February Newsletter 2009

Arnold Middle School

February Newsletter 2009

Name: …………………….. Form: ……………………..

Dear Parents/ Carers We did it! We have been given Specialist Status in Science and Mathematics! I am very proud to announce that both Arnold and Parkfields Middle Schools produced their own unique ‘bids’ for specialist status and Harlington Upper School were successful in attaining re-designation. Congratulations go to all the staff who worked so hard to get the bid together. Obviously, as Trust Schools we have planned considerable science and mathematics ‘community projects’ with our partner lower schools. The status has been backdated to September 2008 and the funding, although small compared to large secondary schools, will be spent wisely on the areas identified in the bid. Please do remember that we have a Parent Awareness Raising Evening coming up when you can find out more about our specialisms –

Wednesday 25th

February Parent Awareness Raising Evening (Two) at 19.00 in the Hall – all about science!

A third reminder of other events this term (you can’t say I don’t try!): Thursday 12

th March - Parents’ Forum Evening

at 19.00 in the Library – all welcome. Find out more about our school and help us keep making improvements. Wednesday 25

th March and Thursday 26

th March 2009 at

19.00 – our Arts Performances: dance, gym and drama!

Wednesday 1st

April at 19.00 our annual Recital Evening – a chance to listen to our multi-talented children performing their favourite pieces of music (with cheese and wine kindly arranged by FASA).

Thank you to all the Year Six Parents/ Carers who came to our highly-successful PARE about Key Stage Two tests. We tried a new format this year and feedback from parents was very encouraging and positive.

ARNOLD MIDDLE SCHOOL PAGE 2

We are currently looking through the returns of our annual questionnaire to parents about our school and the information for our up-date to the Arnold Travel Plan. Our original dates back to 2004 so it was definitely time for it to be revised! Your thoughts and ideas – positive and areas for development are gratefully received.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during the huge disruption during the poor weather last week. It is exceptional to have to close the school at all, let alone on more than one day. There are a number of reasons why Arnold Middle School, and 190 out of 210 other Bedfordshire

schools were closed. It really is a BIG decision and never taken lightly – even arranging to open, as we did on Friday, was fraught with challenges. Nearly half our children come to school on Local Authority Transport and so we are beholden to the owners of the bus companies, who decide, in liaison with the LA Transport Manager, whether it is safe to drive through the village lanes around Barton (particularly Flitton, Greenfield and the steep slopes from Westoning around Harlington and Sharpenhoe). The safety of our children is my highest priority. Several parents voiced their concerns on Monday (when we remained open) about getting their children home safely in deteriorating conditions.

It has been delightful to let our children go out at breaks and lunchtimes to play on the school field (when the snow was soft enough). We try to make sure that the playground and footpaths in the school grounds are safe to walk on however the footpaths leading to Arnold have been quite slippery. Even

though we have a good supply of salt/grit it is a challenge to get a site as large as ours open and safe throughout the day. Mr Dale Childs and Mr Clive Littler, our Site Support Team, have done wonders keeping us clear on the entrances but there is a limit to what can be achieved when so much snow has fallen so often! On Thursday last week they were even helping struggling motorists off the Hexton Road to turn round in our grounds to get back home (once the drivers realised how dangerous the road to Hitchin was for cars).


Most of our teaching staff live outside Barton-le-Clay. Some set out at 06.30 every day without snow as they live in places as far afield as Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire – so when snow settles, as it did last Thursday morning, we had to think of their safety too. If there are only a few teachers reaching school; we cannot run any kind of normal timetable. I have had vast experience over many years of keeping schools open by amalgamating classes or having group ‘sing-alongs’ in the hall. I can still clearly remember my time at Sandye Place Middle School (in the early 1980s) when some of the Bedford staff used to struggle in (sometimes in convoy) and cope with one teacher to six classes together whilst the more local ‘village’ staff in places like Potton were stuck in snow-filled narrow roads! We managed to keep going, with packed lunches and many quizzes but it certainly wasn’t a learning situation and was extremely stressful for all concerned.

