Friday, 15 February 2013

Friday 15th February 2013


Dear Parents/Carers,

What a week! The snow storm brought Wednesday to a premature end – and it seemed that most of Leeds spent at least an hour sitting in traffic on Wednesday evening... What fun. It is fair to say that school was bedlam from 2pm onwards, with Mrs Hyde frankly unable to answer the door for answering the phone! Please resist the urge to ring us in the event of poor weather – if a decision to close is to be made we will make it and news will break via Twitter, the school Blog and using Parent Mail’s text messaging service. In the event of early collection of the volume we experienced on Wednesday, class doors will be manned so that children can be collected via their usual exits. We are not trying to keep you out in the cold; it is just not possible for that many parents to come into school whilst we are trying to account for everyone’s safe departure home. Thanks for your understanding... Cross everything: SURELY that’s it for this year?!

 
World Book Day

Friday 8th March we will be celebrating World Book Day. This event will be marked in school with class based activities around a chosen book – a favourite book chosen by the adults in the class. To enjoy this event, children are encouraged to bring their own favourite book into school to share with a friend during a hot chocolate, marshmallows and pyjama afternoon. That’s right – pyjamas! Children may wear their pyjamas to school allllllllllllll day long or change into them if they prefer. Alternatively, they might choose to dress up for the day as a favourite character: Book Day wouldn’t be Book Day without a few Buzz Lightyear’s and Disney Princesses knocking around!

As part of World Book Day all children are given a £1.00 voucher towards the cost of a book. To allow you and your child to spend your voucher, we have a Scholastic Book Fair in school from Monday 11th March until Thursday 14th March. The stalls will be open from 8.30 each morning and once again at 3.05 each night. Remember – each pound spent at the Book Fair also earns money for our school library! 

Movie Night!

This week’s high excitement around the movie night sadly came to nothing, falling as it did on the eve of the freak snow storm that rendered Leeds at a standstill. Literally hundreds of children were gutted that their planned night out ended up being a night in... As were we. We will, of course, be re-scheduling movie night so please put your tickets somewhere safe. Friends are due to meet again on Thursday 28th February and a new date will be set then around next terms residentials, magic show and Easter disco – we will keep you posted.

In the meantime, let us begin organisation for our next planned Friends event! ‘Mark’s Magic Show’ is a family night out with the intention that mum’s, dad’s and the kids come out and marvel at the hocus pocus perfected by our visiting magician. Please note – this is not an event for children to attend unaccompanied!

Date of event: Wednesday 20th March

Time: 6.15- 7.30pm

Price: £3.00 per ticket, or £10.00 for a family of four.

Refreshments will be available to buy on the night...

 

If you plan to come, please speak to the ladies in the school office by Friday 15th March. Thank you.

What we are trying to do with our Friends events currently is get a good raft of family friendly social events going in our community – these events are not about profit but good, clean fun! If you have any ideas for future events, or feedback on the events that have been organised to date – please get involved. Come along to our next meeting: the newly established committee would LOVE to welcome new members.

Parking

Can I please remind all parents to park with due consideration when dropping off and collecting their children. During the treacherous conditions on Wednesday, I was stunned to see the manner in which one driver in particular had – literally – abandoned their car. This makes for very dangerous conditions on Tinshill Drive – if a vehicle is forced to manoeuvre around a badly parked car this puts our children’s lives at risk. This is unacceptable, and police will be informed. I am also dismayed to hear of the manner in which local residents are often spoken to when they raise concerns about parking over their driveways. As responsible adults, I would appeal to you to be courteous at all times, but particularly in front of your children. Thank you.

Key dates for next half term

It’s a short but busy term ahead! Keep a note of the following key dates and events:

Monday 25th February – return to school. Y6 Residential.

