February - Newsletter 14 (2nd February 2017)
Dear Parents/Carers,
NSPCC Online Safety Talk for Parents – we had a very good turn-out for this, thank you for the support and for recognising the importance of this topic. Talking to your child – openly, and regularly – is the best way to help keep them safe online. To help you have these conversations about staying safe online you can use the NSPCC website – follow the link to the site on the homepage of our school website. There is also a link to the ‘Think You Know’ website which has resources for both children and parents.
We regularly reinforce online safety messages to children in assembly and our computing lessons. Safer Internet Day 2017 will be celebrated globally on Tuesday 7th February with the slogan ‘Be the change: Unite for a better internet’ – we will reinforce the messages during this week too.
Guide to Staying Safe - Mrs Love has produced a booklet for parents which gives details of some of the important messages we give the children in assemblies about staying safe – it includes internet safety, anti-bullying work, road safety, stranger-danger and other safety reminders with links to useful website for parents. This will be coming home next week so please look out for it.
Circle Times – the children are taking part in weekly Circle Times on a Thursday morning. From the conversations I’ve had with children and staff these are going well and give a good opportunity to talk and share ideas about a whole range of issues – themes so far have included: ‘What is Good Listening?’ ‘Turn Taking’ and ‘Dealing with our Emotions.’
500 Word Competition – I spoke to the children in assembly about the Radio 2 story writing competition. It would be great to have some entries from children at Lane End. If you type ‘500 Words Radio 2’ into a search engine you will see the 500 Words website which contains all of the details for the competition as well as online videos about writing stories and last year’s winning entries. There are two age groups in the 500 Words competition - one for children aged 10-13, and another for children aged 5 -9. There are excellent prizes for the winners and it is good story writing experience for all. Entries need submitting on the 500 Words website by Thursday 23rd February.
School Sports – our school sports teams have been busy recently. Just before the Christmas holidays our swimming team took part and performed well in the Stockport Borough Competition, our lacrosse team played very well and showed great determination against some more experienced teams in the competition on 19th January and our Year 2 gymnastics team performed brilliantly coming 2nd in their leg of the Stockport Gymnastics Competition and 4th overall in Stockport last week. Finally, our Girls’ football team played very well last night against Cheadle Hulme School, losing 4-1 but showing great team work. Well done all!
School Dinners – I have attached some information from Solutions SK about our school dinners; a letter outlining some of the healthy choices available and quality products used as well as the current menu which runs until the Easter Holidays. On the last Parents Questionnaire we had a couple of requests for more information about nutritional content and I hope that this gives a useful overview. We’re pleased that all dinners are cooked onsite by our cook in charge, Jayne Harper, and that they offer a tasty, healthy and nutritional meal each day.
How food smart are you? We are also sending home a ‘Change 4 Life’ information pack which gives details about making healthy food choices and is for you to use with your child. There are stickers and quiz cards in the pack and also details about a food smart app which you can download.
Non-uniform Day on Friday 17th February - we are having a non-uniform day in order to help raise money for the PTA. The PTA are planning on funding an upgraded version of Seesaw. We have had some very good feedback on the usefulness of the Seesaw which gives you an insight in to what is happening at school and creates an easy link between home and school. At the moment we are using a free version – the upgraded version has more functionality and will also allow whole school communication. For example, we would be able to send newsletters via the app and not need to send a paper version home (environmentally friendly, saving money on paper costs and better than an email which can easily get forgotten in a large inbox). It also allows portability of each child’s ‘portfolio’ so that it can carry on year after year (at the moment we would have to start again at the beginning of the next year group).
At the last PTA meeting we agreed that we would try and do the non-uniform day on ParentPay as it was felt this would be easier for both parents and school – instead of the children brining in £1 a ParentPay request will be on your account from Monday 13th Feb. It costs about £4 per child to upgrade Seesaw on an annual basis so there will also be the option of donating more than £1 if you feel you can support us in this way. Added to this all of the money raised by the PTA goes to project/resources etc. which all of the children benefit from. Thank you for your support.
Slap Cheek – there have been a couple of cases of ‘slap cheek’ in school. It may be worth reading the information on the NHS Choices website to find out more and make yourself aware of the symptoms –
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Slapped-cheek-syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx. The overview says: ‘Slapped cheek syndrome (also called fifth disease or parvovirus B19) is a viral infection that's most common in children, although it can affect people of any age. It usually causes a bright red rash on the cheeks. Although the rash can look alarming, slapped cheek syndrome is normally a mild infection that clears up by itself in one to three weeks. Once you've had the infection, you're usually immune to it for life. However, slapped cheek syndrome can be more serious for some people. If you're pregnant, have a blood disorder or a weakened immune system and have been exposed to the virus, you should get medical advice.’ It also mentions: ‘Unless you or your child is feeling unwell, there’s no need to stay away from school or work once the rash has developed, as the infection is no longer contagious by this point. It's a good idea to notify your child's school about the infection, so children who develop early symptoms can be spotted quickly and vulnerable people can be made aware that they may need to get medical advice.’
Class Assemblies for this term:
Wednesday 8th March at 9:20am – Year 6
Thursday 9th March at 9:20am – Year 1
Thursday 23rd March at 9:20am – Year 2
Parents/carers and relatives of the children involved are warmly invited.
Reception Class at Rainbow 88 to Celebrate Chinese New Year
Our Reception children celebrated Chinese New Year at Rainbow 88 – they particularly enjoyed the delicious Chinese meal and the dragon and unicorn dance!
