Newsletter - w/c- 19/10/20

Dear Parent/Carer,

Please see below for some important notices about school life:

Parent and Carer Survey 2020

Please click here to complete our annual parent and carer survey.

It is very helpful for us to know what parents and carers think we are doing well as well as what parents and carers want us to further improve.

There is an open question at the end of the survey, allowing parents and carers to share any thoughts about the school they have not been able to share elsewhere in the survey. The responses for this question will be shared confidentially with Mr Short (Headteacher) and the Governing Body so will not be included in the results we publish on-line but will be considered for school improvement purposes.

For your information, the following changes that occurred in school in the past 12 months were because of comments made by parents and carers:

Class Facebook pages for all classes, and on-line learning journals in Reception, so parents and carers may see what their child's class is learning
Class timetables and teachers' planning saved on the school website so parents and carers may know what their child is learning across the week and across the year
A weekly e-mailed newsletter so parents and carers are kept up to date with events and changes in school
The ability for all children to be collected from their external classroom door, allowing for a parent/carer to communicate with their child's teacher, if desired
An apprentice Sports Coach hired to allow for more after-school sports clubs with no charge to parents and carers (N.B. we run 8 sports clubs per week now where previously we ran 3)
Healthier packed lunches since January 2020 when we introduced clear guidelines for parents and carers to follow, and we also removed desserts from our school dinner menu that were high in added sugar and replaced those with fruit-based desserts (e.g. fresh fruit, sugar-free fruit jelly, yogurts etc.)
A Family Support Worker was hired to allow for more parental engagement in school (e.g. the weekly coffee morning)

We thank you in advance for completing the survey and we look forward to reading your kind words about the school and its staff as well as reading your suggestions that we may use to make our school even better. The survey will close on Friday 23 October 2020 at noon.

Lockdown Procedure

As you may or may not know, the school has a lockdown procedure designed to keep the children and staff safe in the event of an emergency.

We practise this procedure once a year and we always let parents/carers, children and staff know that there is going to be a practice. This year, we will practise the lockdown procedure on Wednesday 21 October 2020.

Please click here to read what the lockdown procedure involves so you may discuss it with your child.

Parents and Carers' Consultation Evenings

Thank you to those parents/carers who have already booked a 10-minute telephone appointment with their child's class teacher on either Wednesday 21 October 2020, 3:30-6:10pm, or Thursday 22 October 2020, 3:30-6:10pm. If you have not made an appointment, please click here to find the information.

SchoolGrid - Booking School Meals for a Child

Thank you to all the parents and carers for working with us as we introduced this new system. Please remember to book your child's meals in advance in the coming weeks. We recommend booking your child's meals on a Sunday for the week ahead. Remember, if your child has a home packed lunch on one or all the days in a week, you do not need to log this on School Grid.

Please see the new menu for after the October half term on the School Website. This will shortly be available on School Grid. We start on Week 1 of the 3-weekly cycle on Monday 2 November 2020.

Black History Month - Workshops

We are holding storytelling and music workshops for the children in school next Tuesday and Wednesday as part of our learning for Black History Month. Please ask your child about the special visitors, and please also ask them about the historical persons they have learned about in class as part of their learning in English lessons.

Halloween Dress-up Day - Friday 23 October 2020

Every child in the school is placed into one of our four house teams: Eagle House, Falcon House, Hawk House, and Kestrel House. Each house has a local charity it raises money for once a year. Kestrel House are linked with Herts Young Homeless. To raise money for this charity, we are inviting children to dress up in Halloween-themed costume on Friday 23 October 2020. If you do not celebrate Halloween, you are very welcome to send your child to school in non-school uniform or school uniform.

We are asking for a donation of £1 per child; however, we will happily accept whatever money you are able to donate.

There will be prizes for the children wearing the most creative outfits.

Kind regards,

The School Office Team

Hurst Drive Primary School

admin@hurstdrive.herts.sch.uk

01992 624099