Daily Archives: January 11, 2015

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good week with a return to normal routines after the school holiday. It was lovely to see the children back in school on Monday, happy and ready to work hard.

P.E. For Reception Children

Starting this term, Reception children will be starting P.E. lessons.  They will therefore require full P.E. Kit.  Our P.E. kit consists of a plain white t-shirt or polo shirt, some plain black jogging bottoms and some black P.E. pumps. Once children bring their kit into school, this will be transferred into childrens’ P.E. bags which are provided by the school.  Parents are not required to buy a P.E. bag to store clothes.  The kit will remain in school until the end of each half term when it will be sent home for washing and will need to be returned on the first day back after the holidays.  1R will be having P.E. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 2R will have P.E. on Wednesdays and Fridays each week. This is a very important part of our children’s learning and general development, supporting their coordination, team-work and – of course – good health. I know they will all enjoy themselves. Hopefully this will be the first step on the road for some future Olympians.

This week at Copthorne

Fluoride Varnishing Programme

The Fluoride Varnish Dental Team will be visiting Foundation stage on Monday 12th January to recruit children to the programme.  They are hoping to meet as many parents as possible for consent to apply the fluoride varnish to their childrens’ teeth.  The fluoride in the varnish will help to keep their teeth strong, adding a layer of protection against decay.  The team will then come back into school on Monday 19th January to apply the varnish.

Local Authority School Development Review

On Tuesday 13th January the Local Authority review panel will be coming into school.  The review panel will be looking at standards of achievement at Copthorne including the quality of teaching leadership and management as well as pupils’ behaviour and attendance.

An important element when judging pupils’ behaviour is that our children come to school each day on time and are smartly dressed in the correct school uniform.  We ask that, as usual, you support the school in this by making sure that children attend punctually and are wearing the correct uniform.  This includes; plain black shoes not trainers or boots.  No jewellery (apart from plain stud earrings), plain headscarves (no sparkles, lace or jewels) and sensible haircuts.  Thank you in advance for your co-operation in this matter.  I look forward to sharing the great work going on at Copthorne with the review team.

Pupil Premium

As mentioned in my letter to Parents’ last week, at present Copthorne is missing out on at least £120,000.  Our community has the lowest percentage of pupils receiving the Pupil Premium in the Exceed Alliance.  The Pupil Premium is given to school for each child in receipt of free school meals (this does not include the Universal Free School meals that every child in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receives).  This money will be used to buy learning resources and to pay for more teachers for your children therefore improving the quality of their education still further.  It has come to our attention that we have a number of families who may be entitled to free school meals for their children but whom, at present, have not registered for them.  If you get any of the following support payments your child may be entitled to receive free school meals:

•  Income Support
• Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided you are not also entitle to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more that £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit  run-on-paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit

We do understand that there are a number of you that have not applied for free school meals because you prefer your child to have a packed lunch, or in a few cases to go home for lunch.  If this is the reason why you have not applied, I urge you strongly to register as – even if you do not take up the free school meal on offer – it will still mean that our school will receive extra funding. If you believe that your child may be eligible for Pupil Premium you need to have registered with the local authority. In order to support you with the registration process, parents can drop into school where staff will be ready to help you in completing the online application. All you need to bring with you is your National Insurance number and details: names, age, date of birth – for yourself and each child who is of school age.  If you are unable to come in to school to apply please apply on line at www.bradford.gov/schoolmeals. It is really important to our school that as many of you as possible apply. This will mean that we can provide even more learning opportunities for our children.

In order to support families in receipt of free school meals, we also provide each Pupil Premium child with 2 school jumpers free of charge so please make sure you apply!

Thank you so much for your support in this matter. If you have any questions about this, please do not hesitate to contact school. 

Thank you so much for your support you give to Copthorne and once again I wish you a great week.

Mrs Shepherd