Dear Parents,

Welcome back. I hope you all had a good half-term. I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of you who came to visit the classrooms last half-term. There really was a feeling of genuine excitement from the children having their parents in school. Although one or two children did try to hide their enthusiasm, some quite well, it does mean a lot to the children having you in the classroom with them, and being able to show you their learning. Thank you also for your feedback forms, which resoundingly agreed that you would like the class visits to continue. Many of you commented on the high expectations and level of learning in all year groups, the excellent focus of the pupils, the calmness of the classrooms and the enthusiasm of the children. One Y6 parent summed things up by commenting on ‘what a strong teaching team SJA has’. Our next classroom visit will be our ‘Dads’ Day’ on Friday 16th January, 9am to 10.15am.

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Dear Parents

A warm welcome back to all our children and an extra warm welcome to Year 3 and
children joining us in other year groups. I know you will settle in quickly and enjoy
life at SJA. We also welcome Mr. Dudeney (Y5 teacher), Miss Evans (Y3 teacher) and
Mrs Watts (Y3 LSA).

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Dear Parents

As we come to the end of the school year, I would like to take this moment to briefly reflect back on a very busy year. Academically we have seen attainment continue to rise. Our daily focus, on high quality teaching linked with a curriculum that challenges our children is having the positive impact that we expect. The table below shows the attainment of the current Y6. As can be seen in all areas our pupils attained above the 2013 national average (2014 national averages have yet to be released) and in nearly all areas, attainment has risen. Our focus on spelling, punctuation and grammar has seen a significant improvement, not only in Year 6 but across the school. We are particularly pleased with the increase in the percentage of children achieving Level 5 (the expected level for a 13 year old) and the very high percentage of children achieving a L6 in maths, which is over twice the national average.

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Dear Parents,

As the FIFA World Cup approaches we thought we’d add a little something into our curriculum to celebrate the event. In our assembly last week, I introduced the children to the background of the World Cup, the country of Brazil and the names of the other countries competing in the competition. In true World Cup draw style each class had two competing countries drawn at random for their class to follow during the tournament.

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Dear Parents,

Over the last year we have been preparing for three major changes that have been introduced for schools across England from September 2014. As an academy we are always looking at ways of adapting our practice, learning from others and ensuring we have a clear strategy in place to ensure we provide the best possible provision for our pupils.

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Dear Parents

Well done to all the children who entered our shelfie quiz for World Book Day. I hope the children had an enjoyable time working out the staff shelfies and putting together their own. The answers are now on the website. The class with the most entries was 4CB class, with 3LB the highest in Y3, 5PK highest in Y5 and 6AER highest in Y6.

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Dear Parents,

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2014 and a very warm welcome to all the new children who started
in January. As you can see from the date sheet there is a huge amount going on this term with music,
dance, sporting events and school trips. The website is updated regularly so please keep an eye out for
any new events.

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Dear Parents
In this month’s newsletter I thought I would carry on reviewing our fantastic music provision.
Did You Know...?
This year, out of the 315 pupils in Years 4, 5 and 6 at Southwater Junior Academy, 160 children are learning to play an instrument in school, and more pupils are learning to play instruments privately outside school. That’s a fantastic result - with over half our pupils having the opportunity to enhance their musical skills through playing an instrument of their own choice.

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Dear Parents,
In this newsletter I thought I would highlight the excellent music provision we
have at the school. Here at Southwater Junior Academy, the children are
very enthusiastic about their music lessons, learning to play musical
instruments, singing sessions and performances.
The children are very lucky to be taught in a purpose built Music Studio and to
be taught by our specialist music teacher, Mrs Kear and a very talented and
dedicated group of peripatetic teachers.

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