Newsletters

MESSAGE FROM MRS JONES

Dear Parents and Carers

We have reached the end of a successful academic year. 

I would like to thank all parents and carers for your support in navigating the first full year back in what seems a very long time.  It has been a particularly hard year for the entire school community, and I'm very grateful for all the support we have seen as we have moved towards the return to normality.

To our wonderful pupils, thank you for being so positive, resilient, and working exceptionally hard all year.  You are the best pupils in the world.

From September we will be reintroducing more of our annual routines at school. We will send out a communication regarding key events in the termly calendars from the beginning of the new academic year.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our families a very happy and healthy Summer holiday.  Stay safe and enjoy time with each other.

School starts again for children on Friday 2nd September.  We will be resuming our usual times of 8.50am to 3.25pm.

Mrs Jones
Headteacher

UPDATE FROM THE SCHOOL GOVERNING BODY

On 13th July I had the pleasure of attending a visit from our School Improvement Partner, alongside another School Governor Ben Ford.  We reviewed important data from the school, as well as having an update on support for pupils identified as having Special Educational Needs.  One of the highlights was observing our new Microsoft laptops in action during a Year 4 and a Year 6 class.  The children are learning some important IT skills which were very impressive. 

Following the visit I accompanied Mrs Jones and Mrs Kundaiker to an awards ceremony for the Family School Partnership, at Harrow School.  We collected Vaughan School's new trophy to mark our achievement.  The Family School Partnership is a partnership project that we have been progressing this year to help strengthen the connections between the school and parents/carers.  We have a Governor linked to this work also (Jo Constantinou).  There has been a lot of work undertaken to achieve this award - the Governing Body extends its thanks to all involved, and we look forward to seeing how it develops in the year ahead.

The day was topped off by the final performance of Jungle Book.  I was blown away by this production and the talent of all involved.  Huge thanks to the staff, volunteers and importantly the children for making this an evening to remember. 

At the end of the school term the Governing Body wishes to thank all the teachers and support staff for their hard work across the entire academic year.  Its been a challenging year, as we think back across the months - with the Covid still featuring in our day-to-day lives and us needing to adjust to working, educating and learning in different ways.  As ever, our pupils at Vaughan have made this year one to remember! 

Finally, the Governing Body share the very best wishes for the future for all our wonderful Year 6 children who are transitioning to High School.  Thank you for such amazing contributions to Vaughan School and we wish you all the best for your next adventures. 

Nerys Anthony
Chair of Governors

SPORTS DAY 2022

Here are the results from this year's Sports Day and some photos:

WINNERS: ELDER with 43 points!!!!!

Second: WILLOW with 41 points

Third: OAK with 34 points

Fourth: ASH with 31 points

Fifth: BEECH with 24 points

JUNGLE BOOK PRODUCTION

In July some of our Junior School children took part in a production of The Jungle Book.

Here is a news story with a link to some some lovely photos which one of our parents, Mr Veysey, took on our behalf:  Vaughan Primary School - Jungle Book Production

EARTHSHOT AWARDS

Wednesday 22^nd June

The Earthshot Prize was introduced by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in London last year and is the most prestigious global environment prize in history.  It was designed to incentivise change and help repair our planet over the next ten years.

We ran a ‘Vaughan Earthshot Competition’ earlier this term and several pupils won awards which were presented in an Award Ceremony on Wednesday 22^nd June.

Thank you to Mrs Cullum for organising this event and for all the children who took part in the competition and on the night.

KEY MESSAGES FROM WELFARE

Please remember that we have a 48 hour policy for sickness and diarrhoea.  This means that we ask parents to keep their child at home for 48 hours after the last time their child has vomiting or diarrhoea.  This is to minimise infection to other members of the school - children and staff.

Medication

If your child is prescribed medication which has to be administered at school, please complete a consent form which can be found on the school website with clear instructions.  It must come via the school office or alternatively, call Welfare tel: 0208 427 7222 Ext 2 and arrangements can be made to collect from outside the school office.

Any medical queries, please contact Mrs O’Rourke or Ms Goodspeed in Welfare.

Medical appointments during the day

And lastly a reminder about medical appointments.  If your child has a medical appointment during the school day, please remember to email attendance@vaughan.harrow.sch.uk with the details and with proof of the appointment.  We do ask however, that appointments during the day are kept to a minimum and that you book appointments for outside of the school day.  Thank you.

