |
| Thursday 2nd April | Year 2 Class Assembly @ 9:00am |
| Thursday 2nd April | FoHPS Easter Egg hunt |
| Thursday 2nd April | End of Term 4 |
| Monday 20th April | Start of Term 5 |
| Monday 11th May | Y6 SATs week |
| Monday 18th – Friday 22nd May | Y6 Residential – PGL Windmill Hill |
| Friday 22nd May | Year 1 Class Assembly @ 9:00am |
| Friday 22nd May | End of Term 5 |
| Monday 1st June | Start of Term 6 |
| Monday 1st June | Year 4 Multiplication Check week |
| Monday 8th June | Phonics Screening week |
| Friday 19th June | Marvellous Males Event 2:15pm to 3:00pm |
| Wednesday 24th June | Sports Day KS1 @ 9.15am, KS2 @ 1.15pm |
| Friday 3rd July | LAT Cricket Tournament – selected KS2 children |
| Tuesday 7th July | LAT Sports Day – selected KS2 children |
| Thursday 9th July | Year 6 Production @ 2:00pm and 5.00pm |
| Monday 13th July | Whole school transition morning |
| Friday 17th July | Y6 Leavers’ Assembly @ 2:15pm |
| Friday 17th July | End of Term 6 |