Dates this term

Here are some important dates:
Parents’ Evening – Tuesday 20th October 2009 2.30 – 6.00pm
Training Day – Friday 23rd October 2009
HALF TERM – 26th – 30th October 2009

School Meals

The governors and I have decided to raise the cost of a school meal from £1.75 to £1.85 from
2nd November 2009, straight after this half term break.
This makes us more in-line with other local schools (St Bernadetts - £1.90, Ryefield - £1.90, Hillingdon Primary - £1.85, Oak Farm - £1.90)

Children’s roles in the school

School Council – Minhajul and Vanessa have already organised interviews for new cashiers this week.
Dining Hall Committee – the first meeting will be on Wednesday 21st October with Lyn and a dinner lady.
Road Safety Officers – they are giving out the Walk to School badges and preparing an assembly on safety on the pavements and roads around the school.
School Safety Officers – they walked around the school last week and noted a few maintenance issues. Mr Dixon has completed their list
Community Officers – Keith and Mursal have already held their first meeting and they are going to find out which are the 3 most frequently spoken languages, apart from English, in the school community. The children are also going to decide which charities we support this year.

Managed Learning Environment (MLE)

All schools are being asked to create a ‘virtual’ building of their school online, in order for the children and parents to access more information from home.
At this time we are simply creating the ‘rooms’ and training our staff on uploading the information into their classrooms. It is hoped that we shall be able to involve the children in the New Year and then roll it out to parents in the summer term.
In advance of this plan we are trying to secure some funding to be able to offer ICT classes for parents to gain more understanding of the internet and how to access files and folders.

Counting

The children learn how to count, add, subtract, multiply and divide using equipment eg counters and cubes. We would like to collect other everyday items, for example, buttons or beads or acorns…….
Please bring all items to the school office. We appreciate your support – thank you.

Conferencing with children

This year we are part of a City Challenge project, which supports teachers in improving the children’s reading and writing skills. Each teacher is released monthly to talk to every member of their class about their targets and next steps to improve their skills. We are releasing two teachers each week and so every child has already had one conference with their teacher this year.
Please ask your child about their targets in English.

Entrance hall display

Heather Butler, our friendly author, visited Highfield on Wednesday and she supported the children in writing poetry using numbers! The results will shortly be displayed in the entrance hall.
Please come in and see their work and the new photos of the children.

Punctuality

Last week our Chair of Governors stood at the gate one morning to conduct a ‘late’ survey. He was keen to see how many children are entering the site after 8.50am ie late.
The results of his survey showed that 10% of our children were late that morning – disappointing.
Please try to get your children to school early every day so that they start the morning calm and ready to work.

Data Collection Sheet

Thank you to those who have returned their sheets already, with important corrections to emergency contact numbers. Mrs Collins tells me that there are only a few outstanding from each class and she would appreciate their return as soon as possible.

Parent Council

We held the first meeting on Tuesday and I would like to say thank you to those parents for their ideas and views. The plans for the new school were discussed and they are now on display on the outside noticeboard.
The parents asked a lot of questions and they can now describe the situation to others.

Mrs J Ellis
Headteacher