South Milford Moments
Weekly news Friday 13.9.19
PTA News
AGM:
Thank you to everyone who attended the AGM last night.
We have lots of exciting plans for the next term to help us raise more funds to buy new ICT equipment so please come along to all events and help out where you can.
We raised £5,380 in the last school year, which is fantastic so thank you to everyone for your support.
We are going to continue working with the school this year to raise money to replace the old, worn-out ICT equipment.
Mrs Lawrence has asked the PTA to focus our efforts on funding new Chromebooks and the associated equipment and software.
The school would like at least 30 Chromebooks - at around £200 each - so money raised last year and this year will help to meet this target.
Committee:
We re-elected all committee roles (details below) but we are still in desperate need of a new chair to help run the charity. If you might be interested in this role or would like to find out more, please contact the PTA at fosms1@hotmail.co.uk or through our Facebook page @SouthMilfordPTA
PTA Committee:
Chair – vacant
Vice-Chair – Claire Dunning
Secretary – Sarah Prentice
Treasurer – Nikki Marchant
:: Community Cider-Making and Pizza Night at Bert’s Barrow - Friday 27th September 4-9pm:
Bert’s Barrow has teamed up with Yorkshine Spirit to host a fundraising cider-making night.
If you have any apples going spare, please donate them to the apple drop-off point at Bert’s Barrow. Or just go along on the night and help with the cider-making. The school will receive a percentage of all donations.
:: Dates for your diary:
Friday 27th September 4-9pm - Community Cider Making and Pizza Night at Bert’s Barrow;
Monday 7th October, 3.15pm – Year 6 Monday Bun Day;
Saturday 19th October, 7.30pm – Quiz Night;
Saturday 2nd November, time TBC – Harry Potter Activity and Film Afternoon;
Friday 22nd November, 6-8pm – Christmas Fair.
Circus skills workshop
PE KIT
As PE is a crucial part of the school week, please can you ensure that your child has the correct items in school and are well prepared for their lessons. Please can you ensure indoor and outdoor PE kit are in school from Monday to Friday, and all items are clearly named, as we sometimes need to swap our days.
PE kit: white round necked T-shirt, dark hoody, dark jogging bottoms, dark shorts, trainers. Please speak to a member of staff if you have any problems sourcing parts of the PE kit.
PE leaders
Is your child/Are you interested in becoming a PE leader?
Our PE leaders scheme enables children to develop their own leadership skills as well as enhancing the sporting experience of others in school. You will become a vital part of the playground by inspiring others to become more active socially, physically and mentally.
PE leaders support young people to become:
Successful learners
Confident individuals
Happier and healthier
Responsible citizens
PE leaders need to:
Be responsible for handing out and collecting in play equipment
Set achievable goals to help develop PE in school
Help to make the playground a safer and happier place to play
Be able to help organise and lead activities for KS1 and KS2 children at break times
Show a happy energetic approach to school and sport
Be able to talk about healthy foods
To explain what a healthy lifestyle is and how you achieve it
If you are interested in becoming a PE leader, please create a presentation of your choosing (powerpoint, letter, song, speech). You will be invited to share your presentation with Miss Bee on Monday 23rd September at lunchtime.
Please come and sign up in the year 5 classroom if you are interested.
Kingswood
Year 5 are very excited about visiting Dearne Valley to enjoy the Kingswood experience. The children are looking forward to trying new things, working in teams and challenging themselves. They will be experiencing activities such as crate stacking, high ropes, movie night, raft building, fencing and nightline! Make sure you check twitter to enjoy the photos.
Bikes/scooters on the playground
Please could you ensure bikes and scooters are not being ridden on the playground? We have many families with much smaller children and would like everyone to feel safe when dropping off and collecting.
Phonics evening
We are excited to invite the Reception parents to our phonics evening on Tuesday 1st October at 6pm. This is a great opportunity for you to see how phonics is taught to the children in their class and how you can then help with learning at home. It is so important that there is consistency with reading between school and home to ensure the most successful readers!
