Mapplewells News - Autumn Term
MAPPLEWELLS NEWS Autumn Term - Issue 2 – October 2015 The children have made a great start to this school year and are settling into their new classes really well. As always our expectations are high and as always the children are striving to achieve them. Well done everyone, keep up the great work!
Macmillan Coffee Morning The Friends of Mapplewells Group held a coffee morning in the Rainbow Room on Friday 25th September to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. Thanks to everyone that attended, and to all who donated cakes to be sold, the grand total raised was an impressive £277! A big thank you Friends of Mapplewells for all your hard work in coordinating such a lovely event.
Data Collection Sheets If you have not yet returned your Data Collection Sheet to the School Office, please do so as soon as possible. It is important that you update any information that has changed so that we are able to contact you in case of an emergency.
New Website I am happy to announce that very soon our new remodelled website will be up and running. The website address will remain: www.mapplewellsprimary.co.uk. On the website you will find lots of useful information, including: class pages, the latest school and year group newsletters, school performance data, information about our staff, governors, the curriculum as well as key policies and useful documents such as: uniform order forms and school dinner menus. The purpose of the website is to keep you up to date with everything Mapplewells and to also celebrate all the wonderful things we do at our school. We hope you find the website useful and informative. It will continue to evolve so please let us know if there is anything else you feel we could add to the website to aid communication and we will look into it.
E-Safety There will be a letter coming home shortly with your child’s class newsletter regarding esafety. We would be grateful if you could discuss e-safety with your child and sign and return the internet safety agreement.
Cross Country Children from years 2, 4, 5 and 6 have recently taken part in Cross Country competitions at Ashfield School. Mapplewells pupils came away with a whole host of medals and everyone involved should feel very proud of their achievements. A big thank you to all of our cross country runners!
Harvest Festival We will be holding our Harvest Festivals on Wednesday 21st October and parents/carers will be very welcome to join us for the celebration. As in previous years we would be grateful if you could help us to celebrate harvest by sending in food or a monetary donation on the morning of the 21st. These gifts will then be displayed in the school hall as part of the festival. If you would like to deliver your food parcel to someone in particular please make sure it is clearly labelled; you can then collect it at the end of the school day. All other parcels will be collected by Mary’s Foodbank in Sutton and distributed in the local community. The School Forum will be choosing a charity to send the monetary donations to. The times for the Harvest Festivals will be as follows: - Foundation Stage = 9.15 – 9.45am - Key Stage 1 = 9.45 – 10.15am - Year 3 and 4 = 10.30 – 11am - Years 5 and 6 = 11 – 11.30am As mentioned for previous performances, parents and carers will not be permitted to take their seats until 10 minutes prior to the start of the celebration in order to give the children and staff time to prepare. Thank you for your co-operation.
Halloween Discos On the 22nd October we will be holding our Halloween Discos for the children. If your child has not already brought home a Halloween Disco letter then please collect one from the School Office. I am delighted to say that the ‘Friends of Mapplewells’ group will continue to run the Halloween Discos in conjunction with the staff and we are looking forward to another great event. We would like to say a special thank you to Mr & Mr Clarke for donating Halloween themed cups and plates for the discos this year.
Friends of Mapplewells If you are interested in joining our Friends of Mapplewells Group we would be delighted to welcome new members. Please see Miss Christie or myself if you have time to spare to become a valuable member of our Mapplewells team! A slip will be sent out with details of the next meeting when a date has been set, anyone is welcome to attend; it would be lovely to see some new faces! Even if you are unable to attend meetings, we will always be grateful of your ideas, support in the organisation of events and any help you might be able to give.
Free School Meals Could I please urge anyone who feels they may be entitled to receive Free School Meals for their child to enquire on 01623 433009. As a school, a large amount of our funding is allocated to us depending on the number of children we have who are entitled to free school meals. Please help us to gain maximum funding to support and challenge our children.
