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Chalfont St. Giles Junior School |
January 1/2 ~ 2008
Dear Parents,
A very warm welcome back to the school after the Christmas break and a Happy New Year to all of our parents and children from the staff of the school. As ever the break seemed to pass far too quickly but we hope the children managed to enjoy a good rest after a long term and managed to avoid the various bugs and illnesses that seem to have been circulating over the holiday period.
NOROVIRUS
With reports in the media detailing how many people have suffered from
the ‘winter vomiting bug’ over the Christmas period and concerns
over it spreading more widely as schools return can we offer this piece of advice
and a request to all parents. Please support the school by reinforcing to your
child the need to wash their hands and observe basic hygiene rules each day
to help prevent the spread of this nasty bug. If your child is ill and displaying
the symptoms (stomach ache, sickness and diarrhoea) please keep them off school
for at least 48 hours. The school will also request parents take home any child
who, in our judgement, is ill and possibly coming down with the Norovirus to
further reduce the risk of other children (and staff) being exposed to this
very contagious illness. By everyone adopting a common sense approach to this
problem I am confident we will be able to ride out the next few weeks with the
absolute minimum disruption to school life.
NSPCC FUND RAISING
In addition to raising money for the school and local charities we
also aim to support one national charity each year. This year we have chosen
the NSPCC who I am sure you are all aware of and the vital and tremendous work
that they do. A visitor from the charity will be coming in to speak to the children
next Thursday and following the assembly the children will be invited to take
part in a fund raising activity. Whilst not compulsory we would hope all of
our children can help in some way to raising money, however small an amount,
to support the work of this very worthy cause and trust you will support and
encourage your child’s participation in the activity.
PARENTS OPEN FORUM
This term’s Open Forum will be on Friday 18th January from 9.15
– 10.30am. A separate letter will be coming home tomorrow inviting you
all to attend and to suggest agenda items for the meeting. I look forward to
seeing another good turnout at what always proves to be an interesting and very
useful meeting that helps feed the process of school improvement.
PARENT CONSULTATIONS
This term’s meetings are on Monday 25th February (5-7pm) and
Thursday 28th February (6-8pm). At the meetings the classteachers will be giving
you an interim levels sheet based upon your child’s most recent assessments
in reading, writing and maths (and where appropriate reading and spelling ages)
and effort grades for those subjects. This is in response to parent requests
for this information which has previously only been handed out in written form
as part of the end of year annual report. We hope this will help you to become
clearer about your child’s progress and to be able to discuss with them
the implications for the remainder of the school year.
MOBILE PHONES
We have been aware that several children have been bringing mobile
phones into school toward the end of last term and need to clarify the school’s
position with regard to this. We see no reason why any pupil should ordinarily
need a mobile phone on them during the school day and have concerns regarding
safety, security and misuse that could arise if this were to be the case. Therefore
unless we have a prior agreement with a parent regarding the need for a phone
(which would be duly checked in and out of the office each day) we are asking
that no mobile phones are brought into school by children. If discovered, phones
(without due agreement) will be confiscated and appropriate parents asked to
come into school to collect from the office. Your co-operation with this matter
is very much appreciated.
SEEKING PARENT GOVERNORS
A letter regarding vacancies for 3 parent governor positions is also on its
way to you today so if you would like to be considered for this important role
in school development then please be sure to return the nomination slip by next
Friday’s deadline. In the event of more than 3 nominations there would
need to be an election and prospective candidates will be duly notified by the
Chair of Governors, Nigel Hobbs. There is a degree of time commitment for meetings,
training etc but experience over the last few years has shown that parent governors
are a vital part of school life and it would be great to see some new blood
joining the team.
NEWSLETTER Jan 2
The term is now fully up and running and the children and teachers are working hard and resisting the norovirus as best we can. It appears some children have fallen foul of it so please continue to reinforce the messages we keep relaying in school regarding hand washing and other related aspects of personal hygiene!
PARENTS FORUM
A small but enthusiastic group of parents met with me last week for
this term’s Forum. Topics discussed included the new reading scheme (positives
and some concerns to be followed up at meeting on 13th February), the proposed
change to the uniform (more to follow soon), home-school communication books
(new guidelines to parents coming home on Monday) and the new library system
(we have decided to use individual PIN codes for pupils rather than the fingerprint
scanner following some concerns raised by parents). Thank you to all those parents
who attended and I look forward to seeing more parents at our evening Forum
on Thursday 6th March starting at 7.00pm which has been introduced to allow
more working parents to attend such meetings.
