Newsletter 17: 23rd January 2015

Dear Parents/ Carers,

The children have been working hard again this week and I have been pleased to see that lots of them are starting to correct, edit and improve their work. I had the pleasure of teaching class 1 on Tuesday morning and they were a real credit to you.

Parent Voice

The next Parent Voice event will take place on Wednesday 25th February at 9.15am. The event will last half an hour. This time, there will be a focus on homework. Please come along and have your say.

Friends of Dame Tipping

The final figures are now in for the Christmas Fayre. I am pleased to announce that the event made £730 profit, which will be used to benefit all of the children in the school. If you would like to have a say in which project will be funded, watch this space for news of the next ‘Friends’ meeting. Thank you, again, to all those who organised and supported the event.

School closure for Election

On Thursday 7^th May, the school is being used as a polling station for the General Election. Unfortunately, this means that we will have to close the school to children (for safeguarding reasons). Year 6 will be provided with work to complete at home (as they have their SATs tests the following week) and we can prepare work for children in other year groups if requested. I apologise for the late notice, but I was unaware that the school would be used for this purpose until this week and had already allocated all of the INSET days for the year. I did contact the local council to see if they could find an alternative venue; unfortunately it was not possible.

Missing Items

Several parents have informed me that named items have gone missing in school. Please could you check at home over the weekend, in case your child has taken home someone else’s belongings, and return any items which belong to others to school.

Book Week

Book week will take place in the week beginning 9^th February and it will culminate in a dress-up day on Friday 13^th February. Please help your child to dress up as a character from a book on that day. The book fair will be open after school on the 5^th, 6^th, 9^th, 11^th of February and during the parent consultation evening on the 10^th.

Clubs

There are still spaces in Art club (Tuesday Years 3-6), Choir (all years) English (Year 5 and 6) and Rambling (Years 3-6). Priority will be given to those who have no clubs or just 1 club, but we may offer places to children who already have 2 clubs in the event that the spaces are not filled. Please send a note if you would like your child to attend and we will get back to you.

Stubbers Payment

Don’t forget you can make Stubbers payments in instalments at any time over the next 3 months.

School Nurse

If you wish to discuss any health concerns relating to your child, please come in and see the nursing team at 8.30am on Monday 9^th February.

PE Kit

Please ensure that your child has a PE kit in school every day. As children will be going out in all weathers, please ensure that your child has tracksuit trousers, a sweatshirt and trainers.

Hair Accesories

Some of the girls’ hair accessories are becoming increasingly large and ornate. Please could you provide your girls with small, plain hair accessories and ensure that long hair is always tied back for school.

Commendations

Joshua Ajayi, Joshua Airen, Ben Wapling, Abigail Lee, Oliver Mahoney, Frankie Shanahan,

Scarlett Kedadi, Alfie Makepeace, Aaliyah Bimpong, Chloe Taylor

Well done, everyone!

Gold Book

Congratulations to Jack Percival who earned his place in the Gold Book this week for excellent classroom behaviour and hard work.

Pen Licences

Well done to Conor Hazelwood for earning his pen licence for consistently neat, cursive writing.

Headteacher’s Award

Congratulations to Albert Gilbert of class 2 who has been awarded this week’s Headteacher’s award for living up to our school motto.

Attendance

Well done to class 2 for their attendance of 98.7%.

Dates for the diary:

·         Monday 9^th February 2015- School Nurse drop-in 8.30am

·         Tuesday 10^th February 2015- Parent consultation evening 2pm-6.30pm

·         Friday 13^th February 2015- Book Week dress up day.

·         Week beginning Monday 16^th February- Half Term

·         Monday 23^rd February 2015- INSET day: School closed to children

·         Wednesday 25^th February 2015- Parent Voice event: Homework focus. 9.15-9.45am

·         Thursday 7^th May 2015- School closed for polling day

Have a lovely weekend.

With warmest wishes

Mrs Kathryn Waters

Updated Policy

Please see our updated 

Safeguarding Policy - Click Here

Newsletter 16: 16th January 2015

‘The best that I can be’

Dear Parents/ Carers,

We are really getting back into the swing of things now, and I have had the pleasure of seeing some lovely work from the children, from English and Maths, to Art and R.E. Many children have been working hard to improve their handwriting.

