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Newsletter 5 ~ January 13th 2016 Happy New Year! Dear Parents On behalf of everyone at Helmshore Primary School I would like to wish you a very Happy and prosperous New Year. Thank you on behalf of all the staff for your generous Christmas gifts and cards. They are very much appreciated. A biscuit or chocolate bar can make all the difference on a hectic, winters day! You may already have met Mrs McKenna who is working part-time in the school office and you may be aware that Mrs Brothers is expecting her second child and will be leaving us soon to commence her Maternity leave. We all wish her well and look forward to meeting her new baby. In her absence, Class 5B will be taught by Mrs Bond (Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday) and Mrs Frain (Thursday & Friday). Both these teachers know the children and are familiar with school procedures and protocols. I am confident that they will provide a smooth transition for the children and ensure continuity in all aspects of their learning. Please feel welcome to speak to members of staff or myself if you have any queries or concerns.
Good attendance is very important as it can have a major impact on children’s attainment and progress. Over the last four years we have worked hard on our incentive scheme to encourage good attendance where possible. Obviously we understand that children cannot attend school if they are unwell but we hope that all children will attend each day if they are fit enough to do so. This year, as previously, we are entering the 2015-16 East Lancs Attendance Competition organised by Julie Lloyd Lancashire’s Attendance officer and sponsored by Accrington Stanley Community Trust. Last year we did very well and won the highest attendance on 13 occasions which is a super achievement for such a large school. Thank you for your continued support.
Best Wishes
Christine Myers
What’s on! As always we have a busy term ahead of us with lots of activities for the children to enjoy. Clubs and activities
Spring – 1st Half Term
Monday – Year 3 & 4 Athletics Club – Mrs Ashworth & Mrs Altham Tuesday – Year 3 & 4 Kwik Cricket Club – Mr Palmieri Wednesday – Year 4 – 6 Girls Football Club – Mr Palmieri Thursday – Year 3 & 4 Fun & Fitness Club – Mrs Ashworth & Mrs Altham Thursday – Year 5 & 6 Cookery Club – Mrs Allsop
Cats! This term the whole school will be working on our creative “Art Attack” project. Although it is in the early stages of planning and development the theme will be “Cats” and this will be a backdrop to this year’s production of the musical “Cats” for Year 5 and 6 pupils. Rehearsals will begin soon and we will be selecting a cast and auditioning for main parts. The children will be involved in a range of Literacy tasks and will have lots of large scale creative opportunities. This whole school initiative culminates in a large hall display with painted wall drops and three dimensional objects.
Snow White and the Eight Dwarves – a Year 4 and 5 pantomime Rehearsals are in full swing for the Year 4 and 5 pantomime; Snow White and the Eight Dwarves. Yes you are reading it correctly it is Eight Dwarves.
Love
The children are busy learning lines and singing a wide variety of songs; both old and new. They can’t wait to showcase all their talent and hard work. Over 50 children auditioned for the twenty two speaking parts that were available and due to the very high standard of the
auditions we have extended the cast to 30 to give more children the opportunity to speak in a leading role. The rest of the children in Year 4 and 5 are fully involved in the pantomime participating in the actions and singing the songs. The children are excited about sharing their performance with you and can’t wait for you to see it! The Performances will take place on: Tuesday 26th January at 6.30pm and Wednesday 27th January at 1.30pm and 6.30pm. Tickets will be on sale shortly at a cost of £1.00 each. Initially tickets will be limited to two per family.
Road Safety Training
Our youngest children are being taught Road Safety this week. Every child is taught how to cross the road safely and is accompanied by one of our teaching assistants who have received special training. The training covers identification of different technical terms, such as, kerb, pavement, barrier in addition to teaching about dangers on the road, for example moving vehicles, bicycles, parked cars and other pedestrians. The children are taught to hold an adult’s hand at all times and to look and listen carefully before they start to walk across the road. Preparation and follow-up work for this practical work is undertaken in the classroom by the class teacher. Young Voices 2016 On March 2nd 2016 our Year 5 and 6 children are taking part in the “Young Voices” event at Manchester’s “Phones for you” Arena. Thousands of children from schools in the North of England take part and parents and relatives are invited to watch. The children sing songs from different genres with professional musicians, dancers and vocalists. It is a very exciting, moving experience that the children will never forget.
