Thomas Barnes Primary School
Friday 3rd February
9th February
children will be taking part in spelling bee competition
24th January
Class Four Cooking at Rawlett (Pizza) - £4.50 charge via parent pay
th
26 January
Hi 5 Netball Tournament – Fenton Manor Sports Complex
th
Parent’s Evening 5pm
th
Parent’s Evening 3.30pm
7 February
14 February
15 February
16
Dental Screening for all 5 year olds
th
th
February
20th – 24th February
2nd March
th
9 March
th
4 April
10th – 21st April
th
24 April
Tamworth Swimming Finals – Snowdome – 6pm – 8pm
Class Photographs
School Closed for Easter Holidays
Children Return back to school after Easter Holidays
School Closed for Bank Holiday
th
School Closed for local elections
th
KS2 SATs Week
4 May
8 – 12 May
23
World Book Day
st
1 May
th
Spelling Bee Finals – Stoneydelph School
Tamworth Swimming Gala Heats – Belgrave High School – 3.30pm – 5.30pm
Half Term Holidays
rd
May
th
26 May
C4 Cooking at Rawlett
25th May
African Drumming Workshop for whole school
School Finishes for Half Term
Hinduism workshops for the whole school
5th June
Children return back to school after half term
th
20 June
Sainsbury’s Day of Sport (sport’s day) 9.30am
23rd June
Summer Fayre (revised date)
27
th
June
Voices Together Songbirds Big Sing – Coton Centre - Years 1, 2 & 3
th
Summer Play – Coton Centre
th
Summer BBQ
th
Leavers Assembly (1.30pm)
st
School finishes for summer holidays
11 July
12 July
20 July
21 July
Although we try our best to keep to these dates they may be subject to change. Please remember that key dates and information can
be found on the school website; if you have registered on the site you will be informed by e-mail of any calendar changes.
Information can also be sent to your phone by downloading the ourschools app.
Hello Everyone
Quite a busy newsletter this week. The children from Class four have the finals of the Hi-5 Netball on Tuesday.
The final will be held at Fenton Manor and I know that everyone is really looking forward to the event. Wishing
all of the children taking part a wonderful day.
We want your views!
Please help us to maintain our high standards in providing the best education for your child. We value your view
and opinions. Please could you take the time to complete a quick and simple online survey so tell us what we are
doing right and what we can do to be even better. The link is below and will also be sent out in an email. Many
thanks in advance.
http://perspective.angelsolutions.co.uk/diagnostics/Survey.aspx?link=6fc2abec-d5be-4289-9035-b7419e5e36f5
Urgent Safety Notice:
Please could I remind all parents that School Lane must remain accessible to all residents at all times of the day.
I appreciate that this is a very narrow lane and that it does get congested at the start and end of the school day.
However, we have had several complaints from angry residents about children ‘playing’ and walking in the middle
of the road. They have also encountered some hostility when trying to access their properties at these times. . It
is a difficult situation but we must try to alleviate the problem by sticking to the footpaths. Many thanks for
your support in this matter.
A big thank you to Mr Singh for donating to the school twenty complete sports kits to be used for when the
children are playing events against other schools! The Hi Five children will be wearing them tomorrow in their
finals at Fenton Manor. A wonderful gift for all of the children to enjoy.
Mr Sheldon – Mr Sheldon was employed by ourselves, through and agency, to deliver music lessons on Fridays
across the school. For the past two years, Mr Sheldon, has become a valued member of staff and much loved by
the children. Unfortunately, due to a number of issues Mr Sheldon suddenly left the agency he worked for last
week and has a new job at Pontins. He will, therefore, not be coming back to school as a music teacher. We have
asked Mr Sheldon to come into school on the morning of the 16 th February so that the children may have the
opportunity to say goodbye. We are not arranging a collection but please feel free to buy your own gifts that can
be presented at the assembly on the 16th.
FA:
We need you! We are still looking for a new Chair for the PFA. If you would like to help out the school community
by organising fundraising events, which benefit the pupils, please contact me or Mrs Frith to express your
interest.
Online Safety:
Parental controls can be used to block upsetting or harmful content, control in-app purchases or manage how long
your child spends online. And the good news is parental controls are really easy to set up.
Innocent searches sometimes reveal not so innocent results. So if you’re worried about what your child is
searching for online, who they’re talking to or what they’re seeing, we can help.
It’s simple to get started. And, along with talking to your child regularly, using parental controls is one of the
best ways to help keep children safe online. You’ll find lots more information below via the link below– or give call
on 0808 800 5002 to chat to one of the NSPCC experts and O2 advisors.
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/parental-controls/
The Importance of Reading at Home:
As you know, reading at home with your child, no matter what age they are, can dramatically improve their
progress and attainment in all subjects, allowing them to access the curriculum. Please see below, a link to a very
useful website which also has a handy guide for parents.
https://uk.pearson.com/primary-parents/learn-at-home/help-your-child-to-enjoy-reading/why-is-readingso-important.html
Policies:
We have recently updated our Behaviour Policy to positively recognise the achievement of pupils receiving purple
cards and Headteacher Awards. We also want to discourage any ‘repeat offenders’ of yellow and red cards. The
changes are highlighted below and the full policy can be found on our website by clicking on the ‘Information’ tab
and then ‘Policies’.