New Autumn/Winter School Meal Menu After half term we will be starting a new menu cycle for school dinners and your child will shortly be bringing home the new Autumn/Winter menu. Please note that due to difficulties with deliveries over the half term holidays the pudding on Tuesday 3rd November will be Apple Cake and Custard instead of Fruit Salad and Yoghurt. A letter will be sent out soon for those children in F2, Y1 & Y2 who qualify for Universal Free Meals for you to choose your preference of school meals or sandwiches for the next half term. The dinner system for Key Stage 2 is run very flexibly in order to give your child the freedom to try new meals whilst also ensuring that you do not waste your money. This means that within each week your child can choose a combination of staying for school dinner s on some days and bringing sandwiches for others. If your child would like to stay for a school dinner please write the following information on an envelope containing the required amount of money; your child’s name which class they are in which days your child will be staying for dinner the amount enclosed
The winter months are a great time for children to be staying for a warm school dinner so please have a look through the new menu with your child/ren to discuss the new meals which will be on offer...there are some very tasty looking ones!
Attendance and Punctuality The criteria for attendance changed over the Summer Holidays. Children spend around 6 hours per day learning in school which is 25% of their day. If you take out 13 weeks holiday, 52 weekends and 5 INSET days it = just 14% of their year. 99% + 97-98.9% 95-96.9% 93-94.9% 90-92.9% Below 90%
Excellent Good Satisfactory Requires Improvement (equates to more than 1 day off every 4 weeks) At risk of Persistent Absenteeism Persistent absenteeism equates to more than 1 day off every 2 weeks
Using these new criteria, you will notice that in order for your child to qualify for satisfactory attendance they must be in school at least 19 days out of 20. School rewards good attendance so don’t let your child miss out! As you are all aware there is a big focus on children’s attendance and we are monitored on our attendance and punctuality figures on a regular basis. It is very important that if your child is unable to attend school, that you ring school on the 1st day of absence to notify us of the reason. In order to maintain our current high standards we will be carrying out a series of late gates throughout the year, and will continue to share our school attendance figures at the end of each half term to give you a guide as to how well we are doing. Can I please remind all parents and carers that our school day starts at 8.45am and therefore all children should be in the school yard ready for the whistle at 8.45am. It can be very unsettling for children when they arrive late for school as they do not get the opportunity to socialise in the school yard or enter the classroom alongside their friends and, of course, they are also missing out on valuable learning time each day. Thank you for your help in ensuring maximum education time for our children.
Cool Milk Every child under the age of 5 is entitled to a free 189ml portion of milk each day, but in order to receive this you must register your child’s name with the Cool Milk scheme. If your child is over the age of 5 they can still receive milk and all the benefits it brings at a subsidised price or if your child qualifies for Free School Meals then they can receive free milk throughout their time at school but again they must be registered. Application forms can be collected from the School Office or you can register online at www.coolmilk.com. Children who are entitled to free school meals can receive free milk up until their 7th birthday, but again you must register with Cool Milk in order to receive it.
Parent Support Register As it is the start of a new school year I would like to update our ‘Parental Directory of Support’. With budgets getting tighter we are always on the look out for ways to generate funding and resources for our school, I would therefore be very grateful to know if any of our parents and carers work for companies who would be able to offer their help in any way. It may be that you work for companies who can donate resources, or that have schemes where they can sponsor schools for certain projects etc. You would be surprsied at the things we find useful in a school so please don’t think that any help you can offer is too small!! It may be that your company can offer raffle prizes for the Christmas Fair or fabric for displays, plastic containers to keep resources in or stationery items...the list is endless! We would be very grateful if you could fill in the slip at the end of this newsletter so that we can update our ‘Parental Directory of Support’. Thank you!
Parents Evenings Parent’s evenings this term will be held week commencing 9th November. Appointments will be for 10 minutes per child and give you and the class teacher the valuable opportunity to discuss all aspects of your child’s progress. We shall be running School Menu Taster Sessions throughout the duration of the Parents Evenings so please come along and sample some of the meals on offer from the new menu.
