MARKLAND HILL C P SCHOOL
Markland Hill
Bolton
BL1 5EJ
Telephone: 01204 332626
Fax: 01204 332627
[email protected]
www.markland-hill.bolton.sch.uk
Headteacher: Mrs L Close
Thursday 16th February 2017
Dear Parents,
Thank you to the parents of Linden Class and Hawthorn Class who attended the class assemblies over the last
fortnight. They have both featured some thoughtful and positive messages about internet and online safety and
St Valentine. Thank you to all concerned.
Thank you to everyone who participated supported and organised the popular and highly competitive Quiz
Night on Friday 10th February. It was a great night and another successful event for the PTA. The event raised
£750, a special thank you to Mrs Frank and Mrs Laha for organising the event.
IPads
We have just taken delivery of another magnificent 16 iPads to be used in school. Thank you to the PTA and
everyone who continually supports the fund raising events at school.
Safeguarding - Unaccompanied Dropping off
It has been brought to my attention that a number of children some as young as Reception age are being
dropped at school at the front entrance outside gates or at the end of the entrance ginnel on the infant
playground and been expected to come into school alone.
Please can I ask that this cannot continue due the very high risk of a safeguarding incident happening. Any child
left alone is vulnerable to falling over, wandering back out of the playground onto the road or even more
dangerous that someone might take a child.
Please can I ask that all children younger than Year 5 and Year 6 are accompanied by an adult into the
playground and watched into school. By dropping your child or children off at the school gate and expecting
them to make their own way in safely is compromising their safety. This is unacceptable. Please refrain from
asking older siblings to ensure the safety of younger children into school as the children are lined up on
different playgrounds.
Thank you to the vigilant parents and staff who have alerted us all to this situation. Please continue to share
any concerns with myself or Mrs Dunn.
Thank you in advance for your support with safeguarding all the children.
Road Safety
Two weeks ago, on a Thursday evening after school, I walked a child to a taxi
which was parked on Markland Hill. I was incredulous at the traffic mayhem!
People were parked on the right hand side pavement (leading up Markland
Hill) leaving very little space to walk along the path. If a parent had a double
buggy, they would not be able to use the pavement at all. Whilst we were
trying to manoeuvre around the parked cars, one of the cars decided to move
forward, in front of people on the pavement, with no warning and terrifying
me in the process, and then reversed back.
I also witnessed cars waiting to drive up the road opposite our school
entrance. The cars coming down had very little room to go round the waiting
cars and so they drove onto the corner of the pavement! Finally, I observed
parents driving past school and signalling to their child to quickly follow
them to the car so that they could ‘Jump in’! This situation is terrible and I can
only be truly thankful that we have not had an accident. Please can parents
NOT PARK on the pavement. Please can you park well away from school and
give yourself plenty of time to park and then walk to school to pick up your
child / children safely.
Mrs. S. Roberts. Deputy Head Teacher.
Parent Forum Meetings
KS2
Thank you to all the parents who attended the assessment themed Parent Forum on Monday 6th February
2017. The feedback suggests that parents found it very useful and informative. If you were unable to attend
the presentation is on the school web-site in the Parents Tab and Parent Forum section.
Parent board at the Markland Hill entrance
The parent board at the entrance to the junior playground is a valuable source of information, please take a
look next time you can. Thank you.
Cultural Celebration - St Patricks Day – Lunch Menu
We are planning a St Patricks day celebration for lunch on Friday 17th March. The children who are having
school meals will be treated to an Irish theme lunch including Irish pasties, Shamrock cookies and emerald fruit
salad. It promises to be a fun meal!
Sainsbury’s Vouchers
We are collecting the Sainsbury’s vouchers again this year and we have a collection box in the entrance area of
school. The vouchers are used to buy playground equipment for all children.
Thank you in advance.
School Council Dates
The School Council will be meeting in school at 8am on:
Wednesday 1st March 2017
Wednesday 15th March 2017
Wednesday 29th March 2017
Please drop School Councillors at the main office.
Volunteers- we need you!
Could you spare an afternoon each week to become a regular reading volunteer?
We are looking to recruit a team of reading volunteers (mums, dads, grandparents…)
to help the children by listening to them read and talking to them about their books
and reading choices.
In addition, we are also looking for volunteers to help run our new Library on a Monday
and Tuesday afternoon and possibly help run an after school club.
Training will be given.
Markland Hill School is committed to safeguarding all our pupils. Volunteers will need
to complete the following:
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•
•
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Application form
Enhanced Criminal Record Checks (through the Disclosure and Barring Service)
Disclosure by Association
2 References
Photo Identification e.g. passport or driver’s license
Utility bill valid within the last 3 months.
Absence from School
For your information in May of each year there are very important assessments and tests taking place in
school. Some of these are statutory and some are school based. Every child across school from Reception
children to Year 6 will be assessed. It is crucial that your child is in school in the run up to this time and during
the months of May and June. The end of year report will contain the information from these assessments.
Thank you for your continued understanding and support.
Please note that all absences for illness should be notified to the school office by 9am on the first day of
absence and each day thereafter. You may use the on-line absence form on the website for sickness absence
only.
After half term in February the office hours will be 8.45am to 4pm. If you
need to contact school outside these hours please either email
[email protected] or leave a voicemail message on
01204 332626.
Attendance facts for Parents and Carers
All pupils are expected to reach attendance levels of 97% and above to be able to access and achieve their
potential at school.
Pupils only attend school for 190 days per academic year which means that for the other 175 days they are at
home with you.
