Dear Parents/Carers

The run up to the end of the year is always a hectic time in school but with so many wonderful events and activities. It was great to see many of you at our Open Evening last week and hear your positive comments about the children’s reports and the progress that they have made.

A special mention must be made of the Key Stage 2 performance of Shakespeare Rocks this week. Huge congratulations to Miss Crowson and Year 6 who put on such a fantastic show. However, the contribution of all the staff and pupils of Key Stage 2 in learning songs, making props and scenery, those working the technology and the stage crew, must also be acknowledged, along with parents who helped with costumes. Thank you all for your hard work which came together for such a great event!

Speaking of hard work, I also want to thank everyone who contributed towards making the recent Summer Fayre such a success. The commitment of the Ridge Friends team, who had spent weeks preparing, was amazing! Thank you for all your donations prior to the event and coming along and supporting the stalls and games on the day. We are delighted to tell you that a magnificent total of £1753.88 was raised!

As we head into the last week of term, we hope to see a bit of sunshine, which has been so sadly lacking so far this summer. I hope that you have a lovely weekend and that we are all celebrating an England win on Monday morning!

Kind regards

Mrs D Hudson

Headteacher

As some of you may know, my husband is retiring from Headship at the end of term. I don’t feel ready to join him yet, however I am very grateful to our school governors who have agreed that I can reduce my working hours next academic year.

From the start of the Autumn term, I will be working in school, four days a week, with my non-working day usually being a Friday. There will be some Fridays when I will be working, where this suits the needs of school and on these weeks I will have an alternative day as my non-working day. When I am not in school, Mrs Hadley will be the Acting Headteacher. 

I feel very blessed that this arrangement will allow me to spend time with my husband in his retirement whilst still allowing me to serve in a role that I love and at a school which has been a huge part of my life for the past 24 years!

Thank you for your support with the Amble Ramble. An amazing total of £1753.88 was raised.

Although every penny is very welcome, special mention must go to our top fundraisers in each class - Sophie, Poppy, Maria, Callum, Jennifer, Rosie and Ethan. In Reception and Key Stage 1 Sophie raised an impressive £265 and in Key Stage 2, Ethan raised £140!

With this money, we have been able to purchase some wonderful new resources to complement teaching across the school. These will be on display in the school hall on Wednesday 17^th July between 8.45 and 9.00 a.m. so please come and see what your sponsorship has bought!

Well done to our Year 6 pupils who received the outcome of their End of Key Stage Statutory Assessment (SATs) this week. The outcomes are a credit to the hard work of the individual pupils but also the staff, past and present, who have all played a part in their educational journey. We are also grateful for the support of parents and carers.

We believe that SATs are only one measure of the outcomes at the end of primary school and for us, there is so much more to our pupil’s development. Nevertheless, we are pleased that the un-validated data indicates that pupils at The Ridge continue to perform better in all measures than the outcomes found nationally.

Thank you for your understanding with Shorts and Shades – if only the British weather was reliable! 

However, we will still be raising funds for the Childhood Tumour Trust, whose support has been so valuable to one of our families. On Tuesday we will be holding a mufti day where children are encouraged to wear blue and green and bring a donation for the charity.  We hope that you will feel able to contribute: donations can be brought in on the day or made via ParentMail. (Suggested minimum £2.00 donation) 

This Weeks attendance 

Whole School - 94.18%

Reception - 98.00%

Year 1 – 94.67%

Year 2 – 95.33%

Year 3 – 92.90%

Year 4 – 85.13%

Year 5 – 96.67%

Year 6 – 95.67%

Well done Reception!

Please remember that the following arrangements will be in place from the start of the Autumn Term.

Start of the School Day

• The main school gates will be opened at 8.35 a.m. for children to come on to the school site.
• Classroom doors in Reception and Key Stage 1 will be opened from 8.40 a.m. (as currently)
• Key Stage 2 pupils will be able to line up from 8:35 a.m. and go into school from 8.40 a.m. (as currently)
• Registration will be at 8:45 a.m. All children will need to be in their classroom by this time with children able to come into the school site from 08.35 a.m.
• Children arriving in the classroom after the registers are taken at 8.45 a.m. will be classed as ‘late’.

End of the School Day

It is helpful to teachers supervising the children walking to the adult collecting them, if you could wait in a similar place on the playground each day. Staff then get used to where to look for you and it speeds up the whole process! Thank you.

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Mrs Hudson is the Designated Safeguarding Lead and any concerns should be shared with her or the Deputy Safeguarding Leads – Mrs Hadley, Miss Beddoes and Mrs Gledhill.  Where child protection concerns are raised, the school has a statutory duty to refer these concerns to children’s social care.

Thank you for your patience this week as we have had to alter our lunchtime offer because of an issue with equipment in the school kitchen.

At the start of term we always remind you about the fact that we have a number of children in school with potentially life threatening allergies. It is vital that no nut products are brought in to school. However one of our pupils has an allergy to sesame seeds and we are conscious that this could be overlooked as an ingredient in hummus, rolls with sesame seeds on or just seeded bread that includes them. Due to the risk of cross contamination, we need to treat sesame seeds the same as nuts and ask that you do not send foods into school that contain these seeds.

Please remember that we finish early on Friday 19^th July.

Reception                            1.45 - 1.55 pm

Years 1 and 2                     1.50 pm

Years 3 and 4                     1.55 pm

Years 5 and 6                     2.00 pm

Full calendar dates for the academic year can be found here........  https://theridge.sch.life/page/detail/parent-dates-2023-2024

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