I would like to wish you all a warm welcome back to Copthorne and hope that you had a lovely summer and a wonderful Eid. It was lovely to see our whole community smiling and happy to be back last Thursday. A big thank you to all our parents, carers and families for making sure that the children arrived on time and looked so smart in their uniforms and were ready to begin learning straight away.
Important News
New Staff
We have several new members of staff joining Copthorne team: this year and we would like to wish them a very warm welcome. I know that they will all help us to continue to move Copthorne forward and I am sure zthat they will enjoy working at Copthorne as much as I do:
Mr C Lloyd : Assistant Head Teacher
Miss L Azzopardi: Reception Class Teacher
Miss S Horton: Year 3 Class Teacher
Miss H Nelson: Year 6 Class Teacher
Mr R Rizvi: Year 5 Class Teacher
Mr A Sandhu : Year 5 Class Teacher
Miss G Townend: Year 1 Class Teacher
Mr J Redding: Schools Direct Participant
Mrs A Zafar: Temporary School Business Manager
Mrs E Legzdina : Cleaner
The Linear Park/Back Gate
In order to ensure that our children are safeguarded, from today, Monday 9th September, the back gate will no longer be open at lunchtime. Parents collecting or dropping children off for nursery will need to use the main gate at the front of school. The front nursery gate will be manned to ensure that the site and therefore our children are kept safe. Whilst we understand that this will mean a small number of parents having to walk around the building to drop their child off at nursery, or collect them for lunch, we feel that this inconvenience is a small price to pay for the safety of all of our children and I know you will support us in this matter. Thank you.
Dinner Money
Thank you to everyone for sending in dinner money so promptly for the start of the year. Please note that, from today – Monday 9th September – dinner money can only be sent in to school on a Monday. All money sent in to school must be in a sealed envelope labelled with the child’s name and class and clearly showing what the money is for. Thank you for your support in this matter.
Investors in Pupils Award 
This year we will be working towards achieving the Investors in Pupils Award. Investors in Pupils builds on the principles of Investors in People: at its heart is pupil voice and pupil participation. We want Copthorne’s pupils to be confident, independent learners who have a clear voice and active part to play in leading the school forward. Investors in Pupils helps pupils find out about their school, the jobs that are carried out by everyone in it and the school budget – how this works and their part in making sure that public money is spent wisely. It supports them in setting targets for the class and for themselves whilst recognizing the importance of the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in their education, and how they as pupils can make a difference.
All children will have their own behaviour target which they will identify themselves. All classes will be writing their own ethos statements along with class attendance and a class behaviour target.
As part of this initiative we will be further developing our School Council, encouraging members to manage their own budget to support school improvement.
Website
I hope you are enjoying our new website. We are continuing to develop this and would welcome any ideas and comments that you may have. The address of our website is: Copthorne.ngfl.ac.uk.
Please ensure that, if you do not want your child to be photographed for use on our website or as part of any promotional materials for school, then please complete the form attached to the letter sent home on Friday and return this to school by Friday, 13th September. Please note only complete the form if you do not want your child’s photograph to be used. At no point will any child’s name be shown or made public without prior permission from parents.
Life Channel
We are all very excited about our new Life Channel screens which you may have noticed are situated in the front and back playgrounds. These will be used to show news about school, up and coming events, general public information and most importantly photographs of our children and their work alongside any films that they produce.
This week at School
Stephen Lawrence Education Standard
The Stephen Lawrence Education Standard was developed in response to the tragic murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and the publication of the Macpherson Inquiry Report into Stephen’s death in 1999.
Developed in 2003, the Standard is awarded to schools, early year’s centres and colleges which demonstrate knowledge, understanding and evidence of promoting inclusion and race equality to help transform education. The programme provides a powerful framework and programme for schools to work in partnership to enrich and improve the learning experience of children, young people and adults.
This year at Copthorne we will be working together to achieve the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard, using this as a vehicle to further develop our pupils’ understanding and celebration of diversity and to deepen our entire community’s understanding of racial equality, harmony and tolerance. This week sees the launch of this initiative.
Throughout the week, children will be taking part in various activities such as Art workshops, Drum/Dance workshops and steel pan drumming. Each activity aims to show how different cultures are expressed through art.
Also, throughout the first half term, each year group’s Creative Curriculum will be based around a particular country. This will give our children the opportunity to learn about one country in detail and to come to a deeper understanding of the rich cultures which make up our diverse world.
To coincide with Stephen Lawrence Week, some of the lunch menu this week will be themed:
Tuesday’s menu will have an African theme and will include: Chicken Tagine (braised chicken with fruit), Vegetable Goulash and cous cous with vegetables.
Wednesday will have an Australian theme which will consist of Beefburger or veggie burger.
Friday will be Caribbean day and children will be served Jerk chicken (spicy chicken), Spicy veggie pasty and rice and peas.
Enjoy your week, everyone!
Important Future Dates
Week Commencing 19/09/13: Parents’ meetings for KS1, LKS2 &UKS2, during which parents will be informed of expectations and ways to support their children. Dates for these meetings will be confirmed and issued next week.
Saturday, 28th September 2013: Copthorne Primary School Autumn Fayre
22nd October 2013 – 3.15pm-6pm: Parents evening
Wednesday 23rd to Friday 25th October 2013: Year 6 residential to Hawkshead
As you can see it is going to be a very exciting year ahead for our pupils and staff.
Have a lovely week, everyone.
Mrs Shepherd