Dear
Parents/Carers,
This
week, the festive season has well and truly begun. With the arrival of the
Christmas tree, the pantomime and a visit from Santa in his sleigh on Tuesday,
the Christmas Fair on Wednesday and our choir date at the Methodist Church
The Christmas Fair
After
much excitement, build up and preparation, the Friends Christmas Fair event was
a brilliant success on Wednesday, raising over £1000! It was wonderful to see
so many parents, grandparents and children have fun trying the games and
activities on the stalls. This year, we are saving for a new piece of
playground equipment and our efforts on Wednesday have brought us nearer to our
target than ever. Many thanks to parents who supported the event – either
through generous donation, by turning up and having some fun OR by being part
of the productive team who made it all possible. Enormous thanks to that
dedicated Friends team, which is growing day by day under Mrs Herbert’s
brilliant leadership and fun filled direction. The next Friends event is the
AGM meeting on 16th of January, which all parents are welcome to attend. Next half term’s special
event is the Movie Night - more
details on both coming soon!
Diane, the extraordinary
‘Cook in Charge’!
It
is with great reluctance that I inform you that our long serving
Cook-in-Charge, Diane, is leaving us at Christmas to begin her retirement.
Diane has cooked and served school meals for over 30 years. During this time, I
am sure you can appreciate she has served literally thousands of kids their
school dinners. If we contemplate the task of producing 3 choices of meals per
day during 39 weeks of term time over a 30 year career, Diane has cooked – and
served – over 17,500 dinners! It has been a delight to see her at work during
the past two years – not only is the food really rather good but she always
manages to be polite, courteous and friendly to our children, no matter how hot
and bothered she may be. If parents would like to contribute to Diane’s collection,
please call into the office with your donation.
After
a rigorous recruitment process including a period of working in school, Mrs Adeline
Chapel has been appointed as the brand new Cook-in-Charge and we very much look
forward to welcoming her into school from next week, when she will begin the
task of filling Diane’s shoes. I just hope her flapjack taste half as good!
Funtime
For
many years, Funtime have provided before and after school care for pupils at
Cookridge. During recent months, the voluntary committee who oversee this
private provision have approached us to enquire about the possibility of the
provision coming under school control. With both staff giving notice recently
to leave their positions it seemed an opportune time for the governors to
consider this possibility. The Governing
Body have considered parental needs alongside other critical information such
as financial viability and – predominantly -
our capacity to do a good job and I am pleased to inform you that the
before and after school provision will be overseen by the Governing Body with
effect from January. Service will continue as usual, and further information
will be distributed to parents using the provision as soon as possible,
confirming key information such as how bookings and payments will be processed
under the new arrangements. If any parents using the provision have any
questions in the meantime, please feel free to email me baileys06@leedslearning.net and
I will do my best to answer your queries.
We
are currently advertising for staff to join us in school to oversee this arm of
our provision, with interviews taking place next Friday. If you are interesting
in applying for either of the two roles, please see https://jobs.leeds.gov.uk/Jobs.aspx and contact Mrs Lucas or
myself for an informal chat or more information.
Christmas Toy Appeal
Thank
you to all parents who donated toys in support of the YMCA Christmas Toy
Appeal. The toys were collected today and the YMCA will be in school on Monday
to explain to pupils how their gifts will be distributed to children in Leeds .
Attendance
Awwww!
You know that 0.1% we clawed back last week? We’ve only gone and dropped it
again this week. Never mind – we know what we have to do to get it back again,
and we know it’s possible now… The unbelievable Class 5 and 6 saga is not over
yet – that 0.1 lead is back again, and it’s Class 5 who have nailed it again.
Seriously – 4 weeks in a row as the Kings of Attendance: we have to find a way
of marking this incredible achievement! A-MAZ-ING.
As
it’s now December, the cluster ‘Give it 100%’ attendance event has come to a
close. We have submitted 204 names to the cluster, all pupils who managed to
attend school every day throughout the month of November, and all pupils whose
names will be entered into the prize draw: congratulations and good luck! This
week, we also begin our calculation of our 100%ers who will be getting their
certificate shortly, and the preparation of your termly attendance update. I
wonder how many green letters we will be able to issue, just in time for
Christmas!
|
National Minimum
‘Good’ Expectation
|
Target
2013-2014
|
Attendance this
week
|
Year to date
|
||||||||||
|
95%
|
96%
|
95.5%
|
95.9%
|
||||||||||
|
Class attendance
figures for this w/e :- 4/12/13
|
|||||||||||||
|
Rec A
|
Rec B
|
Class 1
|
Class 2
|
Class 3
|
Class 4
|
Class 5
|
Class 6
|
Class 7
|
Class 8
|
Class 9
|
|||
|
91.3%
|
93.2%
|
97.1%
|
93.0%
|
94.5%
|
93.9%
|
98.0%
|
97.9%
|
96.9%
|
96.3%
|
96.7%
|
|||
KS2 Football Club:
Due to the current state of the field, the
worsening weather and the dark evenings, this week’s Football Club was the last
one of the winter. Weather permitting, Football Club will resume mid-February.
A letter will be sent out at that time to confirm when Football Club will
restart. There will be no need to sign up to the club again as all the children
who currently attend will keep their place at the club.
After school clubs
I
hope that your child has enjoyed the after school clubs on offer since
September? There is a seriously good range of clubs for children to choose from
and I think we’ve managed our goal of offering something for everyone! Just a
reminder that next week is the last week of clubs before we break for the
Christmas holiday – there will be no after school clubs in the final week of
term. Clubs will resume in the first week back in January.
Dates for December!
Next week, the key date to look forward
to is the Christmas dinner on Thursday… If you signed up for a one-off school
dinner on this date – don’t forget to leave your lunch box at home for one day
only!
I am also looking forward to a coffee
morning on Wednesday 11th
December, 9-10am in Fun time.
Remaining dates before we break up are
the performance dates, below.
|
12/12
|
Christmas
Dinner
|
17/12
|
2pm
KS1 performance (Class 1, 2 & 3)
5.30
LKS2 (Class 4, 5 & 6) performance
|
|
12/12
|
Choir
performance at St Pauls
|
18/12
|
2pm
Reception performance
|
|
16/12
|
2pm
LKS2 (Class 4, 5 & 6) performance
|
20/12
|
2pm
UKS2 lead Carols Around the Tree.
|
Only
2 more weeks ahead of us before Christmas! Have a wonderful weekend,
Mrs
Bailey
