Newsletter No:8

11th March 2010
Newsletter No: 8

Dear Parents/Carers,

PTA Meeting Following the PTA meeting which took place yesterday, I am able to report the following:
Approximately £2000 has been raised by the sponsored silence, which will be used to enhance the playground areas for the children’s use, with seating and climbing apparatus. This is a great achievement and those who supported the event should be applauded.
The next event is to be held on Monday 29th March after school – Easter Fair 3:30 – 5:15pm. More details will follow in next week’s newsletter.
A sub-committee meeting will take place on Friday 12th March in the staffroom to organise the details of the Easter Fair and to allocate tasks.
The next meeting of the PTA will take place on Friday 19th March at 9:30am to vote for officer positions including election of Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer and Secretary. All parents are invited to attend and to put themselves forward. Those present will participate in the vote.

Parent Volunteers Having gone through the huge number of letters from parents volunteering to support the school on a regular basis, I would like to clarify the fact that whilst I am very keen to accept this support, under safeguarding requirements, I am not able to accept any volunteers without a clear CRB check. Therefore, I would ask those of you who are still interested to come to the school office to collect an application form for a CRB and provide all the necessary evidence. As this process can take up to a few months, it is unlikely that we will go ahead with using volunteers regularly until next term.

However, if you are only helping with a ‘one-off’ activity, we can go ahead with arrangements. This would include helping with trips or occasional activities. In particular, we are currently looking for parents who can help us with the following skills:
Balloon sculpting/entertaining children for PTA events.
Curtain making for the new hall, so that we don’t have to spend thousands of pounds out of the school’s budget for the main hall.
Brick laying for establishing flower beds for children to plant things on a regular basis.

If you have the time to share these skills for the benefit of the school, please let me know via the school office.

Book Week We had a fantastic week ending with the non-uniform day on Friday. Not only was great fun had by all, but we also raised £1000 from the commission of the Book Fair! The money will be used to purchase more books for the school library.

Parents Coffee Mornings The turnout at yesterday’s coffee morning was very disappointing – only 2 parents came! It would be really good to see more parents at this informal get-together, as it benefits not only the parents, but also your children.
2:30pm Friday 12th March Tea/Coffee afternoon for parents of Nursery and Reception children.

Colour Strings Concert About 20 of our Year 2 pupils represented the school last Saturday by taking part in a musical concert. The concert was a celebration of the achievements of pupils who benefited from the ‘Sheena Booth Trust’. In our case, the Children’s Colour Strings music lessons had been partly funded by the trust. Our children gave an excellent demonstration of singing, playing instruments and dancing.

Thank you to all parents who took the time to attend the concert and to the staff, who gave their own time to the occasion.

Parking I continue to be seriously concerned at the illegal parking on the yellows lines and the driving through the No Entry sign by many parents. It is a sad state of affairs that parents of the school are more concerned about rushing around for their own purposes, because they don’t leave home early enough to be at school on time, than being concerned about children’s safety or regularly breaking the law in front of their own child!

What many of these parents did not notice yesterday, is that there was a traffic attendant’s camera monitoring the situation and taking pictures. Tickets will be sent to the culprits, who may show greater consideration for safety in the future.

Dates for your diary:
Last day of this term Thursday 1st April
Easter Holiday Friday 2nd April – Sunday 18th April
School re-opens for the summer term Monday 19th April
Bank Holiday Monday 3rd May
Staff Training Day Friday 28th May
Half Term Break Saturday 29th May – Sunday 6th June
School re-opens Monday 7th June
Last day of the school year Friday 23rd July
Staff Training Days Thursday 2nd – Friday 3rd September
School re-opens for pupils Monday 6th September