Welcome

Welcome back to a new school year and a new term-2005/2006 was a successful time at Alderman Jacobs School academically, socially, musically and with sports.  We continued with our international dimension work after receiving our British Council International Award last year and also achieved the Artsmark Silver Award in recognition of our arts teaching and achievement.  The award related to the arts in general– music, art, dance and drama.  We will be doing all we can to surpass our achievement during the next twelve months.

Our children returned to school on Tuesday but staff have been in school during the previous weeks voluntarily giving time to put up their displays, organising their classrooms, preparing books and trays  and cloakrooms ready for their new classes.  Their commitment is a big part of making our school special for the children, for us and for the wider community.  For me, I still feel that Alderman Jacobs is the best place for a Headteacher to work and I remain immensely proud of all of it.  Thanks to all of you as parents and carers.  Your support of the children is valued and your contribution to the life of the school is most welcome at all times.

A special mention to Mr Wyeth and our cleaners for their hard work during the holidays.  Mr Wyeth, in particular, has worked tirelessly for school throughout our summer break.

Parents/Carers

As parents/carers you need to know about the year ahead.  This newsletter will give you general information and you will be receiving your year group letters over the next two weeks which will provide information specific to your child’s year group.

Recent Staff Training Days

I do like to let you know what we get up to on our closure days.  On Friday and Monday we met as staff to plan the year ahead, to learn more about social and emotional aspects of learning and to find out more about new approaches to learning. 

On Monday the staff of New Road, Park Lane and Coates Primaries all came to Alderman Jacobs School for a morning of lectures and then afternoon workshops.  Everyone felt that they had taken on much new knowledge and had greater understanding of the learning process.  This will be reflected in our teaching.

Our Building

A fairly quiet summer but you will notice the newly resurfaced quiet areas at the front of our school.  We will be providing additional seating in these areas for our children.  Do have a look at the

climbing area on the Year 1/2 playground.  Our children can now scale the cliffs!!

New Staff

We welcome Mrs Nicola Parker our new Assistant Headteacher.  Mrs Parker has previously taught in London schools where her good work had been acknowledged during her school’s OFSTED inspection.  Mrs Parker will work closely with Mrs Challinor and myself as part of our

Leadership Team.  We also welcome Miss Day to Class 8, Mr Pattison to Class 15 and Miss Dolan to Class 16 and hope they enjoy their work at Alderman Jacobs School.  We also welcome Mrs Green our new cleaner.

Contact with School

Your child’s classteacher will be your first point of contact should you have a query, a worry or a complaint.  If any  matters need to be taken further then please refer it to Mrs Bains (Early Years), Mrs Baker (Year 1/2), Miss King (Year 3/4) and Mr Goakes (Year 5/6) who will try to help you.  Should the issue need further resolution please arrange to see Mrs Parker or Mrs Challinor.  Any outstanding concern should be addressed to myself.  A full copy of our Complaints Policy is available from our office. We do encourage parents to have close contact with your child’s school.  Teachers can sometimes have a quick informal word at the beginning of the day as the children settle into the classroom or after school has finished.  For a longer talk we request that parents/carers make an appointment to see the teacher. 

Appointments can be booked through our school office.  Please be aware that once a teacher has pupils in the classroom he/she must give them their full attention.

There will be an informal open session on Thursday 7 September  at 3.15 pm so that parents can come in, see the new classroom and ask the new teacher any questions.  Our formal Parental Consultation Evenings will be held later this term.

Dates for this Term

Thurs 7 Sep ~ Come and meet the teacher 3.20pm—3.45pm.

