Church Road Barnby Dun, Doncaster, DN3 1BG Tel : 01302 883917 . BARNBY DUN PRIMARY ACADEMY NEWSLETTER www.barnbydunprimaryacademy co.uk Autumn Term 2013 - Second Half Dear Parents/Carers We hope you and your children enjoyed the half term break. Welcome back! Harvest Festival Our reception/KS1 children all enjoyed their Harvest Celebration in school with Reverend Jan and members of the community. They sang their Harvest songs beautifully. Thank you very much for your generous donations of food items to support ‘Women’s Aid’. Class Assemblies I know many of you enjoyed attending your children's class assemblies last year and seeing all the lovely work they have been doing. We very much appreciated you coming and joining in the celebration of each class’s achievements. The Year 1/2 Dolphins Star Pupils will do theirs in the first week back, then the dates are as Our two Barnby Dun bears have had a makeover and are now wearing full BDPA uniforms. I continue to choose one boy and one girl to be my star pupils for the week. It is always a difficult choice. So far my star pupils have been: Oliver Hammond, Elijah Maxey, Sam Thomas, Harry Beaglehole, Charlie Batty, Luke Manson, Abbie Oldfield, Alice Wilkinson-Leigh, Bethany Dixon. Natasha Graves, Lauren Speight and Amy Clarke. Well done, we are proud of you! follows: Absence Thursday 21st November—Sharks Thursday 28th November—Leopards Thursday 5th December—Foxes Thursday 9th January—Starfish Thursday 16th January—Spiders We have had a number of occasions recently when children have not arrived at school and we haven’t received any message about their absence. When this happens we have to begin ringing all the contacts listed for that child until we speak to a parent and know they are safe. I’m sure you will understand this causes us a great deal of worry and is also a burden on our workload at the most busy part of the working day. All parents/carers should inform us of their child’s absence preferably by 8.30, but certainly by 9.30am. If we haven’t ascertained a child’s whereabouts by 10am, we are duty bound to follow safeguarding procedures and contact social services. Please help us in ensuring our children’s safety. Thank you. Thursday 23rd January—Tigers Pushchairs Our year 5/6 footballers continue to train each week with coaches from DRFC. The year 6 team played recently at a tournament held at Rossington All Saints. A big well done to: William Clarke, Oliver Hammond, Jack Warrener, Jack Hardy, Ben Sharpe, Toby Wainwright, Kieron Lyall, Kyle Frisby and Luke Frisby. A very big thank you to the parents who transported their children and stayed to cheer them on. A polite reminder that during wet weather, pushchairs should not be wheeled through school. All of our corridors, classrooms and shared areas are recently carpeted. Please help us to keep our school clean and tidy for everyone. Many thanks. Thursday 30th January—Stingrays Thursday 6th February—Turtles Thursday 13th February—Pandas The assembly will begin at 3pm so please arrive at Reception by 2.55pm. In recognition of all the hard work that the children and staff put into producing these assembles, can we politely remind family members to ensure their mobile phones are switched off/ on silent. Also, parents with babies or young children who may become restless should please sit by the hall door so they can pop outside if this occurs. It can be very disappointing for our children if they practise their lines and look forward to performing their bit, and then they can’t be heard. thanks for your co-operation. Many Sporting News Well done also to Kyle Richards, Oliver Tagoe and Ryan Washbourn who attended one of the DRFC evening matches recently and took part in a skills workshop, in support of the ‘Give Racism the Red Card’ initiative. ‘Barnbywoods’ Payments coming into school Mr Harrison and his keen gardeners continue to be busy in ‘Barnbywoods’. There is still plenty to do, even in the colder months! They have been recently constructing the frame for the willow house in the imaginative play area. Our EcoWarriors group last half term were fantastic and it was lovely for myself and Mr Harrison to have so many children from year 1 join for the first time. We enjoyed making bird feeders, litter picking, watering the plants and trees and especially, finding