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
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Badgers out on an educational visit – Earth Science Centre
Author Angie Morgan visiting Butterflies and Ladybirds classes
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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
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Owls out on an educational visit – Earth Science Centre
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May
1
4
5-7
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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
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22 - 26
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July
3
8
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10
11
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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
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2
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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.
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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.
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