Jolly Phonics

23rd November 2009

Dear parents / Carers,

Jolly Phonics song book - £8.50
The perfect Christmas gift to support your child’s education

At our homework meeting we showed parents a copy of the Jolly Phonics song book with CD that we use to introduce phonics. If you would like a copy please return the attached slip with £8.50 in a sealed envelope with your child’s name on. Please hand to your child’s class teacher by Friday 27th November so that we can order the books to reach you by Christmas. Any orders received after this date will not reach you before Christmas. This is a perfect Christmas present. Your child will love to sing the songs with the CD that they have learnt in school.

If you have any questions or could not attend the home work meeting and would like to see the book please feel free to come and see me.

Yours sincerely,



Karen Deville
Deputy Head Teacher

Swine Flu - one or two cases

10th November 2009

Dear Parent or staff member,

This letter is to update you on the situation which has occurred in the school today.

We have been informed this morning that one pupil in Parsloes Primary school is being treated for Influenza A/H1N1 virus or “swine flu”. There are likely to be further children with similar symptoms who are presumed to have the same illness.

The Health Protection Agency has provided advice to the school. As there have been a significant number of children in the community with flu-like illness it is likely that transmission of the virus has already occurred in the school and the community. Therefore there would be no added public health benefit from closing the school.

Please be reassured that most children will have a mild illness similar to normal seasonal flu, and will recover. If you are concerned about your child, please phone your GP for advice.

It is very important that your child stays at home if they have flu-like symptoms, and only return to school when fully well. Your child should not attend school and not mix with others outside the home if they have symptoms. Those who do not have symptoms of flu can undertake their normal activities outside home as normal. If your child has already had symptoms of flu but is now well, there is no need to take any action for you or your family.

General infection control practices and good respiratory hand hygiene can help to reduce transmission of all viruses, including the human swine influenza. This includes:
Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a tissue when possible
Disposing of dirty tissues promptly and carefully
Maintaining good basic hygiene, for example washing hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to face or to other people
Cleaning hard surfaces (e.g. door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product
Making sure your children follow this advice
If you would like further advice please contact either NHS Direct on 0845 4647 or visit our website http://www.hpa.org.uk

Yours faithfully,

The London Flu Response Centre team

Swine Flu Update to Parents and Staff 16th November 2009

16th November 2009

Dear Parent or staff member,

This letter is to update you on the situation with regards to Swine Flu.

We have had five confirmed cases of Swine Flu in Parsloes Primary School, who are being treated for Influenza A/H1N1 virus or “swine flu”. There are likely to be further children with similar symptoms who are presumed to have the same illness.

The Health Protection Agency has provided advice to the school. As there have been a significant number of children in the community with flu-like illness it is likely that transmission of the virus has already occurred in the school and the community. Therefore there would be no added public health benefit from closing the school.

Please be reassured that most children will have a mild illness similar to normal seasonal flu, and will recover. If you are concerned about your child, please phone your GP for advice.

It is very important that your child stays at home if they have flu-like symptoms, and only return to school when fully well. Your child should not attend school and not mix with others outside the home if they have symptoms. Those who do not have symptoms of flu can undertake their normal activities outside home as normal. If your child has already had symptoms of flu but is now well, there is no need to take any action for you or your family.

General infection control practices and good respiratory hand hygiene can help to reduce transmission of all viruses, including the human swine influenza. This includes:
Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a tissue when possible
Disposing of dirty tissues promptly and carefully
Maintaining good basic hygiene, for example washing hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to face or to other people
Cleaning hard surfaces (e.g. door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product
Making sure your children follow this advice
If you would like further advice please contact either NHS Direct on 0845 4647 or visit our website http://www.hpa.org.uk/

Yours faithfully,

The London Flu Response Centre team

CHILDREN IN NEED

Thursday 19th November 2009

Dear Parents,

TOMORROW!!

