Introduction
Welcome to our first newsletter of the Summer Term. We hope all of our families have had an enjoyable Easter break and the children are ready for the Summer Term! Where has the time gone already?
I am proud to now be the permanent Headteacher at Holme as of today and will be working as Headteacher on a full-time basis. A lot of changes have been made since I started in September and I can assure you that these will continue as we strive to give all the children at Holme who attend now and in the future the very best education and opportunities possible. We have a fantastic and very dedicated staff team here at Holme and I am sure you will join me in thanking them for all the hard work they do for the school, but most importantly the children!
As we approach this new term, there will be a number of events happening as well as the usual annual assessments. Year 2 and 6 will have their SATs in May, Year 1 will have their phonics screening check and Year 4 will take their multiplication test check in June. Without further ado, please read on to see what will be happening over April and May here at Holme.
Please remember if you're not following our Facebook page, like and share for regular updates!
September 2023 New Starters
Parents and carers will find out today which school their child has been allocated if they are due to start in Reception. We are looking forward to welcoming a number of children and will give updates as the term progresses around new starter meetings and transition arrangements.
Staffing
As you are aware, staffing changes were made in January. I can confirm that these will continue during the first half of the Summer Term.
Miss Wood will continue to teach Class 1 with the support of Mrs Cieciala.
Mrs Haley will continue to be the full-time Class 2 teacher with Mrs Guest teaching three days per week on a Wednesday to Friday with a focus on Year 6. Miss Newton will also continue her teaching placement in Class 2 until the 9th June. I will continue to teach Year 6 Maths on a Monday and Tuesday morning until the 9th May. From the 15th May, I will be teaching Year 4 Maths on at least one morning per week.
I would also like to welcome Mrs King who will be a casual supply teacher for our school if and when we require it. She will be working in school on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon over the coming half term to support our current permanent teachers with their acting roles and responsibilities.
If there are any further changes to the staffing structure during the half term, I will update parents and carers through Weduc. I would like to thank you for your support over the Spring Term with these changes and appreciate your support as we move into the Summer Term.
School Website
As the year progresses, we will be updating our school website. This is the first port of call if you need any information about school. Most recently some parents and carers have asked questions about where they can find information. I thought it would be useful to signpost the most common pages that might be helpful (and to possibly bookmark for the future):
- Calendar - Our calendar will soon be updated on Weduc by Miss Talbot and is already updated on our school website. It can be found here.
- Class Curriculum Information - Teachers update their Class pages at least once a term with important updates as to what children are learning and ways in which parents and carers can support at home. You can access the Class 1 and Class 2 pages. Updates should be made to the class pages by the middle of next week.
- Curriculum Information - We are currently in the process of updating our school curriculum. You can find more information here. Please use the links at the side or the 'Curriculum' drop down menu to see specific pages.
- Policies - We are currently in the process of updating our school policies. If you see a little red page with the Adobe symbol in it, this means the policy has recently been updated. You can find our policies page here. These will continue to be updated as the year progresses.
- E-Safety - During our recent Safeguarding parent survey it was brought to our attention that we may not publicise e-safety sufficiently within school. We have created a dedicated page with information for parents and carers. It can be found here. We have also produced a page with questions and answers that parents and carers may find useful. This can be found here.
- Parent Information - Miss Talbot and Miss Devlin are currently updating our parent information pages. Please keep an eye here as updates will be coming over the Summer Term. Please use the links at the side of the 'Parent Information' drop down menu to see specific pages.
Coffee Morning Feedback
We held our half termly coffee session on a morning of last half term, which attracted a few more parents than usual. The office will be publicising these dates on the Weduc and website calendars rather than just on newsletters. It was great to be able to obtain some feedback from parents in both Classes 1 and 2 with the following outcomes:
- See Saw - During this term Miss Wood will be creating some support videos around how to use See Saw as a parent and what it can do. Once these have been created, we will let parents and carers know.
