Newsletter – September 2021

17 Sep Newsletter – September 2021

Message from Mrs Goodfellow & Our Governors

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all back for this school year and a very warm welcome to our new families who are joining us this year. We’re all hoping for a more normal school year this year but we are still maintaining our extra vigilance around cleaning and ventilation to keep disruption of the school year to a minimum. We want all of our new children to settle in well so if you have any concerns, please speak to your child’s class teacher.

We’re glad to say that school trips will be taking place this year, we’ve already planned the Macmillan coffee mornings and Year 5 have also been able to finally start their school swimming lessons. Toddler group is also back and we are so pleased to see it. Thanks to Pat who runs it for giving her time to get it back up and running. We will soon be starting our collection for the Harvest Festival so now would be a great time to pick up a few extra tins and packets on your weekly shopping. We have Karate and Football after school clubs returning soon so keep a look out for those letters.  In Key Stage 2 this term we are talking about recycling so please encourage your children to recycle at home.

We would like to say some big thank yous too. First, to Mr Alex Dewhurst and the team at Dunston DIY Centre for helping us to get some furniture from another school during the summer holidays. We couldn’t have done it without you! Secondly to Sage who have incredibly generously donated 6 large touch screen TVs to help with our IT teaching in school, thank you so much. And thank you to Clarks Metro Centre who have donated some brand new shoes for us to distribute to families that may need them. We are very lucky to have such a generous community who think of us for things like this. On that note, our families are always very generous in donating school uniform when it is out grown and still in good condition. If you are in need of any bits of school uniform then please come and ask and help yourselves, the cupboards are bursting.

There have been some changes to our Governing Body as our previous chair Mrs Joanne Earl has chosen to step down. We thank her for her extraordinary contribution to school life.  Our new Chair of Governors is Mr Paul Marshall and our Vice Chair is Mrs Clare Freemantle and we thank them for stepping into those roles to support our school.

Mrs Goodfellow.

Important Dates

School will break up for half term on 22nd October 2021 and reopen on 1st November 2021.

• Wednesday 22nd September – Nursery & Reception – Macmillan coffee morning
• Thursday 23rd September – Year 1 & 2 – Macmillan coffee morning
• Friday 24th September – Year 3 to Year 6 – Macmillan coffee morning
• Tuesday 28th September – Year 6 – Trip to Newcastle Buddhism Centre
• Wednesday 13th October – Year 1, 1/2 and 2 – Trip to Saltwell Park
• Thursday 14th October – Reception – Trip to Gibside National Trust
• Tuesday 19th October – Year 3 – Trip to Segedunum
• Wednesday 20th October – Year 3/4 – Trip to Segedunum
• Thursday 21st October – Year 4 – Trip to Segedunum

The dates can all be found on the website on our events calendar.

Announcements

• A big well done to Mrs Cheng who completed the Great North Run at the weekend!
• SIMS Pay has a new name. It is now called Pay360 Educational Payments. The new link is pay360educationpayments.com
• Children will continue to wear PE kit for school on the days that they have PE.
• School gate times have returned to normal. They will open at 8.45am for school to start at 9.00am and the school day will finish at 3.20pm. We would like all children to come into school at 8.55am to allow five minutes for possessions to be put away and begin learning at 9.00am.
• Our Nursery day is 9am to 12noon for the morning session and 12noon to 3pm for the afternoon session. Full time nursery children’s day is 9am-3pm.
• Breakfast and Tea Time club are running as normal and can be booked via Pay360.
• Children can continue to bring in their own water bottle. Please don’t send in juice or milk.
• Please try and continue to read with your children every day for around 15-30 minutes a day. It makes such a huge difference to their progress.
• If you are interested in becoming an in-school volunteer, please either inform your child’s teacher or the school office. This can be regular or occasional and all help is welcome. We are particularly wanting to hear from people who can help with the Macmillan coffee mornings.
• Toddler Group is back! Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during term time from 9.30 – 11.00am in our community room. There is a small cost of £1 to cover the cost of snacks. We welcome babies from birth up to pre-school age. More information is available here.

Regular Reminders

Nursery Registration

All parents of children under three years old who wish to attend our school nursery need to register for a place to ensure they are allocated one. If you need to register a child for nursery, please contact the school office.

Inconsiderate Parking Around School

As a school we like to prioritise the safety of our children and local residents by ensuring that parking in the local area is both legal and considerate. We regularly get complaints from parents and residents linked to inconsiderate and on occasions, dangerous driving and parking.

If you can walk to school, please do, or even consider parking a distance away and walking the final half-mile or so. Our pupils would also enjoy cycling or scooting to school if this is practical. But if you really need to drive to school, please make sure you avoid the ‘Keep Clear’ zig-zag markings and yellow lines when parking. To help ensure this happens, Gateshead Council staff carry out regular enforcement and issue Penalty Charge Notices (tickets). There have been several instances of vehicles causing obstruction to the main car park gates at drop-off times, preventing our staff from being able to enter the car park.

We also need to remind parents that when dropping your children off or picking them up, please don’t sit in your car with the engine running.  Firstly, it is illegal and could result in a fine but more importantly it is affecting asthma sufferers and the environment of our school community. We realise it is becoming cold but please turn off your engine when parked.

Many thanks for your help and cooperation with this matter.

MyEd App

We have launched the MyEd app in school as a simpler and more cost effective way of keeping in touch with our community. It is simple to setup and you will receive all updates directly to your smartphone. It is available on both Apple and Android phones. We are encouraging all parents to use it as it is a huge cost saver for us and it means we can spend money on classroom equipment and improvements to our school instead of text messages.

If you are having any problems with the app and getting it setup, please contact the school office.

Breakfast & Tea Time Club bookings

We politely remind you that the deadline for booking Breakfast Club & Tea Time Club is Thursday prior to the week required. Registers for the clubs are printed each Friday for the following week, to allow us to ensure we have an appropriate number of staff and food supplies for all clubs. We continue to have a number of parent/carers booking their child into clubs over the weekend following the deadline, meaning a number of children are turning up unexpectedly on Monday morning.

If you require a last minute booking into either club, we ask that you first contact the school office to check availability as places are limited or alternatively for Breakfast Club bookings you can contact the staff directly each morning from 7.30am, by choosing Option 4 from the main switchboard. If you are told that space is available, you can log in to your Pay360 account to make payment.

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