What’s on w/e 30th June 2023. issue 580

Class Stars – drum roll please for –

Our Early Years… Finley Whelan

All of Class 2… for excellent kindness

Class 3… Fin Arnold

Class 4… Hassan Alamary

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)

We are Ambitious.  We had the lovely ‘sleepover’ last night, with our year 2s spending a night camped out in Class 3 and Class 4’s classroom this week, and we also had year 5 spending a couple of night’s on Lundy.  The year 2s walked up that big hill from Putsborough ‘after school’ yesterday and were probably a little worn out after lots of games and fun on the beach too.  On Lundy, our year 5s helped to cook and clean, and they also navigated all the way around the island, walking all the way to the North on Wednesday where we sat and had lunch just as it started to drizzle.

It’s an amazing few trips and something special about our school.

Photos will be blogged (Sleepover have already).
Year 5 – you’ll be shared the folder of photos very soon!
And the video?  The children have been asking about that today… give me a week or two to sleep first, and I’ll be on it!  For everyone else – Google ‘Georgeham’ + ‘Lundy’  🙂

Strike Days

The school will be open to Preschool only on Wednesday 5th.
For Friday 7th, we’re open to Class 3 children for the whole day and also our Preschool.
We will make sure that children are learning, but we will also make sure we have a nice, fun day.

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 workload that schools and school staff need to do as a result of all this.  We are Ambitious and we strive for excellence but I hope our families understand the difficulties that schools face and can support our staff’s actions.   

Lunches next week
…Thursday is now our ‘chip day.’
…Friday’s options are now Jacket Potato or filled rolls.  

The Whole School Bike Ride

We’ll shortly be emailing a Google Form to our parents where you can sign up for specific routes (and lunches) for the Whole School Bike Ride on Tuesday 18th July (2 1/2 weeks away).

Here’s some information about it all, before we send out that Google Form.

We are Curious
We believe that riding a bike is an important life skill and this event is a fun way of promoting cycling to our children …and we so organise a day where everyone will be doing something to do with cycling.

We are a Community
Our whole school bike day is a lovely family day out.  It’s just lovely to have so many parents come and take part and enjoy a picnic with the school community or have an ice cream at the tourist hotspots.  Parents’ involvement really (very much, thank you!) helps the smooth running of the day and we’d ask you to join in if you can (however, we also appreciate that some just can’t get the time off!)

We are Confident
We base the day on three different routes leaving from Tesco’s in Braunton.

• Route 1… (recommended only for year 4,5,6) as far as Bideford’s old bridge (30 miles) and back…  Leaves at 9.15
• Route 2… Years 345 could do the Fremington Quay return route (16 miles), with a possible extension to Instow too (24 miles)…. Leaves at 9.30
• Route 3… Years 123 could try the cycle to Rock Park and back (12 miles)… Leaves at 9.45
• Route 4… our playground! The 4^th group, who stay at school, isn’t necessarily for the younger children, but it’s also for those less confident or those who want to help out at school.

We are Ambitious
(We ask that children aren’t too ambitious on the cycle day, hence we put recommendations of year groups!)

We are Kind
…to our heads.  Absolutely everyone, adults included, is expected to wear a helmet.
We also have rules about sticking to the left, watching out for other Tarka Trail users, not bunching up and crashing into each other, and not jostling to get in front.  We want it to be a day where everyone has lots of fun!

I’ve missed out We are Adventurous, but that’s surely covered on this amazing day!

What is online safety…

Dates of note: 

Braunton Academy Transition days for Y6 leavers:  now Tuesday 4th and Thursday 6th July (all day at the Academy)

NEU Teachers’ Strike Day
…Wednesday 5th – only Preschool open, and
…Friday 7th – preschool and Class 3 open

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…

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/