This week has been one of those special weeks when the academy has been united in its learning focus. We recognise the importance of our pupils experiencing a broad curriculum full of varied skills and interesting knowledge. This week has been British Science Week and with all of the other primary academies in the Trust, our pupils have been deepening their learning of science. We encourage our pupils to think as scientist and have been really impressed with their passion, curiosity and increasing science wisdom! If you would like to know more please watch the video.

It made us very proud this week to receive notification from our friends at the Rotary Sunrise group that many of our old reading books have finally reached their destination in a school in The Gambia. We're so glad that these books have a renewed purpose and hope that we can build our relationship with this school in the future. Please see the video for more information about World Book Day as well as other achievements in the Academy.

Next week is World Book Day and this term will be taken up with our Reading Challenge. It is universally acknowledged that reading is the secret to success and all of the staff are committed to provide our pupils with the skills and desire to be proficient, fluent and passionate readers. The challenge is very simple- the more they read, the more they will support their class in the weekly competitions. There are many merits to be won as well as an overall prize for the class with the most reads in KS1 and EYs, the most quizzes and words read on Scholastic Reading Pro for KS2.  We can't wait to see if we beat last year's records!

We look forward to celebrating World Book Day on Thursday, 5th March with our focus being upon the Traditional Tales. Did you know that nearly all modern stories follow a few plots and nearly all of them were first recorded in stories that we share with our youngest children? How many times have you read about a rags to riches story - this is often called the Cinderella plot! We look forward to seeing the pupils (and staff) in their costumes ready to enjoy the day.

We would to say a big thank you for your support with Year 3 and 4's trips to Stibbington. It is a slightly more expensive trip than we would usually plan but we hope you agree that it was worth it (check out the video as well as our Twitter feeds). Thanks go to those families who baked cakes to sell at the cake stalls which helped to make the day possible. LKS2 raised just over £250! Thank you to all who supported the stalls.

 We hope you have a great half term and the weather is kind to you. If the weather isn't kind, please remind the children that the biggest secret to success is reading! We also have our reading challenge and World Book Day to look forward to, so the more practice the better! Happy holidays.

On Thursday, the academy hosted the First Steps Gymnastics Competition in which several of our younger pupils competed. Both teams performed their individual routines brilliantly, demonstrating both passion and courage and were rewarded with 1st and 3rd team places in their Under 7 age group. Well done to all who competed and many thanks go to Mrs Bensley and Miss Rook-Williams for their coaching of the gymnastics teams throughout the academy. If you would like to see more of the pupils' achievements, please take the time to watch the video.

We are proud of Huntingtower's curriculum offer. Throughout the Academy, our teachers are not only passionate about the learning that their class pupils engage in, as curriculum leaders they also are . passionate about how a child becomes a mathematician, historian, artist, musician, citizen... the list goes on! Our learning is not just limited to our time in class; our clubs have started and are providing our children with a range of additional experiences. Our weekly video is a delight to make as it's always an opportunity to highlight the learning journey that our pupils experience as they progress through the Academy. We hope you can take the time to watch it. 

We are proud of the progress that the children have made so far this year and are looking forward to meeting with you at our Parents' Evening in the last week of this term. Please check your child's book bag next week for the letter with the response form for these meetings. 

The spring terms are always a busy and bustling time with much to achieve invariably in less weeks. Clubs are due to begin next week and I would like to thank the staff and older pupils who have offered to lead clubs. We do try to offer a wide variety of clubs and I hope you agree that it widens our pupils’ interests.

Please ensure that you are logged into Parent Hub as this, with our Tower Times is our main form of communication of information. If you are having any technical issues, please see the Administration Office for support.

Our Year 2 pupils have definitely made us proud this week! They performed a Nativity play called 'A Midwife Crisis'. This was the first time in our memories that only one year group performed and they did an amazing job. Well done to the pupils for learning their roles, their cues and a vast array of songs. All funds raised from the tickets will be donated to a local charity, Dr Friers who look to support children in our community. Thank you to our children's family for support this event too. Finally, our choir will be performing in the School Choir Final at Downtown this Saturday (14th December) at 2.30pm. We wish them the best of luck.

At the academy, we value generosity most highly. The choir gave their time this week to spend it at our closest residential homes. They sang a range of seasonal songs to very appreciative audiences. It also provided an opportunity to experience singing in front of an audience before their school choir competition on Thursday. Congratulations goes to the choir, Mrs Kightley and Mrs Goddard-Tate for their progression into the final which will take place on Saturday, 14^th December at Downtown. We wish them the very best of luck!

