We are fast approaching the festive season which is always a very busy and wonderful time at Warren Park. I have included the key dates for you again, with the addition of some Christmas party dates and also some other important organisation information.

Children in Need

This Friday (18^th November) we will have a pyjama day in school to support the BBC Children in Need appeal. The children can wear their pyjamas to school as well as embrace all things spotty. As they will still go outside for break and lunch time, it is really important that they are warm and have sensible footwear. All donations to the appeal will be very gratefully received.

Book and uniform shop

We will have our book and pre-loved uniform shop open in the school hall this Friday (18^th November) at 3.15 pm. This is the perfect opportunity to pick up some books for Christmas presents at the very reasonable price of £1.50. Pre-loved school uniform is available with items starting at 50p. Please do make sure that you have cash for this event.

Donations of pre-loved uniform are always very gratefully received. Please send items in with your children or drop them off at the school office.

Online Safety workshops

You will have received a letter from the COSMIC team regarding the Online Safety workshop drop-ins for parents. These sessions are for parents who might have some concerns about their child’s online gaming, need some help with setting up parental locks on digital devices or have any questions about games or apps that your children might play.

Lee Haywood is an online safety expert with a wealth of knowledge and expertise, he will be running all 3 sessions. Year groups will have Online Safety lessons with Lee during their COSMIC time.

The parent sessions will be in the school hall and we have allocated parents different days depending on the year group of your child. However, if you have children in several year groups then please just choose any day.

Monday 21^st November – Year R, Year 1 & Year 2       8:45 -9:30

Wednesday 23^rd November- Year 3 & Year 4                8:45-9:30

Thursday 24^th November – Year 5 & Year 6                  8:45- 9:30

The COSMIC team will also be available in person to discuss any other topics that are covered within in your child’s COSMIC sessions.

We asked for completed reply slips be returned to the school office by Wednesday 16^th November however, we will still accept them until 9.30 am on Thursday 17^th November (in the event that you do not have a reply slip, please phone the school office).

Inset days

On Friday 25^th November 2022 school will be closed for the children.

On Friday 23^rd and Monday 26^th June 2023 school will be closed for the children. (If these dates are secondary school transition days for Year 6 pupils, they will be expected to attend their new school)

Breakfast Club

Thank you to everyone who has attended Breakfast Club and for helping us to make a successful transition over to online booking. As we have previously indicated and in order to ensure that we can maintain offering the club, the governing body has made the decision that from January 3rd 2023 we will be charging £1.00 per child per day. Below are dates on which booking will open for the following half term. From December 7^th any bookings made for 2023 will include online payment for the club – no cash payments will be accepted.

Bookings for the following half term will open on:

Wednesday 7^th December at 5pm for Spring 1

Wednesday 1^st February at 5pm for Spring 2

Wednesday 22^nd March at 5pm for Summer 1

Wednesday 17^th May at 5pm for Summer 2

Wednesday 12^th June at 5pm for Autumn 1

We ask that you only use this service if it is absolutely required. Credits to the account for breakfast club will only be issued if a child is unwell and does not attend school. Bookings and cancellations can be made up until 24 hours before – 7.30am the day before the booking.

Christmas dates

Year teams will send out additional information where required:

Wednesday 7^th December      Year R, 1 and 2 Christmas Lunch and Christmas Jumper Day

Thursday 8^th December          Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 Christmas Lunch and Christmas Jumper Day

Thursday 8^th December          Christmas disco for Year R, 1 and 2     4.00 – 5pm

Thursday 8^th December          Christmas disco for Year 3, 4, 5 and 6  5.15 – 6.30pm

Tuesday 13^th December         Christmas concerts: Infants 10 am / Juniors 2 pm

Wednesday 14^th December    Christmas concerts: Juniors 10 am / Infants 2 pm

Thursday 15^th December         Year R, 1 and 2 Christmas parties (party clothes worn to school)

Thursday 15^th December        Year 3 and 4 Christmas parties (party clothes not needed)

Thursday 15^th December        Christmas Fair 3.30pm

Friday 16^th December              Year 6 Christmas reward treat / Year 5 Christmas party

Friday 16^th December             Whole school – non-uniform / Christmas jumpers

Please note the change to the Christmas Disco timings as we have now decided to separate the infants and juniors into two different sessions. Tickets will be £1.00 (cash only) and we ask that children bring no more than £1.50 for drinks and sweets. All children must be collected by an adult from the school hall. Further information coming soon in a letter / reply slip.

A separate communication will be sent out soon regarding the ordering of Christmas lunches.

We will not be asking children to bring in food for the Christmas parties as we will provide treats in school.

We will have a post box for the children to post Christmas cards from Monday 5^th December – please ensure that cards have the full name of the recipient and their year group.

