Our Lady and St. Gerard s Primary School Newsletter Parents Evening The annual parents evening for children in Reception to Year 6 will be held on and Thursday 12th February from 3.20pm to 5.20pm. There will be an opportunity for you to have a look at your child s books before your appointment and they will be available in the hall. If you would like an appointment please contact your child s class teacher. Slips have been sent home giving your appointment time so please check your child s bag. please let us know on the reply slip. Mrs McNally will lead Miss Hothersall s parent evening appointments next week. Love Your Heart, Walk to School Well done to all the children who walked to school today. They have been awarded special badges for their involvement in this project. Please look for the next Walk to School date on the newsletter. Big Lottery Fund Recently we were awarded Big Lottery funding to develop the unused area next to the Reception. The work is now completed and looks very exciting. The Reception children have been outside in their wellies on a Bear Hunt and had great fun exploring the area. We hope to open this area up so it links to our existing Reception area very soon. It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that Miss Hothersall s partner tragically died in an accident earlier in the week. Miss Hothersall is being supported by her family and friends but I ask that you remember her in your prayers. We are currently looking at teaching options for Miss Hothersall s class and as soon as we have more information we will write to you. Issue 17 6th February 2015 Diary Dates Monday 9th February Fencing Club 8-9am Global Renewables workshop Y3/4H Football Club 3:15-4:15pm Safer Internet Day Parents Evening 3.20-5.20pm Wednesday 11th February Gymnastics Club 3:15-4:15pm Thursday 12th February Parents Evening 3.20-5.20pm Friday 13th February Running Club 2:15-3:15pm School closes 2.15pm Nursery Places If your child will be 3 years old in the academic year they will be entitled to 15 hours of free nursery education from the term after their third birthday. If you would like a nursery place in 2015-2016 it is important that you complete a nursery application form as soon as possible. These are available from the school office. In addition to the 15 hours free provision parents are allowed to pay for additional sessions at a cost of 12 per session and the lunch time charge is 3. If you would have applied for a place in the Summer Term 2015 these will be allocated after the February half term. Please remember that we are a healthy school and no sweets or crisps should be brought into school
Reminder About School Uniform Just a reminder that all children must wear the correct school uniform. Children must wear blue or black school shoes, please do not send your child in boots. Girls should wear white socks or grey tights and boys should wear grey socks. Just before Christmas we saw children wearing multi-coloured socks and this does not comply with our school uniform. Once again the number of items is lost property is being built up. Please ask your child to check the lost property if they have a missing item. These items will be disposed of if they are not claimed. School Links with Ghana You may remember that two of the staff were due to travel to Ghana on an exchange visit in November as part of a British Council project. Due to the concerns expressed by a very small minority of parents (approximately 2% ) about the Ebola crisis we decided to postpone the visit. Having assessed the Ebola situation there are still no cases of Ebola in Ghana and therefore we will be re-booking the flights. This project forms part of our international links project. There are a number of exciting projects taking place in school. The children in Year 5 and 6 have written poems to a school in Poland, we are establishing links with schools in Australia as part of our KS1 topic and the older children intend to write to children in France. Today we have had language students from UCLAN working with the children and we hope to be able to offer further language courses for our children in the future. Important Dates At present there are only a few dates in the diary for this half term. Please keep checking the website for other dates and events. Please remember that we also use our phone APP and Twitter to communicate with parents. Monday 9th February Global Renewables Workshop ~ Year 3/4H Thursday 12th February Friday 13th February Safer Internet Day Parents Evening (Reception - Year 6) 3.20-5.20pm Parents Evening (Reception - Year 6) 3.20-5.20pm School closes for half term at 2.15pm School Council Breakfast ~ Key Stage 1 ~ CANCELLED Sadly due to a lack of interest the School Council has had to cancel the forthcoming Key Stage 1 Breakfast. Placing God in our hearts we will love, live and learn.
Year 2 Competition Winners The Year 2 children have recently taken part in a competition to find a family member or friend who lived the furthest away who had looked at our school website. Our winners were very proud to receive an atlas and certificate.
Dear Parents and Carers, February 10th 2015 is Safer Internet Day, a day that is very important to our school and pupils. Safer Internet Day is run by the INSAFE network and is celebrated every year across Europe, and in other countries worldwide. In the UK, Safer Internet Day is organised by the UK Safer Internet Centre (www.saferinternet.org.uk), and this year s theme is Let s create a better internet together. Childnet International, who form part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, have produced an online safety presentation to help schools, parents and carers to support children and young people online. As part of the Computing curriculum, the children learn about the exciting possibilities of the internet as well as the possible dangers and difficulties using the internet can sometimes cause. Over the last couple of weeks each class has particularly focused on e-safety and we will be celebrating their work in a whole school assembly next Tuesday 10 th February. It is key that parents support their children whilst using the internet, but it can sometimes be difficult to know where to begin. Following this letter, you will find information and online resources which are extremely useful and provide a wealth of advice. There are also some suggestions as to how to begin conversations with your child about their use of the internet. We believe that internet safety education is a crucial element of the curriculum and an essential part of young people s development. We hope that you find this information useful. Yours sincerely J McNally Headteacher Further E-Safety Resources A Parent Factsheet and Conversation Starter advice sheet have been attached to parent emails along with the newsletter; these can also be found on our school website on the Computing page.