We do not take lightly the inconvenience to parents of a school closure, and try to make the decision as early as possible – it starts at 06.00 with telephone conversations with the headteachers at Harlington Upper and Parkfields Middle Schools! It is a very difficult decision to make but I feel

personally responsible for the safety and welfare of over 630 people when I weigh up the pros and cons. I would never be able to forgive myself if one of our community was injured in challenging travelling conditions. Last week two staff came off the road travelling to school on Monday, and on Wednesday one had an accident resulting in the emergency services being called and, fortunately, not serious injuries – although the vehicle did not come off quite so well! Particular thanks to the parents who have taken the time to contact me to say how much they appreciate our efforts with the school emails and updates on the website. I would like to add my thanks to Mr Fell, at HUS for adding AMS to the text message service that he uses. It made a significant difference for parents with children at both schools finding out quickly. We have considered a similar service for Ar-nold but it is expensive so the governors are hoping to look at a Trust School solution.

Lots of celebration and thanks in this edition.

Best wishes

Ann Payne


What are YOU going to do to save the WORLD?

Year 8 Citizenship Day

Friday 20th

March.

At Arnold we strongly believe that our

Pupils should be given the opportunity to develop and grow as ‘Global Citizens’,

this term, as part of the PSHCE programme of study, Year 8 will have the opportunity to

participate in a Citizenship Day entitled

‘What are YOU going to do to save the WORLD?’

This day is designed to get pupils thinking about ‘big issues’ that affect us all, and planning how we as individuals can make a difference.

So, Year 8, get your thinking caps on!

What do you want to change in the world? How can you make a difference?


MEET THE GOVERNORS

Hello, I’m Sallie Phillips, vice chair on the governing body. I’ve been a member for 2½ years and I love every minute of it. It is an honour to be able play a tiny part in supporting everyone at school. I am mainly involved with the teaching and learning committee. This is the group within the governing body that looks to see how we can support and improve achievements at Arnold and ensures that the school meets the Every Child Matters agenda (Enjoy and Achieve, Be Safe, Be Healthy & Make a Positive Contribution). I work from home running a company that supplies freelance trainers to anyone who needs business training. My background is in marketing, and I still also occasionally lecture in marketing at the local universities. I must have been very bad in a past life as I am also Musical Director of PYP (a children’s theatre group in based in Greenfield) because singing and vocal coaching is what I do for a hobby. I recently took over as secretary of the Milton Keynes Ice Skating Club where I spend many hours each week. I thought I might as well be doing something useful with my time. I believe passionately that school is just as much about learning who you are and what you are good at, as it is about learning to count and spell. I am delighted that AMS is so keen on enrichment activities – long may it continue!


A round up of what’s happening in the teaching departments.


MUSIC Groups of Yr 8 pupils are enjoying some new vocal activities, organised by Music Leaders from the ‘Sing Up’

initiative.

PSHCE Stop Press! Year 8 Citizenship day coming next month – ‘What are YOU going to do to save the WORLD?’…….

RE RE continues to prepare our pupils to open their minds to the diversity of the world around us.

SCIENCE After a massive effort by everyone in the Science and Maths departments last term we were delighted to have

been awarded specialist science status.

DRAMA Oh no they haven’t… Oh yes they have! Year 7 have been creating a pantomime, whilst Year 8 has been exploring the world of mime through Trestle Masks.

ENGLISH Year 8 are about to start Shakespeare (The Tempest), Year 7 are working on poetry, Y6 SATs prep,

Y5 enjoying Roald Dahl.

FRENCH Year 7 pupils are looking forward to Normandy on 16

th March. Year 8 pupils have been planning and

delivering lessons to their peers. Key stage 2 pupils have been concentrating on role-plays to improve their

speaking.

GEOGRAPHY Year 8 are currently investigating how safe their streets are in the crime topic. Year 5 are putting together an A3 poster about their local area. Year 7 are currently putting

the finishing touches to a h/w project about an earthquake or volcano of their choice.

