March 2019

(Article 15.) Every child has the right to meet with other children and to join groups.

At Lea Forest we teach our children that they are part of a global community.

We develop links through sporting competitions, our International partnerships and within the school with our reading buddies, peer mentors and afterschool clubs. We are also welcoming a teacher from South Africa into school on Monday of next week who will be sharing information about her culture and background.

Our green fingered children have been busy planting and preparing the allotment plots ready for our vegetables, fruits and flowers to grow. Our children will be learning how to take care of the seedlings as they grow ready for our harvest in the summer term. We can’t wait to see how they develop over the coming weeks. Any parents that want to help can always join our gardening club on Thursday evenings from 3:30 - 4:30pm.

Mrs Clarke is currently taking stock of all our library books and has requested that any books currently on loan be returned to school as soon as possible.

Please check at home and make sure that any borrowed books are returned to our library by Monday 8 April. At the latest. Thank you for your co-operation with this.

Our next stay and play sessions for 2-4 Year old children will be on Monday 8 April from 9:30am - 10:30am. Come along and meet our Early Years Team and experience our wonderful facilities.

It is with great sadness that I write to you all this week following the news of the death of Karen Burns, mum to Nevaeh in Year 5 and 4 other children who have all attended Lea Forest. Thank you to everyone who has messaged and sent in their good wishes through school. I have been in contact with Leia (one of Karen’s older daughters) and passed on your condolences. We are working with the family to support Navaeh and ensure there is some continuity for her. Whilst suggestions of non uniforms days , etc are lovely, we need to respect Nevaeh and her family. I have shared information on Class Dojo and opened up a collection at school. If you would like to donate some money to support the family, please hand any money to the office. Alternatively, Leia has set up a ’go fund me’ page where donations can be made directly. If you would like to donate money through this method, click on the link:

https://www.gofundme.com/haf95u-funeral

Mr Clarke

As usual, and not to break tradition it’s been an extremely busy week. We started Monday with a Phonics workshop for Y1 parents led by Mrs Gonzales. Thank you to the parents who attended this. If you were unable to attend and want to find out more information about how we teach phonics or need resources to support at home, visit the phonics section of our website.

On Tuesday, some of our Y3 pupils and some parent volunteers helped with the Great British Clean which involved tidying up our local area. We are going to be making this a more regular event so that we keep the area surrounding school tidy. On Tuesday evening, we also had parents supporting Mr Haw and some of our pupils from across the school to carry out some tree planting on our top field. Thank you if you were part of this team.

There has been football success this week and Miss Lewis has been very busy ensuring our teams keep their top spots in the leagues. Both the boys and girls’ teams are having a great season and I’m very proud of their achievements. More information can be found on page 2.

We have ended this week with our Mother’s Day breakfast event. A huge thank you to the PCAB for organising this and thank you to all of you parents for a REMARKABLE turnout. When I first joined Lea Forest in September 2015 we would hold events and the turnout was low and disappointing. I am delighted now that we have totally changed this culture and now get so many of you attending workshops, parents evenings and other events. Your support means so much to me and to your children.

WELL DONE with the REMARKABLE attendance this week! Let’s keep it up! Look on page 2 for some of the events happening next week, including our Early Years Easter activity evening on Thursday.

Have a great weekend.

Mr Clarke

As usual, and not to break tradition it’s been an extremely busy week. We started Monday with a Phonics workshop for Y1 parents led by Mrs Gonzales. Thank you to the parents who attended this. If you were unable to attend and want to find out more information about how we teach phonics or need resources to support at home, visit the phonics section of our website.

On Tuesday, some of our Y3 pupils and some parent volunteers helped with the Great British Clean which involved tidying up our local area. We are going to be making this a more regular event so that we keep the area surrounding school tidy. On Tuesday evening, we also had parents supporting Mr Haw and some of our pupils from across the school to carry out some tree planting on our top field. Thank you if you were part of this team.

There has been football success this week and Miss Lewis has been very busy ensuring our teams keep their top spots in the leagues. Both the boys and girls’ teams are having a great season and I’m very proud of their achievements. More information can be found on page 2.

We have ended this week with our Mother’s Day breakfast event. A huge thank you to the PCAB for organising this and thank you to all of you parents for a REMARKABLE turnout. When I first joined Lea Forest in September 2015 we would hold events and the turnout was low and disappointing. I am delighted now that we have totally changed this culture and now get so many of you attending workshops, parents evenings and other events. Your support means so much to me and to your children.

WELL DONE with the REMARKABLE attendance this week! Let’s keep it up! Look on page 2 for some of the events happening next week, including our Early Years Easter activity evening on Thursday.

Have a great weekend.

Mr Clarke

Our next stay and play sessions for 2-4 Year old children will be on Monday 25 March and Monday 8 April from 9:30am - 10:30am. Come along and meet our Early Years Team and experience our wonderful facilities.

Mon 25 March Y1 Phonics workshop for parents 9am

Mon 25 March Nursery Stay and Play 9:30am

Fri 29 March Mother’s Day Celebration breakfast

Mon 1 Apr EAL Hub Trip to the Citiserve Kitchens

Thur 4 Apr Chill and Chat for ALL parents 9am

Our attendance is continuing to improve each week. Thank you to all of our parents that are continuing to support our efforts by making sure that every day counts. We currently have 7 classes in from Years 1 - 6 that are beating our 96% target for the year to date. Let’s try and improve this further by the Easter Holidays!

Don’t forget that every class is taking part in Spartacus’ Party in the Park competition. Any class that achieves 15 days of 100% attendance for this half term will be having a picnic and party on the last day of term!

