November 2007 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We hope that you have all had a very enjoyable half term holiday. This half term passes so quickly, as we work towards the Christmas festivities in December.

Thank you for your support last half term with our Harvest appeal for Water Aid. We raised £95 in total.

We also sold a lot of books at the Scholastic book fair and made £400 for the school.

It was good to see so many parents at our Open Evening. We took the opportunity to focus on reading throughout the school and discuss with you how you can help your child at home. We hope that those of you who attended the ERR workshop on the first day of the new half term found it both helpful and informative. It is just one of the ways in which we help your child learn to read in school, in this case through the use of a structured phonics programme. If you need further advice please come in and talk to your child’s class teacher. Enjoying a daily reading session at home with your child is the most important thing that you can do to help him or her make the greatest progress at school.

We would also like to remind you about the four Parent Workshops that Mrs James & Mrs Bailey will be running on Tuesday evenings throughout November, starting on the 6th. You are welcome to come to all the sessions or just the particular topics in which you are specifically interested. Please contact Mrs James if you would like to find out more information. Her number in school is 01992 718297

Epping Forest College have contacted the school to ask if we have any parents who might be interested in starting a TA NVQ level 2 course in January. If you have fewer than 5 A-C GCSE passes you may be entitled to free training. If you have more than 5 GCSE A-C passes it will cost approximately £400. Please contact the school office if you would like further details.

Can we please remind parents that for reasons of Health & Safety and for the benefit all our children, dogs are not allowed on the school premises. Also the whole of the school site, including the outside areas, are a no smoking area.

School dinners
If you are on any form of benefit you may be entitled to free school meals for your child. If you would like to do this confidentially, please ring Mrs. James on her own school number 01992 718297 and she will be happy to help you fill in the appropriate forms and liaise with Mrs. Horncastle in the office.
In applying for free school meals you will also be helping the school as the number of children in a school who are entitled to free school meals is used as a method of allocating some school funding and also, when analysing school data, comparing our results with other similar schools. Therefore even if your child does not want free school meals at the moment please apply in order to help the school.
If your child already has free school meals please remember to renew them in time. Mrs. Horncastle will send you a letter to remind you.
Lastly, if you do not pay for your child’s school lunch by the end of the week you will be asked to supply a packed lunch until the arrears are paid. It is upsetting for your child to have to wait for a lunch to be brought in to school and inconvenient for the parent, so please pay dinner money regularly on a Monday for the whole week.

As we mentioned at the start of this letter, Christmas is on the way. Can we remind you that staff are not able to supply class lists for Christmas card writing. Also we do try to ensure that every child has at least one opportunity in the 3 years they are at this school to be part of the nativity either as a speaker or an actor. If you have any concerns about your child being filmed or photographed as a cast member at this event can you please let me know as soon as possible before the children are allocated their parts.

In the summer term we wrote to you asking for parental input into our race, gender & disability schemes. If you are interested in being part of a small working party on all or any of these topics can you please ring the school office and leave your name and a contact phone number and we will contact you. We would appreciate your help.

Thank you for your continued support. The children and staff appreciate your help both in school and at home.

With best wishes to you all
Mrs. Mooney and all the staff

Diary dates

Please note that Gold Award assembly dates have been provisionally booked and may be subject to change. You will receive an invitation confirming these dates nearer the time.


November
2nd - Gold Award assembly – Mrs. Collin’s class
5th - Mrs. Kemp’s class parents invited in to lunch all week, Reception Open Mornings all week, special bonfire lunch
8th - Year 2 - Florence Nightingale workshops
9th - Gold Award assembly – Mrs. Kemp’s class
12th - Miss Gillespie’s class parents invited in to lunch all week
13th - 7.30p.m. Parent Workshop – What can I do if my child misbehaves?
14th - a.m. Class photos
16th - Gold Award assembly – Miss Gillespie’s class, Children in Need – Bring A Bear to school with 20p donation
20th - Rev. Martin Webster in to take school assembly, 7.30p.m. Parent Workshop – Learning through Play
23rd - Gold Award assembly – Nursery
27th - 7.30p.m. Parent Workshop –First Aid & Accident Prevention
29th - Reception trip to The Gunpowder Mills

December
3rd - Closing date for applications for school reception places in September 2008
5th - p.m. Nursery Christmas bazaar in school hall
11th - Year 2 Christmas plays, 10.00 a.m. Performance for parents with children, 1.45p.m. Performance for parents without children
12th - Year 1 Christmas plays, 10.00a.m. Performance for parents with children, 1.45p.m. Performance for parents without children
13th - Year R Christmas plays, 10.00a.m. Performance for parents with children, 1.45p.m. Performance for parents without children
14th - School Christmas dinner
17th - 1.30 Christmas service at Waltham Abbey church – children & staff only
18th - p.m. Christmas party
19th - School breaks up, School closes at 2.00 p.m.

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