Great North Snow Dogs
In the summer term we were proud to take part in a Wild in Art event in support of St Oswald’s Hospice. All of our children helped to decorate our mini Snow Dog in an Olympic, Brazilian carnival theme. We are really grateful to June Atkinson who lives in the community and gave up her time to help us complete this project.
Our children had the opportunity to “make their mark” on our dog using their fingerprint and different classes designed different aspects of his carnival costume. We named our Snow Dog Rio and he is now on display in Newcastle City Library as part of the Great North Snowdogs art trail. Why not visit him at the weekend and try to find his friends placed in and across the city. This is a great opportunity to see the creativity of schools and community groups in the region. For more information follow the link to the website www.greatnorthsnowdogs.co.uk
Pregnancy news!
Congratulations to Miss Anderson in reception and to Mrs Johnson (Deputy Head Teacher) who are both pregnant and expecting their second children.
Miss Anderson will begin her maternity leave in December and Mrs Johnson will begin her maternity leave in January.
In addition Mr McCourt will be taking paternity leave at some point in November following the birth of his second child.
Nursery places for September 2017
If you have a child who you would like to attend our nursery in September 2017 ( ie born 1/9/13 to 31/8/14) then please make sure that you have completed a nursery application and returned it to the school office staff. Application forms can be collected from the office or alternatively downloaded from the website. We anticipate making nursery offers before the end of the autumn term.
Becoming Ponteland Primary School
Over the next year we will gradually become Ponteland Primary School, with our name officially changing next September. We will retain year 5 children next academic year and then have year 6 classes the following year. As you can imagine there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to make sure that this transition goes well as we expand our capacity. We will have 2 classrooms added upstairs and there will be 2 additional classrooms on site eventually, although they will not be for years 5 or 6. Year 4 parents have received a leaflet explaining what we will offer as a primary school and this will be available to all on our website.
We have partnered with West Jesmond Primary School in Newcastle to plan the extension of our curriculum into upper Key Stage 2. Working closely with the staff from West Jesmond over the coming years is a really exciting development opportunity for our school.
Our school community of children, staff and governors will move to a new school site in September 2019 and our current building will become Richard Coates Primary School. During this phase our catchment area will change too, although pupils who are already on roll with us will retain their place in our school right to the end of year 6. We do fully understand that parents may want to transfer their child to Richard Coates Primary as it will be their closest school. This can be done in all year groups for September 2017.
While we would love all of our families to continue their education with us, we will not be launching an aggressive marketing campaign to get children to stay as we do not think that this is appropriate in this time of change. However ,we do ask that parents let us know if they are applying to move to another school as we need to ensure that each school has the right level of resources available in 2017/18.
If any parents wish to talk to me about the changes please approach me, or ask to make an appointment to see me at any time.
Phonics Meeting
A reminder to our new reception parents that you are invited to a short introduction to phonics on Monday 3 October at 9am in our ICT suite. This will help you to understand how we teach synthetic phonics in school.
Inhalers
If your child is asthmatic and has an inhaler in school please remember that we must have a spacer for the inhaler in school also.
After School Clubs
As you are aware we have increased the number of after school activities that we offer to children and the take up of places in the wide variety of clubs has been great to see. In order to keep everyone safe on site we will be closing the gates at the end of the day promptly to secure the site for after school club attendees. This means that once children have been collected from years 1 to 4 we ask that you leave the site quickly so that gates can be closed and that the activities can start on the playground and field.
On Tuesday nights many of our children attend Gary Ives Football and meet in the hall to get changed. Unfortunately parents will not be able to stay on site whilst the children get ready as we need to lock the main gates to the yard before the children go out to access the field from our internal gate. At the end of the football session one of the coaches will open the gate to allow parents to pick up their child from the hall. As always, keeping children safe on site must be our top priority, and although pick-ups may take slightly longer , the children will be safe.
Parent Governor
Thank you to Andrea Taylor (the mother of Sophia in Year 1) who has been nominated as the new Parent Governor. Her term of office begins on 30 September for a period of 4 years.
Dates for your diary in Autumn Term 2016
Monday 3 October 9am New reception parents phonics training
Friday 7 October Year 4 assembly 9.15am
Week beginning 10 October Foundation Stage Open Week – parents will be invited to stay for a session with their child’s class
Wednesday 12 October Parents’ Evening (Y1-4)
Thursday 13 October Parents’ Evening (Y1-4)
Friday 14 October Year 3 assembly 9.15am
Monday 17 October Parents’ Evening (Y4)
Tuesday 18 October Parents’ Evening (Y4)
Wednesday 19 October Harvest Festival 9.15am – parents of Reception children and of all children new to the school are invited to attend.
Thursday 20 October PTA Halloween Disco (3.15-4.45)
Friday 21 October End of half term for children
Half Term
Monday 31 October Back to school
Theatre group perform “Ugly” to address issues around cyber bullying and bullying for years 1 to 4
W/C 14 November Anti-bullying week: This year the theme is “Power for Good”
Friday 18 November Children In Need – “The Big Spotacular” – wear something spotty
W/C 5 December Christmas performances
W/C 12 December Christmas parties
Friday 16 December 11am Christmas Service at St Mary’s Church – all welcome
End of term
The above dates are those envisaged by the school and may be subject to change
L Blain
Head Teacher
28 September 2016