Week beginning 12th September 2022
Welcome back to one and all and a special welcome to all of our new children and families in Reception and across the school. We hope your children have had a great start to the school year and that they have settled quickly with their new class teachers. From Monday, the children will all be in school full time including our Early Years pupils.
It is with much sadness that yesterday, we learned about the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. This morning we had a full assembly to celebrate her life and the amazing impact that she has had on our nation in her time as Queen. We will contact you as soon as we know the Local Authority’s plans for schools regarding any further actions.
Start of the day: we would like to start this week’s bulletin by clarifying the reasons behind the change of coming into school in the mornings. Following the disruption caused by COVID, the government have instructed all schools to ensure that children are in school for a minimum of 32.5 hours each week. To ensure that this takes place at The Hayes we can no longer offer a staggered start. Children must be in school from 8:45 until 3:15 each day. This maximises the learning opportunities available to them and ensures that all children have a full and exciting day of learning with lessons starting promptly as soon as all children are through the classroom door. Miss Slade has written a letter regarding this which will be emailed later this weekend.
Free School Meals: please can we ask all parents and carers to check their eligibility for free school meals using the following link Free School Meal Eligibility Checker (lgfl.org.uk). Even if your child is in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2, where they are eligible for universal free school meals, please use the checker as if they are eligible, this will generate additional funding (Pupil Premium Grant) for your child which can be used in school to support their learning.
Learning: you will soon receive a class letter about arrangements for your child’s year group. This will outline which days swimming and PE will take place and let you know what the children will be learning in each subject this term.
Disco: ticket sales are now live! Please click here.
Emails: during COVID to ensure teachers were contactable during school closures, class teacher email addresses were shared. This year, we shall no longer be using direct emails to teachers as a form of communication. This decision has been made because teachers cannot respond quickly due to their teaching commitments and we do not want important messages to get missed, which was a development area in our parent/carer questionnaire which will be shared with you, asap. Additionally, we can now meet face to face which is far better!
Mural: we are still collecting plastic bottle lids for the art work project – blue only please! Thank you.
National Teaching Assistant Day: on Friday next week, we celebrate National Teaching Assistant Day where we acknowledge the tremendous contribution our support staff team make. We are so lucky to have such a committed and hard working team of people who work tirelessly to support our children's learning and want them to know how much we value and appreciate their efforts.
Have a lovely weekend and take care!
The Hayes Team