Chalfont St. Giles Junior School

July 2007

Dear Parents,

It’s been both a quiet and busy week with our Year 6 pupils away in France and we’re all looking forward to seeing them back safe, sound and probably exhausted later today and to hearing all about what sounds like a great week away.

SCHOOL SECRETARY VACANCY
I am now in a position to announce that Mrs Brown will be leaving the school at the end of the term for a part time secretarial post in the office at our Infant School. Having been with us for over two years now she has become an integral part of the office team, and the school as a whole, and we will be sorry to see her leave. Our loss is the Infant School’s gain and we wish her all the very best in her new role come September. We are aiming to hold interviews for her replacement next Friday (20th June) and welcome any applications from anyone who feels suitably qualified and experienced to fill her shoes. Application forms are available from the school office as from Monday morning and will need to be returned by Wednesday 18th June.

SPONSORED WALK
The children looked fantastic in all manner of costumes last week and the effort they put into walking around the school during the 2 ½ hours of the event was brilliant, even if at the cost of a few blisters (Headteacher included!). Thank you for all the sponsor money that has come in so far and could those still trying to collect money before sending it in keep doing your best as it would be great if we could announce the final total in the next newsletter. We set ourselves a target of £5000 and we have already broken the £2000 barrier so please do everything you can to collect all pledges as a reward for the fantastic efforts of our children. Our project to provide new and improved outdoor facilities for the children depends on this money and the very generous contribution from the PTA.

ARRIVALS AND COLLECTIONS AT THE BEGINNING AND END OF THE SCHOOL DAY
There remains a small group of children who consistently arrive late for school every day. Please be reminded that registration is taken at 8.55am and any child arriving in school after this time will be recorded as a late arrival. Persistent late arrivals will be written to and be advised that the EWO will be contacted if there is no improvement in the situation.

There have also been some problems with the collection of children at the end of the day and parents are reminded that children should be able to leave school safely and return home at either 3.30pm or 4.45pm if attending an after school club. We have also encountered problems where other parents, trying to be helpful, have taken other children home when it has appeared another parent has been late or unable to collect the child. The children have always been told to return to the school office if the person they were expecting is not at their usual meeting place and parents must support this policy as we have had a number of instances of late where neither the school or the actual parent of the child concerned has known where they are due to the actions of other parents trying to act in good faith, which has led to staff spending up to an hour on phones and driving and walking into the village in search of the child. The safety of every child is paramount and whilst they are in school under our care we can guarantee their safety.

REPORTING ABSENCE
Parents are also reminded that it is your duty to report your child’s absence, or any reasons for a significantly late arrival, to the school at the earliest opportunity. A message on the answerphone will suffice if you are unable to speak to a member of staff directly but we have had to make an increasing number of calls in the last few weeks to confirm the whereabouts and safety of pupils who are not in school. Please help the school, especially the members of the office team who have many other duties, by always letting us know when and why your child is not in school.

KOSMIC KREW
Thank you for all the contributions received towards Monday’s M&M Productions performance of the latest Kosmic Krew story. If you haven’t already sent your contribution of £3.00 in please do so on Monday as the school is keen to continue being able to offer these types of enrichment activities to our children but cannot afford to do so if sufficient contributions are not received. The children always enjoy the shows which often give them ideas for their own performances and creative work and it would be a great shame to lose them in the future.

MINI-ENTERPRISE
The Year 6 pupil’s have finished counting out their profits and paying off all their debts and I can reveal that between the companies they amassed a total of £671.31 in profits, with The Marble Pilots finishing as the best performing company with profits of £137.26 edging out the Fuzzbuzzers by just under £8.00. All of the children learnt a great deal about the highs and lows of business enterprise and now have the tasks of deciding how to spend their Year 6 fund of half of all the profits as well as looking forward to spending their own individual wages from each companies 50% share of their own profits. A great effort all round and my thanks to the Year 6 staff for all their hard work supporting the children during the week.

PUPILS SING AT ETON COLLEGE
On Tuesday Cathy Langdale, leader of the church choir, arranged for six pupils from the school, all trebles in the parish church choir, to sing at Eton joining 200 other children for the Royal School of Church Music Young Voices festival. Mae Dickinson, Tamara Douthwaite, Emily Fox, Toby Rutter, Kit Valentine and Ross Wilson were the representatives from the school and my thanks go out to Mr and Mrs Rutter and Mr Douthwaite for their help in organising the children on the day. Mrs Rutter writes:
“The conductor was Ralph Allwood, Director of Music at Eton College. During the afternoon the children practised with Mr Allwood for hours, but his enthusiasm and sense of fun encouraged exceptional concentration and stamina from all the children. Some of the choral arrangements were quite complex but the children enjoyed the challenge. During the break the choir were able to play in the historic cobbled chapel courtyard before they all returned to the college chapel for the `Search For Peace` Service.
All the hard work of the afternoon produced an absolutely unforgettable evening. The beautiful chapel was a perfect setting, with it's massive ornate organ and architecture, for a very moving service. The quality of the singing was quite outstanding and the magnificent atmosphere gave everyone an occasion they will remember for years.”

LOST PROPERTY
Once again we will be forced to throw out a large number of items that have been in school for more than a month now and offer parents and children one last chance to reclaim items on Monday (16th) after school. A table of items will be out on the lower school playground at 3.30pm after which any remaining items will either been thrown away or kept as items of spare uniform or PE kit. None of the items are named and all named items that are found are always returned to the children concerned so please make every effort to label all items of clothing, lunchboxes etc.

Back to current newsletter