all the young frogs in our log piles. We had a great last session roasting chestnuts and marshmallows on the fire. Please ensure that all school meal payments are made on a MONDAY morning or the first day back after a holiday or training day. School meals continue to be £2 per day. If you prefer, you may pay in advance for the whole half term. ‘Barnbywoods’ will be open to our community on the afternoons of 11th November and 2nd December. Please feel free to go in and take a stroll around. We would be most grateful of any suggestions or feedback. Attendance Thank you for ensuring your children are here on time so everyone can have a calm, positive start to the school day. Children have been enjoying our weekly attendance cup celebration for the class with the highest attendance and individual attendance raffle. The class with the highest attendance for the first half term was the Year 4 Foxes, with an amazing 99.5%!! The Foxes were closely followed by the Year 2 Sharks with 99.3% and Year 5 Turtles with 99.2%. The Foxes will enjoy an i-film day, where they will be taught to use iPads to film their own movie trailers. We held a special raffle for the children who have achieved 100% attendance for the first half term. The winners of Arnold the Attendance Alligator’s Toys r Us vouchers were: Ethan Milnes, Becky Oliver, Molly Worsfold and Elisha Hay. Runners-up receiving some chocolate treats were: Olivia Jones, Ashley Chapman, Ella Holliday and Georgia Waite. Well done everyone!! There have unfortunately been some issues recently with late and non-payment for school meals. Please ensure that school meal payments are made on time as arrears will not be permitted to accrue into the following week. Consistent late payment and arrears can, in some cases, result in withdrawal of school meal provision and we would wish to avoid this course of action wherever possible. If you have any enquiries, or are experiencing any difficulties in making payment, please see Miss Austin in the school office. All cash/cheque payments for school meals, breakfast club, trips, clubs etc. should be in a sealed envelope labelled clearly with your child’s name and class and placed in the class boxes. Loose cash payments will not normally be accepted at the Reception window. Please always use separate envelopes for different payments. It would also help us if payments for siblings are also placed in separate envelopes. Thank you for your co-operation. Appointments in school time Please remember that, as far as possible, all medical appointments should be taken in out of school time. Authorised absence to attend a medical appointment can only be given if parents can provide a valid reason for why this appointment has to be taken during school hours and a copy of the appointment letter. We would ask that any such appointments are arranged for after 1.30pm, so children are not missing literacy and/or maths lessons and/or disrupting other children’s learning by arriving/leaving mid session. Diary Dates Health and Safety Monday 11th Nov—Friday 22nd Nov—International Arts Fortnight—India. Wednesday 13th & Thursday 14th Nov—Indian Drumming and Dance workshops. A few reminders in order to keep everyone safe on our school site: Monday 18th Nov—’Anti-Bullying Roadshow’. • Children should not ride scooters or bikes • Dogs are not permitted anywhere on school site, even when carried by owners! • The pirate ship and tyre park should not be used be preschool children or our pupils before/after school. Tuesday 26th Nov—Year 6 trip to York Castle Museum. Wednesday 27th Nov—Year 5 Trip to York Castle Museum. Monday 9th Dec 10am—Reception/KS1 Nativity Performance—Grandparents only. Tuesday 10th Dec—2pm performance for parents Reception/KS1 Nativity. Wednesday 11th Dec—5.30pm performance for parents Reception/KS1 Nativity. Thursday 12th Dec– Key Stage 2 Carol Service at church. Family members are welcome! Monday 16th Dec—Year 1 & 2 Christmas Party. Tuesday 17th Dec– Year 5 & 6 Christmas Party. Wednesday 18th Dec—Reception Party. Christmas dinner for all children. Kind regards Thursday 19th Dec—Year 3 & 4 Christmas Party. Miss C.E. Robinson Friday 20th Dec—We break up for the Christmas holidays. Children return on Tuesday 7th January. Headteacher PLEASE ASK US IF YOU REQUIRE THIS NEWSLETTER IN LARGE PRINT