Dear All,
Welcome back to everyone after the summer holidays!
The children look really smart in their uniform and have made a fantastic start back!
Our new Reception children started today and have really made a great start! ?
We’re looking forward to our Nursery children returning tomorrow and then our new pupils from Wednesday onwards.
Welcome also to the new children who have joined us from other schools and are settling into classes across the school! I know that they will settle in really quickly and make friends easily.
I am pleased to welcome Mr R Canham BA (Hons) PGCE as maternity cover for Mrs Morton in Class 3/4J and also Mrs A Calderwood BEd (Hons) who will be providing some PPA and additional cover.
The only event taking place this week is tomorrow and it is a meeting for any parents who might be interested in volunteering in school for an hour a week at lunchtime helping to run a computer Code Club with older Key Stage Two pupils. You do not have to know anything about coding to run this club. See www.codeclub.org.uk for more information.
All will be explained at a meeting tomorrow at 3.00pm with Mrs Kath Morton- Smith who runs an organisation called Digital Volunteers. If you are interested in this and want to know more or can’t make it tomorrow, please feel free to contact me.
Contact Details
Each child has brought home a Contact Details card to be updated.
Please return these by Friday morning at the latest so that they can go into one of three draws in Nursery, Foundation Phase and Key Stage Two, for a £5.00 gift card.
These cards are really important because they provide us with up to date details. If at any time during the year you change your phone number, address or emergency contacts, please let Mrs Kidd or Mrs Martin, in the office, know.
Newsletters, Diary Dates and Topic Letters
If you are a new parent, it will be helpful for you to know that a newsletter will always be sent out on a Monday and spare copies are always available in the office. If your child is ill, their class teacher will save their newsletter to be given to them when they return.
The newsletter is also always published on our website www.stwoolosprimary.org.uk and you are able to look back and see previous ones at any time.
This year to save wasting paper, from next week, we will only send home a newsletter to the eldest sibling in the family except when there are forms where individual responses are needed.
Topic Letters and Diary Dates sheets will be sent home on Monday 12th September.
Spare copies of all of these will always be available at the office if you ever need any.
Clubs
All school run clubs will commence in the week beginning Monday 19th September and a letter will come to you about this soon.
We are lucky that staff are prepared to run so many clubs voluntarily and so, rather than limit opportunities, we will rotate clubs where necessary on a half termly or termly basis.
Minecraft will continue to run an after school club on a Monday starting from Monday 12th September. This club is a paying club and a separate letter will be sent out about this.
The SHARE Centre Play Club will not be starting until October. I’ll let you know more information when I have it.
If there are any parents or grandparents would like to help with any clubs in school please contact the office.
Classes and Staffing 2015
Classes
Nursery Mrs Davies and Mrs Agland – Miss Collins, Mrs Abid (maternity cover for Mrs Ramzan)
Reception- RD Mrs Dickenson – Mrs Bashir
Reception- RH Mrs Hayes – Mrs C Jones
1/2VS Miss Spray – Mrs Jarrett, Mrs Parkinson (pm)
1/2S Miss Spearey – Mrs J Fowler
1/2DJ Miss Driscoll/Mrs K Jones (also PPA) – Miss Winfield
3/4C Mr Canham
3/4GMiss Goodwin – Mrs Abbas (pm)
4/5B Miss Bishop
5/6W Miss Watkins
5/6P Mrs Parry
PPA (Planning, Preparation and Assessment- fortnightly)
Miss Pretty – Classes RD, 1/2S, 5/6W
Mrs Barton – Class 3/4C
Mrs Calderwood – Class 3/4G
Mrs Couch – Class 4/5B (weekly – to include management time for Miss Bishop. When Miss Bishop has to attend additional meetings in her role of Inclusion Manager, Mrs Couch will also, wherever possible, provide additional cover.) Also Class 5/6P.
Mrs Davies – Class 1/2VS (weekly, to include management time for Miss Spray.)
Mrs Agland – Class RH
Mrs Graham, Mrs Luckett and Mrs Parkinson will run additional support programmes in Foundation and Key Stage 2 respectively.
Hometime
In order to help children leave safely at the end of the school day, there are a number of exits in use. These are:
Nursery and Reception Nursery and Reception doors (Under canopy)
Classes 1/2VS and 1/2DJ Bottom front door
Class 1/2MS Side Reception door (By the mural)
Class 3/4C, 3/4G and Front main door
Class 4/5B
Class 5/6W and 5/6P Side door by yards (morning door)
If you are waiting at the main entrance by the steps at hometime (3/4G and C, and 4/5B) please help us by waiting outside the gates. This is because there is not enough room for children to come down the steps and to walk either to the front or the side if parents are waiting in the space.
If you are waiting at the front infant door (1/2VS and 1/2DJ) please stand at the sides to keep the main gate area clear.
Thank you for helping with this.
Side Entance Door
Mrs Luckett, who is at the side door in the morning, always passes on messages to teachers and to me. To avoid unnecessary queues in the morning, parents will only be allowed in through the front door if they have an urgent reason to see office staff. Parents will not be allowed to use this side door. This will enable the office staff to see who is coming in for help straightaway.
It will help to reduce unnecessary pressure on the office if you send money for dinner and trips in with your child for their class teacher. This helps us and also gives your child some responsibility. It also means that teachers can tick them off their trip lists etc.
Please remember though that you may always make an appointment to see your child’s class teacher if you ever have any particular concerns or information that you want to pass on. These appointments will generally be at the end of the school day so that teachers can give you time once the class has been dismissed.
I would really appreciate your help with this request because, with ever growing numbers of children, limited entrance space and just one member of office staff first thing in the morning, I want to make the morning entry calm for everyone.
Uniform
Thank you to those parents who have contacted me telling me about the stock shortage for some items in the Trutex shop. If this is not the case for you though, please ensure that your child has the full uniform as soon as you possibly can. We have a number of spare items of uniform which you might want for emergencies so please ask if you need anything.
We are really proud of our pupils and we want to set a high standard so that they can be proud of themselves in their uniform.
School Meals
If you receive Income Support or Child Tax Credit, you may be entitled to Free School Meals, and we have application forms in schools. If your application is successful, you do not need to take the meals up unless you want to. By registering, you will help the school to obtain some extra funding so it is a useful thing to do regardless of whether you take up the meals.
Purple/Red/Sports Kit Day
Thank you very much for your tremendous support for Purple Day in aid of LATCH, the children’s cancer charity and ‘Tackle MelaNOma’, which was held on the last day of term. We raised £170.00 which will be split between the two charities.Thank you!
Bonus Ball
Thank you if you have supported this in the past.
We have a few spare numbers available for a weekly contribution of £1.00 so if you are interested, please see Mrs Kidd in the office.
All money raised is split equally so that half is given in a weekly prize, and half goes to school funds. If any parent would be interested in helping to collect this Bonus Ball money on the yard either at the beginning or end of the day, please let me know.
I’m sorry that this is such a long newsletter, but there was a lot of information to get through.
Our aim is for all staff to work closely with you to achieve the very best for your child and I am sure that this new school year will go really well because the children have been amazing so far!
Yours faithfully,
H Vaughan
Headteacher
PS. Please put your child’s name on every item of clothing (including their PE kit), school bag and lunchbox. Thank you!