Category Archives: Headteacher’s Weekly Blog

Hello everyone and I hope you have all  had a lovely weekend.

School Photographs

It was lovely so see all the children looking so smart and, as usual, behaving so well on Thursday when they had their school photographs taken.  If you would like to purchase the photographs then please bring the pack back to school in the envelope you were provided with. Please remember to include your order and the correct amont of money or a cheque,which should be made payable to the photographer.  The last date by we can receive the orders in school is Friday 6th December.  Please note the school office is unable to give out any change from photograph money.

Year 3 Residential

On Wednesday our year 3 pupils returned from their residential at Bewerley Park.  They all had a fantastic time and I am sure they have told you all about their adventures and the activities they took part in.  I would like to thank Mrs Robinson and Miss Bradley who accompanied them on the trip and I am sure they were grateful for a good night’s sleep on Wednesday night! I would also like to thank the children for being so well behaved and for being wonderful ambassadors for our school.

This week at Copthorne

Protect our teeth

On Tuesday 3rd December the Fluoride Varnish Dental Team will be visiting school again to apply the fluoride varnish to those Nursery and Reception children’s teeth whose parents have already signed up for the programme.  This is a special programme for 2-4 year olds which is run every year to help fight tooth decay in young children and involves the children’s teeth being coated with a layer of fluoride varnish. This will help our children to keep their beautiful smiles!

Fire Fighters’ Charity Bag Collection 

Also on Tuesday 3rd December we will be carrying out a collection of unwanted or used clothes, soft toys, shoes, belts and handbags in order to raise money for the Fire Fighters Charity and the school fund.  You should have received a collection bag last week, please feel free to fill as many additional bags as you can (bin bags can be used). We would be grateful if you could also ask other members of your family and our community to fill bags for us. Thank you.

Governing Body Meeting

This half term’s full Governing Body Meeting will take place at 4.30pm on Tuesday, 3rd December. At Copthorne our Governors are an integral and highly valued part of the school’s leadership team. Together we work to provide the very best learning experiences and outcomes for our pupils. This week, members of the Governing Body will be meeting with Miss Rosindale to receive a report about current standards in and planned actions for English/literacy at Copthorne. I am sure the meeting will be an informative and enjoyable one. This meeting forms part of a regular cycle of reports to the Governing Body by subject leaders in our school.

Year 2 Open Morning

On Wednesday 4th December at 9.00am, Year 2 will be holding a very important parents’ morning.  This is an opportunity for parents of children in Year 2 to observe their child’s lesson in class. Afterwards there will be an informal and friendly discussion which will last approximatley 15 minutes, during which parents/carers will be able to ask any questions about their child’s education.  This is a great opportunity to find out, first hand, more about how the children in Year 2 learn and the methods used to teach them. We look forward to seeing as many year 2 parents as possible.

I hope you all have a lovely week

Mrs Shepherd

Welcome to our weekly blog.  I hope you are all managing to keep warm during this very cold snap of weather.

Football Superstars

First of all I would like to say congratulations to our year 5 and 6 footballers who took part in an Exceed Football competition on Wednesday last week.  They won 6-2 against Lidget Green Primary School.  The footballers should be extremely proud of themselves as is the whole school.  our skill, sportsmanship and determination are definitely paying off – as is your new kit. Well done everybody!

Shining Stars

On Friday we presented our Star of the Month Awards.  During our Celebration Assemblies one pupil from each class is rewarded for exceptional learning behaviours and work. Staff working in each class nominate the children they feel have displayed a no excuses, positive attitude. Well done to this month’s award winners.

Holidays in term time

As outlined in a number of previous blogs, I will not be authorising any holidays in term time.

In September the Government’s new regulations on this matter came into force. These state that Head Teachers are not permitted to authorise leave of absence for pupils’ holidays in term time. In spite of these regulations I have recently had a number of parents applying for such leave for their children. Whilst we are sympathetic to the fact that many of our community members have families abroad and that travel is expensive it is vital that we put the education of our children first. The regulations are there because a wealth of educational research has found a direct link between absence from school and poor levels of future progress and attainment. In addition, the new regulations make it clear that those parents/carers taking their children out of school for holidays are highly likely to be issued with a fixed penalty notice of £60 per parent per chid, rising to £120 per parent per child if mot paid within 28 days.

