St Cecilia's News
St Cecilia's Catholic Primary School - January 2019
Workshops for Parents
We have a number of workshops coming up on the school's approach to technology and our use of the GSuite for Education. Close to eighty parents have booked places on the current round of workshops, we will have more of these in the summer term and will prioritise those that we can see on the waiting lists. We look forward to seeing you, please come along in plenty of time and have a cup of tea or coffee with us as you setup the Chromebook. (For the last few places please check the link in the email from our booking system.)
Internet Safety Talk with Sharon Girling OBE - Monday 29th April at 6.30pm.
We are pleased that we have been able to engage the founder of the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre, Sharon Girling OBE, to present to parents on the latest aspects of online safety. Sharon will be known to many of you as she has spoken to parents before, we know that you thoroughly enjoyed her last session. For those of you who do not know Sharon, please see her appearance on GMB below. As this workshop is highly popular it will be limited to 1 place per household - please ensure that children remain at home.
Places will be booked through our online parents evening booking system, it will notify you when tickets become available in a few weeks time, we are telling you the date now so that you can "save the date." We will prioritise tickets for Key Stage 2 parents and then extend them to Key Stage 1 parents if we have space.
Supporting families living with violence
The school has been given the opportunity to take part in a national project where schools and police forces share information about domestic violence cases through secure electronic systems.
For our school here in London we will be linking with the Metropolitan Police.
As part of Operation Encompass, designated school staff will be contacted by Met Police if they visit the home of one of our pupils and they consider that the pupil has been exposed to, or involved in, any domestic incident.
Operation Encompass will ensure that a member of the Leadership Team, who is a trained Designated Safeguarding Lead, is able to liaise with the police and to use the information that has been shared on a confidential basis. We will then be able to provide additional support to the child through our safeguarding and pastoral team.
You can find out more about Operation Encompass through the link below.
Your Designated Safeguarding Lead team are:
Mrs Martin - DSL
Mr Burke - DSL
Mrs Dean - DSL
We are joined by
Mrs Casey (Pastoral Support / Trauma Care)
Importance of handwriting
In recent years it has become even more important for your child to develop a good cursive style of writing as they progress through school. Marks are awarded in the KS2 SAT for handwriting!
We use the Nelson Handwriting scheme to help support the teaching of handwriting. Regular practice can really make a difference. Over the coming weeks, as part of our usual learning walks, the Leadership Team are examining the quality of writing, including handwriting in each of our classes. I will be encouraging children to join up their letters - many are shaping letters beautifully but not joining - and of course we will be checking that all of our staff are modelling the Nelson handwriting font correctly.
You can help us at home by encouraging correct letters and joining, details of the 4 letter groups are attached and a video is included below.
Weather closures
Last year, our catering company did not receive sufficient food supplies to prepare school meals and they notified us towards 8am of the issue. It is well worth checking your Class Dojo App for updates before you set out for school just in case of a change in our open/closed status during bad weather.
BETT Show
With the severe reduction that we are seeing in school budgets, it was a good time to see how we can save money in the future by building new partnerships. Sourcing cheaper broadband was a key goal for the day and I met with four companies to discuss network security and filtering solutions - at a much reduced cost.
We also met our new Robot for the first time - Dash is on his way to Years 3&4. You can see how Dash can be used to measure angles here.
We purchased a new curriculum programme for English writing, The Literacy Curriculum has deep roots in high quality English texts and detailed planning for teachers - we look forward to refreshing aspects of our curriculum and introducing it it over the coming term.
Parking
Childcare
We are building a directory of childminders who have a connection with the school on our website, whilst we are not recommending any particular childminder the information may prove useful to parents who are looking for childcare outside of school. See Childminders on our site.
Attendance and Punctuality
What is your child's attendance this term?
How punctual are they?
How many minutes late have they been this term?
Don't forget that we open the gates 15-20 minutes before the start of the school day and that once it reaches 0900 for Nursery and Reception and 0850 for KS1&2 a late mark is given.
The new system logs the total number of minutes late each term and we can print them for you on the end of year report. We are aiming to send home a termly attendance report so that you have more information on your child's attendance and punctuality - we are planning that now.
You can support us by:
- Ensuring your child is on time - arriving before 0850 in Years 3-6 and 0900 in Years N - 2.
- Contacting the school office in plenty of time if your child is absent. (You will soon be able to do this via an App)
- Working with us if your child has poor attendance - we will be in contact shortly
- Not booking holidays in term time - they will always be unauthorised in accordance with regulations. We have a form to request absences - download here.
- Celebrating good attendance and punctuality with your child.
- Checking with your husband/wife/grandparent/childminder that your child is arriving in school on time and they are aware of the 0850/0900 start times.
We will be working with families where attendance is poor - these are often due to childhood illnesses and stays in hospital but they can be exacerbated by holiday absence on top of illness. Over the coming weeks we will take the first step in generating letters of concern to notify you of your child's percentage attendance. We expect all good attenders to be at 96% plus.
We will also be celebrating good attendance with beautiful certificates and accolades.
Thanks parents for your support with attendance and punctuality!
Best wishes for February, let's hope the snow manages to keep away from us until half term at least.
Vince Burke
Head Teacher