Tobacco Policy A polite reminder that no tobacco products may be used on school grounds and this includes e-cigarettes. Please refrain from using such items whilst on school pemises, thank you.
Pantomime Visit The children are very excited about our F2 to Year 6 trip to Mansfield Palace Theatre to see ‘Aladdin’ on 7th December 2015. The numbers have now been finalised with the Theatre and I hope that everyone who has signed up to come along to help with supervision enjoys it as much as the children (and staff!).
Recycled Uniform Sale The next sale will be held on Friday 20th November. We will be selling recycled uniform in the school yard before and after school. Please feel free to come along and browse for some bargains!
Non-Uniform Day Friday the 23rd October will be a non-uniform day in school. There will a charge of £1 for this day and the School Forum will decide how the money collected is spent to improve our school.
Tubs4Tablets We are still collecting tokens from special tubs of Flora and Stork on sale at Tesco in their Tubs4Tablets scheme. We are trying to collect as many tokens as possible, these can be found on promotional 500g tubs of Flora Original, Light and Buttery and Stork (subject to availability). For every 50 tokens collected we can get our school a brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0” Wi-Fi 8GB tablet, so please help us to claim as many as we can and start collecting now!
Battery Recycling In the Key Stage 2 corridor there is a collection tub for used batteries. If you have any flat batteries, please encourage your child to recycle them in this box so as to avoid pollution of the environment in landfill sites.
Residential Details 2015/2016 Class: Year 2 – Sherwood Forest
Dates: Tue 7th – Wed 8th June 2016
Year 3 – Beaumanor Hall
Thu 31st March – Fri 1st April 2016
Year 4 – Skegness
Wed 20th – Fri 22nd April 2016
Year 5 – Hagg Farm
Wed 27th – Fri 29th April 2016
Year 6 – North Wales
Mon 23rd – Thu 26th May 2016
You should have received letters with additional details and exact costings, we hope that your child will enjoy their residential experience.
School Crossing Patrol As you may be aware, there is a vacancy for a School Crossing Patrol Warden on Alfreton Road. If anyone is interested in taking up this position you can get more information by contacting Pam Riley on 0115 9774865.
Dates This term’s dates for your diaries: Harvest Festival – 21st October Halloween Disco – 22nd October Non-uniform Day – 23rd October Half Term break – last day of half term – 23rd October - return to school – 2nd November Parents Evenings – Week commencing 9th November Children in Need Day ‘Be a Hero’ – Friday 13th November Recycled Uniform Sale – Friday 20th November Phonics and English Parent Workshops – Fortnight Commencing 23rd November Maths Parent Workshops – Fortnight Commencing 7th December Christmas Fair – Friday 4th December F2 – Y6 Trip to Mansfield Palace Theatre to see Aladdin – Monday 7th December Festive Dinner for Parents/Carers – Tuesday 15th December Christmas Plays: - FUam – Wednesday 16th December @ 10am & 5pm - FUpm – Monday 14th December @ 10am & 5pm - KS1 – Thursday 10th December @ 1.45pm & 5pm - Y3/Y4 – (TBC) @ 1.45pm & 5pm - Y5 – Tuesday 15th December @ 1.45pm & 5pm - Y6 – Wednesday 9th December @ 5pm Christmas Dinner for Children – Wednesday 16th December Christmas Parties for all children 12.00 – 3.15pm – Thursday 17th December FU at school / KS1 & KS2 at Grosvenor Rooms - INSET Days that have been set (x2 more to be arranged) – - 6th November 2015 - 25th July 2016 Our Rise and Shine reading sessions continue to be held in each classroom every Tuesday and Friday morning from 8.35am. It would be lovely to see you there! Please remember that this newsletter is also available to download from our website at www.mapplewellsprimary.co.uk . Thank you for your continued support,
Miss C. D. Varley
Directory of Support – October 2015 My Name________________________________________________________________
My Child/ren’s name/s_____________________________________________________
Year group/s__________________________
Name of firm/company which may be able to offer support________________________
Support which may be offered_______________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
My contact details: Home phone number________________________________________________
Mobile Phone Number _______________________________________________
Macmillan Coffee Morning The Friends of Mapplewells Group held a coffee morning in the Rainbow Room on Friday 25th September to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. Thanks to everyone that attended, and to all who donated cakes to be sold, the grand total raised was an impressive £277! A big thank you Friends of Mapplewells for all your hard work in coordinating such a lovely event.