Every school day counts! Pease help to make sure that our children don’t miss out.

This week at Copthorne

The Exceed Alliance

This week, all the Head teachers from the 7 schools in our alliance will meet to review progress against our shared action plan. As well as the children in our 7 schools continuing to learn and play alongside each other, staff continue to work together to address shared school improvement goals.  This enables us to share expertise and learn from each other and, in doing so, continually provide the best possible learning experiences for all of our children.

Year 3 Residential

On Monday 25th November, some of our year 3 pupils will be taking part in a residential until Wednesday 27th. For many of them this will be their first experience of staying away from home for 2 nights without their parents. They will be accompanied by Miss Bradley and Mrs Robinson and they will be joined by other pupils from the Exceed Alliance Group.  The residential will take place at Bewerley Park in North Yorkshire.  The children will be taking parts in lots of activities such as shelter building, visiting Bramham Rocks, canoeing and will be going for a night walk which I am sure will be great fun and very exciting. I hope that the weather stays dry for them and am sure they will have a fantastic time and will be wonderful ambassadors for the school.  his is a wonderful opportunity for our children and I am looking forward to hearing all about their adventures when they return.

Smile Please!

Tempest Photographers will be in school on Thursday, 28th November to take school photographs.  The photographer will take individual portrait-style photos of each child.  If you wish, your children may also be photographed in groups with their brothers, sisters and family members.  If you would like to take advantage of this service, these photos will be taken from 3pm–4.30pm on the day – all you need to do is come along at those times to wait with your children and talk to the photographer about the pictures you would like taken. If you do not wish your child to be photographed then you should have already returned the reply slip on the letter that was sent out with your child last week.

Forest Schools

On Friday, 29th November , Year 4 will continue with their Forest School activities as half the children from 4 Beech visit St Ives Woods with Mrs Robinson and Mrs Shah.  I know that the children are having a great time learning about the outdoor environment and how we should care for it. Keep up the good work everyone!

I hope you all have a lovely week.  Keep warm!!

Mrs Shepherd

Welcome to our blog.  I would like to say a big thank you to all the children and parents for making a really big effort last Friday for Children in Need. You all looked wonderful and I am sure we will have raised lots of money for a very worthwhile charity. I will let you all know about the amount raised as soon as we finish counting it all!

It was also great to see our film-making team moving around the school during lunchtime on Children in Need Day. You all did a wonderful job of interviewing pupils and staff as well as filming to capture the true spirit of the day. I am so looking forward to watching your completed news report.

This week at Copthorne

Inter-faith week

On Tuesday 19th November, as part of Inter-faith week, a group of children will be accompanying Mrs Van Tol to a one-day conference organised by the Diversity and Cohesion Service.  The conference aims to promote good inter-faith relations at all levels, increase awareness of the different faith communities in the UK and increase understanding between people of different religious beliefs. This is something very close to our hearts here at Copthorne as the understanding and celebration of diversity underpin our curriculum.

Our faith assembly this week will be an inter-faith one. 

They’re going on a bear hunt!

Also on Tuesday it will be 1R’s turn to have a trip to the woods.  As art of their current curriculum theme: bears the children will be exploring and trying to find any bears which may be hiding there. I hope the weather stays fine for them and am looking forward to hearing all about their adventure when they return.

Brilliant Bodies at Eureka

On Wednesday 20th November 1 Ash will be visiting Eureka Science Museum in Halifax.  Eureka is a magical place to learn and play and I am sure that, like 1 0ak last week, the children will have an interesting and fun filled day learning more about their current curriculum theme: Brilliant Bodies.

Football Tournament

Also on Wednesday several of our year 5 & 6 pupils will be taking part in a Football Tournament against other schools in our Exceed Alliance.  We wish them well and I am sure they will be fantastic ambassadors for the school.

Protect our teeth

On Friday 22nd November the Fluoride Varnish Dental Team will be visiting school to speak to parents of children in nursery and reception.  Parents will be receiving a letter this week with more information.  This is a special programme for 2-4 year olds which is run every year to help fight tooth decay in young children and involves the children’s teeth being coated with a layer of fluoride varnish. No wonder our children have such beautiful smiles!

Thanks to everyone for another inspiring week at Copthorne. Keep up the great work.

