We are Collecting Sainsbury's Vouchers

Please can you bring any Sainsbury's Vouchers you have into school. We are collecting to purchase outdoor play equipment for our pupils.

You support is much appreciated.

Pupils For Positive Change Conference

Pupils from across the school came together for our first ever Pupil Conference on 2nd March 2016. The purpose of this conference was to give our pupils a true voice within the school community. The topic up for discussion was ‘How we can improve safety and behaviour across the school’.

All pupils discussed this topic in their classes before attending the conference. Each class then nominated pupils to attend. Each pupil was well prepared and spoke about their concerns and ideas on how to change these concerns in to solutions. Some of the concerns raised were: More clubs at lunch time, whole school football rules for everyone to follow and more hard surface areas to play at lunch time in the colder, wetter months.

Everything raised will be discussed and a plan of action will be explained to the whole school. Our pupils excelled in this conference and were AWESOME!

Vacancy for parent governor

Parent governor role

We have a vacancy for a parent to join the governing body, and there will be information coming out to you w/c 29th February. Please remember to return your completed nomination form by Wednesday 9th March.  For further details, please contact Vicki Murphy, Clerk to Governors on vmurphy@castle.w-berks.sch.uk

Houses of Parliment Visit

Lancaster Class and some of Caernarfon Class pupils recently visited the Houses of Parliament where they were lucky enough to visit the very grand 'House of Lords' and Westminster Hall. They found out about the Queen's involvement in Parliament and the History of the Building. They also stood directly above where Guy Fawkes stored the gun power to blow up the houses of Parliament unsuccessfully. This visit was to support recent work undertaken to understand the UK's voting system and further understand how Parliament works. Staff and students alike all enjoyed the visit.

 

 

A thank you to Derek

As most of you will know, the acclaimed pianist, Derek Paravacini visited us in January. You may be aware that Derek is both blind and has severe learning difficulties including autism. Despite these challenges, Derek is a virtuoso pianist, able to play any song after listening to it only once. We were all quite blown away after seeing Derek perform at our school and so inspired by what he has achieved, the pupils wanted to send him a thank you card. They were very clear that the card needed to be different so that Derek could enjoy it, so they designed it with raised relief so Derek could feel what it said. Derek was really pleased when he got it and said "Thank you very much, it is wonderful". Here is Derek with his card.

Happy Half Term

Happy Half Term

It has been another very busy and fun half term for our pupils. There have lots of wonderful events taking place, which I hope we have captured in the newsletters you will receive.

 

We wish you all a lovely half term break and look forward to welcoming everyone back on Monday 22nd February 2016

Happy Chinese New Year

The Staff and Pupils at The Castle School would like to wish everyone Gong Hey Fat Choy

 恭喜发财