October Newsletter 2020

02 Oct October Newsletter 2020

Message from Mrs Goodfellow & Our Governors

Welcome back to the strangest version of the Autumn Term I have ever known. Can I say a big thank you to all of you for your patience, because I know arrangements are not ideal, but I am thankful that we are able to work most of them out together.

Most parents are socially distancing outside of the gates so thank you for that. For those who are not, please may I remind you that we have all got to follow government guidance and we do expect absolutely everyone to play their part? Once the children come into school, they begin the day by washing their hands and they continue to do this many times during the day to remain safe. We have built up to having wraparound care recently and we have introduced some hot meal options. You will see new things being introduced all of the time, as and when we are allowed and when we can manage it in school.

Our focus for this term is to improve the physical fitness of our children, ensure their mental health is good and to reintroduce good learning habits. We are seeing some excellent improvements already, which is so pleasing to see.

As always, you know where we all are if any of our staff can help you with any concerns you might have.

Best wishes,

Mrs Goodfellow.

Important Dates

School will close for half term on Friday 23rd October and the term begins again on the Monday 2nd November.

Announcements

• We would like to wish lots of luck to Mrs Harvey who started her maternity leave this week. We look forward to hearing her news when her baby arrives.
• We  welcome our new lunchtime member of staff, Miss Lockey to the team.
• Our Toddler Group isn’t yet back up and running. When our volunteers are ready to begin again, we’ll be sure to let you all know and you can tell your friends who would like a friendly spot to bring their toddlers to play.
• Mrs Judge has asked for some help sourcing materials for Forest Schools.
  We would greatly appreciate any old pots, pans, cutlery, plastic picnic bowls and plates that you may have for the children to use in the mud kitchens. We also need wire coat hangers to hang up all of our waterproofs. If you can help with any of these then we would really appreciate it.
• Please could parents ensure that children have a school jumper or cardigan when they come into school in PE kit. We need to keep doors and windows open as much as possible so children need their jumpers in class.
• Sadly, we aren’t able to host our Macmillan coffee morning currently, but we hope that as soon as we are able will be able to fundraise for them. We’ll let you know as soon as we are able.

Remote Learning

You may recall in my previous newsletter, that we had successfully secured a grant for online remote learning. Lots of work has been going on behind the scenes and we will hopefully be in a position to roll this out very soon. All of our pupils will have their own personal Office 365 Education account. This allows them to have access to Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, Powerpoint and many more applications and will provide both staff and parents with greater communication remotely if required. It is important all children, and parents, know how to access this Office 365 Education account and we will be issuing further instruction in the near future.

It is important for parents to make the school aware of any barriers to accessing remote learning.

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.

SIMS Pay

The integration of SIMS Pay has made a huge difference to our school office.  As well as the administrative cost and time savings to the school, it is a much more secure way for parent/carers to send money to school and we hope that you will find that paying in this way is also much more convenient. If you require any assistance with creating your SIMS Pay account 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 SIMS Pay account to make payment.

Your ongoing cooperation with SIMS Pay is very much appreciated.

PTFA News

Until further notice, PTFA meetings will not be held as we can’t organise many in person events.  If you’re interested in being involve with the PTFA in the future, please leave your details at the school office or speak to Mrs Clare Freemantle during the school run at the KS2 gate.

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