Mrs Shepherd

Welcome back to another half term at Copthorne. Thanks to all our families for making sure that all the children arrived happy and ready to learn last Monday morning. As usual we have a very busy few weeks coming up and have lots of exciting activities planned.

This week at Copthorne

KS1 Football Tournament

On Monday 11th November, several of our KS1 pupils will be going to Grange Technology College along with Mr A Khan to compete in a football tournament against the other 6 schools in our Exceed Alliance.  We wish them every success and I am sure that, as usual, they will be fantastic ambassadors for our school. Wearing their smart new Copthorne kit should inspire them even more to play to the highest standard.

School Improvement Partnership Visit

Also on Monday we welcome Mr Terry McDermott. Mr McDermott helps us to evaluate how effectively we are continuing to improve our school and advise us on our next steps. I am confident that he will feel, as we do, that Copthorne continues to be outstanding.

Meeting Individual Needs

On Monday, Miss Rosindale (our Literacy Coordinator) and I will be delivering a workshop each as part of Bradford College’s Meeting Individual Needs Conference. Miss Rosindale will be working with delegates to show them how we are using Talk for Writing strategies to raise standards of pupils’ writing at Copthorne and I will be exploring strategies for teachers to use in order to meet the needs of More Able learners in the classroom.

At Copthorne we believe that work like this, which supports other teachers and schools and encourages us to learn from each other, is a very important part of the work we do. We are delighted that, for the second time, we have been invited to contribute to the professional development of existing teachers and the teachers of the future.

If you go down to the woods today…

On Tuesday 12th November, the pupils in 2R will be visiting Hirst Wood as part of their topic for this half term: Bears.  We hope that they have a wonderful time with their bears and that the weather stays fine for them. I look forward to hearing all about it on their return. We will post the pictures from the visit on our website as soon as possible.

Eureka Children’s Museum 

On Wednesday 13th November,  1 Oak will be visiting Eureka Science Museum in Halifax.  Eureka is a magical place where children play to learn and I am sure the children (and adults) will have a interesting and fun filled day learning more about their current Curriculum theme: Brilliant Bodies

Children In Need

This Friday, 15th November, is Children In Need Day. At Copthorne we will all be dressing in our pyjamas, onesies and dressing gowns to help raise money for this great cause. If children wish to take part we ask that they bring a donation of at least £1.

Also, the theme of this year’s event is Bare Faced – the idea being that everyone adds a paw print to their face either with face paint or using one of the temporary Pudsey transfers. We will have a limited number of these available for children to buy on the day at a cost of £1 each. There will also be other Pudsey Bear activities going on throughout the day such as colouring competitions and bun sales. Look out for the letter that will be sent home with your children during the week which will give more details.

Come on Copthorne – I know we can make this the best Children In Need Day so far!

Reception Assembly 

On Friday 15th November at 2.15 pm it will be the turn of our Reception classes to deliver their assembly. The theme will be Bears and will reflect some of the work that is being done as part of the current Creative Curriculum theme. Parents and family members are warmly invited to attend and are asked to be at school by 2.10pm in time for a prompt start.

It is always a pleasure to watch our children deliver their assembles and see how, at such a young age, they are being given such rich opportunities to develop and celebrate their speaking, listening and performance skills.

4 Beech to St Ives

Also on Friday, half of 4 Beech will continue their Forest Schools activities at St Ives Woods. It was wonderful to see them all arriving back to school last Friday wearing the woodland crowns that they had made during the day and with such enormous smiles on their faces. I am sure that they will have equally positive learning experiences this week.

I hope you all have a lovely week.

Mrs Shepherd

Welcome, everybody.  Here we are at the end of another busy and very enjoyable half term.

Hawkshead Residential

Last week was an extremely exciting one for our Year 6 pupils as they spent 3 days at Hawkshead in the Lake District.  I joined them on Wednesday evening and spent half the day with them on Thursday during which we all had a fabulous time horseriding and grooming a number of ponies at an equestrian centre.

During their stay, the children visited the Hawkshead Grammar School Museum to learn about school life in the past and, especially, the 18th century. As part of the visit the children experienced a lesson in the school room as it would have been in the time of the poet, William Wordsworth who attended the school.

The staff at the museum made a secial point of saying how well behaved our children were and, in fact, the best behaved and most interested group of children they had met this year. We are all very proud of you.

