Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter Headteacher: Mr Paul Lavis Deputy Headteacher: Mrs Sam Harris
11th February 2011 Volume 4, Issue 7 Contents:
Parents’ Evenings
2
Staff Training Dates
2
Sail Laser Offer
2
World Book Day
2
Class Attendances
3
Online Learning
3
Treehouse Theatre
4
Diary Dates
4
Upcoming Events • Mon 21st -Fri 25th FebHalf-Term • Thurs 3rd March - World Book Day • Mon 7th & Wed 9th March - Parents’ Evenings • 8th March-Shrove Tuesday • Mon 14th -Fri 18th March Enterprise Week • Friday 18th March - Red Nose Day
Dear Parents It’s wet, it’s windy... but at least there isn’t any snow! Hurrah! Busy It’s a very busy time at Blandford St Mary Primary School at the moment—school reports are being written, the children are beavering away at their studies and halfterm fast approaches. Some of the work that the children are producing is sensational, it really is—particularly their writing. Please have a surf of our website and see if you can catch up with some of it because it’s fantastic to see our children improving all the time. Responses Thank you for all the responses to the latest parent survey we posted on the school website—we had a fantastic response (some of which has a follow-up article inside the newsletter). Obviously the more of you who contribute the more effective our responses will be. Contribute Of course, if you want to contribute any thoughts or ideas at any time you can always drop in to the school office (my door is nearly always open!) or you can contact us via the school website—the governors are also reachable there too. Please make use of this facility if you feel you need to. Absence I’ve written many times about absence in the newsletter and with good reason. The link between good attendance and high
attainment is well documented. I’m pleased to say that at the moment we can judge this year’s attendance as ‘outstanding’ which is obviously great! Thank you for all of you for getting your children to school on time and on a regular basis. Please keep this up—it is having a wonderfully positive effect on the achievement of our children. However (there is always a however) - lateness is creeping up slightly and I’d like to put this right. Please make sure that your child is in school by 8.45am. Remember, our doors open from 8.30am so they are welcome from then. Regular lateness can cause all sorts of problems for our children—not least that they are starting the day behind everyone else: not a nice feeling!
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Volume 4, Issue 7
Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter
Parents’ Evenings These are being held for all year groups on the 7th and 9th March. Appointment sheets will be displayed in your Childs classroom from Monday 14th Feb. Please put your name down for the time that suits you. Alternatively if you are not able to come into school to do this, then please contact the office.
Please note that after school clubs will not be running that week.
Staff Training Dates Please be advised that we have two more staff training days due this school year as follows: Thursday 5th May 2011 Our school site has been requested for use on polling day and so we have arranged the above staff training day to coincide with this to minimise disruption. The second date is Friday 22nd July 2011
Dear Parents, It is World Book Day on Thursday 3rd March. World Book Day is celebrated in over 100 countries across the world as a worldwide celebration of books and reading. At Blandford St Mary Primary School we will be celebrating World Book Day with your children.
SailLaser SailLaser are offering us group bookings for taster sessions, which will cost £15 + VAT per person per session. Please give your Childs name to the office if this is something you would be interested in them taking part in.
We would like your child to come to school dressed as a character from a book (please ensure it is a book character and not a TV or sporting favourite!). During the day they will take part in a range of exciting book related activities. They will each be given a voucher that they can use in participating book shops to exchange for a free world book day book or have money off a book of their choice. We would also like you to be a part of this by coming in to hear a story being read to your Child’s class at the end of the day. If you could be at your child’s classroom door for 3pm this will allow you to participate in story time. I would also like to use this opportunity to offer time for you to come in and ask for advice about helping your child read. I will be available after school that day for any questions or practical advice for you. Best wishes
Sam Harris
Volume 4, Issue 7
Page 3
Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter
Class Attendances We haven’t had a look at these numbers for a while so I thought we’d look at the year so far! The results are pretty amazing and a huge improvement on last year!
1st
Year 1 96.71%
2nd
Year 4 96.61%
3rd
Year 2 96.36%
All of these figures should be considered outstanding—so well done!
Online Learning For Parents Through our most recent survey a significant number of parents or carers expressed an interest in some online learning in order to support your children at school. We are now in a position to provide some. The most popular request was in the area of maths and in calculation and problem solving in particular so this is where we will start! We will run 2 sessions both at 7pm. (see below). Remember, you will need a laptop and a broadband connection because you will be taking part away from school. The learning takes place in an online classroom where you can remain anonymous, watch and listen or take a more active role—it would be up to you! Please send an email to head@blandfordstmary.dorset.sch.uk if you would like to take part. We will need an email address so we can ‘invite’ you into the classroom! Session 1: Problem solving for ages 4-7— Wednesday 16th February Session 2: Problem solving for ages 8-12— Thursday 18th February
Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter Blandford St Mary Primary School Birch Avenue Blandford St Mary, Dorset DT11 9QD Phone: 01258-453331 Fax: 01258-455865
Website : www.blandfordstmary.dorset.sch.uk
KS2 Treehouse Theatre Workshop Day The Treehouse Theatre was awesome! Everyone had lots of fun. We also had a good laugh. We all needed to give a good thank you to Ben, the workshop leader, for teaching us an amazing play in a short time. Ben is also funny. He’s a great actor. The play was about the Tudor times with Henry the 8th.Everyone participated. We all worked well as a team. I want to do it again, but unfortunately we're moving up to the Blandford school so we wont be able to. Thanks Ben for the outstanding performance. By Ben year 6
Diary Dates: Monday 21st~Friday 25th February 3rd March 7th & 9th March 8th March Monday 14th ~ Friday 18th March Friday 18th March •
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Half-Term World Book Day Parents’ Evenings Shrove Tuesday Enterprise Week Red nose Day
Mon 14th -Fri 18th March Enterprise Week
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