School Newsletter

Autumn Term 2007
Newsletter No. 3 – 6th November

Dear Parents

Balloon Race

The Balloon Race is on Friday 9th November. The balloons will be released at the following times:

2.00pm – Willow
2.10pm – Cherry
2.20pm – Oak
2.30pm – Chestnut
2.40pm – Sycamore

All welcome to watch the balloons being launched. If you can help on the afternoon from 1pm to blow up balloons, please see class staff.

Shoeboxes

Please bring your filled boxes to school by Monday 19th November as they are to be collected from school on the morning of Tuesday 20th November.

Poppies for Sale

Poppies will be on sale in school all this week.

Harvest Gifts

Thank you so much for all the tins you so kindly donated to the Leamington Samaritans. Your gifts will make a difference to many people. Well done everyone!

Calling all Gardeners and Willing Helpers!

Every year at this time we hold a gardening morning when we invite parents and their children to help us tidy up the school grounds before winter and to complete a few jobs around the school. This will be held from 11am till 1pm on Saturday 24th November. If you can spare an hour or so during the morning it would be much appreciated. There will be a list of jobs in the entrance hall for parents to sign up for.

Book Club

Book Club has restarted on Thursday afternoons for Year One and Two, and on Friday afternoons for Reception. If you wish your child to participate, please make sure they bring money to school in a clearly labelled envelope. Thank you.

Yellow Pages

Please continue to bring your old Yellow Pages to school for recycling. We will be collecting them until Friday 23rd November 2007. Already we have had a lot and one child is trying to beat Mrs Harrison's 100 that she collected last year!

Mobile Phones

We are still taking part in Fones4Schools Recycling Campaign. The school is able to earn money and you can receive prizes in exchange for your old mobile phones. Visit their website: www.fones4schools.co.uk for more information on prizes. Collection bags and prize leaflets are available from the school office, so collect any old unwanted mobiles phones from friends and family and bring into school. As we have to collect 50 phones before they can be collected by Fones4Schools, please bring phones into school as quickly as possible, so that you don't have to wait too long for your prizes.

Last year our school managed to collect 200 phones and earned £300, which we used to provide coach transport for the children.

Tesco Vouchers

Please send your vouchers into school as soon as possible, as we will soon be sending in our order for sports equipment. Thank you to everyone for collecting.

Nestle cereal tokens

We are still collecting these to get books for school.

Christmas Fair

This year the Christmas Fair will be held on Friday December 7th from 6pm till 8pm. This is always a brilliant evening with lots of fun activities. The Friends will be writing to you soon to ask for your help and to show you how you can get involved.

Non School uniform day

Thursday 6th December donations of tombola prizes for the Christmas Fair would be gratefully received.

Anti-Bullying Week – 19th to 23rd November

We shall once again be supporting Anti-bullying Week when we encourage positive and acceptable behaviours in school. Bullying is the deliberate targeting of another person to inflict physical or verbal abuse. This is something we do not tolerate at Emscote and indeed in our recent Ofsted inspection we were praised for the care we take of our pupils. Throughout the week we shall be reinforcing the slogan:

”Bullying: See it, Get help, Stop it.” Please talk to your child about these issues, especially during the focus week.

Christmas Concert

Letters will be coming home on Wednesday 21st November about costumes for the Christmas concert. Please look out for the letter. Costumes need to be in school by Wednesday 5th December as the first dress rehearsal is on Friday 7th December. Thank you for your support.

Guy Fawkes

Cherry class entered the competition to make a guy for the Warwick racecourse firework display. I am very pleased to tell you that we won the competition and the school received a cheque for £100. Well done Miss Hudson and Cherry class.

Letters and Sounds

All the children have started the new Letters and Sounds programme. The children have all been assessed and put into groups. The children are working in mixed age groups. The session last for 20 minutes and take place in the afternoons on four days a week. This is a government initiative aiming to raise children's phonic knowledge.

Christmas Lunch

Please return your reply slips, as soon as possible, if you have not already done so.

If your child already takes school meals, it is still necessary to return your slip.

Thank you.

Reading

Please try to read regularly with or to your child at home. It has come to my attention that some children have no experience of reading at home. We are really aiming to work in partnership with you to develop you children's skills. Please try to support your child as much as possible at home.

Absences from school

Please remember to telephone the school if your child is absent for any reason. If you are unable to do so, please make sure you send a letter to the school office when your child returns explaining their absence. Any unexplained absences may be recorded as unauthorised.

Yours sincerely,

Debi Cossins
Headteacher