School Funding
Schools have historically received different amounts of funding depending on whereabouts in the country they are. Stockport is one of the lowest funded Local Authorities in the country and Lane End has always been one of the lowest funded schools within the authority (as the per pupil funding takes into account such factors as level of deprivation). In 2015-16 the national average per pupil grant funding was £4567, in Stockport it was £3928 and at Lane End it was £3734. That means we receive £833 per pupil less than the national average. If we were funded at the national average level we would receive an additional £174,930 each year. In addition to this, we don’t receive much additional funding which comes in to schools in the form of the Pupil Premium.
We have been managing with a budget which is far lower than the average for many years. We have been prudent and efficient – we have had to make many efficiency savings and cut resources and have also benefitted from PTA fundraising and your support to help fund important projects. However, the budget situation has become increasingly difficult over the last few years. Costs go up each year and our budget is not increased in line with the rising costs involved in running the school. Added to this, capital budgets to spend on the school building and ICT infrastructure were drastically reduced in 2011 – at Lane End we saw a drop from approximately £20 000 per year to approximately £6000 per year. Recently, to compound matters further, from last year we had to pay additional National Insurance and pension contributions which the government used to pay (approximately £40 000 per year) and this year there is an additional apprenticeship levy which all Local Authority schools must pay (approximately £5000) – no additional funding has been put in place for these additional costs.
It is recognised that the discrepancies across Local Authorities are unfair, as schools with similar intakes but in different Local Authorities could be receiving very different funding levels. It is an unfair system based on a ‘postcode lottery’ and as a school we were delighted when in 2015 the government promised to introduce a fairer funding system for schools. This ‘National Fairer Funding Formula’ was then proposed in December 2016 and is due to be introduced in 2018-19. Unfortunately, we do not believe it has been well conceived. No additional money has been put into the system, the proposed formula is still tied to historical discrepancies and the split between the ‘lump sum’ figure (a set amount of money each school gets) and per pupil amount has been weighted more towards per pupil funding - because of this many smaller school are worse off. So, instead of gaining as we had expected, based on the figures recently released, Lane End actually loses money under the proposed funding formula - approximately £13 000 each year.
This further reduction added to the increasing costs already mentioned is simply untenable and will have an inevitable impact on the education and provision we can provide at Lane End. I am meeting with the governing body to make our response. We will be contacting Cheadle Hulme’s MP, Mrs Mary Robinson, and will also be completing the Government’s online consultation documentation. I am also part of a representative group of headteachers working with the Local Authority to make a Stockport wide response – there will be a further letter coming home in due course. We also need your help. One way to do this is through the national consultation:
https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/schools-national-funding-formula2/
The consultation process is open until 22nd March 2017. Unfortunately the lay out and questions on the national consultation process are not particularly accessible. As a result, we feel that the best course of action is for as many of our parents as possible to express their views to our MP, Mrs Mary Robinson, who can be contacted at:
Mary Robinson MP
8A Station Road
Cheadle Hulme
SK8 5AE
mary.robinson.mp@parliament.uk
0161 672 6855
https://www.mary-robinson.org.uk/
Your support in this respect would be much appreciated. If you would like to talk to me about the issue then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
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 – February 2017
PTA fundraising is more important than ever as schools’ budgets are squeezed more and more. Thank you for your support.
Our Christmas Fair raised over £3200, which is fantastic amount and our best ever fair. The money has been used to pay for the forest school fencing at the bottom of the field and paid for £1000 books for the library. We are also in a position to donate anther £1000 to the library for new books. So thank you to everyone that helped and donated on the day.
Dates for your diary
Friday 17th February
This is our next non uniform day. We are raising funds to upgrade the Seesaw app. We usually suggest a donation of £1 for non-uniform days but if you would like to donate more (the full per pupil cost of Seesaw is £4 and all donations go to PTA fundraising for the school) then this would be really appreciated. This will be available on ParentPay from Monday 13th February until Monday 20th February. Thank you!
Friday 10th March
Fuzzy Goose fashions with be showcasing their latest fashion ranges and contemporary gifts. If you would like a sneak preview please visit www.fuzzygooseboutique.com. Tickets are £6 and available to all ladies so bring your mum, sister, auntie, grandma, work colleagues or neighbours to this fun night. A glass of wine is included in your ticket price and is also available to buy on the night, together with your chance to win some fab prizes in our raffle. The show starts at 7.30pm in the hall. If anyone has some long mirrors we could borrow that night, please let a member of the PTA know
Wednesday 22nd March
PTA Meeting, 7:30 in the staffroom. We will be planning for the Summer Fair at this meeting so please do come along if you can as we need quite a lot of help.
Friday 24th March
Disco in aid of Red Nose Day. Kids grab your dancing shoes for this great fundraiser. Infants Disco 6-7 and Juniors 7.15-8.15pm. Tickets are £3 per child and a tuckshop will be open during the night.
This will also be the night of round 3 of Mrs Sangster vs Mr Twigg, we will need the help of all the children and mums and dads too in this dance-off challenge to Cha Cha Slide. It's currently 1-1 in the head to head challenge!
Saturday 20th May
Summer Fair 12-3pm.
Friday 23rd June
As this day will be the 50th anniversary of when the school opened, we have decided to bring the date of the Picnic forward so we can celebrate on the exact date.
Friday 21st July
We are changing the event to a family fun night - more details to follow nearer the time
Coffee Mornings
We will been serving tea & coffee before the following assemblies:
Wednesday 8th March - Year 6
Thursday 9th March - Year 1
Thursday 23rd March - Year 2
If anyone is able to help, please let a member of the PTA know.
Payments
We can now accept payment for events via the Parent Pay website.
Thank again for all your support and we'll see you at our next event.
Bev Sangster
Ramillies Avenue, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, SK8 7AL
0161 485 8071
admin@laneend.stockport.sch.uk