Friday Update - 16.10.2026

Miss McNamara's Message

This week, we welcomed Amanda Thornton-Jones, our Director of Primary, to Coppice Valley for her autumn visit. She was absolutely blown away by our Little Ferns Nursery provision! She commented on how beautifully the children have settled into their new routines, the pace and quality of teaching led by Miss Baxter, brilliant support from Miss Donbavand, the fantastic engagement of the children and the clear structure to each day. Most importantly, she could see just how happy our Little Ferns children are!

We are incredibly proud of the hard work that Miss Baxter and Miss Donbavand have put into establishing such a wonderful provision, alongside the many other staff across school who help ensure everything runs smoothly. And, of course, a huge well done to all of our Little Ferns children for showing their brilliance!

Amanda Thornton-Jones also spent time visiting our Key Stage 2 classrooms, where she was equally impressed by the productivity, positive behaviour and engagement of pupils in their learning. It was a really successful autumn visit and a lovely opportunity to celebrate the fantastic things happening across Coppice Valley. There is so much to celebrate at Coppice Valley, and it is always lovely when visitors recognise the brilliant things we see happening every day

A little note about attendance...

As a school and across our Trust, improving attendance continues to be a key priority. This week, we have sent communications to families whose children's attendance has fallen below 90%.

We know that receiving these messages can sometimes feel frustrating, particularly when absences have been due to genuine illness or circumstances beyond a family's control. We often receive feedback from parents about this, so I wanted to explain a little more about why we send them.

The Department for Education uses national attendance thresholds to help schools identify and monitor attendance:

- 95% and above – the minimum attendance level we aim for all pupils to achieve.
- 90% or below – classified nationally as persistent absence.
- 50% or below – classified nationally as severe absence.

These are nationally defined terms, not judgements about children, families or the reasons for absence. Receiving a letter does not mean that we are questioning whether a child has been genuinely unwell.

We deliberately take a consistent approach to sending these communications rather than making individual decisions about which families should receive them. We feel this is the fairest and most transparent way to meet national expectations without making assumptions about individual circumstances.

We also recognise that, particularly at this early stage of the academic year, just a few days of absence can have a significant impact on a child's overall percentage. For many children, this will naturally improve as the year progresses.

Our intention is simply to keep families informed, identify where support might be helpful and work together to ensure children are in school as much as possible. Our data shows that children with good attendance (95%+) also achieve well in reading, writing and maths. We appreciate your understanding and continued support with this.

School Trips and Fieldwork - Planned Dates

We are delighted to share with you a graphic showing all planned trips and visits for children from Little Ferns through to Year 6 for the coming academic year. We hope this advance notice will help families plan ahead, so please do add these dates to your diaries. Further information about each trip, including timings, costs and any specific arrangements, will be shared via email in good time before the visit takes place. We look forward to another exciting year of enriching learning opportunities beyond the classroom. 🌟📅

Please click here to see the calendar of trips and fieldwork.

Message from Tessa - Our Wonderful Crossing Patrol!

I would be very grateful if, when using the crossing, you could please cross in front of me rather than behind me. Over the past few weeks, a number of families have crossed behind me, which means I have not always been able to see that they are waiting or crossing. This is a concern, as my priority is to make sure everyone gets across the road safely.