Photographs for the New School Website

This week, we had professional photographers in school taking photos for our new school website which launches soon. The children co-operated really well during the morning and I think the photos will look fantastic. Please let me know by Monday if you DO NOT wish your child to appear in the photographs, as this will have an effect on which ones we choose. No children’s names will appear with the photographs.

Parent Consultation 10^th February

The parent consultation evening on the 10^th February will be a more formal one than the open afternoons. Nearer the time, we will be sending out appointment slips with 10 minute slots from 2pm-6pm. Teachers will be informing you of your child’s progress and you will have an opportunity to ask questions and inform them of any important information about your child that you think will be useful.

During the evening, you will be able to attend a demonstration of the new website (more details to follow) and visit the Scholastic Book Fair.

Book Week

To coincide with the Book Fair, we will be having a ‘Book Week’ during the week beginning 9^th February. As part of our celebrations, we will be asking the children to share their favourite books and come in one day dressed as a book character, so please talk to your children about who they might like to dress as.

Sports Fixtures

We are organising various sports fixtures with the support of our coaches from Sports Foundation.

Your children may come home with letters regarding matches or tournaments. In order for the events to go ahead, we may need parents to transport their own and others’ children. Please email Del if you are able to support us in this way and get our sports teams up and running. His email address is:

southwestessex@foundation-sports.com

Collective Worship Team

Our Collective Worship team has been set up to ensure that children in the school are able to take part in and lead worship more often. Some of them will begin their duties next week. In future, we are hoping to include parents more in the worship life of the school too.

Clubs

There are still spaces in Art club (Tuesday Years 3-6), Choir (all years) and Rambling (Years 3-6)

Priority will be given to those who have no clubs or just 1 club, by we may offer places to children who already have 2 clubs in the event that the spaces are not filled. Please send a note if you would like your child to attend and we will get back to you.

Stubbers Payment

Don’t forget you can make Stubbers payments in instalments at any time over the next 3 months.

Commendations

Commendations go to: Louise Stafford, Devon Lees, Finlay McKeown, Henry Simmonett, Freddie French, Naadedei Osaji-Okai, Scarlett Blackshaw, Albert Gilbert, Imogen Snell, Nicole Mahoney, Sadie Turrell, Charlotte Woods, Hermione McCormack, Sydney Turrell, Lexi Webb.

Well done, everyone!

Pen Licences

Well done to Aimee Bradley, Spencer Murrell and Amelia Stanley for earning their pen licences for consistently neat, cursive writing.

Attendance

I am pleased to say that 3 out of 4 classes reached the local authority target for attendance this week, with Reception having 100% attendance again and Class 3 making a great improvement and reaching 97.3%. Let’s try for a full house next week!

Dates for the diary:

·         Tuesday 10^th February 2015- Parent consultation evening 2pm-6.30pm

·         Monday 23^rd February 2015- INSET day: School closed to children

Have a lovely weekend.

With warmest wishes

Mrs Kathryn Waters

Newsletter 15: 9th January 2015

Dear Parents/ Carers,

Welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope that you and your children had a restful break and weren’t affected by all the winter bugs going round.

New School Website

Next month, we will be launching our brand new school website. Please let us know if you do not wish your child to be featured in any of the photos on the website. We will not include children’s names with the photographs.

Computer Games and Internet Safety

Your children may have mentioned that we talked about internet safety in assembly this week. I was disturbed to hear how many children are using the internet unsupervised. As you know, even with parental controls, children are able to view inappropriate and sometimes frightening images (for example through ‘Google Images’). Please talk to your children about this and ensure that they are supervised. There are very useful links to websites about e-safety on our school website.

I was also surprised to hear that some parents are allowing their children to play age inappropriate computer games. They are then coming in and discussing these games with friends at school. The age certificates on games and films are there for a reason. Please think about the legal and moral implications of allowing your child to play games or watch films with adult and often violent content.

Appointments During School Time

As you know, we as a school are working hard to improve our attendance, which last year was in the bottom 20% in the country. We understand that children are sometimes ill, but would encourage you wherever possible, to arrange doctor’s and dentist’s appointments outside the school day. It is very disappointing when parents take their children out of school for a whole day for a short doctor’s appointment. This means they have lost a fifth of their learning time for that week. Hospital and specialist appointments, of course, need to be attended whenever they are given.

