Dear families
I hope you have all enjoyed some time off from work and days spent with your families over the summer, it has certainly been a dryer summer in the UK compared to 2023. The staff cannot wait to hear about all the children’s adventures over the holidays!
As you know Wednesday is staff training day and we are closed to children. School reopens on Thursday 5th September, we hope the children are really excited to come back and see all their friends.
Six weeks is a long time so below are a few reminders for families.
The start of the school day
The gates open at 8.40 am for children to enter the playground. The yard is staffed by Breakfast club staff from 8.35am.
The school day starts at 8.55 am and at this point each class should make a line in their classes at set points on the playground. All staff will be on the playground from 8.55 am to collect their classes.
Registration takes place at 9.00 am in the classroom.
Any child not in school by 9.00 am is to be registered as late. If children are not in school by 9.20 am, and no message has been received, we will make contact with parents/carers to establish the reason for absence. Attendance is a key priority for CJS and if we have concerns over attendance we will follow all necessary steps to ensure children attend school regularly and on time. We would strongly encourage you to work with us if we identify issues with your child’s attendance. Children arriving after 9.20 am will be registered under a ‘U’ code, which means they attended after registers closed and it is an unauthorised mark – these marks count towards referrals for penalty notices.
Breakfast club
Breakfast club runs from 7.45 am, parents do not need to register children, a daily register is managed by Breakfast staff at the main reception, which is then added to ParentPay. Children can come anytime between 7.45 am and 8.30am, children can access a range of breakfast food and drinks. Several members of staff manage breakfast club. Children go outside with staff from 8.35am until the bell goes at 8.55 am. We are pleased to say that we will continue to offer free breakfast club to children who are entitled to free school meals and those we receive Pupil Premium funding, if we no longer receive funding for your child we will let you know over the coming weeks. If you wish to use childcare vouchers to pay for this service you must ensure Mrs Raine is aware.
PE days
If your child’s timetable states they have PE, they need to come to school wearing their school PE kit. All timetables have been received by staff they have been added to the website and within the ‘Hub’ of the school app.
Please be mindful of the weather on PE days, they may need extra layers, if this is the case they can wear their school jumper over the top. It is important that children are wearing our school uniform.
Swimming lessons resume in the first full week of term (therefore Tuesday 10th September 2024) and for the first term this will be for Year 5. Class 5 will swim on a Tuesday and Class 6 will swim on a Thursday. This information was shared with families while the children were in Year 4. Children should be collected from the baths on their allocated days, if they are in a club they will be walked back to school. If you have siblings in other year groups and will struggle with the overlap when collecting, please let school know.
School Meal Arrangements
All children must remain on the meal arrangement they accessed before the holidays, unless you informed Mrs Raine otherwise. There is a two week notice period required for a change to school meal arrangements. If you change without notifying the office then your ParentPay account will be charged the daily rate. School meals are charged at a daily rate of £2.81 and the weekly rate is £14.05. Children on packed lunches can access a dinner on a Friday as part of an on-going Fun Friday arrangement we run, but this must be pre-ordered, either on a one-off basis or permanently. Therefore, if your child accessed this last year it will automatically continue, if you are a Year 3 family you can confirm this with Mrs Raine. Children on packed lunches must not bring in nuts of any kind, this includes peanut butter – we have children in school with allergies. Hot food is also not permitted, such as flasks. If you want your child to have a hot meal they will need to be on school meals.
Children have the independence of choosing their own school meal options every morning through ‘cypad’ this links to ParentPay and charges for the day appear on there from 3.00 p.m.
Clubs
Our extra-curricular clubs will be back in full swing from day 1. This half term sees the return of many new and long-standing clubs.
Our clubs are extra-curricular only, not childcare, most clubs cost £1 and some are free. They all last for a half term and it relies on our staff giving up their time to run them. They change regularly in a bid to reach out to a range of interests for all year groups. Club details are shared via the app and a date/time is given to book a place, they are all on a first come basis. If the club your child is assigned to is a sports related club and it is not their usual PE day, they can come to school wearing their school PE kit.
Emergency contact information
If you have moved house, changed your contact number, or your listed contacts have changed, please forward this information to Mrs Raine on the first day (or before by email/app message). If you are a family who require two sets of important information, you must inform us of this. If you are a parent who does not live with your child, we can post/email important information to your address, i.e. school reports, however, our app shares information with all families.
Water bottles and snacks
Children in year 3, and children new to our school, were provided with a school water bottle (and homework bag) on their transition day. Additional water bottles can be bought from Mrs Raine for £2.00. Water bottles should go home daily.
Children can bring in a healthy snack for morning break. This must not be sweets/chocolate or crisps. It must be fruit, cereal bars or other healthy snacks.
School fund
School fund can still be paid in the same way (ParentPay). School fund is £1 per week (or a donation if you prefer) and is used for resources for the children throughout the year. We do rely on school fund but it is voluntary.
Medicines in school
We can administer medication in school but you must complete a form for us to do so. Medicines must be prescribed and in the pharmacy packaging that clearly states this. No medicine will be administered if these things are not in place. If your child requires medicine as part of a care plan or long-term medication only one form needs to be completed unless doses change, medicines in relation to short illnesses require a new form each time. If your child uses an inhaler there is also a form to complete so please request this from Mrs Raine. We can now administer calpol/paracetamol to children but you must have given signed consent for us to do this. If we do feel your child needs this medicine during the morning we will ring you first to confirm they haven’t had this, if after lunch we will send you a message to state they have had a dose.
End of school day – we have a staggered end of the day
Year 3 & 4 finish school at 3.25 pm – they are brought onto the school yard and handed over to parents/family members.
Year 5 & 6 finish at 3.30 pm – teachers/members of staff will walk children out in a line to the edge of the school site and dismiss them from here. This is to mitigate noise and ensure calmness.
If children are not collected at 3.30 pm they will be brought back into school and primary contacts telephoned. Please talk to your child about the importance of only leaving with a trusted adult, if they are not collected they must return to school so we can contact their parent/carer.
We hope this information is useful, especially for those new to our school. Please contact us should you need any further help. No question is a ‘silly’ one! A short newsletter will be shared before the start of term.
Looking forward to seeing and meeting you all over the next few weeks.
CJS Team
