Primary Newsletter

 Key Dates For Your Diary
 

Please also see our BHM Calendar for extra dates!

Monday 21st October - Friday 25th October 
Half Term Break 

Tuesday 29th October - Campaign Launch - SouthBank
(Letters have been emailed)

Wednesday 30th October - Big Draw Event
(3:00pm - 4:00pm)

Monday 4th November - Reception Parents Workshop (Maths)
(8:40am - 9:00am and 3:00pm - 3:30pm)

Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th November -
Year 3 Bikeability Course (Please see letter for details)

Monday 11th November - Year 2 SATs Information Sessions
(8:40am - 9:00am and 3:00pm - 3:30pm)

Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th November - 
Parent Teacher Meetings (3:30pm - 6:00pm)

Tuesday 12th November - Odd Socks Day (Anti bullying week) 

Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th November -
Year 3 Bikeability course (limited spaces) 

Friday 15th November - Year 4 Graduation Information Sessions
(8:40am - 9:00am and 3:00pm - 3:30pm)

Monday 18th November - Maths Workshop for Year 1 - 4 Parents
(8:40am - 9:00am and 3:00pm - 3:30pm)

Tuesday 19th November - Phonics and Reading Workshop for Reception Parents (8:40am - 9:00am and 3:00pm - 3:30pm)

Thursday 21st November - Reception Open Evening 
(3:30pm - 4:30pm) For 2020 -2021 Intake

Monday 2nd December - Thursday 5th December:
Bring a Parent to School Week - Shared Reading/Reading with your child (Letters with dates for each class and year group will be sent closer to the date)

Wednesday 4th December - Friday 6th December: 
Book Fair (3:20pm - 4:00pm)

Friday 6th December - Festival of Light Concerts
Reception - Year 2 - 10:30am - 11:30am
Year 3 - Year 5 - 4:00pm - 6:00pm

NOTICES:

Important Notices: 

Due to the confidential nature of information shared in the front office we ask that parents wait outside if you are collecting from clubs.  Parents should not be waiting in the Front Office reception area after 4:30pm without a staff member.

Break:
- All Snacks are to be Fruit only. All other items will be sent home.

Birthdays:
- Only Nut Free Treats
- All Cakes Pre-Cut and packaged
- Dropped at Classrooms before School

Late Collections

Due to the increased amount of late collections after school, and the negative impact this is having on our students and staff, we will be introducing a late fee that will be applied to your Parent Pay account from Monday 19th September. Please see this letter for further details.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m71kAo5MJ9qZb-FEEYXaQ6gvQMOufH3z/view?usp=sharing

After School Clubs 

Due to costs of running some after school clubs, we might need to decrease the number of externally run clubs. To try to avoid as much disappointment as possible and to maintain our wide range of clubs, we would like to ask for parents to volunteer to run after school clubs for next term (after the Christmas break). You would need to commit to 75mins (3:00pm - 4:15pm) one afternoon a week over an 8 week block. If you are able to support us with offering after school clubs, please email your interest to primaryclubs@school21.org.uk 
with a brief overview of the club you would like to run. Please also let us know if you have a DBS or if the school would need to obtain one for you. 

Please click on the following link below to watch the anti bullying video:

https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/anti-bullying-week/school-tools/primary-school-pack   

Reminder

Please do not allow your child to bring toys or games to school, as this can lead to items being lost or damaged and students getting upset. 

Primary Attendance Winners
11/10/19 - 17/10/2019

Reception - Parks - 95.8%

Year 1 - Mandela - 100% - Joint Primary Winners

Year 2 - Monet - 100% - Joint Primary Winners

Year 3 - Shakespeare - 99%

Year 4 - Nightingale - 96.9%

Mrs Drummond's Challenge 

It has been wonderful to see so many families participating in solving the challenges! As it is half term, I have included an abundance of activities you can challenge yourself to do over the holidays! 

Community Certificate Winners

Well done to all the students who were recognised for going above and beyond in showing our value of community! Clara Community is very proud of you! Congratulations to: Laila, Melin, Xara, Tiana, Zayna, Anna, Maverick, Daisy, Fatima, Sofia, Patrisiya, Gracie and Furqan. 

Community Superhero! 

On the weekend Maryam ran 5km in the RBC Race for the Kids 2019 organised to raise money for Great Ormand Street Hospital. She and her sister Sarah raised £1000 for this amazing cause! Well done to Maryam and her family for going above and beyond to help others! 

Spare Clothes

If your child has borrowed any clothes from our spare clothes box please bring them back as soon as possible as we have very little left. (eg if they have wet themselves)

If you have any trousers, skirts or tights that you could donate that would be wonderful. 

Also if you would like to donate new children’s underwear that would be amazing. 

First Aid Update

All First Aid Incidents will be reported online using Medical Tracker. Parents will be notified by email automatically when a First Aid Incident occurs.  Please ensure that the School has your correct contact details.

If your child comes home wearing a white wrist band this means they have had first aid related to a head bump. You would have been emailed with the information, but this will be a visual reminder for you to check your email. If the incident needed your immediate attention you would have had a call. The wrist band and email process will only be used for non-emergent incidents.

**Please Note: Parents, please ensure your children do not vandalize or damage any public property with their art. We are not encouraging use of spray paint or graffiti. If you would like clarification or ideas, please come to see Mr Santhanam at the end of the day at B11 (Einstein Class)

Community Choir is Back! 

We welcome all parents, students, teachers and friends of our School21 community to join us on Friday 18th October from
4:15pm - 5:15pm in the Main Hall.

