Class Stars – drum roll please for

Our Early Years… Aoife O’Brien

Class 2… Holly Betteridge

Class 3… Barney Woodeson

Class 4… Evie Buck

This ½ term’s school value is…

We are Ambitious.

We have the highest expectations for all our children and teachers.
In return we give everyone in our school as many opportunities as we can to fulfil their potential in the widest possible sense.

‘Forget what is behind us and reach straight for what is ahead.
Run straight towards the goal.’  (Philippians 3 v12)

Sports Day was just lovely, and for those who came along I’m sure you’d agree!   It’s an action placked afternoon with lots of things put on for the children.  The leaflets that we sent out the day before explains about the Team collaborative events, the Team competition, short distance sprints and also long distance marathons; which every year we seem to slim down and make smaller!

And did you also spot the support, friendship and encouragement throughout the afternoon?!  Kitty and Isla stopping mid-sprint to hug and then skip to the finish line was so typical of our school – We are Kind, Curious (it’s aboput Joy!), Confident, Community, Adventurous and Ambitious – ALL OF OUR SCHOOL VALUES represented in one small action… (and it set Elaine off too!)

Thanks everyone, what a lovely week that was.

You may not know this, but we also have a second sports day.   It’s an hour of Athletics and the children use the hour to get the best scores that they can for the many and various events on the field.  We’ve had to move the timing of this several times and, as a result, we wondered if we could recruit about 4 or 5 parent volunteers for Thursday 13th, from 1.15pm onwards?  Please get in touch if you could help out with this.

Attendance this week

Well done to Class 1 for a brilliant 100% attendance… and also Class 4 for a really good 98.1%
It’s difficult to increase our overall average in the last few weeks, but absences will certainly reduce it.

The average for this week was 95.8% 
Class 1: 100%   Class 2:91.7%  Class 3: 93.5%  Class 4: 98.1%
whole school average year to date = 95.3%
 DfE’s expectation for the end of the year is 96%

(Please have a look at our Attendance page on our website for more information.)

Requests for absence should be submitted through completion of an ‘S2 Absence Request Form’ which can be obtained from the School Office.   Each request is considered carefully to ensure family context is taken into account, but holidays are not typically authorised under government and local authority guidelines which state that only in exceptional circumstances should children have time off from school (Education Act, 1996).  Please be aware that if you choose to take children out of school without authorised absence this may end up triggering a School Penalty Notice from the Local Authority.

Governor survey feedback letter...  A link to the letter sent out by email last week – just in case you missed it.

You may have heard about two new dates for the NEU Teachers’ strikes at the start of July.
I’m very grateful to our staff who have given me their decisions well in advance ((surprisingly they don’t have to inform the school)) but we all want to provide our families and community enough notice.
Strike action is being called by many of the unions not because of the pay but due to the services that aren’t now available to schools, the lack of sufficient funding to support our work and the extra worklod that schools and school staff need to do as a result of all this.  We are Ambitious and we strive for exellence but I hope our families understand the difficulties that schools face and can support our staff’s actions.         

The school will be open to Preschool only on Wednesday 5th.
For Friday 7th, Preschool will open and also Class 3 for the morning – there will be more details confirmed next week about this day.
Braunton Academy Transition Days (and our own shift-up times ) will now be on Tuesday and Thursday.

What is online safety…

Our website has some excellent advice about setting up parental controls to help you ensure that your child is only able to access suitable content.  More info can be found here.

Being safe online isn’t just about telling a child not to chat with a stranger, or not to give away personal information, it’s also about controlling, knowing and monitoring what a child has access to. 

SUN SCREEN – apply before school
SUN HAT – on head as they arrive
WATER BOTTLE – just water please (no squash) 

TIP TOP

Another note / reminder about our ongoing Consultation… regarding the transfer from the Governor Run Preschool Provision to a Foundation Stage Unit which would mean bringing the two groups of children together into the Class 1 room, and extending our age range for the school to 2-11, rather than the current 4-11.

