Friday 23rd September 2011

Dear Parents/Carers,

Another brilliant week in school! Your children continue to amaze me with their high levels of energy and enthusiasm for their learning and their very chatty demeanour... I am learning new things about your children daily and enjoying this aspect of the role enormously. This week has seen the first of our story time ‘teacher swaps’. Staff all over school have visited another classroom to read a favourite story, much to the delight of our children. Sharing great stories is a great way of continuing to raise the profile of reading in school, get children (and adults!) ‘raving about reading’ and is something we will be doing regularly this year.

Book Fair

We are hosting the Scholastic Book Fair in school from Monday 26^th-Thursday 29^th September. The school hall will be open at 8.30-8.45 and 3.05-3.45 each day so do come along and choose some very good value books with your child.

Hello from Norway!

This week in school we had the pleasure of welcoming three Norwegian visitors into our midst. The visiting teachers were very interested in finding out about the way that we do things at Cookridge and enjoyed their time in our classrooms. They commented upon the wonderful learning environments within our school and were most impressed by our children who were warm, welcoming, chatty and interested in finding out about our visitors and their Norwegian lifestyles. In the next few weeks, we are hosting a visit from a group of Swedish visitors and three of our staff are due to jet off to Slovakia to establish further friendships with teachers and pupils in Slovakia, Ireland and Birmingham. That we are regularly visited by colleagues from all over the world is a huge testament to our reputation for successful International partnerships. We truly are amongst the best of British schools for our work in this field.

Dinner Money Change!

Thank you to all parents for sending dinner money into school on a Monday morning. As I reminded you last week, dinner money costs £1.85 per day (£9.25 per week) for Reception-Year 4 children and £1.90 per day (£9.50 per week) for our Y5/6 children. Many parents are – understandably - sending a £10.00 note to cover the cost of this and this is presenting some difficulty as we are not permitted to keep large amounts of change in school. Can I please ask that you send the correct change wherever possible, or consider sending a cheque either weekly or up to a term in advance, payable to Leeds City Council. Thank you.

Milk Money

All children in Reception, Years 1 and 2 are able to enjoy 1/3 pint of milk daily. Drinking milk as part of the class is something which we encourage. Not only does milk offer obvious nutritional value, ‘milk time’ is often a very sociable time in class. If your child would like milk for the coming year, please complete and return the form which you receive with this letter.

Football

Our Year 5/6 team drew 1-1 with Newlaithes in our first friendly of the season on Tuesday. Man of the match was a tough choice but for his constant work-rate, slick passing, tough tackling and great leadership on the field, Jack Appleyard takes the title this time. Well done to our team for their excellent representation of our school. Our Year 4/5 team will strut their stuff next Tuesday, again at Newlaithes.. The best of luck to them! We also have planned for Friday 30th September a Year 5/6 friendly football match against Brudenell Primary and Queensway Primary on our school field. Please come along and support our team.

Unfortunately, there is no Year 3/4 or 5/6 football club on Monday 26^th September as Mr Gamble is attending a school sport meeting at a local school to find out about further opportunities for us to shine in our sports.

Car parking
Thank you to all parents who are able to master the morning routine, park safely AND get our children into school on time! We recognise that this is not always easy and are exploring ways to support you in parking safely and escorting your family into school. If you might be interested in finding out more about a ‘walking bus’, please contact us and let us know.

Parent Governors

As a vacancy has arisen for a Parent Governor we will shortly be sending out information for the election of a new Parent Governor. Please consider taking up this vital and very rewarding role in school. It is important that our governing body is represented by all our community members who have an active role in leading the school. If you would like to find out more about what this involves, please pop in and have a chat.

Key dates this term

Parent Consultations:  18^th/19^th October
Training Day: 21^st October (school closed)
Friends of Cookridge meeting: 6^th October, 6pm
Coffee morning: 12^th October, 9am

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Bailey