This is a brilliant way to meet new parents, sing together and build connections with all the members of our school community in an informal setting. 

Please arrive via reception by 4:15pm. We look forward to seeing you! 

Excellent Exhibition!

On Thursday, we held a wonderful exhibition of all of the children’s amazing self-portraits that they have been redrafting throughout this project. We loved seeing so many families members and friends coming to see our gallery of beautiful work!

Brilliant Badges

The Year 1 students have been making the most incredible badges showing how their true colours shine through.  The process has focused heavily on art and ability to draft, critique and then to redraft.  The students have drawn flowers which have been created in the style of Robert Lawson, the illustrator for 'The story of Ferdinand'.  Come to our campaign at the South Bank to see these badges in for yourselves.

This week we have been looking at comics. We have looked at the key features of a comic and how we can turn our story about the red crayon into a comic. It has been really tricky but we can't wait to show our special guests our comics. 

Year 3 Printing!

This week we have been preparing our stencils and stamps for the symbols that we have prepared for our T shirt designs! We will soon be wearing them to promote our campaign all about identity!

Crafting with Canva

This week Year 4 have been putting the final touches to our product for our project. Our collages have been uploaded and we have been considering different elements of design in order to edit and improve our posters digitally.

Alongside this we have started to look at free verse poetry. We are building up our own poems about our personalities and values to perform at the campaign launch day after half term.

The Lunch Menu After the Half Term is Week 1!

School Attendance - EVERY DAY MATTERS!

The school target for attendance is 97% or better.  As a guide the Education Welfare Service advises that if a parent would go to work with the same condition then the student should be in school.  We ask that students returning to school following sickness observe good hygiene rules as an adult would in the workplace.

We are keen to support all our students to achieve their best and this must include ensuring that they attend school as often as possible.  We will do the following to support students’ attendance:

• Write to you if attendance falls below 95% or is we are concerned about a pattern of absences.

• Invite you into school to discuss any concerns/worries with the Attendance Officer, your child’s Coach/ Class Teacher, Key Stage Leader/Head of Year, or Head or Deputy Head of School if attendance continues to fall.

• Where sickness absence occurs on 3 consecutive days or 3 different occasions within a half term, the school will seek medical evidence, such as a letter from GP, an NHS appointment letter, a prescription from GP, prescribed medication labels etc, so that we are able to support your child in school.  Additional days of absences may no longer be authorised.

• Refer the student to our Education Welfare Officer if attendance falls to 90%.

• Please contact the Attendance Officer or Head of School if you feel your child is well enough to be in school, but not well enough to go to all their lessons.  We may be able to make special arrangements

• If you believe your child is well enough to be in school, but is refusing, it is essential that you talk to the Attendance Officer, or the Safeguarding Leads.  We can offer a variety of options to support you in getting your child back to school.

• If required, prescribed medicines can be brought to school – including those needing refrigeration, and stored in the Medical Room.  A form should accompany any medication, stating that the school has permission to administer it, along with the times that this should happen. This should also be signed off at the front office.

What you can do to support your child:

• Never grant days off for birthdays, shopping trips or any other reason other than illness.

• Lessons begin at 8.30am prompt.  We ask that all students arrive at 8.25am to avoid them starting their first lesson late.  Students who are ‘dropped off’ at 8.30am on a daily basis will be late to their lessons and therefore late for the start of the day.

• Please leave a message on each day of absence by 8.30am at the latest - please email attendance@school21.org.uk leaving the name of your child, their Coach or Class Teacher and the reason for absence.  It is for school to decide if an absence is authorised or unauthorised.  Stating ‘Unwell’ or ‘Poorly’ gives insufficient information for us to make that decision, and the absence could be unauthorised.

• Please phone or email daily unless you have made alternative arrangements with school.  We do not know if you have sent your child to school and need to know this in order to keep them safe.  If we do not hear from you we will endeavour to contact you, but we must have at least two up-to-date emergency contact numbers on record to be able to do this.

• Last/First Day of Term, Non-Uniform Days or ‘Off-Timetable’ days are full curriculum days with content that is required by the national curriculum.  It is unacceptable, and against the law, to keep students off on such days for any reason other than illness that renders a student too ill to attend.  Any absence on days such as these could be unauthorised unless medical evidence is received, or prior agreement has been reached with school.

• We have adopted a pragmatic approach towards the authorisation of Leave of Absence for Exceptional Circumstances where other schools have imposed blanket bans.  Each Head of School considers every case personally and may ask for additional information.  Taking leave of Absence in Term Time without authorisation is against the law, and phoning-in daily stating a student is unwell causes a breakdown in trust between home and school.

• We approve up to two days of religious observance over the course of the academic year that fall during term time.

We understand that the majority of parents and carers support us fully in terms of ensuring their children attend school regularly and that you may have received this message on more than one occasion. However, we share this letter with all as it is important that we all understand the responsibilities school has to uphold to avoid any misunderstanding.

Attendance Team

Dear All,

I hope you are all well and looking forward to a well deserved half term break. Before you break up I wanted to tell you about a family fun day we have taking place on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park next Wednesday 23rd October from 11 – 3pm. The event will be taking place outside the Orbit and will have a number of fun packed activities for families to do for free. On the day we will have;

·      Face Painting

·      Garden games

·      Jam tasting

·      African drumming

·      Pumpkin carving

·      Special guest appearances from Chase from Paw Patrol and Bing         from Cbeebies

·      And lots more

Please share this link https://www.queenelizabetholympicpark.co.uk/whats-on/events/2019/10/family-fun-day with your families.

Best wishes

Go! Schools Network

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park