The whole group returned to school safe and sound on Friday afternoon, keen to tell their families about their experiences and, staff included, ready for a big sleep after their adventures. Thank you to all the staff who organised and took part in the residential: Mr Darr, Miss Bray, Miss Nelson, Mrs Robinson, Mr A Khan, Mr H Khan, Miss Zaman and Mr Sajid. We really apreciate the time you gave to make sure that our children had such a wonderful experience. You deserve a week’s rest now!

Diwali Assembly

Last Friday our Year 5 pupils performed their Diwali assembly in front of the whole school and their parents. What a credit they were to Copthorne!  We all thoroughly enjoyed learning all about the Hindu culture and Diwali festival.

It was clear to see that the children have gained a great deal from the creative curriculum theme: India that they have been studying since September. The assembly demonstrated a range of subject knowledge and skills including History, Geography, Music, Dance, Art and, of course, RE. Well done, everyone! Thank you Mr Rizvi, Mr Sandhu, Miss Bhatti, Mrs Ludbrook and Mr Zaman for making this unit of work so inspiring for our children.

Half Term Holiday

Copthorne is closed this week for the half term holiday and will reopen at the usual time on Monday 4th November. I wish you all an enjoyable and restful break.

Next week at Copthorne

Mums Do Maths

On Tuesday 5th November from 8.45am we will be holding a ‘Mums do Maths’ morning for adult female family members of children in Years 5 and 6. During the morning, classes will be working on a variety of maths challenges. This is a great opportunity for mums to learn alongside the children and to find out about the way we teach maths at Copthorne.

Forest Schools

On Friday 8th November, Year 4 will continue with their Forest School activities as half the children from 4 Beech visit St Ives Woods with Mrs Robinson and Mrs Shah.  I know that the children are having a great time learning about the outdoor environment and how we should care for it. Keep up the good work everyone!

Life Channel Training

As you may have noticed, we have a number of TV screens both inside and outside school showing a range of short, public information programmes aimed at parents and pupils. The programmes are there to provide useful information to support parents, pupils and community members. 

Our  main intention, however, is to use the screens to show work produced by our children and daily and weekly news about Copthorne. This will be presented for example, in the form of photo stories and films produced by the children. In order to help us to do this a group of 6 staff members will be taking part in a training session in school on Friday 8th November. We are looking forward to then being able to share a great deal of the work our children are doing before the end of next half term.

On behalf of all the staff, we hope you all have a enjoyable and well earned break and look forward to seeing all the children back to school on Monday 4th November at the usual time.

Mrs Shepherd

Welcome to another exciting week at Copthorne and I hope that you all had a wonderful Eid.  Thank you to all of you who returned to school on time on Thursday. It was great to see everyone happy and relaxed after the very long weekend.

This week

Year 3 Residential Parents’ Meeting

There will be two short meetings for parents/carers on Monday 21^st October to outline the final arrangements for the Year 3 Exceed residential to Bewerley Park Outdoor Education Centre, Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire. The meetings will be held at 8.45am and 2.30pm, during which you will be provided with details of what your child will need to pack and have the chance to ask any questions you may have. 

It is important for the parents of the children who are going on the trip to attend as there are  important medical consent forms for you to complete.  This is an exciting opportunity for our year 3 children and I am sure that they will have a fantastic experience at the centre.

Parents’ Evening

On Tuesday 22nd October between 3.15 and 6.00pm we will be holding our parents’ evening.  We are looking forward to seeing as many parents’ as possible at the first parents’ evening of this academic year.  During the evening you will have the opportunity to talk to your child’s class teacher about how your child has settled into his/her new class and to hear about his/her targets for this term.  I will also be collecting your views and ideas for Copthorne during the evening. I look forward to seeing you there.

Hawkshead Trip

From Wednesday 23rd to Friday 25th October, 42 of our year 6 pupils will be taking part in the residential visit to Hawkshead in the Lake District.  The children will be accompanied by Mr Darr, Miss Bray, Miss Nelson, Mrs Robinson, Mr A Khan, Mr H Khan, Mr Sajid and Miss Zaman. 

This trip is very important in helping our children work together as a team and in giving them the opportiunity to stay away from home for the first time in a safe but new environment. During their stay the children will be carying out work to deepen and extend their lerning in a number of curriculum areas including Geography, History and Art.  We wish all the pupils and staff an enjoyable trip. I will be driving up to the Lake District on Wednesdy evening to see the children and hear all about their first day’s adventures.

