Newsletter: 5th March 2021
Posted on March 5, 2021 | By Mr Cole
Nearly there…
After weeks of waiting, full opening is at last in sight. Well done to everyone (children and grown-ups) who have successfully completed Remote Learning this time around. We can’t wait to see you all back with us on Monday! Here are some reminders for everyone, whether you’ve been at school or at home during Lockdown:
Staggered Starts
Please, please remember that we have to reintroduce staggered starts from Monday. It is vital your child doesn’t arrive before their designated time so they don’t add to crowding around the school gates. Just as a reminder:
- 08:45 – Sunflowers and Cranford (15:15 pick up)
- 08:55 – Burscott and Stroxworthy (15:20 pick up)
- 09:05 – Alminstone and Ashmansworthy (15:25 pick up)
Please also remember that only one parent/carer should bring children in Preschool, Reception and Years 1 to 3 to school. Children in Years 4, 5 and 6 should walk to school unaccompanied, using the supervised crossing point out on Old Market Drive.
Uniform
The last thing you need to be worrying about at the moment is uniform. If you find your child has shot up over the last two months and their uniform doesn’t fit, please don’t worry. Of course we still want everyone coming to school in correct uniform, but if that’s not possible for a week or so, no-one is going to be told off.
Equipment
Finally, we stil have a ban on children bringing in non-essential equipment. If they don’t need a backpack, they shouldn’t bring one. No-one is able to bring in their own pencil cases etc at the moment and we continue to minimise the amount of items travelling between school and home. With the exception of next week’s Family Group Cross Country (see below) we are not expecting children to have PE kit in school other than a change of footwear if they are expecting to use the school field.
Family Group Cross Country
“Family Groups” haven’t really existed in school for a year now. This was one of our important values: to give children time in the week to work across age ranges, and especially with siblings. We hope that we can bring in our ong established Family Group Time at some point in the Summer Term, but in t he meantime, Mr Davies has kindly arranged a Family Group Cross Country competition on wednesday to celebrate our full reopening. Predictably, rain is forecast. If we are able to run the event, it will be the first time the school has been together in one place since 20th March last year. Children will stay separate and in their class bubbles to cheer everyone on, and each year group will run their race together (this is allowed for in our new Covid regulations). Each child taking part will earn points for their Family Group and the winning Group will win a prize.
Please could all children come to school in a PE Kit on Wednesday in anticipation of the event? We will not be asking children to change whilst in school, so whatever they wear should be suitable for being in all day, even if this means it’s not our usual PE Kit colours, etc.
Technology
If you have had a piece of loan-out kit from us (either a laptop, chromebook or webcam) please could you return it to school next week? This can be at any time duing the week, certainly not on Monday when you will have enough to think about, I’m sure! Thank you.
Climb the Tower Challenge
Well done to everyone who took part in the joint fundraiser between our local churches and school. Over the course of the Challenge, 36112 steps in total were collected. This is equivalent to climbing all 646 steps of the nine churches 55.9 times. An amazing effort! Please could you make sure any sponsor money is paid in to the Go Fund Me page as soon as possible, our school’s 50% will then be paid to us by the Church Council.
FOWS will be collecting Bag 2 School items between Tuesday 23rd and Thursday 25th March. There will be a drop off point for any bagged-up items under the school sign by the Car Park entrance so please drop any donations there and they’ll be collected by FOWS committee members ready to be sent off. Please see last week’s Newsletter for the list of what you can and what you can’t send in. Items must be in bags whcih are securely tied up (bin bags are fine). Thank you!
Outstanding Bills
As we’re now into March, we are preparing the school budget for the usual end of Financial Year shutdown. Please could you ensure that all outstanding monies are paid via ScoPay as soon as possible. Some accounts are still overdue from before the latest lockdown and we can’t carry that debt burden into a new financial year, so please check you account to ensure your balance is cleared. (This does not include amounts shown as owing for the two proposed school residentials). Please also note that the £10 minimum spending limit is still suspended, as it has been since our return from the first lockdown in June, so you can pay any amount on the portal. Thanks
Well done to the following children who have received a Headteacher’s Award this week for shining in their class:
Cranford Class: Juniper – her ongoing enthusiasm towards remote learning; Poppy – sounding out words on her fingers and writing the sounds to match
Burscott Class: Bella – wonderful improvement in reading with Mrs Morrison; Elsie – a strong beginning to her time at our school
Stroxworthy Class: Evie – a good explanation in her Maths Shape investigation; Bea – for being brave and speaking out in front of the class
Alminstone Class: Ravi – consistent effort in written work this week; Sebastian – great effort in all his work this week
Ashmansworthy Class: Josh and Owen – both for excellent reasoning in maths this week
See you all next week!
Mr Cole, Headteacher