January - Newsletter 11 (14th January 2016)

 

 

Dear Parents/Carers,

 

School Admissions – a reminder that applications for Reception 2016 need to be made on the Stockport Council Admissions website page by January 15th (this Friday). There is a link to the council website page on our school website. Click on ‘Our School’ – ‘Prospectus’ and then ‘Admissions’. Click here

 

A curriculum map is coming home today for each class to give you more information about this term’s curriculum. Please have a look at this with your child.

 

There is a letter on the reverse of this newsletter about Pupil Premium funding – please have a read to see if your child is eligible to receive this additional funding for school.

 

Class assemblies for this term are below. These all start at 9:20am and are all on Thursdays. Please enter school via the community room before the assembly – the PTA kindly organise tea and coffee while you wait!

 

Year 6 - 3rd March,  Year 4 – 10th March, Year 3 - 17th March, Year 1 – 31st March

 

A letter inviting nominations for a parent governor was sent out this week. Nominations need to be in school by 9am on Monday 18th January. You are welcome to come and talk to me (or email or phone school) if you want to know more about the role. Thank you to Vanessa Morrissey whose term as parent governor has just come to an end for her excellent work as parent governor; it is much appreciated.

 

School Rewards – Go for it!

 

We expect the children to work hard and behave very well in school. Children receive 30 minutes of Golden Time on a Friday afternoon (a fun time with a choice of activities) for following our Golden Rules. Breaking the Golden Rules can mean that you don’t earn all of your Golden Time. There are also other rewards which emphasise working hard and behaving well shown below:

 

Smiles and Good Work Books - If an individual child has put in some extra effort and/or produced some excellent work then their name is put in the Smiles Book (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) or the Good Work Book (Years 3, 4, 5 and 6). Children whose name is in the book come out to the front in assembly on Friday and share their work. They are given a special sticker which the children have designed themselves (so you know your child has done well). They also get two team points for their efforts. Finally, we count up each child’s number of entries into these books over the course of a term and the whole year and the two children from each year group with the most entries receive a special certificate at the end of the term or year.

 

Podium Café – our winning teams from our team point competition last term were Kingfishers (infants) and Yellowhammers (Juniors) and they have the opportunity to go to our Podium Café this week for an extra treat at playtime. Each child is in a coloured team (red robins, blue kingfishers, yellow yellowhammers and green greenfinches) and we count up the number of team points at the end of each week and then add these up at the end of a term – the winning team gets a trip to the Podium Café (kindly put together by Mrs Titterington in the community room)! The coloured teams are also used for our sports days.

Fine Diners – Three infant children and four junior children are chosen to be our ‘fine diners’ at the end of each term because they have been particularly polite and well-mannered at lunchtimes. They are allowed to choose a friend to join them at the fine diners table for a special lunchtime service provided by our dinner staff (Mrs Lau is very good at napkin folding and creating interesting touches to make it a special!).

 

Marble Jar – If the whole class have been working particularly hard or done some great work together (for example in a class assembly) then they are rewarded with a marble to put in the class marble jar. Once the jar is full the children choose a class treat together – they have chosen den building and pyjama parties in the past for example.

 

Star of the Week – each week a child is chosen as ‘Star of the Week’ from each class. This is someone who has shone out for their attitude, for working hard and improving in a particular area or for their contribution to class.

 

Headteacher’s Award – If a child has made excellent progress in a subject or area, has produced a piece of work which shows particular effort or done something which is out of the ordinary then I can present them with a headteacher’s award and sticker.

 

Whilst the above are all good ways of motivating the children and rewarding their hard work it is also fundamentally important that the children know the reasons why they need to work hard and behave well in order to succeed and make a valuable contribution to school and our society. The real rewards are not stickers or certificates but personal development and bettering our world. We do a lot of work in assemblies on our school values: Excellence, Determination, Inspiration, Respect, Courage, Equality and Friendship and talk about how these link to their work in school and life in general.

 

Wrap Up Warm – please make sure your children have a warm waterproof winter coat in cold weather. Gloves and scarfs can also be brought to school – it is important to name all clothing please. If we do get any snow then children can wear wellies/boots and bring their school shoes in a bag. Children should also always have their outdoor P.E. kit in school which they can wear whenever we do outside PE or games. We are reminding children to put these on if we are able to get outside for sports. If the weather is too cold or wet we will stay inside for PE and games lessons.

