Updates from Mrs Norden

Our news often talks about SCSSP events, and the last few weeks have seen many, but I realise that many of our parents and carers may not know much about them.  The South Cambs School Sport Partnership (SCSSP) is based at Comberton Village College and works with 51 primary schools, 10 secondary schools and 5 special schools across the district of South Cambridgeshire.

Their aim is to ensure all children in the partnership are 'happy, healthy and active' and offer a range of support and programmes to enhance the provision of Physical Education (PE), physical activity and school sport to achieve this to partnership schools. 

As one of their subscribing primaries, we benefit from a range of training and activities, including tournaments and other events across the partnership.  To find out more about the SCSSP please click here.

Many of our sporting event news articles relate to events the SCSSP have organised, and today you can see more news from recent ones from the last week, or so, below. Our teams have embodied the spirit of the games' ethos across the tournaments played and individuals have found new active interests to pursue. Please have a read to see what the children have been doing.

I would like to say a huge thank you to Marc, Emily, Claire and Will for a fabulous quiz last Friday evening.  It was lots of fun, entertaining and I definitely learnt some new facts.  Thank you also to the PTA for their support in organising the event, especially Mrs Carminati. We hope everyone who joined us enjoyed it too, and we look forward to next year's event.

Final details are in on the winning group for this year's smarties challenge.  Well done to Reception for all their coin collecting, winning with a total of £156.05.  Please see details in the PTA section below for 2nd and 3rd. 

Across the year, we have engaged in fundraising for other charitable organisations beyond the PTA and I wanted to say how grateful we are for your support in this.  I know the charities have valued every penny.  So far we have contributed the following (Red Nose Day contributions will be finalised soon):

• Children in Need £308.50,

• Addenbrookes Charitable Trust for the children's hospital (Yr3/4 production collection) £393.74,

• NSPCC Number Day £160

Our final PTA event of this term will be an Easter cake sale on Monday (25th).  All donations are welcome, and the cakes will be on sale at the end of the day in the rear playground if the weather is fine, or the hall if the weather is inclement.  Please see the poster further down for more details. 

This week we have seen an increase in various illnesses in pour children across the school including coughs, colds and vomiting. Please try to take Covid tests where possible to support our vulnerable pupils and staff, keeping children off for three days if they test positive.  If your children have a high temperature, they should not return until it has returned to normal.

There are more updates and lots of new community news details below, so please keep reading.  Also, the newsletter always contains permanent, and temporary, useful links to areas of our website, and to external information, to support you in planning and family organisation, so it is a good place to refer back to.

                                                                                                              _{Anna-Claire Norden} 

_Headteacher

Spring Admin Updates

Phone system issues yesterday (21st) - thank you for your patience yesterday with our answer phone issues. Your understanding is much appreciated and all is working properly now.

School dinner cost will be increasing from 1st April due to the rising costs of food, fuel, energy and employment.  From the start of the summer term a school meal will cost £2.60.

New lunch menu - the new lunch menu begins after the Easter holidays.  This can be found by clicking here.

Admin General Information

Office hours - 8.30am to 4pm except Wednesday, which is 8.45am to 4pm

EY and P Payments - a reminder these are due at the start of the month and all balances should be paid on receipt of payment request.

Useful Information for parents and carers - can be accessed on our website page 'Parent Information' which can be accessed by clicking here.

Diary Dates - can be accessed on the website by clicking here

Chicken Eggs - If you would like a pack of our chickens' eggs please complete the very short form accessed by clicking here.

Community News

Standing Tall Exhibition and Trail - 21st March to 2nd June - Riley our Rights' Respecting Giraffe went into the Grand Arcade this week for the 'Standing Tall' exhibition.  The exhibition is made up of large giraffes decorated by local artists and mini giraffes decorated by Cambridgeshire schools and youth organisations.  You can find a poster with more details by clicking here.

Cambridge Festival 23rd - 24th March -  free talks, workshops and interactive activities for families.  Please click the links below for posters for more information:

Family Weekend poster with QR code for more details

What would nature do? an imaginarium takeover poster

Young'Uns Sean Cooney performs 'When Cambridgeshire sings' project songs including our very own 'To the Lakes' written by our Year 5s of 2019.

Mathematics discovery day Saturday 23rd click here for details

OSKA (Over Skate park association) are working to install a new skate park in Over so please come and see the proposed designs for a new skate/ BMX/ skateboard park  and have a say in what your park will offer. We will be in the Seminar room at Over Community Centre on Tuesday 26th March from 3:30pm until 7:00pm. Your views are really important.

Cambridge Literary Festival - 20th - 21st April.  Click here for the children's programme

Jane Rogers' EIFA team workshops for the summer term: 

April/May online workshops various topics for parents and carers - click here for details 

May Transition workshops EY to Primary and Primary to Secondary - click here for details

Don't forget that the EIFA monthly newsletters and workshop flyers can always be found on our website.  There is a permenat link to the page towards the end of our newsletter, and it can be accessed through a tab on our 'Letters home' page.  Click here to view the website page.

Fen Drayton Tennis Club are  providing a junior tennis coaching programme, running term time from now until the summer holiday.  Lessons are available on Wednesday afternoons. Click here for further information.

Cambridgeshire Skills Course - due to popular demand, three more start dates for one of their newest online courses: "Supporting Your Anxious Child." have been set for the summer term. The course is designed to assist parents, carers, and family members in understanding the causes of anxiety in children and providing effective support to help them navigate their challenges.  More details including dates can be accessed by clicking here.

