January 2010 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year to you all. We hope that you had a lovely Christmas and that everyone is fit and ready to start the Spring Term. We would also like to thank you for your cards, presents and good wishes before Christmas. They were much appreciated by the whole school staff.

We would like to welcome all the new children to the Nursery. They will be starting this week in the afternoon. We hope you and your parents enjoy being with us and that you settle in very quickly to the nursery routine.

The PTA were very busy at the end of term selling the Father Christmas photos which raised £261 & the Christmas cards designed by the children which raised £ 390. The PTA cake stall raised over £60. The ladies are already arranging events for this term so please look out for further news & information.

The children raised money for a variety of good causes in school last term. This included £147.17 for Children in Need & £74.29 for the British Legion Poppy day appeal.

We hope that those parents who attended, enjoyed the adult learning sessions that we organised last term. The First Aid course was particularly popular. The maths course & the media & literacy club will continue this term. If you were on the course last term you will be contacted by Amanda Russell with regard to this term’s arrangements.

A big thank you to everyone who helped us to raise money for the purchase of the two lovely pieces of climbing apparatus installed on the school grounds. They will be used during school time when the children will be supervised by a member of the school staff at all times. For the safety of all the children, we have fenced in the apparatus on the school field and it will be locked before and after school so that it cannot be used unsupervised by pupils. The climbing frame in the Nursery playground should not be used by children before or after their sessions as it will not be supervised at these times.

We continue to work with the Education Welfare Officer in trying to raise awareness of the importance of good school attendance, starting in Year R. We do appreciate that if your child is ill that it may be necessary for him/her to be kept at home. However, we do need to make you aware if your child is not meeting the overall government target of 95% attendance, whatever the reason for their absence, including illness. We will be notifying parents early this term if your child has not met the school target of 90% target in the Autumn term. We are aware that the children were particularly ill at the end of November so please remember that the DCFS attendance target of 95% is set for the whole academic year so use it as guidance, particularly if you are considering applying for holiday absence in the Spring or Summer terms. Children whose attendance is under 90%, two weeks prior to their holiday absence, will not be authorised. No holiday absence will be authorised for pupils in Year 2 in the first half of the Summer term because of SATs.

At this time of year we know that a lot of children wear boots to school. Can you please make sure that you send in a pair of shoes or plimsolls for your child to change into as they are not suitable for wearing indoors around the school. Also, with the cold weather that we are having at the moment, the children do need to come to school dressed appropriately for outdoor play. They need warm coats, hats, scarves & gloves and everything must be named please.

All the clubs will start week beginning the 11th January and will finish week beginning 23rd March.

We would like to remind you that if you are coming into school for lunch with your child you must order it the preceding week so that the food can be ordered in advance by the staff in the school kitchen. The office staff will no longer be able to take last minute bookings at the office window on the day you wish to come.

We start our themed lunches this year on January 21st with a celebration of American food. We hope that as many children as possible will take a school lunch on that day. A menu and letter to order this meal will be going home shortly.

Remember it is important for both you and the school that, if you are on the following benefits, you apply for free school meals:-
• Income support
• Job seekers allowance (income based)
• Income related employment& support allowance
• Support under part VI of the immigration & asylum act 1999
• Child tax credit with an annual taxable income of less than £16,040
• Pension guarantee credit


If you think you do qualify please come in to the school office and talk to Mrs Rawlings, our school secretary, who will be treat any information you share with her in the strictest confidence. You no longer need to bring evidence of receipt of these benefits into school, you just need your National Insurance number to enter on the form.

We look forward to seeing you in school during the Spring Term.

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.

January
4th - School reopens
8th - School Gold Award Assembly
11th - Mrs Bassi’s class parents invited in to lunch all week
13th - Media & Literacy Club starts – 10 week Story sack sessions
15th - Gold Award assembly –Mrs Bassi’s class
18th - Miss Lavin’s class parents invited in to lunch all week
21st - American themed lunch
22nd - Gold Award assembly – Miss Lavin’s class
25th - Miss Hurry’s & Mrs Evans’ class parents invited in to lunch all week
28th - Gold Award assembly – Miss Hurry’s & Mrs Evans’ class

February 1st - Mrs Cuncarr’s class parents invited in to lunch all
5th - Gold Award assembly –Mrs Cuncarr’s class
8th - Mrs McVie’s class parents invited in to lunch all week
11th - SATs Year 2 meeting with parents 6.00-6.30 – school hall, Open Evening 3.10-5.00 6.30-8.00 - classrooms – all year groups
12th - Gold Award assembly – Mrs McVie’s class, School breaks up for half term
22nd - INSET day
23rd - School reopens, Mrs Huckett’s class parents invited in to lunch all week
26th - Gold Award assembly – Mrs Huckett’s class

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