Week beginning 27th February 2023
PTA Disco: firstly, thank you to our wonderful PTA for organising the school discos on Friday night. The children all appeared to be having a great time and we hope they enjoyed dancing the night away with their friends. It is shared experiences like these that help to build ‘connections’ – one of the 5 ways to Wellbeing all whilst raising much needed funds for the school. Thank you to Steph Roach and her team of helpers and volunteers for making events like this possible.
National Thinking Day
On Wednesday, our Unformed Organisations came to school, proudly whilst appreciating other countries and cultures, and increasing awareness on global issues. Here they all are, looking splendid!
Book Week: thank you also to the wonderful author Paul Geraghty who spent the day with us on Friday inspiring the children; filling the hall with laughter and fun. This was the perfect way to launch our book week which starts on Monday.
During the week the children will be having lots of opportunities to read for pleasure and to take part in fun events including: a decorated cake competition (children to decorate a cake linked to a book) These should be brought to school on Monday and, after being judged for prize winners, will be sold after school at a cake sale. The profit from this event will be used to purchase new reading books for the children so please do support if you can!
On Wednesday, at 2:40pm, parents are invited to come and join their child in class for a ‘STOP EVERYTHING AND READ’ session! (This will be on Friday at 2:40pm for the children in Year 2 due to afternoon swimming lessons) We love seeing families share a book together and what better role models could we provide to our children than letting them see our school community PACKED with adults and children who love reading.
Lastly, on Friday, the children may wish to come to school dressed as a character from a book. Staff and children participate in this event, if your child wishes to join in with this, we would love to see them in their costumes.
There will also be an ongoing opportunity moving forward for children in Years R, 1, 2 and 3 to attend a reading club on a Wednesday lunchtime. This is being led by some of our children in Year 6 (and Mrs Sinclair) who will listen to the younger children in our school read. Please do encourage your children to attend every now and then! Our enormous thanks go to Mrs Farr, our Reading Lead for organising what we know will be a very exciting and fun week.
CSMA Infant and Junior Choirs: our Infant and Junior CSMA choirs both have a rehearsal at The Fairfield Halls on Tuesday the 28th. You will have received a letter about this from Miss Slade with further details. The Junior rehearsal is in the morning from 10:00-12.30pm and the Infant rehearsal is in the afternoon from 1:00-3:00pm. They will be travelling on public transport to and from this event. If you are available to be a parent helper on these visits please do make yourself known to us. Thank you. Tickets for these events are now on sale via the Fairfield Halls and can be purchased on line or by telephone.
National Offer Day: Wednesday 1st of March is national offer day where our Year 6 children find out their secondary school. Once we know where children will be heading in September, we begin to support the transition process with our local schools. Please do reach out to us if your child is upset with their allocated school so we can provide them with emotional support.
NEU Strike: on Thursday 2nd March, there is a possibility that our school may be impacted by the NEU teacher industrial action. A full risk assessment is being conducted at present to ascertain if the school can open or partially open, safely. We will confirm arrangements with you as soon as we possibly can. This can be tricky to do as staff members are not required to disclose their intention to strike. We will be in touch again.
Swimming Gala: on Friday, some children will be participating in the Croydon School’s swimming Gala at Trinity School. Those who have been selected have received a letter notifying them of arrangements for this event. Our thanks go to Miss Browne and Mrs Aamir for the hard work that has been put into preparing the children for this event. Go team Hayes! Be the Best you can be!
Calm Club: lastly, we are delighted to let you know about a new lunch time club which has been arranged by our AMAZING Year 5 Mental Health Champions. This club is called the CALM CLUB and it provides a safe and quiet place for children to stop in during the lunch hour if they have any worries or problems during the lunch break (12:30-1:10pm). Before the half term, our mental health champions undertook research with children across the school about what helps them to calm down when they are worried, anxious or upset. They then placed an order for some items including worry monsters, fiddle toys, yoga equipment, a speaker (to listen to relaxing/meditation music) colouring materials and jigsaws among other things. Many thanks to our PTA for their generous donation which has funded this initiative, thank you. Children can self-refer if they feel they need support or be encouraged by staff to attend if they are dysregulated in their behaviours.
At all times the club will have a Mental Health First Aider on site (Mrs Olley or Mrs Rich) to support the children. We are really proud of our mental health first aiders for leading this peer support across the school, they are willingly giving their time (one day a week) to support others. Future Leaders no doubt!
Many, many thanks also to Mrs Olley and Mrs Rich who are the pioneers behind this!
Have a great rest of the weekend. Thank you for your ongoing support.
The Hayes Team
