1 Oct 2008 - October Newsletter

Dear Parent(s)

 

Newsletter – October 2008

It has been another busy start to the term with a variety of different initiatives going on.  On Friday 3^rd October the children celebrated Harvest and I would like to thank you all for your donations to Marion Walker’s Charity, Thembalitsha, the children raised over £250.  The Healthy School ’s Working Group has been busy organising ‘Walk to School Month’ and hopefully your child has brought home various booklets/sheets.  Within the school, new water fountains have been installed and hopefully within the next few weeks a number of other projects will be completed.  Firstly, we are looking at creating more storage space for the PE equipment, thus freeing up the hall.  I am also hopeful that a new hard-surface play area will be sited by the patio and a passage way constructed by the side of the hall allowing greater freedom of access.  I would like to thank the School Association for all their support in enabling these projects to move forward.

In respect of attainment, it was pleasing to see that once again the school’s results at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 1 for 2007/08 were above the National and LEA figures.  However, that’s only one aspect of school life and I was also pleased to see the opportunities the children are offered in ICT , PE and Art as well as in other areas of the curriculum.  ‘The Whitchurch Way’ continues to represent the essence of what we are all about and the children on the whole continue to be a credit to themselves and to you, as parents.  As far as music is concerned if you know of anybody who would be prepared to take on the choir, please do contact me.  Obviously, I appreciate, he/she may want payment and that is something we could consider as it would be good to hear the choir singing once again.   

 

One area which has, I know, earned some concern is missing library books.  Contrary to what you may have heard, staff do try to spend time looking for missing books but there are times when they simply cannot be found.  I would like to clarify that no child will be ‘banned’ from taking out a library book but there is, as you will appreciate, a balance between encouraging children to access the library and ensuring that the school does not incur a heavy cost in replacing missing books.  I really don’t like to request payment in lieu of missing books and we have, as a staff, discussed how we may tighten up the procedure for taking out and returning library books.  We shall continue to review the situation and in the meantime may I just ask that if you do recover any school books which are no longer being used, to please return them to your child’s class teacher. 

 

Another order is being placed for tracksuits and crew neck sweatshirts for PE/Games.  If you still wish to place an order for these items can you please inform the office before Wednesday next week.  The new tracksuits look really smart and in several classes are being worn for games lessons.  Again a reminder to please ensure they are clearly named. Also, while mentioning uniform, can I remind parents that girl’s culottes are not part of our uniform policy and should therefore not be worn.  Girls may were school trousers

after the Autumn half-term.

 

On another matter we have just been advised by the LEA that we should only be administering non-prescription medicines when absolutely necessary and only from un-opened bottles/packages.  Prescription medicines must be in the original bottle/packaging with the pharmacist label intact.  Non-prescription medicines must be clearly named.   Any medicine administered during school hours (prescription or non-prescription) requires a form, available from the school office, to be completed and signed by the parent.  If medicines are required three times a day we would advise parents to consider administering the medicine at home as this can be done before school, after school and before bedtime.  I am sorry about this but unfortunately this is the world we now live in.

 

May I mention the school website on www.whitchurchcomb.ik.org. It is time consuming to maintain but we do try to ensure that the latest newsletter is there plus term dates and event dates.

 

Finally, as some of you may already know Allan Bonham, our assistant caretaker, is retiring after more than thirteen years at Whitchurch School .  We will all miss him, but wish him all the best for a long and happy retirement.  Allan hopes to keep in touch with us and to still be involved in any social events that happen at the school, so I am sure we will still be seeing him from time to time.

 

                                  Forthcoming Dates

 

16^th – 23^rd October          -           Book Fair (Further details will be forwarded

re: opening times etc.)

 

20^th October                   -           Handwriting competition will be held during this week

 

23^rd October                  -           Anne Harvey will be working with Year 6 on the poems of Vernon

Scannell.

 

22^nd October                  -           Visit to Year 2 by Educational Displays – Rainforest Wildlife Presentation

   

24^th October                   -           Hot Dog Day

 

27^th – 31^st October          -           Half-Term

 

7^th November                  -           Year 2 – Science Fair

 

10^th November                -           Parent Consultation 5pm – 7.30 pm

 

13^th November                -           Parent Consultation 6pm – 8.30 pm

 

14^th November                -           School Association Disco

   

28^th November                -           ‘Drumming Day’  

 

-                      Hot Dog Day

 

3^rd December                 -           Year 5 to The Royal Latin School for Science Workshops

 

4^th December                 -           Reception Class – Christmas Activity Afternoon

 

6^th December                 -           Christmas Bazaar 11 am – 1 pm

 

9^th December                 -           Christmas Nativity 2 pm

 

10^th December               -           Christmas Nativity 7 pm

 

11^th December               -           Christmas Nativity 7 pm

 

16^th December               -           Years 3 / 4 Christmas Parties

 

17^th December               -           Reception, Year 1 / 2 Christmas Parties

 

 

18^th December               -           Years 5 / 6 Christmas Parties

 

-                      Carols in the Hall 6 pm – 7 pm  

   

19^th December               -           Hot Dog Day

 

-                      Term Ends

 

 

Spring Term Starts on Tuesday 6^th January 2009

 

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

S. Blore