12 Nov Newsletter – November 2021
Message from Mrs Goodfellow & Our Governors
School life has settled back into a more normal routine for our staff and children and we are pleased that some of our traditional Christmas events are planned to return this year. However, some of the events will be recorded for parents rather than performed live. This is not really what we would wish to do in school, but we do not want to be the cause of families being ill over the Christmas period, so, reducing contact whilst still involving the children in the experience of performing seems like a reasonable compromise. More information will be shared about this closer to the time.
Our Macmillan coffee morning was a huge success last term and we raised over £800. Thank you for your generosity.
I want to thank all of the children (and their families) who have handed in exceptional homework projects this term. It is so valuable that we have a good home-school partnership and the efforts of parents in supporting this is noticed and appreciated. Some of the children in Yr 3 and 4 drew Roman soldiers, created 3D models and went on visits to museums in their own time and their teachers were so pleased to see the variety of work they did.
I also want to congratulate Erin M in Year 6 who was the only child in our part of the country to represent our school at the Children’s Parliament as part of the COP26 summit. Not many children in the country had this opportunity and we are proud that Erin was chosen to ask a question to the children’s government and that she was featured in national press. Her question and the answers given were discussed by world leaders in the main conference. Well done Erin! We’ll share more on her experience in a blogpost soon.
Our School Council, Eco-Cops, Young Interpreters and Buddies are all working hard to help make our school the best it can be. Well done to everyone who volunteered for these roles in school. We really do appreciate the help you give us.
We have had some school improvements completed since September, you might’ve seen workers around school during the holidays. We have had a new hall floor installed this term and we have had some upgrades to our school kitchen. We have installed new ovens, a new cooker and a new dishwasher. This makes are kitchen far more efficient and means that our kitchen staff can continue to create delicious lunches for our children.
We also have two vacancies on our Governing Body. Parent’s are able to volunteer for one of these positions but we would also like to hear from others in our local community. So if you are interested, or know someone else who is, please ask them to contact the school office to express interest.
And finally we are sending our heartfelt congratulations to Mrs Knott (formerly Miss Bradley) and her husband who have recently welcomed a baby boy to their family. We are all looking forward to meeting him.
Mrs Goodfellow.
Important Dates
School will break up for Christmas break on 17th December 2021 and reopens on 4th January 2022.
- Friday 19th November – Children in Need Day (Non-uniform with optional £1 donation)
- Friday 10th December – Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Lunch
- W/C 6th December – KS1 and Early Years Productions
- W/C 13th December – Christmas Parties
The dates can all be found on the website on our events calendar.
Announcements
- Our school have recently been provided with a clothing bank (pictured – free of charge) for unwanted clothing and shoes to be donated into. A company called Fundraise and Recycle Limited have recently launched a new project called ‘School Connect’. The aim is to educate children and their families about the importance of recycling and becoming more eco-friendly by reducing their carbon footprint, whilst at the same time raising money for our school. Please therefore donate any of your unwanted clothing into the clothing bank and when it is full we will contact Fundraise and Recycle Limited who will come back to empty it. The clothing bank is located outside of the Community Room just next to the car park. Thank you in advance for donating!
- Continuing with our focus on recycling, if anyone has any buckets or bins that we could use to collect our food scraps for composting then please drop them at the office.
- Thank you for all of your wonderful donations for the Harvest Festival. The People’s Kitchen were very grateful for them.
- We have some advice to share with you about the Squid Game trends that are circulating on social platforms. National Online Safety has some advice on this here.
- 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 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
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, preventing our staff from being able to enter the car park.
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
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 & PEAK Pioneers bookings
Tea time club has changed and is now know as PEAK Pioneers is now available until 6pm with our new provider and the children are enjoying it. There will be new sporting activities to try as well as arts and crafts activities planned.
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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