Dear Parents and Carers

It is good to be back after what I hope was wonderful summer with your families. It was rather a ‘wet welcome’ on Tuesday morning when we opened the doors at the start of another new year at The Ridge!  Despite this, we had a smooth start to the term and the children have settled into their new classes really well. Everyone seems to have adapted to our new start time and the changes to the going home procedures seem to be working smoothly. Everyone should be very proud!

This year we have welcomed back Mrs Plant who is teaching in Year 2 with Mrs Collett and we are also delighted to say “hello” to Ms Katie Jones who has been appointed to support individual needs.

Thank you for your on-going support and interest in your child’s learning. As always, please raise any concerns with either the class teacher or a member of the leadership team as soon as they occur. We want to avoid small issues snowballing and by speaking to us face to face, hopefully we can resolve any problems. 

At the start of a new year, this newsletter is always feels like it is a list of requests and reminders. I hope that you will understand that these are necessary to help with the smooth running of our school and the newsletter is not intended to be a list of ‘dos and don’ts’! Dates for the school year can be found on the ‘Calendar ‘tab on the school website. Further dates will be added as the year progresses but we ask that you are understanding if we need to change dates. Setting them this far in advance does sometime necessitate changes later in the year.

We look forward to working with you over the year to come and hope for a happy and successful year.

Kind regards

Mrs D Hudson

Headteacher

There will be an opportunity for you to drop into school on Friday 13th September between 9.00 a.m. and 9.30 a.m., if you have not already had the opportunity to meet your child’s teacher. This is, an opportunity to put a ‘face to the name’ rather than a time for in-depth conversation. If necessary, please arrange a further time for a more detailed conversation by speaking directly to the member of staff or getting in touch through Dojo or email.

• You can contact your child’s class teacher in any of the following ways

• Reception and Key Stage 1 – quick messages can be passed on to the class teacher at the classroom door.
• Key Stage 2 - Mrs Hudson and Mrs Hadley are available on the playground before school and will pass on messages.
• Teachers can be contacted via their e-mail addresses which can found on the staff page on the ‘Our School’ tab of the website or through ClassDojo. Please use these routes to share any concerns you may have or matters which are more detailed.
• Messages can be left with the office staff, who will ensure that the class teacher is informed. This particularly applies to medical appointments or notifying us of an absence.

• Attendance – our preferred method for receiving messages about absence is through the Parentmail App. It is important that the office staff receive the message but you may wish to copy in the class teacher. To avoid undue safeguarding concerns, please message before 8.50 a.m. Please make sure that you include your child’s name, class and the precise reason that they are absent. If they are unwell, please tell us the symptoms they are experiencing (e.g. high temperature or tummy ache) so that we can look out for patterns and possible outbreaks of an illness.

• Sometimes parents and carers are unavoidably delayed at the end of the day. If you know that you are going to be late, please phone the school office so that arrangements to look after your child can be made. Please also let the office know if you have arranged for another parent to collect your child.

• Our preferred method for payment for goods and services and donations is through ParentMail, which is both convenient and secure.

• PE – children should come to school in their PE kit and school jumper or cardigan on the days that PE is timetabled. Please make sure that children have the correct kit (eg plain white polo-shirt and not any other leisure wear) and wear their school sweatshirt or cardigan.

• Children invariably lose things and we aim to reunite any lost property with the owner as soon as possible. Obviously this is made so much easier when uniform and other belongings are clearly labelled. We currently have a number of items of lost property form last year which will be displayed on the playground next week. Any unclaimed items will be disposed of.

• Our Uniform Swap Shop for pre-loved uniform is available in the break out area of the bungalow.

• We may send home important information including details of any minor accidents via your child. To make sure that you receive this information please can we ask that you check their school bag on a daily basis (even if they are in year 6!)

• Children need to bring a water bottle to school each day to keep hydrated in the classroom. However this must be filled with water, only - no squash, fruit juice or other flavoured drinks. They can however have these drinks as part of their lunch. As a Health promoting school, fresh fruit is the only snack allowed at breaktimes and lunch boxes should not contain chocolate bars. ( a chocolate coated biscuit - e.g. a kitkat - is acceptable)

• 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. 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 we do nuts, and ask that you do not send foods into school that contain these seeds.

If you need to request leave of absence, please ask for a form from the school office. You will be aware that we are unable to authorise leave unless there are ‘exceptional circumstances’. Please be honest about your reasons for any request. There have been occasions where children have been reported ill but have been on holiday. We usually know because they want to tell us or their friends all about their trip!  If you are not up front with us, the children may be put in the difficult position of having to tell lies, which goes everything we teach children about the importance of honesty.

Lateness – punctuality is an important part of attendance. All children should be in their classrooms by 8.50 a.m. Those arriving after this time will be recorded as late. Please see our Attendance Policy for further information about what this means.

Changes to the Law

There have been changes to the law in relation to attendance which are reflected in our revised Attendance Policy. Once this has been approved by the school governors, the policy will be made available on the school website. In a nutshell the impact of these changes for parents and carers is that

• Penalty Notice fines may be issued for any term-time absences that are unauthorised (for example, a 5-day term time holiday) - whether these absences are taken consecutively or cumulatively over a rolling period of 10 school weeks.
• Charges will rise from £60 to £80, or £160 if not paid within 21 days.
• Only two fines can be issued to the same parent for the same child within a three-year rolling period. Any second notice will automatically be charged at £160.
• Schools will have to give councils the name and address of sick pupils who they believe will miss 15 consecutive or cumulative days

Our Behaviour Policy, covers what we traditionally think of as school behaviour (how children interact with each other, following rules and conduct on the playground etc.) but also covers behaviours for learning (e.g. expectations about always trying hard, becoming an independent learner etc.) and also incorporates our Anti-Bullying Policy.

We recognise that the starting point for this is the fact that most of our children demonstrate fantastic behaviour and we want them to have a sense of pride in themselves and their school. However, we also know that sometimes, children make mistakes and need guiding, practice and explicit instruction.

As well as the policy, a Behaviour Curriculum is taught to the children. The Behaviour Curriculum clearly sets out the schools expectations for our routines, such as walking around school and what it means to be polite, for example.  Please familiarise yourself with these documents and support us to implement these expectations.

Our school rules

• Be Ready
• Be Respectful
• Be Responsible (which obviously incorporates being safe)

We are trying to contact the family of Leyland Ward who used to be our caretaker and lived in the Bungalow when it was a residential property. When he retired, Leyland and the family moved into a house locally. We have some important post for them and wondered if anyone knows how we might get it to them. Please let Mrs Jones know if you can help. 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 and Ms Gledhill.  Where child protection concerns are raised, the school has a statutory duty to refer these concerns to children’s social care.

Vehicles in Gregory Road

At the start of this new year please can we take the opportunity to remind you about manoeuvring and parking in Gregory Road. You will know that this is a constant issue for both school and local residents and so for everyone’s safety and to ensure that we maintain good relationships with the residents, please note the following.

• Please avoid double parking along the length of Gregory Road and obstructing the driveways of our neighbours. (Marked out with the white I-------I)
• Do not park on the yellow’ Keep Clear Zig Zags’ or in the turning circle in Gregory Road.
• Do not park on the pavement.
• Take care when turning in the turning circle or reversing out of the disabled parkin space.
• Please do not park or turn round in the school car park.
• Whenever possible please take the opportunity to walk to school.

Please see the school website for information from West Midlands Police - https://theridge.sch.life/page/detail/parking-on-gregory-road-1  We know that often grandparents may collect children from school and we would ask that you make them aware of this.

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