HEMPSTED CHURCH of ENGLAND PRIMARY SCHOOL February 2019 Newsletter Growing Together in God s Love Dear Parents/Carers, Governors and Friends of the School, Monday 4 th February, 2019 Welcome to the February newsletter. We have enjoyed a calm, purposeful start to this year with lots going on, both inside and outside of the classroom. School funding issues, BREXIT and a changing OFSTED framework continue to keep us on our toes, but as ever, we remain focused on providing an effective and broad educational experience for our children. At a recent staff meeting, we posed the question: What do we want for our pupils? And one of the first and most striking answers from the staff was: To be a good human being! I don t think we can argue with that! Giving Generously We continue to explore, discuss and live out our Christian value of Generosity. We are learning that it s not just about giving money or objects. It can be about giving generously of your time in order to help others or to help the environment. Nikki also came in and reminded us about the story of Jesus feeding the 5000. At school, we d noticed that over some considerable time, there was quite a lot of litter building up on the strip of land that borders the school. I asked the Year 6 children if they wanted to help me clear this land and was really pleased with the response. Almost all of them wanted to. So we donned our gloves and spent a lunchtime picking up the litter. A lot of it was bits and pieces that had blown through from the school so we didn t mind that. However, we also had to pick up some kind offerings from dog walkers, who had scooped and bagged the dollops, and then left them on the school grounds for us. How generous of them!
Even more generosity! One of our school charities this year is Gloucestershire Bundles. Mrs Subryan and myself had the pleasure of taking our School Council to visit their warehouse to see how the charity s work helps local people. We saw how they check through lots of donated items and clothes to make sure that they are safe and appropriate to be donated. We learned about how professionals such as social workers and midwives make referrals to the charity so that when a baby is born the parents have got the essentials. The charity Gloucestershire Bundles is a charity providing emergency packs of toiletries, clothing and equipment to pregnant women and families with children up to the age of eleven, who find themselves in crisis situations. does super work, depending on people donating unwanted new or nearly new items, fundraising and other voluntary work. The people who run Gloucestershire Bundles are volunteers and it was a lovely to meet them they give generously of their time to help others. At the end of our visit, the school council presented them with a cheque for 188 and we look forward to supporting them further. Yet more generosity! If you have been up to school in the past couple of days, you will have noticed work going on to make the Reception class outdoor area a little larger. We have been wanting to do this for some time, so when I got an offer of two days of free labour I was very keen to accept it. I am exceptionally grateful to parents Mr and Mrs Moss whose company Wilkinson Environmental provided us with two fantastic chaps, Jason and Sid, to crack on and get the job done. As well as extending the area for use, they cleared the drive of leaves and debris which all tend to clog the drains. A huge thank you for this amazing act of generosity!!!!
Signs of Spring I think! The snowdrops and daffodils are appearing under the willow tree. Please keep children away from this area so that the flowers don t get trampled before they have a chance to establish. This time last year, I wrote that the flowers were bigger than normal and predicted an early spring. Then we got the Beast from the East and a load of snow so this year I m saying nothing else other than to enjoy the beauty of the signs of Spring!! School Prayer Group A reminder that the Hempsted School Prayer Group will be meeting this term on Friday 1 st February, Friday 1 st March and Friday 29 th March. The group meets at 2.30pm in the Lysons Hall and all are welcome. Prayer requests can be left in a box in church, at Coffee and Chat or in the school foyer. Attendance Last year, our school attendance figure was 96.3%. That means that on average, each child missed just 3 and a half days of school in the whole year. Given that primary school children are prone to picking up a range of illnesses, I think that reflects a healthy school community who recognise the importance of being in school. However, it still remains important to remind parents of punctuality at the start of the day. We are all late sometimes so I am not referring to those one-off late arrivals but persistent lateness is a problem. You would be amazed at how rapidly the pupils start learning at the start of the day; many small groups are already working away before 9.10am. If a child is missing, they re missing this learning and it is disruptive to ALL of the children when the staff then have to start sorting out late arriving children. Late arriving children will have missed any instructions or information about the day ahead. It s also embarrassing for those children to walk into a classroom when everyone else is sat at desks or on the carpet. The number of holiday requests are reducing. As somebody who is unable to take holidays in term time and has children of their own, I know the educational value of holidays and also the appalling difference in cost between term time and non-term time breaks. I do understand! We are currently updating our Attendance Policy and you are able to view the draft document on the school website. This is an important document as it details the legal position over school attendance, holiday requests and the use of Fixed Penalty Notices. The DfE recognises Persistent Absence as a child who has less than 90% attendance.