We are now one week away from our Winter Fayre. The staff, children and Friends have been busy preparing for this event and we hope that you can join us; thank you for your donations for the Tombolas. There will be a wide variety of stalls and activities as well as story time with Father Christmas and Refreshments. Our choir will also be singing to help build the festive cheer. All proceeds will be used by the Academy to support enrichment activities for our pupils. The Fayre is on Friday, 6th December from 3.30 until 5pm.

Again, we have seen how our pupils have embraced their understanding of citizenship. Everyone participated in our Children in Need activities and in addition to looking wonderfully yellow and spotty last Friday, we also raised £497 for the charity. Well done to our Academy Council for organising our fundraising and also managing the art competition. 

As the nights lengthen and the days shorten, we are moving towards a busy and exciting time of the year. I know that there are many activities and events planned over the coming weeks. Our Winter Fayre is only 3 weeks away! If you are able to help in anyway including at the Fayre itself, please pop into the academy office to register your interest.

We are beginning to put our plans for our Winter Fayre into action. As you know, the Friends of Huntingtower association is no longer active but the good news is that many of the members will continue to volunteer at fundraising events. If you are also interested in helping, please pop into the office and let the admin team know.

Finally, on Tuesday, 12th November at 6pm, we will be holding our Welcome Evening for prospective parents of 2020 Reception pupils. We look forward to welcoming new and existing parents so we can support them with the important process of selecting a primary school for their child's next stage in education.

Over the next few weeks, there are many events coming up including Remembrance Day, Children in Need and also the Winter Fayre. Please keep an eye on Parent Hub as well as Tower Times for further information.

It was lovely to welcome back our old friends from the Sunshine Rotary Club to present our Rotary Star award. This award reflects the Trust value of Generosity that is so important to us. Please see Tower Times for more information.

Finally, as we head towards a week’s break from the academy, we would like to thank everyone for their hard work. We hope you have a good holiday away from the academy routines and find some time to relax and recoup after a busy term (with a good book is best!). We look forward to seeing you back at the academy on Monday, 28^th October.

We would also like to thank you for your support on Thursday for World Mental Health Day. The day was certainly brightened by the children's yellow additions to their uniform and I was awed by their perceptive ideas during our special assembly. You should be proud of how understanding your children are of others and also their knowledge as to how they can help themselves in a range of situations. 

With one week left in this half term, we are looking forward to celebrating our Rotary Stars. These pupils will be nominated for their generosity and understanding of others. Our visitors from the Sunrise Rotary Group will be presenting the identified children with certificates on Thursday, 17th October. 

A huge well done goes to our Year 4 classes who presented their Harvest Assembly on Tuesday. They thought hard about the messages behind why Harvest is celebrated and spoke well and clearly for all to hear. Thanks goes to everyone who contributed food items for celebrate this event. Again, the academy chose to support the local Food Bank as we know that this charity is very important in our local community. 

Don't forget that next week is an opportunity for you to come and meet with your child's teacher to find out how they have settled at Parents' Evening on Tuesday, 8th October and Wednesday, 9th October (3.30-6.30pm). During this time, there will be an opportunity to visit the pop-up Uniform Shop (located in the library) as well as the Book Fair (in the Studio). We look forward to seeing you. 

There is another opportunity for our pupils and their families to contribute to our community next week. On Tuesday 1st October, we will be having our special Harvest Assembly. Yet again, we are asking for donations to our Local Foodbank. A list of required items has been distributed via Parent Hub and the list can also be seen within the Tower Times. The Foodbank continues to be very grateful of the academy's contributions.

This Saturday is International Day of Peace. The children reflected on what this means and how it came about in Assembly on Monday. This year's focus is to support continued world peace by focusing upon how we can better support the environment. The children suggested using less plastic, walking more and recycling wherever possible. Our pupils, your children are so focused upon being good citizens that it never fails to make us proud. We hope you can find time within Saturday's inevitably busy schedule to find a small window of peace.

Over the coming weeks, we have several events to look forward to. We will be electing our Tower Captains and Academy Councillors as well as celebrating Harvest. In only a few weeks, you will be invited to come and meet your child's teacher at Parents' Evening. Please check the Calendar of Events on our newly updated website for these future events. Our Tower Times newsletter is our principal means to communicate with parents including celebrating achievements. This is distributed weekly on Parent Hub. 

