Newsletter: 25th September 2020

Posted on September 25, 2020 | By Mr Cole | 2 responses

Residentials Update

You will no doubt be aware that in a “normal” school year, we are forging ahead with our plans for our various residential visits in order to secure bookings and to give you the maximum time to plan your payments. But of course this isn’t a normal year so things are looking a bit different. I thought it would be useful to update you on where we are at the present time:

Year 6: Adventure International, Bude

Adventure International is currently mothballed so they are not yet at the point where they can take a booking from us nor accept deposit payments. However, the skeleton staff at the Centre are aware that we would like to book a week for our Year 6’s during June and July so if restrictions are sufficiently lifted by that time, our residential should go ahead as planned. The estimated cost for the visit will be roughly £365 in total and a deposit of £60 usually secures a place. If you would like your Y6 child to go, you may want to start putting money aside now as this is an expensive, but utterly brilliant, six day residential experience full of surfing, climbing and boat-based activities.

Year 5: London

Booking has already closed for this residential which is due to take place in March 2021. There are no more available spaces unless someone from either school drops out. NST, who run the 3 day trip for us have advised us that The Lion King is unlikely to have reopened at the Lyceum by that point so they have switched our booking to Matilda which is reopening at Christmas. Matilda is a great show and I know the children will absolutely love watching it. The Cambridge Theatre is very different to the Lyceum as it is a more modern building and will allow our group to have a designated seating area away from members of the public, so they are confident that the show will go on and we can preserve our bubble. If however it turns out to be impossible, NST have confirmed that you will be refunded the full ticket price and our two schools will find something else to do instead. Harry Potter Studios have also confirmed that they will be open with limited numbers admitted each day, and our attendance there is confirmed within those reduced numbers As we get nearer to the New Year, I hope to have more information available for you.

Years 3 and 4: Heatree

We have been unable to contact Heatree so far to discuss our booking but very much hope to go there in the Spring. We are aware that there may be a lot of children wishing to take part, as the current Year 4 missed out on last year’s booking as we were scheduled to be there in the first week of Lockdown back in March. Once we have further details, I will write to Year 3 and 4 parents directly. Last year’s cost was £190, to give you a rough idea of how much money to save if we are able to book for the usual 3 days on Dartmoor.

School Lunches

We have a curious funding arrangement for our Universal Infant Free School Meals in that a large element of the funding for those free meals is based on uptake on a single day in October each year. The more children we have signed up in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2 on that day, the more funding we receive into our meals funding stream. This year’s designated day is Thursday 1st October – so we need as many Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children as possible to book a school meal on that day please! The main meal option is homemade Chicken Burger.

Also on school lunches, Dave is having supply issues with Cod Bites at the moment. This means that on Friday Fish Days, there may be some switching between cod fish fingers and cod goujons until this supply issue is resolved.

Hello from Team Woolley!

Can you believe it’s already 3 weeks since the children have been back? It is so lovely to see everyone settling in and all the happy faces at pick-up and drop-off.

Even though school life is a bit different we will still be doing our best to raise important funds for the school with exciting and fun events planned for the coming months.

A big welcome to all the new children and parents who have recently joined the school. Just to let you know, Friends of Woolsery School (FOWS) is a charity set up by parents to help raise money for the school and we are known as Teamm Woolley. In the past we have bought equipment for learning and play and have funded events and trips out. If you would like to get involved please drop us a line using the email below.

A huge thank you to everyone who dropped off clothing for the Bag2School collection during lockdown. Sarah Fairbairn was amazing at organising and storing so many bags of clothing which, even during the lockdown period, enabled us to raise money for the school. Thank you Sarah for your fantastic effort and enthusiasm for the event, which saw so many members of the community get involved.

We have our AGM coming up. The date is Thursday 22nd October at 8pm. As always, everyone is very welcome to attend. This will be a virtual meeting this year using Zoom. If you would like to attend please email team Woolley and we will send you the meeting codes.

Enjoy the rest of the Autumn Term!
Team Woolley

Come and say hello! Sarah (Secretary) & Rachel (Treasurer)

Email: helloteamwoolley@outlook.com

For all the latest news search ‘Friends Of Woolsery School (FOWS)’

Covid-19 Advice

Devon County Council have asked all schools to pass on the following information to you. Although in a different format, the key messages are the same as the ones I put in last week’s Newsletter, particularly around the difference between a common cold and Covid-19:

School Uniform

Unfortunately, due to increasing card payment charges, we have taken the decision to increase unform prices with immediate effect. Please see below for the new prices (don’t forget we are not asking children to wear PE Kit in school at the present time so please don’t buy PE items at the moment):

Item	Price
Polo Shirts
3-4yrs – 11-12yrs	£7.75
34″ – M Youth	£10.00
Sweatshirts
22″ – 34″	£10.25
36″	£11.25
Small Youth	£13.25
Fleeces
All sizes	£12.25
Additional Book Bag	£6.00
Baseball Cap	£3.75
PE Shorts	£5.25
PE T-Shirt	£4.25

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Have a great weekend – looking forward to seeing you all next week!

 

Matt Cole, Headteacher

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