Christmas Fundraising
Thank you to everybody who bought tickets for our Christmas Sleigh. It was won by Nicole Everest. The combined total for our Christmas Fair and Sleigh of Christmas was over £1,000 and all of this money goes directly towards supporting all the children in our school.
Swimming
Swimming starts again on Friday 10th January
New Parents’ Open Afternoon
On Monday 10th February we are going to be holding an Open Afternoon for parents whose children are due to join us in September 2024. (Born between 1st September 2020 and 31st August 2021.) The afternoon will start at 2.00pm and last until approximately 3.00pm. As part of this I would like to give prospective parents the opportunity to talk to current parents, particularly those who have children in the current Reception Class, so that they can hear first hand about our school. If you are able to play a part in this event please let Mr Nelson or Mrs Kinrade know. Secondly, if you know of anybody who has a child who is due to start school in September please invite them to come along. Thank you.
Money
Over the last few weeks we have noticed a growing trend for children to be bringing money into school, sometimes quite large amounts. On occasions this has then gone missing causing upset for the children and additional workload for the Teachers. I am therefore asking that from the New Year that you do not give your child any money to bring into school. If they need to bring cash in to school to pay for dinner money etc then please send it in to the office in an envelope with your child’s name on. Thank You.
Linked to this a number of children are coming to school with unhealthy snacks, which they have often bought at the shop on the way to school. Children do not need bars of chocolate, bags of sweets, sharing bags of crisps etc to survive a day at school. These snacks do have a negative impact on their behaviour and ability to learn, particularly in the quantities that some children are consuming them.
PE Kits
We have noticed a growing number of children who don’t have a PE kit in school on a regular basis. Please can you make sure that your child brings their PE Kit back to school with them on Monday 6th January.
The PE kit does not need to be anything special or expensive, shorts, a t-shirt and a pair of pumps or trainers. Whilst we would prefer it if they had the school PE t-shirt in their house colour, anything is better than nothing. If cost is a barrier to providing a PE kit, please speak to us in confidence as we often have 2nd hand items that we can give you.
If anybody has any old PE kit, or school uniform, that they no longer need we will always welcome it, and try to re-home it to somebody who is in need.
Drinks Bottles
There is a lot of research that shows that children learn better when they are hydrated, so please remember to send in a water bottle with your child. We have filtered, chilled water fountains in school where they can refill the bottle as required.
Whilst hydration is essential to learning, the benefits of this can be lost if they are drinking sugary drinks. Please therefore do not sent in chocolate milk, energy drinks, prime, fizzy drinks etc. Even a 500ml bottle of Volvic strawberry flavoured water contains 11.4g of sugar, out of a recommended 24g of free sugars a day for a 7 - 10 year old child. Source https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-types/h... aged 7 to 10,day (5 sugar cubes).
Are you entitled to free school meals, but not claiming them?
We are aware that there are some families that may well be entitled to free school meals, but are not registered for them as their child prefers a packed lunch. What you may not be aware of is that our school staffing and funding is partly influenced by the number of families registered for free school meals, and we may be missing out on some additional funding as our free school meal numbers are lower than they should be. Can I ask if you think you may be eligible for free school meals that you register for them, even if your child has a packed lunch. The general criteria is that you are in receipt of one or more of the following: Income Based Jobseeker's Allowance, Employed Person's Allowance, Income Support.
Applications can be made online and take less than 5 minutes to complete. To find the application form simply Google ‘Isle of Man Free School Meals’.