Junior Newsletter 24th February 2012

Issue 20

Lunch Menu

Meal menus from Monday 27^th February are posted elsewhere on the school website. The Lunch Rota for this week will be 12 - Year 2, 12.10 - Year 3, 12.15 - Year 6, 12.20 - Year 5, 12.25 - Year 4

Dates for your diary

Monday, 27^th February - Father Andrew assembly

Monday, 5^th March - Book Fair Week begins

Wednesday, 7^th March - St. John's Assembly, 8.50am

After School Activity Payments

Could parents please ensure that all payments for after school activities are personally given to Miss McArdle in the school office so that a receipt can be given? It is also important that all payments are accompanied by the correct activity authorisation slip. We would also be grateful if envelopes containing cash and cheques could be clearly marked with the name of the child and the activity that they will be joining. Hopefully, this will help to prevent any payments going astray. The school can not be held responsible if children leave payments in bags or give then to the wrong person.

Parent Contact Details

If any parents have changed their mobile phone numbers since the Christmas period, could you please inform Miss McArdle? It is vital that the school maintains an accurate record of contact details at all times so that if an emergency arises then parents may be informed. Please also notify the school if your email address, home phone number or house address has recently changed too!

Ash Wednesday Service

Children from Years 5 and 6 joined the senior school pupils for an Ash Wednesday service at St Ignatius Church this week. The service was conducted by Father Andrew and the Rev Peter Hullah who represents all UCST and ULT schools in the group.

Year 3 visit to Bede's World

Last week, Year 3 had an exciting visit to Bede's World where they discovered what life was like during Anglo Saxon times. The children saw what it must have been like to work on a busy farm as well as the alternative of working as a monk in the Church. Thank you to Mrs Dixon for organising this visit.

NSPCC Appeal

Congratulations to all of the children and their parents who very took part in the recent NSPCC appeal. With your kind support, the school managed to raise a magnificent total of over £2171.51. This was a tremendous achievement that shows once again how caring and generous our children and families are when it comes to helping others in need.

School Scout Group Needs Your Help!

If your child enjoys fun and adventure why not enrol them into the Sunderland High School Cub Pack or Beaver Colony? Over recent months our Cubs, Beavers and Scouts have built kites, tie-dyed t-shirts, cooked chocolate bananas,  put up tents and much, much more....

Our Cub Pack and Beaver Colony are exclusively for Sunderland High School pupils. Beavers is for girls and boys aged 5 years 6 months to 8 years old; Cubs is for girls and boys aged 8 to 11.

We meet at Junior School every Thursday from 5.30pm - 7.00pm  The Sunderland High School Scout Group, Cub Pack and Beaver Colony operates along Scout Association principals and offers children a balanced programme of activities which include team working, problem solving, individual challenges, badge work, games, visits to local places of interest and, of course, an annual camping experience. If your son or daughter would like to join us call Mrs Kris Woods on 0780 3455469 or bring them along to Junior School any Thursday night at 5.30pm.

More information on Scouting can be found at http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/

House Music Competition

Well done to all the children who took part in our recent House Music Competition. The standard and variety was high resulting in the following results:

1^st Panther - 111 points

2^nd Drake - 102 points

3^rd Tiger - 99 points

4^th Swift - 90 points

Valuable Personal Items!

Could all parents please ensure that infant and junior children do not bring valuable and personal items into school? We have already had a near incident where an IPhone4s belonging to a Year 2 child almost went missing! Only children who regularly use the school bus have any real need for a phone in school and even then it is purely for emergency reasons. If children continue to bring expensive items such as IPods, DS Consoles and other phones into the building against school wishes then we cannot be held responsible if such items go missing through pupil carelessness. Thank you for your support in this matter.

End of School Procedures

At the end of each school day, children who are not collected by 3.45pm are placed in the reception lobby where they can be kept safe. If children are still not collected by 4pm then they will automatically be put into the after school club where they can be correctly supervised until parents arrive. Please note that the present charge for using the after school club is £3 per 30 minutes. This will be added to the termly invoice.

Parents and children should also please note that the use of the all weather pitch, climbing area and nursery garden are strictly out of bounds to children from 3.35pm onwards. For children to be able to use any of these areas then they must be adequately supervised by a member of staff and not parents otherwise the school can not be held liable if any accidents occur. If children and parents are waiting for others then the play yard can be used to run off steam. Thank you for your support in these important matters of health, safety and security.

PTA Spring Fayre

The PTA are presently planning activities for our next Spring Fayre. This will be held on Saturday, 17^th March. The school will also hold an ‘Open Day' on the same day and both events will run from 11.30am until 3pm. We will be asking the children for donations in the form of bottles, toiletries and cakes and in return will offer a non-uniform day on Friday, 9^th March. The PTA would like to know if any parents would like to run their own non-food stall at the event. If so then please contact Jane Milburn direct on jane.milburn@btinternet.com We also hope to organise an Easter egg painting and decorating competition leading up to the event. The fayre promises to be an exciting family event with a BBQ, entertainment, stalls, raffles, sport events and a bouncy castle so please make a note of the date in your diary.

Child Booster Seats

If any parents have borrowed any of the booster seats from the entrance lobby, we would be grateful if these could be returned as soon as possible as we need these for the nursery children. Also, if any parents have any booster seats sitting in the garage that are no longer required, then the school would be very grateful to receive these for our mini buses and school outings with the Nursery children.

Congratulations

To the following children who will be celebrating birthdays over the next two weeks: Alice Maginn