21 Sep 2009 - September Newsletter
Dear Parents,
I hope you all had a very enjoyable summer break in spite of the weather!
We are very pleased to welcome Mrs West as our new Deputy Headteacher.
Congratulations to Miss Newman who was married in the summer holidays and is now Mrs Schuster.
Last term we made the decision to swap the year 5 and year 6 classrooms over. It made sense to put our larger classes in the bigger classrooms. To add to the confusion the classes are now numbered with their teacher’s initials; so we have 3S, 3C, 4H, 4W, 5M, 5PM, 6C and 6P.
PREMISES
I hope you agree that the school was looking fresh and tidy for the start of the academic year. We replaced the carpets in the year 3 and 4 corridors and the terrapin. The entrance hall and offices were decorated, as was the terrapin.
The gardeners were on site during the last week of the holidays and with its first ‘mow’ our amphitheatre is taking shape. The pond has been planted, so we hope that in the spring we will see a variety of wildlife for the children to study and enjoy.
The new bicycle racks were completed and we are waiting to erect a fence to keep that area safe and separate from the car park. In the meantime I would ask you to keep to the pedestrian walkway that goes behind the terrapin.
Please also remember to dismount at the gate and walk your bike or scooter around the far side of the terrapin and access the racks through the gate.
HARVEST FESTIVAL
Our Harvest Service will take place in school on Wednesday 7th October at 2.00pm. and will be conducted by Rev. Andrew Marsden. You are very welcome to attend, but seating will, as usual, be limited. We hope to finish the service by 3.00pm. in order for parents to collect children from the Infant School.
This year our Harvest will be going to COATS (Crowthorne Old Age to Teen Society) who have asked if we could provide: Canned tomatoes / soup / beans
§ Canned and dried fruit
§ Rice (dry not canned)
§ Sugar
§ Coffee
§ Tea
§ Biscuits / Sweets (not chocolate)
All food should be in date by at least 4 months
We would also appreciate seasonal fruits, vegetables, flowers and foliage to decorate the hall. Gifts should be sent in on the morning of the service only please, and the children will be asked to bring them straight to the hall when they arrive at school. I appreciate the difficulties involved in making arrangements to have toddlers looked after during the daytime, but please bear in mind that young children can spoil the occasion for our pupils and parents if they are noisy.
SCHOOL UNIFORM
I am delighted to see what a great effort parents are still making to send their children in correct school uniform. I would like to remind everyone that we also have a special school PE kit, which is a yellow t-shirt and blue shorts.
Uniform can be ordered from the PTA via an order form which can be collected from the school office or printed off from our website. Would you also please ensure that your child has an apron or old large shirt for art and craft to protect their uniform.
Please ensure that your child is wearing sensible shoes. The ballet pump style of shoe which is popular with some girls is not really suitable for school as they offer little support and don’t protect them in the playground. You are very welcome to use me as back up if your girls are being difficult about this!
Please ensure that children have their hair tied back and off their faces for school. This applies to boys as well as girls.
Children regularly manage to lose items of clothing etc. and I know that this is extremely annoying for parents, especially if they are new. We do our best to reunite children with their belongings but it helps enormously if everything is labelled clearly.
CAR PARKING
This subject is one that crops up regularly but unfortunately we still have a few parents who disregard our parking rules despite the fact that they are made for safety reasons. We understand that parents are often in a hurry but in the interests of the safety of all children, please do not park on the yellow zigzags outside schools when dropping or picking up your children. The yellow zigzags are there for a specific reason. It creates a clear area to enable children to cross the road when entering and leaving the school.
Please consider the following points of information:
§ The zigzag lines and the areas opposite the zigzags need to be kept clear.
§ The zigzag areas are not a drop-off zone
§ Children who walk to school are too small to see around parked cars.
§ Parking is a community matter, not just a school or police matter.
§ Do not park across resident’s driveways blocking access.
Please be considerate to our neighbours, pedestrians and other drivers.
HEADLICE
Please check your child’s hair at least once a week. Friday night is a good time to do this as any outbreak can be treated during the weekend. Please also ensure that long hair is fastened back whilst in school as an added deterrent. Frequent combing with a fine-toothed comb also helps.