Data Collection Sheets If you have not yet returned your Data Collection Sheet to the School Office, please do so as soon as possible. It is important that you update any information that has changed so that we are able to contact you in case of an emergency.
New Website I am happy to announce that very soon our new remodelled website will be up and running. The website address will remain: www.mapplewellsprimary.co.uk. On the website you will find lots of useful information, including: class pages, the latest school and year group newsletters, school performance data, information about our staff, governors, the curriculum as well as key policies and useful documents such as: uniform order forms and school dinner menus. The purpose of the website is to keep you up to date with everything Mapplewells and to also celebrate all the wonderful things we do at our school. We hope you find the website useful and informative. It will continue to evolve so please let us know if there is anything else you feel we could add to the website to aid communication and we will look into it.
E-Safety There will be a letter coming home shortly with your child’s class newsletter regarding esafety. We would be grateful if you could discuss e-safety with your child and sign and return the internet safety agreement.
Cross Country Children from years 2, 4, 5 and 6 have recently taken part in Cross Country competitions at Ashfield School. Mapplewells pupils came away with a whole host of medals and everyone involved should feel very proud of their achievements. A big thank you to all of our cross country runners!
Harvest Festival We will be holding our Harvest Festivals on Wednesday 21st October and parents/carers will be very welcome to join us for the celebration. As in previous years we would be grateful if you could help us to celebrate harvest by sending in food or a monetary donation on the morning of the 21st. These gifts will then be displayed in the school hall as part of the festival. If you would like to deliver your food parcel to someone in particular please make sure it is clearly labelled; you can then collect it at the end of the school day. All other parcels will be collected by Mary’s Foodbank in Sutton and distributed in the local community. The School Forum will be choosing a charity to send the monetary donations to. The times for the Harvest Festivals will be as follows: - Foundation Stage = 9.15 – 9.45am - Key Stage 1 = 9.45 – 10.15am - Year 3 and 4 = 10.30 – 11am - Years 5 and 6 = 11 – 11.30am As mentioned for previous performances, parents and carers will not be permitted to take their seats until 10 minutes prior to the start of the celebration in order to give the children and staff time to prepare. Thank you for your co-operation.
Halloween Discos On the 22nd October we will be holding our Halloween Discos for the children. If your child has not already brought home a Halloween Disco letter then please collect one from the School Office. I am delighted to say that the ‘Friends of Mapplewells’ group will continue to run the Halloween Discos in conjunction with the staff and we are looking forward to another great event. We would like to say a special thank you to Mr & Mr Clarke for donating Halloween themed cups and plates for the discos this year.
Friends of Mapplewells If you are interested in joining our Friends of Mapplewells Group we would be delighted to welcome new members. Please see Miss Christie or myself if you have time to spare to become a valuable member of our Mapplewells team! A slip will be sent out with details of the next meeting when a date has been set, anyone is welcome to attend; it would be lovely to see some new faces! Even if you are unable to attend meetings, we will always be grateful of your ideas, support in the organisation of events and any help you might be able to give.
Free School Meals Could I please urge anyone who feels they may be entitled to receive Free School Meals for their child to enquire on 01623 433009. As a school, a large amount of our funding is allocated to us depending on the number of children we have who are entitled to free school meals. Please help us to gain maximum funding to support and challenge our children.
