Headteacher’s Newsletter  - April 2010
As we approach the Easter break we hope that all our children and families enjoy a safe and enjoyable holiday.  There are a number of reminders in this Newsletter and a lot that has happened at school over the last two terms to celebrate.

1.  Some Dates and Deadlines for Next Term

Letter Home	Subject	Response to school by
19/04/2010	Letter Yr 3 & 4 British Museum Trip on 10th May	Deadline for reply 30.04.10
23/04/2010	Accepting Reception 2010 places	Deadline for reply 23.4.010
26/04/2010	Letter to Reception 2010 + forms	Deadline 7.5.10 for uniform orders
	Uniform orders	Deadline 30.4.10 for uniform orders
	Uniform orders	Deadline 14.5.10 for uniform orders
08/06/2010	Music Concert  (22 June) Tickets	Deadline 14.06.10
	Uniform orders	Deadline 18.06.10 for uniform orders
25/06/2010	Yr 5 & 6 Play (14 & 15 July)	Deadline 2.7.10 for ticket request
28/06/2010	Junior Fruit Terms 1 & 2 Sep 10 Letter to current Yrs 2,3,4,&5	Deadline for reply 7.7.10
	Uniform orders	Deadline 16.07.10 for uniform orders

2.  Successes
The last two terms have seen many successes and developments:

• Year 3-4 Production – “Uncle Crumble’s Mad Machine” – a wonderfully lively and enjoyable set of performances this week.  Well done all.
• Community Involvement - Mrs Heffernan, together with Andy Larsen and Tracy Mills, has started an art club.  Due to the nature of this activity numbers were limited and we saw this as an opportunity for some of our more artistically inclined children to develop their interest further.  Thanks also go to parent (and local artist) James Knowles as he has led a project involving our art club and Westbank nursing home.  I would urge parents to visit: www.vimeo.com/9446092    (34. Joining Hands) to see a lovely video of old and young working together.
• Charities – Year 6’s mini-enterprise project (at Christmas) raised £160.  £100 was donated to Oxfam, £30 to Diabetes UK and the balance was used for refreshments to reward the children for their efforts.
  Demelza House - £566.51 (this doesn’t include the money collected this week from Yr 3 / 4 performances)
  Shelter Box Appeal – Hair for Haiti  £763.54 (this bought almost 2 shelter boxes)
  Marie Curie - Mini Pots of Care -        £462.27
  Thank you so much for your generosity.  Also, Dave Love has kindly done a brilliant job of recording our choir singing the Labi Siffre song, “Something Inside So Strong”.  This has been used as a backing track for a Haiti multimedia piece being produced by Miss Moat and children.  We hope to sell copies to raise further funds for Haiti.
• International Links – We have just established a new link with Gonnehem Primary School in northern France.  Year 6 are currently engaged in writing to our new friends and we hope to extend these links through Mrs Burdess.
• Various – Science Week, Theatre ADAD drugs education workshop for Year 6, two quiz teams took part in a local competition, yoga for kids has started, tag rugby festival participation, cross-country teams’ success, netball team – winners in local competition, many children achieving grades in music exams  (well done Beth Stay Y5 (Grade 1 Singing with

distinction).  Recently several Year 5 & 6 children enjoyed a very exciting Saturday afternoon participating in a set of Explorers Club Science Workshops.  This included activities linked to outer space, animals and the power of the human brain.  Thanks to those parents that were also involved.

• School Lunches - Recently we hosted 50 infant parents who sampled our school dinners – and gave lots of positive feedback.  For your information I’ve included one graph produced from a bigger NFER survey of 102 of our children.  This clearly shows how popular our school meals are compared with uptake in other schools

**   LCSP = Malling schools

3. Summer Holiday Developments –  Children’s Centre - There has been a national initiative to establish support services for families with children 0 – 5 years old.  These services work from Children’s Centre bases and there are over 100 of these across Kent.  This initiative is in its final phase and, from September 2010, there will be a Children’s Centre on our site which will utilise the current school office.  In September we will mix Years 5&6, the final stage in our school re-structuring.  This will then mean a classroom becomes vacant.   In the summer holiday we will convert Mrs Pilfold’s current classroom into a new, and better, school office.  The existing office will then be used by a range of services supporting families with 0-5s.  We hope that this will benefit families in Borough Green and surrounding areas.

4. Dinner Money
A reminder to you that dinner money is £1.95 per day or £9.75 per week.  For parents who prefer to pay weekly this should be sent in on a Monday morning in an envelope marked with their child’s/children’s name/s on and class.  For parents who pay for a term please note that bills are sent out in the first week of our return i.e. weeks commencing 19th April and 7th June.  The deadline for payment is 7th May and 25th June respectively.  We would respectfully request that parents adhere to these deadlines.

 

5. Communications - ParentMail - IMPORTANT
ParentMail was introduced some time ago and it is a system used by many schools.  We know it has its good and not so good points.  .  We are aware of some of these and will try to address any shortcomings.  Over the next year we are hoping that further improvements, related to remote access to school information, will be put in place, but we are constrained by available time/money.  However, for parents who have BT as their internet provider, you may find that ParentMail emails have been treated as “SPAM” emails since the beginning of March. If you are affected by this then you need to contact BT to confirm that you wish to receive communications sent by ParentMail.

6. Health & Safety

• Parking - All users of our site are responsible for ensuring they act so as to keep others safe.  We have regular KCC audits of H&S issues and one issue that is often checked is how we keep pedestrians and traffic separate.  As I reminded everyone recently – parents should not bring cars onto our site unless with prior agreement.

• Animals – once again, no animals should be on the site, other than guide dogs.

 

• Headlice and Threadworm - We have received reports of children having both of these common, but annoying, infestations.  The forthcoming holiday period would be a great time to treat these conditions, remembering that if your child is suffering from either the whole family needs to be treated.

• Lost Property - This continues to be a problem, often because so many items are not named.  Please try to ensure that anything that comes into school has your child’s name in it; this way mislaid items have a chance of being returned to their owners. Thanks.

 

7. Governor News
I am pleased to inform you that parent Donna Rayfield has become a Community Governor.  Donna is an active PA member and now brings both PA and governor roles together.

8. Parents’ Association & Centenary Preparations
I want to thank our PA Committee, and all the other helpers, for continuing to make ours such a successful Association.  I have been in discussions with the Committee as to how we might develop the  PA into the future.  I will write to parents after Easter to highlight some issues, and the PA will be surveying parents to see how they can broaden what they offer in terms of other support for parents.  Both the PA and I are concerned that we move with the times and the establishment of the Children’s Centre could tie in with PA developments.

Essentially, our PA members give precious time to supporting all of our children, and we want to make the best use of that time so that our efforts create the most impact.

Together with our Governors, the PA is now engaged in planning events for 2011, our centenary year.  Many thanks to all for this extra input.

Steven Gorst