30th September 2022

This week in school has been a particularly creative one. All the classes have been creating Harvest Displays for the Hall, and they look fabulous!  In addition to this, Year 2 they have been making their own versions of stained-glass windows in RE lessons and  in Year 1, the classes have been creating Andy Warhol style self-portraits.

On Wednesday we held the first of our KS1 curriculum evenings and Mrs Howarth and I were able to share all about the Year 1 curriculum with the group of parents who attended. The presentation and curriculum expectations booklets will be posted on the Year 1 class home pages shortly. Next week, we are holding the Year 2 session, so please sign up as it will be very useful for parents to know what the expectations are of the Year 2 curriculum and what will be covered this year. 

Sadly, next week is Mrs Beckett's last week in school as her last day is Friday. She will be missed incredibly as she has been an incredible asset to the school over the last 11 years. While she has been with us, her role has developed hugely, and she has been able to make a difference to the way we communicate and present ourselves as a school. I know you will join me in wishing her well for the future.

Mrs Reynolds

Children as Leaders at Sandygate

At Marlow C of E Infant School, we recognise that our children are the leaders of the future, and therefore we provide a range of opportunities for children to develop their leadership skills, even at this young age. Our policy on Children as Leaders can be found on our website here

From early on, we aim to embed the understanding in our pupils that they have the power to change the world. As a school we want to inspire our pupils to recognise and demonstrate this and in turn we hope that they will inspire others along the way.

Pupil voice is valued and promoted – each academic year, pupils are given a platform to express the views of their school to help shape its development. We encourage all of our pupils to embrace the wide range of opportunities available to them – and always seek to find new ways that we can further empower our pupils. This enables our pupils to develop as individuals, as a community and grow the school as a whole, thus fulfilling the school’s Christian vision. 

In most cases the children put themselves forward and then their class holds an election or, in the case of the Playground Leaders, they apply the role.  Below is a summary of the children's leadership roles in school, which adult they will work with and how they are chosen. The Vision and Values Leaders are new for this year, and they are chosen by the Senior Leadership Team to model and share the school vision and values across the school. There will be new Vision and Values leaders each term.

The representatives for the various pupil voice bodies have already been announced in previous Newsletters but they received their badges in Celebration Worship today. You can see some pictures below

The new Vision and Value leaders for this term have just been chosen by the Senior Leadership Team and they are Daisy G and Oliver C from Year 2

Report from Eco Warriors

On Thursday  some Eco Warriors went to Holy Trinity school for an Eco-Conference. This is their report:

'There were lots of children and adults from the other schools in Marlow. We looked around Holy Trinity to see what good Eco things they do. They have 5 bug hotels around the school and a special hut for outdoor learning. 

We talked about some things we can all do to help our environment. One idea was for the litter picking clubs from all the schools to meet at the same time and the same place to do a big litter pick somewhere like Higginson Park.

Spinfield school told us about the solar panels they have had installed and we talked about how other schools can get them fitted. 

We also got to have squash and biscuits. We had a really good time!'

The Eco-Warriors (Woody, Daisy, Henry & Molly)

Next Week's 'Learning at a Glance'

Yr 2 visit to Pizza Express 

Tuesday 4th October

On Tuesday, Dragonfly class will be walking to Pizza Express in Marlow to try their hands at making pizza. Please ensure that your child arrives at school promptly as they will be leaving straight after registration and that they have suitable outerwear for the weather and sensible shoes for the walk. 

Grasshopper class are visiting on the following Tuesday. 

Yr 1 walk to All Saints Church

Tuesday 4th October

Year 1 are visiting All Saints Church on Tuesday morning as part of their RE learning for this term.  Please ensure that your child arrives at school promptly as They will be leaving straight after registration and that they have suitable outerwear for the weather and sensible shoes for the walk. 

Harvest Festival - Thursday 6th October

We have been overwhelmed with the number of parents wishing to come to our Harvest Festival. Our Fire Risk Assessment limits the number of people that we can have in the School Hall at any one time which is why we had asked some weeks ago for parents to register their interest. From this register of interest we had an indication that around 140 parents wished to attend and so made the decision to have two services to be able to accommodate this number of people. Since then, many more than 140 parents have booked to attend, and we are at capacity for both services.

We have a waiting list of parents who would like to attend and so, if you have booked tickets that you no longer require, we need you to let the school office know as soon as possible so that we can offer these to parents on the waiting list. Please do not transfer tickets to anyone else yourself as the register from Eventbrite is used as our evacuation log for the event. 

We would also ask that, if you do not have Eventbrite tickets for the Harvest Festival please do not turn up as we do not want to have to turn parents away at the door. 

School Lunches - Census Day Thursday 6th October

You may be aware that, whilst school meals are free for families, we as a school have to pay for these from our school budget. We are allocated an amount each year to cover school meals, but this is not based on actual meals paid for but rather on a snap-shot of the meals taken on our census day, which this year is next Thursday 6th October.

The amount of money we are given for the year is calculated on the number of meals that are taken on that day and so, if fewer meals are taken on that day than on average for the rest of the year, the school will have a deficit for school meals.

We would encourage everyone to have a Dolce meal on Thursday to ensure that the number of meals is as high as possible. 

Cancelling Lunches

As indicated above, we have to pay for all meals and this means all that are booked on a given day, even if they are not eaten.

