Week beginning 14th October 2019

Dear Parents/Carers

We had a wonderful Open Morning on Wednesday, the School Councillors and other Year 6 pupils ran tours, we had a presentation and had many new families.  Our next event is this week coming aimed at Preschool and Nursery aged children.

Football and Netball teams

Congratulations to both teams this week, who scored goals in both matches.  Great team work by them all.

Parent’s Together Group

We had the first Parent Together group this week, sadly only 2 parents were able to make it.  Let’s hope we have more people for the next meeting on 21st November at 9am and again at 7pm, it is a wonderful opportunity to discuss your child’s needs and get support to manage these.

Parent Workshops

This week sees the start of the Parent Workshops to help parents with supporting their child’s learning at home.  The events are published in the school calendar and are on the following dates:

            Reading - 17th October at 9am or 7pm

            Writing, including spelling - 24th October at 9am or 7pm

            Maths – 7th November at 9am or 7pm

Please sign up at the office.

Emergency Procedures at Ash Grange

Now the children have all settled in, it is time to practise our Emergency Procedures.  These will take place over the next 2 weeks and will prepare the children for an emergency.  We have three drills:

1. Fire Escape plan
2. Code Red – in case of an incident that requires the children to not be able to see proceedings, the children and staff go to the hall.
3. Code Purple – in case of an incident that requires the children and staff to stay safely in their locked rooms.

We are using everyday events as scenarios, e.g. Ambulance is coming to help someone and everyone needs to give the person privacy.  Or, a scared dog is in the school and we need to ask the animal rescue to come and take it home.  We are not raising stranger danger issues as we do not to alarm the children.

Uniform

The children are looking wonderful.  But lots of children have grown and some of the girl’s skirts are now too short.  Our policy is that all skirts must be knee length and I ask parents to ensure that their child’s is in accordance with school policy as soon as possible.  I remind parents that there are drawers full of uniform that has kindly been donated by parents, please help yourself.  

Harvest ‘Bring and Buy’ Sale

Y3 have been learning about the devastating effects of Hurricane Dorian which hit the Bahamas on 4th September 2019. Therefore, our Harvest Festival is a little different this year. We would like to help the people of the Bahamas who literally have nothing left except the clothes they stand up in, not even an airport to easily send supplies.

Therefore, instead of asking for food donations, we would like each child to bring in a toy that they are willing to give up. We will sell these in a ‘Bring and Buy’ sale and send all the money raised to help the Bahamas Disaster Relief Fund.

MORE ITEMS NEEDED!

If you have a toy that you would like to donate, please ensure it is in good condition and bring it in from week beginning Monday 7th October.

The ‘Bring and Buy’ Sale will be on the top playground after school: 3.20pm – 3.40pm on Monday 14th and Wednesday 16th October.  Each item will be 50p.

Marvellous Me

We now have 80% of parents/carers set up, do let us know if you are having any difficulties.  Remember this is vital to have in place for homework and celebrations to be shared.  Each week there will be a badge your child can earn and a learning activity that will be shared by the teacher so you know more about what your child has learnt.  

Eco Council

The first meeting of the new Eco Council took place on Monday, the minutes are attached but Lacey-Jo has written a short summary report:

On Wednesday we had our first Eco-council meeting. We talked about changes to the school.

We talked about changing the popcorn to making our own rather than buying popcorn in a bag. We decided to buy bigger bags of veggie straws so we can help make sure there is less plastic in the sea and to make sure the animals don’t eat it. We gave our own opinions to make the world a better place. We are going to make a compost box for all the food waste in the school. We are going to save energy by making sure the windows are shut when the heaters are on and turn off the lights if there is a lot of daylight. We are thinking about whether to go a litter picking and have made badges out of milk bottle tops they all represent that we are the eco-council members. There are 18 members in the eco-council. We are having our next eco-council meeting next half term. We have got our own books for the eco-council and we have filled out our first page of the book.

Guinea Pigs

Our new pets are settling in well, here’s a short report from William, who is a Head Vet:

Hello I’m William. I’m a Head Vet and we have new animals at Ash Grange they are Guinea Pigs. They are named Nugget and Willow. Nugget is golden and Willow is white black and golden they are very special and sweet and spoiled. They have a double storey mansion, a tunnel downstairs, a small hut for sleeping in and water and food – what more could you ask for. Here are the rules for ALL of the classes.

1)         If it’s not your turn and you come, you will not go when it is your turn

2)         Shhhh they don’t like noise

3)         Don’t pick them up without the head vets. If you don’t know who the head vets are they are William and Taizey.

Macmillan Coffee Morning with the PTA

We wanted to have a termly coffee morning and decided to link in with the Charity. So Clair Waterman has organised it so we receive a pack of resources to run a Macmillian Coffee Morning.  All monies will be given to the charity that supports so many in their time of need. 

Our event will be on: Wednesday 23rd October 2019 9am-10.30am

Who: Everyone is welcome, come and meet some new people and get to know the new families to the school.

Please bring along a cake or donation.

Half Term Treats

Please find attached details of the Lakeside Fun Day run by the Community Wellbeing team.

Kind regards,                          

Mrs Curtis

Week beginning 14^th October 2019

October is ADHD Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Black History Month

School Dinners - Week 3 Menu