28 April 2017

Bulletin Number 28

ST THOMAS MORE PARTNERSHIP OF SCHOOLS (07900532)

When we welcome the child, we welcome the family

Tel: 01207 270396 / Email: info@sacredheartgateshead.org / Website: www.sacredheartgateshead.org

Congratulations to Reception who had 99.7% attendance this week Well done to ALL CLASSES who achieved our 95% target

This week our overall attendance was 96.9% Please ensure you make every effort to ensure your child gets to school every day to help us achieve our target

Class Reception Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6

Attendance 99.7% 95.2% 96.3% 96% 95.5% 98.9% 97.7%

Poor punctuality means your child misses valuable learning time and that lessons are disrupted for all other pupils. Please make sure that your children are in the yard by 8.45am every day.

Dear Parents, Grandparents & Parishioners

Welcome back everyone to our last term of the academic year. The Trinity Term hopefully will prove to be the most exciting of the year and will bring to an end, sadly the primary journey for our current Y6 cohort, before they leave to pastures new at STM. We have many events happening across the term and I look forward to children making their Sacrament of First Communion in June, going on trips, taking part in sporting events, residentials and enjoying visitors amongst other things. Information regarding staffing arrangements will be shared after the Summer half term as things can change at this time of the year.

The Easter holiday was extremely cold but hopefully we will see some sunny days at Sacred Heart soon. The children have lots of activities during the week to take part in so please ring the office if you want to access a club before, during or after school. You will see over the coming weeks much discussion about schools in general with the general election drawing closer. I can confirm, that as I have done recently with all Gateshead Headteachers, that schools have never been funded as poorly as they are currently are. Please bare this in mind when we ask you for your ongoing support to pay for things. We really appreciate every penny that you give.

NEWS

Classic Literacy Show: We had some really exciting news yesterday from M&M Productions, they are in

the area visiting schools next week and had a gap in their performance diary. As we are currently exploring a range of classic fiction in lessons, staff thought this would be a fantastic opportunity for Y1-Y5 to watch an adaptation of this classic Victorian story. The children will watch a visiting production of Charles Dickens’ "Oliver Twist" and follow one of literatures best loved heroes through the tempestuous events of his early life. The performance will take place on the afternoon of Tuesday 2 May and we are asking for a voluntary contribution of £3.00 which is payable on ParentPay. School is covering the performance cost from our Literacy Curriculum budget pot however we would appreciate any parental contributions to allow us to purchase future resources/books.

Year 6 Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) – Free Breakfast: Children in Year 6 will be sitting their SATs next week. School will be providing a free breakfast for Year 6 children from Monday to Thursday. The children have worked incredibly hard throughout the year and we are very proud of them. It is really important that all children attend school that week to enable them to participate in the tests and demonstrate their achievements in English and Maths. The breakfast will be served at 8.20am and children are asked to arrive no earlier than 8.20am as there will be no-one available to supervise them. Many thanks to our fantastic catering team for enabling us to do this. Open day: A huge thank you to everyone that came along to our Open Day on Tuesday; we had a steady flow of visitors during the day from parents, grandparents, governors, parishioners, prospective parents and children. Many thanks to all the Friends and staff for helping make the day a success. The comments we have had have all been appreciated and hopefully people can see why we are outstanding. Its more than just results that make an outstanding school as parents know. New Starters Reception 2017: Our new starter welcome invites have been sent out for our initial welcome meeting on Wednesday 14 June at 6pm. Please can parents try and make this meeting as it’s a great chance to meet staff, governors, Friends and other parents of children that hopefully you will spend much time with over the next 7 years. All starter packs will also go out on this evening and parents will have clear details of induction and transition arrangements. Class Assemblies and Liturgies: The final block of class assembly and liturgy dates have been set. Please see the ‘Forthcoming Events and Key Dates’ section at the end of the bulletin. Bank Holiday: A reminder that Monday 1 May is a bank holiday and therefore our school will be closed. We re-open on Tuesday 2 May at 8.50am.

MEMOS AND REMINDERS

Friends Meeting: Our next Friends meeting is on Tuesday 2nd May at 2.15pm. All parents, Grandparents and family members from children in Little Hearts and Sacred Heart are welcome to come along. The main topic of this meeting will be the Sacred Heart Summer Fayre, this is always a fantastic event but we need your help to make it a success.

Holidays in Term Time: It has come around to that time again when we must highlight the matter of holidays taken during school time. There is no entitlement for you to take your child on holiday during term time. You can be fined for taking your child on holiday during term time without consent from the school. Absence during term time should be avoided because children can fall behind with their work and may find it difficult to integrate. An application for leave must be made in writing to the school, detailing the exceptional circumstances. The headteacher must be satisfied the circumstances warrant the granting of leave. Leave of absence may not be granted during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. They will determine the number of days a child can be away from school if the leave is granted. If you do not apply for leave of absence in advance, the absence will be recorded as unauthorised. If the headteacher granted an absence in exceptional circumstances and your child is away for longer than was agreed, any extra time is recorded as unauthorised. Many thanks for your continued support. Contact details: Please ensure you let the School Office know if any of your contact information changes. It is very important that contact information is kept up to date.

No Dogs Allowed (Sorry): It has been brought to my attention that occasionally people bring dogs into the school yard. I am a dog lover. However, for obvious health & safety reasons dogs are not allowed on school premises (even if they are carried) or left tied to school railings. We have a strict council policy on this and it protects everyone in the event of something unpredictable that could happen. Please help us have a safe community.

