Current School office opening times 8.00am – 3.15pm Monday to Friday 01252 548390

HOLLY LODGE PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWS

Friday 26th June 2020 Newsletter Number 36

TOGETHER WE CAN ACHIEVE MORE Respect Effort Achieve Care Honesty

Dear Parents and Carers

It has been wonderful to welcome Year 6 back into school this week – especially

as these are their final 4 weeks before they leave us. The children have settled

back really well into school.

Congratulations to Mrs Sowter on the birth of her baby girl, Aria. We wish her

all the best as she commences her maternity leave.

I hope you have been able to enjoy some of our warm weather. We would like to

say Thank you to 1st Ash Vale Scouts division for kindly lending us some gazebos,

providing us with much needed shade for the pupils until the end of term.

Please can I remind all parents/carers of those in school to stick to your “bubble”

times for drop off and collection. This is an important part of our infection control

and risk assessment. Please also ensure that you leave the site as soon as you

have dropped your children off so we do not have groups at the gate. We

appreciate your support at this time.

Have a good weekend,

Mrs Dancer

Academy Head

Current School office opening times 8.00am – 3.15pm Monday to Friday 01252 548390

Staffing Update

We are currently planning for the new year and now have all our staff in place. We are very sorry that we will be losing some of our staff at the end of term: Mr Drew is moving out of the area. Mr Drew has been a valuable member of the senior leadership team as well as a class teacher.

Mrs Lampitt is also moving to a school nearer home after many years with us.

Mrs Fitzclarence is leaving us – we will miss her creativity

Mrs Heffernan – who may have taught some of you if you came to Holly Lodge - is retiring after many years of faithful service.

We congratulate Miss Williams who is moving to take up a teaching post in Cross Farm school after successfully completing her teacher training.

Mrs Beer is moving to work within the Kite Academy Trust as attendance and inclusion officer. We send our congratulations.

Miss Midworth will be going on maternity leave. We are delighted for her!

Mrs Ramsden continues to be on leave for the autumn term. We send her our very best wishes and look forward to welcoming her back in the spring. The Holly Lodge staff community is a very close and supportive team and so we will miss all the staff who are moving on. Each one of the staff above have had such a positive impact on our children. We are delighted to welcome two new teachers to our team in September: Mrs Trendall is moving to Holly Lodge from The Grove. She completed a placement with us at the beginning of the year and quickly settled into our team. We also welcome Miss Brown – who is already working with the team to plan for next year.

New classes and transition arrangements

The teachers are all currently planning for September and putting together presentations in each year group to send out to the children to welcome them to their new year groups. These will be sent out before the end of term together with classes and names of teachers before the end of term. We are very mindful that there will be anxieties among parents and children, as we have not been able to do our usual “move up” and transition days this year. Please can I assure you that well-being is at the top of our priority list. We have been amazed at how the children, who have returned so far, have settled straight back into learning. As more government guidelines are released for September, we will let you know our further plans for transition in September. The plan is to have all children from 1-6 back in school by 7th September. The 3rd and 4th September are currently set aside for transition – but arrangements for this have not been finalised yet. We are also waiting for further guidelines to be able to set a date for our new Reception starters, and will update parents in due course.

Reports

Our end of year reports for this year will look slightly different. Teachers are currently writing end of year report comments – but any progress will be from our last assessments in Spring. Reports will be available through a portal from 13th July – details of how to access will be sent in due course but please can you make sure we have your current email addresses.

Current School office opening times 8.00am – 3.15pm Monday to Friday 01252 548390

Ways to connect: hlphotos@hollylodge.kite.academy – this is for photos to be uploaded to the website.*

If you have a message for your child’s teacher, please email this to the year group email addresses: Year1@hollylodge.kite.academy Year2@hollylodge.kite.academy Year3@hollylodge.kite.academy Year4@hollylodge.kite.academy Year5@hollylodge.kite.academy Year6@hollylodge.kite.academy

Reception continue to use Tapestry. Teachers will respond via Marvellous Me. Please note that teachers have a full time teaching commitment in school and may not be able to respond as often as you have been used to.

*By sending in a photo to this address, you are giving permission for it to be uploaded to a gallery on the Holly Lodge website. Your child could also feature in the next newsletter! Please make sure you include your child’s year group in emails sent to this address.

Home Learning Please head to the following link where home learning is uploaded for pupils:

https://www.hollylodgeprimary.co.uk/children/home-learning/

The Great Outdoors! We still love to see your photos of wildlfe and outdoor adventures, so keep sending them in!

Library Update We have started to send reminders home for outstanding library books this week. Many thanks to those who have been able to drop their books in, as you can see it's a big pile! Please help us by dropping the books to the big red boxes in the drive-through as this will allow us to manage the returns without being overwhelmed. Many thanks for your help.

In other school news…

There have been lots of exciting learning and activities going on in school this week. Pupils across the school have been working hard in the allotment area, with plenty of weeding and planting. Puffins B bubble took a photo to show off their their efforts! Year 1 also had an exciting discovery of dinosaur eggs outside their classroom area!

A SELECTION OF THIS WEEK’S LEARNING STARS

New home learning is added to the website each

Friday for the following week… Please note that the

home learning is now in year groups to reflect the

learning children are doing in school.