Welcome to 2008!
This is the start of a new year, but not in school
terms, where we are into our second term, almost half way through this school
year. There are a number of dates in the offing, plus a number of new ideas, so
please read on:-
Dates: 
11th January – well, that’s an important
date being my daughter’s 24th birthday. Believe me, it certainly
flies by!
Mon 14th Jan – we have a visitor in school
to promote a science club that we hope to run after school for years 3 and 4.
Details will follow – but if your child shows an interest in how and why things
happen, this will be the club for them.
Thurs 24th Jan – parents’ evening for years
3,4 and 5
Mon 4th Feb –
training day, along with the infant school – dinner money will be 4 days
that week, of course. This is instead of
Friday, 8th February.
Fri 8th Feb – school closes at 3.20 for
half term
Mon 17th Feb – school reopens
Wed 20th Feb – cycle training starts for
year 5, weekly until 19th March
Thur 20th March – school closes for Easter and
it is the first day of spring.
Mon 7th April – school reopens
Bringing money to school:
We are experiencing a larger than usual
number of money difficulties, caused by money being brought to the office,
instead of through the system. Trying to run two different systems is causing
lots of difficulties for the office staff.
All money, whether dinners, visits, instruments, or other money, must go to your child’s classroom before registration, where there is a double checking system in place to ensure there can be no confusion about who has paid and who has not.
Please do not take money to the office, because they
have now been instructed not to receive money there, but to ask you to take it
to your child’s classroom. In the vast majority of cases, the children bring
the money into class themselves and put it into the box provided.
So, to sum up, all money goes to classrooms, not to
the office. I am sure that if everyone sticks to the system in place, we can
eradicate the problems we have been having.
A reminder about dinner money - Please make cheques
payable to RMBC and on the back put your address, the name of the school,
child’s name and cheque guarantee card number. Our LA finance department insist
that cheques not marked like this must be returned. ALL money sent to school
must be in a named purse, envelope or money bag.
Uniform: 
Thank you for supporting the drive to have all our
children in uniform. A very small
number of our children are wearing shoes that are not black,
so please ensure that they wear their black shoes every day. May I also ask you
to send a change of footwear if your child comes to school in boots – it is
really not good for circulation to wear boots all day.
If you are looking to replace your child’s school shoes
soon, do give some thought to the size of the tread – a
number of children, usually boys, are wearing shoes with really deep tread,
which brings large amounts of mud into school, which is then left around in
places where children have to sit on the floor.
Please,
please, please put your child’s name on every removable item of clothing!
Book Shop: 
This was not very successful last year, partly because we did not
advertise it enough. It will be starting up again every Tuesday morning, the
exact date to be decided. When it runs, children will be given a savings card,
which they can add to each week until they have enough to buy the book of their
choice. Books are all at discounted prices, ranging from £1 to £7 and cover
fiction, non-fiction, poetry and puzzles. This is an opportunity for each child
to
build independence by seeing their money grow and then by
selecting their own choice of book. Please encourage your child to put a little
away out of her/his own spending money, so that they learn about saving for
something they want. (Something I have always been particularly bad at!)
Once we have some shop assistants, we will let you
know when the book shop is starting.
Your donations:
When you came to the Christmas productions,
we asked you to chuck coins in a bucket – well, you certainly did that! Over
the four productions we collected £180.60! That money will be used to buy some
more toys and games for use during playtimes. Thank you very much! Please read
the letter from Mrs Smelt and Mrs Wilkinson (lunchtime play leaders) attached
to this newsletter.
Help needed! If you
would be able to sometimes offer relief help in the kitchen (paid, of course),
please let someone in our office know. This would be occasional, when one of
our regular ladies is ill. Currently there is a relief list of none! A bit of a
desperate situation for t he kitchen staff!
Infant school building:
This
seems to be making very slow progress because it has all been preparation so
far. I am afraid the inconvenience will continue until September, if work is on
schedule. We have experienced far worse this school year!
Homework Club: 
We
are starting a homework club for years 5 and 6, which will begin on 16th
January, running every Wednesday. The club will meet in Mr Beecroft’s
room, using the computer room if it is needed. It will start after school and
finish at 4.30. Mrs Smelt will be there to supervise, but children are expected
to do their own homework. If children want to work together on a piece, or
prefer a school environment to help get the job done, this club will help.
Perhaps if your child is, shall we say, reluctant to do homework, you might
like to encourage them to “join” this club.
Other clubs: 
Now
that things here are back to normal, other clubs will be offered to children.
These run either in lunchtimes or after school. It is of course our rule that
after school clubs have permission slips and we keep you informed if there are
to be any changes to these clubs. Most clubs are free and are run by staff in
their own time, but occasionally we have outside agencies running clubs, and
these have to be paid for. They do, nevertheless, offer value for money – as in
the case of the coach from the Sheffield Sharks, who is running basketball on
Monday evenings.
Data Protection: I am requested
to send you the enclosed letter about the data that is kept in school.
Visits and visitors: I must make a plea to you all to support us when we
arrange to take the children on a visit, or when we buy in a theatre group or
visitor to school.
We frequently find ourselves in the position, even
when school fund is subsidising the cost, of having to decide whether to cancel
or put a substantial amount in from school funds. The last visitor was the
pantomime group just before Christmas, which had a shortfall because 26
children did not bring in their money. Added to the amount already put into the
cost by school fund, this meant we had to find £200 so that we did not have to
cancel the panto. It is important to stress that if
we have theatre visits to school as an extra experience for the children, we
are supposed to make children sit out if they do not pay – and it is hardly
fair that 26 people do not pay but the other 214 do.
In order to continue giving children these worthwhile
experiences, both in and out of school, we really do rely on you paying for
your child – please do support us with this because it is very disappointing to
have to let children down and in the case of a visit, it can affect the work in
class for a number of weeks.
(Sorry to go on about this, but it really can cause
problems.)
There we are, at the end … not even any room for
pictures! Speaking of pictures, our resident photographer will be taking
pictures of our new children and staff at Easter to add to the display in the
entrance. Copies will be offered to you when they are taken.
Thank you for persevering with this half term’s
mammoth newsletter!
P. M. Harmer