HEALTHY EATING
Some new parents may not be aware of our healthy eating policy regarding break-time snacks. The children are not allowed to eat anything other than fresh fruit or vegetable items at break time so please do not send them with pre-packed items such as fruit bars, cereal bars, crisps or sweets etc. This also helps us to avoid litter. At lunchtime, crisps are allowed in lunchboxes as part of a packed lunch but again please avoid sweets. Please note that anything containing nuts should not be brought to school. We have an increasing number of children who suffer from nut allergies and we have to be very careful to ensure that they are not in any contact with nuts.
I know that a number of parents like to send in sweets for the class when their child has a birthday but please do not feel that this is something that you are obliged to do. In fact the government are actively discouraging us from giving out sweets at any time during the school day and we would appreciate your support on this matter.
MUSIC LESSONS
We regularly have peripatetic music teachers in school to teach guitar, keyboard, violin, brass, woodwind and recorder. If you are interested in your child taking instruction in any of the above instruments, please contact the school office.
PARENT HELPERS
We are always delighted when parents are able to come into school to help with a variety of activities such as listening to readers, assisting with art, cookery or technology, or helping in the library.
Parent helpers need to be police checked before working in school but this is not too onerous. If you do not have a certificate, a form to obtain one can be collected from the school office. If you were cleared by the Infant School can you please bring your certificate to the office so that we can photocopy it.
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
We will be using data collected from the
SUPERMARKET VOUCHERS
Please continue to bring these into school.
GARDENING
Morrisons
Please start collecting your Morrison’s vouchers NOW until 1st NOVEMBER. Once again we are hoping to exchange these for garden goods.
Bulbs
We would like to plant bulbs in the new Daisy garden and are asking children to bring in ONE bulb only. Please put it in a paper bag with the child’s name and class and the type of bulb.
CURRICULUM
A Good Day Out
Year 5 and Year 6 pupils might like to know that the
Congratulations to Liam who over the summer represented
Marcus was the other pupil we raised funds for and he will be competing in
Maths master class
Four Year 5 children are currently giving up part of their Saturday mornings to take part in a maths master class run at
This is the way we do it
A maths evening has been arranged for parents on Tuesday 6th October, 7pm – 9pm. This is an opportunity to find out how your children are taught addition, subtraction, division, multiplication and more. The course will be run over two evenings; the next course will be in the Easter term on Wednesday 13th January. As we need to know numbers for attendance, a separate letter with a reply slip will follow.
KH MM
Cross Country
Training started on Tuesday 15th September in Crowthorne Woods at 5.00pm. Anyone can run over this challenging 1 mile course as part of preparation for the forthcoming cross country season. The provisional dates of all the runs are printed below and please make a special note of the 21st January 2010 as that is the event we will be hosting along with the
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Dates
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Venue
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24th September 2009
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22nd October 2009
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Marlow Rugby Club
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19th October 2009
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21st January 2010
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The Look Out
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11th February 2010
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Laurel Park
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18th March 2010
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Cricket v Beechwood.
With the good weather we have had this term we managed to squeeze in one last game of cricket. The girls played kwik cricket and seemed to have lost none of their enthusiasm for the game during the summer break. They batted first and with some sensible running between the wickets only lost 3 wickets and managed to score plenty of runs. Beechwood, although scoring quite well lost more wickets and the final result was a comfortable victory for Oaklands.
The boys played hard ball cricket and completely outclassed their opponents. Beechwood batted first and in 20 overs managed 38 runs. The Oaklands bowling was quite exceptional with both pace and accuracy and a bit of spin thrown in for good measure and wickets tumbled at regular intervals. With the 39 runs we needed to secure victory this was achieved quite quickly, all that is left is to look forward to next summer’s cricket competitions. Well done to both teams.
KH
Mobile Phone Appeal
In an assembly on Wednesday 9th September (09.09.09) the children were told of some of the dangerous work the fire fighters do on our behalf. We also asked the children to bring in any old mobile phones that were no longer used as the fire fighters charity can raise between £5 and £8 for each one to support injured or disabled firemen. If you have any at home, please send them in with your children.
ABSENCES
May I take this opportunity to remind you that unless there are exceptional circumstances leave of absence in term time will not be authorised.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Please find diary dates and term dates on the page link 'Diary Dates'.
Yours sincerely,
Miss S. Charnley
Headteacher