Week Beginning 13th September
WELCOME BACK!
Welcome back everybody. We hope you have had a great summer holiday and more importantly a great first week back at school. We have thoroughly enjoyed welcoming all of our children back to school and welcoming our new starters in Reception and across the school. They have settled well in their new classes and we are excited for another fantastic year of learning and fun!
POM POMS: many of you have commented on the beautiful display of Pom Poms outside the front of the school and we thank our brilliant PTA for organising this. We also thank the many children and families that have spent time making a Pom Pom. This installation is in memory of those near and far who have lost their lives to Covid - the flowers who will not bloom again, but whose memory will continue to bring joy to those who love them.
Please can we ask that children do not walk through them as tempting as that might be because some are getting a little damaged. We are still collecting Pom Poms and if your child wishes to make one, we will happily accept it and add it to the display. Please drop them of in the Pom Pom box located just inside the foyer.
STAFFING CHANGES: we would like to congratulate Miss Smallwood who has been successfully appointed as our Infant (Years 1 and 2) Phase Leader. She has over 12 years’ experience in teaching these year groups and has previously performed the role of a Phase Leaders, we know that she will make an excellent addition to our leadership team. We also welcome Mrs Noel to our staffing team who has joined our support staff and will be working in Rainforest class this term. Mrs Noel also has many years of experience of working in Early Years settings and we know that she will also be a great addition to our team. We trust that you will give her a warm welcome to our school community when you meet her.
EXTRA CURRICULAR CLUBS: we are now in a position to restart many of our extra-curricular activities, something that we were not able to do last year. Please view our website for a list of clubs available and information on how to register interest. For many of the clubs, you will need to contact the organiser directly, for others, please enrol via ParentPay. Thank you.
VACANCY: we are currently seeking to appoint a new member of staff to work in our After-School Club provision. This role would suit somebody looking for a term time only job between the hours of 3-6pm, Monday to Friday. Previous experience of working with children is desirable. A full induction programme and safeguarding training will be offered and you would be subject to enhanced DBS checks. If this role is of interest to you, please email head@hayesprimaryschool.croydon.sch.uk to express an interest and to obtain further information.
START AND END OF THE DAY: please can we politely request that you refrain from dropping children off in the playground before 8:45am. Prior to this, the playground is unsupervised and this places your child at risk. The doors are open for the children to come in to school from 8:45- 9:00am and this is when children should be arriving at our premises. Please can we also ask parents to refrain from pressing their face up to the windows to peek inside or banging on the classroom windows to gain the children’s attention during learning time. This is very distracting to our staff and children and we thank you in anticipation of your support in this matter. This week we have experienced this in Years 1, 2 and 4. Additionally, when collecting your children at the end of the day, please can we ask that you stand back towards the stage/field area. This makes it easier for our teachers to spot you and release your child. When crowds gather too closely it is very difficult for us to see beyond those who are standing very close up. Thank you for your support in this matter.
JEANS FOR GENES: as you will have seen from the separate school newsletter, on Monday 13th we are hosting our Jeans for Genes day. Your children may come into school in jeans on the bottom half but should wear normal school uniform on the top half along with regular uniform shoes. We politely ask that your £1 donations are paid via Parent pay as we are a cashless organisation. ALL monies raised will be given directly to the Jeans for Genes charity. During the morning, all children from Years 1-6 will have a special assembly to explain more about why they are wearing their jeans and how their donations will support those living with genetic disorders. Reception children are not expected to participate in this event as it is their first day at school and we know that the buttons on jeans can be a little fiddly for them to manage but they may, of course, join in if they wish too.
SPANISH DAY: on Friday 17th we will be hosting our whole school Spanish day to launch our new Modern Foreign Languages curriculum. Up until this year we have taught the children to speak French but following parent consultation, we will now begin to teach Spanish. To launch this new curriculum, the children are welcome to wear anything in the colours of the Spanish flag (Red and Yellow) or dress up in a Spanish costume (e.g. flamenco dancer, matador, footballer- Spanish) and they will experience a taste of Español at lunch time with traditional paellas (meat and vegetarian). They may also have a Spanish flag face painted on their cheeks at lunch time too. In addition, they will have a workshop with a native Spanish speaker, who also runs our afterschool Spanish club. We are asking parents for a small donation of £1 per child to cover the costs of this event and thank you in advance for your support.
MISSING BOOKS: please can we urge all parents to have a good look around at home for any reading books that you may still have following the school closures. Our reading scheme is somewhat depleted at the moment and we are hoping this is because the children may still have some school books at home. If you find any please return them via your child to their new class teachers…no questions asked! Thank you.
PE KITS: thank you to those parents who took the time to respond to our Doodle Poll on the issue of changing for PE. This was as a result of many parents requesting that we maintain the practice of children wearing PE kits to school on their PE days. Of the 249 responses we received, 203 (82%) of parents prefer their child/ren to change for PE at home rather than in school. Consequentially from next week, the children may come to school on their PE days wearing their PE kit. However, I must stress that this should be the full school PE kit as detailed below:
*White Shorts;
*White T-Shirt with school logo or Plain white;
*Plimsolls or Trainers (trainers required for outdoor PE sessions);
*Plain dark jogging bottoms;
*Grey sweatshirt (M&S- logo) or plain grey sweatshirt for cold weather.
Towards the end of last year, in some cases this was not adhered to and some children were turning up to school in mufti clothes or branded clothing such as Nike tracksuits. This is not acceptable and children not wearing full uniform PE kits will be provided with a replacement kit from the school spares and you will receive communication from the school to remind you of the uniform expectations. Last year we were lenient because we know that Covid made it difficult to get certain bits of uniform – this is not the case now. Thank you for your support.
In requesting your feedback, we also had some pleas from parents to change our uniform from white shorts to black shorts. We are aware that most of you have already purchased your uniform for the coming year and, as such, we will be sticking with white shorts this year. However, we are happy to make an amendment to our PE uniform as of September 2022 when we will switch from white to black shorts. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback.
That just leaves us to say, have a fabulous weekend and stay safe!
Thank you for your ongoing support.
The Hayes Team
