Dear Parents/Carers,
What a glorious final
week we have enjoyed, with performances and parties the 15 week term couldn’t
have ended with any more joy. Congratulations to all the children who have
performed for parents and carers this week – you were magnificent. Thanks also
to staff for keeping up the momentum through to the final week. Well done and…
relax!
Message from the Chair of Governors
Dear
Parents and Guardians,
During the past 12 months, our school has been on a journey. Your children and staff have had a truly great 2013 with fantastic moments happening at Cookridge Primary School every day. This makes for a strong education for our children, a vital requirement in our competitive world today. Since our last Ofsted in 2011, when the school was given a satisfactory judgement, we have been on a mission to change our ways for the better. Our very recent Ofsted report was a shining light on our continuous journey and gave the school a well-deserved outcome - our 'good' judgement is well earned and not an easy win. The achievement we celebrate is a tribute to the dedication, talent and the courage of our teachers to see through changes for the better. It is a pleasure to applaud and thank our staff for all they have done this year. The leadership will keep up the momentum and challenge for our school because this ever improving journey does not stop. Children and staff love learning at Cookridge because we are proud to be a fantastic educational establishment. Please take a moment to reflect on our school over Christmas and feel free to tell your class teacher how proud you are of your school. Enjoy the break and we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year, one of high achievement for all our children.
With
best wishes,
Vijay Sharma
Goodbye
to Funtime…
Today, ‘Funtime’ closes
its doors for the final time and we bid farewell to Ali Marshall who has worked
in the before and after school club at Cookridge for ten years. On behalf of the entire school community –
thanks for everything, Ali, and all the very best for the future. Ann
Saddler’s eighteen year career with Funtime also comes to an end today,
although I am very grateful that Ann has offered to stay on for us for the
first few weeks in January to pass on her wisdom to the new staff team and help
us with the transition period between ‘Funtime’ and our new, school-led provision
‘The Bee Hive’. Mrs Saddler will finally get to retire in mid-January – and
very well deserved that will be!
The team taking ‘The
Bee Hive’ forward into 2014 was appointed last Friday. Mr Green will manage the
breakfast club, and Mrs Matloob will manage the after school provision. Miss Dawes will assist during
both sessions. The team are very much looking forward to getting their new
roles underway and I am confident that we will continue to offer good quality
before and after school care for our families.
Mrs Riley
I am
very excited to share news of Mrs Riley’s departure. We have been very lucky to
have Mrs Riley work with us as a member of the support staff team at Cookridge.
She is actually a qualified teacher and we have benefited enormously from that
skillset for as long as we’ve had her. Having taken the decision to return to
teaching, I am delighted that Mrs Riley quickly secured a teaching post which
she will begin in January. It goes without saying that we are very proud of her
and wish her all our love and luck for her future career. She will be
brilliant…
Attendance
Oh dear! It’s not a
good week this week, 93.8% being one of our lowest for some time. Our year to
date attendance has dropped to 95.6% since we had our exciting increase to 96%
only 4 weeks ago. Let’s aim to get back to our best in January, and see if we
can bring that figure back up. Congratulations to Class 4 this week who have
bagged Bourbon with 98.6%
|
National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation
|
Target
2013-2014
|
Attendance this week
|
Year to date
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
95%
|
96%
|
93.8%
|
95.6%
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
Class attendance figures for this w/e :- 18/12/13
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
Rec A
|
Rec B
|
Class 1
|
Class 2
|
Class 3
|
Class 4
|
Class 5
|
Class 6
|
Class 7
|
Class 8
|
Class 9
|
|||||||||||
|
92.9%
|
94.6%
|
94.8%
|
91%
|
97.9%
|
98.6%
|
96%
|
89.7%
|
89%
|
91.7%
|
96.8%
|
|||||||||||
Glorious
parents
I want to end 2013 by
thanking you, the wonderful parents and carers of Cookridge, for everything you
do. It was overwhelming to see so many parents at the performances this week –
your support means such a lot to the children and the staff. There is nothing
more satisfying for us than seeing parents’ faces as you watch your children
sparkle on stage, and it is a part of the job we teachers love. I am also very
aware of the many cards, gifts and good wishes staff right across school have received
in the last week, and I hope you appreciate just how grateful we are for those.
Fundamentally, though, I am grateful for your ongoing support for our school
–by ensuring your child turns up smartly for school, by getting your child to
school on time every day, by reading with your child, encouraging homework, by
coming along to events, supporting our charity work or just through kind words
and a welcome smile, we really, really appreciate you and love working our
socks off to serve the Cookridge community.
January
We return to school on
Monday 6th January 2014, ready for another exciting term. Let’s hope
the weather is good to us and we sail through to the Summer term!
And
so it remains for me to wish you a happy and healthy holiday. I hope that you
have a thoroughly enjoyable two weeks with family and friends. With my very
best wishes for 2014,
Mrs Bailey