WOODROW
My thanks to all the staff involved (Miss Cato, Miss Smith, Mrs Scott, Mrs Lord,
Mrs Brown, Mrs Whiteley and Mrs Johnson) who helped make Year 4’s three
day trip so successful last week. The additional workload and time commitment
given is very much appreciated given everything we ask of our staff. The children
clearly had a great time and hopefully the parents will have managed to extract
all the mud from their clothing by now. This invaluable introduction to a residential
trip not only allows the children to experience a wide range of activities but
introduces many to aspects of responsibility, teamwork and communication that
will prove to be invaluable as they grow in to young adulthood.
CLUBS
Several of the lunchtime clubs begin next week, with staff run after school
clubs starting the week beginning Monday 4th February (Spanish and Tag-Rugby
have already started). A letter will be coming home on Monday outlining this
term’s clubs and requesting permission slips from parents for after school
clubs. Parents will be notified if their child is unable to participate due
to over-subscription to any of the after school clubs. Permission is not required
for any of our lunchtime clubs.
READING WORKSHOP
A parents’ workshop on developing reading skills, which will also introduce
to parents the new reading scheme, is to be held at the school on the evening
of Wednesday 13th February starting at 7.00pm. Mrs Whiteley, accompanied by
some of the staff, will be talking about ways in which parents can support their
child’s reading at home as well as illustrating some of the work we do
in school. Parents will also have an opportunity to look at materials from the
new scheme and ask questions related to reading matters in and out of school.
A letter requesting confirmation of attendance will be sent home next week to
allow the school to have the appropriate number of chairs and materials ready.
We look forward to seeing you there.
LIBRARY
As previously stated the school has taken the decision not to use the fingerprint
scanner purchased for the library as parental concerns regarding data protection
issues have been raised. Children will now be assigned PIN numbers in order
to log their books in and out.
We do however need new and increased volunteers to keep the library running
every day at lunchtime following Mrs Jackson’s move into an LSA position
in the school. If you are able to help between 12.25 and 1.25pm on Tuesday,
Wednesday or Thursday please contact the school to offer your services as many
children are missing the daily access to the library we were previously able
to offer.
NSPCC
Thank you to all parents for allowing your children to collect sponsors for
today’s Maths Challenge. Please ensure all forms and sponsor money are
returned to school by next Thursday (January 31st) to allow the representative
from the charity to process them accordingly.
PARKING
On a positive note parking in Parsonage Road of late has shown signs of improvement.
However The Lagger now appears to be encountering similar issues regarding cars
travelling too fast and blocking the pavements children need to walk on to remain
safe. Once again can I plead with all parents to put children’s safety
ahead of personal convenience when dropping off and collecting pupils from school
at the beginning and the end of the school day.
THANK YOU MESSAGES
The school wishes to publicly thank Rowan Nursery and The Deli for both making
generous donations to school and PA funds and to all parents who supported either,
or both, the Christmas tree scheme or the hamper raffle. A total of over £200
will now be spent on new books for classroom collections in the school. Thank
you also to all parents who purchased photos from Ward Henry as this also generated
nearly £200 in commission for the school.
TESCO VOUCHERS
The final count has been completed and I am delighted to inform you that we
have collected 16,667 vouchers this year (a new record) which will enable the
school to acquire 2 sets of full size basketball posts (1 for each playground)
and 18 basketballs. This is by far in excess of what we were hoping for and
I’d like to pass on the thanks of the staff and children to everyone who
sent vouchers into school during the promotion.
SPORTS NEWS
The PA have recently helped support the purchase of new kits for our football,
rugby, netball and athletics/cross-country teams and the children were most
impressed following a modelling session by some of our Year 6 pupils in assembly
last week. Clearly inspired by their new kit both the Year 5 and 6 netball teams
recorded impressive wins against Robertswood this week winning 6-0 and 8-1 respectively
giving Miss Blackburn and Mrs Whiteley great cause for optimism for the busy
term of matches ahead.
Next week trials will be run to choose runners from Years 4, 5 and 6 to represent
the school in the annual Bracknell Schools Relay Championship in February and
children will be notified of which days to ensure they have their kit in school.
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