Clubs

Clubs start again on Monday. You will receive your acceptance slips early next week if you have not done so already. Clubs run from 3pm-3.50pm. Please collect your children promptly afterwards. Please note that each child may attend up to 2 clubs per week.

I will be running an English club on Monday nights, to support and challenge year 6 pupils in the run up to SATs, so please encourage your children to come along. If any year 5 pupils would like to come along too, please let myself or Mrs Hood know.

Dinner Tickets

Just a reminder that we will keep dinner tickets in the office should you so wish: this should prevent them from going missing.

Lost Property

We have lots and lots of school jumpers and other items (many unnamed) in the tub outside Mrs McCormack’s room. Please could you look through and take home any which belong to your child. Thank you.

Stubbers Payment

The balance for Stubbers needs to be paid by April. If you wish to spread the payments, you may pay amounts of your choice at any time before that. Just come to the office with the money and your payment card.

School Council Fundraising

After consultation with the children, the school council have decided to purchase football goals with the money they raised last term. Well done for all the hard work they put in.

Commendations

Commendations go to: Fibian McKenzie, Spencer Murrell, Archie Jerrett, Kaci Peart, Poppy Whitcombe, Neli Higgins, Harry Newman, Aaron Hick. Faye Newman, Erin Coxall, Zachary Teshola.

Well done, everyone!

Headteacher’s Award

This week’s award goes to Kerys Walton for her excellent contribution to school life.

Attendance

A big ‘thumbs up’ to Class 4 (Reception) for having 100% attendance again this week. Well done to Class 2 for exceeding the target of 96%.

Let’s see if the rest of the school can live up to your fantastic example next week.

Dates for the diary:

·         Monday 12^th January 2015- Clubs start

·         Tuesday 10^th February 2015- Parent consultation evening 2pm-6.30pm

·         Monday 23^rd February 2015- INSET day: School closed to children

Newsletter 14: 19th December 2014

Dear Parents/ Carers,

As my first term at Dame Tipping comes to an end, I would like to say a big thank you to all the children, staff, governors and parents who have made me feel so welcome. It has been a real pleasure getting to know the school community.

We’ve had a very exciting week this week and have had lots of fun getting into the Christmas spirit. A group of KS2 pupils sang at St Francis’ Hospice, which was very well received. KS1 and Reception put on 3 wonderful performances of ‘Hey, Ewe!’ for the school and for parents. Thank you to all of the staff and children who put in lots of effort to make the show so special. We also had our Christmas lunch whilst wearing our festive jumpers. The whole term will be rounded off with a special service at St John the Evangelist church.

    

The winners of the Christmas jumper competition, with Mr Drury

And Father Christmas!

Thank you

Thank you so much for all the Christmas cards and gifts. It was very kind of you to think of me.

Headteacher’s Award

This week’s award goes to Freddie French for living up to our school motto and having a positive impact on his class and the school.

Gold Book

Congratulations to Maansi Chagger for earning her place in the Gold Book for excellent classroom behaviour.

Goodbye, Charlotte

On behalf of all of us at Dame Tipping, I would like to say goodbye to Charlotte McCormack, who is leaving for another school today. We wish you every happiness in the future.

Attendance

 Well done again to Class 4 (Reception) for having 100% attendance again this week. You are stars!

Clubs

Please note: there will be no clubs in the first week of term. You will receive information about next term’s clubs in the first week back.

Dinner Tickets

From January, we will be providing a facility where, should you so wish, we can issue your child’s dinner ticket to them from the office each day. This should prevent dinner tickets from going missing.

Lost Property

We have lots and lots of school jumpers and other items (many unnamed) in the tub outside Mrs McCormack’s room. Please could you look through and take home any which belong to your child on the first day back. Thank you.

Dates for the diary:

·         Monday 5^th January 2015- First Day of Term

·         Tuesday 10^th February 2015- Parent consultation evening 2pm-6.30pm

·         Monday 23^rd February 2015- INSET day: School closed to children

I would like to end by wishing you and your families a happy and peaceful Christmas.

Have a lovely break.

With warmest wishes