GERMAN Pupils have been practicing role-plays for their speaking assessment.

HISTORY Exciting times in the History department begin with a link project between our school and four others across the UK. Our pupils are having the opportunity to develop

their research and ICT skills by creating ‘blogs’ to share with other schools.

ICT KS2 have been involved with E-Safety linked to ECM this half term. Year 7 will be also involved producing a leaflet on E-safety after their present ‘Endangered animal’ Charity leaflet. Year 8 are involved with the

integrated project ‘The Gig’, they have just completed the finance section and are about to start the marketing.

MATHS New Maths club starting for KS3 pupils after half term – Maths Magic Challenge. Wednesday lunchtimes. Every-

one welcome.

Anti- Bullying Report In January we held a special assembly to explain what bullying is and how it can affect people. Following the assembly a very small number of pupils shared their concerns regarding bullying and these have been dealt with promptly. It is a sad fact of life that a minority of individuals in any community engage in this appalling

practice, but we will do all we can to stamp it out and need your full support as well as that of your child to take immediate action and fully adopt our motto of ‘See Something ~ Say Something’.

Key Stage 2 SATs preparation evening

We have received positive response to our new style SATs preparation evening for parents held in January. Core subject leaders, Miss Clark (Science), Mrs Hawkins (Mathematics) and Mrs Hewitt (English) presented small group workshops. The specialties of each subject were shared, including past papers, an opportunity to engage in SAM learning was provided and parents even enjoyed completing part of the mental maths test! All Y6 pupils have since completed a mock SATs test in class groups and teachers are now identifying areas of strengths and any intervention activities required.

Look out for the following special dates next half term

• February 10th Y8 Upper School Transfer evening.

• February 25th Parent Awareness Raising Evening.

• March 12th Parent Forum evening.

• March 20th Citizenship Day for pupils.

• March 25th and 26

th Arts Performances evening event.

• April 1st Music Recital evening.


REWARDS AND RECOGNITION VALUES AWARDS

As the Values rewards system is so popular we are pleased to announce an additional draw took place this half term and the lucky winners are……

Congratulations to all remember to see Mrs Sides to choose your reward. Please don’t forget….. to be in the draw you have to post those Values tokens in the box found in the school entrance and finally remember to write your full name. Many thanks to FASA for their support providing these rewards.

HOUSE MERIT TOTALS The individual pupils who have received merit certificates this half term for exceptional effort with class or homework, service to others and making a positive contribution to school are:


BRUCE CONQUEST GREY St JOHN

Michael Fowler Charlotte Hewitt Sally McCulloch Ruth Linney

Conor Naylor Emily Wolfe Brad Wishart John Perkins

Jack Kennan Anna Beckett Conor Dimmock Jessica Jones

Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8 TOTAL

Bruce n/a 480 329 123 932

Conquest n/a 513 315 265 1093

Grey n/a 373 327 251 951

St John n/a 392 214 184 790

Alysa Brown Ria Pachnanda David Hutton

Amy Cross Niall Palmer Nicole Robinson

Thomas Davis Jamie Wales Lee Houghton

Emily Goss James Wildey Tai Parker-Tang

Abigail Lugg Tony Miller Joanna Saunders

SCHOOL TRANSPORT

There have been a few issues lately regarding the time the bus leaves school and this has put pressure on school staff to try to ensure all pupils get on the buses. Unfortunately a few children have missed the bus, but the office staff

have been able to make parental contact ensuring all pupils get home safely. Thank you for your patience and support. I have been in contact with the Local Authority (LA) team and have been able to reschedule the contract, the buses will not leave school before 3.40 on any day. The new schedule has

been recently distributed by the LA to parents / carers. This new timing should be more than sufficient for all pupils to catch their bus, please remind your child(ren) to go promptly to the bus lines as the buses have other arrangements after the school run. The transport companies who have the contracts expect all children to have a valid bus pass. It is most important that you ensure they carry this daily as failure to show the pass could result in them being asked to pay for the journey; again this information was shared by the local authority earlier this year. The school can only issue a temporary pass for a limited fixed duration. On a positive note it is a pleasure to report that the behaviour of children has greatly improved, although we do still have isolated incidents that require staff at school to investigate. These incidents are avoidable with your continued support they will reduce even further as without them the staff could engage in more positive and rewarding interaction with pupils.


