St. Lawrence C E Primary School - beautifully located on the bank of the River Thames

Newsletter November 2009

School Prospectus

All of you, at some stage, will have seen our school prospectus. It is now due for review, with the aim of having a new one printed by April 2010. Nick Matthews, parent and governor, has been supporting me on this task, and we would like to set up a small working party to design and produce the new edition.

Would you be interested in being on the working party? Do you have some skills that would be of use to us? Do you know a local printer that you could recommend? Do you have ideas on what our new prospectus should look like?

If your answer is ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, please talk to Nick Matthews or myself. We are meeting next on Wednesday 18 November at 9.30 am. If you would like to have some input into the new prospectus, we would be very pleased to hear from you.

School Meals Payments

A big thank you to all those paying online for their school meals and a gentle encouragement to those who haven’t tried to yet, to give it a go. Please see Mrs Bird in the office for advice. Alternatively, please send cash into school in a named envelope or a cheque payable to Gloucestershire County Council for a minimum of £10 (any credit is carried forward).

You will receive a form shortly detailing Christmas Lunch arrangements for pupils. Please return this promptly.

Harvest Festival

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Harvest Festival and the afternoon Harvest sale. All the children in the school took part in the service, and we really appreciated the number of parents who supported us. The Year 6 pupils made very noisy, persuasive salesmen and women, but their system worked! We were very pleased to be able to send £300 to the charity “Trees for Africa”. Thank you to you all.

There will be a few minor changes to the after school clubs this coming term (Term 2, Nov – Dec.) The stage will be put up in the hall in preparation for the Christmas productions, during the first week in December, so all clubs that take place in the hall will finish in the last week of November.

This term we have organised the band and choir to run at the same times, but this has not worked well. The band is led by three highly qualified, enthusiastic volunteer musicians who give the children a really good experience as they arrange music especially for their instruments and ability levels.

Next term the band will be preparing some music for Christmas to perform in the church and at “Lighting Up Lechlade”.

We are also proposing to ask the peripatetic teachers if they can practise the music through their lessons in school so that the children see the band being an extension of their lessons. If you pay extra to learn an instrument, it is also beneficial to play with other musicians, and the band gives children this opportunity. After Christmas they will be working towards a performance in April. If your child learns an instrument, please be active in your encouragement for them to join the band.

From the first week in November, the band will meet on Thursdays at 12.45 pm so that the children can have their lunch and then join the band like any other lunchtime activity.

Mrs Mathews would also like to set up a community band with children, teenagers and adults playing together. Would that appeal to you? It could be great fun! Watch this space for more news!

The choir is very successfully led by Mrs Debbie Mack and Mrs Tracy Treacher. They actually have too many children taking part, so it is hard to manage so many, but we did not want to exclude anyone! From November, the choir will run from 3.15 until 4.15 pm on a Monday. They too will be practising for Christmas and will be expected to sing at “Lighting Up Lechlade”. There is also the possibility of singing with other primary children in London in January, and so it is important that all children who take part in November continue after Christmas.

Maypole Dancing will stop for one term (Term 2), as the hall will be out of use for so many of the weeks. Mrs Gooding is keen to start again once the weather improves.

Board Games with Joanne Roberts will be stopping this week as so few children have been interested in joining. Joanne is our Schools Worker and she will still be involved with our school community and will lead a Winter Club one lunch time per week.

Book Week

A reminder that week commencing Monday 2 November is Book Week. There will be an author visit and a visit to Lechlade Library sometime during the week. Children are invited to dress up as a book character on Friday 6 November. No football kits should be worn, please. There will be a school book fair from Tuesday 3 to Friday 6 November from 3.15 to 3.45 pm. Please come along and buy some Christmas presents!

This year Children in Need will be on 20 November, and it will be the best Children in Need the school has ever had. School Council have already agreed to have a cake sale and a lot of games and this is just the start. We are still in discussion about what we will wear, what cool prizes can be won and the exciting games we will play. If you give money towards this charity you will be helping millions of children around the world. We want to make it a great day for everyone.

Chairman: Xander Golding and Secretary: Peter Jones.

Woodwind Tuition

There will be no woodwind tuition on Friday 6 November. Tuition will take place instead on the afternoon of Monday 2 November, so please send your child with his/her instrument on that day.

Appointments during school time

As you know, we discourage parents from taking pupils on holidays during school time. We would also very much appreciate if you could make routine dental and medical appointments outside school hours, if possible. It is usually possible to get a 6 monthly dental appointment outside school hours if you book it well in advance. Children miss so much learning when they are not in school, so please keep any absences to a minimum. Thank you.

School Uniform

We are very pleased that Mrs Sandy Swancott, mother of Alexander, Elliot and Max, has agreed to help with school uniform. Mrs Shirley Rice will be training her over the next few months, so you will all get to know her. We are very grateful to her for offering to help.

The next school uniform shop will be on the first Wednesday of the month, as usual, Wednesday 4 November. We have a lot a small adult polo shirts in stock, so we are offering them for the special price of £5.00 - a bargain if you can use that size.

Joanne Roberts, our Extended Schools Worker, will be running a workshop, ‘Light up the dark’, on Friday 30 October from 10.00 am to 12.30 pm at school. There will be craft activities, games and songs. The cost of the workshop is £1.50 per child, £3.50 per family. If you would like to reserve places for your children, please complete the form atttached to the newsletter and return it to Joanne Roberts, Church Office, Fairford Community Centre, Fairford by Friday 23 October. Joanne’s telephone number is 07881 903045, e mail: joanneesw@hotmail.co.uk.