It is, therefore, really important that if your child is absent from school, and they have a school lunch booked you please remember to cancel this. You can log in and cancel the lunch yourself from home up to 8.55 am but if you just mention that their lunch needs to be cancelled when you call in to report their absence we can do this in school up to 9.45 am

If meals are not cancelled, as well as the school being charged, the lunch will also be delivered to school by Dolce and not eaten adding to food waste.

Similarly, if your child decides to bring a packed lunch, and you have already ordered school lunch then this should be cancelled.

Parent Governor Ballot

We have had a number of nominations for the Parent Governor and so we will now be holding a ballot. The ballot papers will be sent home on Tuesday 4th October and the deadline for voting will be Tuesday 11th October by the end of school at 3.15pm.

Every parent of a registered pupil at our school is entitled to one vote. A ballot paper for every parent will be sent home with your child on Tuesday in a named envelope. Inside the envelope will be a personal statement about each candidate, a ballot paper and an envelope printed with the school logo.

To ensure the ballot is secret, and so that we can ensure all votes received are from people eligible to vote we would ask that the following procedure be followed. 

• Mark your ballot paper clearly with your choice of one candidate only
• Place your ballot paper in the inner envelope printed with the school logo
• Place this sealed envelope in the outer envelope marked with your name and address
• Return this to school and place it in the box in the entrance hall by 3.15pm Tuesday 11th October

When a ballot is received we will check the name on the outer envelope against our list of parents and then remove the anonymous sealed envelope and keep it in the ballot box until the count which will take place on Wednesday 12th October

Packed Lunch Policy

We would like to remind parents of our school policy on packed lunches. 

We have children in school who have severe nut allergies which makes it essential that everyone complies with our nut free policy. As some children are ‘contact allergic’ we need everyone to ensure that there are no foods containing nuts in packed lunches this includes Nutella and muesli bars contain nuts.

We would also ask that parents follow these guidelines

• Lunch should include at least one savoury item, which your child will be encouraged to eat first, and a drink. Water is provided at the tables in the lunch hall but in warmer weather the children take their packed lunches outside and it is not possible to take water outside.
• Lunches must not contain  fizzy drinks, sweets or confectionery
• No nut containing products (this includes chocolate spreads which contain nuts)
• As a healthy school we would encourage you to limit items containing chocolate to one small snack size cake or biscuit (not a chocolate bar)  and perhaps put in just a few crisps rather than a whole packet, or give them once a week as a treat

We would also remind you that school lunchbreak is an hour but children are only given up to 30 minutes to eat their lunch. Please do not pack so much that it will take them the whole of lunchtime to eat as we would like them to be able to play as well.

Coats and other outdoor clothing

At this time of the year the weather can be very unpredictable and can change over the course of the day. Can you please ensure that your child has a waterproof coat in school each day as we will try to get the children outside at break and lunchtime every day, even in rain unless it is very heavy. We do not want children to be sitting in wet clothes for the remainder of the day so, if a child does not have a coat, and it is raining they will not be able to go out to play.

If it is raining and your child doesn't have a coat then they will stay inside during break to keep their inner clothes dry. Before they go out to play and if the adults think the weather is cold enough for coats or if it is raining, the children will be told to put their coats on. If the rain stops or children become too warm with their coats on, they can take them off and put them in the class 'trug' (as they do in the summer when they want to take their jumpers off). Children are not allowed back in school for safety reasons during play time or lunchtime break unless they are accompanied by an adult.

As the weather changes and children are starting to bring in more items of outdoor clothing; coats, gloves, hats etc Please ensure that all items are named clearly so that any lost property can be returned. 

English as an Additional Language & Free School Meals

If your child was exposed to a language other than English from birth or if you believe that you may be entitled to Free School Meals then please contact the school office in confidence to let us know. 

If you regularly speak a language other than English at home, or your child earned another language before English then please just drop us an email to let us know. 

Free School Meals & Pupil Premium

All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 received free school meals under the  Universal Infant Free School Meals scheme. However, if your family is in receipt for certain benefits then your child may be eligible for Free School Meals and this eligibility will stay with them whilst you are in receipt of those benefits and for 6 years after the eligibility ends. This means that when your child moves to Year 3 they will continue to receive Free School Meals even though they are no longer entitled under the Universal Infant Free School Meals scheme.

Additionally, as a school we will receive additional funding to support your child if they are eligible for Free School Meals - this is called the Pupil Premium. It is therefore important that you register under the eligibility scheme.

The application is very simple, just contact the school office and we will send you an application form which we then send off to be checked to see if you are eligible. You may be eligible if you are in receipt of Income Support, Job Seeker's Allowance, Child Tax Credit or Universal Credit or other qualifying benefits

 

Back to School BBQ - THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

We just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who came to support our first event of 2022/23 and for everyone who volunteered to help. We couldn't have done it without you all, and we made an amazing £1000 profit which we were totally blown away by so thank you so much. 

PFA 100 Club

The first draw is due to take place later today on 30th September, and we'll be announcing the winner of the September draw in next week's newsletter. It's not too late to enter; you can do this on ParentPay. £10 per entry which enters you into all 6 draws throughout the year. First prize £30 + bottle of prosecco and second prize £20.

Save the date - Christmas Fayre - 26th November 2-5pm

It is hard to think about Christmas when we've only just returned to school, but the PFA are busy planning away. Save the date for our fabulous Christmas Fayre on Saturday 26th November 2-5pm. If you or anyone you know have a business you would like to promote/sell at the Fayre we're offering external suppliers a stall so please get in touch at pfa@marlow-infant.bucks.sch.uk. We are also looking for raffle and silent auction prizes and would be really grateful for anything you can donate.