We are really pleased to be holding our traditional Christmas Fair on Thursday 15^th December from 3.30 – 5.00 pm in the school hall and we are hoping that you will be able to come along for some Christmas fun! We are asking for donations of bric-a-brac, toys, games, books and any other items that you may have as well as sweets, chocolates and biscuits for our Chocolate Tombola. Children will be rewarded with extra stamps on their Cheeky Charlie cards for their donations. If you know of any businesses who would be willing to donate a raffle prize, we would love to hear from them. Many thanks for your support and we look forward to seeing you at the fair.

The staff at Warren Park would like to share our belief that Christmas is for the children and to this end, although we appreciate the kind gifts that are often given, we draw as much pleasure from knowing that your children are your most important priority this Christmas. Therefore, we ask that you don’t buy presents but share any messages you may have for the staff in a card or in person as your words are more valuable to us than anything else.

Parents’ Evenings

This year our Parents’ Evening appointments will take place on Tuesday 24^th January and Thursday 26^th January 2023 between 3.30 – 6.30pm. These meetings will be in person and will be booked using the online booking system. Further details of how to do this will be sent in a letter on our return after the Christmas holiday. Please also remember that your child’s teacher is happy to speak to you at any time so do not hesitate to make an appointment via the school office for an in person or telephone conversation.

We are really looking forward to seeing you over the festive season and celebrating together once again!

With very best wishes,

Elizabeth Cooper

Breakfast Club

Just a reminder that from Monday 7^th November 2022 breakfast club spaces will need to be booked via the Magicbooking system. In order that we can staff and resource this provision so that it can remain an enjoyable way to start the school day for your children, we will be limiting breakfast club to 120 places. We ask that you only use this service if it is absolutely required. The booking system is already open for this half term. If you have any difficulties booking then please do contact the office and they will be happy to assist you. We ask that you only book the sessions that you know your child will need. If a child does not turn up for 3 booked sessions and attends school, we will reserve the right to withdraw attendance at breakfast club. Bookings and cancellations can be made up until 24 hours before – 7.30am the day before the booking.

We are trialling the organisation of this booking system this term and will keep you updated of any changes that we may need to make. For now, our breakfast club remains free but due to the high costs that we are currently facing this is something that the governing body are reviewing for January 2023.

Poppy appeal

We are pleased to be supporting The Royal British Legion once again this year with their poppy appeal. We will be selling poppies in school for a donation as well as a number of additional items such as wrist bands which are priced between 50p and £1.00.

Thank you

Thank you so much for ensuring that your children have been in school ready for our new starting time of 8.45am. The register is taken almost straight away so that lessons can begin promptly. Arrival after this time must be through the school office and will be recorded as late. Since the loss of learning due to the pandemic, the government expects schools to monitor and challenge lateness. Thank you for working with us to make sure that your child/ren get the very best out of their time at school by being on time every day.

Children in Need

On Friday 18^th November we will have a pyjama day in school to support the BBC Children in Need appeal. The children can wear their pyjamas to school as well as embrace all things spotty. As they will still go outside for break and lunch time, it is really important that they are warm and have sensible footwear. All donations to the appeal will be very gratefully received.

Christmas dates

We will provide further information about Christmas activities later in the term but here are some important dates for your diary:

Wednesday 7^th December              Year R, 1 and 2 Christmas Lunch

Thursday 8^th December                  Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 Christmas Lunch

Thursday 8^th December                  Christmas Disco 4.30 – 6pm

Tuesday 13^th December               Christmas Concerts: Infants am / Juniors pm

Wednesday 14^th December            Christmas Concerts: Juniors am / Infants pm

Thursday 15^th December                Christmas Fair 3.30pm

We will have a post box for the children to post Christmas cards from Monday 5^th December – please ensure that cards have the full name of the recipient and their year group.

Safeguarding

Please can we ask for your ongoing support in keeping our site as safe as possible for the children especially at the beginning and end of the day. The gates are released at 8.40am and 3.05pm. At the beginning and end of the day we minimise traffic movement on our site and we kindly ask that you do not come on to the site before these times or release gates from inside to allow early access. Many children attend breakfast club in the morning and classes will still be engaged in PE or COSMIC activities outside until 3.05pm; we have a safeguarding duty of care to protect the children by minimising unsupervised adults on site. Please also ensure that you enter the school grounds via the pedestrian gates and not the vehicle access gates. Many thanks for your ongoing support with this.

Inset days

On Friday 25^th November 2022 school will be closed for the children.

On Friday 23^rd and Monday 26^th June 2023 school will be closed for the children. (If these dates are secondary school transition days for Year 6 pupils, they will be expected to attend their new school)

With very best wishes,

Elizabeth Cooper