04 Apr Newsletter – March 2022
Message from Mrs Goodfellow & Our Governors
Welcome back for this half-term, we hope you all had a good break.
Our priority this term remains heavily focussing on reading. The school relies very heavily on parent/carers completing the home reading journal so that we know which work you have completed at home with your child, so we ask that you help us with that please. Children read every day in school on the Read, Write, Inc programme and we hope that they read every day at home with you also. Reading with children up to the age of 11 is hugely important. Please don’t give up.
A big thank you to Pat Crooks, Terry Davies and Alicia Muñoz for sorting all of our pre-loved uniform ready for the rest of our community to buy. They have sorted, folded and checked all of the uniform to make sure it is good to wear.
We currently have a vacancy in school for a lunch time supervisor. If you’re interested in applying, please send a letter to me via the school office.
We need to bring up parking outside of the school gates again. There are repeated incidents of parents and carers parking on the zig-zag yellow lines outside of the car park gates. Those lines are there for the safety of pedestrians moving around outside the school and penalties can be enforced by Gateshead Council if they choose to send parking attendants. Gateshead Council are aware of our concerns with regard to the parking in front of the school and could decide to send attendants without warning. School is not responsible for any parking tickets incurred by parents parking in an unsafe manner.
Mrs Goodfellow.
Important Dates
School will break up for Easter at 3.20pm on 8th April 2022 and reopens on 25th April 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
- Friday 8th April – Non-uniform day – Wear yellow and blue to show support to Ukraine
- Friday 29th April – Year 5 First Aid training
- Thursday 5th May – School Photographers – whole class group photographs
- Monday 9th May – Year 6 SATS week
- Monday 16th May – History Week
- Friday 20th May – Platinum Jubilee celebrations
Announcements
- Please do not bring single use plastic bottles for water as our children have asked us to ban them.
- Our dance festival performances have been recorded last week. Parent/carers will be provided with a link to the video recording very soon.
- 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.
- The Sage have opened applications for their Young Musicians Programme. More information can be found here
- 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!
- The children will visit Ravensworth Road Methodist Church during the last two weeks of the term for an event called ‘Experience Easter’. Rev’d Brigitta Steele (Governor) would like to invite all parent/carers and families to the church on Saturday 9th April 10am – 12.30 pm if anyone would like to come and see the display. Refreshment will be served. All are welcome to pop in.
Regular Reminders
Attendance
Can all parents note that 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.
Changes to 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.
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.
The Car Park gates will be closed to vehicles between the following times:
8.45am – 9.15am
2.45pm – 3.30pm
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
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.
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.
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.
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