Newsletter

Newsletter

5th January 2012

Dear Parents and Friends,

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope it has started well and that you are enjoying your children being back at school once more. We’re pleased to see them as ever and we’re going to have a good term learning together.

We look forward to meeting many of you at the next round of Review meetings which we hope you will find informative and helpful. It will be good to hear from you about progress your child is making.

Absence
Please will you ensure that you ring school in the event that your child is ill and unable to attend school. Pressure is put on taxi drivers if they are asked to remember to give us messages about sick children. It would be greatly appreciated if you could just pick up the phone to give the school office the details.

Clothes and belongings
We are needing to send out reminders about the need for all children’s belongings to be clearly labelled! Staff are having to spend too much time on “Guess who this belongs to”! Your help in this matter is needed. Thanks in anticipation.

INSET Changes
Due to difficulty securing trainers for our upcoming staff training days on Sensory Learning and Complex Needs we have had to change the dates of upcoming INSET Days. School will now be closed to children on:

FRIDAY 23RD MARCH,
TUESDAY 24th APRIL
And TUESDAY 8TH MAY 2012.

The school will now be OPEN on Friday 30th March which was previously advertised as an INSET day.  This will complete our 5 INSET Days for this academic year.

Questionnaire
Thank you to everyone who returned the Parents Questionnaires in December. I will be sharing the results with Governors later this month and will circulate with our February newsletter.

Hellos and Goodbyes
We will be welcoming Orlando, Patrick, Archie later this month. We will be saying goodbye to Daisy.

Reception Admissions for September 2012
Is your child due to start Reception in September 2012?

If so you should have already received a letter from Gloucestershire County Council at the end of last month explaining what you have to do.  It is really important that you complete this process even if you plan for your child to stay at Battledown for their Reception Year.
Please DO NOT write Battledown on the form as this will confuse the system! Please contact Sarah Bell or myself if you want to talk about the process, discuss options for schools, need some help or if you haven’t received the letter.
You have until Sunday 15th January 2012 to complete the online form.

Emergency School Closures
In the hopefully unlikely event of the school having to close - perhaps due to snow, power failure or sickness - there is a website to keep parents informed of the situation. Please log on to www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/closedschools

We will use the Text messaging service to contact you directly as soon as possible. Please make sure we have your most up-to-date details.

Updates will also be made on local radio stations, such as, Radio Gloucestershire and Severn Sound.

And the final word on Christmas at Battledown....
It was lovely to see so many families and friends at our two Nativity performances and our other Christmas events. Your presence made it all the more special for the children. I’m sure that those able to attend agree that the children and staff did an amazing job!

The BFG Christmas Fayre, Christmas cards and other goods raised an amazing £1,430.72!

Thanks once again!!

And a special thanks to the BFG Committee, staff, parents and friends who helped us achieve an outstanding result.

Best wishes,
Jane