Lane End Primary School

April - Newsletter 18 (19th April 2016)

Dear Parents/Carers,

 Welcome back to the summer term. It is lovely to start the term with such good weather and it allows us to make good use of our field, garden and school grounds in the children’s learning.

All of the infants have already had a chance to use ‘Lane End Woods’ and the juniors will get their first visits this half term. Each junior class will start by carrying out an afternoon of activities and a safety talk with their class teacher and teaching assistant led by Mrs Chamberlain and then be able to use the woods with their class teacher and teaching assistant after that. It can get quite muddy so when you have the date from your child’s class teacher please send them in on that day with a bag containing wellies, a waterproof coat and either waterproof trousers or a change of trousers. It is a fantastic resource and we want to get the most out of it for inspirational learning opportunities across the curriculum. Thank you.

 Country Dancers – please could anyone who hasn’t returned their skirt bring it back to school ASAP and give it to Mrs Chamberlain, thank you.

PPA Sport Lessons for Years 1 to 6 this term – Tuesday pm for Years 4 and 6 and Wednesday afternoon for Years 3 and 5 will be Gymnastics with Leandro (specialist Gym coach). Thursday pm for Years 1 and 2 will be cricket with Anthony McDonald (lead coach at Junior Sports Stars). The classes will be doing the other activity after the half term holiday. P.E. lessons led by the class teacher will be outdoor when the class are indoor for gym.

PTA – there is a PTA newsletter on the reverse of this newsletter. It is very important that we have more helpers this year and there is information about how you can help on the letter. We also have our three non-uniform days when children bring in items for the fair. The first one is on Friday 6th May and details are on the PTA newsletter. Thank you for your help with this.

School Funding – You may not be aware that Stockport is the fifth lowest funded Local Authority in England. This has an impact on schools in Stockport and this is particularly severe this year as additional costs have been put on schools from the government without any additional funding (we used to get a rebate for National Insurance contributions which school now has to pay). As one of the lowest funded schools in Stockport this is making buying and resourcing everything we would like to in order to enrich the children’s education difficult. Our excellent PTA and the fundraising that takes place makes a big difference – please support all that you can with this. There is another way that you may be able to help too – if you work for a company who would like to sponsor a project, resource or event then please get in touch and we can work out the best way for you to help. Finally, if you shop online then you can use easyfundraising.org.uk and our school link to help raise additional funds for school and with no cost to yourself. Just click on ‘support a cause’ and choose Lane End Primary School. Thank you for your support.

Clubs – a new club list is coming home for the summer term this week and will also be available online on our website.

We aim to be approachable and work in partnership with parents, so if there is anything you wish to discuss, please do not hesitate to come and talk to us.

Yours sincerely, 

James Twigg

PTA NEWSLETTER

Dear Parents and Carers

We're on countdown for the Summer Fair, unfortunately for those that don't know, I fractured my ankle at the beginning of March and with still being on crutches, I've not been able to do as much preparations as normal for the fair. We also didn't have a huge turn out for the last meeting so we are now behind with our preparations.

If you are able to help we are having another meeting on Tuesday 26th April at 9am in the Community Room. We need help with sourcing and collecting raffle prizes, shopping, advertising, admin for the outside stalls and prep for our own run stalls. If you are able to help but can't make the meeting please speak with Karen Wilson or email/text me.

The raffle tickets will be coming home soon, we have some fantastic prizes all for 50p per ticket.

Included in the tickets will be a sign up form for the fair, if you can help even for just an 1/2 hour please let us know. The sign-up sheet will also be going up by the end of next week in the school entrance. We did have to cancel 3 stalls at the Christmas Fair due to lack of helpers, if we know the week before the fair what stalls we are going to run this really helps with shopping and setting up. You are more than welcome to go on stall with your child, this gives them a great opportunity to learn about handling money. A BIG Thankyou to everyone that has volunteered already.

Non uniform days

The children can come to school in their own clothes in exchange for:-

Friday 6th May - Children's tombola prize

Friday 13th May - Any unopened bottle (Sauce, bubble bath, wine etc)

Friday 20th May - Cakes or chocolates. We are hoping to do an afternoon tea so if you are baking, scones, mini cakes or cupcakes would be lovely.

Competitions

We are holding 3 competitions this year. Fancy dress and a Best of British themed bunting competition for the children. The bunting template will be sent home soon and should be returned by Thursday 19th May. For the adults, "The Great Lane End Bake off" design and bake a cake no bigger than 10" square with a Best of British theme, these can be brought down on the day of the fair. All competitions will be judged on the day by the Mayor of Stockport.

The fair itself is on Saturday 21st May from 12-3 and we are doing a Village Fete theme. Set up is on Friday 20th from 1.30pm and 9.30am on Saturday.

Summer Ball - Saturday 2nd July. We're back at Bramhall Park Golf Club, so no taxis required - get your babysitters booked!

Picnic - Friday 22nd July. Our final event of the year with fun and games for the whole family - see what we have in store for Mr Twigg and myself this year!!

Thankyou for all support and we hope to see you at the fair.

Yours sincerely,

Beverley Sangster