St Oswald’s C of E Aided Primary and Nursery School Newsletter - Spring Term 2017 A Happy New Year to You All!

Happy New Year I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We welcome the new children who recently commenced Nursery and Sunshine Club. I hope the new families will enjoy being part of our whole school family.

Welcome to Mrs Ribchester We are delighted to welcome Mrs Ribchester to Neville Class and our school and hope her association with the school is a long and happy one. Please do not hesitate to contact her if you have any concerns about your children who are in Neville Class.

Goodbye to Mrs Cantwell Thank you for the comments on Facebook regarding Mrs Cantwell. She will obviously be a big miss to us all, however, we hope to see her back in school very soon carrying out intervention work.

Student helpers We have numerous students who help out in school on a weekly basis. These students are mainly from Durham University and are proving to be a welcome addition to our support network. The following classes have a regular student who is in school on placement. Their names are:

Nursery –Sonia Sim – Tuesday Pm, Catriona Sellick – Wednesday am Elvet – Aigerum Muratova Monday am, Lara Kemmler Monday pm, Christopher Glover Tuesday pm, Mrs Edwards Tuesday all day, Melissa Keyworth Wednesday am & pm , Kylie King Friday pm. Miss Lanham our School Initial Teacher Training student who was in Dunelm last term , will join the class after half term. Dunelm – Elspeth Summerfield Monday am, Leidi Lee Monday pm, Hollie Freeman Tuesday am, Shannon Dexter Tuesday pm, Charlie Jones Wednesday am, Harriet Roberts Wednesday pm, Eloise Cooper Thursday am Kingsgate – Mrs Henniker-Major (Tuesday am), Harriet Parratt Tuesday pm, Laura Marsden Wednesday pm, Emily Wooten Wednesday am, Neville – Frances Keenan Monday am & pm, Harriot Parratt Tuesday pm, Anna Kyprianou Wednesday pm, Abbie Corbyn Wednesday, Thursday am & pm, Sophia Estella Friday am.

The Friends Thank you to all of the families who either attended or donated items for the school fair. The total amount raised was £868.22. The friends regularly receive cheques for between £80 and £100 from Easy fundraising, which is a method of purchasing items from major retailers via their website, by electing that the funds go to St Oswald’s School. Further details are available from the Friends and on the Friends Facebook site. We are extremely grateful to the Friends for all of their fundraising and the support they give the School. Friends Appeal for Committee Members - If any parent would like to become a member of the Friends committee and take on an area of responsibility we will be extremely grateful. Even if you can only give us a small amount of occasional help and can’t attend the regular committee meetings, your help will still be valuable. You can also keep up to date with the Friends and our school community on our Facebook page which can be accessed on Facebook by searching for Friends of St Oswald’s. Clubs in Term 2 Cookery and Gardening Y1, Y2 After half term French Club R, Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5 Tuesday 3.20 - 4.20pm Magical maths R, Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5 Wednesday 3.15 – 4.15pm Gymnastics R, Y1, Y2 Friday 3.15 - 4.15 for 1st half term Gymnastics Y3/4/5 Thursday 3.15 – 4.15 for 1st half term Chess Y3/4/5 Monday 3.15 – 4.10pm Further details will follow about sports clubs in the second half of the term.

Parent/Teacher Meetings There will be parent/teacher meetings held for each class, where parents can have an appointment with the class teacher to discuss their child’s work. The appointment times will be arranged at a later date, but the dates are as follows:

Nursery – Mrs Kirkup Tuesday 21st March Nursery – Mrs Stanley Friday 17th March Elvet – Miss Preece Thursday 16th March Dunelm – Ms Wilson Tuesday 14th March Kingsgate – Mr Handy Wednesday 15th March Neville – Mrs Ribchester Monday 20th March

Kingsgate Class Assembly On Tuesday 28th March parents of children in Kingsgate Class are invited to join our assembly at 9am. After the assembly they will be invited into the classroom to look at the children’s work until 10am.

Elvet Class Assembly On Wednesday 8th February parents of Elvet Class children are invited to join our assembly. After the assembly they will be invited into the classroom to look at the children’s work until 10am.

