Sept Newsletter

Dear Parents

On behalf of all the staff and Governors I would like to welcome you all to the new school year and offer a special welcome to all the new families to our school. I am always very pleased to talk with parents, in confidence, about any aspect of their child’s learning, development or school, my door is always open.

Staff. I would like to welcome Miss Emilie Thornton, out new teacher for class 5.

Governors. Mrs Leslie Bennett has stepped down from the Governors, I am sure you will join me in thanking her for her work as a Governor over the past 5 years. I would like to welcome Mrs Moira Rose as our new ‘Local Authority’ Governor.

Child Protection /Safe guarding the children. I would like to ask all parents to contact school before 9.30 if your child is going to be absent from school. If your child has a medical appointment, and will be late to school, please let your child’s class teacher know in advance. We will endeavour to telephone the parents of any child who is not at school and we have no explanation for their absence.

Text Messaging. We will be using text messaging to keep you up to date with activities and events at school. Please make sure you inform the office if you change your mobile number 

Uniforms. Please make sure that everything has your child’s name in- thanks. It is expected that all infant children will wear uniform.  

School Fund. Throughout the nursery and infant classrooms the children are involved in many activities that we fund from donations (school fund). We use this fund to buy cooking ingredients, special seasonal resources, batteries for models, sports day stickers etc. We would be most grateful if school fund money could be sent into school at the beginning of each term. If every family pays £5 we will have enough money to cover these very necessary expenses. Please could you send donations in an envelope marked school fund. Thank you. 

Harvest Festival. On Thursday 6th October we will be holding our Harvest Festival in the hall at 9.15 a.m. for the infant children. All parents are welcome to attend. More details will be sent home later. 

Water cooler. All infant children are asked to come to school with a filled water bottle so that they can have a drink at playtimes. We now have a new water cooler, where children can re-fill their drinks bottle if they need to during the school day. Please make sure all drinks bottles are named.

School Improvements.There has been a lot of work done in school over the summer holidays. The literacy area has been re-carpeted and decorated. The Nursery has been re decorated and new toilet cubicles have been installed. The Reception class toilets have also been refurbished. The main corridor has been redecorated and the flooring has been replaced. On Prince’s Road our boundary wall has been rebuilt (near the adventure playground end).

Reading – There will be a meeting on Monday 10th October at 2.45 (in the hall) for parents of all infant children about how reading is taught. We hope you can attend.We value highly the role that parents play in helping children read. We believe that successful learning comes from a close partnership between school and home. We send a book home every day and we ask that all children have a school book bag. If your child does not have a school book bag you can buy one from the office at a cost of £5.99. Please can you make sure that your child brings their book bag every day as the book may be needed as part of the literacy hour. We also have special home/school comment books. These books are a very valuable aid to the parent/ teacher partnership. This book should be kept in the book-bag. Thank you for your help with this. If you find reading books or library books at home, please can you send them back into school. The cost of books is rising and we may need to ask you to make a contribution to school for lost or damaged books.

Nestle Cereal Box tops –please bring these to school, there is a collection box in the entrance hall. Last year we were able to get £250 worth of books for the library which was brilliant.

Maths ‘Work-out’ Math’s work-out activities for children in Years 1 and 2 will be posted on the classroom window from the week beginning 26th September. These home/school activities are an important part of the numeracy hour and we value your support.

P.T.A. You are all members of St Mary’s Parent and Teacher Association. This is such a valuable asset to our school- not only for fund raising but also for the social and community aspects of school. The P.T.A. are organising an afternoon tea for the adults which will incorporate the AGM and film club for the children, this will be on Thursday 13th October straight after school. We need to elect a committee (there is no limit to the committee size) and to hear your ideas for the year ahead. Please support the P.T.A. as it is a fun and vital part of our school. In the summer we raised money towards the new safety surface in the football area, this fund raising is still ongoing so every penny counts.

PEPlease can you make sure that your child has a bag with a pair of shorts and a t-shirt in for PE lessons. A pair of slip on pumps is also needed for wearing in the classroom and in the hall. Don’t forget to put your child’s name in. Children must not wear earrings for PE, please remove these on PE days.

JewelleryFor health and safety reasons we have been advised that children should not wear jewellery to school, this also includes the charity bands. For pierced ears- small studs are acceptable but these must be removed for PE.