Visit to All Saints Church, Bradford

On Thursday 24th October, the remainder of the year 6 children will be visiting All Saints Church in Bradford as part of their work for R.E.  The children will learn about what the different parts of the church symbolise and what a traditional Christian service involves.  Once again I am sure our children will be wonderful ambassadors for Copthorne.

Half Term Holiday

School will close for half term at the end of school on Friday 25th October and re-open on Monday 4th November at the usual time.  We wish you all an enjoyable rest.

Holiday Challenge

The theme for this holiday’s challenge is ‘Autumn’.  Children are asked to produce a piece of work – this can be anything from art work (drawings, painting, models, collage etc.)to any form of writing or even a film or photographs – about Autumn.  Completed work should be taken to class on Monday 4th November. I will will view the work during that week and samples will then be presented to the whole school in assembly.  Good luck everyone!

Dates for your diary

 Mums Do Maths

From 8.45am to 11.30am on Tuesday 15th November we will be holding our first Mums Do Maths session for female family members of children in year 5 and 6.  Mums and/or any adult female members of the family are invited to come into school that morning and work alongside their children on a variety of maths challenges.  This is a wonderful opportunity for mums and family members to develop a clearer understanding of how maths is taught in our school.  We look forward to welcoming you all to this event.

Wishing you all a great week, hoping that you are keeping warm now that the weather has become very autumnal!

Mrs Shepherd

Well, it’s going to be a very short week at Copthorne this week but, as usual, it will be busy and involve lots of exciting learning oportunities for our children.

Last week we were fortunate in being able to welcome a group of visitors from Ghana.  The group presented an assembly to KS1 about life in Ghana and then visited individual classrooms, where they answered children’s questions and taught some traditional Ghanian dancing.  This visit supports the work we are doing in school for the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard award and was thoroughly enjoyed by all our children and staff. It was also an opportunity for Miss Armitstead to revisit her experiences from this summer as she spent her holiday in Ghana doing charity work.

A great big thank you to our visitors.

 Football Tournament

Last week our football team came first in the Exceed Football League.  Well done to our players for such excellent team work.  You all looked so smart in your new kit too.

Asian Dress Day

Thank you to all of our parents for sending the children to school last Friday dressed to celebrate Eid.  Children enjoyed parties in the afternoon and it was great to see all of our staff joining in with the theme of the day looking so smart and sparkly.

This week at Copthorne

Eid Holiday

School will be closed on Monday 14^th October to Wednesday 16^th October inclusive.  We look forward to welcoming the children back to school at the usual time on Thursday 17^th October 2013.  I would like to wish everyone an enjoyable break with your family at this very special time.

Visit to Poland

From Monday 14^th October to Friday 18^th October, our Assistant Head Teacher Mr Lloyd and our Diversity Co-ordinator Mrs Van Tol will be visiting Poland for the first meeting between the 10 schools involved in our Comenius Project.  We will be working with schools from Poland, Romania, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Lithuania, Portugal, Cyprus and the Netherlands.  As part of this project, staff will visit each of these countries and our children will have the opportunity to take part in some of these visits.  In return we will be welcoming staff and some children from each of the 9 schools. Together we will bw working on a project to develop pupils’ literacy skills through the use of traditional tales. We look forward to taking part in the project and to learning more about the culture and customs of each of the other countries.

Dates for your diary

Parents’ Evening

There will be a parents evening on 22^nd October 2013 from 3.15 – 6pm..  Please could parents’ return their appointment slips to the class teachers by Thursday 17^th October 2013. We look forward to seeing you all and working with you to both celebrate the work of and plan the next steps for our children.

I hope you all have a lovely week with your families.

Eid Mubarak!

Mrs Shepherd

Last week we enjoyed another great week at Copthorne and I am sure this week will be just as exciting. It is always such a pleasure to walk through our school and experience such a calm, learning atmosphere. I visited a number of classes last Friday and was thrilled to see all of our children working so hard and enjoying the inspiring lessons being delivered. It was especially pleasing to hear the mathematical language that the children in 6 Sycamore were using and the way that each one of the children could clearly explain what the terms meant  – Keep up the wonderful work, everyone!

