Dear Parent/Carer,
As you’re aware, school opened on Friday and a few parents, although supportive, were unsure about why we had opened when others hadn’t so I thought I’d explain the process. Newport City Council’s default position is that schools are always open unless individual schools advise them otherwise. In the case of snow, these are the criteria below used by myself and the Chair of Governors, Dr Paul Glover, to make a decision about closing the school:
- Is the snow falling and predicted to continue?
- Is the school accessible? (Yes, Stow Hill was clear and pavement had been gritted at the front by Streetscene)
- Can pupils and staff enter the grounds safely? (Yes, we have hardly any grounds so could use the Stow Hill main door and the Nursery entrance where a path had been cleared by Mr Brock)
- Can enough staff get to school from their homes to ensure safe supervision of pupils? (Many of our staff live locally and had taken precautions by parking near accessible roads so we had plenty of staff, even though a few who live further away were unable to get in)
- Are there any other unexpected circumstances which would cause the school to close? (Heating, dinners, public transport, additional safety concerns)
We are unable to close our school if we have positive answers to these questions and the fact that we are a city centre school means that, generally, we will be more accessible than many other schools on estates with small, uncleared roads who faced very difficult snow conditions, or who had staff living a distance away.
However, the decision about whether you send your child in when it snows, is totally yours. It depends entirely on your own assessment of your snow conditions. For parents living in steep streets, or with young children, or with babies or who live outside our catchment area, the very balanced decision may have been not to send your child in, and, just in case you are a new parent and do not know the system, any child not attending on Friday will have a snow mark and therefore, their attendance for the year won’t be affected at all. The Welsh Government provide very good guidance about this.
Our Foundation Phase numeracy workshop was very well attended last Thursday and parents really appreciated being able to do a Maths activity with their child. Thank you very much for your evaluations afterwards which were really positive and have helped us to decide on the format of future courses. Mrs Couch will be in touch with those parents who were unable to make the session but who expressed and interest in it.
The next Maths workshop , What’s Maths All About? for Key Stage Two parents, takes place on Thursday 14th February from 9.00-10.00am. All parents and grandparents are welcome.
This week is Internet Safety Week. Children will be doing activities linked to internet safety in their classes this week. On Tuesday, the Digital Leaders will be giving presentations in the Foundation Phase and Key Stage two assemblies. PC Kathryn Thomas will be giving a safety lesson to Year 6 pupils on Wednesday. She hopes to provide a date for the rearranged Internet Safety Parent Meetings shortly – she was obliged to postpone the meetings originally planned for Wednesday because of work commitments.
On Friday, Mrs Morton will be taking some Digital Leaders to an online safety event at the Eden Centre and they will be reporting back to pupils next week.
Please make time this week to talk to your child about internet safety and about the importance of not giving any personal information to any contacts on chatrooms or games such as xBox Live. Remind them also that any comments they post are traceable at any time in the future.
Please remember that no child under the age of 13 should have a Facebook account.
Basketball sessions continued today with Year 5 and 6 classes.
The Music and Drama workshop postponed from last week will not take place this year now because of continuing illness with the team planning to visit us. We hope to work with them next year instead.
Netball Club is cancelled today as Miss Murphy is till ill.
Miss Murphy’s Inspire Parent/Teacher Fitness Training is also cancelled this week.
Our Rags2Riches clothes/shoes and bedding collection is taking place on Thursday. We had a great response to this last term and raised £124.05 for school funds. You have received a collection bag but you are welcome to send in additional items in a black bag if you would like to. Spare bags are also available at the office. Please leave your bags either at the back of the top yard by the gate or at the back of the Nursery garden, by 9.30am.
Class 1/2D have their Class Assembly on Friday and it starts at 9.15am. Everyone is welcome to join us for this. If you’d like to come in once the school doors are open, to wait, that will be fine.
On Friday we will be again joined by ADA Recycling, who will be working with Year 3 and 4 classes to help them with their City of the Future project work, looking especially at waste management.
Attendance and National Tests
Thank you for continuing to support your child with attendance and punctuality.
The National Tests in Literacy and Numeracy will take place from Tuesday 7th May until Tuesday 14th May.
Please note that no holiday will be authorized for the month of April leading up to these tests.
Photo and Film Permission
The draw for returned forms was held today instead of Friday and the winners were Levente Muschitz, Antonia Muresan and Rowan James. They all receive a £5.00 giftcard.
Please return any outstanding forms by Friday. If your form is not returned by then we will assume that your original agreement on the Admission Form still stands.
Eco Team
We have our Rags2 Riches collection on Thursday and the eco Team will be involved in this process. We are hoping to do even better than last term!
Yours sincerely,
H Vaughan
Headteacher