BBC CHILDREN IN NEED APPEAL 2009

'DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT'

FRIDAY 20TH NOVEMBER

We would like to invite everyone in the school to wear Pyjamas/Wear clothes back to front to school on this day.

They can also bring in a teddy for the day or a Pudsey if they have one.

All we ask is that your child brings in £1 for this non-uniform day, which will be sent to Children in Need.

We will be having a party in each class during the afternoon.

We apologise that this letter has not been sent out sooner but as we have had an OfSTED Inspection this week we had to make sure that the children showed the inspectors how much progress they have made before thinking about parties. Thank you for understanding.

We hope to raise losts of money for Children in Need!

Yours sincerely

Mrs. A. Lipski

Head Teacher

Healthy Eating Workshops for Reception and Year One

11th November 2009.

PARENTS OF PUPILS IN RECEPTION

Healthy Eating Workshop on Tuesday 24th November at 9.15am

I am writing to invite you to a Healthy Eating Workshop for Reception pupils and parents.
This workshop is about making and eating healthy food with your child in school. It is run by the adult college.
This is a unique opportunity to come and work alongside your child in class in creating a meal.
If you are interested you will need to be able to come into school for the whole morning.

This workshop would cover:
The five food groups
The importance of a balanced diet
Involving your child in making food preparation fun
Tasting and using new foods
A chance to work with your child in class

The day would start at 9.15am with an adult only session and then you will join your child’s class to work with them in preparing a delicious salad.
Finally a meeting with the teacher from the adult college to end the workshop.

This is the third year that we have arranged this type of workshop and hope many of you are able to come.


PARENTS OF PUPILS IN YEAR ONE

Healthy Eating Workshop on Tuesday 24th November at 1.45pm

I am writing to invite you to a Healthy Eating Workshop for Year One pupils and parents.
This workshop is about making and eating healthy food with your child in school. It is run by the adult college.
This is a unique opportunity to come and work alongside your child in class in creating a meal.
If you are interested you will need to be able to come into school for the afternoon.

This workshop would cover:
The five food groups
The importance of a balanced diet
Involving your child in making food preparation fun
Tasting and using new foods
A chance to work with your child in class

The afternoon would start at 1.45pm with an adult only session and then you will join your child’s class to work with them in preparing a delicious salad.
Finally a meeting with the teacher from the adult college to end the workshop.

This is the third year that we have arranged this type of workshop and hope many of you are able to come.

If you are interested in attending this, please sign the slip below.

Yours sincerely


Mrs K. Deville
Deputy Head Teacher

Massage in Schools Programme

10th November 2009

Dear Parents/ Guardians,

I attended training on carrying out this programme with Primary School children last year. You may remember that we introduced this to our pupils in the Spring term of 2009 and to many parents during our ‘Walkabout’ evening. We are planning to start this again during our Anti-Bullying week, which starts on Monday 16th November 2009.

I will be supporting the teachers in carrying these out and will also send home an information pack on the exercises. The Massage in Schools Programme is a structured programme for 4-12 year olds introduced into many schools across the world since the early 1990s. The focus of the sessions is to promote positive touch and to develop care and respect amongst the pupils which is fundamental for healthy human relationships and fits in with our school development plan this year.

The massage sessions are run daily in class for 15 minutes, are fully clothed and will be from waist upwards, focusing on hands, arms, back and head. The children will be trained to follow out the 15 different exercises on each other with the teacher offering advice and support only. The massage is given and received with the child’s permission before they start and they say thank you to their partner at the end. There are many benefits and effects of the MISP. Some of which have been improved concentration and a child’s confidence and self esteem and there have been reductions in bullying and aggression. If you would like to research further then there is a website which may be of some interest to you, www.misa.org.uk.

If you do have any questions or concerns that you would like to discuss then please contact me through the school office.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Hayley Durrant
Y5/6 Co-ordinator

Brit Writers Awards

23rd October 2009

Dear Parent or Guardian

BRIT WRITERS AWARDS COMING SOON TO PARSLOES

I’m writing to you today to let you know about an exciting new national writing initiative that our school is now part of – the Brit Writers’ Awards.