Communication is essential to the good running of any establishment and at Huntingtower, we try our best to keep you informed about up and coming events and changes to our usual routines. Tower Times provides our ‘News’ round up and Parent Hub is used for more specific and timely information. We also use here on our website, Facebook and Twitter accounts to let you know about what is happening at the academy. With the Tower Times this week is also a specific letter to let you know about a few exciting changes we are making to our academy and in particular to our communications systems. We are sending both a paper copy and as an item on Parent Hub. We will also be continuing to discuss the changes on Tower Times. Please take the time to read it and familiarise yourself with future changes. 

Have a fantastic Bank Holiday weekend and we look forward to seeing everyone back at the academy on Tuesday, 7^thMay 2019

These Summer terms are always very busy and full of exciting events. Our Personal Development focus is Imagine and we look forward to exploring how children can use their imagination to strengthen their skills as learners. As I always say, if you want to know more about someone's imagination, you only have to read a book! Reading truly is the secret to success. In the next couple of weeks, we will be letting you know about lots of up and coming events but one quick mention goes to the Friends of Huntingtower who this year will be hosting their Summer Fayre for the first time on a Friday evening. Please make a note in your diary for Friday, 28th June as we hope to see as many people there as possible to help the Academy and Friends raise money to support future ventures for our pupils. 

We are about to begin the last week of term and I congratulate both the children and the staff on another wonderful term. Academically, the children strive to be the best that they can be, to improve on their skills and gain knowledge that they can apply in a wider context. In terms of the personal development curriculum, they apply themselves consistently to widening their experiences and becoming stronger in those identified characteristics we believe are so important. Many thanks goes again to the Rotary Sunshine group who have offered to come and present the Rotary Sunshine Award. This award is given once every short term to celebrate children who have demonstrated not only a caring nature but also a generosity in spirit and actions. The children receive both a certificate and a badge (which they can wear with pride at the academy).

I hope you have a great weekend and remember that the clocks go forward on Sunday as we enter British Summer time!

We are about to enter the last two weeks of the Spring term and we still have many more events and experiences to fit into this time. Next week, the Years 1 and 2 will be participating in Great Fire of London themed days which will culminate in a presentation to parents,  Friday's celebration assembly will also include our termly visit from the Rotary Sunshine group to present the Rotary Stars and the final week will host our final assembly of the term; Endeavour assembly on Thursday, 4th April. These assemblies are some our favourite moments in our academy year and we look forward to seeing family and friends join us to celebrate their children's achievements.

A huge thank you goes to you for your continued support with your children’s learning. This has also been reflected in your support with the Academy Council’s Comic Relief fundraising. We thought we had anticipated how supportive our families are but we soon ran out of merchandise to sell. Many thanks goes the Sainsburys’ employees who came to visit us on Wednesday afternoon with an even greater range to sell. All proceeds go to Comic Relief and we will let you know next week how much the academy raised.

We are now in the latter half of the academic year and I am always impressed with how much our pupils have learned. In my assembly on Monday, we explored our Priory Trust value of curiosity. If I asked you the question, "Can you think of some who is famous for being curious?' what would your answer be? I was really impressed by some of our pupils answers; Isaac Newton, David Attenborough, Charles Darwin, Mary Anning and Stephen Hawking which were all fantastic suggestions. I'm sure this will make Mrs Stephenson, our Science Leader really proud and I know that she is excited for National Science week which will begin on Monday, 11th March. 

There are so many events coming up at the moment, that I would recommend keeping a close eye on Parent Hub. We have World Book Day next Thursday (7th March) where we have invited all the children (and staff) to come dressed as their favourite book character, as well as Comic Relief on Friday, 15th March. Please see Tower Times for more details. Merchandise will be for sale at the academy from Tuesday, 6th March. All proceeds will be donated to Comic Relief. I would like to thank you for your continued support in with helping our pupils take part in events that contribute to wider communities than just the one that they live in. 

We have had several special visitors to the academy this term and only this week, welcomed both Sam Ruddock, the Para-Olympian and also Ben Smith (who ran 401 marathons in 401 days). The children are always really inspired by such motivational speakers but they are not always aware of the reciprocal element of these events; that visitors such as Ben and Sam are equally inspired by our pupils! It makes me very proud to hear that they love to visit the academy and spend time with our pupils and I hope you are too. Our pupils demonstrate a keenness to learn as well as a positive attitude to new experiences. They also epitomise the values that we have built our academy round and we will continue to find opportunities to motivate our pupils further.

We are about to begin our half term holiday and I wish you and your family a restful week hopefully full of bright, sunny days. We look forward to seeing you back at the academy on Monday, 25^th February for the start of Term 4.