Based at: Harlington Upper School, Goswell End Road, Harlington, Beds LU5 6NX Telephone: 07791028199

Parents, Pupils and Community Update Information leaflet: The RESPECT Project Information Leaflet is complete. Parents Evenings: I have arranged for many organisations to be at several parents’ evenings and events in the cluster including myself as the RESPECT Project. Schools taking part include: Arnold Middle School , Harlington Lower, Harlington Upper, Ramsey Manor Lower, Silsoe Lower, Sundon Lower and Toddington St George. So if we are coming to your school please do come and say hello I am always keen to hear what you have to say and answer any questions you may have. Notice boards: The RESPECT Project has looked at many different ways in communicating with parents and their children in the catchment. One way in helping them to find out as much about the project what it is doing and what it offers is through notice boards so look out for your RESPECT Information Board! Nurture groups and parent support groups: At the request of some of the schools and parents, I have looked at the


best way to provide further parental support and nurture groups in schools. A great way to do this is to offer training some of the schools own Teaching Assistants or Learning Support Assistants in running nurture groups or parent support groups or classes. This offer has gone out to all 13 schools. In line with this the project is offering all parents of pre teen aged children in the cluster the chance to attend a friendly parent group. The session will use the Family Matters Institute Flat Pack Parent Resource which is a dot it yourself discussion pack to be used by small groups of parents and carers. It has ten key issues from Peer Pressure to Online Safety and provides back ground information, discussion question and action points to help parent take the steps to improve or change current patterns of communication or behaviour with their pre teens. If you would like to come along and see how it works take part in our taster session. Keep your eyes pealed for more info including dates and venue! Family Learning: The project is looking for a venue to host two coffee mornings where parents of preschool aged children and lower school aged children, in two sessions can come along, take part in workshops and find out more about family and adult learning available to them. Flyers to be sent out ASAP. Hearing Impaired Project: I am working with the Hearing Impaired team on a Family Fun Day. This day is aimed families across Bedfordshire who have hearing-impaired child/children. The whole family can come along, take part in activities, and meet each other to promote links and a network for themselves. The day is scheduled for May this year confirmation of date will follow


as soon as possible. Our Space: The RESPECT Project is currently supporting the fund raising efforts of the Our Space project in Barton. The project is set to house the pre-school and Barton Kids Club as well as a children’s centre worker, a purpose built building is planned to fit in the grounds of Ramsey Manor Lower School. Original plans were for a community room to be included in the new building however we have to raise the extra funds for this. As well as the bids we are putting in the group is organising further fund raising events including Barton’s Got Talent to take place in May 09. Look out for the flyers! Working Group: The RESPECT Project is developing a working group of young people to help shape the project in the aspects aimed at them. Currently involved are the sixth form leaders from the successful Working Together Day, when students working together from across the cluster designed the RESPECT Project logo. We are looking for this group to grow so we can have a clearer picture of what young people in the area want and need. So if you are a young person or know a young person that would like to take part please contact me on the number above. One Stop Shop: The One Stop Shop, poster designed by the Working Group, runs every Monday 3 till 5.30pm from Toddington Youth Centre where many services are available for young people to access information advice and support on all sorts of topics including career advice to finding out what is happening in their area. We are also interested in hearing from young people if they have any ideas about what is needed in their area and can work with them to make them happen.