Contents of Packed Lunches: Could I also take this opportunity to remind parents that as an accredited Healthy School, packed lunch boxes must be nutritionally balanced and should not include fizzy drinks, chocolate or high fat crisps. By the same token, please try to increase the amount of fruit, yoghurt, brown bread, vegetables and unflavoured water, wherever you can. Nuts or foods containing nuts are not allowed. This is because of the number of children who have quite severe reactions, often life-threatening. Obviously these children avoid consuming nuts themselves but they can react in the same way if simply in a room where nuts can be found in another child’s lunch box. I am sure you will understand that we have to be very careful and I appreciate your support.

School Meals – April 2017: If your child will be in Reception, Year One or Year Two they are still entitled to receive a free school meal as part of the Universal Infant Free School Meal initiative. If your child is in Years 3-6 a school meal is available for your child at a cost of £2.00. Dinners can be paid for as follows via ParentPay:

termly in advance by cash or cheque, payable on the first day of school - £116.00

half termly in advance by cash or cheque, payable on the first day of school - £46.00

weekly, by cash or cheque, payable on the first day of the school week - £10.00

Please can I remind parents that we require that payment is made a minimum of one week in advance and a credit balance is maintained at all times. Parents can upload money into their child’s school meal ‘pot’ weekly, half-termly or termly in advance.

If paying weekly £10.00 must be uploaded into your child’s account in advance and no later than 9am on the Monday of that week. We no longer allow parents to pay in arrears. Children will not be provided with a school lunch unless it is paid for in advance (except for those children entitled to Free School Meals and/or Universal Free School Meals). If a parent/carer genuinely forgets to pay, the school may grant a debt allowance of one meal. However this debt must be paid next day and future meals must be paid for in advance before any more meals are provided.

Summer Uniform: We expect all children to wear their school uniform every day. After the Easter Holidays children can come to school in our Summer Uniform. This comprises of short sleeved shirts, a banner skirt with white frilly socks/grey knee length socks for the girls and grey uniform shorts with grey socks for the boys (they must match the style in the photographs). Children will still be expected to come to school in their jumpers/cardigans, but can remove them on hot sunny days. Sorry to any parents that were hoping for a maroon gingham dress, unfortunately we were unable to source one for a reasonable price, however we will look into this again for next year.

Outgrown Uniform: To help parents with the cost of buying school uniform we would like to set up our own ‘Second Hand Uniform Shop’ which will offer current and new pupils a chance to buy second hand uniform at a reasonable price. If you have any uniform in good condition (and clean) that your children have now outgrown we would be delighted to have it. Donations can be brought to the office (please mark clearly that it is for the Uniform Shop). We will then run a stall once a term where parents can come in and take a look at the stock and purchase any items they need for a donation to the Friends Fund.

In our Prayers - Prayer booklet: If there is anyone you would like us to pray for in our school community please drop comments into the prayer box or email the school office and we will remember those intentions in our prayers.

Happy Birthday: Many happy returns to Jack (25 April), Kaitlyn (27/04), Sofia (28/04) and Lucas (1 May)

Gold Book Assembly Spring Term Awards: Little Hearts Star of the Week – Best Manners – T-Jay (Y4)

Mathematician of the Week – Cruz (Y4) Writer of the Week – Jakob (Y4)

Miss Richardson’s Award – Matthew (Y1) Head Teacher’s Award – Oliver (Y2) & Ethan (Y3)

Pupils of the Week: Magdalena (Reception), Emilia & Adam (Y1), Hayden (Y2), Jamie (Y3), Katie (Y4), Faith (Y5) & Lori (Y6)

FORTHCOMING EVENTS AND KEY DATES

Monday 2 May: School closed for May Bank Holiday Thursday 25 May: School Closes for half term Friday 26 May: Teacher Training Day Monday 5 June: School reopens Wednesday 7 June: Y5 Liturgy @ 9am Thurs 8 – Fri 9 June: Y4 Gibside Residential Friday 9 June - Reception Assembly @ 9am Saturday 10 June: First Holy Communion Wednesday 14 June: Y4 Liturgy @ 9am Friday 16 June: Y1 Assembly @ 9am Wednesday 21 June: Y3 Liturgy @ 9am

Friday 23 June: Y2 Assembly @ 9am Wednesday 28 June: Y2 Liturgy @ 9am Friday 30 June: Y3 Assembly @ 9am Wednesday 5 July: Y1 Liturgy @ 9am Friday 7 July: Y4 Assembly @ 9am Wednesday 12 July: Reception Liturgy @ 9am Friday 14 July: Y5 Assembly @ 9am Wednesday 19 July: Y6 leavers mass (in church) Friday 21 July: Y6 Leavers Assembly @ 9am Saturday 15 July: Summer Fayre (DATE CHANGE)

SCHOOL CLOSES AT 3.00PM

SCHOOL RE-OPENS

HOLIDAY

TEACHER DAYS

Friday 28 April 2017 Tuesday 2 May 2017 May Day

Thursday 25 May 2017 Monday 5 June 2017 Summer Half Term Friday 26 May 2016

Friday 21 July 2017 Tuesday 5 September 2017 Summer Holidays Monday 4 September 2017

Friday 20 October 2017 Monday 30 October 2017 Autumn Half Term

Thursday 21 December 2017 Monday 8 January 2018 Christmas Friday 22 December 2017

Friday 9 February 2018 Monday 19 February 2018 Spring Half Term

Thursday 29 March 2018 Monday 16 April 2018 Easter

Friday 4 May 2018 Tuesday 8 May 2018 May Day

Thursday 24 May 2018 Monday 4 June 2018 Summer Half Term Friday 25 May 2018 (occasional Day which may be subject to change)

Friday 20 July 2018 TBA Summer Holidays