School Newsletter : 25 January 2024

Once again, we’re delighted to host the Scholastic Book Fair at our school. This is a great opportunity to find some new books for your bookshelf, while at the same time helping us to earn free books for our school’s library. For every book you buy, we’ll be able to earn free books for our school!

The book fair will take place in the Ground Floor Hall on Monday 5th, Tuesday 6th, Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th February; from 9.00 – 9.30 and 3.30 – 4.00 each day.

We’re also holding a speech writing competition before our book fair and the winners of this competition will win a £5 book token to spend at our school book fair. If your child would like to take part, they need to write & submit a speech by Wednesday 31st January, to deliver it at our school assembly on Thursday 1st February.

The winners will be given a £5 book voucher to spend at the book fair the week after.

In conjunction with Capital City College and supported by the Mayor of London, there will be a free numeracy programme held at St. Stephen’s Church. Open to any adults over 19 years old, the program will run every Monday morning @ 11.30am, for six weeks beginning on Monday 19th February 2024.

Please see the information leaflet and the enrolment letter below for more information. If you require paper copies of these documents, please ask at the school office.

• Multiply Free Maths Skills Courses information leaflet (PDF) >
• Enrolment letter (PDF) >

Our next event is the Easter Fair on 15th March. Please come to our meetings if you can, it’d be lovely to meet new parents and it’d be great to have you onboard. Our meetings will be on Thursdays in the Ground Floor Hall from 9 – 10am on the following dates:

• 8th Feb
• 22nd Feb
• 7th March
• 14th March

Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct PE kit to school each week.

Pupils who are not wearing their full PE kit will not be able to participate in lessons, and a note will be sent home indicating why they were not able to participate.

The full PE kit for the Autumn/Winter term is as follows:

• Plain navy blue leggings or tracksuit bottoms
• School navy blue PE t-shirt
• School navy blue sweatshirt (all year groups).
• Pupils in KS2 (Years 3 – 6) must wear a school navy sweatshirt for PE and NOT their school jumper.
• Plain black trainers (velcro if your child struggles with shoe laces)
• Please ensure all items of uniform are clearly labelled (with a permanent pen or label)

On Monday 8th January, parents were sent a welcome email from Arbor via the school office email account. Please read this carefully, as it contains vital information of the steps required to download the Arbor app, which is now live and ready to use for our school.

Once you have downloaded the app and followed the setup steps, you will be able to pay online for the following:

• Breakfast Club
• After School Club (6 o’clock club)
• School Trips and Visits
• Nursery Extended Day Fees
• Preschool Fees

You will also be able to view your child’s details held by the school, such as their attendance record  and the named adults allowed to collect them from school.  After the Easter Break, you will also be able to sign up and pay for Extended School Day (Enrichment) Clubs.

We understand that while paying online is the preferred option for many of our families, those wishing to continue paying by cash will still be able to do via the school office.

If you would like your child to move from bringing a packed lunch to having a school meal, you must inform the office at least a week in advance of this change being made. Kindly note pupils are not allowed to alternate between having packed lunches and/or school meals on a daily or weekly basis. If you have any questions, please see a member of the school admin staff at the school office.

You can find the current school lunch menu here >

If you require a printed copy, please ask at the school office. Should you have any questions about the menu, kindly make an appointment to speak with Miss Barnett.

Why good school attendance matters: Missing a few days of school here and there may not seem a big deal, but research shows that it can have a significant impact on children’s learning.

Children who miss a substantial amount of school fall behind their peers, and struggle to catch up. Most of the work they miss is never made up, which can lead to big gaps in their learning.

• Poor attendance often starts at primary school and children who fall into this pattern are likely to under-achieve at secondary school.
• Pupils who miss between 10 and 20% of school (that’s 19 – 38 days per year) stand only a 35% chance of achieving five or more good GCSEs, compared to 73% of those who miss fewer than 5% of school days.
• An attendance rate of 95% is generally considered good; this allows for children to miss 9.5 days across the school year.
• Persistent absence (PA) is defined as an attendance rate of 90% or below.
• All pupils are expected to have an attendance rate of 95% or higher.

Attendance class of the week: Each week we will be celebrating the class with the highest attendance levels.