There will also be an opportunity to ask any questions you may have regarding Tapestry at this event.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Scholastic Book Club Booklet
Your child should have received a Scholastic Book Club booklet this week. Please could all orders by sent to the office by Friday 20th September.
After School Clubs
Our after school clubs start next week. Please book your child’s place on ParentPay, where you make any necessary payments and give your consent for them to take part.
NUT FREE SCHOOL
Reminder JLT Election
Our Junior Leadership Elections will take place week commencing Monday 16th September and all children are welcome to stand as prospective JLT members.
The children will be given the opportunity to share their manifesto with their class members and then each member of the class will vote in a secret ballot. The two children with the most votes in each class will be the JLT members for the year.
If you are helping your child prepare their manifesto please ensure it is no more than 3 minutes (it can be less). Our JLT are very active within school and with local and national initiatives. This allows the pupil voice to be a big part of our school.
School Meals
School meals are £2.30 per day, therefore £11.50 per week. Please ensure meals are paid for at the beginning of the week. A copy of this term's menu is available on the school website.
Please can we make parents aware that children moving from KS1 to KS2 (Year 2 to Year 3) will no longer be entitled to the government Universal Infant Free School Meals. If you feel that you may still be eligible for free school meals please ask at the school office for an application form.
Any parents in KS1 who think they would be entitled to free school meals (if UIFSM wasn’t in place) are encouraged to apply as a successful application will mean additional funding will be available to help school to address your child’s needs.
Reminder Eco-Committee
This year we are looking at having our very own Eco-Committee to help the school to move closer to gaining Green flag award and to ensure the school is working towards being friendly towards the environment whilst promoting eco-friendly tips.
This role is open to children across key stage 2. We would like to appoint two children from classes 3-6. If your child feels they are able to share the responsibility with adults for running meetings and keeping a record of meetings as well as ensuring high quality communication skills to and from the Eco-Committee and the rest of the school, then please ask them to let their class teacher know that they are interested in the role.
Macmillan Coffee Morning
We would like you to invite you to our Macmillan Fundraising by coming for Afternoon Tea with your child/ren on Monday 30th September between 1.30 and 3pm. If you would like to attend then tickets will be on sale for £2.50 per person, please send your money in a named envelope stating the number of tickets you require.
We also would love lots of fantastic cake donations on the morning of the event.
Collect and win with Aldi’s kit for schools
Aldi is launching a competition to give 20 primary schools across the UK the chance to win £20,000 each to build a health legacy and South Milford have been lucky enough to enter! The Kit for Schools competition launches on Friday 6th September and is part of Aldi’s long-standing partnership with Team GB.
We have received a sticker poster and if we complete the poster with Team GB stickers, we will receive one entry into the final prize draw to win £20,000 to build a health legacy along with a mini school sports day kit.
Aldi shoppers will receive stickers every time they spend £30 or more in store, which can be taken into schools and added to their sticker poster.
The campaign is part of Aldi and Team GB’s efforts to get young people active and eating well ahead of Tokyo 2020.
Any team GB stickers collected from Aldi need to be given to class teachers so they can be sent to the office. Our Y5/6 children will help to stick the stickers on carefully. In order to complete the sticker chart, we need 300 stickers! If you want to check how many stickers we have, you will find the poster down the KS1 corridor near the office. Let’s win this £20,000 and make a difference at South Milford.
Advance notice of early school closure
Dates for your diary
Bert's Barrow
Hello All!
We are running an event at Bert’s Barrow on 27th September from 4pm until 9pm in order to raise money for your school! It will be Pizza night featuring Knead n Feed & our first annual cider making festival! We will be taking donations on the night to raise money for your school – but we can’t make cider without apples!
Who has loads of apples and every year find they just get wasted on the floor? We have teamed up with Yorkshine Spirit from South Milford & we are all going to be making cider in the traditional way using an apple cider press, but we need your apples - LOTS & LOTS of them! We will then let them ferment and you can taste your home grown cider in the spring!!!!