 Mon 18 Sep 7pm~ PTFA Social.  All Parents welcome particularly new parents

Fri 22 Sep ~ Sponsored Walk (Reserve date 29th 

September)  KS1/KS2 1.30pm and Early Years 1.45pm

Mon 2 Oct ~ School Photographs

Tues 3 Oct ~ School Photographs

Wed 11 Oct ~ Harvest Festival (Class 9 Parents only) 9.10am

Thurs 12 Oct ~ Parents’ Consultation Evening 3.30—6.00pm

Tues 17 Oct ~ Parents’ Consultation Evening 6.00pm—8.30pm

HALF TERM 23 –27 OCTOBER

Thurs 2nd Nov ~ School Nurse Parents’ Drop in 9.15am—11.00am

Wed 15 Nov ~ Bookfair in Small Hall begins before and after school

Tues 28 Nov ~ Christmas Display. Volunteers please to Mrs Jackson

Wed 6 Dec ~ Early Years Nativity 2pm. Parents/Relatives welcome

Tues 12 Dec ~ (Provisional) Christingle 2pm St Marys Church. All welcome

Thurs 14 Dec ~ KS2 Christmas Service 1.45pm St Marys Church. All welcome

Fri 15 Dec ~ (Provisional) Christmas Lunch

Fri 15 Dec ~ Early Years and KS1 Party. Afternoon

Monday 18 Dec ~ Lower KS2 Party. Afternoon

Tues 19 Dec ~ Upper KS2 Party. Afternoon

Term Ends 19 December 2006

Spring Term begins 4 January 2007

Assemblies Dates

11 October 2006 ~ Class 9

18 October 2006 ~ Class 15

8 November 2006 ~Class 11

15 November 2006 ~ Class 5

22 November 2006 ~ Class 10

Kidzone

Kidzone operates from 7.30 in the morning until 6.00 in the evening providing an excellent childcare service.  For further information contact (01733 206880) Kidzone is also open in the school holidays.

Teaching Staff 2006/2007

Class 1 Mrs Combes

Class 2 Mrs Bains Early Years Leader

Class 3 Mrs Brown until October and then Mrs Brown/Mrs Hatfield

Class 4 Mrs Smith

Class 5 Mrs Jackson

Class 6 Mrs Hooke

Class 7 Mrs Gipson

Class 8 Miss Day

Class 9 Mrs Baker Key Stage 1 Leader (Year 1/2)

Class 10 Mrs Forrest/Mrs Jackson

Class 11 Mrs Barber

Class 12 Miss King Lower Key Stage 2 Team Leader (Year 3/4)

Class 13 Mrs Dakin

Class 14 Mrs Vardon until October and then Mrs Vardon/Mrs Willatt

Class 15 Mr Pattison

Class 16 Mr Colbran

Class 17 Miss Dolan

Class 18 Mrs Phillips

Class 19 Mrs Rouse

Class 20 Mrs Henson

Class 21 Mr Goakes Upper Key Stage 2 Team Leader (Year 5/6)

Mrs Parker will work closely with Miss King to lead Lower Key Stage 2 and Mrs Challinor will work with Mr Goakes to lead Upper Key Stage 2. 

Awards

We present weekly Achievement Certificates to pupils from

Year 1—Year 6 to celebrate 20 merit points for good work and good behaviour.  During the Year I also present a large number of certificates for academic, sporting and musical achievements.  At the end of term I was particularly pleased to present school trophies for outstanding musical achievement to Jacob, for sporting achievement to Megan & Emma and academic improvement to Tamara.  Well done.

Reports and Parental Contact

Thanks to all parents who returned their parental comments slips.  I do ask teachers to pass these to me as I want your feedback.  Whenever you have a concern I do ask the teacher or Key Stage Manager to address it.  This may mean contacting you specifically so please don’t worry if you are contacted.  

Office Hours 8.30am ~ 4.00pm

Please note the office opens at 8.30am and shuts at 4.00pm.  Answerphone is on before and after these times and Mrs Sutton will pick up your messages and attend to them.  Mrs Wright will be your point of contact for attendance and meals.  Miss Lefevre will deal with uniform orders and the purchase of book bags, drinks bottles etc.

Security

We ask that all visitors parents included, report to our school office.  This is extremely important. 

Parents should not come into our playgrounds during breaks or lunchtimes.  If you do it is likely that a member of staff will see you as a ’stranger’ and call the police.  We cannot be too careful.

Supporting Parents

Last school year we ran a number of courses at school specifically for parents to gain qualifications eg resuscitation, first aid, adult literacy.  If we have enough parents wishing to gain an adult numeracy qualification equivalent to GCSE I will try to initiate a course held in school during the school day.  Please fill in the slip at the end of this newsletter if interested and return to the school office.  This course can be open to relatives and friends of our families.

Thank you from Mrs Richards

Thank you to everyone for all the lovely gifts and good wishes on my retirement.  A special thanks to the children and parents of my class for their wonderful surprises.  ’AJ’ the bear will be back to visit them and later in the term there will be a  postcard from Vienna.  Mrs Richards

Food and Drink in School

All children are encouraged to have a water bottle accessible at all times.  Bottles £1.00 at our office.  ONLY WATER IN BOTTLES PLEASE.  All pupils also have access to drinking fountains.  Bottles can be re-filled during the day.  Water is available for school lunches and frequently those having a school meal are able to choose fruit juice—no added sugar.  No fizzy drinks at any time are allowed in school and no cans or glass bottles.

We are a nationally recognised Health Promoting School and as such we teach our children about healthy lifestyles—emotional well-being, a healthy body and the importance of exercise.  Please do not send sweets to school with your children and there is no need for crisp type snacks.  We encourage fruit and vegetables at breaktime. 