Purple Cards – one raffle token which will be entered into a weekly prize draw to earn an additional 10 rewards
points and/or a small prize.
Headteacher Awards – two raffle tickets for weekly prize draw (text home).
Low level disruption
E.g. eating, calling out, interrupting the teacher, making silly noises or faces, getting out of
seat, fiddling, causing distraction:
Yellow card issued = 5 minutes of Golden Time missed.
2x yellow cards in 1 day/ 1 week = red
3x yellow cards in a week = missed lunchtime (25 minutes).
*Will not apply for Reception children
Medium level disruption
Repeated low level disruption, plus: Rudeness/cheek, teasing/name calling, avoiding learning task/adult
instructions, swearing, throwing objects, hurting someone, consistently not completing tasks set:
Red card issued = all of Golden Time missed (text home).
2 x red cards in 1 week = lunchtime missed (25 mins).
3 x red in 1 week = isolation for the day / informal meeting with parents (plus club ban for 1 week)
Continued red cards over a number of weeks = formal meeting with parents. Child put onto a Classteacher report
then Headteacher report.
NB Whilst on this type of report, pupils will not be allowed to take part in clubs and sporting team events.
IMPORTANT: If you do have a concern, please could you speak to your child’s class teacher in the first instance
and then to me if you feel that it needs further investigation. We are here to help and support. Often concerns
can be ironed out very quickly when we are all aware of it. I am on the gate most days if you wish to speak to me
or you can arrange an appointment via the school office.
Attendance
Regular and punctual attendance at school is both a legal requirement and essential for pupils to maximise their
education opportunities. In recognition of this the law makes it an offence for a parent/carer to fail to secure
the regular attendance of their child at a school at which the child is a registered pupil, without good reason or
the agreement of the school.
The Local Authority will issue Penalty Notices in response to unapproved leave of absence (including holidays)
resulting in unauthorised absence.
Circumstances where a Penalty Notice may be issued:
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A Penalty Notice can only be issued in cases of unauthorised absence.
Use of a Penalty Notice will be restricted to one notice per parent of a pupil per academic year.
In cases where there is more than one poorly-attending pupil in the family, Penalty Notices maybe issued for more
than one child.
There will be no restriction on the number of times a parent may receive a formal warning of a possible Penalty
Notice.
Penalty Notices may be considered appropriate if one of the following criteria is met:
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At least 20 sessions (10 school days) lost due to unauthorised absence during the current and previous term. These
absences do not have to be consecutive.
Unauthorised absence of at least 10 sessions (5 school days) due to leave of absence (including holiday) in term time
not agreed by the Headteacher of children whose attendance is already below 87% in the current academic year or
the previous academic term.
Persistent late arrival at school i.e. after registers have closed, in the current and previous term. Persistent means at
least 20 sessions of late arrival.
The presence of an excluded child in a public place at any time during school hours in that child’s first five days of
exclusion. An “excluded child” is one who has been excluded from school for a given period under the Education
and Inspection Act 2006.
Upcoming Events:
PFA Quiz Night:
The PFA are holding a Quiz night on 17 th March at Hopwas Social Club, starting at 7.30pm. It costs just £6 per
person to enter, which will include a fish or sausage and chip supper. Please come and support5 our school by
creating a team of no more than 6. We hope to see you there. Further details to follow.
Spelling Bee: The in-house Spelling Bee will take place on 9 th February so the children should be busy revising
their word lists. Good luck!
This will all culminate in the Tame Valley Trust Spelling Bee final on the morning of Thursday 16 th February
at Stoneydelph. Parents of the finalists will be invited to come along and cheer their super spellers
on!
Parents’ Evenings
Just a reminder, we have two parents’ evening slots coming up on 14th and 15th February. If you
haven’t booked an appointment, please do so by following the link that was text to parents.
Here are the answers to the reasoning questions on the previous newsletter:(KS1) Sam and Zoe are working out some subtractions.
Sam’s answer is double Zoe’s answer.
What could Zoe’s question be? Any suitable sum where Sam’s answer is double that of Zoe’s e.g. Sam 15-3=12 and
Zoe 8-2=6
(KS2) When you multiply 2 numbers, you will always get a bigger number. Is this: sometimes, always or never true?
Explain your reasoning.
Sometimes, because you could multiply a negative number e.g. -2 x 3=-6 which gives a lower number than what you
started with or 6 x 0.5 =3
The question is very ambiguous as 0.5 x 6 is the same calculation. A tricky one!
(KS2) A square number has an even number of factors. Is this true
Polite reminder… Please can you follow the school sickness policy and keep your child off school for 48hours after
a bout of sickness. Thank you for your support.
Kind Regards
Mrs E L Tibbitts
Head Teacher