Once again, I have to compliment the children on their uniform. On each of the two last Wednesdays, we have had visitors into assembly who have each commented on how smart all our learners look. It is a real credit to the school and to yourselves, and, I can assure you, it does make a difference, so please keep it going.
As I mentioned in the last newsletter, we intend to keep battling poor attendance this year, as loss of learning is unacceptable. Last week’s gold, silver and bronze treats were amazing, and the children were brilliantly behaved. I was really pleased to see people coming back. Therefore, you can imagine how disappointed I was to learn that we have already lost 165 days of unauthorised absence. This figure is appalling, and is larger than many schools accrue in a whole year! Equally, I was gutted to learn how low our attendance was when I see how hard many of you were working on getting here on time and attending every day. At the moment, our attendance is still below 90%, with the national average at 94%. Please, everyone, keep going. If you know people who aren’t attending, or who are spoiling our figures and our efforts, come and tell us. I expect our attendance to match the national average this year. I was hoping to give out hundreds of awards this year, not more penalty notices…
We are updating the lists of children’s medical and health needs. If your child has any allergy or nutritional information you think we should know, please contact the office immediately.
Breakfast club is open as usual for business. Can I remind you, however, that in an attempt to improve our attendance (see above) breakfast is not served after 8.45. There will be the second Parents’ Only Breakfast next Thursday, 30th September, starting at 9.00 in the dining hall.
Finally, I have been asked to inform you all about the plight of Henbury Colts FC, who are really in need of some members. Please see their poster on the reverse of this newsletter.
Please keep the uniform going, and let’s make the attendance as good!
Zak Willis
Friday, 10 September 2010
Welcome back to another school year! I have been enormously impressed by how smart the children have looked during the first week, and hope this continues for the rest of the year. I have also been delighted to hear about the wonderful summers they have enjoyed, and the exciting things they have done.
Children have now had almost a full week of their timetable and are getting used to new days for PE, art and such. Could you please make sure you know what days your children do PE, as they will need kit – shorts and t-shirt, and trainers for outdoors, and it does need to be a different t-shirt to their school top (no football shirts please). Years 3 and 5 will go swimming later in the year.
Can I also just let you know that all the suggestions you made about changing our curriculum last year through the questionnaires have been written into the new year curriculum planning – please come and see me if you would like further details.
Attendance
We will continue our massive push on attendance, as it is my intention that, this year, our overall attendance will at least be in line with the national average of 94%. (Last year, it was 89%). To this end, all our children who received gold, silver or bronze awards will receive their rewards next week – a separate letter is going out to those families.
Already, however, I have had to record some absence as unauthorised: I cannot allow children to miss schooling to attend sporting events, nor can I grant more days holiday than I am allowed to. Miss Lee will send your attendance slips back out to you once I have seen them. Please see me if there are any questions.
Electronic letters
Many of you, quite rightly, suggested we should seek to save paper by not sending out so many letters. If you would prefer to receive your news letters electronically, please let the office have your email address. Equally, if ever you miss one, they are stored on our website.
If you have any questions or queries about your child’s new class, or about the organisation of the school this year, please don’t hesitate to ask.
I hope that you, like me, are looking forward to year of even greater progress for Badock’s Wood Primary School.
Zak Willis
Children have now had almost a full week of their timetable and are getting used to new days for PE, art and such. Could you please make sure you know what days your children do PE, as they will need kit – shorts and t-shirt, and trainers for outdoors, and it does need to be a different t-shirt to their school top (no football shirts please). Years 3 and 5 will go swimming later in the year.
Can I also just let you know that all the suggestions you made about changing our curriculum last year through the questionnaires have been written into the new year curriculum planning – please come and see me if you would like further details.
Attendance
We will continue our massive push on attendance, as it is my intention that, this year, our overall attendance will at least be in line with the national average of 94%. (Last year, it was 89%). To this end, all our children who received gold, silver or bronze awards will receive their rewards next week – a separate letter is going out to those families.
Already, however, I have had to record some absence as unauthorised: I cannot allow children to miss schooling to attend sporting events, nor can I grant more days holiday than I am allowed to. Miss Lee will send your attendance slips back out to you once I have seen them. Please see me if there are any questions.
Electronic letters
Many of you, quite rightly, suggested we should seek to save paper by not sending out so many letters. If you would prefer to receive your news letters electronically, please let the office have your email address. Equally, if ever you miss one, they are stored on our website.
If you have any questions or queries about your child’s new class, or about the organisation of the school this year, please don’t hesitate to ask.
I hope that you, like me, are looking forward to year of even greater progress for Badock’s Wood Primary School.
Zak Willis
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