School Lane

Little Melton

Norwich

NR9 3AD

Tel: 01603 811446 Mrs. Joan Hughes

Tel/Fax: 01603 813242

E-mail Head teacher

Website www.littlemeltonprimaryschool.co.uk Mrs. Joan Hughes

1st October 2009

Dear Parents and Friends,

I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the Friends AGM on Tuesday night (7.30pm) for which you will have received an invitation earlier this week. I urge you to come along to the meeting as it is your opportunity to show support for all the hard work Friends do in organising fantastic fund raising events. Without their continued support we would not be able to offer your children some of the experiences they have had these past years. The evening includes cheese and wine, so please come along, have your say and meet friends, staff and Governors in a relaxed and informal manner.

If you have not received an invite or mislaid it please telephone the office to express your interest and we can add your name to our list thereby ensuring we have adequate refreshments.

If you are unable to attend and are interested in becoming part of the Friends network of helpers then once again please let the school office know and we will pass this on.

Kingswood

Our first week long residential has been a resounding success, I was delighted to join the children at Kingswood for the latter part of their visit and was so impressed by their determination and ability to push themselves that little bit further it brought a tear to my eye and inspired me to complete the Leap of Faith!

The staff accompanying the visit took excellent care of the children and they inform me that on Friday night they were so exhausted that most of them were in bed by 8.30! I am sure many of the children felt the same as the week was packed full of so many exciting activities.

Staff took lots of photographs and I will let you know as soon as they are ready for viewing.

Elections

Last week Key Stage 2 pupils were busy preparing their speeches in order to gain a position of responsibility within the school. We are delighted to announce that the following pupils were elected following speeches, questions and voting by the pupils;

School Council

Chair – Annie Floyd Vice -Chair – Courtney Jennings

Secretary – Chloe Gooda Treasurer – Lewis Baxter

Eco Committee

Hannah Runeckles Dawn Brennan-Shaw Connor Tracy

Amy Cardwell Jasmin Matthews

House Captains Vice Captains

Citrine Kate Runeckles Aurora Hampson

Emerald Nicola Broughton Elizabeth Moesbauer

Garnet Amy Cardwell Charles Frazer

Topaz William Rozier Dawn Brennan-Shaw

We feel sure that each person will carry out their duties to the highest level, after all we do have a school which they are very proud of and they just want it to get better and better.

Well done and congratulations to all.

Website

The website can now be updated by office staff and we would encourage you to try and use this forum on a regular basis to access information which may not necessarily be distributed in paper form e.g. photographs of activities.

Diary dates, newsletters and any other items will be uploaded at the end of every week. Parents should be aware that they are able to subscribe to the newsletter via the website, so if you have difficulties opening your attachments every week, you may wish to consider this way instead.

This week curriculum maps for this term will be posted for each class, this informs parents of the planning and delivery for the Discovery theme this Autumn.

www.littlemeltonprimaryschool.co.uk

Teacher Liaison

Home School Diary – All children either have a diary (KS2) or a red book (Owlets and Snowy Owls) Please use this for anything you wish to bring to the teachers attention, it could be about how your child is feeling about school or to do with homework – remember we like to hear good things as well as the challenges! Teachers will also write in these books if they need to, so it is important that they are returned to school each day. The older children also write reminders in these books about homework etc.

Appointments – It isn’t always possible to see teachers first thing in the morning or straight after school as we are busy dealing with the children’s needs, lesson preparation or preparing for meetings etc. We do like to give parents our undivided attention, so if there are issues you wish to discuss, please book an appointment with the class teacher. The office is manned from 8.30 each morning.

Sex and Relationships Education

Our SRE policy will be available for you to read on the school website from next week. If you are unable to access this then a copy is held in the school office and you are welcome to pop in and have a look. We will be organising an information evening in November where we can talk you through the scheme of work, show extracts from the DVD and answer questions. We will let you know as soon as the date is finalised.

After School Care Club

This week we have had to turn requests down for spaces, in particular on Monday and Tuesday. We would like to impress on parents the need to secure any bookings for the club by booking and paying for sessions at least weekly in advance, although the majority of parents with commitments are booking by the half term.

Those parents who have paid in advance will take preference over those bookings that are only provisional. It is too early to tell, at the moment, if we do need to look at staffing ratios. If the level of interest in certain sessions remains high, we will review this on an ongoing basis.

Harvest Festival

You are invited to come along to our Harvest Festival on Thursday 9th October at 9.30am. As in previous years, we ask that the children bring along an item/s of non-perishable food. Children will be able to bring foodstuffs along from Wednesday, when there will be collection boxes in the hall.

This year Major Denis Lomax, from the Salvation Army will be joining us for the assembly, and he will be taking all donated foodstuffs away for use at the shelters in Norwich

After assembly, we will be having refreshments and a cake sale, in aid of school funds. Please help by filling the attached plate with delicious cakes/biscuits.

If you are unable to attend, your child may purchase cake/s on you behalf. These will be kept in the office until home time. All children can bring in up to 20 pence to purchase a cake which they will be allowed to eat in school.

School Meals

Parents are advised of a late alteration to tomorrow’s menu Friday October 2nd. The main meal will be Pizza and not fishcakes and the dessert will be a tub of ice cream. All accompaniments will remain the same.

Birthdays

The following children celebrate their birthdays this week.

Toby Wellard – 7 years old

Cameron Hart – 11 years old.

Diary Dates – Autumn Term

Tuesday 6th October Friends AGM – 7.30pm

Wednesday 7th October Hethersett High School – Open Evening for Year 6 parents.

Friday 9th October Harvest Festival Assembly and Cake Sale – 9.30am

Monday 2nd November Staff Inset Day – School closed

Friday 6th November School Photographs – am

Tuesday 10th November Open Day for prospective parents – 9.30am and 1.30pm

Tuesday 17th November Parent Consultations – 2.30 – 6.30pm

Tuesday 17th November Full Governors Meeting

Tuesday 8th December Xmas Play – Dress rehearsal 10am

Wednesday 9th December Xmas Play - Performances at 10am and 6pm

Thursday 10th December Xmas Play - Performance at 6pm

Children’s Xmas Party – to be confirmed

Friday 18th December Carols round the tree – 2pm

Finish School

Yours sincerely,

Joan Hughes, Head teacher.