We again joined with the local community to host a gymnastic competition at the academy on Tuesday afternoon. Mrs Bensley and her gymnastic team not only competed but also, with the help of our Sports leaders and ambassadors, acted as host to several local schools. It really was a fantastic event and we were really proud to see our teams win some medals. For some of our gymnasts, this was their first chance to represent our academy in an inter-school competition. Again, a huge well done to all who took part and for the organising such a fantastic event.

With only one week until half term, we look forward to meeting with parents and families at parents' evening next week. Appointment letters have been distributed; please check your child's book bag if you haven't as yet received yours. The studio will be hosting not only the Scholastic Book fair but also creche facility for academy pupils not attending the meetings with you. 

Well it certainly has been a chilly week! The site managers have worked very hard to anticipate every possible change in the weather to ensure that our grounds are as safe as ever. Thank you goes to everyone accessing the car park for being a little more cautious and considerate to others in these precarious conditions. I don’t think that this cold blast has finished yet so please remind your children to wear those extra outdoor items (hats, scarves and gloves) to help them keep warm when outside. There has been plenty of research to support, for example, that a child with asthma or breathing issues benefits from wearing a scarf loosely over their nose and mouth. It appears my mum was right all along when she told me to wrap up warm!

There have been some great achievements recently in our sporting competitions. Last Friday, our UKS2 athletics team competed in the Large Schools Sports Hall Athletics team and came second! There were so many elements that they participated in that it really required a concerted effort. Well done to everyone who represented the academy. On Sunday, Mrs Bensley and her team of committed gymnasts competed in the Lincolnshire Primary Schools Gymnastics Competition held at the Meres Leisure Centre. It was a very long and successful day as the children all performed brilliantly and several were rewarded with medals. If you would like to know more, please watch the weekly video found on either the website (News Page), Twitter or Facebook. On a final note, this week has been National Storytelling Week. The children will tell you that I love to tell and listen to stories about life. Listening to stories about our families and its history is so important to carry on into the future generations. Please spend some time telling stories about yourself and your family  and carry on this wonderful tradition.

We have faced many challenges this week with both the weather and the traffic. The icy weather is set to continue for a little while longer and this means that extra care should be taken on pathways around the academy and streets in our immediate environment. Thanks goes to Mr Moore and Mr Wallace, our Site Managers for ensuring that the pathways are gritted to the best of their ability. Please also remind the children to bring hats and gloves with them as the days continue to remain chilly!

Every week, when I make our video, I can see trends and patterns in our learning. The children’s pride in their work and their enthusiasm for learning is evident as well as their love of the range of subjects taught. Often we see sporting achievements as well as academic ones. I am very passionate about the arts and have especially loved making the video over the last two weeks as there has been so much art work being created at home as well as at school. They really should be proud of their achievements and I look forward to seeing more. 

Finally, can I ask you to spend a little time reading the Adverse Weather letter that is being distributed through Parent Hub? We are hoping that we don’t have the extreme weather of 2018 but it is best to be prepared.

This term promises to be very exciting with lots of events planned. The children have already started to think about this term’s personal development focus, Improve and consider how this can impact upon their learning. We hope that by the time you come to meet with the staff at Parents’ Evening in February, you’ll see lots of evidence of your child’s success.

On a final note, I would just like to update you with regard to Mrs Giles. We are pleased to announce that Mrs Giles gave birth to a little girl on Tuesday (8^th January). Everyone is well and we can’t wait to meet the new arrival.

We also welcomed again the Rotary Sunshine Group who came to present the Rotary Star awards at our Celebration Assembly on Thursday. These awards are focused upon our Understanding Others element of our Personal Development curriculum. These children have demonstrated over and over again a generosity in spirit and actions that must be commended. 

As with any busy establishment, there are often changes to staffing. At the end of last week, Mrs Giles began her maternity leave for her second child. Mrs Goddard-Tate who already class-shares with Mrs Giles will continue to teach the Kangaroos full time until her return. Mrs Giles is also the Leader for Early Years phase and in her absence Mrs Cradduck, our SENDCo (and Early Years’ specialist) will be leading this team. We will let you know when baby Giles arrives!

We are also looking forward to welcoming back Miss Anderton, class teacher and Mrs Maxwell, Teaching Assistant from their maternity leaves next week. Mrs Maxwell will resume her class role in Lemurs with Mrs Lord and Miss Anderton will be getting to know the Panthers class all ready for January when Mrs Hand leaves us temporarily to go on Sabbatical. We wish Mrs Hand every success during this time and look forward to hearing about her adventures when she returns to us in September 2019.