Issue 15 2014-15

Newsletter Issue 15

Friday 19th December 2014

Dear Parent/Carer,

Thank you all so much for entering into the Christmas spirit this week through your attendance at the Christmas productions, providing festive clothing and bringing in tasty treats for the parties. Santa has made TWO appearances this week and to see the children’s faces was absolutely priceless.

Parking

Once again, the parking situation has hit crisis point with some inconsiderate drivers parking on the Zig Zags or even in the gateway to school, both areas being an absolute no-go. A delivery lorry for the school kitchen had to park on the Goldsmiths earlier this week because he could not get into the grounds which is totally unacceptable. Again, I must remind you that the Gardner’s Arms has an ample car park and with a little bit of efficient time management, will provide a much less stressful parking solution whilst we continue the building work. Thank you.

Building update

On a brighter note, we have now had the official handover of my Headteacher office and a new staffroom. The new staffroom is a welcome relief to all of us but I must congratulate all staff for their patience during this time. This means also that we will be able to move once more from the main school mall to the Year 3/4 corridor without having to go outside. Work on the hall will commence in the new year and we hope that there will be minimum disruption so that assemblies can still go ahead.

Staff update

We are sadly saying farewell to Mrs Chapman this term, who has been working with us as a Teaching Assistant in Reception. We are hoping however that it will be a temporary goodbye as Mrs Chapman may return in the Spring Term on a voluntary basis. We would all like to thank Mrs Chapman for her fantastic contributions to our school and in particular, the Early Years. We will be welcoming our new teaching assistant, Miss Hobson into Miss Mees’s class from January.

Lunchtime supervisor

We are looking to appoint a Lunchtime Supervisor to join our talented team as soon as possible. The lunchtime experience for our pupils has improved significantly since September and we would like somebody who has the energy and positive attitude to be able to make a difference for our children at this important time of the day. Please could you approach Mrs Smith in the school office if you are interested in this role and you feel that you may be a suitable candidate. Thank you.

Training day

Please remember that the first day back is a training day (5^th January). Teachers will be in school discussing ways to develop our Numeracy Curriculum.

School will re-open to the children on Tuesday 6^th January.

Moving forward and learning together

The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 11^th February in the hall at 8:15 a.m. The topic for discussion will be Reports and how to make them more user friendly. Please do come along and give your views. We will make arrangements for your children in school if they need to come along too.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all of you for your support this term; there have been so many changes to policies and practice driven by the government and with the major building works taking place, this term could have been much more challenging than it has. However, with everyone’s understanding and support, we have maintained our high professional standards and attitudes around the school have remained positive. I warmly thank all of you for that and hope that this continues into the new year.

 

PTA news

Well we managed it and it took a lot of persuading but Santa did take time out of his very busy schedule to hand out presents to everyone at the school on Wednesday.  I think it is safe to say EVERYONE, including the teachers enjoyed it I know I did! A huge thank you to everyone who has supported the PTA in 2014, whether that be as a volunteer or attending one of our events. As you all know without the volunteers to help organise and run the events none of them would happen.  We are at risk of not being able to hold as many events in 2015 as we have done in the past due to lack of volunteers in the background, so PLEASE make it your New Year’s resolution to give up ONE HOUR of your time in 2015 and ensure that YOUR children do not miss out on the wonderful memories we can create.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone and I look forward to seeing you all in 2015.

Mrs Dale

Issue 14 2014-15

Newsletter Issue 14

Friday 12th December 2014

Dear Parent/Carer,

Well, the weather has definitely taken a turn for the worse this week, which is typical given that the school office is now detached from the school whilst the new one is being built! Never mind, as with all aspects of the building process, we are taking the temporary changes in good spirit and ensuring that they don’t affect any aspect of our provision.

Reception have given two fabulous performances today to launch the start of our Christmas celebrations and I am very excited to see the rest of the school getting into the Christmas spirit next week.

It was lovely to see the KS1 children’s faces coming back from the Carriageworks theatre this week, having thoroughly enjoyed their pantomime visit to see “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”.

Christmas Cards

Please remember to ask your child to include full names and classes on the envelopes of Christmas cards.

Safeguarding

I will be announcing at the start of every performance that there are a small number of children in each year group whose parents have not allowed for their children to be photographed during the productions. In order to safeguard these children and respect the wishes of the families, our policy is that no filming or photographs can be taken during the performance but we certainly will allow time at the end of the performance for families to take photos of their children with friends and class teachers will be responsible for ensuring that those children without authorisation are not included in these photographs. Under no circumstances should photos containing other people’s children be posted on social networking sites or You Tube. This is in line with other Leeds schools. Thank you for your cooperation.

