1. education
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St Hugh of Lincoln Catholic
Primary School
Five Oaks Close, St John’s, Woking, Surrey GU21 8TU
Telephone: 01483 480441
2014-2015, issue 22
27 February 2015
Website: www.sthugh-of-lincoln.surrey.sch.uk
Twitter: @StHughSchool
Dear Parents,
What a lot has happened since the last
newsletter!
Since we broke up for
the half-term holiday
there has been a lot going on in the school.
Contractors were in
school throughout halfterm, including weekends, stripping out the
Year 5 and 6 cloakrooms
and fitting new facilities.
A reconfiguration of
each cloakroom has enabled us to put in two
additional toilets. Both
cloakrooms have been
tiled throughout and
they are now much
more pleasant environments for the children to
use. Children told us
last year that the toilet
areas were places in
school they would like
to see improved. I am
really pleased that we
have been able to do
this this year in such a
comprehensive way with
this work in the Year 5
and 6 cloakrooms added
to that already done
earlier in the year on the
facilities used by children in Years 1-4.
The fencing work
around the school is
nearly complete. I hope
parents like the results.
Again, the fencing contractors have worked
really hard, including
working weekends to
cause as little disruption
as possible.
During half term the
wooden door through
which children in Key
Stage 2 entered and exited the building was
replaced with a much
more suitable door and
frame. This provides
much greater security
and improves the overall
appearance of that part
of the building. This
work follows quickly on
from the replacement of
the fire exit doors in
Years 4, 5 and 6, which
were done last Summer.
The Key Stage 2 playground resurfacing has
been completed. Half of
the playground closest
to the field was resurfaced a small number of
years ago and there has
been a real need to
complete the job with
the half closest to the
building being done. I
am pleased that this has
now taken place with a
resultant improvement
in drainage and in quality of surface.
None of this work would
be possible without the
Governors Maintenance
Fund. For the fencing,
cloakroom and resurfacing work we were successful in obtaining
grants to cover the large
majority of the costs,
but as a voluntary aided
school it is a requirement that 10% of the
project costs are met by
the governors’ fund.
The replacement entrance and exit door has
been paid for entirely
from the governors’
fund. The governors’
fund has also supported
the school in other essential ways recently,
such as funding the replacement of computer
servers both in the
school office and in the
ICT suite. A big thank
you, then, to parents
who contribute annually
to the Governors’
Maintenance Fund—
many essential improvements to the fabric of
the school would not be
possible without your
help. A big thank you is
also due to Mrs Twose,
our Bursar, who has
worked tirelessly to coordinate and project
manage all this different
work being done at the
same time. THANK
YOU!
God bless,
Mr George
This issue
includes:
Dear Parents
1
Safeguarding
1
Year 4 trip
2
Volunteers
2
Forthcoming
dates
2
WORLD WILDLIFE DAY /
BOOK DAY
3
Absence
4
At St Hugh of Lincoln
School we are fully
committed to safeguarding. Mr George
and Mrs Ashby the
school’s Designated
Child Protection Officers: any concerns regarding safeguarding
should be raised with
either of them.
School Mass
Fr Alexander celebrated Mass for the whole school on Wednesday. It was very nice to be
able to welcome parents, parishioners and friends—all part of our school community. Fr
Alexander reminded us of the importance of Lent and about how we should use the time
of Lent to reflect on our attitudes towards one another, our generosity towards one another and the time that we give to one another.
Remember that Mass is celebrated in the school hall at 8.30am each Wednesday during
term time—it may be that during Lent some parents, with their children, may wish to
come to this Mass, which it is a real privilege to be able to do in school in the middle of
the week.
Year 4 trip to Butser Ancient Farm
Despite cold and wet weather, Year 4 enjoyed their trip to Butser Ancient Farm on Thursday.
The children experienced what it was like to live in an Iron Age house and a Roman house and
undertook a number of activities such as jewellery making, mosaics, and carving with flint. As
always when classes go on trips the children were complimented by the staff at the farm for
their excellent behaviour and their interest in what they were learning about. Well done to the
children, and thank you very much to Miss Whitfield for organising this educational visit.
Volunteers
A big thank you to parents who have volunteered to help in school on a regular basis. We
would love to hear from other parents who may be able to commit a couple of hours a week to
help in a class—it can be the class your child is in, or another class. If you think you would
like to help in this way please speak to me, one of the office staff, or any classteacher. All volunteers need to attend a meeting with me about safeguarding, our code of conduct, and health
and safety, and need to obtain (through the school) a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service check. One way in which volunteers can really support classteachers is in supporting children with reading—we would love to have more volunteers who are able to do this.