World Book Day / Zambia Fun run World Book Day is on March 2nd .Children are encouraged to come to school dressed as a story/book character. They may also bring in a book featuring that character. The Zambia Fun run is on the same day in the afternoon, so children will need to get changed into their sports clothing at lunchtime. The fun run does not include reception or nursery children, who will remain in school that afternoon.

Easter arrangements A decorated Easter egg competition will be held on Monday 3rd April and will be judged in the afternoon. Small prizes will be awarded when they are judged that afternoon. Please collect your Easter egg from the hall after School/Nursery on Tuesday 4th April. We will conduct our Easter bonnet parade on Wednesday 5th April. Small prizes will be allocated for the best hat in each class.

Easter Service The Easter Service will take place in St Oswald’s Church on Thursday 6th April at 9.15am. Please join us for this service. Nursery will also be attending this service. Sunshine Club St Oswald’s Sunshine Club will run a holiday club during half term from Monday 20th February – Friday 24th February 8.00 am – 6.00 pm. The Easter Holiday Club will be open on Monday 10th to Thursday 13th April and Tuesday 18th – Friday 21st April from 8 am - 6 pm. The club will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday. Parents can get an application form from the website or contact Sunshine Club at [email protected] or by telephoning 0191 3868322.

Charitable Contributions Christingle candles raised £272.11 for the Children’s Society. We are still waiting to find out how much money was raised from the sale of the Christmas Friends in aid of St Cuthbert’s Hospice. Thank you for your kind generosity.

Authority to collect / Emergency contact Could we remind all parents to inform the school if their child is going home with anyone not previously authorised. Please keep the authority to collect list held by the school up to date. Can I also ask that you update school if you change your telephone number or email address. Last term we had a few incidences of not being able to contact parents or nominated people on the emergency contact list. It is vital that we are able to contact you if your child becomes ill or has an accident in school, so we urge you to make sure your phone is contactable at all times. If we are unable to contact you we will also send you a text and an email.

Clothing Could I urge all parents to name all clothing, shoes including hats, scarves, gloves etc. We once again have a huge selection of unnamed items of clothing which have been in school for over a term. Please also return clothes loaned by school promptly, especially underwear which we are running short of. Sunshine Club parents are asked to ensure that their children remove belongings from the cloakroom pegs. We regularly find PE bags and wet swimwear that has been left.

PE Kits Please ensure that children have NAMED PE kits in school every day. The timetable for PE is not fixed and children may have the opportunity to do PE on a variety of days, so please make sure the children have their full kit in preparation for this.

School uniform reminder (Uniform policy)  We will require all of our children to wear the stipulated school uniform of a blue sweat shirt or cardigan, white polo shirt, grey trousers, grey skirts or pinafore dresses and the option of blue and white checked summer dresses or grey shorts for the warmer weather. Girls tights should be limited to blue, black or grey.  We also request that suitable school black, brown or navy shoes are worn which do not include trainers or lace up high top boots. In winter if boots are required due to the cold weather, we request that they are plain zip up or slip on boots. Trainer type shoes can continue to be worn during PE sessions along with black plimsolls. A number of children do wear Dr Martin type lace up boots which we accept are hard wearing , however, because of the nature of these boots they can cause problems with laces constantly trailing on the ground and also they can sustain an injury during playtime games. They also take a long time to put on and off when getting changed for PE. In view of this we ask that as from September 2017 these shoes are not worn in school. You will find that most of the secondary schools also do not allow these type of shoes to be worn on their premises.  For P.E. children will continue to wear the stipulated PE kit, including a coloured t-shirt. If specific footwear or equipment is required children will be specifically asked to bring this. Jogging bottoms should be worn for outside PE lessons when the weather is cooler.  Jewellery such as earrings must not be worn in school as they pose a Health & Safety risk if worn during playtime or during PE. If a child is unable to remove their earrings, they must be taped over on a daily basis. If your child arrives at school in inappropriate uniform on a regular basis, they will be given a letter to remind you of our uniform policy. We will not speak to the children individually about their uniform, in order to avoid them feeling embarrassed or victimised.

Mobile Devices such as phones Although this has not been a problem due to the age of the children, in order to pre-empt a future problem, we ask that our children do not bring any such devices into School. This is due to the fact that we can’t control the content of such devices which in turn can have safeguarding implications.