Pupils in Early Years, Year 1 and 2 benefit from the “Fruit/Vegetables For Schools” scheme and are provided with a healthy snack at breaktime.  Older children can bring their own snack and are awarded points for our Healthy Eating Breaktime Snack Competition if they bring a healthy snack.

School meals have never been more nutritionally sound; our contractor must adhere to national standards.  Mrs Clifford and her team provide a wide choice every day plus the addition of a range of salad and freshly made bread.

Please encourage your child to bring a healthy lunchbox if you do not wish to have a school lunch.  Some lunchboxes are not anywhere near healthy and are full of expensive processed food and chocolate snacks.  In school we spread the healthy eating message and will support parents in their quest to help children take care of what they eat.

School Meal Charges

Please be aware that from Monday 4th September school lunches will now cost £1.75 per day £8.75 per week.  PLEASE MAKE ALL CHEQUES PAYABLE TO CAMBS COUNTY COUNCIL OR CCC WITH YOUR CHILD’S NAME AND CLASS ON THE REVERSE.

Exciting News ~ New Homework Club

There will be an opportunity this year for Key Stage 2 children and their parents (if they wish) to take advantage of the school ICT suite in an after school club.  The club will be called “Brainstretchers” and will run on Tuesday and Thursday evening from 3.30pm until 4.30pm.  Children can attend as many of these as they wish.  They will need to bring home a slip for parents to sign for the appropriate night and have it with them when they arrive at the club.  Place will be limited by the number of slips available for pupils to take home.  Slips can be collected from the ICT suite.  The club will begin  on 12 September 2006.  We look forward to encouraging pupils along with their parents into the ICT suite.

Mrs H Challinor

Thank you message

Thank you to all the staff, pupils, parents and governors for presents, cars and best wishes on my retirement.

I have many happy memories of my teaching career at Alderman Jacobs School.  Many Thanks Alison Shepperson

Charities

A feature of life at Alderman Jacobs School is our excellent record of our children and staff being involved in fundraising for those less fortunate than ourselves. 

Children are encouraged to think about care for others and to help by raising funds.  We support Children in Need, Comic Relief and a variety of charities chosen by each class annually.  We also reflect each year on Remembrance Day, support Redwings Horse and Donkey Sanctuary and staff frequently raise money themselves by arranging coffee mornings and participation in Race for Life.  Our local community is excellent in giving generously and I am sure this will continue. 

Some Reminders of our Policies

Absences ~ Please telephone our office on the first day of absence and follow-up with a brief note to the teacher on return.

Sickness ~ Please keep children away from school for at least 24 hours after the last bout of sickness or diarrhoea.  This helps prevent the spread of tummy bugs to other children and staff.

Jewellery ~ Please remember that children need to take off all jewellery, including earrings, for PE.  This is a county guideline that is there for the health and safety of all children.  Please can you also ensure that, if your child has pierced ears, only studs should be worn for school.  This is, again for his or her safety.

Trainers ~ Please keep for physical activities  only.

Bicycles ~ School cannot accept responsibility for bicycles left in the bike sheds.  Bicycles should be locked.  Please only allow road competent pupils to cycle to school.

Dogs ~ Please do not bring dogs onto our playground as even the calmest animals can react when surrounded by children. 

Smoking ~ Please do not smoke anywhere in our grounds.

Car Parks ~ Only for staff use and for parents bringing disabled pupils to school. Please do not walk across the car park at any time.

Medicines ~ We give medicines voluntarily.  It is not a legal requirement that any member of staff gives medicines to pupils.  If your child requires prescription medicine to be given please send it in with a letter to Mrs Lynne Wright in our office or call in and see her.  We do not give medicines which state 3 times daily. These can be given before school, after school and at bedtime.  Please note we have no medical fridge for storage of medicines. If your child has a long term medical condition such as asthma please ensure we are aware and that you have discussed school policy with Mrs Wright or your child’s teacher.  All medical information does need to be recorded on your child’s file so that we can ensure all staff are aware should any concern arise.

Staff receive training from our school nurse as and when appropriate but parents must make us aware of any condition which may need dealing with.

Sponsored Walk

This is our annual big fund raiser for school.  From the money raised we can purchase items such as cookery ingredients, computers, library books, textiles, playground equipment etc.  Come and join us and walk with the children on the afternoon of September 22nd.  All of our children usually participate in our walk but, if for any reason you do not wish your child to participate please contact your child’s teacher.  All friends and relatives welcome.

Early Years ~ 1.45pm KS 1  ~ 1.30pm KS 2 ~ 1.30pm

Key Stage 2 will walk around the locality of the school as in previous years.  All younger pupils will walk around our field and that of SHSCC.