New Autumn/Winter School Meal Menu After half term we will be starting a new menu cycle for school dinners and your child will shortly be bringing home the new Autumn/Winter menu. Please note that due to difficulties with deliveries over the half term holidays the pudding on Tuesday 3rd November will be Apple Cake and Custard instead of Fruit Salad and Yoghurt. A letter will be sent out soon for those children in F2, Y1 & Y2 who qualify for Universal Free Meals for you to choose your preference of school meals or sandwiches for the next half term. The dinner system for Key Stage 2 is run very flexibly in order to give your child the freedom to try new meals whilst also ensuring that you do not waste your money. This means that within each week your child can choose a combination of staying for school dinner s on some days and bringing sandwiches for others. If your child would like to stay for a school dinner please write the following information on an envelope containing the required amount of money; your child’s name which class they are in which days your child will be staying for dinner the amount enclosed
The winter months are a great time for children to be staying for a warm school dinner so please have a look through the new menu with your child/ren to discuss the new meals which will be on offer...there are some very tasty looking ones!
Attendance and Punctuality The criteria for attendance changed over the Summer Holidays. Children spend around 6 hours per day learning in school which is 25% of their day. If you take out 13 weeks holiday, 52 weekends and 5 INSET days it = just 14% of their year. 99% + 97-98.9% 95-96.9% 93-94.9% 90-92.9% Below 90%
Excellent Good Satisfactory Requires Improvement (equates to more than 1 day off every 4 weeks) At risk of Persistent Absenteeism Persistent absenteeism equates to more than 1 day off every 2 weeks
Using these new criteria, you will notice that in order for your child to qualify for satisfactory attendance they must be in school at least 19 days out of 20. School rewards good attendance so don’t let your child miss out! As you are all aware there is a big focus on children’s attendance and we are monitored on our attendance and punctuality figures on a regular basis. It is very important that if your child is unable to attend school, that you ring school on the 1st day of absence to notify us of the reason. In order to maintain our current high standards we will be carrying out a series of late gates throughout the year, and will continue to share our school attendance figures at the end of each half term to give you a guide as to how well we are doing. Can I please remind all parents and carers that our school day starts at 8.45am and therefore all children should be in the school yard ready for the whistle at 8.45am. It can be very unsettling for children when they arrive late for school as they do not get the opportunity to socialise in the school yard or enter the classroom alongside their friends and, of course, they are also missing out on valuable learning time each day. Thank you for your help in ensuring maximum education time for our children.
Cool Milk Every child under the age of 5 is entitled to a free 189ml portion of milk each day, but in order to receive this you must register your child’s name with the Cool Milk scheme. If your child is over the age of 5 they can still receive milk and all the benefits it brings at a subsidised price or if your child qualifies for Free School Meals then they can receive free milk throughout their time at school but again they must be registered. Application forms can be collected from the School Office or you can register online at www.coolmilk.com. Children who are entitled to free school meals can receive free milk up until their 7th birthday, but again you must register with Cool Milk in order to receive it.
Parent Support Register As it is the start of a new school year I would like to update our ‘Parental Directory of Support’. With budgets getting tighter we are always on the look out for ways to generate funding and resources for our school, I would therefore be very grateful to know if any of our parents and carers work for companies who would be able to offer their help in any way. It may be that you work for companies who can donate resources, or that have schemes where they can sponsor schools for certain projects etc. You would be surprsied at the things we find useful in a school so please don’t think that any help you can offer is too small!! It may be that your company can offer raffle prizes for the Christmas Fair or fabric for displays, plastic containers to keep resources in or stationery items...the list is endless! We would be very grateful if you could fill in the slip at the end of this newsletter so that we can update our ‘Parental Directory of Support’. Thank you!
Parents Evenings Parent’s evenings this term will be held week commencing 9th November. Appointments will be for 10 minutes per child and give you and the class teacher the valuable opportunity to discuss all aspects of your child’s progress. We shall be running School Menu Taster Sessions throughout the duration of the Parents Evenings so please come along and sample some of the meals on offer from the new menu.
Tobacco Policy A polite reminder that no tobacco products may be used on school grounds and this includes e-cigarettes. Please refrain from using such items whilst on school pemises, thank you.