Autumn Fayre

Once again thank you to the whole of our community, pupils and staff for making this event such a success.  I am thrilled to report we raised £952.46 which will be used to provide even more exciting learning activities for our children. One group of children have come to me with a great plan for building a greenhouse which would be used to grow seedlings to plant in our allotment and make a community vegetable garden. I think this would be a very good use for some of the money raised. The School Council will be able to discuss the idea this week and, hopefully, with their agreement, we can make a start on the project.

Safeguarding Audit

Last week the school underwent a rigorous audit of its safeguarding policies and procedures.  Safeguarding includes the arrangements in place to protect all of our children and staff both physically and emotionally.  The audit found that our practices and procedures are outstanding and comply  with all relevant laws and regulations regarding child protection and health and safety.  Thank you to all children, staff and parents for working with us to ensure Copthorne is such a safe and happy environment to work and learn in.

This week at Copthorne

Head Teacher’s Performance Appraisal

All staff including Head Teachers go through an annual staff appraisal process.  This involves targets being set related to each individual’s role in school.  Staff then work towards the achievement of these targets and their performance against these is evaluated annually. Today, Monday 7th October,  both Mr Jacques and I be taking part in our appraisal review and we will be setting our  targets  for the following year. If anyone is interested in finding out about how our targets are set and appraised feel free to ask or visit http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/deployingstaff/b00201884/new-arrangements for further information.

School Council Meeting

On Monday 7th October at 12.30pm the next School Council meeting will take place. We look forward to hearing all about our pupils’ ideas for the future at Copthorne.

Governing Body Meeting

This Wednesday, 9th October, at 4.30pm there will be a meeting of Copthorne’s Governing Body.  As you will know our Governors are  very important partners in the work we do at Copthorne and I look forward to sharing with them developments and plans since our last conversations.

Forest Schools

Half the pupils from 4 Beech will continue to take part in our Forest School Programme this Friday, 11th October.  Last week the group had an exiting time in spite of the rain – it turns out that mud is a good thing when you are wearing the right clothes! I am sure that this week’s experience will be just as positive.

Eid Parties and Asian Dress Day

On Friday, 11th October we are inviting all children, staff and volunteers to come to school in Asian dress. This will form part of our Eid celebrations. We will also be holding an Eid party in each class during the afternoon and Mrs Ramsden also has a special Eid meal planned for everyone.

Eid Holiday

School will be closed from Monday 14th to Wednesday 15th October inclusive. This includes an additional day to those published on our holiday calendar as Eid will now take place on Tuesday and Wednesday rather than  Monday and Tuesday as originally thought by the Local Authority.  Eid-al-Adha, which commemorates Ibrahim’s (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son to God. This festival also marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and is celebrated by a large proportion of our community. We have, therefore, used one of our training days to extend the holiday for parents and children and so allow our community to celebrate Eid at home. Teachers will be directed to carry out specific work at home during one of the 3 days.

School will reopen at the usual time on Thursday 17th October.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy a very happy Eid next week. Eid Mubarak!

Mrs Shepherd

What a wonderful week we had at Copthorne last week. I would like to say thank you to everybody for making our Community Autumn Fayre a great success.  It was a fantastic day with amazing weather and a great turnout from our community.

It always gives me great pleasure to see how many of our community members join in with our events and it shows that Copthorne really is at the heart of the community. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves as much as I did.

This week at Copthorne

School Council Meeting

Today, Monday 30th September, we will be holding our first School Council Meeting of this academic year.  The Council is  made up of two children from each year group.  The School Council represents the views of our children and suggests new ideas about how we can continually improve our school.

Teachers’ Unions Strike Action

On Tuesday 1st October, members of two of the largest teaching unions (NUT and NAS/UWT) will be taking strike action across a number of regions including Yorkshire. The majority of teachers at Copthorne are taking part in the strike and, therefore, we will not have enough staff to ensure the health and safety of pupils on our site. As a result, we have taken the decision to close the school to children for that 1 day.  Whilst staff are sorry for any inconvenience parents and carers may suffer as a result of their action, they feel that they have been forced into this position due to planned changes to their pay, conditions and pensions and have no alternative but to strike.

School we be open as usual on Wednesday, 2nd October.

