Week beginning 16th September 2024
Week beginning Monday 16th September 2024
How lovely it has been to have the children back in school for a full week and to welcome our new reception starters who are settling in really well. We have been so impressed with how quickly they are adapting to their new environment and building relationships with staff and peers. During the children’s first few weeks in Reception, they will be participating in a Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) this is statutory in all maintained schools and consists of a short, interactive assessment of the children’s early literacy, language and mathematics skills. It is not about judging or labelling the children in any way but serves to provide a starting point from which we can measure the progress that children make during their time at our school. To find out more about this, you may wish to use the following link to access information for parents: Reception baseline assessment: information for parents - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
On Tuesday 17th of September, we invite parents of new reception starters to join us for a meeting about ‘How we learn in Reception’. This will begin at 6pm in the school hall (not 9am) and is an optional meeting for those of you who would like to know more about how learning is structured in the Early Years. There will be a short talk from the Reception team and then an opportunity to visit the classrooms to see the planned learning set out for the next day.
From Wednesday 18th, we will be starting our collection for the Harvest festival. There will be a collection box on the front gate and we welcome donations of non-perishable food items or toiletries that we will use in our Harvest assembly before we donate these to The Purley Food Hub in order to support local families facing hardship. We thank you in advance of your kindness and generosity.
Wednesday the 18th is also World Fitness day and we request that all children wear their PE kits to school. To remind all families, PE Kits are plain, dark jogging bottoms or shorts with a plain white round neck T-shirt. This can be accompanied by a plain grey sweatshirt or a logo grey sweatshirt. Please do ensure your children are wearing the correct kit. If you require support in obtaining school uniform, please do speak to us and we will be happy to assist. On this day, children will all be taking part in some exciting workshops to learn some new and engaging playground games that promote physical activity. We hope the children will be able to play these games for months to come!
We still have spaces remaining in some of our extra-curricular clubs. If your child is interested in joining any of our extracurricular programmes, please do check out the timetable on our school website. School clubs are bookable on ParentPay and external clubs are booked via the club organiser directly. Please note, chess club is now open to children in Year 3 and above. If your child is eligible for the Pupil premium grant and affordability is an issue, please do contact Mrs Olley or Mrs Sinclair to discuss this.
We were so pleased to see, when we returned from the summer break, that the yellow lines on the corner of Steyning Close had been extended onto Hayes Lane. This makes the journey to and from school so much safer for our children as it improves visibility at this junction for those crossing the road. Unfortunately, we are noticing that a small minority of people are still parking on these lines. This is resulting in a number of complaints coming into school from other parents and local residents. Please can we urge you not to park on the double yellow lines because not only is it an infringement of the law, it hinders our children’s safety.
On Friday 20th we are participating in a Jeans for Genes event to raise money for the 1 in 17 children in the UK living with a genetic difference. We will have a special assembly to raise awareness of genetic differences and encourage the children to wear something denim (jeans, shorts, skirt etc) on their bottom half with their usual school uniform on the top half. In exchange, we ask for a voluntary donation to the charity of £1 which can be paid on ParentPay. Thank you for your support.
Swimming pool update: As you are aware, we have experienced a mechanical fault with our swimming pool. The replacement parts needed have been ordered but may take 3-5 days to be delivered and installed. We expect the pool to be out of use next week until we have been able to conduct the necessary repair works. If we are able to open the pool any sooner, we will of course let you know. We apologise for this interuption to your children's swimming lessons and would like to reassure you, we are doing all we can to fix this problem as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
Lastly, thank you for your patience at the start and end of the school day while the children are learning their new routines and adapting to their new entry and collection points. To help make this as smooth and as efficient as possible, please can we ask that Reception children are dropped off as quickly as possible. If you would like to talk to the teacher, the end of the day can be a better option once all of the children have been dismissed. Please can we also ask parents collecting junior children from the playground to stand back and not gather too close to the building as this can make it difficult for staff to see parents standing behind. Thank you so much for your support with this matter.