Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter Headteacher: Ms Carol Brown Acting Deputy Headteacher : Miss Julia Ives
May 2014 Volume 5, Issue 9
Dear Parents
Contents: Sports Day
2
School council letter 3 Sickness procedures 3 Dressing up
3
School Nurse Drop-in 4 Diary Dates
4
Celebration Assembly Dates Celebration Assembly Dates
23rd May - Yr 3 17th January ~ Yr 5
6th June - Arts week 24th January ~ Yr 6
13th31stJune - ~Yr 4 January Reception
20th June - Yr 5 27th June - Yr 6
This half term has been so short, it feels strange to be heading for half-term already! We have all had 5 action packed weeks, filled with fun learning, lots of sports as well as assessment activities and tests. The children have embraced the challenges with good humour and lots of perseverance! Staying safe Last week, we welcomed Cara, our special community team police officer, to talk to our children about keeping safe. The key messages were: never to give personal information to someone you don’t know, face to face or on-line; never talk to a stranger and if you are approached by a stranger to go to a safe place – home, or a shop if in town and seek help. With the evenings getting lighter and (hopefully) warmer, children need to be aware of keeping safe when they are out and about. Please help us to keep the playground safe for everyone at the beginning and end of the school day. No scooters to be ridden on the playground, no dogs to be brought inside the school grounds. There have been some very near misses reported on the playground at the end of the day while parents wait for children to come out of classes and Little Birch pre-school. Our children know not to take equipment from the PE shed, even so this will be locked at the end of the school day to remove temptation and prevent accidents. Thank you for your cooperation. A reminder that the road outside school is a 20 mph limit for a reason. For all our children’s safety, don’t speed! Also, advance warning, the local council have informed us that a North Dorset Parking Warden will be reviewing the parking in Birch Avenue in the near future, and will be issuing tickets to cars parked in the wrong place. International Arts Week Our theme this year is South America. Each class will be learning about a different country in South America and there will be opportunities for creative work in mixed classes. If you would like to help on the Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon after half term, please speak to your child’s class teacher. Dads behaving dadly! Calling all dads, grandads and uncles! Trevor (Chair of FoS) is organising a working party to clean up the school hedges on Saturday 7th June from 10-2. Please come and help, bring a rake/fork/shears – bacon butties and lots of tea will be provided!
Carol Brown
Page 2
Volume 5, Issue 9
Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter
Notice Board Sports Day Sports Day this year is on Friday 23rd May and the details are as follows; Lunchtime We would like to invite parents to join us for a picnic on the field where the children will be taking either their packed lunch or school meal outside. This however will be weather dependent. Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 The younger children will be taking part in their carousel of sporting activities on the school field from 10.00am to 11.30am and then compete in running races before lunch. You are welcome to come and cheer them on and enjoy the competition. Years 3, 4, 5 & 6 The older children will begin their competition at 1.15pm. Events will happen on the track, on the field and on the Astroturf. Your children should be able to explain to you which event or events they are in – however the timings need to remain flexible in order to help the event run smoothly. You will find when you arrive that the viewing areas for spectators are marked out with yellow cones – we would really appreciate it if you could keep to these areas to help the event run as smoothly as possible. The children will also have their own areas to move around in for exactly the same reasons. We will endeavour to finish on time for the end of school – but I somehow feel it is inevitable that we may run a little over time at the end! Thanks for your support in this! Please ensure that your children have a hat, sun cream and an extra bottle for water to use on the playing field-we don’t want the day ruined by dehydration and sun-stroke! The children will be seated under cover when they are not competing in events. We hope you have a great time and come along to soak up the atmosphere on Friday.
We would like to say a very big THANK YOU to both Morrisons and Tesco for donating the ice lollies we will be selling. We are very grateful for their wonderful generosity.
Volume 5, Issue 9
Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter
Page 3
Letter from the school council Dear Parents/Carers, We are raising funds to contribute to the whole school trip to the seaside. We are organising a cake sale and we will need LOTS of cakes! If you could bake or buy some cakes for us to sell that would be very helpful. Please could all cakes be brought into the school hall on Friday 13th June. The sale will take place after school on that day. Thank you so much From School Council
Sickness procedures Please can we ask that if your child is absent from school due to sickness and/or diarrhoea , that you adhere to the NHS guidelines as quoted below; “Vomiting and diarrhoea. Children with these conditions should be kept off school. They can return 48 hours after their symptoms disappear. “
We do understand that this can be very frustrating as it is quite possible that your child will not have any symptoms during that time, but for the health and wellbeing of the whole school, we really do ask that you follow this guidance. As always we do our best to keep your children safe and healthy whilst they are with us and this will help us enormously with preventing the spread of nasty germs. As always, please can you phone the school office to inform us if your child is going to be absent from school. Many thanks
Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter Blandford St Mary Primary School Phone: 01258-453331 Fax: 01258-455865 Email: office@blandfordstmary.dorset.sch.uk
Website : www.blandfordstmary.dorset.sch.uk
Dressing up If anyone has any children's dressing up clothes that are in good condition and are no longer wanted, we would be very grateful if you would donate them to the school for use in the Reception and keystage 1 classes. The children love to dress up and this is something that we can never have too much of, so please bear us in mind when you are having a clear out.
Drop--In School Nurse Drop
The next School Nurse drop in is on Monday 9th June at 8.50am. Please let the office or one of the class teachers know if you would like to make an appointment to see Sarah. You can also just pop in on the day.
Many thanks
School Diary Dates: Friday 23rd May ~ Sports day Monday 26th May - Friday 30th May ~ Half Term Monday 2nd June ~ Children return to school Monday 2nd June - Friday 6th June ~ International Arts week Saturday 7th June ~ FOS Dads behaving dadly! Wednesday 18th June - Friday 20th June ~ Leeson House Friday 20th June -Monday 23rd June ~ Little Canada Friday 27th June ~ FOS Non school uniform (tombola donation) Saturday 28th June ~ FOS Summer fair Friday 4th July ~ School closed (Staff training) Friday 18th July - Sunday 20th July ~ Year 5 Camp Monday 21st July ~ Whole school Beach trip Tuesday 22nd July ~ Last day of term - Leavers service 1.15 pm Tuesday 22nd July ~ School finishes at 2.15 pm