Green Park Community Primary and Nursery School Monday 23rd January 2012
Dear Children, Parents and Carers,
We have received a number of requests from parents regarding holiday dates for the next academic year. I have now had the opportunity to confirm the dates and the final version accompanies this newsletter. A copy of the dates is also available via the school website. Please note the school will be closed on Thursday 3rd May for local elections.
A big thank you to all the families who have sent in good quality unwanted books. We have had a great response and many of the books are now in the school libraries and being used by the children. I am delighted to tell you that we have also recently purchased much needed new reading books for school. School Governors have been very generous in allocating funding for these wonderful new resources. These books will be used for our guided reading sessions which take place in school. Reading is an essential skill for all of us and is currently very important on the current national agenda. This is reflected in the new national phonics test which will be introduced for children in Year 1 this June. It will provide the Government with the information needed to monitor standards in reading within individual schools and across the country. In response to this all our pupils now have a daily phonics lesson and a weekly guided reading session where teachers are able to ensure the children are using their grasp of phonics to develop their reading skills. I would like to ask for your help to enable us to have all the most up to date books for our children. To raise much needed funds we will be holding a sponsored reading event at the beginning of March (details to follow). We hope you will be able to rally family members to support us so we can continue to update our reading books and give our children the best possible start in life. Thank you in anticipation of your support.
This is a big year with the 2012 Olympic Games just around the corner. To ensure the children understand the importance of having such a wonderful event in our own country we will be arranging a host of activities during the build-up. We have three children in Year 6 who are acting as Olympic Ambassadors and working closely with pupils from other local schools to organise events and activities. We are planning to have an Olympic themed week in June when we will be taking part in activities with the children from St. John Bosco School.