Monday 2 November 2009

Whole School Letter (11)

HAVE YOU REMEMBERED? .... SCHOOL MEALS PRICE INCREASE
Please note that school meals for pupils have now increased by 10p.
New Costs £2.00 per day £10.00 per week
Please make all lunch money cheques payable to ‘Suffolk County Council’.

REMINDER - INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS
The children will be photographed this Friday, 6 November. Please ensure they have their school sweatshirts. If you wish to bring pre-school children into school to have a family group photo, please come to the hall at 8.30am.

VACANCY – TEMPORARY PART TIME TEACHING ASSISTANT
From January we will have a vacancy for a part-time teaching assistant to work in Reception.
The post will be temporary for 2 terms, for 17.5 hours per week, term time only.
The applicant should ideally hold GCSEs in Maths and English; they should have good communication skills; be patient and sensitive with children; may need to work with children with Special Needs; the ability to be flexible is essential; will need to cover some lunchtime supervision when necessary.
Salary range £6.62 – 8.00 per hour. Application forms are available from the office.
The closing date for applications is 20 November 2009.

RETURNING FORMS / DINNER MONEY TO SCHOOL
Please may we ask parents to remind children to hand in any forms/dinner money on the day you send it in with them? We are finding that deadlines are missed by forms being left in bookbags.

HARVEST CHARITY DONATIONS
The Harvest collection raised £130.04 for the Soup Kitchen in Ipswich and West Villa Homeless Families Unit in Ipswich was very grateful for the food donations. Thank you.

REMEMBRANCE POPPIES
These will be on sale in the school as from Monday 2 until Thursday 5 November. They will be brought to the classes each day when the children will have an opportunity to purchase a poppy.

THE GIVING MACHINE

The Friends recently distributed information about this website in their newsletter which, once you have registered, you can use to do internet shopping at many online stores. The online stores then give a % of your purchase price directly to our school (as your selected charity) – it does not cost you anything and the school benefits directly. The Friends politely ask that you consider using this when doing any online shopping. www.TheGivingMachine.co.uk. Thank you.

CHILDREN IN NEED – Friday 20 November
This year, on Friday 20 November, we will be raising money for Children In Need. We ask that children bring in a teddy (preferably a small one!) and a donation of 50p.

SPECIAL PUDSEY BEAR LUNCH - Friday 20 November
SCC Catering are planning a special Pudsey Bear Lunch on Friday 20 November to tie in with Children In Need day. Look out for the menus in the classrooms nearer the time.

WINTER WEATHER
Winter weather is now upon us and all children will NEED TO BRING A COAT every day. Thank you.

BAD WEATHER ARRANGEMENTS

We make every possible effort to ensure that the school remains open, but many of the staff do live a long way away which involves difficult cross country journeys. In the event of bad weather conditions, please listen to the following radio stations for information with regard to whether the school has to be closed or not:
· Radio Suffolk 95.5, 95.9, 103.9 and 104.6FM (have updates at 10 past and 20 to each hour)
· Broadland Norfolk 102.4FM
· SGR FM 97.1-96.4FM
· Beach Radio 103.4 and 97.4FM

SCHOOL NURSE – DROP-IN SESSIONS
The School Nurse will be coming to school once a term to have ‘Drop-in’ sessions for any parents who have health concerns about their children that they wish to talk about. The sessions will be private and confidential. The first session will be Friday 27 November from 9.30am – 10.30am. Please let the office know if you would like to see her and we will book you a 10 minute slot.

PLAYTIME MAGAZINE – INCORRECT INFO
We have been advised that there was some incorrect information published in the playtime magazine regarding dates of Firework displays. Please check alternative sources to confirm dates and times of events you may wish to go to.

SCHOOL DENTAL INSPECTION
The Dental Service will be visiting the school on 17 November. A separate NHS letter will be sent home for parents to sign consent if you wish you child to have a brief visual examination.

HOUSING BENEFITS
We have been informed by Suffolk Coastal District Council that there has been a Government change when calculating entitlement to Housing Benefit; child benefit will now be disregarded when assessing a family’s income. More information can be obtained from Customer Services at SCDC on 01394 444838.