Hayesdown First School, Frome e-mail:[email protected] website:www.hayesdownschool.co.uk 20th April 2015 Newsletter 10 Please find below, advanced notification of known dates for the summer term 2015. April 21 22 Badgers out on an educational visit – Earth Science Centre Author Angie Morgan visiting Butterflies and Ladybirds classes 27 28 Annual Written Reports for pupils in Years 1, 2, 3 and 4 sent out today Parents/carers of children who attend Sunflowers invited in to share children’s experiences at Upper Row Farm – 3.10 pm in the Palace Rabbits out on an educational visit – Earth Science Centre Kestrels out on an educational visit – Earth Science Centre 30 Owls out on an educational visit – Earth Science Centre 23 May 1 4 5-7 8 11 14 22 Eagles out on an educational visit – Earth Science Centre Bank Holiday – school closed Life Education Bus at Hayesdown. All classes will visit the mobile classroom during the time the bus is on site – details below Mad May Tea Party – come to school dressed as a character from Alice in Wonderland – details below Parent Champion Meeting – 7.30 pm in the Staff Room. All parents/carers welcome – on the agenda will be a discussion about educational visits (see below). Class photographs Last day of term 5 Champions’ Assembly 9.05 – 9.40 am June 16 22 - 26 22 23 July 3 8 9 10 11 17 20 Years 1 – 4 Parents’ Consultation Meetings 3.40 – 6.00 pm National School Sports Week – Mrs McCormack has arranged for a number of external sports specialists to work with children across the week using £1,164 (the school’s 60%) raised through the Super Schools sponsored event Hayesdown Sports Day. Y2-Y4 races am. Reception and Y1 races pm. Parents/carers invited to join the children for a picnic lunch (12.15 – 1.15 pm) Years 1 – 4 Parents’ Consultation Meetings 3.40 – 6.00 pm Y4 pupils to spend the day in their allocated middle schools Annual Written Reports for pupils in Ladybirds and Butterflies go out today Y4 pupils to attend afternoon ‘Transition Sports Festival’ at Selwood Academy Y3 and Y4 parents invited to visit the Anglo Saxon village created on the school field by KS2 pupils 2.00 – 3.00 pm – details to follow Mufti Day – donations requested for PTA Summer Party tombolas PTA Summer Party 5.00 – 7.45 pm – details in next PTA Newsletter Term 6 Champions’ Assembly 9.05 am Y4 Leavers’ Barbecue (in school time) Y4 Leavers’ Assembly. Y4 parents/carers invited to attend 9.10 – 10.30 am to include coffee and cakes with the children and staff Last day of term 6 September 1 2 4 INSET DAY (1 of 5) – school closed to pupils First day of term 1 First day of school for 2015 Reception entrants Red Nose Day Donations Thank you for supporting this event. We raised £127.41, which was donated to Comic Relief on 23rd March 2015. Author Angie Morgan’s Visit To Ladybirds and Butterflies – Wednesday 22nd April Thank you for your patience in waiting for this visit, which has been rescheduled as a result of the author’s illness. As well as sharing her work with children and reading some of her stories, Angie will present children with signed copies of the books many Reception parents purchased and I held on to. Hunting Raven Books (Cheap Street) stock many of Angie’s books. If you didn’t buy one through the school, you are welcome to visit the bookshop to purchase one after the event. If you say you are from Hayesdown School and Angie visited your child, Hunting Raven has kindly agreed to honour the special purchase price of £5 per book. Summer Term Curriculum Maps For Parents The plans teachers produce to inform parents of the content of cross curricular projects children will be engaging in over the summer term are now available for you to access on the secure parent pages of the school website. Class Pages – Parents’ Secure Area. The password is: H4yesd0wn – the 0 is the number zero! Then look for ‘Curriculum Maps for Parents’. Poetry Recitals – Thank You For Attending It was lovely to have so many parents/carers attend the children’s poetry recitals last term – thank you. I was truly impressed at the professionalism of the performances and the pride children took in sharing their work with you. Building on from the success of this event, in term 6 each class will learn another performance poem and this time, using equipment from the PlayPod, they will create a performance arena or stage on which to showcase their work! Hayesdown Pupils Share The School’s Approach To Learning With Headteachers And Education Leaders From Across The South West In March, seven of our Year 4 pupils travelled to Bristol to speak to over 150 headteachers and education consultants about how exciting it is to be a learner at Hayesdown, and the ways in which learning is made visible to children, their parents/carers and the wider community. The children spoke for an hour (no mean feat when you are 8/9 years old) and maintained the attention of their audience throughout. They: spoke about projects they had completed and their role in designing and shaping these; shared the concept of Home Challenges and how these allowed them to work on projects at home, in ways that interested them and their families; shared the WW1 production and the links with the local community that had been established through this project, and explained how teachers made learning in maths and literacy fun by linking it to exciting and engaging projects that had real outcomes. We were incredibly proud of and would like to thank: Lewis Campbell, Ben Fleming, Mia Golledge, Zoe Haines, Chelsie Moyes, Leah Nicholson and Jake Wason for representing Hayesdown so well. As judged by all present at the conference – THEY WERE OUTSTANDING! Hayesdown Facebook Page Following a presentation Mrs Hain (Reception teacher) made to governors, governors have approved the use of Facebook as a tool the school will use into the future, to communicate with