St Luke's C of E Primary School, Glossop

St Luke’s Newsletter

22.6.17

Dear All,

What a hot week it has been! Many congratulations to the children who were part of the PEGS concert on Monday.  It was incredibly hot in the New Mills Art Theatre but the children performed really well and all received much praise from the other schools.  It is supposed to be cooling down now.

Thank you so much to everyone involved in the Family Fun Afternoon, organisers, helpers and supporters. A good time was had by all.

A huge thank you also goes out to everyone for the cup cake for dementia Mrs Howe has counted up the donations and we raised a fantastic £185. Well done everyone.

This afternoon the children are all going to a concert organised by Glossop Festival in which some of our children will be playing. We are so lucky to have high quality live music available to us.

Tomorrow, Friday 23^rd, The Eagles will be leading our Assembly, on the 30^th it will be Osprey’s turn.  Do join us if you can.

Friday 30^th June is a non-uniform day.  For the privilege of coming in sensible own clothes the children are asked to bring in a bottle which will be used at The Christmas fair.  It can be a bottle of anything; shampoo, ketchup, pop, wine, beer, bubble bath, the list is endless.

Our Summer concert is fast approaching, it is on Tuesday 4^th July at 7pm.  This is an opportunity for any child who plays an instrument to perform.  I know the music teachers who teach in school are preparing their children.  It is also an opportunity for you to hear the choir.  If your child would like to perform encourage them to speak to Mrs Hillier.

The Library has contacted me to ask me to tell you about the Summer Reading Challenge. This year the theme is Animal Agents.  This is a great way to keep your child reading over the summer.  For more information pop into the library.

I understand there has been some chat and confusion on Facebook about purple polo shirts. The purple polo shirts some of you saw on Monday are the Arts uniform shirts.  School Uniform from September will be white polo shirts as these are readily available.

School run after school clubs will finish next Friday 30^th June as we have a lot of other things on such as the summer concert and the Y5/6 production.

The Local Authority have asked me to give you the following information about term time holidays.

In September 2013 the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 came into force. These regulations make it clear that Headteachers should not grant approval for any leave of absence during term-time, including holidays, unless there are exceptional circumstances. These regulations also state that holidays cannot be authorised retrospectively.

Any requests should be on an official school absence request form and handed into the school office for consideration prior to any holiday/leave arrangements being made.

You may be issued with a Penalty Notice should leave be taken which is not authorised. If unpaid this could lead to prosecution under section 444(1) of The Education Act 1996.

Alice Littlehailes

St Luke’s Newsletter

15.6.17

Dear All,

Firstly, welcome to all the parents of children starting in September. This is the first of our weekly newsletters you will be receiving. We are so glad you are part of the St Luke’s family.

I am writing this a little bleary eyed having got back late from an amazing trip to London with our High Peak Kids Council representatives, so please forgive any mistakes. The trip was to see The Houses of Parliament in action and boy did we hit the jackpot. Our tour was just as all the ceremony surrounding the MPs swearing allegiance was happening.  John Bercow nodded at us and we can be seen on the BBC coverage being waved at by Teresa May and Jeremy Corbin.  Our new MP Ruth George met us.  We also saw the changing of the guards at Horse Guards Parade, popped into the National Gallery to see some of the pictures we had studied in take one picture weeks, had a good walk round central London, went on a London bus and on a tube. Phew!

This came just a day after a wonderfully musical day at which our children covered themselves in glory. In the morning the Year 4s played with The Halle Orchestra and in the afternoon The Choir sang to an audience including representatives from the Halle choir and the Music service in Derbyshire and Stockport.  Following both events lots of people told me how impressed they were with our children and the level of their musicianship.  The Choir’s next concert is on Monday afternoon as part of the PEGS concert when we are all getting together and sharing our music.  The children should be back for the end of the school day.

Thank you so much to Nicola Davies for organising the Dog Safety talks I think we all learned a lot. We are continuing on the safety theme today with a talk on being safe near water given by Glossop pool.

