7 Nov 2007 - Newsletter 9

7th November 2007

Dear Parents,

With the cold wind blowing through school on Monday it was clear to see that Winter is on its way. It can be very CHILLY outside and it sometimes amazes me that coats are not in school!! Can we please make sure suitable clothing for the weather is in school as we do go outside in MOST weathers as fresh air and exercise is very important. Another plea.....make sure things are labelled as the scarves, hats and gloves soon become unloved and sent to the great lost property box in the office....ahh!!!

This is going to take place next week - 12th November to 16th November. By the work we have been doing in school and by educating the children of the advantages, we hope you will support us in this matter and try to walk more! We are suggesting you either walk from home or park at the Village Hall and walk down. It may mean getting up a bit earlier to accommodate this but once the building work commences I don't think we'll have much choice anyway!! We have incentives and prizes in place and of course don't forget you could cycle. I am going to do my bit and you may see me walking up to the hall and back as the journey from my house is not really long enough. Obviously this isn't compulsory and there is no question of children feeling bad if they can't do it. We will have activities planned at school to help gain their stickers and have obviously thought about the taxi and breakfast club children.

It would be great if after this week you could continue to walk more to school. We will be continuing to work on making the route to school safer, setting up a walking bus and making cycle facilities better at school.

We are looking at car sharing and I am pleased to say that Mrs. Fitch, Ms. Fan and Miss Robinson, all Cheltenham based, are going to start car sharing. The reasons we are doing this are:-

• To reduce travel to school by car
• To ease parking and congestion around the school site
• To keep the area safer
• To help us keep fit and healthy
• TO REDUCE THE AMOUNT OF CO2 BY NOT USING CARS AND SO HELPING OUR WORLD

There has been some interest shown in having guitar lessons. Before I can proceed I need to know the interest as at least 3 children are needed. Please see my by Friday or send in a note expressing interest and I'll sort things out if numbers are sufficient.

The date for the Christingle will be WEDNESDAY 19th DECEMBER at 6.30p.m. Remember all children need to attend.

Future Dates

On Tuesday evening 14 of our Y5 and Y6 children went to Cotswold School to take part in the Cluster Athletic Challenge. They had to do javelin, throwing a ball and jumps as well as other energetic activities. The scores were added up for all the activities and I am pleased to say our children behaved and partook very well. Mercedes came 1st out of ALL the girls taking part and Emma came 3rd. Lisi came 4th and Jacob and Joseph joint 7th. Well done to all of them and thank you for representing our school with PRIDE.

Raffle Tickets

Don't forget to get selling those raffle tickets. If you need any more just ask in the office or Dawn Mann. I wonder what size chocolate bar I'd get with £300!!

There are quite a lot of payments for Christmas cards not made and we need to have these as soon as possible. Cheques payable to St. Andrew's School.

Please bring in all your vouchers as we need to count them up and get ordering.

Just for your information we do have a tiny outbreak. It is skin infection that usually produces blisters or sores and is one of the most common skin infections among children. If in doubt go to your G.P.

Each year we have to develop a School Development Plan to work from. In June and July we analyse all the results we have and through discussion set targets for the next academic year. This year we have Key priorities in 6 main areas and over the next few newsletters these will be shared with you.

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me or ask me during our OPEN EVENING on Monday 26th November at 6.00p.m....followed by the PTA AGM at 7.45p.m.

Now there MUST be someone out there who would like 9hours work here at school - 5 hours for dinner time and 4 hours admin help. Come on and drop in to see me to discuss -  I'll share my large chocolate bar if it's a Wednesday.

Kind regards,

T. Buck