Newsletter
September 2015
What’s in this newsletter?
- Attendance
- Wide Awake Club
- After school club changes
- Play Group
- Dinner money
- Clubs
- Dates for your diaries
/ September’s Right is: You have the right to an education – article 28 / / This month’s value is: ‘Learn’
Welcome
Welcome back to school after a mostly wet summer! A special welcome to those families joining the school for the first time.
Attendance
In March 2014 the school was inspected by ESTYN (the schools inspectorate in Wales). The inspection was positive and recognised a lot of the good work of the school. One of our recommendations is to improve attendance and ESTYN asked the local authority to update them on the progress we have made in meeting this recommendation in May 2015. ESTYN do not feel that we have made sufficient progress in improving attendance and want another update in August 2016. We need your help in addressing this problem.
The statistical link between attendance and attainment is strong. In Wales in 2014, over 92% of pupils with NO absence attained the expected level 4 in English, mathematics and science at the end of key stage 2. For pupils with attendance between 80 – 90%, this figure drops notably to 77% of pupils. Based on the statutory number of 190 school days per year, a pupil with 90% attendance will miss 19 days of schooling each year. Between entering primary school in the reception class to the end of primary education in Year 6, a pupil with an average attendance of 90% will miss 133 full days of school. This is well over half a year of learning.
We do not authorise family holidays and adhere to the code of conduct for penalty notices as issued by ERW (Education through Regional Working) and agreed by the Local Authority, and therefore may request the local authority to issue a penalty notice in certain cases.
What is good attendance?
95-100% attendance:Best chance of success. Your child is taking full advantage of every learning opportunity. Good attendance is celebrated and rewarded during the school year through a number of initiatives.
90-95% attendance:At least 2 weeks of learning missed. Satisfactory. Your child may have to spend time catching up with work.
85-90% attendance:At least 4 weeks of learning missed. Your child may be at risk of underachieving and may need extra support from you to catch up with work.
80-85% attendance:At least 5½weeks of learning missed. Your child’s poor attendance has a significant impact on learning.
Below 80% attendance:At least 7½ weeks of learning missed. Your child is missing out on a broad and balanced education. You are at risk of prosecution.
Parents are encouraged to make non-urgent appointments (medical or otherwise) for their child outside of the times of the school day whenever possible.
Absence
If your child is absent, you should contact the school to inform us of reason for the absence by 9.15 am. We operate a robust first-day and on-going contact system.
School Hours
The school operates a Wide Awake Club from 7.50 am to 8.10 am at a cost of £1.00 per child (50p for siblings). Breakfast Club will run from 8.10 am to 8.40 am. This is a facility funded by the Welsh Government and aims to provide children with a healthy breakfast. The school also operates an After School Club (see later).
Wide Awake Club
As already mentioned in a previous letter home, the Local Authority has cut funding for breakfast clubs from the current 1 hour provision to ½ an hour. This means that from September 2015 our breakfast club will run from 8.10 am until 8.40 am.
We realise how much some parents and pupils have come to rely on our early opening of breakfast club (that currently opens at 7.50 am). Therefore, we intend to trial a ‘Wide Awake Club’ that will open before breakfast club at 7.50 am. However, we will need to apply a small daily charge of £1 for the first child (50p for each sibling after that) for the club to be able to staff it.
Wide Awake Club will run for 20 minutes from 7.50 am until 8.10 am and activities will include aerobics and games activities. £1 will be payable on the day of use (or you can pay in advance). Pupils in receipt of free school meals are welcome to use this service free of charge.
At 8.10 am, pupils will be taken to our free breakfast club in which they will be given a breakfast of toast, cereal and fruit juice or water.
At 8.40 am, pupils will be taken to class or onto the yard where they will be supervised by teaching staff.
As mentioned above, this will be a trial and we will review it at the end of the first half term of new academic year (October 2015). Should numbers using Wide Awake Club be too low to maintain staffing we will have to offer the breakfast club running from 8.10 am to 8.40 am only.
After School Club Changes
You might remember we asked for your thoughts about our after school club provision. Thank you to those who responded. We have taken on board your comments and as a result our 4 o’clock club will now extend to 4.30 pm. The charge for this will be £4 per session. After school club will continue until 5.30 pm (5pm on Fridays) the charge for this club is increasing to £7 per session.
Wrap Around/Play Group
The school operates Wrap Around care facilities. Nursery children are able to stay for lunch (lunch must be provided) and can go to the Play Group in the afternoon. Playgroup finishes at 3.20 pm and is for 3 year olds only. The cost is £9.00 per session.
Dinner money
Please note that from September 2015 the cost of a school dinner will rise to £2.20 per day (£11 per week).
Please help our office staff by only sending in dinner money on a Monday (or first day of the school week) in an envelope clearly marked with the amount contained, the days that a school dinner will be required and your child’s name. Cheques should be made payable to the ‘City & County of Swansea’.
Clubs
A number of extra-curricular clubs will be starting next week. Some will take place during lunch times and others after school. Clubs offered will be:
Club / Year Groups / When
Fencing Club / 3/4/5/6 / Monday
Outdoor Club / Year 1 / Tuesday
Homework Club / Year 5 and 6 / Monday
Girls Football / Year 4, 5 and 6 / Tuesday
Netball Club / Year 3 and 4 / Thursday
Football Club / Year 5 and 6 / Lunchtime
Drama Club £2.00 Charge / Year 3/4 / Tuesday
*There is a £1 charge for Art club and Outdoor club and the maximum number in each club is 15 so enrolment is on a first come, first served basis.
Consent forms will be sent home this week. Children will not be able to participate without a signed consent form. Thank you to the members of staff giving up their own time to run the clubs.
Dates for your diary
- Wednesday 2nd September – children return to school
- Tuesday 15th September – Y6 trip to Swansea University
- Wednesday 23rd September – Reception trip to Taliesin
- Monday 5th October – Y4 trip to archives
- Wednesday 7th October – Y5 ‘Green art in the park’ in Brynmill park
- Friday 23rd October – last day of half term
- Tuesday 3rd November – children return to school
- Friday 18th December – last day of term
- Tuesday 5th January – children return to school
NB – Dates given in italics are provisional
PLEASE NOTE all future newsletters will be sent by e mail only. If you have not already provided the school with you
e mail address please do so by e mail ASAP.
The schools e mail address is
Finally…
Thank you in anticipation of your continued support. If at any time you have queries, complaints or issues please do not hesitate to speak to a member of staff.
Regards,
D. Beech
Headteacher
01792 402755/01792 401150 / /