It is nearly here, just one more sleep until the Family Fun Day! Please do stay after school tomorrow for the PTA summer extravaganza. It should be a lot of fun and raise money for the PTA funds which are used to support school.

Remember it is the next bags 2 school textile collection on Tuesday 20^th

Year 5 are leading our assembly on Friday 23^rd June.  Please join us if you can.

I have been asked about activities organised by school for our Year 6 Leavers. As ever we are going to make a good fuss of them.  On Friday 21^st they will lead our assembly and use this to say goodbye to the school community, we will have a special leavers lunch all together and then we have booked a meal out early evening on that Friday so they can finish on a high.

Alice Littlehailes

St Luke’s Newsletter

8.6.17

Dear All,

I hope you all had a lovely holiday.

I am sorry I had to cancel sports day but the weather was against us. I left the decision as late as I could as the forecast was changing all the time, mainly for the worse!  Judging by the damp this morning the decision was the right one phew!  I would have felt dreadful if we had woken up to a lovely day.

Hopefully the weather will brighten up for the boy’s cricket tomorrow and the girl’s on Monday.

Tuesday is our fabulous musical day with the Year 4s playing with The Halle in the morning and the choir singing in a concert in Manchester in the afternoon. They will all need packed lunches.  If you haven’t returned your letter for this yet please do so ASAP.

On Friday 16^th Year 5 are going to visit St Philip Howard School, lunch will be provided by the school.

Friday 16^th is also the PTA family fun event including scoot and skate immediately after school 3.30-5.30.  Lots of exciting things are planned so please do come along.

On Thursday 15^th we are having a cup cake fundraiser for Dementia Day.  The very lovely Mrs Howe is going to bake cupcakes for the children to decorate and eat for a donation.

The next bag 2 school collection is coming up on Tuesday 20^th June so bags should be coming home today for you to fill with unwanted textiles.  We really appreciate your donations as each collection raises a few hundred pounds for school funds.

Alice Littlehailes

Dear All,
I am so proud of the children and staff here who have had sensible discussions about the events in Manchester. We did have families at the concert but they are all safe. It was great to see them back in school the next day getting on with life as normal and using the school community to support them. We must all remember that the people carrying out such terrorist attacks do not represent any religion or community and only they are to blame. The Muslim community in Manchester is as upset by what happened as any other community and also needs our support.
After the fantastic Take one Picture week last week we are having science week this week. All I can say is Wow! and a huge “thank you” to all the scientists from Manchester University who have come in and shared some of their work with the children. As well as the working scientists, we had a planetarium yesterday, today we have a biologist who is bringing some animals in, and tomorrow to finish the week in style we have Adrian Bowden with his travelling science show.
The Year 4s should have had a letter about continuing to learn an instrument next year after their whole class teaching finishes. It is an opportunity to learn an instrument at a much subsidised rate. I would urge as many people as possible to take up this offer. Please return the letter as soon as possible.
The Year 4s will be playing with The Halle Orchestra and lots of other schools at the Bridgewater Hall on Tuesday 13th June (choir parents do not worry they are able to do both the morning with the orchestra and the afternoon with the choir). I have just found out there may be some tickets available for parents at a cost of £7. If you would like a ticket please let me know this week, send in the money and I will try and get them for you.
The PTA Easter raffle raised an amazing £1,109.58. Well done and thank you to everyone who helped organise, sold tickets, baked or ate cake.
The local speech and language team is launching a new project called Talking Together and their first campaign is around mobile phones. All they are asking us to do is to put away our phones when we pick children up from school so we can greet them and talk about their day with no distractions. I am sure we can all do this.
We have had to change the date and time of Sports day because the cricket tournament now clashes. Sports day will now be Thursday 8th June in the morning. Children can come to school dressed in their PE kit and bring their uniforms to change into. We will aim to start as soon as we can, definitely by 9.30.
The show ‘Eat well for less’ is looking for families to take part; if you are interested in finding out more, the contact details are
Get in touch to apply or find out more!
0117 970 7661 or e-mail: eatwell@rdftelevision.com

We finish for half term on Friday and return to school on Thursday 8th June. I hope you all have a lovely break.
Alice Littlehailes