02 September 2008

Welcome back to the Autumn Term. I hope you all had an enjoyable summer break.

I am afraid our first letter of the year is always a long one and this is no exception. Please bear with it as there are a number of important items of information which I need to tell you about at the beginning of the school year.

Firstly, I have a number of diary dates to advise you of as follows:
 

Date
8th September	3pm New Homework Presentation by request (morning session presented last term)
3rd October	Christmas cards home to choose. (The children will design a Christmas card in school. Your selection will be professionally printed for you and your family. These were very popular last year and the quality was excellent.)
6th October	Harvest gifts to be delivered to school ready for making up hampers (volunteers required)
9th/10th	Distribution of harvest gifts by class3 children (adult volunteers required)
10th October	Orders for Christmas cards to be returned to school
7th October	Individual Childrens’ photographs (family groups if required please complete form)
8th October	Harvest Festival All Saints Church. 2:30
21st October	Parents’ Consultation Morning 9am – 12 Parents’ Consultation Evening 4pm – 7pm
23rd October	PTA Disco
24th October	Healthy tuck shop (last Friday of each half term, remember 50p)
27th-31st October	Half term
Class 3 swimming beginning every Friday afternoon during the second half of each term. Please see attached information and permission slip.
6th November	Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes to be collected from school
16th November	St Mary’s Woburn 10:00am Shoe Box Appeal Special Service, all welcome!
9th & 10th December	School Christmas production. ‘Who?’ Tuesday 2pm Dress rehearsal, Tuesday and Wednesday evening performances 6:30. The video will be taken during the evening performance.
11th December	New Parents’ Open morning 9:15 – 10:30
16th December	Christmas dinner
16th December	West Midlands Theatre Company Visit. ‘The Legend of the Golden Dragon’
18th December	Class Christmas parties
19th December	2:15 Class 1 Nativity and Carol Service All Saints Church (Last day of term)

Holidays:
A list of holiday date and non-contact days is attached for your information. This should make it easier for you to avoid booking holidays in term time. In exceptional circumstances, an application for leave of absence form can be obtained by parents from the school office. This form is required to be completed at least 4 weeks before the date of absence is due to start.

Absences:
In order to help us to record absences promptly in class registers we would be grateful if you would telephone the school before 9.00 a.m. on the day of absence. A message can be left on the answer phone if necessary.

Payments:
May I remind all parents that, if it is at all possible, we very much prefer cheques sent into school for any payment, no matter how small the amount. The only real exception is the 50p needed for Tuck Shop. Cheques for dinner money should be made payable to Eden Foodservices (all one word)
The cost of a school lunch is currently £1.60 per day.
They also require card number / valid from date / expiry date and child’s name on the back.
Some sports club payments go directly to the supplier, but we will always let you know when this is the case. Most other payment should be made payable to Ridgmont Lower School. All money should be sent in named envelopes and given to your children to hand to their class teacher each morning. Class 1 reading bags are regularly checked for letters/payments etc.

Safety:
Each September we remind those of you with older children who walk to school, or walk to catch the school bus on their own, to please let us know in writing. We will then record this information and if your child was absent and we hadn’t had any contact from you we would get in touch just to check their whereabouts.
Please let us know as soon as possible in the day if another adult is meeting your child at the end of the school day.

Bus children and after school clubs:
The current practice as far as the school bus is concerned is that a list of children eligible to use the bus is kept in the school office and information is recorded as to when these children normally use the bus. If your child is eligible, please let Mrs Dimery know as soon as possible which days your child intends to use the school bus and whether it is for morning, afternoon or both trips. Similarly, if your child/children are going to be using Fordfield Nursery or Swallowbrook After School Club please let us know which days they will be going.

Premier Sports continue to come into school to deliver high quality coaching for a range of sporting activities both at lunch time and after school. Sign up sheets are sent out in the first week of each new half term (or as soon as we get them!).

Early Birds:
If you wish to book your child/children into Early Birds on a regular basis and have not received and returned a booking form please speak to Mrs Dimery. We would appreciate all booking forms being returned urgently to allow us to arrange staff cover. For anyone wishing to book an occasional session please remember to check the dates with Mrs Dimery as soon as you know them.

Help in the classroom:
We always appreciate help in a variety of ways from parents/grandparents/friends. If you would like to come into school to help in any way, such as with cooking or playing chess and draughts, or indeed sharing a particular skill with the children please speak to myself or your child’s class teacher.

Permission slips and medical forms:
New record / information sheets are attached. If your child has any medical problems that we do not already have on our records please let us know immediately. If your child is asthmatic, even if it is only mildly, can you please ensure that we have a set of up to date inhalers in school as soon as possible. Can I take this opportunity to remind you that it is important to keep your children at home for a full 24 hours after any sickness and diarrhoea symptoms.
Please find attached our annual letter regarding updating of permission slips. We would appreciate it if you could sign and return the slips as soon as possible.

Medicines:
Following Bedfordshire County Council guidelines we would like to advise you that if your child is prescribed antibiotics to be taken three times a day, these should be given before school, just after your child arrives home from school and bedtime. This prevents the medicine having to be brought to school. We would however, administer the antibiotic if your child was going straight on to either Fordfield Nursery or Swallowbrook After School Club.

Supporting the wider community:
As part of the PSHE curriculum we encourage the children to think about and participate in some charitable activities and fund raising events during the year. I plan that this should not happen more than once per term. (Sorry, 2 in the autumn term, Harvest gifts and Shoe Box Appeal.) However, I do appreciate that there are often many other demands on your purses throughout the year; For example, fundraising for the PTA, which the school could not manage without, trips and outing etc, etc. Can I just say that the fundraising we do through the curriculum involves visits and assembly themes which really do engage the children’s understanding of citizenship and I hope that you can continue to support the work we try to do to ensure that your children grow up understanding that they too can make a difference to people who are less fortunate than them selves. With this in mind you may feel that encouraging your children into making these contributions from their own pocket money or by doing small jobs to earn the donation may be useful way to underline the personal commitment for the children. In any event it is always the gesture that is important rather than the size of the donation.

Communication:
There is a parents’ notice board just inside the side entrance door where all parents’ letters and the latest class letters are displayed. Other useful information is also posted there from organisations such as ‘Parent Partnership Services’. also any forthcoming events and activities of which the school has been advised. You can also find copies of home school communication on our web-site at www.ridgmont-lower.org.uk

Lynda Clark
Headteacher