The governing board of Georgeham Church of England (VS) Primary School is proposing to transfer the existing Governor Run Preschool provision into a Foundation Stage Unit and increase the age range of the school from 4-11 years to 2-11 years of age with effect September 2023.

To read about the benefits, the timescales and how to respond, please click this link to further information on our website.

Dates of note: 

Year 5 Residential to Lundy:    This coming Tuesday!  (9am at Ilfracombe)
Class 1 and 2 Putsborough Beach day: Thursday 29th June  (letter has already been sent home, please go to scopay to give consent. ​https://www.scopay.com/login   )
Year 2 sleepover:  overnight of Thursday 29th June – still a few more slips still to be returned.
Braunton Academy Transition days for Y6 leavers:  Tuesday 4th and Thursday 6th July (all day at the Academy)

NEU Teachers’ Strike Day – the Wednesday 5th – only Preschool open, and Friday 7th only preschool open and Class 3 am open – more details to be confirmed next week.

Class 3 visit to Chapel Woods: Monday 10th July
Year 2 and Year 5 Essex Dance event at the Academy: Monday 10th July – Yr2 in a.m. (drop to Academy pls) and Y5 in p.m. (we will get them there, pls collect from the Academy at 3.15)
Junior Music Festival: Wednesday 12th July – rehearsal in pm, concert in evening.
School FETE ! :  Friday 14th July 3.15pm
School bike ride day:  Tuesday 18th July
Leavers assembly: Friday 21st July 2pm

Do please check the school calendar, you can find it at the bottom of the website home page, but here is a link for speed : Click here 

We’re a Nut free school, so that means that most kinds of tree nuts (such as almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pine nuts) and also peanuts shouldn’t be brought in to school. Sadly, this also means that pesto sauce shouldn’t be brought into school as it contains pine nuts. Sorry if this causes any inconvenience, but I hope you can help us as best as you can to keep our children safe.

Clubs Webpage for more info…

Wrap Around Provision & After School Clubs

Attendance… We frequently report the attendance of individual year groups as it’s a really good way to see if school attendance is at a good percentage… with it as high as possible of course! The DfE have a target of 96.5% but sadly, we finished the year, last July, being slightly below this.
Attending school regularly is vital to help children achieve and to give them the best possible start in life. It’s also a legal requirement of parents once children are of school age and enrolled in mainstream education. Ofsted has a strong view about attendance of course and, therefore, too many absences can lead into difficult discussions about how we can support children to achieve and do well – we could even be downgraded for our current Good status as a result.
Absences will only be authorised if they meet exceptional circumstances. With only 190 statutory school days in the year, there are 175 days (weekends and school holidays) left to plan for family visits, non-urgent medical/dental appointments, holidays etc. School holidays are published well in advance and parents are expected to plan and take family holidays at this time so as not to disrupt their child’s education. We also try to arrange our Inset (training) days to provide time for travel… such as this term’s October 21st.
Holidays… are almost always not recognised as meeting ‘exceptional circumstances’ and therefore an absence would be unauthorised. This could result in a penalty notice being issued by DCC.
Punctuality is important too, and the earlier we get our children into the right habits, the better. You may not realise that being just 5 minutes late every day equals 3 days of school lost a year. Please bring your child for 8.45am when they door is open and the classroom has a learning activity ready for them.

Diary and Dinner 

A PDF for this half terms dinner menu was circulated by email on Monday but here is it again…

Click here to get to the front page

Click here to access everything about school lunches

The school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead is Julian Thomas
Our Deputy Safeguarding Leads are Emma Hill and, our interim SENDCo, Laura Hapgood
You can contact us on dsl@georgeham-primary.devon.sch.uk

If you have any concerns that you’d like to discuss, please call through to Lottie and ask for an appointment. You may also find some useful or helpful information on our Safeguarding webpage… https://georgehamceps.wpengine.com/staying-safe/