 

Tennis Coaches – we have coaches from Bramhall Lane Lawn Tennis Club teaching the children from Year 1 to Year 6 in their games sessions this term. Year 4 and 6 – Tuesdays, Year 3 and 5 – Wednesdays, Year 1 and 2 – Thursdays.

 

Head Girls – It is always good to get positive feedback from the high schools on how well children from Lane End are doing. We aim to prepare the children so that they continue to thrive and you may be interested to know that two ex-Lane End pupils are currently head girls at both Cheadle Hulme High School and The Kingsway School – Megan Johnson and Eleanor Swallow. Well done girls!

 

Well done to our road safety competition winners who designed some very imaginative, environmentally friendly ways of travelling to school with some interesting safety features too. They are pictured in the most recent edition of the Stockport Express with myself and Mr Belfield from Thorneycroft Solicitors – part of the Brain Injury Group who sponsored the competition. There were some great entries and the winners were: Ted Crowther and Luke Sullivan from Reception, Olivia Smart from Year 1, William Middleton from Year 2, Olivia Sullivan from Year 3, Katie James from Class 4, Ava Mitten from Year 5 and Quayone Rushmer from Year 6.

 

Sticker Competition - We have another competition for the children to take part in. As mentioned above if the children are in the Smiles or Good Work Book they receive a special sticker designed by one of the children. We had about 10 different designs which were the winners of a school competition a couple of years ago. We’ve now used up all the stickers and want to design some new ones. So, over to the children. There is a competition entry form with the rules and some tips attached to this newsletter. Designs need to be in by Monday 1st February and the winning entries will be made into our new special stickers!

  

School Holiday Dates (including INSET days) for 2016/17 – advance notice on holiday dates for next academic year so that holidays can be booked out of term time:

 

 

School Closes after Lesson on

School re-opens on

 

 

Monday 5th September

Autumn Half Term

Friday 21st October

Monday 31st October

Christmas

Thursday 22nd December

Monday 9th January

Spring Half Term

Friday 17th February

Monday 27th February

Easter

Friday 31st March

Tuesday 18th April

Whit Half Term

Friday 26th May

Tuesday 13th June

Summer

Friday 28th July

 

 

 

Forest Schools – we had a lot of work done on our Forest School area over the Christmas holidays – putting up fences and a gate and making the area safe with tree and ground work being undertaken. A great deal of this is being funded by the PTA through their fundraising events etc. Work has really moved on and we hope to start using ‘Lane End Woods’ quite soon. Mrs Chamberlain is completing her Forest School leaders course and is also undertaking a comprehensive risk assessment of the area. Two of our teaching assistants - Miss Sweeney and Mrs Parker - have also received training. Mrs Chamberlain will be sending a letter home soon giving more information with details of how we will use this fantastic new resource with the children and also how you can help with the project.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Pupil Premium Funding

 

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

Did you know that you can attract extra money for our school to spend on your child by contacting the Local Authority if you are receiving benefits, have a ‘Looked after Child’, have an adopted child or if a parent is in the Armed Forces.

 

The government gives money to schools to help children from the above criteria to ensure they achieve their full potential. This funding is called Pupil Premium. For every child registered, Lane End Primary School gets £1300 per pupil per year.

 

How does this work?

 

  1. Check if you qualify with Stockport Local Authority,
  • Children eligible for Free School Meals because you receive one of the qualifying benefits:
  • Income Support
  • Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
  • Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
  • Universal Credit
  • Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
  • The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
  • Child Tax Credit (provided you are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
  • Working Tax Credit run-on paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
  • Children adopted from care on or after 30th December 2005
  • Children who left care under a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) on or after 30th December 2005 and
  • Children who left care under a Residence Order (RO) on or after 14 October 1991
  • You are employed in the Armed Forces

 

  1. Registering is really quick and easy.

 

  1. If you don’t want your child to have the school meals they can continue as normal and as long as you qualify and are registered the school still gets £1300 extra for your child.

 

No one will know you’ve registered and it will not affect any other benefits you are claiming.

 

We do appreciate that this information is confidential and completely voluntary.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact the school office if you think you qualify and would like to apply.

 

Yours sincerely,   James Twigg   Headteacher

Ramillies Avenue, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, SK8 7AL

0161 485 8071

admin@laneend.stockport.sch.uk