Junior Newsletter 11th February 2011

Issue 19

Lunch Menu

Meals from Monday 14^th February will be menu number 4. The Junior Lunch Rota for this week will be Year 3 at 12.15, Year 5 at 12.25, Year 6 at 12.35 and Year 4 at 12.40.

Staff Development Day

A reminder to parents that school will be closed on Friday 18^th February as it is a Staff Development Day. The staff will be looking a new whole school writing scheme called ‘Big Writing' that is aimed at helping all children across the school.

Forthcoming Events

The staff development day leads us into:

Monday 21^st February - Half Term Holidays

Monday 28^th February - all children return

Monday 28^th February - Father Andrew Assembly

Wednesday 2^nd March - St. John's Assembly, 8.50am.

All parents are very welcome to come along to St. John's Church and join us with Reverend Derek.

School Inspection

This week has been very busy having had six school inspectors looking at the work and life of the school. The first part of the Inspection process has now been completed and the inspectors will return to us on the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th of March. We are delighted to be able to report that Sunderland High School is fully compliant! Those two words are easily written, but an enormous amount of work has gone into making them possible, and into ensuring that our policies, procedures and practices are as they should be.  The Early Years Foundation Stage Inspection is now complete.  The feedback was extremely positive. As soon as a report is produced by the inspectors who looked at Early Years provision, then this will be made available to parents. The inspection of the rest of the School is at an interim stage and will not be complete until the second visit in March has taken place. The on-line questionnaires can still be completed by parents up until the time of the second inspection in March so if you have not done this already then please do so. Thank you!

Pupil Lateness and Attendance Registers

I would be grateful if parents could please note that all children from Reception to Year 6 who arrive to school after 8.50am must enter through the front entrance and not through the sports hall end of the school. Children must then immediately report to Miss McArdle before going to their classroom or the assembly hall so that they may collect their late mark.

It is absolutely essential that all children returning to school following an illness or other authorised reason bring a note that fully explains each absence. The school has a statutory obligation to maintain accurate records at all times. We are grateful to parents who contact the school to alert us of their child's illness but this must still be followed up with a note. This is a regulatory requirement. If an absence note is not received on the first day of returning to school then parents will be contacted by phone. If an absence note is not received by the second day then we will have to record an unauthorised absence for your child. Once done, this can't be subsequently changed so we would really appreciate your cooperation in this very important matter. All absence notes should be given to the class teacher in the first instance.

After School Club Facilities

This is a general statutory notification to the parents of all children who make use of the After School Club.Toilet facilities for children who are of nursery age are available within the After School Club area and are now designated ‘Girls' and ‘Boys'. Toilet facilities for children who are not of nursery age are located along the ground floor corridor. At no time, should non nursery children be using the toilet facilities that are designated for 2 to 4 year olds.

Parents' Forum

Present : Mr Coates, Mrs Cottam, Mrs Anderson, Mr Royal, Mrs Keetley, Mrs Green

Apologies : Mrs Mulholland

The forum discussed UCST staff notice requirements and Mr Bulmer explained the special circumstances regarding recent staff changes.

Mr Bulmer explained the teaching / pupil situation during the time of the extreme wintry weather. Due to operating with a skeleton staff and drastically reduced pupil numbers until mid morning, some mixed classes were put together and did watch television for a short while until normal teaching could begin. Watching television programmes, unless they have a specific educational focus, is certainly not the norm during lesson times however.

Mr Bulmer agreed to contact neighbouring educational establishments with a view to writing to the council about the state of Ashbrooke Road.

It was agreed that in addition to providing notice of up and coming dates on the school newsletter, the school would attempt to publicise a more regular, termly calendar on the website so that parents did not have to keep back-tracking previous newsletters and correspondence.

A question was asked about whether the school ever corrected diction amongst the children - it does and regularly! Children are constantly reminded to sound all of their letters correctly despite their local accent.

A question was asked about nets for the goals on the all-weather pitch. Having looked into this further, the existing ones are completely destroyed due to constant use every break-time. The school would have to budget for their replacement every year if nets were to be made available for ‘non-match' use. Mr Bulmer will discuss the matter further with the Director of Sport.

The problem of school jumpers fraying was raised. Mr Bulmer agreed to pass on the complaint to the supplier via Mrs Walls.

The junior school is presently looking at possible swimming trunk replacements for the boys. Although a style has been agreed by the forum, negotiations are still taking place to agree an acceptable price.

The remainder of the meeting was taken up with an explanation to members of the ISI Inspection process and how this differed to the maintained sector.

Fun and Fitness

We've registered to take part in the Haven Fun & Fitness Pre-School Sports Equipment Giveaway.

It's a great scheme to provide FREE sports equipment for our children.

There's no voucher collection or purchase required - but we do need your support. It's very easy!

Click on www.havenfunfitness.com

Find us on the list of pre-schools and nurseries (our page has been personalised for easy recognition)

Follow the instructions to register your support and leave a message if you'd like to.

You will receive an email from the website to confirm that you would like to support us. You'll just need to click where indicated on the email - and that's it! If enough parents support us we will receive the free equipment - and if ALL parents support us we'll receive the bonus item as well.

It only takes a few minutes, so please, PLEASE

Congratulations

To the following children who are celebrating birthdays over the next few days: Isabelle McQueen