Thursday 28th February – Friends meeting @ 6.30

Monday 4th March – Y4 Residential

Friday 8th March – World Book Day

Friday 15th March – Red Nose Day

Wednesday 20th March – Coffee morning 9-10

Wednesday 20th March – Mark’s Magic Show

Monday 25th March – Decorate an egg competition week/Parent consultation week

Thursday 28th March – Break up. Easter Disco

 
Attendance

Once again, you’ve worked your magic and attendance has risen by 0.1% We are achieving this steady rise back to our target 96% as a result of the sustained attendance above 96% overall. This is absolutely brilliant: if we keep this up, this year’s attendance could be our best ever....

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation
Target
2012-13
Attendance this week
Year to date
95%
96%
96.3%
95.3%
Class attendance figures for this week are:-
Rec
Class 1
Class 2
Class 3
Class 4
Class 5
Class 6
Class 7
Class 8
Class 9
A 90.4%
B 97.5%
97.7%
99.3%
96.6%
94.6%
98.5%
95.2%
95.7%
96.3%
97.0%

 

Have an absolutely wonderful weekend, a fabulous half term break and we will see you all on Monday 25th February.

 
Mrs Bailey

 

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Street Dance

Tonight's after school Street Dance is also cancelled due to weather - the instructor is stuck in Seacroft! An alternative date for the planned performance will be set for after half term. Sorry!

Movie Night Update

Having just done a drive around local roads, a decision has been taken to CANCEL movie night this evening. The snow is set to continue for the next few hours, and conditions are not good for a late night at school. We will, of course, reschedule the movie night for early next half term.

It is set to rain later this evening and clear the snow so we expect to be OPEN in the morning. If that position changes, we will - of course - follow snow procedures and let you know!

Sorry - we are just as disappointed as the children!

Monday, 11 February 2013

Movie Night!

A brief update re: Movie Night on Wednesday.

Movies begin at 6.00pm. Please bring your child to the school hall from 5.50pm, with their tickets, so that we can be seated and ready to begin the movie fest!

Due to popular request, TWO movies will be shown.

Screen 1: (the Hall) Para Norman (PG)

Screen 2: (Class 5) Brave (U)

Both movies are roughly the same length (7 minutes between them...) and so we expect to finish just before 7.45pm. ALL children should be collected from the hall - remember a designated adult needs to collect as no children will be permitted to leave the hall and make their own way home in the dark!

Remember - parents are welcome to stay if they would like, but are also welcome to leave their child with us for the duration - school staff will be supervising the event.

We can't wait.. See you there!

Mrs B

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Friday 8th February 2013.


Dear Parents/Carers,

This has surely been the fastest week known to man... The week has included more opportunities to see the great learning happening in our classes amidst a flurry of meetings, happily very frequently interrupted to award those earning ‘5 team points in any one day’ their Head teachers award. It is wonderful to watch the children proudly walk back down the corridor wearing their sticker with such pride in their achievement. Rightly so! Keep up the fantastic work, guys....

Movie Night!

The excitement is mounting as we await our first ever ‘movie night’ in school. The votes were cast and the winning movie – by a mile – was ‘Para Norman’... I hope you’re going to like it! Thanks to all parents who have returned their slips for tickets – please remember no tickets will be sold on the door so you must have your ticket if you are going to get in... Tickets will be coming home on Monday. So... the organisation:

It’s on Wednesday – so don’t miss it!

Admission will begin at 5.50pm for a 6pm screening. Please bring your child/children directly to the hall doors.

Children will be supervised on the night so there is no need to stay once admitted. If, however, you have a family ticket and you WANT to stay – come on in and pull up a chair!

Children should be collected from the hall doors. Exit will be staggered so that we can safely manage the children into the care of an adult, so please bear with us. The movie is 1 hour 28 minutes, and so we anticipate exit between 7.30 and 7.40 for all... The exits for KS1 and KS2 pupils will be clearly signposted on the night, so look out for the sign so that you know where to stand!

Children will be given popcorn and a drink on the night. Just like the real movies – no   sweets or extra drinks should be brought to the event! On this occasion, there are no additional refreshments available to buy so children will not need any extra money on the night.

