Daily Archives: September 29, 2013

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