Our
first full week has been action packed with a first run through the new
timetables, new children joining us; an old friend coming to visit us and the
first of our parent meetings of the year we have glided into the school regime
without a thought of the holidays, long since passed…
Debbie Hepplewhite
Back
in 2011/12, we welcomed national expert in phonics
Debbie Hepplewhite into school to help us launch a brand new approach to the
teaching of this very important aspect. In the past two years, the success of
our Floppy’s Phonics program has been unprecedented, with 93% of Y1 pupils this
year securing the pass threshold in the Y1 national phonics test: a fantastic
outcome, and 20% above all schools nationally. This week, whilst delivering
training to other schools in the area, Debbie was keen to come back and see us
as a friend and keen supporter of Cookridge. We are incredibly grateful to
Debbie on so many counts: for the fantastic work she has done in developing the
program we follow, for showing us exactly how to implement it successfully two
years ago, for staying in touch with us and, this week, for coming back to help
us align KS2 phonics and spelling practice with the outstanding practice
established in Reception and KS1, following her Phonics International program. She
has, once again, given some very sage and perceptive advice that we are excited
to implement in the coming weeks and months – we will keep you posted! Again, I invite parents who think that they may be interested in becoming a part of the group of parents, staff, members of the community and Local Authority representatives who govern our school to get in touch with us and have a chat. The governing body offer critical support, challenge and guidance to the school leadership team in school and are very important to the future of the school. There are currently two vacancies for Parent Governors in school. Across this week, I have had only one expression of interest but luckily – there is time yet! Interested parents are welcome to attend our first Governing Body meeting of the year on from 5.30 on 18th September (NOT 16th, as incorrectly billed last week!) as visitors, to meet the governors and see for yourselves the work that we do.
Friends
Last
year, our PTA (Parent Teacher Association) group ‘Friends’ had a busy year, successfully
managing the Christmas and Summer Fairs, a movie night, a magic show, school
discos and a Y6 ‘prom’. This year, we have even bigger plans for fun, family
events that offer good value for money. Our first ‘Friends’ meeting of the year
in on Thursday 26th September
at 6.30pm. Please, please, please come along to the meeting – we really do
need parents to help us think of new ideas for getting families together,
offering fun events for the children and raising a little bit of money along
the way for school resources that we just couldn’t have otherwise. We also need
to decide how to spend the £4000 we raised last year…Once again, I have been approached by several parents and local residents who have expressed their concern about the conduct of irresponsible parents and carers who continue to drop off and collect their children in an unsafe manner. Illegal parking and stopping in areas clearly marked otherwise are not acceptable behaviours and seriously affect the flow of traffic on Tinshill Drive each and every day. It is of prime concern to us, as such conduct will inevitably lead to an accident where our children will be injured. I must also express my disdain when I hear of the frequent altercations that arise as a result of this. May I respectfully point out that swearing and threatening behaviour directed at staff members or other parents will be treated very seriously and may result in you being banned from the school site. I will be liaising with the police to enforce cooperation during these challenging times of the school day and encourage all parents who witness irresponsible parking to do the same, with our children’s safety in mind.
Attendance
After
a disappointing academic year which saw our weekly attendance figures drop to
an all-time low of 62% in some classes in the last two weeks of the summer term,
our overall attendance figure for 2012-13
dropped to 94.5% and below national expectations. This turn
in events has halted our attendance improvement trend since 2011 and is no
doubt a matter for Local Authority and Ofsted scrutiny who have high
expectations of school attendance and on-going improvements. I urge parents and
carers, once again, to support us in our work in this area – not because of
external pressures but because the statistics
clearly demonstrate a very strong correlation between high levels of attendance
and academic success. Put simply,
your child’s future is seriously affected by lower levels of attendance and,
for that reason, we will continue to monitor and manage this aspect very
closely. Three important things you need to know about attendance in 2013/14:
1) All
parents/carers are expected to contact school and notify the office of an
absence on the first day of absence. Failure to do so may result in a home
visit, as it is our duty to establish the whereabouts of a child not present
for school where no explanation has been given.
2) Holiday
absence must be requested via a form available to collect from the school
office. As explained in the letter distributed last week, in line with new laws
introduced by the government holiday absence will not be authorised and may
result in a fine.
3) Parents
of pupils whose attendance is presenting concern (falling below 90%) will be
required to meet with school staff to discuss how we can help improve
attendance. Where parents fail to attend these meetings, referrals will be made
to Attendance Improvement Officers (AIO’s) in Leeds.
National Minimum Expectation
|
Target
2013-2014
|
Attendance this week
|
Year to date
|
|||||||||
95%
|
96%
|
96.5%
|
96.3%
|
|||||||||
Class attendance figures for this week are:-
13/09/13
|
||||||||||||
Rec A
Rec B
|
Class 1
|
Class 2
|
Class 3
|
Class 4
|
Class 5
|
Class 6
|
Class 7
|
Class 8
|
Class 9
|
|||
96.2%
95.5%
|
97.4%
|
98.1%
|
93.1%
|
96.1%
|
97.9%
|
99.3%
|
92.0%
|
98.9%
|
96.4%
|
|||
Don’t forget, shortly we look forward to welcoming you into school to find out more about the learning in your child’s class. Each session in school will include time learning alongside your child, and a brief meeting with the Key Stage Leaders so that we can get the year started well. Meeting times/dates are as below – Y5/6 parents/carers please note the amendment to the information in last week’s newsletter: apologies!
KS1 (Classes 1, 2 &
3)
|
Tuesday
24th September, 1.30pm (class) and 2.00pm (hall).
|
LKS2 (Classes 4, 5 &
6)
|
Wednesday
25th September, 1.30pm (class) and 2.00pm (hall).
|
UKS2 (Classes 7, 8 &
9)
|
Thursday
26th September
1.30pm
(Y6 = session in class/Y5 information meeting in hall);
2.00pm
(Y6=information meeting in hall/Y5 session in class).
|
Mrs
Bailey
