Newsletter

Online Safety – Parent Session Tuesday 20th January

Do you know what your child is doing on their computer or ipad? Do you know which sites are safe? Are you aware of all of the dangers of your child having a mobile phone? Are your children sending messages on x box? Is your child watching videos on Youtube? What are the dangers of Apps? What social media is suitable for my child? How much screen time is acceptable? What are the latest online dangers?

On Tuesday 20th January we have paid for an outside company to come in and talk about online-safety all day with classes and also to do a meeting for parents at 9am to help parents think about keeping children safe at home on computers, ipads etc when they are playing games and using the Internet. We have run these sessions for the last few years and they have been a great success. Parents found it scary, thought provoking and extremely useful. It is very important to be one step ahead of your child as technology becomes more a part of children’s everyday lives.

Whatever your child’s age or year group, the meeting will be appropriate and useful. I would urge as many parents as possible to come along to the school hall at 9am on Tuesday 20th January.

Celebrating Equality – The Protected Characteristics

At Holly Park we believe (in line with DFE guidance) that ‘to embrace the challenges of creating a happy and successful adult life, pupils need knowledge that will enable them to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships and to build their self-efficacy’ DFE 2019.

As part of Personal Development, we need to raise awareness with our pupils about the protected characteristics. Last Friday we had an equality afternoon. Teachers talked to the children about discrimination, equality and the protected characteristics. Each year group had a particular focus and a picture book based on one of the themes from the protected characteristics. The class read their book and had a discussion about the concepts within the book. They then did some PHSE work based around the book. Work produced has been put in the class Floor Books or PHSE books.

The books used by each year group were: Nursery (being Unique/ different) – Elmer

Reception (Families) – The Family Book
Y1 (Ethnicity) – The Colours of Us
Y2 (Religion) – All Kinds of Beliefs
Y3 (Age) – Harry and Walter
Y4 (Sex Discrimination) – William’s Doll
Y5 (Disability) – Keep Your Ear on the Ball
Y6 (Sexuality) – And Tango Makes Three

At Holly Park we have a planned curriculum programme for these topics so that children will consider all of these protected characteristics on their journey through the school. In addition, Mrs Mehtar leads regular assemblies about equality and protected characteristics.

Character Education

Each term we focus on a positive character trait.

This term the children are learning about RESPONSIBILITY. This means doing the things that you are supposed to do. Being responsible means making good choices. It means people can trust you to make good choices. It means that you think about people’s feelings when you make a choice.

When you are with your child, you could support them in understanding their responsibilities by talking through the choices they make in everyday life. Help them to think about the consequences of each choice. Remind them that sometimes people make excuses to avoid being responsible.

Zones Of Regulation

At Holly Park, we use the Zones of Regulation to support children to regulate their emotions. The Zones of Regulation is a simple, child-friendly framework that helps children understand and manage their emotions by grouping feelings into four coloured zones: blue (low energy or sad), green (calm and ready to learn), yellow (heightened emotions or stress), and red (very strong emotions like anger or excitement). The children use different tools to help them move into the appropriate colour zone such as counting to ten, finger breathing, reading a book, talking to someone etc. The Zones of Regulation are great to use at home as well. If you would like more information, please see Mrs Puzey, Miss Michael or Mrs Mehtar.

National Test Results

Data for end of phase national testing has now been published.

For Holly Park our 2025 results were:

Year 1 Phonics Data – In line with national

Year 4 Multiplication Check – In line with national

Year 6 Reading – In line with national

Year 6 Writing – Below national

Year 6 Maths – Below national

Year 6 SPAG – In line with national

Every cohort in a school is different and each cohort has their own specific strengths and weaknesses. As a school we monitor and track each cohort as individuals and as a group as they travel through the school. So, results at the end of each phase never come as a surprise to us. It is important (as I say to parents when they are looking for a secondary school) not to look at the achievement of one particular cohort but to look at the wider 3-year trend for a more accurate picture of how a school is performing. We are pleased that our 3-year trend in all areas is in line with national data. As a school we are always outward facing and invite in advisors, inspectors, experts in different areas of education to come in and to observe and tell us what they think.

We pride ourselves on their feedback and are never complacent and are always looking for the next step or way we can be better. We self-evaluate annually after results and look at what we can do better and what our priorities are for the next year. In light of that, we make tweaks or changes.

