Bispham Endowed CE Primary School
HEADLINES
Issue Number 28
Dear All,
S
A Happy School
Week Ending:
21st April 2017
I hope everyone enjoyed their End of Spring Term break. We look forward to another busy
term in school.
Staff News – This week we welcomed back to school Mrs Sharon Bowie, our Nursery
Teacher, who has been absent since last May due to ill health. We are very pleased to have
Mrs Bowie back with us again. Mrs Julie Bell, one of our Assistant Headteachers, will be
absent for this half term due to personal illness. Next Friday, 28th April, one of our Year 5
Teaching Assistants will be leaving our school family to begin a well-earned ‘early
retirement’. We thank Mrs Bolton very much for all that she has contributed to our school
and we wish her every happiness for her ‘retirement’.
The ‘Car Park’ next to School – As mentioned in our last newsletter, over the Easter
holidays Blackpool Council has fenced off the gravel, pot holed area of the ‘car park’
between School and the Community Centre, which is used by staff and parents and carers.
This has reduced the space for vehicles considerably and made turning round in the area a
real challenge, particularly at the end of the day. We would ask that drivers consider where
they might park as an alternative, even if it means parking on streets further away from
school and walking with your child/ren to the school premises. Please be aware that school
staff are not able to act as ‘marshals’ or ‘parking attendants’ on this area of Council land.
Furthermore if you have any concerns about the way in which drivers are behaving on this
land, the Governors would advise you to contact Blackpool Council or the Police.
Diary Dates  Year 2 End of Key Stage Assessments – take place throughout May.
 Year 6 SATs – take place between Monday, 8th May and Friday, 12th May.
(It is vital that all Year 2 & Year 6 children are in school at this important time.)
 Sports Day will take place on Monday, 10th July (weather permitting!)
May Day Holiday - School will close at 3:15 p.m. on
Friday, 28th April, for the May Day Bank holiday
weekend. We re-open at 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday, 2nd May.
Keep up to date with letters sent home, school blogs and school news on
our school website at www.bispham-endowed.blackpool.sch.uk
Extra-Curricular Activities - Our lunchtime and after school activities start the week
after next, in the week beginning Monday, 1st May 2017. Every child in Years 1 to 6 has
already brought home details of these activities and permission slips should be returned to
school by this coming Friday, 21st April. Please note that ALL children who wish to attend
an activity this term should complete and return the slip attached to the letter.
Attendance at an activity in the spring term does not mean that the children have an
automatic place this term too. Please note that BECC’s After School Care Club will be open
as normal and peripatetic music lessons and the Junior Choir will still take place in the
first two weeks of this new term.
Please Remember - If at any time you have any worries or concerns about anything to
do with your child or school in general, please do contact us. The best person to talk to
first is your child’s class teacher as they know most about your child and their activities.
You are also welcome to speak to Mrs Hirst, our Headteacher or Mrs McCormick, our
Deputy Headteacher or Mrs Bell and Miss Haslam, our Assistant Headteachers about any
matter to do with school. If there is anything happening at home that may be affecting
your child we would ask that you share this with us too.
Outdoor Coats – A number of children are coming to school without coats and
jumpers/cardigans. Even if the day starts off fine, our changeable Blackpool weather
means that it could be cold or wet by lunchtime. Please could you make sure that your child
still brings a coat and a jumper/cardigan to school every day so that we are sure that they
can be warm and comfortable when playing outside. Thank you for your support.
Absence from School – As you will be aware, all schools have a Pupil Welfare Officer,
employed by the Local Authority, who supports school in ensuring that children attend
school regularly and arrive on time each day. Our Pupil Welfare Officer, Mr Jeff Chandler,
checks our registers each week and works with any families whose children have a high
rate of absence or poor punctuality. Mr Chandler also monitors the number of persistent
absentees we have in school each term; these are children who have 90% or less
attendance for any reason, including illness and holidays in school time. We currently have
15 children whose attendance is less than 90% and a further 26 children whose
attendance is less than 93%. As previously, Mr Chandler has asked that we do not
authorise an absence due to illness for any child whose attendance rate is less than 93%
- i.e. any child who has already had ten days absence for any reason (including holidays)
since September 2016 – without first obtaining medical evidence. Such evidence could be
an appointment card for the doctor, the hospital or the walk-in centre, the back of a
prescription or a medication bottle/box prescribed by a medical practitioner. If you would
like to discuss this matter with Mr Chandler, please contact the School Office to arrange
a mutually convenient appointment time.
School Staff – A full list of all the staff who work in school can be found on our school
web site in the ‘School Life’ section.
VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION – As of 3rd May 2017 our school newsletter, Headlines,
is going paperless! This new initiative will mean considerable savings in terms of paper and
printing costs and also in terms of staff time. Headlines will still be produced and
published each week by Wednesday lunchtime and will be available to everyone via the
front page of our school web site at www.bispham-endowed.blackpool.sch.uk. Each week
the adult in your family whose mobile phone number is on our text messaging system will be
sent a message advising them that the newsletter has been published. If you do not have
access to the internet via a mobile phone, I-Pad, computer or any other mobile device then
you will be able to collect a paper copy of the newsletter from the School Office.
At the end of this week, the School Office will send out a ‘test message’ via the text
service so that we can find out if there are any mobile phone numbers which are no longer
receiving our text messages. If we find that your mobile number is invalid then we will do
our best to contact you and let you know. Please note that a text message will only be
delivered by the school text system if your mobile phone is switched on.
Attendance and Punctuality News - Each week in assembly our % for attendance and the
number of late marks given out in the previous week are shared with the staff and
children and our class awards are presented. These are the figures for last week:
School Target for Attendance: 97%
School Target for Punctuality: 0 late marks
Week ending 7th April:
95.2% attendance 22 late marks (17 children)
(12 children had 1 late mark each)
(5 children had 2 late marks each)
Classes with over 97% attendance
Classes with over 98% attendance:
Classes with over 99% attendance:
1M, 2K, 3G, 3H, 5D, 6A
1M, 2K, 3G, 3H
3H
Classes with late marks
Class 1L
3 lates
Class 2K
2 lates
Class 4E
2 lates
Class 5D
0 lates
Best Class for attendance:
Classes with no late marks:
Class RN
Class 1M
Class 3G
Class 4F
Class 6A
2
2
0
3
2
lates
lates
lates
lates
lates
Class RP
Class 2J
Class 3H
Class 5C
Class 6B
2 lates
1 late
3 lates
0 lates
0 lates
3H (100%) Well done!!
3G, 5C, 5D, 6B
Last week there were 369 minutes (over 6 hours) of learning time lost due to lateness
and 1 child had an unauthorised absence mark as they were so late in coming to school.
There were 8 days unauthorised absence due to holidays in school time.