Dear Parent/Carer,
I hope that you’ve had a lovely half term break.
It was great to see such strong attendance at our recent Parental Consultations. Thank you! I hope that you found the discussion helpful.
Our Nursery Consultations take place on Tuesday and Wednesday during the day, and the arranged sessions for Mr Godsall’s class also take place tomorrow and Wednesday with exactly the same allocated times as before.
During the Consultations, a QR code for a Parent Survey was shared asking for opinion on such things in school as your child’s happiness and learning, the website and the new Consultation system of staff seeing parents at tables in the hall. This survey will be shared with parents attending tomorrow and Wednesday. Lots of parents have already responded but if you haven’t had the chance to do so yet, the code is below.
Tomorrow, school nurses will be in school from 9.00am -12.00pm to help any parents who have queries about the Flu Immunisation or who need help with the forms. The Flu nasal spray will be given to children on Monday 13th November.
The Year 1 Hearing Screening takes place on Wednesday morning.
The Stow Hill Pantry will be open on later on Wednesday from 3.15-3.45pm.
We have a revised application process to ensure that we are able to support and advise all of our families in the best way possible so you will be able to complete a form when you visit.
Please contact the office at any time if you are in crisis.
Class 5/6G are taking the Remembrance Assembly on Friday at 9.15am. Parents/carers/grandparents of pupils in Class 5/6G are welcome to join us for that.
We currently have poppies on sale in school with proceeds going to the Royal British Legion. The suggested donation for a poppy is £1 but you may send less in if you wish to.
Personalised Assessments
Personalised Assessments will be taking place over the next three weeks for all pupils in Year 2 and upwards.
These are taken by all pupils across Wales and the results are used to inform teachers about pupil progress and understanding. We are sensible in our approach to testing, however, and recognize that these tests are just one of a series of measures that helps us to assess a child’s progress and that they provide just a snapshot
Please don’t worry your child about the test. They are completed online and the fact that they are personalized means that the questions vary according to a child’s ability and all learners will be able to participate well.
The timetable for the next three weeks follows:
Week 1 – Reading
Week 2 – Numeracy Procedural
Week 3 – Numeracy Reasoning
Week 1
| DAY | MORNING SESSION | AFTERNOON SESSION |
| MONDAY | No Testing | |
| TUESDAY | 3 / 4MP and Year 2J | 5 / 6B |
| WEDNESDAY | Year 2AB and 5 / 6P | 3 / 4D |
| THURSDAY | Year 2JB | 3 / 4G |
| FRIDAY | Remembrance Assembly | 5 / 6G |
Weeks 2 and 3 will follow the same timings.
School Meals and Rucksacks
Now that free school meals are available to all pupils, the number of children bringing lunch in from home has decreased considerably. Please help us with space in corridors and classrooms by ensuring that your child brings in only their sandwich box and a book bag. Rucksacks should not be sent to school please because we have absolutely no room for them and they are pushing coats off coat pegs onto the floor all the time.
The only sandwich option available will now be a cheese sandwich.
Tomorrow managers from Newport City Council and the catering company Chartwells are coming in to school to review the dinner provision. If you have any comments that you would like me to share with them, please let me know.
Fruit Tuck
The cost of fruit tuck has now risen to 30p an item. However, you are more than welcome to send your child in with your own choice of fruit.
Costs of fruit and delivery have increased for us over several years and so we’re unable to subsidise this any more. It’s helpful for you to know though that schools are unable to make any profit on items they sell such as fruit or school bags etc. The only profit-making activities are our fund-raising events, such as our Christmas Fayre on Friday 24th November.
Attendance and Punctuality
It is very important that we reduce the number of children arriving late in the morning.
We currently have a constant stream of interruptions from late arrivals in the morning and this means that Mrs Martin and Mrs Webber constantly have to be up and down to the door and that dinner orders can’t be collated in a timely way.
Whilst we understand that there may be occasional challenges with traffic, if your child is arriving constantly late, please make every effort to get them to school on time because arriving late will impact on your child’s learning and isn’t fair to anyone.
Thank you if you have already made a real effort with this.
Please remember also that we have places in our Breakfast Club. The doors are open from 8.15-8.25am and children are supervised until the start of the school day.
Well done to the Half Termly Early Bird winners Emelda Ohmeng and Prachetas Chandra, who each win a £5.00 gift card! 😊
Lost Property/Spare Uniform
We have a huge number of lost uniform items or good quality uniform donated by families. It is currently laid out on tables in the spare classroom near the office.
If you’d like to come in tomorrow morning from 8.40am to have a look at the items, at any point in the school day until 3.45pm, you’d be welcome to do so. I know that many of you have looked for items lost previously so you might find what you’re looking for. Amongst the items available is a number of good quality, warm, children’s coats.
Hopefully you will be able to find what you’ve lost or pick up spare items for emergencies. 😊
Very kind regards,
H Vaughan
Headteacher