Say It Loud: In partnership work with Mid Beds District Council, the Police, and The RESPECT project are holding a consultation afternoon at Harlington Upper School. Open to all young people, students, and non-students too, with free food and goodies as well as the chance to have their voices heard regarding all topics including: after school activities, stop and search, how adults talk to them, and what the issues are in their areas. This will take place at Harlington Upper School from 3pm on April 2

nd 2009. If you would like to come along and have your say give

me a call or text as you will need to complete a consent form. Ministry of Youth: In partnership with Mid Bed District Council, Aragon Housing Association, Ampthill Baptist Church, the Police, Extended Schools projects at Redborne and Harlington Upper and the While Hart Hotel Ampthill we have developed the Ministry of Youth Night Club on Jan 28

th

from 6.30 until 9 pm at the Cellar Bar. This first session will be open young people in equivalent school years 9 and 10, and who live in Ampthill, Flitwick, Clophill, Maulden and Millbrook. It is ticket only entrance, with professional security staff and a bar selling soft drinks and snacks. This is the first of what is hoped to be a regular event not only in this area but to grow and spread across the catchments keep your eyes pealed for an event near you. Look out for The RESPECT Project Website coming soon….. Jolene Jefferson, Extended School Co-ordinator for the Harlington Area of Schools.


Healthy Eating Working Group

We have previously tried to set up a small group of interested parties to review our Nutritional Standards policy documentation, unfortunately due to personal commitment there was insufficient support. We believe that it is now time to try again to form this working group of pupils, parents / carers, staff and governors as part of our continuing programme of improvement in the

care and facilities that we provide for our pupils. One way in which we are working to improve our care is by setting up this working group to look at ‘Healthy Eating’ within school; this will cover all food consumed at any time on the school site. We initially want to look at school meals including packed lunches. To help us to gather information on what is contained in these packed lunches, we propose to carry out a survey on packed lunches in the im-mediate future. We will also be looking at the children’s choice of op-tions from the range of healthy meals served in the dining hall and share this information with you in the near future. If you would like to be involved in the working group, then we would very much like to hear from you. Please express your interest with a current telephone number to Mrs Linda Sides via the school office. The first meeting will be scheduled for a Wednesday afternoon in early March.


OUT of SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENTS

It would be really nice if we could celebrate and share in our newsletter some of the fantastic out of school achievements of our pupils. This could be a regular feature, but to make it work we need your contributions. Has your son / daughter done something you would like to share? If so could you provide a short report; adding a picture if you wish of the activity or achievement and send it to me (Mrs Sides) at school; I will be more than delighted to include it in the subsequent newsletter.

We thought we would share a letter we received this week in response to our award of Specialist Science and Maths status.

Dear Ann I'm absolutely delighted that Arnold and Parkfields have achieved spe-cialist status in Maths and Science. I have not yet received the notifica-tion from DCSF so thank you for passing on the good news. This is a tremendous result and a great credit to both you and David in achieving this. We are putting the finishing touches to ‘Schools First’ so I am copy-ing to Beth Bowmer to see if we can give you some publicity via that route too. Best wishes Malcolm Newsam Director of Children's Services Bedfordshire County Council


COMMUNITY COHESION QUESTIONNAIRE SUMMARY

We have rather bombarded you with questionnaires recently and the responses we receive are always valuable and enable us to gather your views and take appropriate steps in those areas identified as in need of action. The analysis takes time especially when we have a high response rate and unfortunately is not always in line with the current newsletter production.

We received a 22% return of the questionnaire sent out to parents. This proportion of the school community enabled us to obtain a fairly clear picture of parental opinions. Overall the response is very positive, this activity has achieved its aims in identifying areas for action; most of those identified can easily be resolved through increasing parental awareness. The inclusion of the ‘don’t know’ option does affect the absolute responses but also highlights the need to ensure everyone within our community is fully aware of how we work. It should be noted that the negative responses do not exceed 8% for any of the statements with only two (No 1& 4) being above 4%.


% Parent Response to Community Cohesion Questionnaire

0

20

40

60

80

100

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Question number

%

Yes

Don't know

No

The statement in apparent immediate need of action is No 9 as 29% indicate they do not know of these links, one example of our links which was extremely well publicised and consulted on with parents was the move to Trust status. Another example is the Extended Schools action in which months of consultation and meetings has involved parents and the local community. The highest negative response was for statement 4 Every Child Matters (ECM). ECM has been a focus for pupil form assemblies since the beginning of the school year and although they have been working hard on the material the actual terminology may not have been shared, leading to the lack of realisation that they are working towards understanding the ECM agenda and how it impacts on their lives as individuals.


