January 2014 newsletter

Value of the Month – “Tolerance and Respect for others: other people are just as important as me!”

Dates for your diary
15th January – 9:00am – meeting for Reception parents to introduce “Parents in the Classroom”
16th January – visit to the school by Howard Gayle (footballer)
17th January – Parents Values assemblies (performances by 1O in the morning and 5H in the afternoon)
22ndJanuary – 9:00am meeting for parents in the Infant Hall – “Reciprocal Reading”
24th January – Class 6F visit to the British Museum
29th January – 9:00am meeting for parents in the Infant Hall – “Learning in Year Four”
13th February - Parents’ Consultations for classes 2N and 4I from 8:00am to 12:00 noon
13th February – 3:15pm - meeting for parents in the Infant Hall – “e-safety” led by our pupil Digital Leaders
14th February – No lessons today – Parents’ Consultations from 8:00am to 4:00pm
14th February – morning maths workshops for parents to attend - the launch our new Calculation Strategy (more details to follow)
Week beginning 17th February – no school – Half term holiday
24th February – children return to school at the usual times
26th February – 9:00am meeting for parents in the Infant Hall – “Learning in Year Six”
28th February – Year 3 trip to London Zoo
3rd March – Bikeability week
12th March - 9:00am meeting for parents in the Infant Hall – “Learning in Year Two”
18th March – school choir takes part in Redbridge Schools’ Choral Festival at the Royal Albert Hall
3rd April – Year 4 classes visit to the Natural History Museum
4th April – last day of term, and non-uniform day
21st April – school closed for Easter Monday bank holiday
22nd April – start of new term

News and events

1.  Staff changes 
The school bid an emotional farewell to Mrs Hadley at the end of last term.  We wish her well in her future career and thank her for her service to the school.  Mr Lea is now the Acting Deputy, as her replacement, complimenting Mrs Tomlinson in this role.  The Nursery classes will be taught by Mr Lea and Miss Davis, who recently covered class 1O in October and who regularly supported classes last term.
Mrs Rahman, who is one of the KS1 Midday Assistants, will be leaving us to work for the Library Service in mid January.  We wish her well in her new job and thank her for her support to the children.  We are currently recruiting a replacement.  If you are interested please speak to Mrs Joseph (School Business Manager) or Mr Drew.  Details and application forms are available from the school's main office in Waremead Road.

2.  Parent governor vacancy
Mrs Dhaliwal will be well known to many of you as the previous Chair of Governors for Gearies Junior school.  She recently resigned from the Primary school Governing Body leaving a vacancy to be filled.  We would like to thank her for her dedicated support to the school over the past 2 years.  She worked very hard in the transition to becoming a Primary school and her input will be missed.  She is of course still the Chair of our new Parent Teacher Association.
We are now seeking to find a candidate to replace her.  If you would like to find out more about what is involved please make an appointment to speak to Mr Drew.  Nomination forms can be obtained from him after an interview.

3. Parking
We have noticed that a minority of parents who bring their children to school by car have maintained some very bad parking habits over time.  The following behaviours are likely to contribute to accidents:

• Parking and stopping on the yellow zig-zag lines
• Stopping in the road without getting out of the car to escort your child into school
• Parking on the pavement either partially or wholly

If this applies to you we recommend that you do not continue with these potentially dangerous behaviours, choose a suitable place to park your car away from the school, arrive in plenty of time for the start of the school day, park your car and walk your child to the playgrounds so that your child can be lined up with the rest of the class before the start of the school day.

Reminder: start times
– Nursery classes start at 8.30am and 12.30pm
– Reception and Key Stage One classes start at 9.00am
– Key Stage Two classes start at 8.50am

We will be meeting with local council representatives and local police enforcement officers shortly to negotiate ways we can make our streets safer for the children to travel to school each day.

If you use the car park of the Redbridge Institute’s car park please take care to enter only by the Waremead Road entrance and only leave by the Gantshill Crescent exit.  Please take care to watch out for families moving across these locations.

4.  Updated Attendance policy
Please be aware the school’s Governing Body recently updated our Attendance policy.  A full version is available on our website and on the Parent page in Fronter.  The only significant change is the introduction of penalty fines for persistent lateness; this brings our policy in line with the advice from the local authority.  As from the spring term, children recorded late on seven or more occasions within a half term period will be considered for a penalty fine.  Punctuality is a really important matter and a life skill essential for everyone.  Please ensure your child is on time each day.

5. Health and safety notice
As you may be aware, there has been a rapid increase in the spider population recently, due to the unusually warm recent winters.  Nearly all native spiders are harmless but we have been advised that some can have a nasty bite and should be avoided.  We have therefore asked the children not to play with or approach any spiders on site.

6.  Fundraising
Members of staff recently collected £45.00 for the Save the Children “Christmas Jumper Day” event.  We thank everyone who took part in this event.  Collections were also made during shows and performances at the end of term for the school’s chosen charity Barnardo’s.  A total will be published shortly.

7. Change of INSET day
The local authority has decided to use the Infant hall as a polling station in the coming European and Local Council Elections on 22nd May.  This date will now be an INSET day, there will be no classes on that day.  The previously scheduled INSET day on 23rd July will now revert to a normal school day, albeit the last day of the summer term.

8. Next year’s term dates
The full calendar for 2014 to 2015 is now available on Fronter and the school’s website.  Hard copies have also been displayed on the school’s notice boards.

9. Courtesy to members of staff
Our staff are here to help you and will answer your enquiry courteously.  However the school and local authority will not tolerate the behaviour of those few individuals who may become abusive.  Appropriate action will be considered to ensure the safety of all members of staff.

10. Nuts and nut-products
Reminder – the school is a “nut-free” school, which means we do not allow any nuts or products containing nut-products (chocolate spread, sweets with nut ingredients, peanut butter) to be consumed on premises.  There a number of children on roll who have anaphylaxis (an extreme allergic reaction to nuts) and this policy is enforced in order to ensure their continued good health.