Dear Parent/Carer,
Thank you for supporting our Cash for Clothes collection! We collected 248.1kg and raised £124.05 for school.
We have had two lovely letters from Stow Park Church Centre and The Raven House trust thanking us for our Harvest donations. There has been increased demand for food support so they are even more grateful for your donations this year. Thank you.
Thank you to all those parents who joined us for our Parental Consultations! They reflect your strong support for your child’s education and your firm desire to help them achieve their very best in life. This week, teachers will be asking parents of those children who have Individual Development Plans or Individual Play Plans to meet them briefly to set IDP/IPP targets. If your child has an IDP/IPP please speak to their class teacher.
Year 6 pupils took part in Show Racism the Red Card workshops today.
Reception classes had their Immersion Day today based on their Hocus Pocus work and they had a great time!
On Tuesday, Miss Murphy is taking the newly elected Y5 playmakers and the remaining Year 6 playmakers to a training event at Newport International Sports Village, Spytty Park.
Year 5 pupils have been invited to perform in a special Chartist Celebration at Newport (St Woolos) Cathedral on Wednesday because the usual Chartist March isn’t taking place this year. This inaugural Chartist event will be attended by Councillor Debbie Wilcox, the Leader of Newport City Council. There are a few places for parents or grandparents, so if you would like to attend the event, which will run from 10.00-11.30am, please let either Mrs Kidd or Mrs Martin in the office know.
Dental nurses will be visiting again on Thursday to review the rest of the classes with toothbrushing.
Also on Thursday, Chartwells Catering are having an American Theme day. The lunchtime menu will be an American hot dog or the halal/vegetarian option will be creamy mac ‘n’ cheese, with cajun wedges and baked beans and salad.
Also on Thursday, I will be holding two parent/grandparent meeting for The Friends St Woolos, to discuss fundraising and other help. They will be at 2.45pm and at 6.00pm and you are welcome at whichever is easier for you. They should be no more than 45minutes in length but will provide an opportunity for us to identify parents who are willing to help us with the organisation of our fund-raising activities.
On Friday, we are holding a Pink Day to raise funds for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
For a £1.00 donation, children may wear casual clothes or wear something pink such e.g hairband scarf etc. Pink ribbons (50p) and cakes (50P) will also be on sale. Thank you in advance for your support of this.
Class 3P and Class 4J
I am very sorry that we have had to postpone Class 3P and Class 4J’s Parental Consultations because both members of staff are currently ill. The appointments will be rearranged for after half term but, if you are a parent of a pupil in either of these classes, you are welcome to pop in on Wednesday between 3.45- 5.30pm to have a look at your child’s books beforehand if you’d like to.
You will be aware that we have had an exceptional set of circumstances this half term with staff absence and I am very grateful to all staff for helping and taking on extra responsibilities during this time. I’d also like to reassure you that we are very selective about the supply staff that we employ to work in school and ensure that they are highly recommended and, wherever possible, have worked in the school previously and know some of our children.
Enterprise Shop
We plan to open an enterprise shop in Kingsway, near Sainsbury’s, in the week commencing Monday 12th November and this will help children in their money education and also to learn about the world of work. Those of you who have had older pupils with us will remember our previous shop in 2013 at the back of BHS and what a great experience it was for all pupils. We will let you know more details soon but I thought that it would be helpful for you to know about this on the horizon.
Office
As you are aware, Mrs Kidd and Mrs Martin work extremely hard in the office and go out of their way to help you with any number of requests, often having to work beyond their own work time (Mrs Kidd is part-time). However, as well as having to cope with increased numbers of tasks from the Civic Centre, they are finding it increasingly difficult to do any of their own work because of the numerous calls about late collection arrangements and other parent organization issues, all of which mean that they have to leave their own work and walk all around the school passing on messages. These appear to have grown considerably since we started back in September. Whilst they are always willing to help you, this isn’t fair to them or to your child, who should know who is collecting them at the start of the day. Please pass on any changes to collection arrangements for your child to the member of staff on gate duty first thing in the morning and only phone the school in a real emergency.
From Tuesday, the office phones won’t be answered between 2.00-3.00pm daily to allow for work time. You will still be able to leave a message or email should there be a domestic illness or emergency but responsibility for changes for your child’s collection must be taken by you first thing in the morning. By respecting this, you will be helping the school to run as it should.
Visit
The visit with Newport City Council’s Strategic Director for People, James Harris, went extremely well and he conveyed the extremely high regard with which the school is held by Newport City Council. Thank you for playing your part in helping by supporting your child’s education and everything that the school is doing.
One of the areas that I want to develop is that of commercial sponsorship for the school and this I also discussed with him. He has given us the approval to have a sponsorship page on our website so if you know of an organization who may be willing to sponsor us for 2018-19, please let me know. (Levels of sponsorship will vary.)
Dates
Mon 29thOct – Fri 2ndNov. – Half term
Monday 5th Nov. – INSET Day.
Friday 23rd Nov. – John Frost Cluster INSET Day.
Yours sincerely,
H Vaughan
Headteacher