YPO Food Fair

On Tuesday, 1st October Mrs Ramsden, our Catering Manager and Mr Stafford our Assistant Cook will be visiting the YPO Food Fair.  They will be meeting various companies to look at what new products are available for the school to use and give the catering staff new inspiration so that we can continue to provide our children with healthy, nutritious meals.

Visit from Our Educational Social Worker

Our Educational Social Worker will be visiting our school on Tuesday 1st October to meet myself and Mrs Nisar.  We will be discussing ways in which we can improve children’s’ attendance and support our families in getting children to school each day.

Safeguarding Audit

We will be having our annual Safeguarding Audit on Wednesday, 2nd October.  We have these checks to ensure that our safeguarding and child protection procedures meet the highest standards and are continually kept up to date and , as such,  we can ensure the safety and well-being of our children at all times.

Year 6 Stay safe Project

This week our year 6 children will be visiting Grange Interlink to take part in the Stay safe Project. The children will meet with members of the emergency services, road safety and water safety teams in order that they are taught how to be safe in different environments. The visits will take place as part of a normal school day and I am sure that, as usual, our children will be a credit to Copthorne.

School Nurse Visit

On Friday, 4th October the school nurses will be in school to talk to our Reception children about how important it is to keep their hands clean and to show them how to correctly wash their hands. We would be grateful if family members could talk to the children about hand washing at home so that we can work together on this important aspect of the children’s personal, health and social education. Thank you.

Forest Schools

A group of 4 Beech’s pupils will be the first group this year to take part in the Forest School’s programme on Friday, 4th October at the St Ives Estate.  This is always a popular trip with our children who will take part in activities to build their self-esteem and confidence in an outdoor environment. All learning during the day takes part outside and the children learn woodland craft and explore the woods through which they also develop care and responsibility for our environment. I am sure they will have a wonderful time and I look forward to hearing all about it when they return to school.

Wishing you all another great week.

Mrs Shepherd

Welcome to another exciting week at Copthorne. I hope that you have all enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend.

Last week we all continued to explore the features, customs, traditions and history of different countries as part of our Stephen Lawrence /diversity focus. It was a pleasure to see our children taking such an interest in others and being able to talk in such detail about all their new learning. Then, on Friday, we all had a wonderful day dressing up as our Building Learning Power heroes and I spent a very warm day dressed as the penguin Happy Feet. Once again our children showed that they are very clear about the qualities that make effective life-long learners and that they are working hard with their teachers and the whole staff team to develop these. We now look forward to the week ahead.

This week at Copthorne

Year 1 Health Checks

We will be welcoming the nursing team into our school at 1pm today, they will be carrying out the regular school health checks for our year 1 pupils.

School Meals Meeting 

On Tuesday, 24th September at 1pm, parents of children who regularly go home for lunch have been invited to attend a meeting with Mr Jacques, Mrs Ramsden (our Catering Manager) and myself.   Parents will have the opportunity to share their views about school lunches and sample some of the dishes that we serve to our children. We look forward to meeting those parents and hope that they will be encouraged to consider school meals for their children.

Reception Parents Learning Workshop

There will be a workshop on Wednesday 25th September from 9-10am for all parent/carers of children in Reception.  During the workshop parents will have the opportunity to observe a literacy and maths lesson after which there will be a presentation giving information about the methods used and the curriculum taught in Reception.  We are looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at this popular event so that we can share with you all the wonderful things our children will be learning this year.

Autumn Fayre

On Saturday, 28th September from 1 to 4pm we will be holding the Copthorne Community Autumn Fayre .  This promises to be a fun and exciting day with lots of stalls designed and run by our pupils alongside other activities such as nail art, face painting, archery, raffle, mendhi and a penalty shoot out.  There will also be a special performance by the Jaipur Kawa Brass Band.  Please support this wonderful event. We are hoping for good weather and we look forward to seeing as many of our local community members as possible.

Date for your diary

On Tuesday 22nd October we will be holding a parents’ evening from 3.15pm – 6.15pm.  This is a fantastic opportunity to meet your child’s class teacher and discuss their on-going progress. We will also, as on previous parents’ evenings, be collecting your views and ideas about Copthorne so that we can continue to ensure constant improvement together.

Have a very enjoyable week ahead with, I hope, continuing great weather.

Mrs Shepherd