- Communication - We endeavour to communicate with parents and carers as much as possible and be as open and transparent as we can be. We have a growing website with lots of useful information, a monthly newsletter and Weduc communications. We also announce events where possible and try to give as much notice as we possibly can. There have been areas for improvement and I am currently working on these with the office and staff to ensure they are more streamlined and timely.
- Parent Visits - We have our half termly sessions where parents can visit teachers and look through their child's work and discuss their progress. This is either in the form of Open Book Evening's or Parent's Evenings. We are currently looking at ways in which parents can become more regularly involved. I have mentioned it on prior newsletters as 'Flash Friday's' and will hopefully trial it in June and July.
Your feedback is very helpful and valued. Our next coffee session date and time will be in our May newsletter in addition to it being added to our calendars. Please keep an eye out!
Weduc
We have made a start on using Weduc as part of our parental communication platform. We will be increasingly sending messages, placing notices and letters to complete on here rather than in paper form or by the traditional e-mail, so do urge parents to download the app if you haven't already. If you would like further information or support using Weduc, please contact Miss Talbot in the office who will be more than happy to help.
Shine Bright Values
Our shine bright values encompass what we believe our children should foster during their time with us to become well-rounded citizens in our community and the wider world. We cultivate our children to be independent, resilient, respectful, creative, adventurous and aspirational for their future. These will be featuring more regularly within school both through being rewarded as part of Class Dojo and having a 'Shine Bright Values' award of the week. This will be one child in the entire school each week who has been recommended by all the staff in school, achieving one of our Shine Bright Values really well. We would like to encourage parents and our local community to support us with these values outside of school to ensure that the children understand the language and are able to show these life skills in order to thrive, not just now, but in the future. Here are our March award winners, who have shown respect and aspiration. Great work! We can't wait to see more children actively showing our Shine Bright Values.
Celebration Assembly
It's been great to see our children continue to be awarded for Honour of Holme, Remarkable Writer, Regal Reader and Maths Mogul. We've also added our Shine Bright Values award and most recently our Spelling Shed award. Here are some of our award winners from March.
Please remember to keep those pictures of what your child is up to outside of school coming in for our Shine Bright Board. It doesn't have to be a sport, it can be anything they're proud of achieving. We do ask that you send these to shinebright@holmejischool.co.uk. If pictures are sent to Mr Bond or the Office e-mail, there is no guarantee they will make it to the board. When we receive them, they will be printed and placed onto our board, being celebrated in the next Celebration Assembly.
FOHS will be supplying refreshments each week and we kindly ask that you make a donation as all funds go back to the children. All of our community are welcome to attend the assemblies outlined on the Key Dates section at the end of each newsletter.
Attendance Matters
At Holme Junior & Infant School, we fully recognise the impact of good attendance and punctuality on the success and development of young people both socially and academically.
Research has proved that any young person with attendance under 95% is at risk of achieving a grade lower in every subject by the time they leave school. We expect all children to attend school regularly.
We do understand that children become ill and there are guidelines around how long a child should be absent for. We do take these guidelines onboard. We do ask that parents consider the period of absence beyond the guidelines as this may have a negative impact on the child missing further learning.
We take attendance seriously at Holme and follow our school procedure in-line with our policy that has been ratified by the governing body and also follows national guidelines. You can take a look at our policy here for further information and clarification. If you are ever unsure, please contact the school office in the first instance who will happily support and advise.
I would like to thank parents and carers for taking these messages onboard as our persistent absentee percentage has not been this low for a long while!
March Attendance Figures
Whole School Attendance: 97.7%
- Class 1: 96.1%
- Class 2: 98.7%
Our target as a whole school is 97% and we have made it! Well done to Class 2 who managed to attend above our target.
Miss Talbot's Reminders
- To ensure the smooth running of the school's finance, please can we ask that lunch payments are kept on top of weekly. Please feel free to see me in the office if you are having any issues with payments.
- We have Mini Professors club starting this Wednesday 19/04/2023 running until 24/05/23. For those who have put their child's name down for this club, please can this be paid for on Parentpay as soon as possible.
- We have lots of lost property items from Class 1 cloakroom that haven't been claimed yet. We have popped these in a bag in the office and ask that if you think your child may be missing something then please pop in and have a look or contact me in the office.