PTA News - access their website page here for ways to support our fundraising

Smarties Challenge results:

Reception raised the most with £156.05, Otters 2nd with £15.10 and Swans 3rd with £102.73.

The total raised was £815.13 with £710.13 profit.  A huge thank you for all your coin collecting.

Next Events

Easter Cake Sale 25th March - see poster below for details.  Donations of cakes very welcome.

Advice from the CYP Community Asthma Team for keeping well over the Easter holidays.

Prepare for pollen season – know your pollen triggers

Pollen season will soon be upon us and being prepared during hay fever season can help reduce your child’s risk of an asthma attacks.

Different trees and plants release pollen at different times, but changeable weather in the UK makes it hard to predict exactly when this will happen. If your child gets hay fever symptoms all year round, you could have non-allergic rhinitis or an allergy to something else.

If your child gets hay fever and takes antihistamines, start giving them two to four weeks before the symptoms normally start. Taking them early means that when pollen starts being released, the medication has already built up in your child’s bloodstream, so they may be less likely to react.

If they use a steroid nasal spray, it can take up to two weeks to start working, so start using it before your child’s symptoms usually begin.

Asthma & Lung UK have a pollen calendar to help you track and spot your child’s symptoms. You can check it out here. https://www.asthmaandlung.org.uk/pollen-calendar

How to reduce your risk of hay fever symptoms

These steps will reduce your risk of your child’s symptoms getting worse, or an asthma attack as a result of hay fever.

1. Take any preventer or maintenance treatment every day, as prescribed. This will help reduce the risk of their lungs reacting to pollen. When you have asthma, this is especially important, as the asthma preventer inhalers contain a low dose of steroid, which reduces inflammation that can be triggered by pollen.
2. Always carry a reliever inhaler, (usually blue) with you. You might also call this a rescue inhaler. These inhalers quickly relax the muscles in your airways and ease your asthma symptoms on the spot.
3. Try to stay away from their triggers, if possible. Take extra care if you’re out and about when it’s warm, humid and windy, or if the pollen count or the level of pollution is high.   Check the weather on your TV or online or use a weather app on your phone to get weather and pollen alerts.
4. Take hay fever medicines. They help reduce the allergic reaction that could be making your symptoms worse.
5. Call your GP surgery or 111. They can help if your asthma symptoms get worse.

For more information on Allergies please click the link in the following document: 

Allergic Rhinitis and Hay Fever Allergy Advice.docx

Happy holidays from the CYP Community Asthma Team!

Phonics training for Parents/Carers - Supporting Your Child at Home

Dandelion Learning Ik are offering a free session for parents/carers to support phonics at home.  Whilst this will be a generic session, and not bespoke to Little Wandle the scheme we now use, Dandelion training has always been of good quality and you may find this session useful. 

This training is aimed at parents of children in EYFS and primary school.

Learning to read and enjoying reading is fundamental to children's life chances. Phonics is key to decoding and parental support is a crucial factor in ensuring success in reading progress. The aim of this session is to give parents the confidence to support developing readers and writers so they make great progress in reading...and love it!

In this free 1 hour session the trainers will explore:

• What phonics is and why it is important.
• Phonics terminology.
• How phonics is taught in schools.
• How you can help your child with their phonics at home.

Choice of dates and times:

• Friday 26th April 2024 10am - 11am
• Monday 17th June 2024 7pm - 8pm

Click here to access the booking page

SEND, Safeguarding, Health and Wellbeing Links

SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) information can be accessed through our SEND website pages here

Safeguarding Information - please click here for our Safeguarding page especially should you have concerns relating to the safeguarding of our children and families.  Please click here to go directly to our Safeguarding policy.

Attendance Policy - please click here for the school's attendance policy. It is vitally important parents and carers are aware of their responsibilities and the formal processes for attendance matters.  The NHS have created a useful webpage to support decision making when children are unwell - you can click here for the link.

SEMH (Social Emotional Mental Health) resources for parents - Please click here to access an overview sheet with signposted resources for you to use at home to support your children.  The overview sheet can also be found at the bottom of the SEND page on our website here.  

H.A.Y Cambridgeshire Community Wellbeing support -  How Are You South Cambs? | Home (haysouthcambs.co.uk)

NHS Mental Health Services - www.keep-your-head.com and SHOUT - a new Text service on 85258 which provides real-time support to people of all ages who are struggling with their mental health (text the word HEAR to 85258).

Chat Health is a NHS confidential NHS service for help and advice. It’s safe and easy for you to speak to a qualified health professional. Just send a message, you don’t have to give your name. Discreet and quick. It only takes one message to start making a difference. You’ll get confidential advice from trained health staff in your area. Click here to access the site to start a web chat today.

Could you foster? 

At Nexus Fostering based in Lolworth, we’re looking for local people like you to become foster carers. By providing a loving and stable home environment, you can support the increasing number of children and young people in the local area who cannot live in their family homes. Not all children require long-term care. We also need foster carers for short-term placements, respite care, and to provide temporary homes to support young parents and their babies. So, if you have a spare room and are ready to change lives, please give us a call on 01223 903 503 or email Leanne on leannea@nexusfostering.co.uk.

Please access their poster here

To find out more about Pupil premium and Free school meals, please visit our Pupil Premium page by clicking here. 

Links to each Phase page under the Curriculum tab on our website.

                                Reception    Yr1/2    Yr3/4    Yr5/6