4th March 2010 Newsletter No:7

4th March 2010 Newsletter No: 7
Dear Parents/Carers,

Playground Toys I am pleased to report that we now have some new and exciting equipment, such as skipping ropes, balls, hoops etc. for the children’s use at playtimes from next Monday. The older children will be responsible for looking after this and have been working with Mark Evans, our P.E. coordinator, to organise this. Well done, Mark!

Sponsored Silence Event Once again I would like to celebrate the great success this event was in raising so much money, which is still coming in for the benefit of all Cranbrook pupils. I am pleased to report that the highest amount (£425!) was raised by Taha Chowdhury. Well done, Taha! He will be presented with his prize in Friday’s assembly.

PTA Meeting The next meeting of the PTA will take place on Tuesday 9th March at 2pm in the staffroom. All parents are invited to come along and share ideas for our forthcoming end of term/Easter event.

Parents Please Help I would ask all parents to stand well back from the door ways at the end of the school, so that the class line can be brought out safely and quickly.

Attendance/Punctuality Please note, holidays during term time will be not authorised. If parents do take their child/ren out of school for holidays, they will be required to pay a fine of up to £100 per child and will risk losing their place at the school.

Book Week What an exciting week we are having with all our Book Week activities! It has been lovely to see the children and staff so excited, and parents coming in to read to classes. Many thanks for all your support. Don’t forget, Friday is a dress up day- Dress as your favourite book character. I might come as the Invisible Man…………See if you can find me! Well done, Alex, for organising the week!

Parent Survey It is still not too late to express your opinions about the school on the on-line confidential survey, which can be accessed via the link on the school website. Outcomes so far indicate the following:

Strengths Areas for improvement
Children are happy at school A reading scheme should be in place
Behaviour is good overall More sanctions for poor behaviour are needed
Staff are approachable Parents are unclear about some school policies
The school is welcoming An after school childcare provision is needed
The school website and newsletter is very popular Some children are excluded from play by others
Teaching is sound because of their race or religion
Extra curricular provision (clubs) are popular and
develop children’s confidence
The school has good capacity to make further improvements
The recent changes are welcomed by parents

However, as the number of parents who have responded is so low, it is difficult to address needs if only 1 parent has raised a concern. Therefore, I would ask you once again to take some time to respond to this survey. A full report will be provided once the survey is closed on 12th March and areas that require attention will be taken into consideration when staff formulates the new School Improvement Plan.

Photographing Pupils From time to time we would like to take photographs of the children for displays within the school and for publicity for the school through local newspapers and the school website. If you have any objections to this, please put this in writing to me so that your child is not included.

Staff Car park Please do not use the car park by the main entrance to the school, as this is only for staff use and for emergency access.

Safety/Security In order to monitor all adults on site during the school day, I would ask you all not to come into the building with your child in the morning. The children are very familiar with the building and can find their own way to class, as they do during the day everyday. Please also help by not talking to them at the fences, so that they do not get into the habit of talking to people at the fence. As we have recently had reports passed on by other schools of strangers approaching children, I would ask for your support in this matter.

Parents Coffee Mornings I am keen to meet with parents informally to not only to get to you know you better, but also to find out what you think about the school’s provision and to gather your ideas for ways in which to improve the school. Over the next few weeks I would like to meet you over a cup of tea/coffee to discuss your issues. Therefore, please make a note of the following dates:

9.15am Tuesday 9th March Coffee morning for Parents of Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 parents.
9.15am Wednesday 10th March Coffee morning for parents of Year 1& 2 parents
2.30pm Friday 12th March Tea/Coffee afternoon for parents of Nursery and Reception children

And finally to finish on a positive note … We were delighted to welcome 30 PE coordinators to a Tennis course hosted at the school this week, when we were chosen because of the excellent facilities and after school clubs that are in place at the school. All coordinators left the school very impressed with the facilities and provision. This was also stated by our special visitors from Bahrain, who came to view the school as part of their planning stage for a new school that they are building in Bahrain. They were very impressed with the children’s behaviour and confidence and the displays that they saw in classrooms along with the quality of work on display around the school.

I am also thrilled to congratulate one of our Year 1 pupils, Aditya Verma, who has participated with huge success in Chess competitions with children in the locality. He recently passed the Bronze Standard examination and will be participating in forthcoming other regional tournaments. Well done!

If your child has participated in exceptional achievements outside of school, please do share them with me, as I would very much like to use the newsletters as a vehicle for sharing such exciting news.

Yours faithfully

Jas Leverton
Cranbrook Primary School, The Drive, Ilford, Essex, IG1 3PS
Telephone: 0208 518 2562
Fax: 0208 554 1575
School website: http://www.cranbrookprimary.redbridge.sch.uk/




Head teacher