Miss Hamalis’ Bulletin – Monday 9 December 2024

You can view all events for the year in the school calendar via our Parent Portal: SchoolBase login. Your calendar view should already be filtered to display the Junior School events and events which are specific to your daughter’s year group. 

The ‘School Calendar Parent View’ button shows the complete calendar, which can be viewed by each month, week or day. Events also appear on the right-hand side of the home page under ‘Forthcoming Events’ and the monthly view of the calendar also appears at the bottom of the home page.

This Thursday, we are proud to support the annual Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day. We encourage all pupils to wear their favourite wintery, festive or sparkly jumpers over their School Uniform (or PE Kit/Forest School Kit if they are timetabled on that day) to help raise funds for this important cause. In line with our commitment to be more sustainable, your daughter can, of course, wear the same jumper she wore for our Christmas lunch.

On Thursday during morning drop off, our Year 6 House Captains will be at the main gates collecting donations for Save the Children. While the suggested donation is £2, we welcome contributions of any amount you feel able to give. 

Please bring change only as card donations will not be possible. This money will be used by Save the Children to improve the lives of children around the world.

Adding to the festive spirit, the Junior and Senior School Brass Bands, led by Mr Dodds, will greet you with carols as you arrive. Thank you for your support – we look forward to seeing everyone in their festive jumpers!

Any unclaimed and unnamed lost property (both uniform and non-uniform) will be out in the courtyard on the days and times below:

• Thursday 12 December – 7.30am – 8.30am & 2.50pm – 5.30pm
• Friday 13 December – 7.30am – 8.30am & 11.30am – 12.30pm

Any unclaimed items still remaining will be donated to charity (non-uniform) or the pre-loved uniform sale (uniform).

As the end of term approaches, please make a note of the dismissal times and locations below for the last day of term, Friday 13 December.  

There will be no Mini or Late Owls on this date.

11.45am: Reception (side gate) 

11.55am: Year 1 (side gate)

11.55am: Year 2 (main gate) 

12.05pm: Year 3 (side gate)

12.05pm: Year 4 (main gate) 

12.15pm: Year 5 (side gate)

12.15pm: Year 6 (main gate)

You will have seen in Word from the Head last Friday and in the Bulletin last Monday, that Mrs Lindsey Hughes will be sharing our vision for Channing 2035 at the launch of our new strategic objectives for the next 10 years. Please save the date for 7.00pm-9.00pm on Tuesday 14 January and book your place here. Numbers are limited, so you are advised to book early (almost half the tickets have already gone). We will record a separate version of the presentation to share with parents who are unable to attend.

Our series of curriculum talks, led by our Subject Leads, continue next term. These in-person sessions, open to all parents and carers, will provide an overview of the curriculum in the key areas as outlined below. You will gain insights into what and how your daughters will be learning throughout this academic year and beyond. As this is a valuable opportunity to engage directly with our Subject Leads and to ask questions about the curriculum, teaching approaches and how to best support your daughter’s learning journey at home, the sessions will not be recorded. If you would like to attend one of more of these in-person evening talks, please sign up below using the linked Google Forms. 

Schedule of Talks:

• Reception – Year 6 Music: 14 January, 6.00pm – 7.00pm in Fairseat Hall
• Reception – Year 6 PSHE and Emotional Management: 23 January, 6.00pm – 7.00pm in Fairseat Hall

We look forward to welcoming you and appreciate your ongoing support in helping your daughter achieve educational success, as we strive for all of the girls to be ambitious, realise their full potential and become the very best versions of themselves.

We have collaborated with TooledUp Education: an invaluable digital library of evidence-based resources on all aspects of parenting, education and family life. Founder, Dr Kathy Weston, has collated the best and most up-to-date research from around the world and distilled it into usable, easy to understand resources which can be instantly applied to daily life. Channing Pin: cha0706

For more information about this resource, see the dedicated section below. 

For upcoming TooledUp courses and events please click here. 

• Monday 27 January 10.00am ~ Everything Parents Need to Know about Roblox
• Thursday 30 January 7.30pm ~ Parental Engagement in Learning – Small Things, Big Impact

Club allocations for the Spring Term are now live on the Parent Portal. Here, you can view all clubs your daughter(s) has been assigned, including whether she has a confirmed place or is on a waiting list. If a club is not listed, it means we have unfortunately had to cancel it.

Please note that many clubs are oversubscribed. While we strive to accommodate as many pupils as possible, both our Waiters provision and the clubs themselves require appropriate pupil-to-teacher ratios. With over 100 clubs offered each term, we currently cannot expand capacity or add additional clubs.

