Cranbrook Church of England Primary School

NEWSLETTER

January 2010

Happy New Year to everyone!    Welcome to a rather cold start to Term 3.   When the weather is cold and icy please make sure that your children are wearing suitably warm clothing and appropriate footwear for the conditions.  We will continue to go outside at playtimes if it is safe to do so, so the children will need warm clothing.   2010 2010 will mark the 25th anniversary of the school moving to its current site from the Victorian building near the church.  We will be planning some special events to mark this anniversary and we also want to make 2010 a Year of Reading.  The school has worked hard over recent years to ensure that the children achieve well in English and as a result their attainment in reading and writing is now above national averages.    It is important that we keep this going, which is why we intend to have a renewed focus on reading in 2010.  Get involved with your child’s reading; encourage and support them in learning to read as much as you can.  The ability to read well is such an important life skill, as well as being fun.  Watch out for more information and activities linked to reading, and why not make a New Year’s resolution to make more time for reading yourself.  There is such a wealth of adult and children’s literature available and we are lucky that the language of our culture is a worldwide language.    Healthy School Status The school is undertaking a self-review of our Healthy Schools status this term and this has to be externally assessed to enable us to continue to be a Healthy School.  It is important that children know how to stay healthy and safe.  You can help by reinforcing the importance of regular exercise and healthy eating.  If your child has a packed lunch, please try to ensure that the contents are healthy and well balanced.  The kitchen cooks an excellent meal every day; why not encourage your child to have school meals, particularly during these wintery months?  Encourage your child to participate in the many extra-curricular sporting activities that are available.   Perhaps the New Year is a good time to try something new.  For example, we could do with more girls in our football clubs.    If you don’t already, try to find more opportunities to walk to school.  If you have to drive, try parking at the Co-op and walking the rest of the way, which also helps us to keep our drive from clogging up with traffic.    Finally, please remember that the children are only allowed a healthy snack at morning break times: either a piece of fruit or vegetable.  Sweets, chocolate bars, biscuits and crisps are not allowed.    Playground Improvements One of our immediate priorities is to improve the play and sports facilities available on our playgrounds.  We have set aside a budget to do this, and we have also been promised help from the Friends, following their recent fund raising events.  Thanks also to those who have supported our Cash for Schools application to the Courier.  The Courier has awarded us £500, which will also help us.  The Friends have already funded the remarking of our netball court and new netball posts, so many thanks to them for that.  Playtimes offer important opportunities for the children to be physically active.   A separate message from the The Friends:   Cash for Schools Competition We were runners up in the Cash for schools competition-winning £500 towards school funds. Thank you to everyone who voted using the coupons and texting. A huge thank you to Marc at Phillips Man's shop for once again collecting tickets and Rowling class were the winners of the "collect the most coupons" inter-school competition with 33 coupons being returned. A prize will be awarded to the class from the PTFA.   School Closures Unfortunately, we have had to close again due to the extreme weather conditions.  We aim to keep the school open as much as possible, but when the roads are unsafe it poses a real problem for many staff who have to travel to work by car.    If the school has to close you can find the information in the following ways:   ·        School telephone message by ringing 01580 713249 ·        Our website: www.cranbrookprimaryschool.org ·        BBC Radio Kent ·        www.kmfm.co.uk ·        Radio Heart FM.   Attendance, sickness and holidays Generally our attendance statistics are improving and many children have very good records of attendance and punctuality.  We recently awarded certificates to the majority of the children for achieving 100% attendance during terms 1 and 2 and one lucky person won a prize.   Children’s learning and their life chances are significantly improved when they come to school every day.    Sadly there are still a small number of our pupils whose rate of attendance is unacceptably low and this is going to damage their education!  Children are only at school for 190 days of the year.  They should not miss a day unless it is unavoidable.  If you want your child to learn to read, write and develop important basic maths skills, which they will need in order to be able to contribute the economy and gain employment one day, BRING THEM TO SCHOOL!   If your child is sick and cannot attend school, please make sure that you notify the school office at the earliest opportunity.  This will also ensure that you do not receive a call from us.  When your child has been ill, please do not send them back to school until they have had at least a day free of symptoms.  