The Brit Writers’ Awards (BWA) are being launched this year to encourage and inspire unpublished writers of all ages.

This pioneering awards programme is focusing, in particular, on young people in a bid to raise literacy skills all round – and that is why we were very keen to get involved.

Our school is now a proud member of the BWA 2010, and this brings numerous benefits to the school itself, to our staff and pupils – and to you, too. Because all of our pupils and parents are now entitled to submit as many entries to the Brit Writers’ Awards as they like for FREE!

So we’d like to ask you to start thinking about crafting an entry or two for the awards, during half term, while also encouraging and supporting your child’s own writing efforts. You could win a superb laptop computer or the overall prize of an amazing £10,000 – the largest prize ever offered to unpublished writers in the UK!

To submit as many FREE entries as you like, all you have to do is declare your connection to the school by using our unique BWA membership number: f9d8a8. Please keep this letter in a safe place, so that you have this number to hand. And don’t forget to use it – it entitles you to free entries. What’s more, if you win an award, the school also wins £5,000 cash!

Details of the different awards categories and how to submit your entries, as well as further information about the BWA, can found online at www.britwriters.co.uk

We are very enthusiastic about the opportunities that the BWA is offering for schools throughout the UK and we hope that you will also see the immense value of this initiative for everyone involved.

Thank you in advance for your support of your child’s work – and good luck with your own entries!



Karen Deville
Deputy Head Teacher

Pupil Takeover Day

3rd November 2008

Dear Parents.

TAKEOVER DAY FRIDAY 6TH NOVEMBER 2009

On Friday the 6th November our School will be taking part in “Takeover for the day.”

This is a national project that invites children to ‘takeover’ for the day in their local communities.

As a school we have decided to allow the School Council Members to participate and takeover some of the duties in school. Some of these duties will involve collecting the dinner money in the morning, answering the phones and greeting parents in the reception area between 11-2pm, playground and dinner duties with myself.

The rest of the school will be involved in activities in their classes.

Don’t worry we will be there to guide and assist them carrying out these tasks.

We would also appreciate your support and patience in helping these children on this day learn other skills.

Yours sincerely



Heather Bell
Yr 2-4 Co-ordinator.

Half Termly Update

Friday 20th November 2009

SWINE FLU UPDATE

As I have told you this week, we have had confirmed cases of Swine flu in school. As a result of this we are putting the following into place and would appreciate your co-operation with this.

1.All children in the school to bring in their own water bottles, these can be filled up in school, but there will be no cups in any classrooms.
2.There will be no cups by the water fountains, there will be a limited amount of disposable cups by the fountains.
3. All classes will be provided with paper towels, anti bacterial hand wash and tissues.
4. We will continue to reinforce the ‘Catch it , Bin it, Kill it’ message.
5. We are following HPA guidelines if children are sent to the school office during the day.
6. We are keeping the Local Authority updated regularly.

HEALTHY SCHOOLS

This is a reminder that children should not be having any chocolate bars, sweets, fizzy drinks or chocolate coated products in their packed lunches. This has been the school policy for at least three years now.

DATES for the REST OF THE TERM

Friday 4th December Year 5 & 6 Choir visiting a school in Essex
Wednesday 9th December KS1 Christmas Concert to parents at 2pm
Thursday 10th December KS 1 Christmas Concert to parents at 10am
Friday 11th December Carol Concert
Week 14th December NO CLUBS THIS WEEK
Tuesday 15th December Nursery and Reception Christmas Concert to parents at 2pm
Wednesday 16th December Nursery and Reception Christmas Concert to parents at 10am
Wednesday 16th December Class Christmas parties in the afternoon
Thursday 17th December Christmas Dinner. Last day for Nursery
Friday 18th December Last day of term

Yours sincerely


Mrs. A. Lipski
Head Teacher