If your daughter will no longer be attending a club she has been allocated, please notify Miss Radford at jsreceptionist@channing.co.uk. This allows us to offer the spot to another pupil on the waiting list.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Please find the email contact details of the staff: JS Key Contact information. Please could we ask that your specific query is directed to the appropriate individual and anything of a more serious nature is directed to a member of the Senior Team. Please note that Miss Hamalis needs to approve all requests for absences so please send them via the Junior School Office: jsoffice@channing.co.uk. 

In order to prevent unnecessary awkwardness and/or embarrassment, please remember to address members of staff by their title and surname. 

Please be mindful that staff may not pick up emails immediately (teachers will, of course, not be checking emails when they are teaching, running clubs or supervising pupils at break and lunchtimes) and may choose to take time to investigate the matter before responding. However, they will endeavour to answer your queries within 24 hours. Please do not think that a lack of instant response means a lack of interest on the part of the member of staff. 

Please note that staff are not expected to reply to emails outside normal school hours, weekends or during school holidays. If you have an emergency which needs to be dealt with before school next opens, please email: jsoffice@channing.co.uk. Please do not send communications or information to communication@channing.co.uk or info@channing.co.uk. 

We hope the academic Autumn Term Reports will provide an overall picture of what your daughter has achieved at the end of her first full term in Year 1 – 6. You will be able to access your daughter’s Autumn Term Report from 3pm on the last day of term, Friday 13 December, via the Firefly parent portal. Please see the relevant Firefly guidance below:

• Guidance for parents joining Firefly for the first time, click here.
• Parents who already have an account can access Firefly from the link in the guidance above and ‘log in’ using the details they used to create their account.

Once you have logged in to Firefly parent portal, you will be able to locate your daughter’s report, on Friday 13 December, either via ‘messages’ and looking for the published month, or via your individual child’s records in the ‘documents’ tab. 

Please email helpdesk_it@channing.co.uk if you are unable to log in to the Firefly parent portal.

If you have any questions regarding your daughter’s Autumn Term Report, please do not hesitate to contact her Form Teacher via email. Our teachers will arrange a meeting, either in person or online, or a telephone call in the new year to discuss the reports and the grades awarded. We are committed to ensuring that you have a clear understanding of your daughter’s progress and achievements.

Year 1 – Year 6 Form Teachers and Specialist Teachers have completed an academic Autumn Term Report for your daughter, reporting on all subjects in the Year 1 – 6 curriculum (excluding PSHE which will be reported on in Summer Term).Grades will be given for Academic Achievement as well as Attitude and Engagement. The core subject grades (English and Mathematics) will also be accompanied by three concise targets for your daughter to work towards throughout Spring Term. 

The grades will reflect your daughter’s performance at the end of this term – a third of the way through the academic year – in lessons, assessments, homework and her response to feedback. 

If one of your daughter’s subjects is missing a grade entry, this will be due to the fact that she has been attending internal counselling or intervention support sessions, as agreed, during a scheduled lesson throughout this term. 

The grades are:

• Above Expectation
• Meeting Expectations Securely
• Meeting Expectations With Support
• Working Towards Expectations 

The reports will show your daughter’s standardised score from English and Mathematics (as well as Science for Years 4 – 6 only) assessments taken at the start of the Autumn Term. 

What are Standardised Scores?
Standardised scoring is a method used in education to allow pupils, parents and schools to directly and easily compare performance in different subjects. Standardised scoring converts each pupil’s score into a consistent scoring system, taking into account the number of marks available and the average score. The average score for each assessment is awarded a score of 100. Performance above the average therefore results in a standardised score higher than 100.

How do I interpret Standardised Scores?
A score of around 100 means your daughter scored in line with the national expectations in this assessment. A score of significantly above 100 means your daughter scored above national expectations in this assessment. A score of below 100 means your daughter scored below the national expectation in this assessment. The below brackets give you a more detailed view of how your daughter performed in each of their assessments at the start of the Autumn Term, relative to expectations:

Below 70: Significantly below expectation
70 – 84: Below expectation
85 – 94: Low average
95 – 104: Average
105 – 114: High average
115 – 129: Above expectation
Above 129: Significantly above expectation

Following the standardised assessments earlier in the term, Form Teachers and Specialist Teachers have been able to provide adaptive teaching in the classrooms to ensure common misconceptions have been addressed in lessons. Your daughters will have gained targeted advice from their teachers throughout this term in response to these standardised assessments, as well as continuous assessment for learning opportunities built into their lessons. 

