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Your Weekly Letter from the Head Teacher-Thursday May 17th 2012a | Thu, 17 May 2012
Dear Parents and Carers,
The news we have all been waiting for is finally here – ‘The Key Stage 2 Trim Trail is finished and children have been trialling it for the first time today’. The rain stopped long enough on Monday and Wednesday to allow the manufacturing company to complete the safety surface around the climbing equipment. The children have been fantastic and have waited so patiently for this exciting new addition to our playground to be ready. Climbing equipment like this is very expensive and without the relentless support from the ‘Friends of West Jesmond’ this would not have been possible so on behalf of us all – Thank you!
We will be looking at the best way to ensure we all play safely on the trim trail including the use of a one way system (starting at the football pen end next to the sign and finishing at the climbing wall). I know the teachers can’t wait to give it a go!!
PUNCTUALITY
Mrs Elliott has been doing a detailed analysis of our registers and the great news is our overall attendance continues to be outstanding. We are well above the national average for attendance with many of our children achieving 98.5% and above. However, we are growing increasingly concerned at the number of children arriving late for school. This has suddenly increased and we now have a number of children not arriving at school till well after 9 a.m. This is not a great start to the school day for the children and adds up very quickly into substantial periods of time being missed. Our school opens at 8.45 a.m. (first bell and whistle) and all children should be inside by 8.50 a.m. (second bell). Our Education Welfare Officer is going to be looking at our data and contacting families where there is substantial lateness. So please, please get to school on time.
You Said! We Did!! (From School Council Minutes 3rd May 2012)
What our children love about our school!
• We are proud of our teachers. There is always someone to talk to if we are worried.
• After school club and all the clubs make it more interesting.
• Everyone is proud of our school and wants to make it a good place to be.
• Everyone has someone to play with and people will help them find someone if they are lonely.
You said! We did!!
• There was somewhere cosy and warm to “hang out” at playtimes
• Have more lessons outside on the playground for a change and have little quiet spots for small groups to sit.
We are going to look at our playground now the Trim Trail is finished and see where we can put our seating and picnic tables to make better spaces for sitting. I will also tell the teachers about your request for more lessons in the playground and see what we can plan in the hopefully better summer weather!
Mr Wallis-Clarke’s Young Achievers
Tess , Grace (both Year 4) and William (Y1) won the Junior Pizza competition at Pizza Express and got to make the pizza they had designed. The photographs of the finished pizzas were fantastic and a great time was had by all!
Becky won the Under 10’s quiz as part of the Jesmond Community Festival from Jesmond Pool. She answered questions on sport and the Diamond Jubilee and won a great goodie bag. Wei continues to succeed in his chess prowess and won the UK Chess Challenge Mega-Final and was crowned the Under 7 Supremo!
Molly in Year 3 passed her Stage 2 Piano Exam with distinction at the Sage and Abbie in Year 4 has been doing some great research into the Coronation and unearthed some great artefacts from the 1950’s which she brought in to show me. Reception children have been doing some tremendous writing and I saw 3 great stories from Alistair , Elspeth and Joseph this week. They had all written pages and pages re-telling a traditional tale including Snow White and the Gingerbread Man. They have made outstanding progress in their writing this year and we are all very proud of them.
Finally, in Year 3, Hannah , Ursula and Hannah achieved their first Brownie Camp badges after their expedition up to Peebles in Scotland and Ruby won the Newcastle Libraries Character Trail competition.
I continue to look forward to hearing from you and your children in the future so that we can share everyone’s success within our school community.
WEST JESMOND INTERNATIONAL EVENT
A reminder that our fantastic new International Event will be taking place next week on Wednesday 23rd May from 5.30 – 8 pm in the School Hall. We will have a fantastic array of food, music and culture from around the world representing the wonderful diverse nature of our school. This promises to be a tremendous event and we would love to see lots of parents and pupils there to celebrate this central aspect to our school. I can’t wait so please try and get along and experience sounds, smells and tastes from around the world.
With my very Best Wishes to you all for another very successful week ahead at West Jesmond
Gary Wallis-Clarke
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0191 281 0000