We have set up an apple drop off point here at Bert’s from now until the night so bring your apples and let’s have some fun and raise some money for our local primary schools - Monk Fryston, Burton Salmon, Hambleton & South Milford.
We will not charge to make the cider or to try it in spring, but we will ask for money donations on the night and split it between the schools in the spring when we have our tasting night.
It will be busy so if you’re wanting to have pizza on the night, we have time slotted the oven - tickets cost £1 to guarantee your space in the oven & to pay to heat the barn etc. Head over to https://www.wegottickets.com/event/482238 to buy your tickets!
We look forward to seeing you soon, raising funds for the local schools & having a go at an old tradition as well as not wasting those fabulous apples!!!
Love,
Team Bert’s x
Simple ways to give a little extra to school
THE BOOK PEOPLE
What is Big Book Boost?
Big Book Boost is The Book People’s brand new fundraising scheme. Every time you place an order with us over £10, they will donate £1 to school to spend on books! With your help, we aim to donate 1 MILLION BOOKS to UK Schools by 2022.
EAST FUNDRAISING
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/
When you use easyfundraising to shop with any of our 4,000 retailers, the retailer makes a small donation to say thank you and we send those free funds to your cause.
Step 1
Start at easyfundraising
Use our website or App to browse 4,000 retailers. Click on the retailer you’d like to shop with.
Step 2
Click on the retailer and shop as normal
We'll take you the retailer you've chosen. Just shop as normal and when you check out, the retailer gives your cause a donation!
Step 3
Your cause gets paid
Every three months, we send the cause you support the donations you and other supporters have raised.
Winning Team
Chair of Governor's report July 2019
You ought to know, as the parents and carers of our children, that South Milford Primary School is currently under-funded and losing money.
The stark truth is that, right now, we desperately need to invest in new computers and a fit-for-purpose IT system but we cannot afford to do so.
That’s just one example – in recent years we’ve been unable to spend the money we wanted to on basic classroom improvements and even improving and upgrading toilet facilities.
This issue is certainly not unique to South Milford – any primary school in the country will tell you the same thing.
I do not seek to make any kind of political point here but claims that “more money than ever before is being put into education” are disingenuous.
In real terms, we are facing an 8% cut in our funding.
That’s because funding per pupil is not increasing. However, employers’ contributions towards National Insurance and pensions are increasing, and the recent teachers’ pay awards were not fully funded, even though they were promised as such.
You may well suspect that we could make our funding go further. To that end, rest assured that my colleagues on our governing body, who include experts in fields such as finance, HR and procurement, are leaving no stone unturned.
So what can you do to help? Well, we are all united by our desire to give the children at this school the best possible start to their lives.
Perhaps the company you work for offers match funding. Or your business may be in a position to offer grants or sponsorships.
Direct financial contributions are obviously welcome, as is lending your support to the events and initiatives our PTA run. Additional volunteers are always appreciated and can only lead to bigger and better events.
As a well-known supermarket chain likes to remind us, every little helps.
It would be nice to think that the additional funds raised could be used for little luxuries like school trips and treats for the children. But right now, we need that money for essentials.
Thanks for taking the time to read this sermon. On behalf of the teaching staff and the governing body, we hugely appreciate your support.
Have a great summer and see you in September.
Dan Murphy, chair of governors
This week's Shining Stars
We celebrated the following children this week in Celebration Assembly:
Reception: Ava
Year One: Lois
Year Two: Lorna
Year Three: Seth
Year Four: Lucie
Year Five:Seren & Rohan
Year Six: Tabitha
South Milford Primary School
Mrs Lawrence
Email: admin@sm.starmat.uk
Website: http://www.southmilfordprimary.co.uk
Location: South Milford Community Primary School, Sand Lane, South Milford, Leeds, UK
Phone: 01977 682359
Twitter: @southmilfordcp