14.02.20 Half term, Time Table competition, Writing Award, Fun Run, Attendance

Friday, 14 February 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

School closure for half term

School closes for half term after school on Friday 14^th February and reopens on Monday 24^th February.

Times table Competition - reminder

We will be taking part again this year in the SWAT times table competition, where children from Y2 to Y6 are able to compete against children from 11 other local schools. Only three children from each year group are able to attend the Grand Final, which will take place on 19^th March.

The finalists will be decided from Round One, which will take place in the week beginning 24^th February in classes. The children will answer as many questions on the paper as they can, in 100 seconds. They are not expected to complete the whole paper!

All children are encouraged to have a go at Round One.

Last year we brought home the trophy for every year group from the competition and have therefore established quite a reputation for our times table abilities.

We need to work hard to defend our titles this year!

Fun Run

Well done to all of our children who took part in the fun run this week.

It was great to see how much effort they put into each lap.

Please send any donations into school by Wednesday 26^th February in order to be considered for the prizes.

We are incredibly grateful for any funds that we receive. Since school budgets have all been cut over recent years, we often struggle to provide new resources, and unfortunately this includes buying new books. It is due to the generosity of our parents/carers that we have been able to create our library, which I see many children enjoying on a regular basis. This will help our children to develop a love of reading, which will help support their academic success. Thank you to you all!

Attendance

Lancashire County Council have expressed a concern about our school attendance and in particular the number of children who are being taken out of school for extended periods of time. We do not authorise leave in term time for any purpose and parents are being issued fines for doing so. However, my main concern is the amount of learning that these children are missing. Five days from school equates to five lessons missed. In the first half of this school year, 564 days have been missed from families taking unauthorised leave. This is 2820 lessons missed and is equivalent to 2.9 years of learning. One in eight pupils have taken unauthorised leave since September and this is causing a problem, as children are falling behind in their studies as a result of missing so much learning. There are 13 weeks of school holiday each year and this is the period of time that you are expected to take any holidays or trips.

We have attached the attendance charter that we have devised with other Pendle Schools and local mosques, who are working together to address the issue of unauthorised leave. Please read this information as it highlights the issues that schools and mosques are facing.

Sue Dean Writing Award

Each half term, a child is chosen to receive a writing award, named in honour of Sue Dean, who was an English consultant who worked for Lancashire County Council. This half term, the award is awarded to Abubakr Mahmood from Year 6.

Birthday Books

We recently made a suggestion that families may like to donate a book to the library instead of buying birthday sweets. Thank you to those who have done this so far. It is such a generous gift to give to school, to celebrate your child’s time at Reedley.

PE Kits

Please ensure that your child has their PE kit in school for the first day of term.

World Book Day- reminder

Mrs Gorrell has informed you that we will be dressing up again for World Book Day on Thursday 5^th March and has invited you to come into school on that day to share a story with your child. The timetable for this was attached to the letter that was sent out.

Art Week – reminder

A letter has already been sent out to invite you to come and see what your child ha been doing in art week, which is week beginning 24^th February. Please do come and see what we are doing and feel free to join in!

The timetable was on the letter that has already been sent out.

Thank you for your support,

Mrs Sarah Bell

Headteacher