Ingleby Mill Newsletter March 2014

Welcome to the fourth half term of the year: we are hoping for crisp, sunny days when everyone can enjoy the outdoors! This is a short half term and we have lots to do so school will be an extremely busy place! As well as the most important day to day teaching and learning, behaviour and safety and pupil progress to promote, we have a budget to plan with Governors, our school improvement priorities for the year to agree, a School Improvement Plan to write and publish, our new curriculum to finalise and a long list of policies to review all before we finish for Easter. Busy, busy, busy!
School Website/Twitter We have received lots of compliments on our school website and on our use of Twitter to keep parents up to date with school news. Since January, I have been posting a weekly blog outlining the highlights of my week including seeing childrens great work or talking to them about their learning. It can be found under the Parents tab on the front page of the website. If there is anything you would like to see posted on there or if you have any suggestions for improving the content/access please get in touch. We continue to send out information to families by e mail and text. If you havent already done so please make sure that we have your up to date details (including e mail address and mobile phone numbers).

Parking This continues to take up so much time in school! We continue to work very hard behind the scenes with many different agencies to try to come up with workable solutions. We have had letters and e mails from residents of Regency Park and Selworthy Green as well as from Ingleby Barwick Locally Elected Members asking that we remind parents and carers to park considerately when dropping off/picking up children from school. We have also had concerns raised by parents about parking outside of designated bays in the school car park, something we are working to eliminate. A concern has been raised about double parking at the entrance to roads which blocks access and egress and would prevent emergency vehicles getting through: all perfectly valid points. Please be considerate when parking. We Are Writers We are planning to publish a new We Are Writers book linked to the Book Fair (7th 14th March) and Book Week (launching on World Book Day, 6th March). Children from across school will be asked to contribute a story, poem or written composition to be included in the book which will then be published. The book will be on sale in late summer once the compositions and articles have been edited, organised and sent to the publishers. Order forms for the books will be sent out in due course. This is an exciting project which will see our Y5 children taking part in an enterprise scheme linked to it. Remember that your child can dress up as a favourite book character on 6th March for World Book Day!

Behaviour
Behaviour in our school is routinely good and almost all children have very positive attitudes to learning. Our school Behaviour Policy has been updated in the light of new guidance from the Department for Education. It will be published on the schools website at the end of March. (Paper copies can be made available at the office upon request). The policy makes clear the schools expected code of conduct including rules, rewards and sanctions - and complies with DfE requirements. We refer to our School Rules in assemblies, in classrooms and as we move around school and children should be able to tell you what is expected of them. We would ask that, in line with the Home School Agreement you all signed when your child started at Ingleby Mill, you support us in ensuring that your child respects and follows the rules. Your support in this is much appreciated.
Reminder: Back To School Week Back to School week for parents/carers will be held st during the week of 31 March. You will be invited to sign up for a session where you can see for yourself how your child is taught at school. Individual year group dates and session times to which you will need to sign up will be sent out soon. Here is advance warning of the dates so you can plan ahead. We look forward to seeing you!!! st Monday 31 March: Y5 & 6 st Tuesday 1 April: Y1 & 2 nd Wednesday 2 April: Y3 & 4 and Nursery rd Thursday 3 April: Reception

Health & Safety Inspection Our school had its annual Health & Safety Inspection on 11th February. I am pleased to inform you that once again we were commended for the emphasis we place on this important aspect of our day to day operations: our Risk Assessments are being shared with other schools as models of good practice thanks to Mrs Measor! We work hard to ensure that we do all that is practicable and possible to keep our children safe. Parent Teacher Consultations I would like to thank parents and carers for continuing to support your childs learning in school and at home. The numbers attending Parent Teacher consultations have been pleasing with 650 parents discussing their childs learning and progress with their teacher what a fantastic turn out! Thanks also to the many of you who have come to say Thank You for the opportunities on offer your appreciation of our work is much appreciated!

School Breaks for Easter on Friday 4th April and opens again to children on Tuesday 22nd April.