Forthcoming dates:
28 February—Friends Quiz Night
2&3 March—Parent consultation meetings
3 March—World Wildlife Day
5 March—World Book Day (celebrated in school on 6 March—remember dressing up)
9 March—Year 5 to Royal Grammar School Tudor experience
10-13 March—Year 5 bikeability
10, 17, 24 March—Cross country events
11 March—Catenian public speaking competition (Year 6)
13 March—Year 2 class assembly
16 March—Woking Schools Music Festival (Aldershot)
18 March—’Youth Speaks’ event (Year 6)
18 March—Netball rally
20 March—Year 1 class assembly
20 March—Confessions in school
24 March—Year 6 to Junior Citizen
24 March—Year 3 trip to Haslemere Museum
I enjoyed teaching Year 4 and Year 5 on Monday afternoon, where we were revising
some French vocabulary, specifically days of the week and months of the year. On
Wednesday I enjoyed teaching Reception Class where, amongst other things, we were
learning about different fruits and vegetables and the parts of the world in which they
are grown. Also on Wednesday I enjoyed teaching Year 5 for a short time where the
children were learning to program a computer to control a set of traffic lights, with some
software called ‘Coco’. On Thursday I enjoyed accompanying Year 4 on their educational visit to Butser Ancient Farm. I am looking forward to teaching Years 1 and 2 on Friday afternoon.
Please make sure all items of school uniform and coats etc are properly labelled. I am
particularly anxious that when the new coat pegs go up in the Year 5 and Year 6 cloakrooms on Tuesday we should not find coats, jumpers etc. ending up on the floor because nobody knows who they belong to and so which pegs to put them on. Where
children have trainers that do not go in their PE bag please can they be provided with a
carrier bag that can also be hung on their peg so that we have nothing on the floor.
Thank you.
World Wildlife Day / World Book Day
Please remember that on 6 March we would like children to dress up to celebrate World
Wildlife Day and World Book Day. We would like children to dress as a book character,
preferably incorporating an animal as part of their outfit (of course, the whole outfit
could be an animal!)
Parents have suggested to me another good idea for World Book Day—children may well
have books at home they have enjoyed reading but have now ‘finished with’ - any children with a book or books they would be happy to bring into school to swap for a book
or books brought in by another child will have the opportunity to do this on 6 March—I
will oversee the swaps.
Scholastic Book Fayre
The Book Fayre will be in school next week—it will be open during the parent consultation meetings and after school on Wednesday and Thursday. All the children will have
the opportunity to visit the Book Fayre during school time. Please do have a look at the
books on offer—every purchase from the Book Fayre generates commission for the
school which we can then use to purchase books for the library or for curriculum use.
Parent Consultation Meetings
Parent consultation meetings will take place on Monday and Tuesday next week. Our
usual after school clubs will be happening as normal on Monday and Tuesday, and
children will be the hall until the end of school on Tuesday, so access to the hall will be
limited to parents during these times. Please look out for signs directing parents. Parents will have the opportunity to look at children’s work in their trays prior to meeting
with the teacher. Interim reports for children in Years 1-6 will be sent home today.
Amongst all the work going on in school during half-term I had an unexpected phone
call—from a reporter working for The TES—the national education newspaper. The reporter wanted to speak with a Catholic school Headteacher about whether it is essential, desirable, or neither, for Catholic schools to employ Catholic teachers. My response was included in an article in last Friday’s TES, with my name and the name of
the school (and a photograph!)
Communications
Do you receive the newsletter each week by email? Or do you receive notification that
the newsletter is online via a Twitter account? Many parents do now receive the newsletter in one of these ways. If you do not currently receive the newsletter by email but
would like to please send an email to: [email protected] and you
will be added to the mailing list. Our Twitter account @StHughSchool has over 400
tweets, all about the school. It is never the exclusive way of sharing essential news, but
I try to make it interesting and relevant—there are new tweets most days of the school
year. We have 71 followers at present.
Absence—for information
As parents will probably be aware there has been an increasing expectation in recent
years that schools and local authority Education Welfare Officers monitor attendance
very carefully, particularly in any cases where a child’s attendance / absence record is
classified as ‘persistent absentee’. This is a government term. Until recent years a persistent absentee was a pupil with an attendance record of below 80%. That was then
changed so the current definition of persistent absenteeism is an attendance rate of below 85%. The government has announced that from September 2015 the definition will
change again so that an attendance record of below 90% is to be regarded as persistent
absenteeism. Surrey County Council have produced the following table, which is helpful in converting percentages into sessions (half days):
15 % absence
10 % absence
Half-term 1
10 or more sessions
7 or more sessions
Half-term 1-2 (autumn term)
22 or more sessions
14 or more sessions
Half-term 1-3
30 or more sessions
20 or more sessions
Half-term 1-4 (autumn term and
spring term combined)
38 or more sessions
25 or more sessions
Half-term 1-5
46 or more sessions
31 or more sessions
Half-term 1-6 (full academic year)
56 or more sessions
38 or more sessions
Friends Quiz Night
Good luck to all those attending the Friends Quiz Night on Saturday evening. Thank
you for all your support for the school. I know that it will be a great evening. Very big
thanks to all those involved in organising the event.
Sainsbury Vouchers
If you shop at Sainsbury please collect their school vouchers and let us have them—
each year we exchange them for useful resources for the school. Please also ask any
work colleagues / friends / family who may be willing to give to you to pass onto us any
vouchers they collect that they have no other intended use for. Thank you.
Please continue to pray for those in our school community who are not well at this time.
Please look out for those who may be in need, and pray for the health of all in our
school family. We could ask for the intercession of St Hugh, and of our class patron
saints: St Bernadette (Reception), St George (Year 1), St Francis of Assisi (Year 2), St
Joan of Arc (Year 3), St Patrick (Year 4), St Raphael (Year 5), St Maximilian Kolbe (Year
6).Thank you.