As you will have noticed the celebration of our school through Facebook shows just how committed we are at Holme to show the rounded education our children experience. Teachers will be updating our community at least once per week as to what is going on in their class and we will celebrate achievements from our week celebration assembly. I will also be updating Facebook with any further posts that I feel will support our school community. Give us a follow and a like and share with your friends far and wide!
March Events
March was a very busy month for both classes. Class 2 spent some time at St. David's Church in Holmbridge and then in school with children from Mount Pleasant School completing some art work. This complemented our learning around diversity. Class 1 had a visit to Temple Newsam and also had some additional members of the class! Both classes attended the Let's Sing Event at Holmfirth High School, did some felting with the older generation for an exhibit and created a divine picnic as part of their DT work that we eat in the hall. Class 1 provided sandwiches, Year 3/4 dips with crudites and Year 5/6 made their own bread. I have to say it was delicious! Here are (just a few!) images from the month.
King Charles III Coronation
We are hoping to create some artwork for King Charles III Coronation. More details will be to follow. We are hoping to also have a celebration picnic (school lunch) on the 3rd, 4th or 5th May depending on the weather. More details will follow shortly.
Outdoor Learning
The children have enjoyed their Forest School sessions with Miss Wood and as the nicer weather is just around the corner (hopefully), we would like to make parents aware of the dates for this coming half term:
- Class 1 - 27th April and 18th May
- Class 2 - 4th May and 25th May
Please ensure that your child comes to school on these days with the relevant and appropriate clothing and footwear for the weather as Miss Wood will take the children outside where possible!
Class 1 Expands!
Over the Easter break, Mr Chew (and OC) has very kindly undertaken and overseen some work in our school grounds. Part of our long term plan and vision for Class 1 is to provide an outdoor space that is meaningful and purposeful for our children. The start of this has been to excavate the area between Class 1 and the main door, which will then start to form an all weather outdoor area. I know that Miss Wood and Mrs Cieciala have worked wonders in the classroom and now want to bring some of that magic to the outdoors. We will keep you posted with how it progresses!
Amazon Wishlist
We are in the process of creating an Amazon Wishlist. As a small school we do value donations and support with resources for our children. Please take a look at our list and see if there is anything you would like to purchase for the school. There is no obligation, and if you would like to be anonymous, we're also fine with that! We guarantee that everything on the list will support with the children's education directly in school.
Here is the link if you'd like to have a nosey. We will start adding items this half term. Please feel free to check regularly as we will be adding items at regular intervals: https://amzn.eu/4YvautA
Cost of Living Crisis
As we are living through these very difficult times with the cost of everything rising at an alarming rate, if you need any support either financially or practically, please do speak to a member of staff, as there are many agencies and charities that have a range of offers to support families through these times and we can confidently signpost you to the most appropriate.
Dates for the Diary
As always, if you wish to speak to us about your child, please do not hesitate to talk to Miss Wood in Class 1 and Mrs Guest or Mrs Haley in Class 2 in the first instance. We will endeavour to help in any way we can.
Safeguarding
Holme Junior & Infant School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff, volunteers and parents to share this commitment.
We have safeguarding policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our child protection and safeguarding policy which can be viewed in the policies section of our school website. Our safeguarding policies and procedures seek to ensure that every child, regardless of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation, has a right to equal protection from harm.
Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about a pupil are discussed with the child’s parents/carers first, unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.
We actively support the Government’s Prevent Agenda: to challenge ideology that supports terrorism and those who promote it, protect vulnerable individuals from being drawn into terrorism, and raise awareness of radicalisation risk.
Our Acting Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is Mr D Bond (Headteacher).
Our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL) is Miss B Wood (Acting Assistant Headteacher).
Our Safeguarding Governor is Mrs M Thomas.
If you have any safeguarding concerns at all, please do not hesitate to get in touch with either Mr Bond or Miss Wood.
Our school website also has further information around safeguarding and e-safety, which will be updated at regular intervals.
Credits:
Created with an image by Günter Albers - "blue sky with sun"