New look newsletters

From the beginning of the Spring Term, there will be slight changes to the way we share news with parents. You will still receive a weekly newsletter, however this will be an A5 sheet with information regarding the phase highlights of the week, information about what your child will be learning the following week, how you can support them at home in this learning, key reminders and a section for Headteacher items which are relevant to the whole school. In addition to this, we are aiming to provide you with a glossy school “round up”, which shows in pictures and text the significant and brilliant learning and events that take place at Robin Hood retrospectively at the end of each term.

Tickets

Please, please, please don’t forget your tickets for the productions that you are attending. If you do, we will need to ask that you wait to the side until everyone is in so that we can check that the allocated seats are available. Apologies if this sounds pedantic but otherwise it makes a mockery of the ticketing system being in place in the first place!

Sickness and diarrohea

Please observe our policy on sickness and diarrhoea by keeping your child off school for 48 hours in the event of sickness and/or diarrhoea. Thank you.

Assembly dates for Spring 1

Wednesday 14^th January- Nursery (1) Assembly    Friday 16^th January- Nursery (2) assembly

Friday 23^rd January- Year 3/ 4 assembly

Friday 30^th January- KS1 assembly

Friday 6^th February- Year 5/ 6 assembly

Friday 13^th February- Reception assembly

See you all on Monday for a week which will include lots of fabulous festive frolics!

Have a great weekend.

 

Mrs Dale

Issue 13 2014-15

Newsletter Issue 13

Friday 5th December 2014

Dear Parent/Carer,

Thanks to all who came along and supported the PTA Christmas Craft Fayre last Saturday. It was lovely to see so many children with their friends and family members enjoying themselves. I would like to thank the PTA on behalf of the school once more, for a fabulous and well organised event. It takes time and commitment to put together all of the PTA events and I am very grateful to those who go out of their way to make these possible.

Rodillian students

This week we have welcomed Shauna, Megan and Thomas, ITT students from Rodillian who have joined us as part of their alternate placement in Primary. They have been supporting and working alongside staff in Reception.

Christmas Choir

A big “Well Done” to all of the children who have sung with the school choir over the past week. The School choir performed an uplifting rendition of Christmas songs both in the hall at the Craft Fayre and at the Robin Hood Resident’s Association Christmas event on Saturday. Additionally, a selection of the choir sang at the Town Hall on Tuesday night as part of the Christmas Concert, showcasing some fantastic songs and being accompanied by a huge and brilliant orchestra. This was a fabulous event, which I was extremely proud to attend and be part of. I would like to make a special mention to Miss McSorley, who gave up her Saturday, Monday and Tuesday nights to accompany the children who were singing and to Mr Knight who came along to support the children on Tuesday night; we are lucky to have such committed and brilliant teachers who are so giving of their time.

Post Box

The Christmas Post Box has been dusted off and installed for another festive season. Please ensure that your children write the full name and class of the children who they would like to send a card to. Thanks.

Moving forward and learning together

Unfortunately, the attendance at our “Moving forward and learning together” meeting on Monday was extremely low. The point for discussion was the school blogs and how to make better use of Twitter. Fortunately, our School Council had lots of great ideas to give on what to include on our website and how to develop the blogs. I am in talks with Miss Darroch and Mrs Moore on how to take on board these views and implement some of their fabulous ideas.

Thanks for your views

Thank you to all parents who have given their views on Parent View. The feedback is overwhelmingly positive and very useful in that there are one or two patterns emerging which we feel we can reflect on and improve. It is not too late to give your views and the more we can get, the more accurate we can consider the feedback. Thank you.

Office hours

The office has now moved to the portacabin outside. Could we please give a polite reminder that all letters and monies should be posted in the silver box outside. All messages for teachers should go in your child’s planner. The office will be open from 8:45a.m. to 9:15a.m. and from 3:00p.m. to 3:30p.m. Outside of these times please call 0113 2823444

PTA news

A huge thank you to everyone who attended last Saturday's Fayre, whether to help or to browse the wonderful stalls.   As you all know the raffle was drawn and a list of winning tickets will be displayed shortly. Now the school has expanded we now have nearly 400 pupils in the school, if only one parent from each pupil was able to give up HALF AN HOUR PER YEAR then that would give the PTA a massive 200 hours per year to organise events, search for donations etc.  If you would like to get involved with the PTA please contact us by email; robinhoodprimarypta@gmail.com, Facebook; robinhoodprimarypta or Twitter; @robinhoodpta.

Have a great weekend

Mrs Dale