Riverside Primary Academy | Newsletter

17 Jun Newsletter – June 2022

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Message from Mrs Goodfellow & Our Governors

Welcome back for this half-term, we hope you all had a good break. There are a lot of dates for your diary this term so please take note of them from below.

We’re so close to the end of the full school year that we’ve been waiting for. We still need parents to support their children in completing any homework set. We know a good number of parents are already doing that and we are grateful to those parents who have supported their child’s learning but we would appreciate home support across the board please. We aim not to set vast quantities of homework but it is part of our teaching. If children don’t complete their homework at home, they will have to complete it in school.

We’re excited to say that our end of year assemblies and parents evenings will go ahead in school as normal this term. Dates are below for the various year groups. We’re really looking forward to having our audiences back.

We also want to send out best wishes to Mrs E McCormack who is leaving us this year to have a baby. We hope she’ll return to visit with her new bundle.

Mrs Goodfellow.

Important Dates

School will break up for Summer at 3.20pm on 27th July 2022 and reopens on 6th September 2022.

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

School term dates for 2022/23 are also now available to view on our website here

- - 20th – 21st June – Year 3 Camping event – School Field
  - 23rd June – Year 6 – Careers Day
  - 24th June – Spanish Day – Details to follow
  - 28th and 29th June – Transition Days
  - 29th June – Reception – Trip to South Shields
  - 30th June – Sports Day – Weather permitting
  - 1st July – School closed for Jubilee additional day
  - 6th July – Year 1/2 – Class trip to Grace Darling Museum
  - 7th July – Year 2 – Class trip to Grace Darling Museum
  - 8th July – Year 1 – Class trip to Grace Darling Museum
  - 8th July – Academy 10th Birthday celebrations
  - 13th July – Year 6 – Class trip to Sunderland University
  - 20th July – Year 2 – Graduation Assembly
  - 20th July – Parent’s evening to discuss end of year reports
  - 21st July – Reception – Graduation Assembly
  - 21st – 22nd July – Year 4 Camping Event – School Field
  - 25th – 26th July – Year 6 Camping Event – School Field
  - 27th July – Year 6 – Leaver’s assembly
  - 27th July – Last day of term
  - 5th September – INSET Day
  - 6th September – School reopens to pupils.

Announcements

- If you think your child might be entitled to free bus travel, you can apply here. Please note the deadline to apply is Friday 17th June 2022.
- Please do not bring single use plastic bottles for water as our children have asked us to ban them.
- All of our children are able to access our free bagel offering when they arrive at school. This has been provided at no cost to us so we hope our children enjoy this.
- We have new compost bins on our school field for our fruit and vegetable waste. We will be using the compost in our forest school area when it is ready.
- 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.
- Toddler Group continues! 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.
- We have an abundance of pre-loved school uniform which is available for parent/carers to purchase for a small donation to our school fund. If you require some extra pieces of uniform for your child but do no want to pay for brand new, then please pop into to the office to see if we have anything suitable. There are lots of bargains and you will be doing your bit for the environment too!

Clothing Bank

Don’t forget we have a clothing bank located outside of our Community Room near the car park. Please feel free to donate any unwanted items of clothing as and when you need to. All donations received will raise money for our school fund. Thank you for your ongoing support with this.

Year 2 Children – School Meals

As you know, in September all of our children will be moving up to the new year groups. This means that all children currently in Year 2 will be making making their transition into Key Stage 2 which means you will no longer be entitled to the Key Stage 1 Universal Infant Free School Meals.

Your child may still be entitled to benefit related Free School Meals and we would encourage you to contact Gateshead Council Benefits Service to check your eligibility. Click here for more information.

Please be aware that if your child would like to stay for school meals from September, that the cost of a meal will be £2.40 per day (£12.00 a week). Please ensure there is sufficient money on your child’s School Grid account to cover the cost of meals for the week in advance.

There are a number of ways you can pay for your meals if you are not entitled to free school meals:

- Direct Debit – This will be collected from your account on or around the 1st or the 15th of each month and will work in arrears for the meals you have taken the month before. You will receive a statement by email two weeks before the payment is due which will state the amount due and the date payment will be taken. To set this up please access your SchoolGrid account – [account] – [direct debit]
- Online Card Payment – A card payment can be made online through your SchoolGrid account, please log on and select ‘Account’ from the top menu options and select ‘Pay by card’ where the on screen prompts will assist in taking payment. We ask that accounts are kept in credit at all times.
- Telephone Card Payment – Dolce Customer Care team is available 8.00 am to 5.00 pm Monday to Friday to take a card payment for your account on 01942 707709. The minimum payment amount we can accept over the phone is £10.

If you do not have a SchoolGrid account already, please provide the School Office with your email address and request an account to be activated. We will then set up your account. You will then receive an email containing your password and a link to the site where you can view menus, update allergen information, pre order meals, make card payments and / or set up a direct debit.

Regular Reminders

Attendance

Riverside Primary Academy is a successful school and every child plays their part in making it so. We aim for an environment which enables and encourages all members of our school to reach out for excellence. For our children to gain the greatest benefit from their education it is vital that they attend regularly. Your child should be at school, on time, every day that the school is open unless the reason for the absence is unavoidable. Ensuring your child’s regular attendance at school is your legal responsibility as parents/carers and allowing absence from school without a good reason is against the law and you could be fined. We look forward to seeing continued improvement in attendance in September.

Parent/carers are reminded they must report their child’s absence before 9.30am on the day their child is not in school as per the attendance policy. We must know where all children are from a safeguarding point of view and so that we know that they are safe. The school day commences at 9.00am and all children should ideally be in class and ready to start learning at 8.55am.

Gate Times

Please remember that the school gates will be locked at 9.05am promptly each day. Please ensure your child arrives to school on time. A child who arrives late, through no fault of their own is often worried and therefore not in the best frame of mind to start the day. They may also miss the start of the first lesson.

Please see our “Top Tips” for getting to school on time!

10 Top Tips for getting to school on time!

Getting to school on time is part of learning to become a more responsible and reliable person. You can help your child by:

- - Getting school clothes ready the night before
  - Packing schoolbags and completing homework the night before
  - Having a good bedtime routine and a set bedtime (No TV, IPads or phones in the bedroom)
  - Set the alarm clock 10 minutes earlier on a morning
  - Enjoy breakfast together
  - Do not put the TV on in the morning
  - Leave school shoes in the same place (So you can always find them!)
  - Leave for school at the same time each day (Reward your child and yourself for being on time!)
  - Find a friend to walk to school with

Result: Your child won’t feel worried about being late for school and they won’t be missing what the rest of their class are learning.

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, you can apply online here.

MyEd App

Have you downloaded the MyEd app yet? The app is simple to use and a 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.

App features – as we ll ass a communication tool, the app offers a variety of other features. You can view your child’s up to date attendance figure and it also offers useful links to other areas such as:

- - - - School Term and Holiday Dates
      - our Facebook page
      - School Uniform supplier
      - School Meals
      - Pay360

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

Breakfast Club & PEAK Pioneers bookings

Our Tea time club has changed and is now known as “PEAK Pioneers” providing wraparound childcare for families Monday to Friday until 6pm. You can view photos on their Twitter page of some of the fantastic activities that are on offer to the children. Can you spot your child?

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.

Here are the some of the fantastic activities that PEAK Pioneers offers each week.

Did you know you can do a small thing that really helps our school? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and share our posts with your friends and family. That’s it!

Newsletter – June 2022

17 Jun Newsletter – June 2022