Pantomime Visit The children are very excited about our F2 to Year 6 trip to Mansfield Palace Theatre to see ‘Aladdin’ on 7th December 2015. The numbers have now been finalised with the Theatre and I hope that everyone who has signed up to come along to help with supervision enjoys it as much as the children (and staff!).
Recycled Uniform Sale The next sale will be held on Friday 20th November. We will be selling recycled uniform in the school yard before and after school. Please feel free to come along and browse for some bargains!
Non-Uniform Day Friday the 23rd October will be a non-uniform day in school. There will a charge of £1 for this day and the School Forum will decide how the money collected is spent to improve our school.
Tubs4Tablets We are still collecting tokens from special tubs of Flora and Stork on sale at Tesco in their Tubs4Tablets scheme. We are trying to collect as many tokens as possible, these can be found on promotional 500g tubs of Flora Original, Light and Buttery and Stork (subject to availability). For every 50 tokens collected we can get our school a brand new Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0” Wi-Fi 8GB tablet, so please help us to claim as many as we can and start collecting now!
Battery Recycling In the Key Stage 2 corridor there is a collection tub for used batteries. If you have any flat batteries, please encourage your child to recycle them in this box so as to avoid pollution of the environment in landfill sites.
Residential Details 2015/2016 Class: Year 2 – Sherwood Forest
Dates: Tue 7th – Wed 8th June 2016
Year 3 – Beaumanor Hall
Thu 31st March – Fri 1st April 2016
Year 4 – Skegness
Wed 20th – Fri 22nd April 2016
Year 5 – Hagg Farm
Wed 27th – Fri 29th April 2016
Year 6 – North Wales
Mon 23rd – Thu 26th May 2016
You should have received letters with additional details and exact costings, we hope that your child will enjoy their residential experience.
School Crossing Patrol As you may be aware, there is a vacancy for a School Crossing Patrol Warden on Alfreton Road. If anyone is interested in taking up this position you can get more information by contacting Pam Riley on 0115 9774865.
Dates This term’s dates for your diaries: Harvest Festival – 21st October Halloween Disco – 22nd October Non-uniform Day – 23rd October Half Term break – last day of half term – 23rd October - return to school – 2nd November Parents Evenings – Week commencing 9th November Children in Need Day ‘Be a Hero’ – Friday 13th November Recycled Uniform Sale – Friday 20th November Phonics and English Parent Workshops – Fortnight Commencing 23rd November Maths Parent Workshops – Fortnight Commencing 7th December Christmas Fair – Friday 4th December F2 – Y6 Trip to Mansfield Palace Theatre to see Aladdin – Monday 7th December Festive Dinner for Parents/Carers – Tuesday 15th December Christmas Plays: - FUam – Wednesday 16th December @ 10am & 5pm - FUpm – Monday 14th December @ 10am & 5pm - KS1 – Thursday 10th December @ 1.45pm & 5pm - Y3/Y4 – (TBC) @ 1.45pm & 5pm - Y5 – Tuesday 15th December @ 1.45pm & 5pm - Y6 – Wednesday 9th December @ 5pm Christmas Dinner for Children – Wednesday 16th December Christmas Parties for all children 12.00 – 3.15pm – Thursday 17th December FU at school / KS1 & KS2 at Grosvenor Rooms - INSET Days that have been set (x2 more to be arranged) – - 6th November 2015 - 25th July 2016 Our Rise and Shine reading sessions continue to be held in each classroom every Tuesday and Friday morning from 8.35am. It would be lovely to see you there! Please remember that this newsletter is also available to download from our website at www.mapplewellsprimary.co.uk . Thank you for your continued support,
Miss C. D. Varley
Directory of Support – October 2015 My Name________________________________________________________________
My Child/ren’s name/s_____________________________________________________
Year group/s__________________________
Name of firm/company which may be able to offer support________________________
Support which may be offered_______________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
My contact details: Home phone number________________________________________________
Mobile Phone Number _______________________________________________