STATEMENT Y d/k N

My child likes coming to school.

89 5 6

My child is safe and cared for at school.

91 7 2

My child is taught to respect and look after others at school.

98 1 1

My child knows about ECM (Every Child Matters) and learns about this through form time and PSHCE.

74 18 8

My child is being taught skills that will be useful in later life.

81 18 1

My child feels part of the school community.

86 10 4

My child understands the school’s ‘Values’ and how they apply to the wider community.

92 7 1

There are links to the wider community.

85 15 0

There are links with other schools including our feeder lower schools and Harlington Upper.

71 29 0

My child’s needs are catered for.

85 13 2

All figures are represented as % of responses

In every pupil’s planner there is a dedicated page describing the 5 outcomes. A recent whole school active promotion of the use of the pupil planner has brought their attention to this area again. Presenting this material and the PSHCE scheme of

work on the website could also raise parental awareness and understanding. The second highest negative response was for statement 1 with 6% indicating their child does not like school. In general the reasons are many and varied for pupils saying they do not like coming to school. Further work could be done to identify specifics then we may be able to put into place the appropriate strategies and action. Our PALM centre has already made significant impact on the lives of some children who don’t want to come to school for various reasons. It should be noted that 89% indicate their children do enjoy coming to school, whilst 5% of parents do not know.

The highest positive response of 98% was for statement 3 and is a testimonial to the work we do in Values Education. This evidence is backed up by the response to statement 7 with 92% believing this statement to be true and only 1% disagreed; for the 7% who ‘do not know’ we can implement simple steps to

remedy this gap. The pupils also gave exceptionally positive responses to the area of Values and respect and the implication drawn is that there is a high level of communication between parents and pupils about the work we do to promote Values education. The community spirit at AMS continues to evolve but in line with indicators from the pupils’ responses a key area that will further improve community cohesion is simply effective communication.


Westoning Disco

Friday 27th February 7-9pm

Westoning Village Hall

Years 5-8 only £3.50

Refreshments available

Physical Education

The Autumn term has seen a very busy sports schedule kick-off across a number of sports, namely cross country and football.

With the cross country events starting early in the term, first came the Bedfordia events which were held at Lincroft Middle. In total 32 of our pupils took part, consisting of 4 different teams, year 5&6 girls and boys and year 7&8 girls and boys. The children competed against 32 other schools in their individual races and although they ran and competed against one another the race was actually structured as a team event. A huge congratulations to all those who put so much work into these events, your efforts were recognized. The year 5&6 boys and girls teams finished in 19th place overall, whilst the year 7&8 girls finished in 7th place, and the year 7&8 boys in 21st place. The second cross-country competition to take place this term was the Beds and District Cross Country, this was held at Bedford Priory Park and we are still awaiting the results. A big congratulations to all the children involved. There were some outstanding individual performances and the department would like to give a special mention to Katherine Wildey, a year 7 student, who competed on both occasions in the year 8 races and finished in impressive places on both occasions. Well done to the following pupils for all their efforts: Year 5 & 6 Charlotte Morris, Lauren Eagles, Alliah Edwards, Anna Savage, Holly Thompson, Jessica Pitts, Sarah Cross, John Gray, Kai Dunston, Luca Testa, Anton Testa, Joshua Wilson, Michael Fowler. Year 7 & 8 Tom Ayres, Brandon Pickard, Connor Smith, Matthew Watson, James Wildey, Kane McKenna, Olivia Murphy, Eleanor Keep, Kirsty Foster, Kayleigh Eaton, Katherine Wildey, Ceylon Hickman, Francis Brown, Alex Wright.