You may observe a discrepancy between school-assigned grades and the standardised scores from assessments taken at the start of the Autumn Term. This can occur due to several factors:

• The standardised scores are based on a single assessment at the start of the Autumn Term. They provide a snapshot of your daughter’s performance relative to national averages at that particular time. Whereas, the Channing teacher-judged grades reflect your daughter’s ongoing performance relative to her peers throughout the term, including lessons, assessments, homework and response to feedback. They are a cumulative measure of your daughter’s progress and effort over a more extended period.
• The standardised assessments focus primarily on specific knowledge and skills tested. They may not cover the entire curriculum or all areas of a subject. Whereas, the Channing grades take into account a broader range of activities and skills, including lesson participation, practical work and project assignments, providing a more holistic view of your daughter’s attainment.
• The standardised scores do not account for improvements made after the assessment. If your daughter received a lower score at the start of the year, but has since worked hard and improved, this will not be reflected in the initial standardised score. Whereas, the Channing grades reflect ongoing improvement and the ability to respond to feedback. A pupil who has shown significant progress and effort during the term may receive higher grades despite an initial low standardised score.
• The standardised scores are objective and based purely on the number of correct answers in the summative assessment. Some pupils perform particularly well in these types of assessments, whereas they may also continue to require support in lessons in order to continue to make progress. The Channing grades include subjective elements such as teacher observations and judgments about a pupil’s participation, effort and attitude, which impacts the final grade given.

By considering both the standardised scores and the school-assigned grades, you can gain a more comprehensive understanding of your daughter’s academic performance, strengths and areas that may need additional support or focus.

Following feedback from both Forest School teachers and pupils, we will trial a new procedure for Forest School changing, starting from the beginning of the Spring Term 2025. To maximise learning time spent in the forest, all girls should now arrive at school wearing their Forest School base layers on the day they have a session. Before their lesson, they will put on their waterproofs and wellies, which must still be worn to protect their clothing.

After the lesson, the girls will remain in their Forest School base layers for the rest of the day. In the rare instance that a pupil needs to change her base layers, please continue to ensure that a spare set of uniform/PE kit is kept at school at all times. We will trial this system during the Spring Term and assess its effectiveness at the end of the term, with the possibility of continuing or adjusting as needed. This change applies to pupils in Years 1-4; the girls in Reception already follow this system.

A reminder that the Young Art competition deadline for entries is Friday 10 January. Artwork must be an A4-sized painting, drawing or print based on this year’s theme ‘Faces & Places’. The school will cover the entry fee of £3 (maximum of one entry per person) and proceeds go to a specific research project into childhood cancers at UCL Great Ormond Street. Entries should have the artist’s name, year group, DOB and school clearly displayed in block capitals on the back. It is also a good idea to add a sentence explaining what is depicted overleaf. We have enjoyed success in this competition in previous years, so we cannot wait to see what our pupils can produce this time around. 

All entries will be exhibited in the Library after school on Monday 13 January before they are sent off for the judging process. Selected entries will be displayed at the Royal College of Art in April.

In the new year, the girls in Forest School lessons will be practising using loppers and bow saws and creating some more wooden items by recycling Christmas trees. If you have a cut tree that you would like to donate from Monday 6 January, Mr Rich (Sustainability & Forest School Lead) would be very grateful. Ideally, Mr Rich and the Forest School Leaders are seeking 10 trees of about 7 – 12 feet. If you can offer a tree and are happy to bring it to the school, email crich@channing.co.uk to receive instructions about where to bring it. Thank you, as always, for your support.

Please save any Pringles and Twiglets tubes for a Spring Term Design Technology project. Also, please send in packaging with hinged lids, such as tea bag boxes, to Mr Fellows (Art & DT Lead).

The Channing Puddings have arrived and will be distributed to pupils by their Form Teachers today. If you have any issues with your order or have not received it by the end of Tuesday 10 December, please contact sschanningassociation@gmail.com

For the girls who participated in the Cauliflower Cards activity this year to create festive cards/ gifts, please note that all items will be delivered to school and given to the girls via their Form Teacher this week. Thanks to all those who took part, and helped to raise £253 for charity.

• Tuesday 28 January 2025, 7.45am-8:30am ~ PreLoved Uniform Sale, Courtyard 
• Sunday 9 February 2025, evening ~ North London Laughs Charity Comedy Night, with Channing parent offered first-access to tickets
• Saturday 15 March 2025, 4.30pm-7:30pm ~ Charity Swimathon, Poolside Manor
• Sunday 18 May 2025 ~Summer Fair ‘Chanfest’, Junior School grounds