Morning Club The morning club is run by Kate Williams in our Rowan rooms. It opens at 8.30 a.m. We do have a few vacancies. We make a small charge of £1.50 per day. If you would like your child to attend please contact the school office. For families who use morning club regularly we will invoice on a half termly basis. If you wish to use Morning club occasionally please pay £1.50 to Mrs Williams on the morning.

Health and Safety Request I am concerned about the safety of the children before and after school. It has been brought to my attention that children are playing unsupervised on the adventure playgrounds and on the play train, jumping off walls and climbing and swinging on trees. During the school day the children are not allowed to do any of these things and I ask that you help keep our children safe by keeping to our school rules before and after school. Also if you use the front door – please make sure you use the zebra crossing and footpaths and not the drive way. I would like to remind you all that the children are not insured for accidents and injury. Parents can take out their own insurance- leaflets are available outside the school office.

ClubsOver the coming year we will be holding a variety of clubs either after school or at lunch time for the children in Year’s 1 and 2 to join. We plan to offer football (there is a charge for this), a cookery club, a mask making club, gardening club and music clubs. Details of each club will be sent out in separate letters, children will be able to request places.

Dates for your diaries. Thank you for your support in all of these events

7th September – KS1 and Reception children start

13th September - Nursery children start

14th September –Park Ranger visiting Year 2

19th September 7.30 pm Leapfrog committee

20th and 22nd September – Year 2 visit St Catherine’s Footprint

27th September– 7 pm Full Governing Body meeting

4th October –PTA meeting at 7.30

5th October – Infant Photograph day

6th October – Harvest Festival

10th October- 2.45 Reading meeting for Parents of Infant Children

10th October Leapfrog AGM 7.30 pm at The Royal Oak

11th October - Year 2 visit Clapham, AM Nursery Photos

13th October –PTA AGM 3.15-4 pm

Tues 18th and Thursday 20th October Parents evenings 4.00-6.30

Half term 24th-28th October

5th November – Nursery Open morning 10-12noon

7th November 7.30 pm Leapfrog committee

28th November –Full Governing Body meeting 7.00

2nd December Christmas Fair 2.30

Infant concert performances

morning 7th, 9th ,and 13th December at 9.30,

afternoon 8th and 12th December at 2.00.

14th December – Christmas Party Day

15th December –last day of nursery

16th December – Christingle Service at St Mary’s Church - school closes at noon, children to be collected from church.

Midday Supervisor and Cleaner Request-If you are available to work at school on a ‘supply’ basis with either mid day supervisor work ( 11.45-1.30)or cleaning (after school) then please get in touch with the school office.

Dogs at School – I would like to remind you of our school rule

‘Some children are frightened of dogs and seeing dogs at school causes them some discomfort. This is especially so when everyone is crowded together around the entrances and exits. I would like to respectfully remind those who do bring their family pet dogs to school to be mindful of their responsibility for safeguarding their own and others children. With this in mind we ask that all adults who bring dogs to school stand away from congested areas around doorways. We also ask that your dog is not left unattended.’

Data ProtectionThank you to those who have returned the data forms. If we have not received yours we will assume that we have your permission to use photographs of your child.

Eco Award & Morrison’s Lets Grow Vouchers I am proud to announce that we have been awarded an Eco- School Silver award for our work so far and that we are well on the way to attaining our Green Flag. We are collecting Morrison’s vouchers to support our eco gardening activity, please put any vouchers you collect in the box in the entrance.

WALK TO SCHOOL PASSPORT AND BADGES SCHEME our school has once again decided to take part in the highly effective and popular scheme funded and run by Cumbria County Council’s Active Travel team. We aim to improve the health and fitness of our youngsters and reduce congestion and the hazard of traffic outside school. We know that our children will enjoy taking part in ‘WOW’. If your child travels to school by car – why not park further from the school and walk the rest of the way (Park & Stride).

Your child will receive a certificate if they commit to the scheme, and an ‘Active Travel Passport’ to record each time they walk. If they manage to travel to and/or from school by walking, once a week every half term they will receive an exciting enamel badge – there are 5 to collect until the scheme ends in July 2012. As 2012 is the year of the Olympics the badge theme is Sport.

If your child/children would like to take part in WOW 2011 – Please fill in and detach the form below. Return it to school by the deadline – Friday 23 September – and they will be included in the scheme.

Yours sincerely

Judith Gore

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Name of child ......................................................................... Class ..............

I would like to take part in the walk to school ‘Walk once a week’ project.