Newsletter – September 2013

Dear Parents,

Welcome back! I hope you all had a stress-free and relaxing summer holiday.

I would especially like to welcome all of the new people – children and staff who have joined us this term. In addition to the 42 children in the Foundation Stage, there are a number of other children who have joined us from different schools. I hope they all have a wonderful time at St. Andrew’s, make lots of friends and enjoy their learning.

There are a number of new members of staff who have joined us too. Mrs April Harper, a past pupil, will be the class teacher for the FS/Y1 class. Miss Sophie Stephens will be taking charge of one of the three Y5/6 classes. A number of new Teaching Assistants have also been appointed: Ms Jennifer Hill will be working in KS2, initially taking over Mrs Beal’s role as she recuperates from a knee operation; Miss Kate Robinson will be sharing a role with Miss Natalie Wilson in Miss Hassler’s class and Mrs Elaine Walker will be working in KS1, together with Miss Sarah Bagnoli.

We would all like to wish Mrs Beal a speedy recovery. Her operation has gone well, but there will be a fairly lengthy time for her to recover full use of her knee and we expect her back, hopefully, before the end of term.

Owing to the increase in classes, each class has had to be “renamed” as follows: Class 1 – Mrs Marie Jones; Class 2 – Mrs April Harper; Class 3 – Mrs Wendy Jones; Class 4 – Mrs Janet Poyser; Class 5 – Miss Jane Hassler; Class 6 – Miss Kim Owen; Class 7 – Miss Dionne Rowson; Class 8 – Miss Sophie Stephens; Class 9 – Mrs Diane Johnson; Class 10 – Mrs Sian Stephenson.

As you will have seen, major building works are in the process of taking place. A new demountable classroom has been sited at the front of the school. This should be ready before the end of half term and will be used to deliver learning support programmes, releasing the existing room to become Mrs Stephen’s class for her Y5/6 children. The school bungalow has been refurbished by Mark Spiers and will eventually be used for training purposes and as an additional classroom for music lessons. The rear garden will be turned into additional staff car parking space by the end of half term. Until this work has been completed could all KS2 children please come into school via the KS1 playground. At the end of the day, all children will have to leave school the same way. Parents are requested to meet their children on the KS1 playground as usual.

There is commitment from staff and governors to address some of the major government initiatives. This will mean developing a new Foundation Curriculum for all children; ensuring that there is simple and effective way of making sure that pupil progress is communicated to parents and creating more opportunities for parents to be informed of ways in which they can support their children at home. To facilitate the latter target, there will be a parents’ curriculum evening before the end of half term to demonstrate how we teach reading and, in particular, the use of phonics. Parents’ consultation evenings will also take place before the end of half term. Finalised dates will be sent out very shortly.

As always, we want to make sure that the calendar is full of fun, interesting – and educational event for your children. the one major event that has been booked already is the residential visit to the Pioneer Centre in Cleobury Mortimer for all KS2 children at the end of May next year.

Holidays and Leave of Absence

I have just been informed by the Department of Education that the rules regarding holidays taken in term time have changed. A summary of the changes are quoted below.

“As of 1 September 2013 there has been a change in the School Attendance Regulations. Where there used to be the option for head teachers to grant leave of absence for the purpose of a family holiday during the term time in ‘special circumstances’ of up to ten days in a year, this has been removed.

Head teachers are now only allowed to authorise any leave of absence when an application has been made in advance and it is felt to be for an exceptional circumstance; the annual family holiday would not be deemed an exceptional circumstance”.

I have always felt that the vast majority of parents at this school are very careful to minimise the effect of taking school holidays during school time and have tried to ensure that requests are granted if children have not fallen below a specific attendance threshold. Unfortunately, these changes are now law and it will make it very difficult to authorise holiday absence unless there are exceptional circumstances. Parents can, of course, still take holidays during term time, but it is now more likely that they will not be “authorised” and therefore subject to investigation and possible sanctions. As soon as I know more, I will provide more details.

Volunteers

Finally, we are always looking out for parents who are prepared to help us with our Learning Journey and Forest School Days in the Foundation Stage (Reception) and also with the Walking Bus. If you are interested in one or more of these initiatives, could you please complete the pro-forma below and we will get in touch with you?

I look forward to meeting you at one of our events to be held this half term.

INTEREST IN HELPING WITH SCHOOL-BASED INITIATIVES

I am interested in learning more about the following

Learning Journey Days

Forest School Days

The Walking Bus Please tick all those you are interested in

 

Name…………………………………………….Mobile/Landline

 

number……………………………………..

 

Signed………………………………………….

 

The form return should be returned to the school via pupil post