October Newsletter | St. Bernadette's Catholic Primary School

October Newsletter 2019

Dear Parents, Carers and Children,

What a great start to the year it has been! Thank you for all your support and commitment to your children’s attendance, work and uniform.

Diary Dates – October/Early November

Date	Event
Wednesday 2^nd October	Buddies Assembly (Reception and Y6 parents), 9am
Friday 4^th October	Y2 visit to Stewart Park
Friday 4^th October	P.T.A Race Night – School Hall 6 – 8pm
Saturday 5^th October	P.T.A Walk, 10am Great Ayton
W/C 7^th October	Judaism week
9th, 10^th, 11^th October	Year 6 Residential to Robinwood
Monday 14^th October	Tempest Photography – Individual & Family Photographs
Wednesday 16^th October	Nursery Welcome Liturgy 10 – 11.30am
Wednesday 23^rd October	Harvest Mass 9.30am School Hall
Thursday 24^th October	Autumn Disco EYFS/KS1 4.30pm & KS2 5.30pm
Friday 25^th October	Last day of term
Monday 4^th November	School re-opens

Attendance

Attendance for September was 97.3%.

We are very proud of our exceptional attendance in school and your commitment to your child’s education and welfare – thank you. Please keep supporting us in ensuring your child is at school each day and punctual.

Attendance Policy

The Trust, in collaboration with the School Attendance Lead, now monitors our school attendance and when attendance falls below national expectations. The expectation is for pupils to attend school every day, otherwise attaining at least 97% attendance for the school year, which equates to having 5 days (or 10 sessions) absence. The Trust will notify a parent in writing, as early as possible, where their child’s attendance has fallen below expectations. To comply with legal requirements, each parent is notified in writing separately. The attendance process is subject to fast tracking and where appropriate, the Trust will initiate measures where there is a continued decline in attendance and will invite the parent to an Attendance Case Conference, to be held at the school; the purpose of which is to formulate a plan to work together to improve attendance.

The Leave of absence in Term Time policy is also managed by the Trust. The parent must make application to the Head Teacher of the school for any leave of absence in term time. Head Teachers will not grant leave of absence in term time unless they fall under exceptional circumstances, which will be determined as:

a recent serious illness/bereavement of an immediate family member;
a member of the Armed Forces whereby they need to undertake a tour of duty which conflicts with school holidays;
restrictions on police leave, where a police officer has specific duties in relation to a national event which conflicts with school holidays.

Each parent will be informed in writing whether the leave has been agreed or not. Where leave is taken without prior approval, or without application the matter may be referred to the local authority for consideration of the issue of a penalty notice.

Our full attendance policy can be accessed via the school website.

Pupil/Parent/Carer contact information

Please advise the school office if there are any changes to the information we currently hold. In particular: addresses, all telephone contact numbers and parent/carer email addresses. As the majority or correspondence is sent out via email, it is essential that we have up to date email addresses.

New Altar Servers

We do not currently have any altar servers in school. Are there any young people, who have made their First Holy Communion and attend St Bernadette’s Church regularly, willing to join the loyal band of Church Altar servers? If so please contact Mrs Frances Gilchrist on 01642318747, or give name and phone number in writing to the school office or Mgr. Hogan.

PTA News

AGM

A small group of parents met on Monday 16^thSeptember and the following people have been elected to support fundraising for the school.

Vice Chair – Helen Pemberton

Treasurer – Sarah Langstaff

Secretary – Dawn Mcnamara

Minutes from the last meeting are available on the school website.

The following people have volunteered to be ‘Supporters of the PTA’ and regularly attend, support and organise various events: Rachael Arnold, Melanie Price, Laura Cutler, Carol Rodgers, Sandra Rowney and Clare Willett. If you would like to add your name to the list of ‘supporters’ on the website please contact the school office or one of the above. Your regular or occasional support is always appreciated.

PTA Accounts are attached with this newsletter. You can see the incredible fundraising that the PTA does and all the monies raised goes directly into your children: this year the PTA are using raised funds to purchase: 10 more iPads, audio support for drama productions, additional classroom resources, subsidising educational visits costs and subsidising pantomime costs.