After self-evaluation we then make a school improvement plan for the year focussed on what we feel we need to work on. For example, after results last year, we have altered our homework policy to make it more specific, targeted and appropriate for each year group and the goals they need to achieve. We have also looked at writing and have introduced strategies we believe will support children to write with more accuracy and precision e.g targeted planning of grammar, Fluent in 5 activities in SPAG each week and more focused sentence level work using Colourful Semantics. In maths we have continued daily fluent in 5 maths activities, embedded our maths small steps curriculum and introduced oracy in maths. It is also important to remember that it is individual data relevant to an individual child that is key and the progress they make from their individual starting point.

Published achievement data does not show progress of children – which is a shame. In addition, national data is a very small part of how a school is judged – it is by no means the whole picture. Most importantly, national data is only one small part of a child – it does not show how artistic they are, how sporty, how kind, how empathetic, how resilient etc. School performance data should always be considered alongside a range of other information about the school, including looking at school websites, reading Ofsted reports, and speaking to the school directly. Conclusions should not be drawn on single pieces of data alone.

At Holly Park, of course we want our children to leave the school ready for the next stage in the educational journey but we also want them to be all round children ready to be good citizens and prepared for life in modern Britain. The SLT and Governors are extremely proud of Holly Park staff and pupils for their academic and pastoral achievements, for consistently reflecting the values we uphold and the very positive recognition received from our last OFSTED inspection.

Our Holly Park children cope extremely well with the transition to secondary school and go on to local secondary schools where they are often awarded major prizes, are school ambassadors and are selected as prefects because of the skills that we have given them here. I enjoy hearing stories of pupil successes from families I meet about children who left Holly Park some years ago – they often tell me that they had a great foundation at Holly Park.

Attendance

Whole school attendance for the last week was 95% Well done to Year 6 Cedar Class with the best attendance at 99%.

Dates

Monday 19th January Y6 meeting about sex and relationship education 9am
Tuesday 20th January Online Safety Meeting for parents at 9am
Tuesday 20th January HPS Online safety day
Thursday 22nd January Y3 trip to the Temple at Neasden
Friday 23rd January Y2 Great Fire of London Day
Friday 30th January Parent meeting – Character Education via Zoom 9.30am
Monday 2nd February Annual House Challenge
Wednesday 4th February Meeting for Y4 parents about the Y5 residential 2026
Thursday 12th February Cross Country
Friday 14th February End of Half term at 3.30pm

KS1 External Clubs Spring Term 2026

Mondays e.Assistant Game Design (Y2 only) Lunchtime Booking: www.eAssistant.co.uk select: ‘Clubs’ then ‘Holly Park’ 077 4849 3383

Mondays Football (Y1 and Y2) Non-Stop Action After School Booking: https://nonstopaction.co.uk/ 02084460006

Tuesdays Chess (Year 2 Only) FINCHLEY CHESS MOVES Lunchtime Y2 Booking: Email: johnfleetwoodj@aol.com

Thursdays Gymnastics Vicky RG Academy Lunchtime Booking: 07725818655 info@vickyrgacademy.co.uk

Fridays Art, Karate Art Club Karate Club After School After School Booking: 07741126151 Booking: info@kaishikarateschool.com Tel 0787 550 1674 www.kaishikarateschool.com https://www.facebook.com/SheenaK aishikarate/

KS2 External Clubs Spring Term 2026

Mondays Street Dance & Game Design e.Assistant Game Design Dance Wright Lunchtime After SchoolY3/4/5/6 Booking: www.eAssistant.co.uk Booking: select: ‘Clubs’ then ‘Holly Park’ 07482693890 077 4849 3383

Tuesdays Chess & Tag Rugby FINCHLEY CHESS MOVES Serge Betsen Lunchtime After School Booking: Email: johnfleetwoodj@aol.com Booking: 2034414360 contact@sergebetsenrugby.com

Thursdays Gymnastics Vicky RG Academy Lunchtime Booking: 07725818655 info@vickyrgacademy.co.uk

Fridays Karate, Football, Art Non-Stop Action Art Club (Y3,4,5)

After School

After School Booking: https://nonstopaction.co.uk/ Booking: 07741126151 02084460006

Karate Club After School Booking: info@kaishikarateschool.com Tel 0787 550 1674 www.kaishikarateschool.com https://www.facebook.com/SheenaKaishikarate/

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