Birthday treats Please can I ask you to refrain from sending cakes into school as part of birthday celebrations. This is due to the dietary restrictions for some of our children. If you want to send in birthday treats, please send in sealed bags of sweets which clearly state what the dietary contents are. These will be sent home and parents can then decide if their child is able to have the sweets. We never share sweets in school or allow the children to consume them on the premises. This helps us to avoid introducing life threatening food to any child with food allergies. Key Stage 2 Snack In light of healthy School recommendations please can you ensure that the daily snack which is brought into School for our junior children (Kingsgate & Neville Classes) is a piece of fresh fruit or vegetable and not any form of processed food such as a breakfast bars or fruit winders.

Payment for clubs / Parent Pay It is vital that when reserving a place for a School club/trip via Parentmail, that payment is made at the same time via Parentpay. In doing so office administration time will be saved. Please ensure that reservations for all clubs and trips are made before the closing date as late applications can no longer be accepted. Weekly newsletters As you know we send out a weekly newsletter on a Friday and text messages for anything urgent. We would appreciate it if you could ensure these newsletters are read. If you are not receiving the newsletters or know someone who is not receiving it, due to the fact that you may have changed your email address, please let Mrs Clift know as soon as possible, so we can ensure your current email address is activated. It is also important that you ensure the newsletters are not going into your junk email and our address is accepted into your inbox as a safe sender. Those parents who require a paper copy of the newsletter need to look for this arriving in your child’s book bag, usually on a Friday.

Sunshine Club newsletters I am delighted to advise you that soon Sunshine Club parents will be added to parent mail and will subsequently receive newsletters and texts etc. We are currently waiting for an up to date list of email addresses etc. and these will be added to the system. Hopefully this will address the problem of some Sunshine Club parents not receiving important correspondence and will also enable us to get in touch with you urgently if we need to. Thank you Mrs. Harrison Diary Dates Term 2

Dates Time Event January Term 2A 3rd 9.00 School Re opens after Christmas Holidays 5th 3.15-4.15pm Gymnastics club KS2 6th 3.15-4.15pm Gymnastics Club KS1 9th Chess club commences 10th 3.20 – 4.20pm French club commences 11th Key Stage 2 Swimming Gala 11th Magical maths club commences 26th Destination Judo in school for all classes February 8th 9.00 Elvet class assembly 15th Y3 / 4 Gymnastics carousel Louisa Centre inclusive from 8 am - 6 pm 16th Year 2 Gymnastics carousel Louisa centre 16th 3.15-4.15pm Last Gymnastics Club 17th 3.15-4.15pm Last Gymnastics Club 17th Last day before the holiday 20th Half Term holiday 20th Sunshine holiday club open –Monday – Friday 8.00 am – 6.00 pm Term 2 B 27th 9.00am School opens after Half Term 27th 3.15-4.30pm Cookery and Gardening Club commence 28th Head teacher interviews March 1st 8.30 -2.30 pm Tempest class photographs 2nd World book day – dress as a character from a book 2nd 12.30-3.00pm Zambia Fun Run [Year 1 -4] 3rd Lenten service To be confirmed 7th 10.30 Elvet Class Singing at the Institute 9th 4.00 pm Full Governing Body meeting 10th Year 4 Trophy Football – Meadowfield 14th Dunelm - Ms Wilson’s ( parent appointments) 15th Kingsgate – Mr Handy ( parent appointments) 16th TBC Elvet –Ms Preece [parent appointments] 16th Dance festival – Kingsgate Class 17th TBC Nursery- Mrs Stanley[Parent Appointments] 17th KS2 Cross country Finals- Parkside Willington 20th Neville-Mrs Ribchester [Parent Appointments] 21st TBC Nursery- Mrs Kirkup [Parent Appointments] 21st Infant agility – Durham Johnston’s –Reception group 22nd Y3/4 Multi – Sports Festival Meadowfield 28th 9.00am Kingsgate Class assembly 29th KS1 Basketball festival Maiden Castle 31st Go ride festival KS2 team to be arranged 31st Y3 Football trophy - Meadowfield April 3rd Mixed cup shield – Meadowfield – Year 5 team 3rd Easter egg competition 4th KS1 Outdoor Adventurous activities – Year 1 /2 Maiden Castle 5th Easter bonnet parade 6th 9.15am Church service 7th Last day before Easter holiday 10th – 23 Easter holiday – Sunshine Club open other than bank holidays