This will help to prevent illnesses spreading.   We do not authorise holidays during term time unless the circumstances are exceptional.   Walk on Wednesday Congratulations to Rowling Class for winning the WOW trophy for the highest number of walkers between September and December.  They will be presented with the trophy shortly and will be able to display it in their classroom.  Despite the snowy start to this term, WOW will be continuing right up to the end of the school year.  Please try to walk to school or park the car away from the school gates to walk the last 10 minutes of the journey.  We count the number of walkers each Wednesday and then record the figures to find out which class will winthe trophy each term.  The children are also rewarded with a sticker to place in their Tally Cards.  By participating in WOW, we are trying to encourage children to take exercise, keep the traffic away from the school gates and help reduce pollution.  Thank you for all your support.  Keep walking!   Book Week Book Week will take place during the week March 1st – 5th. We are all really looking forward to it and there will be lots of exciting activities to take part in. The theme for the week is Theatre and the dressing up assembly will be on World Book Day which is on the Thursday, March 4th - we are looking forward to seeing lots of characters from the theatre. Remember, this can cover things like pantomime, musical theatre (Cats/Grease/Lion King etc) and dance. We would also like to run a second hand book sale on the Friday (March 5th) in order to raise funds for renewing library books. So, please, if you are having a post Christmas sort out of books, please send in any that are appropriate for children and in good condition. Many thanks!   Pupil Data Collection Sheets Mrs Bussey will be issuing these to all parents/carers shortly, please update information where applicable.  It is imperative that all children have correct emergency contact details in place and, that we also have all other fields shown on this sheet completed.  In particular, it would be extremely helpful if you could include your email address in order that we can send you electronic copies of letters and newsletters.  A letter was sent to all parents/carers requesting their email particulars in 2009 but only a small percentage responded.   Minutes of Parents Forum Held on Friday, 11th December 2009 The theme of this Forum was Road Safety and we were pleased to welcome Alan Stark, Community Warden who gave us important information and advice on how to protect our children and ourselves on the roads.  Nationally, 8 to 10 people die on the roads every day and 37 under 18s are killed or injured every week in the UK on the roads.   Alan has already given a talk to our Year 6 pupils about being safe on the roads.    Statistically, Year 7 pupils are most at risk on the roads as they start secondary school.  Alan stressed how important it is for primary school pupils to be taught how to be safe walking to school, to be aware of how to cross a road safely and how it is important to ‘be bright, be seen’, especially in the dark winter months.  The guidance is that all under 5 year olds should hold the hand of an adult by the road.   Other important advice was:  to always turn your mobile phone off when planning to drive the car, make sure that all passengers wear a suitable seat belt, and always make sure that you keep within the speed limit and make sure your children know how to be safe pedestrians.  He strongly advised all year 6 pupils to take their cycling proficiency course and the school is planning to offer this in due course.   The next Parents’ Forum will be held on Friday, 22nd January at 9am to10.15am in the Out of SchoolBuilding.We hope to see as many parents and carers as possible as we want to discuss ‘The Year of Reading’ in 2010 at Cranbrook CE Primary and also how we can celebrate our 25th anniversary.  Come and have a chat and a cuppa and a friendly welcome!  Also please spread the word to other parents as we really want to get as manyparents involved in the school as possible.   Unwanted Christmas Presents! We would be delighted to receive any unwanted Christmas presents and other saleable items to keep for our Charity Week sale to raise money for our friends in Malawi. Please drop them into the box in the main entrance. Many thanks in advance!   Primary Eye School Magazine Thanks to everybody who bought a Primary Eye at the end of last term. There are still a few copies available from the office if you missed out - only £1.50 each.   Dates for your diary Wednesday 13th January 09.30 – Carle Class school photograph for Kent Messenger – children please to be smart in school uniform. Thursday 21st January 15.45 - New Age Kurling festival for years 3 and 4 at HomewoodSchool Friday 22nd January 09.00 Parents’ Forum in the Out of School Club Thursday 28th January 15.45 - Indoor Athletics festival for years 5 and 6 at HomewoodSchool Monday 8th February 15.45 - Dance Festival for years 3, 4 and 5 at HomewoodSchool Thursday 4th February 14.45 - Showing Assembly – Carle and Lewis Tuesday 9th February 09.00 - Class Led Assembly – Morpurgo Thursday 11th February 14.45 - Showing Assembly – King-Smith Friday 12th February END OF TERM 3 – SCHOOL CLOSES AT NORMAL TIME Tuesday 23rd February BEGINNING OF TERM 4

 

 

 

 

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