World Book Day On March 3rd we celebrate World Book Day and we will be involving the children in lots of exciting literary activities and inviting the children to visit the Scholastic Book Fair to mark this occasion, which will be held in school for three days.
A Tasty Topic for Year 5!
What better way to motivate pupils, than to base all their learning around food? For the
Year 5’s, that is exactly what they have done during their exciting, mouth-watering topic,
‘Food Glorious Food’.
In literacy, the children have had real ‘food for thought’, learning about the plight of Oliver
Twist, then completing their own reading journal and writing their own chapter for the
Charles Dickens classic!
As part of Geography and Computing, the children have researched foods from all around
the world e.g. tea, coffee, sugar, rice, lentils, beans, seeds, flour, pasta, bread, fruits, cocoa
beans etc.
A local twist was given to Design Technology, where the children and made their own
chocolate Lancashire tea bun and designed their own topping using their own ingredients.
Their favourite part was obviously sampling the buns once they had made them!
The children had a real appetite for Art, where they recreated the work of still life painters
such as Georgia O’Keefe. They made a series of observational drawings of various still life
arrangements of food, food bottles etc, using different drawing tools; grades of pencil,
charcoal, chalk, graphite sticks, biros, pastels, oil pastels. This also linked in with their
Science, noticing reversible and irreversible changes.
The children are now ‘hungry to know their next topic
Health Warning
We have observed an increase in absence, particularly in the infant department. Many children have symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea and we are concerned that this may be due to norovirus. We are promoting thorough hand washing with liquid soap and water and hand gel in school and are contacting parents of affected children to request that they are taken home. We have contacted the Public Health Authority for advice and they have stated that children with diarrhoea and vomiting should not return to school until they have been symptom free for 48 hours. Please do not bring you child back to school until you are sure that they are symptom-free as poorly children in school pose a risk to other children and adults. If the staff become poorly this will have a significant impact on lessons and school life in general. If you are interested in learning more information about Norovirus please follow the links below.
http://clc2.uniservity.com/GroupDownloadFile.asp?GroupId=704949&ResourceID=3701243
http://buckshaw.lancs.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Norovirus-letter-Health.pdf
Parking outside school We have had numerous complaints from local residents and parents about cars being parked inappropriately across driveways and half on and off the pavement. This is a danger to all pedestrians walking to and from the school. I ask politely that you park in a safe place and consider local residents who need access to their driveways at all times. We ask that parents dropping off and collecting children from school park considerately on Gregory Fold. Furthermore we would ask parents to please refrain from dropping their children off on the yellow zig-zag lines at the front of school and mounting the kerb on the approach to this area. We have received several complaints from parents who have reported their concern that children could easily be knocked down by careless driving, inappropriate parking of vehicles and mounting the pavement. Please be aware that the registration numbers of vehicles felt to be parking inconsiderately and being driven in an inappropriate manner are taken and reported to Lancashire Constabulary if felt appropriate. We thank you for your understanding.
Please see below a message from Lancashire Constabulary regarding parking close to school.
Dear Parent/Guardian
RE: ILLEGAL PARKING AT SCHOOL TIMES
We have had numerous complaints in relation to the above, in particular, problems relating
to parking on zig-zag yellow lines and across residents’ driveways. This kind of behaviour is
illegal as well as inconsiderate and, therefore, not acceptable.
Despite several letters of this nature having been sent out in the past, people are still
offending and the time has now come whereby further action will have to be taken either by
way of issue of fixed penalty notice and/or use of our Mobile CCTV van for
evidential purposes in Court. Our multi-agency partners, the parking attendants, will
also be working alongside us.
The safety and welfare of your children is paramount and illegal parking threatens that of
everyone.
We ask that you please give consideration when parking your vehicles.
PC 472 Paul Prophet
PCSO 7677 Keely Dermody
Neighbourhood Policing Team
Helmshore & Edenfield
Haslingden Police Station
Voice Mail 01706 237367
