Children will VERY soon be provided with details about our Special Lunch for Mother’s Day. This alert is early notification that we will once again be organising this event in school.

For families new to our school, please ensure you act fast if you want to secure a place as these events are always very popular.

The special lunch dates will be Wednesday 18th and Wednesday 25th March. Year 5 parents/carers can only book Wednesday 18th March as all year 5 children are visiting Consett Academy on Wednesday 25th March.

You MUST pre-book your place. As we now use ParentPay for school meals, this is how you will pay for this event. Once you have had your place confirmed, you will find a ‘single payment option’ on your ParentPay account, specifically assigned to this payment event. If you have not booked a place, you will not have this option to pay. If you have not activated your ParentPay account, you will not be able to book a place. There are still 17 families who need to activate their accounts.

Every year we recognise that although this is a day traditionally for Mothers, many children have another special someone in their life, therefore, this special person can be Mum, Grandma, Nanna, Auntie, or special other but only ONE adult per family. Someone your child would like to show their appreciation for, don’t worry Dad’s/GrandFather’s, we will cater for you in June!

We only have capacity for 80 adults per day, so book quick to avoid disappointment. The price will be £2.46 per adult and the usual £2.05 for children. Children who usually have a packed lunch can pay for a school lunch and be included in the event. Unfortunately, due to the size of our hall we will not be able to accommodate parents of children who are having a packed lunch (unless a dietician letter is provided to state they cannot have the school lunch).

The seating provided for the adults will be the children’s dining tables and chairs, please consider this when booking a place, as this seating arrangement may not be suitable for some adults, unfortunately, we do not have any alternative.

FURTHER DETAILS AND BOOKING FORMS COMING SOON…:)

Chris Shield, a DCC Physical Activity Officer, who facilitates in the running of FISCH club is running some free after school clubs for year 6 and has offered us a Wednesday. There are 25 spaces available. It is a 10 week course which start next Wednesday (15th) and is aimed to increase physical activity by a variety of multi sports. Children have been provided with a leaflet today. To secure your place please ring Mrs Raine.

Some sessions will be cancelled due to previously booked events i.e. Valentines Disco

Activities will range from dodge ball to scooter board games. This club will also aim to promote community programmes that we are currently running in the area.

For more specific information about this club please contact Chris on:
03000 262455 or see the flyer below.

After School Club

It has again been brought to our attention that many parents/carers are dropping their child off at breakfast club before it starts at 7.45 a.m.

Please can we stress that breakfast club starts at 7.45 a.m. and not before. We are not insured for children to be on the premises before this time and the staff are not responsible for them. If families continue to drop their children off, sometimes as early as 7.30 a.m. they are leaving their children unsupervised, which is a safeguarding issue.

If this policy is not followed we will have no option but to ensure each child is signed into the club by an adult.

Before Christmas, members of the senior leadership team attended a forum to discuss updates on pupil premium.

The pupil premium funding was introduced in 2011, it is a sum of money given to schools each year by the Government to improve the attainment of disadvantaged children. This is based on research showing that children from low income families perform less well at school than their peers. Often, children who are entitled to pupil premium face challenges such as poor language and communication skills, lack of confidence and issues with attendance and punctuality. The pupil premium is intended to directly benefit the children who are eligible, helping to narrow the gap between them and their classmates, often, all of the children in a class will reap some benefit from how the school spends its pupil premium.

Schools receive guidance on how to spend their pupil premium money, following this guidance schools identify what would be of most benefit to the children who are eligible. The overall goal is to ensure that gaps between all children are closed, in particular, the children that attract this funding to school.

Primary schools are given pupil premium for:

• Children in Reception to Year 6 who are, or have ever been, entitled to free school meals based on their family income
• Children in care
• Children previously in care who have been adopted, or who have a special guardianship order, a child arrangements order or a residence order. As long as permission to record this has been granted.
• Children recorded as being from service families

Schools do have to show that they are using their pupil premium fund appropriately. This is measured through Ofsted inspections and annual performance tables showing the progress made by children who are eligible for pupil premium. Schools must also publish this online, which can be found at

https://www.consett-jun.durham.sch.uk/about-us/premium-allocations/

As a result of attending the forum, we have looked into the way we allocate our funding and would like to include Free Breakfast Club for children who we receive additional funding for, as identified from the list above. This free club will commence from Monday 24^th February so we can ensure the staffing in the club can accommodate the increase of children. If you are applicable you will be informed by an individual letter. If you already have money outstanding for Breakfast Club, this must be paid before Friday 14^th February, to allow the free provision to be offered.

Kind regards

Mr P Dixon

Head Teacher

Please click on the link below to access the Janaury 2020 Newsletter

https://consett-jun.durham.sch.uk/parents/school-newsletters/

Welcome back to the start of a new term, this is the spring term, with a one week half term holiday in February (w/c 17th February, returning to school on Monday 24th February).

School term and half term dates can be found on our website or this School App. We hope everyone has enjoyed a restful break, with special moments and times with family and friends, we look forward to hearing all the special stories from the children this week.

School re-opens tomorrow (Tuesday 7th January) at 7.45 a.m. for breakfast club, please can we remind you that breakfast club CANNOT be accessed before this time so please ensure you wait with your child until 7.45 a.m.

Please pay dinner money/ breakfast club on ParentPay for this week as well as any money outstanding from last term. Children must return to school on the same dinner arrangements (unless otherwise changed with Mrs Raine), if your child changes without giving notice, your ParentPay account will be charged.

Apart from Cross Country, there are no after school clubs this week. Some existing clubs and all new clubs start next week (Recycling Club and Basketball). If your child has requested to join one of the new clubs and they handed in their form, this was returned last term. A text reminder will be sent to parents/carers this week, please ensure you pay before the club starts. Both new clubs are full. Band, Karate, Art and Football training ARE all back on next week. Further club details can be found on this website or the School App. Football training is now for children in Year 5 & 6 (but only if they were members in September 2019).

Swimming will recommence this week, Year 3 on Thursday, Year 5 on Friday and Year 4 next Monday.

Year 3 children will have an opportunity to participate in a cross country trial at the end of the spring term term, and those successful will be invited to join the weekly training team after Easter.

Attendance letters were sent home last term, some letters requested a meeting, if this is the case please ensure you ring school to make a convenient time to come in for the support we feel you need to improve this moving forward. If you do not make a meeting, we will need to contact you.