Dear Parents and Carers,

We are delighted with the positive start made by the children to this new year; they have quickly settled in to their new classes and are working hard. It is also lovely to see our new Reception children so happy at school.

Staff have really valued the opportunity to speak to you over the past couple of weeks. Whilst we all miss having the face to face element of meeting your child's new teacher, for some our telephone calls have been much more convenient. We would welcome your feedback on this.  

Harvest Celebrations

This year our Harvest Celebrations went on-line and we hope that you enjoyed our filmed festival! Presenting it virtually means that we have not had our usual harvest collection and we would like to make that happen.   As so many have been hit by hardship and the extra burden Covid has brought we will be supporting the Black Country Food Bank again this year. The Black Country Food Bank provide nutritionally balanced emergency food-aid for local people in crisis.  (www.blackcountryfoodbank.org.uk) and we invite you to donate items for the foodbank and will provide collecting boxes on the playground all of next week where contributions can be dropped off.                

Items that can be donated include:                      

In addition the foodbank welcomes donations of the following items:

We are also happy to receive carrier bags, which not only help with transporting the food to the foodbank but are used to send food packages out from the food bank.

Fundraising for New Books

You will know that our school fund raising efforts have taken quite a hit over the past 18 months at a time when, like for every other organisation, costs have increased.

We have invested heavily in a new phonics scheme - Sounds Write - to support our children’s reading and writing. However, we have not been able to purchase as many decodable books to support teaching, as we would have liked.  Having had a chat to the School Council, they came up with lots of ideas for how to raise some money. The one we all decided on was for children to come dressed in their pyjamas and bring their favourite book in as so many children had said that they loved doing this for World Book Day.

We are going ahead the last day before half term - Friday 22^nd October and are asking for a donation of £2.00 per child. If parents and carers would like to enter into the spirit of the event, on this occasion, you too are welcome to wear your pyjamas on the school run and we will have a collecting bucket at the school entrance!

Over £1,000 donated to The Ridge by parents and carers for free so far……can you help raise even more ?

Many of you will have begun to think about Christmas shopping and if you are buying gifts online you can make a real difference to our school, easily and at no cost to yourself by using ‘easyfundraising’.  You will no doubt have heard from the media about the challenges that all schools, including The Ridge, face to make the budget balance but with your help, we can continue to attract additional income to support the learning of our children.

How does it work?  

There are over 3000 retailers easyfundraising including big names such as Amazon, Ebay, Argos and Marks and Spencer. Starting your online shopping first at easyfundraising and check if the retailer that you want to use is part of the scheme, then go to the retailer’s website from easyfundraising and shop as normal. retailers make a small donation to say “thank you”. easyfundrasing also rewards searches on comparison sites (don’t forget those insurance renewals!) and many holiday companies such as Bookings.com and Travelodge. (Maybe travel for work and could raise funds for us?)

Once you are signed up codes are sent through, which gives a donation when you recruit a new member to easyfundraising – so please spread the word to grandparents and friends.

Over the past two years we have received over £1000 which really makes a difference! Every penny mounts up and means that we can continue to fund our school to be the best that it can be.

Parking - Please can we remind you of the messages about considerate and safe parking in the previous newsletter.  We have recently received complaints from parents about cars parked on the pavement in Gregory Road, leaving little space for pedestrians to pass and causing people with buggies or walkers to have to walk into the road. The offending vehicles have been photographed.

Please can we also take this opportunity to remind you that the school car park is not to be used by parents and carers. This also applies to parents and carers dropping off and picking up from OSCAR Club.

Food in School - Some information for those of you who are new to our school and a reminder for everyone else.

• Break time snacks – the children in Reception and Key Stage 1 are provided with a piece of fruit from the National Fruit Scheme to eat at break time. Children in Key Sage 2 can bring fruit but this is the only snack allowed at break times.
• Lunchtimes – packed lunches should not contain sweets or chocolate bars. However, a small chocolate covered biscuit (e.g. Kit Kat) is acceptable.

Squid Game

On a number of occasions recently we have heard children referring to this Netflix programme or incorporating it into their play. Some have told us that they have watched it. Please could we advise that the British Board of Film has given this series a ‘15’ Classification because of its content.  

For more information please see attached the information sheet.

https://nationalonlinesafety.com/wakeupwednesday/squid-game-trending-across-platforms-what-parents-need-to-know