Dear Parents and Carers,

Kind regards

Mrs D Hudson

Headteacher

• Please remember that school will be closed on the following dates...

• Monday 1^rd May (Bank Holiday)
• Thursday 4^th May (Remote Learning as the school will be used for voting)
• Monday 8^th May (Coronation Bank Holiday)

Because schools will be closed for the Coronation Bank Holiday, the dates for the Year 6 SATS have been pushed on by a day, which affects our plans for our annual Amble Ramble (a whole school sponsored walk that we do each year to raise funds for our school).

This will now take place on the reserve date of Friday 19^th May, and further details will be shared nearer the time.

You may be aware that further dates have been announced when teacher unions are proposing to take strike action (27^th April and 2^nd May). As during previous strike action, we currently believe that this will not impact on pupils attending The Ridge on these dates, but should this change, we will obviously let you know as early as we possibly can.

Thank you for your donations of chocolate for the RFA Chocolate Bingo Event. We look forward to seeing you on the night of 19^th May!

This Weeks attendance 

Whole School - 97.68%

Reception - 97.33%

Year 1 – 96.33%

Year 2 – 99.67%

Year 3 – 97.86%

Year 4 – 97.33%

Year 5 – 96.67%

Year 6 – 98.62%

Well done Year 2!

We have recently appointed a new member of the school admin team (a long awaited replacement for Mrs Priest) who will have a particular responsibility for managing pupil attendance and be the first point of contact for any attendance related matters. We look forward to introducing the new member of the team to you as soon as all the recruitment checks have been completed and a start date has been agreed. In the meantime, Mrs Brown and Mrs Davenport will continue to oversee the day to day management of attendance.

Please remember that we are unable to authorise leave of absence except in exceptional circumstances: those which are “rare, significant, unavoidable and short”. Any applications for a leave of absence must be made on a Leave of Absence request form available from the school office.  Any request should be submitted as soon as it is anticipated and no less than 10 school days before the absence.

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 and Miss Beddoes.  Where child protection concerns are raised, the school has a statutory duty to refer these concerns to children’s social care.

A reminder that on Sunday ,Emergency Alerts  a UK government service, will send out a test alert of their new system to warn you if there’s a danger to life nearby. In an emergency, your mobile phone or tablet will receive an alert with advice about how to stay safe.

If anyone has a secret mobile phone hidden from an abusive partner, remember to switch off or put in airplane mode etc. as described below, or the phone will be activated with the loud alert on the afternoon of 23/04.
Please share this to help keep others safe.

You can opt out of emergency alerts, but the government advises you should keep them switched on for your own safety.

To opt out:

- Search your settings for ‘emergency alerts’.
- Turn off ‘severe alerts’ and ‘extreme alerts’.
- If you still get alerts, contact your device manufacturer for help.

More info can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/alerts 

Opt out instructions can be found out:   https://www.gov.uk/alerts/how-alerts-work

Follow us on Twitter