If you have any concerns about your child s attendance, or getting them to school on time, please come and talk to us. I am sure that we can help. Requesting Leave of Absence Should parents wish to request a leave of absence then we have a new form for doing this. The form is available from the school office and can be requested by email to the school office. Term Dates 2019/2020 We have finalised term dates for the next academic year and these are at the back of this newsletter. These are available on the website too. Home/School Contact The office staff have asked me to remind parents/carers to ensure that changes to phone numbers, contact details, e-mail addresses etc are given to them as soon as possible. It can be very distressing to all involved if we are unable to contact a parent/carer, especially when their child is unwell. Thank you. School Uniform Supplier Tesco (through F&F) are no longer supplying embroidered school uniform for us. However, I m pleased to tell you that you can still order embroidered uniform online through myclothing.com As with the Tesco scheme, the school will receive a 5% donation for every embroidered item purchased. The Friends The Pirate Ship purchased by The Friends is now complete and in use the children really enjoy it. Many thanks to everyone, especially the School Council for their work in choosing the design of it, and the rules for using it. There will be a Spring Disco for all children on Thursday 28 th February in the School Hall. Please look out for further details. Details about the Easter Hamper draw will be sent out shortly as well. On the morning of Saturday 27 th April there will be a Hempsted Heart Hunt to raise money for a defibrillator details to follow. There is now a Friends facebook page that parents can join in order to find out about the latest events: 'Friends of Hempsted C of E School' (we already have 70 members), or alternatively the events are listed on the website under the parent information section. Year 6 Internet Safety Talk This term Class Six have had a visit from the police! PC Rob Hulce spent and afternoon with the children talking about how to keep themselves safe online. He provided them with up-to-date information on the social media that they may be using and the games they may be playing at home. The children found the session useful and were able to ask lots of questions. We will be having another visit from PC Hulce before Easter, to talk about online relationships. Please ask your children about it. Safer Internet Day Staying on the same theme, Tuesday 5 th February is the national Safer Internet Day, and hopefully you will see plenty about this on the news and in the press. We will be having our
Safer Internet Day on Friday 8 th February. The theme this year is Together for a better internet. Hopefully your child will be able to share their learning with you when they get home please ask them! For further useful links regarding safe use of the internet and digital media, please see the Teaching & Learning section on the school website. Sports I m delighted to tell you that the boys football A team, as well as winning their league, have successfully defended their 5-a-side championship title with an impressive performance at Bentham. Well done to them and also to the B team and the Girls team who put in super performances in their competitions. Snow Closure Friday proved to be a bit of a headache for Gloucester schools, with significant variations of snow falling around the county. The school site looked beautiful and could be managed safely; roads around Gloucester were quieter than normal so the decision was made to open for most pupils. We did have to cancel classes in Years 4 and 6 due to staff difficulties in getting to school from the Stroud district. No doubt this caused a few arguments for parents to sort in those houses with siblings whose class had not been cancelled. However, for those who made it, children and staff had great fun in the snow with snowballs and snowmen galore! Yours sincerely, Mr R Waller Head Teacher
FEBRUARY Important Dates for Your Diary Friday 1 st 7pm Quiz Night Thursday 7 th 9.15am Class One Assembly Friday 8 th Safer Internet Day (see main newsletter) Thursday 14 th 9.15am Reception Class Assembly Friday 15 th Year 4 trip to Chedworth Villa End of Term 3 Monday 25 th 9am Start of Term 4 Tuesday 26 th Parents Evening (details to follow) Wednesday 27 th Parents Evening (details to follow) Thursday 28 th Eve Spring Disco March Friday 1 st 2.30pm Prayer Group at Lysons Hall Wednesday 6 th Year 5 Computer Control day Thursday 21 st Life Education Bus visit Friday 22 nd Life Education Bus visit Monday-Wednesday 25-27 th Year 4 Residential Monday-Friday 25-29 th Year 5 Cycle Training Thursday 28 th 9.15am Class 5 Assembly Friday April 29 th 2.30pm Thursday 4 th 9.15am Class 2 Assembly Friday 5 th 9.30am 2pm Non-Uniform day for Easter Hampers Prayer Group at Lysons Hall Easter Service at Church End of Term 4