parents and carers. Mrs Hain is developing a page for us to use; more details will be shared in the next newsletter. Life Education Bus (5th – 7th May 2015) For the second year in a row, Frome Rotary Club is generously sponsoring the Life Education Bus to spend 2.5 days at Hayesdown. The bus is a mobile classroom that brings health and wellbeing learning to life. A specially trained educator will spend time with each class, presenting memorable sessions that contain important health and wellbeing messages, using resources the children can readily access and remember. Programmes the children access this year will be different to and will build on from those they enjoyed last year. Mad May Tea Party In Support Of ‘Positive Action On Cancer’ – Costume Needed for 8th May Once again it is time to get your creative hats on and work with your children to create a costume to wear to school on Friday 8th May. In support of the charity ‘Positive Action On Cancer’, we are asking children to dress as a character or item appearing in Lewis Carroll’s fantasy tale, ‘Alice in Wonderland’. The possibilities for dressing up are endless and include: Alice, White Rabbit, Mouse, Dodo, Lory (Australasian parrot), Eaglet, Duck, Puppy, Caterpillar, Duchess, Cheshire Cat, March Hare, Hatter, Dormouse, Queen of Hearts, Knave of Hearts, Mock Turtle, a rose, a pocket watch, a castle etc. Children will spend the day exploring aspects of the story, with the day culminating in a Mad May Tea Party for the whole school! Through the week, each class will prepare food for the tea party, using cooking equipment recently purchased by the PTA and £200 the PTA has given us for food for the tea party. On 8th May, we will also be collecting donations for the charity ‘Positive Action On Cancer’, a Frome based charity that offers free of charge counselling to those bereaved or affected by cancer and other life threatening illnesses. The service is open to adults and children. School May Need To Cease Providing Educational Visits As A Result Of Parents/Carers Choosing Not To Make The Voluntary Contribution Required To Cover The Cost Of These This year we have seen a decline in the percentage of parents/carers choosing to make the voluntary contribution for educational visits/visitors organised to provide exciting routes into children’s learning and to access expertise and resources that exist beyond the school. As an example, 38% of parents/carers elected not to pay for the Anglo Saxon time traveler who came into school to spend the day with pupils as a launch for the Y3/Y4 summer term project. On the other hand, after several prompts, only 7.3% of parents/carers chose not to make the contribution for the Y1 visit to the Earth Science Centre. Where parents/carers choose not to pay, the school has to decide whether to cancel the visit, which is very disappointing for the children, or to cover the deficit with money allocated for other things. The money received by schools to fund children’s education does not extend to covering the cost of visits or visitors, which are by their very nature, more costly than education provided by teachers in school. Year on year, education budgets are being squeezed and schools are being expected to do more with less. Hayesdown’s budget from the Education Funding Agency for 2015-2016 is £29,373 LESS than the budget we received in 2014-2015. The school is not in a position to continue to fund visits were parents/carers elect not to make the voluntary contribution required to enable these to be cost neutral to the school. Visits/visitors are carefully planned, and teachers take a lot of time to get good deals and keep costs to an absolute minimum. 3 Visits diaried for the summer term will go ahead but new visits will not be added to the calendar until I have had the opportunity to discuss the matter of voluntary contributions with parents/carers and agree an acceptable way forward. The matter will be on the agenda for the next Parent Champion meeting on 11th May (see diary dates on page 1), to which all parents/carers are invited. If you are unable to attend but have views you would like to share, please pass these to me or Chair of Governors, Karen Haines ahead of the meeting. Thank you. PTA Contribution Of £1,000 For Cooking Equipment Is Very much Appreciated – Thank You As a result of its amazing fundraising efforts, the PTA has been able to give the school £1,000 to spend on cooking equipment. Cooking and nutrition are part of the National Curriculum and our new cooking boxes, along with the combined ovens and grills we have spent this money on, will enable children to learn about a healthy and varied diet and prepare and cook predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking techniques. All the children at Hayesdown love cooking and are extremely enthusiastic about using this new equipment. Mrs Pearson will also be using it for her summer term Cookery Club. Parents/Carers SHOULD NOT GO INTO THE CHILDREN’S TOILETS Before/After School In the last week of term, it was brought to my attention that two parents/carers had been seen accompanying toddlers into the communal junior children’s toilets. Unfortunately names were not known otherwise I would have individually spoken to those concerned. Although these actions are likely to be innocent, parents/carers place themselves at risk of allegations being made against them if they are going into toilets solely designated for children’s use. If you need to access a toilet with a young child, you must use the individual toilets by the main school entrance. Parents who see adults going into children’s toilets are kindly asked to remind the adult of this rule or pass names to me so that I can act on the information. Everyone’s support in acting on this request would be appreciated. Thank you. 4
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