Give us a shout!

Mr Green has settled into school so well that we now wonder what we did without him. Just as we hoped, he’s got stuck in and has some great ideas that a number of our children are already benefiting from. Often, we are talking to parents when there is a sign of a problem manifesting itself in school – typically through behaviour. Once we do, we often find out that parents have been having some difficulties at home long before this point. Please don’t muddle along - come and talk to us. It is not trivial if it is causing you angst, and we want to help.  If we don’t have the expertise or knowledge immediately to hand, there are many experts we can call on who work across the schools in the locality. Asking for help or advice is a great thing to do and our help can be quiet encouragement, reassurance, finding out on your behalf or getting systems established at school that can continue at home - it is not nearly as scary as you think! One thing is certain: if we don’t know about it, we can’t help.

If you want to take us up on this offer, call at the school office: Mr Green may be available there and then and if not Mrs Hall or Mrs Hyde will make you an appointment for as soon as possible.

Leeds Information - Welfare Reforms

As I am sure you know, there are changes afoot with benefits such as Housing Benefit, Council Tax, and the introduction of a benefits capping system, amongst other things. Nationally, there will be the introduction of the single monthly payment of benefits - Universal Credit - which will replace the following means tested benefits; Income Support, Income Based Job Seekers Allowance, Income Related Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit and Tax Credits.

These changes may affect you.
 
 If you think this may be the case, please read the Welfare Reform Booklet (via the blog or paper copies available in the school office) or visit http://www.leeds.gov.uk/residents/Pages/Housing-Benefit-Changes.aspx for more information.

For more help or advice, please get in touch with your nearest one stop shop.

Parent Consultations

My thanks to Year 6 parents who made time to come into school this week to meet Miss Fowler and Mr Maldonado and talk through the arrangements for the next few months. We are very confident that, working together, we really can ensure that our children do even better than expected in the ever expanding range of national tests in May.

Our next round of parent consultations will be just before our Easter break, so pencil in week commencing 25th March and look out for the appointment slips after half term. From the look of the children’s books – prepare to be amazed!

Key dates for next half term

It’s a short but busy term ahead! Keep a note of the following key dates and events:

Monday 25th February – return to school. Y6 Residential.

Thursday 28th February – Friends meeting @ 6.30

Monday 4th March – Y4 Residential

Friday 1st March – World Book Day

Friday 15th March – Red Nose Day

Wednesday 20th March – Coffee morning 9-10

Wednesday 20th March – Mark’s Magic Show

Monday 25th March – Decorate an egg competition week/Parent consultation week

Thursday 28th March – Break up. Easter Disco

 Attendance

We continue to make our slow climb back up to 96% by adding another 0.1% to our year to date figure this week! This half term, our weekly attendance has been up and over 96% in all but the first week of term... Great stuff: keep it up!
National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation
Target
2012-13
Attendance this week
Year to date
95%
96%
96.8%
95.2%
Class attendance figures for this week are:-
Rec
Class 1
Class 2
Class 3
Class 4
Class 5
Class 6
Class 7
Class 8
Class 9
A 98.7%
B 93.6%
98.5%
99.6%
96.2%
95.1%
97.1%
96.0%
95.4%
96.3%
97.0%

 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bailey

 

Leeds Information - Welfare Reforms


As I am sure you know, there are changes afoot with benefits such as Housing Benefit, Council Tax, and the introduction of a benefits capping system, amongst other things. Nationally, there will be the introduction of the single monthly payment of benefits - Universal Credit - which will replace the following means tested benefits; Income Support, Income Based Job Seekers Allowance, Income Related Employment and Support Allowance, Housing Benefit and Tax Credits.

These changes may affect you.

If you think this may be the case, please read the Welfare Reform Booklet or visit http://www.leeds.gov.uk/residents/Pages/Housing-Benefit-Changes.aspx
for more information.

For more help or advice, please get in touch with your nearest one stop shop http://www.leeds.gov.uk/pages/contactus.aspx