This term has also seen the start of our football fixtures across all year groups. With the competitive fixtures set to begin soon, there have been many friendly matches taking place in preparation. The first of these matches was the Year 5 football teams who played at Parkfields Middle. In 7-a-side teams, each team played 2 matches. The results were extremely impressive with our teams winning 3 of the 4 matches they played and most importantly playing some fantastic attacking football throughout the evening. Well done boys, your efforts and commitment in training is already beginning to pay off! Meanwhile, the year 6 football team has also been in competitive action with a recent friendly against Henlow Middle. After a very hard fought and competitive match the game finished 1-1, thanks to a second half equalizer from Joe Lines. Well done to all the squad, you all played pivotal roles in making the match such a good spectacle. The year 8 football team have also got their season off to a successful

start with an impressive 3-2 victory over Parkfields Middle. In a scintillating match both teams fought right to the very end, but it was an impressive second half display that won it for Arnold. With some intelligent use of possession, some lovely attacking

football was played and 3 goals scored by Ryan Fitt, Michael Harris and Robert Norman. Well done to all of you. Unfortunately the poor weather has seen the cancellation of recent friendly fixtures. With the start of the league so close, year groups will have upcoming competitive matches and these friendlies if possible will be re-scheduled to offer more footballing opportunities. A huge well done, as always, to everyone who has contributed in making this term another fantastic one for all involved with extra-curricular physical education.


Coming soon…..

FASA presents

A

MASQUERADE

BALL

25th April 2009

Look out for details.


Designed by Chloe Davis

ARNOLD SCHOOL DIARY 2008-2009

Friday 13th February Half Term week – return Monday 23rd February Wednesday 25th February Parents’ Awareness Raising Evening (2) Science Specialist Status Thursday 12th March Parents Forum Evening 2 Mon 16th – Fri 20th March Year 7 Normandy Visit Friday 20th March Year 8 Citizenship Day Wednesday 25th March Arts Performance Thursday 26th March Arts Performance Wednesday 1st April Music Recital Evening Friday 3rd April Spring Term Ends Saturday 4th-11th April Ski Trip

Saturday 18th April Music Performance at Albert Hall Monday 20th April Training Day/Reports Day } Pupils not in school – appointment times will be Tuesday 21st April Training Day/Reports Day } issued to meet with Form Tutors on either days Wednesday 22nd April Summer Term Commences Wednesday 29th April Yr 3 / 4 Parents of Children with Additional Needs Meeting Mon 4th May May Day Bank Holiday – school closed

Tuesday 5th May KS3 SATs Week Monday 11th May KS2 SATs Week Monday 18th May Year 6 PGL Trip Monday 18th May Year 8 P.E. G&T Trip Wednesday 20th May Parents’ Forum Evening 3 Thursday 21st May Science G&T London Residential Friday 22nd May Science G&T London Residential Friday 22nd May Half Term Week – return Monday 1st June Tuesday 9th June Parents’ Awareness Raising Evening (3) Arts Mark Awareness Tuesday 16th June Year 4 Maths & Rounders Day Friday 19th June Maths G&T Residential Saturday 20th June Maths G&T Residential Sunday 21st June Maths G&T Residential Wednesday 24th June DT G&T Afternoon for Year 4 pupils Friday 26th June Year 5 Boulogne Trip Friday 3rd July All Pupils Induction Day Monday 6th July Year 8 Induction Day 2 Wednesday 8th July Summer Concert Friday 10th July Sports Day for all Years (parents welcome) Monday 13th July Years 5 and 6 Swimming Gala (am) – sorry, no parent spectators Tuesday 14th July Years 7 and 8 Swimming Gala (am) – sorry, no parent spectators Monday 13th July Year 5 Intake Evening Thursday 16th July Leavers’ Assembly Friday 17th July Year 8 Day Trip Friday 17th July Summer Term Ends Thursday 3rd September Autumn Term Commences


Friday 3rd

April 2009 Fancy Dress

Proceeds towards Childline & Save the Children


Come as your favourite Super Hero OR

Create your own! Prizes for the most original outfit in

each year group.

£2.00 per pupil.

Documents

February Newsletter 2009