SAFEGUARDING UPDATE

It is likely that your child(ren) will be using their devices more during the Summer holiday, so it is important that they are safe whilst doing so.  Here is some important information about Snapchat for you to follow.  Please be mindful that the minimum age to use Snapchat is 13, but it’s easy to sign up if you’re younger, so make sure that you know if your child has an account!

Keep your child safe on Snapchat

Snapchat is an app for sending photos and videos (known as ‘Snaps’), and text messages.  The ‘Stories’ feature lets users share photos or videos with all their contacts at once.

Snaps disappear after being opened, usually within seconds.  Stories disappear after 24 hours.  Images and messages aren’t automatically saved on phones.

What’s the problem?

1. There’s a risk of seeing sexual content, and of bullying
2. Your child’s location could be shared automatically with their contacts, which could put them in danger if they have strangers as ‘friends’ on the app.  A new ‘Meet Up’ feature allows people to get directions to another user’s location, if they’re sharing their location
3. There’s a risk of children being ‘groomed’ by strangers into sharing pictures and information about themselves.  Gangs also use apps to groom and recruit children

4 Steps to help your child use Snapchat safely

1. Tell your child to only use it with real friends

Anyone could pretend to be a child or teenager online, so encourage your child not to talk to people they don’t know in real life.  Encourage them not to share information such as what school they go to or where they live with people they don’t know offline.

2. Use privacy settings

By default, only ‘friends’ your child has added on Snapchat can contact them directly and see their story or location, so encourage your child to keep those default settings.

To check and change the settings:

• Tap the person icon in the top-left of Snapchat, then the cog in the top-right
• Scroll down to the ‘Privacy Control’ section and tap the relevant options (e.g. ‘Contact Me’ and ‘View My Story’)
• Under ‘See My Location’, enable ‘Ghost Map’ to turn location sharing off
• Under ‘See Me In Quick Add’ you can stop your child’s profile from being suggested to strangers as a potential ‘friend’

3. Talk to your child about image sharing and being careful about what they share

Even though images disappear in Snapchat, they can be screenshotted and then shared – outside of the original sender’s control.

So, remind your child to think carefully about the images they share, and with whom. Before they share anything, tell them to ask:  “Would I be happy for other people to see this?”

In particular, make sure your child knows the risks of taking, sharing or viewing naked or sexually explicit pictures of themselves or another child, either voluntarily or if asked to by someone else.

This is known as ‘sharing nudes and semi-nudes’ or ‘sexting’ and is illegal, even when the person doing it is a child. It can also be distressing for a child to have their image shared more widely, or to see an inappropriate image that someone else has shared.

4. Make sure your child knows how to use reporting and blocking functions

• To report a Snap or Story, press and hold on it, tap ‘Report Snap’, then explain the problem
• To remove or block a friend, swipe to the right to go to the ‘Chat’ screen, then tap and hold on the person’s name. Tap ‘Manage Friendship’, then choose ‘Remove Friend’ or ‘Block’

What can I do about online bullying?

• Encourage your child to talk to you if someone says something upsetting or hurtful to them
• Look for signs they may be being bullied, like being afraid or reluctant to go to school, feeling nervous, losing confidence or becoming distressed and withdrawn, or losing sleep
• Tell our school about any bullying your child experiences

There are also a few ways you can save images and messages as evidence:

• Use another device to, quickly, take a photo of the image or message (this is the only way you can save the image without other people knowing)
• Tap on the message, quickly, to save it (other people will know from the grey background)
• Take a screenshot, quickly (the person who shared it will get a notification)
• Change your ‘delete’ settings to save messages for 24 hours – swipe to the right to go to the ‘Chats’ screen, tap and hold a friend’s name, then ‘Chat Settings’ > ‘Delete Chats…’ > ’24 Hours after Viewing’

If you have any safeguarding concerns over the summer holidays, please email safeguarding@vaughan.harrow.sch.uk or if there is an immediate threat to life, call 999 and/or the Golden Number 020 8901 2690.

HARROW FOODBANK

Further information is available from the following website:
https://harrow.foodbank.org.uk/

TERM DATES

School will close at 1.35pm on the last day of each term
(Thursday 21st July 2022, Friday 16th December 2022, Friday 31st March 2023 and Friday 23rd July 2023).

Afternoon Nursery will be closed on the last day of each term.

After School Club finishes at 4.00pm on the last day of term. 

Please do not book holidays for during term time as these will not be authorised.  If you wish to request leave from school, please complete a Request for Leave form and email it to attendance@vaughan.harrow.sch.uk for Mrs Jones' attention.