St Luke's C of E Primary School, Glossop

St Luke’s CE Primary School Newsletter

17.6.2021

Dear Parents,

Well it has been a week! Thank you all for your engagement with the Ofsted process. Your feedback and comments both positive and negative will help us continue to try to give the children the best education possible. Your children were stars. Mr Wilkinson commented that they were very well behaved and engaged in their learning, he also commented on how respectful they were towards adults and each other. We won’t know the final grading for several weeks but I am pleased with the feedback we have been given so far.

We have taken part in The Great Science Share this week. It has been great to see the huge range of Science going on in school and hear how articulately the children can talk about what they have learnt. There has been work on the effect of exercise on the body, space, how waterproof different materials are, rocks and soil, the digestive system, sorting and classifying animals, the effect of mixing different liquids.

The weather has been lovely and I have been pleased to see the number of children who have had sun cream on and brought hats. If your child needs a top up of sun cream at lunch time, please can you teach them how to put it on and send it in in a named bottle. When it gets hot jumpers get taken off, please, please, please can you make sure your child’s name is in their jumper so we can try to reunite jumper and child.

Thank you to everyone who has sent back in their smarties tube already. If you still have it at home, please can you send it in as soon as possible so the PTA can count all the coins. I don’t envy Tim that job!

I know it feels as if we have just had a bag 2 school day, because it was delayed, but the next one is on July 7^th so do start collecting your textiles.

If you haven’t booked your parents evening appointment yet, please do so. Remember booking is online this year.

I received an email about an online story event which looks interesting, the details are below:

Stay happy and healthy

Alice Littlehailes

St Luke’s CE Primary School Newsletter

27.5.2021

Dear Parents,

I hope you have all been enjoying Travel Smart Week and have been able to make fewer, or shorter car journeys. I know the weather has not made it easy for us!

It was lovely to see the parents of the new children on Tuesday even if it was virtually. If you have any questions, please do contact us so we can try to answer them.

You should have received information about our new parent teacher meeting booking system. We received so many positive comments about how much easier it had been in the autumn to manage these meetings around family life the only slightly clunky thing was the method. We are trialling a new system where you are able to book your own meetings giving you more control. If you have problems do let us know and we will try to help, when I say we I of course mean Mrs Hukin and Mrs Evans. Not that I wouldn’t try to help just that I don’t know how much use I would be.

As we approach half term I again need to remind you that if your child shows symptoms of Corona Virus and tests positive with a PCR test we ask that you use the school text service to tell us. It is really important that any contacts are asked to isolate to reduce the possible spread. There won’t be anyone in the office over the holiday but we will monitor the texts. Thank you for this.

I have received the following message from the local Cubs leader:
“Cubs is for boys and girls age 8 to 10.5. Meetings have recently restarted at 3rd Glossop on Hope Street on Tuesday evenings. It is usually advisable to put your child’s name on the waiting list when they are 5 or 6 as there are normally not enough spaces for all who want to join. Due to Covid, there will, however, be spaces from September. If you’d like your child to join cubs, email: david.woodward@glossopdistrictscouts.org.uk”

I know it is a long time in a child’s life until September and we have 1/6 of the school year still ahead of us, but people are starting to ask about which teachers will be teaching which class next year. So here are our current plans, things of course can change. I would ask you not to make a big fuss of this information with your children as I don’t want them to feel that this year is over already – we still have lots to achieve.

Reception – Mrs Hillier

Year 1 – Miss Done

Year 2 – Mrs Eltringham

Year 3 – Mr Holt

Year 4 – Ms Noble

Year 5 – Mrs Clayton & Miss Ellwood

Year 6 – Miss Byron

We break up for half term tomorrow and the children return to school on Thursday 10^th June. I hope you all have a good break and the weather improves.

Stay happy and healthy

Alice Littlehailes

St Luke’s CE Primary School Newsletter

20.5.2021

Dear Parents,

I hope you all got the information about covid cases in Glossop yesterday. If you did not get the email let us know and we will re send it to you.

School continues to be a vibrant place with lots of children happily engaged in their learning. It is always a pleasure to walk round school and see so many children excited about what they are learning and eager to share it with me. I am particularly pleased to see that their learning is in all areas, their emotional understanding and ability to consider each other shines through.

The Year 6s are starting to do work around transition to secondary school. As well as the work we do in school Glossopdale are running a workshop today for them and St Philip Howard are running some online lessons for them over the next few weeks. Those children going to other schools not only get to take part in these things but will also get support from their schools.

Next week is Travel Smart Week this is a national event to try and reduce the car journeys to school. Unfortunately, we are all caught up in a cycle; as the roads get busier it feels less safe so we are tempted to drive, increasing the number of cars so making it feel less safe. We need to try to break this cycle. If everyone can try to walk, scoot or cycle to school or park further away and walk the last bit of your journey. Due to covid I am not going to encourage car sharing but in normal times I would be. Traditionally it rains during this week, it is like bank holidays the weather just knows! Despite this please try to do your bit next week you might well find you enjoy it.

Thank you to everyone who took on board what I said last week about lateness and tried to get to school on time the number of children coming in late was reduced.

Stay happy and healthy

Alice Littlehailes

Dear Parents,

Welcome to all our new parents who should be receiving this newsletter for the first time.

We have been having a very exciting week in school as it is one of our favourite events in the school calendar, I know I say that a lot what can I say I love lots of things, it is Take One Picture Week.  This is a week when all our work is inspired by a picture chosen by The National Gallery.  This year the picture is ‘The Finding of Moses’.  The learning is led by the children and we love seeing where they take us.  Some classes have become interested in the fabric and dyeing some in the basket and how to make it waterproof.  People have been doing drama imagining what the people are saying, classes have devised dances starting from the pose.  Some classes have become fascinated by the baby and wanted to learn more about babies.  There is costume making, puppet making, spinning, painting, drawing, writing, researching, maths and loads of other things.  The school is abuzz with creativity.  Yesterday I walked around school and there was one class experimenting with floating, one class recreating the scene, one class writing a piece of music inspired by the picture, one class testing natural dyes, one class designing beds for babies, one class talking to a Paediatrician about babies (and being doctors in scrubs with stethoscopes) and another making life size figures from the picture.

After all that excitement I have just a few reminders.  Please can you remember to put your child’s name in all their clothes.  It is very hard to return an unnamed item of clothing to the right child.  I have noticed people cutting across the carpark with their children rather than using the path.  The one-way system is set up so the children can enter and leave school via the path which is much safer than crossing the carpark, I really don’t want children to start viewing a carpark as a safe place to be.

The number of children arriving at school late is beginning to creep up please ensure your child is here on time every day.

A parent has very kindly let me know that on the other side of the tunnel under the railway there is lots of work being done on the factory.  She says the area is full of skips, equipment and people and is not as safe as it usually is.  If your child walks home without an adult, you might want to check it out and talk to your child about how to stay safe in a busy area like this.  It is lovely to see so many of the older children becoming more independent and learning how to walk at least part of the way to and from school on their own.  I know some parents drop off and meet their child a bit away from school to give them a little bit of independence. Some start by dropping them off at the gate and then gradually increase the distance when they are sure their child can do it safely.  Talking of walking it is going to be Travel Smart week in a couple of weeks, the old walk to school week, when everyone is encouraged to reduce the car journeys to school.  I will put out more information about this.

Stay happy and healthy

Alice Littlehailes