Newsletter No 4Friday 6th October

Hasn’t the last two weeks just flown by! This fortnight I have had the pleasure of working in Reception. I have been amazed at what our children are capable of. It was impressive to see Maths and Science learning through playing outside! Some of you may have also heard that I was serving school dinners last Friday. All I can say is our cooks do a great job (it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be!) and we have some very polite children!

Lastly, I would like to say huge thank you to our staff over this time. We have had a few staff sicknesses and I have been so proud of how everyone has helped out to ensure our children have had as little disruption as possible.

Parking

Just a polite reminder to our parents when dropping off or picking up children to remember not to park across driveways or the school gates. I know we can be in a rush sometimes but there are times our localresidents or our staff need to be able to access the road. Thank you.

Safeguarding

In schools, we have Designated Senior Persons (DSPs) who are safeguarding leads. In this role, we deal with the safeguarding of our children. At Markyate, we have myself (Mr Armoogum), Mrs Karmock – Deputy Head and Mrs Power – SENCo. If you have a concern, you can contact us (inform the office you wish to speak to a DSP and they will pass the message to contact you). As well as school, the NSPCC have a contact line who can also help give advice. You can find them at

Volunteers

We have had many parents offer to help in school. In line with current county guidelines, any volunteer must also provide details of a referee that we may contact as well as completing a DBS disclosure check.

Learn with your child

Hertfordshire Adult and Family Learning Service (HAFLS) run a wide range of quality and approved courses for adults aged 19+, aimed to help improve people’s lives.

HAFLS offer subjects such as English, Maths, Nutrition, Art and IT. They also run courses in children centres and schools where you can learn with your child.

Courses run by HAFLS are primarily low cost in order to help improve the skills and wellbeing of people living in Hertfordshire.

Please have a look at the attached website for more information on a variety of courses.

Family Support Workers

We are delighted to continue working with the Family Support Worker Service this year. The Schools Family Support Worker teams have changed this Year and we have been allocated a weekly time with our worker who will be pleased to meet parents on a Tuesday afternoon. Our designated worker, Maria Mazi, is working alongside Lyndsey Hooper, in supporting families in a range of ways, either by having a chat about problems that may be affecting you and your child’s life, signposting you to services that may help or may be by working with you on a short term basis to work through a problem yourself. To book an appointment please contact the school office, speak to your child’s teacher or speak to our SENCo, Mrs Power. Bookings are by appointment only and must be made in advance –we are unable accept bookings on the day. The half hour appointment times run from 12.30pm – 3pm.

Payments

As you will be aware we are now using Schoolcomms for our payments and messaging requirements. All of our parents now receive communications via Schoolcomms and most of our parents are also using the payment service for making payments to school as we are no longer accepting cash/cheques.

If you have not already done so please visit to sign up.

Should you have any problems with this please contact the school office for assistance.

Teacher certificates
Well done to:
Maisy, Jamie and Ayla in EYFS
Kendra, Molly and George in KS1
Ryan, Jack, Emilia, Hope and Dylan in KS2
Excellence certificates
Well done to:
Samuel, Arthur and Jack in EYFS
Mayce, Bradon and Evie-Mai in KS1
Lily, Oscar, Tommy-Lee, Kacie and Tobias in KS2
Golden Broom award(for tidiest classroom and cloakroom area)
EYFS & Year 1 / 2 – Reception
KS2 – Year 5
Autumn dates:
Friday 6th October / Harry’s Quiz Night
Week beginning 9th October / Year 6 Cycling proficiency
Friday 13th October / Harvest Festival(details already circulated)
Friday 13th October / FOMS school disco
Thursday 19th October / Year 5/6 British Museum Trip
HALF TERM 23rd – 27th October
Friday 3rd November / FOMS Fireworks
7th and 9th November / Parent consultations(details to follow)
Tuesday 14th November / Stay and Play 1.45pm
Friday 24th November / Inset day – SCHOOL CLOSED
5th and 6th December / Early Years performance(details to follow)
13th December / Christmas lunch
18th December / School discos(details to follow)
19th December / End of term 1.15pm
Spring Term starts on Thursday 4th January 2018.

Happy Friday everybody!

Mr Armoogum