Swavesey Primary School Parent Portal - Newsletter 74 (29.09.2023)

Updates from Mrs Norden

This week has seen the launch of the BBC's 500 words competition nationally, details of which can be found below, the start of some lunchtime clubs and, of course, today's Harvest assembly.

Our Harvest assembly showed that the children have a real understanding of the celebration of harvest and, in particular, the importance of sharing. Thank you so much for all your kind donations which have been collected this afternoon by one of Jimmy's volunteers. They are incredibly grateful for your support.

Lynsey Fulcher, our Chair of Governors, stepped down from the role this week, of which you may have been aware from the governors' annual report. I would like to say a huge thank you to Lynsey for all her support as chair, and we are very grateful not to be losing her expertise from the governing body completely. Hannah Parish, our H&S governor, has been elected as our new Chair of Governors, and I am excited to work with Hannah in this capacity, benefiting more widely from her expertise.

Unfortunately, we have had a few safeguarding concerns raised this week relating to the front gate. We continue to have issues with the front gate not being closed properly when children are arriving for Kids' club in the morning and, on occasions, when adults are leaving at different times.

Please ensure that an adult is responsible for closing the gate, not a child, and that the gate clicks into place against the magnet. Children should be escorted to the gate by an adult for drop off for Kids' club. Staff witnessed on several occasions this week children being left to gain access by themselves, resulting in the gate being slammed, swinging back open and then being left open as the child had not noticed.

The Parish Council has written to me this week due to complaints raised with them about illegal and inconsiderate parking during drop off and pick-up periods. I have written about parking issues previously, but we are still experiencing a minority of drivers who are not being supportive of our community. I understand that a collision last week was caused by these traffic/parking issues. Our Chair of Governors and I will be meeting with Parish Council representatives shortly to discuss more proactive options to resolve this ongoing issue.

On Monday we have our PTA AGM at 7pm, here at school. I have previously explained how important the PTA are to us and how invaluable and vital their fundraising. Please come and join us to hear about what they have been doing over the last year and how you might be able to help even in the smallest of ways in the forthcoming year. Their next fundraiser is our annual Bake Off competition, details of which can be found later in the newsletter.

Our Autumn parent/carer consultation meetings will be held in the week before half-term. An information letter will be sent out next Friday, including details on how to book your appointment. Booking for these will be through ScoPay (a move from MCaS). If you have yet to activate your ScoPay account please do so as soon as possible. The link to additional parent information for this is at the bottom of the newsletter and the admin team will re-send online access emails to those who have not yet done this shortly.

Having moved our consultation meetings online since Covid, we recognise that there has not been an opportunity for parents and carers to share in their children's work as before. Therefore, we will be introducing an 'open classroom' session for this to happen. This term this will take place on Friday 3rd November, before our PTA Fireworks event. Details will be explained in a newsletter nearer to the date.

_{Anna-Claire Norden}

_Headteacher