Events arranged for the Autumn term include: the Welcome weekend: Race night, quiz and bingo (Friday 4^th October, 6pm); a family walk to Great Ayton (10am); an Autumn Disco (Thursday 24^th October) and Christmas Fayre (Saturday 30^th November).

September Events

Sporting events

Over 30 KS2 Cross Country runners took part in the Primary Schools Middlesbrough Event with Mrs Davies last week. There were particular runs of note for brothers Jack and Will; Joseph R and Lily who will go on to represent Middlesbrough in the Tees Valley Finals. In fact all 30 children were commended for their excellent attitudes and determination and represented the school in fine spirit amongst fields of over 200 competitors!

Extended schools Timetable

Please find below the wide variety of events we have on offer this term. Throughout the year all teaching staff volunteer their own time to facilitate the clubs, and I am so grateful. We are also supported by Mr Peacock and Tom Burke Academy. Further clubs and year groups will be facilitated after half term.

Extended Schools

	Morning	Lunch Time	After School
Monday	Maths Club	KS2 Cross Country	Y2 Multi-skills
Tuesday	Maths Club	French Club	Y5/6 Tag Rugby
Wednesday	Maths Club	Spanish Club KS2 Gymnastics
Thursday	Maths Club	KS2 Cross Country KS1 Art Club Spanish Club	Y5 Sports Leaders
Friday	Maths Club	Web Watchers KS1 & KS2 Trend Club	Y3/4 Street Dance

Please contact the school office for further information on any of our clubs.

Dates for the Diary

Buddies Assembly

On Wednesday 2^nd October, we warmly welcome all Year 6 and Reception parents to our ‘Buddies assembly’, 9am. It is one of our really special assemblies which is sure to bring a tear to your eye!

Nursery Welcome Liturgy

On Wednesday 16^th November, 10am, our Nursery staff invite you to a children’s liturgy to stay and pray with them and welcome you and your families into our school family.

Tempest Photographs

Individual and family group photographs will be taken by Tempest Photography on Monday 14th October. Photographs will be taken in the School Hall.

If you have pre-school children and would like a family photograph please come to the Hall at 8:40am. Older children will be directed from their classrooms after registration for photographs.

Harvest Festival – SVP Food Banks

St Bernadette’s will be collecting donations for the SVP Food Bank in advance of our Harvest Mass on Wednesday 23^rd October, 9.30am in school. This year, rather than fresh produce, we have been asked for donations of tinned foods, bags of sugar, long life milk, and long life fruit juice.

Any donations will be greatly appreciated. We will start collecting W/C Monday 15th October. Please could all donations be brought into school by Tuesday 22nd October so we can pack food for hampers.

Autumn Disco

This year’s PTA Autumn Disco will be held on Thursday 24^th October, 4.30pm-6.30pm. Tickets will be available from the School Office from Monday 15^th October, £2 per ticket. Children are welcome to dress up in their Halloween costumes.

4.30pm – 5.30pm Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 (Parents must attend)
5.30pm – 6.30pm Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 (Parents can collect/drop off. Children are not allowed to bring mobile phones)

Children in schools out can be collected as normal and will be cared for by our usual staff.

Updated Annual Calendar

Please find attached an annual calendar of events. As much as possible we will stick with these dates/times but if we need to change anything due to unforeseen events we will provide advance notice.

Aldi vouchers

Will our school win £20,000? Aldi’s Kit for Schools promotion is giving 20 primary schools the chance to win £20,000 to kick-start a health legacy for their school. What’s more, every school who enters by completing their Aldi’s Kit for Schools poster will also receive an exclusive school sports kit! You can collect a sticker with every £30 spent in store and fill up our school’s poster for a chance to win. Any vouchers would be greatly received.

And finally,

We are extremely grateful for our existing volunteers but would really welcome further support. We have had limited response from our plea for recruiting volunteers to support school life. If you can offer any support please can you contact the school office, Mr Conway or Miss Brady. It really does make a big difference!

Mr P Conway

Head Teacher