30 Sep Newsletter – September 2022
Message from Mrs Goodfellow & Our Governors
Hello and welcome back for this school term, we hope you had a lovely summer break.
As usual, the newsletter contains some really important reminders so please take a moment to read it.
As I’m sure you’re aware, we are still working hard on catching up with the learning time lost to the pandemic. You can help support us by making sure you read with your children for 20-30 minutes a day and supporting them to practise using Timestable Rockstar if they’ve been asked to use it. It really makes a huge difference in class. If anyone is able to volunteer to read with our children in school, then please speak to your child’s class teacher.
We are making some slight changes to our parent drop in evenings. A separate letter has been sent out so please get in touch if you have any questions.
We have our annual Macmillan coffee morning in school next week and we’re looking forward to seeing you all there. We would also love some volunteers on those mornings. Please let the office know if you’ll be able to help out.
We will be sadly saying goodbye to Miss Jopling from our office as she is moving on to another role elsewhere. We want to thank her for being a welcoming face when you come into our school and wish her all the best in her new job.
We also have a lunchtime supervisor vacancy in school at the moment so if you, or anyone you know, might like to apply then please do so by 12noon on 7th October.
Mrs Goodfellow
Important Dates
School will break up for half term at 3.20pm on 21st October 2022 and reopens on 31st October 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
- Tuesday 4th October – Year 6a Trip – Newcastle Buddhist Centre
- Tuesday 4th October – MacMillan Coffee – Nursery & Reception
- Wednesday 5th October – MacMillan Coffee – Year 1 & Year 2
- Thursday 6th October – MacMillan Coffee – Year 3 to Year 6
- Thursday 6th October – Year 6b Trip – Newcastle Buddhist Centre
- Friday 7th October – School Photographer – Individual & Sibling Photos
- Tuesday 11 October – Reception Trip – Gibside National Trust
- Monday 10th to Friday 14th October – Meet the Teacher Drop-in sessions – details to follow
- Friday 14th October – Year 5 Tudors Workshop
- Monday 17th October – Year 3 Pedestrian Training
- Wednesday 19th October – KS2 – Dog Safety Workshop
- Friday 21st October – Show Racism The Red Card Day
- Friday 21st October – LAST DAY OF TERM
Announcements
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- 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 outdoor learning 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 do check our online shop on Pay360. There you will see all of the items we have available which you can purchase for a small donation to our school fund. There are lots of bargains and you will be doing your bit for the environment too! We will notify when your items are available to collect from the school office once an order has been placed.
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.
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:
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- 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
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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, must 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 well as 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:
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- School Term and Holiday Dates
- Our Facebook page
- School Uniform supplier
- School Meals
- Pay360
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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 5.30pm. 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!
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