Persistent absence from school will be investigated by the Early Intervention Team and fines could be
implemented for each child to each parent.
The percentages below will help you understand our expectations of attendance:
97% and above Excellent attendance
95% - 97% Good attendance
90% - 95% be aware
80%-90% causing concern – very worrying – less chance of success
Less than 80% serious – referred to Early Intervention Team
What about absence?
Please contact school on the first day of absence before 9am to explain the reason for absence. Any absence
for an unacceptable or unexplained reason will not be authorised and will appear on your child’s report.
Why does coming to school every day matter?
If you don’t come to school regularly:
You might feel a bit left out
You may not know how to do the work
You may get left behind
You may have to make friends again
Coming to school every day is important because it helps:
To get the best out of education offered in our school
To feel part of the school family
To make and keep good friendships
This means
• Half day absent – 3 lessons missed
• 1 day absent- 5 lessons missed
• 3 days absent – 15 lessons missed
• 1 week – 25 lessons missed
• 2 weeks absent – 50 lessons missed
If any child misses more than 20 sessions due to holiday they will be served a fixed penalty by Bolton Council.
This is a fine calculated per child and per parent
Classes
Ash
Elm
Willow
Pine
Oak
Rowan
% attendance for the 1st week
ending 3.2.27
92.1%
95.7%
99.0%
97.7%
97.9%
97.9%
% attendance for the 2nd week
ending 10.2.17
92.1%
94.3%
98.3%
98.7%
97.6%
98.6%
Beech
Maple
Linden
Hawthorn
Sycamore
Average school attendance
95.5%
96.7%
96.3%
96.1%
97.7%
96.6%
99.0%
99.3%
97.3%
99.4%
96.3%
97.4%
Newsletter
The dates for the next terms newsletters are 9th & 23rd March and 6th April 2017.
Share your views through Parent View
Parents and carers can give their views of our school at any time of the school year and using an online
questionnaire called Parent View.
Please register with an email address and a password at https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk. Once your login
has been activated, it only takes a few minutes to complete 12 short questions about aspects such as bullying,
the quality of teaching, level of homework, etc. Your views are important in helping inspectors make a decision
about our school, and to help us know what is going well and what could be improved.
If you do not have a computer or an email address or if you would like help to use Parent View, please come
into school and ask at reception. I hope we can continue to work together to secure the very best outcomes
for every child at Markland Hill School. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me.
I hope you have a lovely half term and we look forward to seeing you all back to school on Monday 27th
February.
Yours sincerely
L. Close
Headteacher
PTA update
Well it has been a phenomenal start to the year with news of even more success in our
fundraising efforts! Since the success of the Christmas Fair and Markets raising just short of
£4,000, the bar was set high for further fundraising, and the recent Quiz night certainly
stepped up to the plate and smashed it out of the ball park, with an astounding total of
£748 pounds raised!!
Thank you so much to Lynne & Mike Frank, Alexandra & Shond Laha and Iain Lucas who
between them pulled together a fantastic event! From the planning, to the bar service and
of course the delivery of the quiz itself, a superb atmosphere was created and lots of fun
was had whilst raising money for our children in school. Thanks must also be extended to all
those who sold tickets and of course to those who bought tickets and attended on the
night! The raffle that was held on the night raised over £100; the lucky winner received a
bottle of Champagne which was kindly donated by the Holden family.
Since September we have raised almost £5,000, which has enabled us to purchase another
set of 16 IPads with storage facility and software. We have also purchased a storage unit for
KS1 playground equipment. The books that the children received from Santa at Christmas
were also funded by the PTA, as were the chocolate treats that children received at their
Christmas class parties.
As we move forward, we aim to raise another £5000 for more iPads so that each Key stage
in school will have access to a class set, for enhancing learning in the classroom. We also
need to raise around £15,000 to have the active play trail in the KS1 playground refitted.
So you can see that we have a lot of work still to do, and the committee are working
tirelessly to continue to plan for further events that will bring that money into the PTA
charity pot, whilst also bringing our children, families and wider school community together.
Upcoming events include:
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An adults only 90’s night – date in April to be confirmed.
A Golf day – Friday 19th May - open to ALL no matter what your skill level – the idea
is that it is a fun day and evening for parents, friends and associates. Please look out
for the flyer that you will be receiving; it has all the details and information for
booking your place.
A Summer festival extravaganza - coming to school in the summer term
If there is anything at all that you feel you could contribute to the PTA calendar and events,
please do contact us and we as a committee will do everything we can to support your ideas
and efforts.
Don’t forget that funds are also generated for the PTA charity, through the
easyfundraising.org website; remember to select Markland Hill PTA as your chosen
organisation.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, queries or ideas:
Email: [email protected]
Regards and many thanks for your support so far………
The PTA Committee
Sabrina Beckett (Chair)
Jo Scott (Vice Chair)
Helen Livesey (Treasurer)
Karen Smith (Secretary)
Key Stage/Year/Class
Date
Time
Event
Whole School
17.2.17
3.30pm
School Closes for half term
School Council Meetings
8am
School
Whole School
Wednesday 1st,
15th & 29th March
2017
10.3.17
All day
School celebration of Holi festival
School Lunch Children
17.3.17
12.00 noon
St Patrick’s Themed Lunch
Whole School
3 & 5.4.17
3.30pm – 6pm
Parent Consultation Evenings
Whole School
7.4.17
3.30pm
School Closes for Easter Holiday
Return to school on Monday 24th April
2017 at 8.55am