Our overall attendance for this week was: 95.95%

Our overall attendance for the year to date is: 95.57%

Last week’s WINNERS:

Early Years: RGH (99.33%)

Key Stage 1: 1HM (97.33%)

Key Stage 2: 4NN (98.00%)

This week’s ranking: (all above 96%)

1st = RBE (99.33%)

2nd = 4NN (98.00%)

3rd = 5BP (97.67%)

4th = 1HM (97.33%)

5th = 3JG (97.24%)

6th = 3RR (97.20%)

7th= 2SJ and 4WH (96.67%)

Last week was a really busy week with lots of non-uniform and fancy dress days. We ended last week with wacky hair for RED NOSE DAY. It was great to see everyone making such an effort and making donations for those that have less than us! Such occasions are always a great time for the children to reflect on differences. Our children are always so big hearted and always want to help others. We are lucky that we have a strong sense of community in our school and I think that the diversity of cultures and backgrounds has helped us establish this.

Our week started by hosting 4 visitors from a school in Ipswich, Suffolk. They had seen some of the amazing learning and opportunities we provide for all of the children at Lea Forest from Twitter and wanted to see it in action. Their feedback was absolutely amazing. It makes me so proud to receive such positive comments about the children and staff. We’ve come on such a journey and we haven’t stopped yet. We want each and every child to live a remarkable life. On Monday, Mrs Law also led a whole school assembly where she showed the children a video clip and talked to them about railway safety.

We had a fire drill on Thursday and I was thrilled with how sensibly, quickly and safely the children were able to evacuate the building. Health and Safety is always a key priority in school and we regularly check and remind the children of how to stay safe in an emergency.

The week has ended with a Governance Day. Governance days happen three times throughout the academic year, allowing the Governing Board members to visit lessons, speak to children and staff, analyze school performance data and get a general feel for how well the school is doing. In our last Ofsted inspection in November 2016 we were graded GOOD. We are now well on our journey to becoming OUTSTANDING. I will tell you more about our Governance visit in next week’s newsletter.

General reminders

PE kits are being monitored at the moment and I have asked the PE coaches to send letters home with children who are NOT wearing the appropriate PE kit. Information about what the children should be wearing for PE can be found on the school website. Alternatively, you can speak to a member of staff who will be able to help. Jewellery should NOT be worn to school. If a child does have their ears pierced and needs to wear earrings, these should only be stud earrings. I would ask that you’d get piercings done only in school holiday periods.

If you want to keep-up-to-date with what is happening, remember to check out ClassDojo, Twitter, Facebook, the school website and the notice boards in the playgrounds. which are being updated regularly.

Happy weekend! See you all next week!

Mr Clarke

Every child has the right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical, social and mental needs.

Governments must help families who cannot afford to provide this. (Article 27)

We teach our pupils to be respectful and caring, to help others that are less fortunate than themselves and to support good causes and projects that will benefit our local communities and children in other countries.

This week Miss Lewis and Mr Carlton have been busy with our Yr5 and Yr6 Hockey teams competing at KESH Academy on Wednesday.

Our teams showed great determination and skill playing in very windy conditions, after 12 games our A and C team finished 2nd in their group and our B team finished 3rd.

Please ensure that you sign and return your consent slip for the Year 1 trip on Wednesday 1 May to West Midlands Safari Park.

If you require a new letter, please collect one from the office staff.

We have had an overwhelming response to our Mother’s Day Treat taking place on Friday 29 March. As this has proved so popular and to ensure we meet deadlines for catering, we will not be able to accept any further reply slips after Monday 18 March. If you want to come along, please ensure your slips are returned by this date.

Finally, thank you for all of the support you show towards your children’s education and school. By working together, we achieve so much more. Have a great weekend. We have another busy week ahead next week, including a visit from our Governors.

This week has been another one of those weeks where we’ve taken full advantage of every single day. If I’m honest, I’ve forgotten what wearing a suit feels like as we’ve had three different themed days with lots of fancy dress. We started the week with a visit from MC Grammar. It was such a tremendous experience for all of the children and fun was had by all. There was an AMAZING effort made by all of the children and staff with their costumes. MC Grammar was very complimentary about our school and loved working with our children. We can’t wait to welcome MC Grammar back to Lea Forest again soon.

On Tuesday we held our very own ‘International Day’ which launched our ‘Global Friendship Project’. This wasn’t just another chance to dress up, but an opportunity to celebrate diversity within our school and to also study different countries for the day. I have received some positive feedback from children, staff and also parents, so I really can’t wait to see how this project develops further. A big thank you to Miss Simpson for arranging this event and for developing international links with partner schools to share learning experiences. This whole project will link perfectly to our Rights Respecting Schools journey too as the global themes include: identity and belonging, sustainable living, conflict and peace, fairness and equality and finally, rights and responsibilities. Thank you again for making sure that the children all looked so brilliant for this event.

I was in London on Wednesday for a National Headteacher’s Conference for all AET Headteachers. It is always great to network with colleagues and hear about the successes and challenges from different settings. The theme of the conference was based on ‘Remarkable lives ‘ our people’. I was proud to report that we have fully embraced the new values here at Lea Forest and these have been shared with all stakeholders. I will be reminding you all of the values from time to time, but also ask your children about the values and how we use them on a daily basis.

We’ve also had further sporting successes this week. Thank you to all of the children involved and of course to our sports coaches for their continued dedication.

We have ended the week with RED NOSE DAY celebrations. Again, I was absolutely blown away by the efforts of the children, staff and parents - great crazy hair!

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Each year we provide an opportunity for Year 6 children to attend a residential experience at Whitemoor Lakes. On Wednesday of this week we waved goodbye as the children left to go and enjoy 3 days and 2 nights of fun and activities. They haven’t had the best of weather, but that hasn’t stopped them. They have indulged in a number of activities

including: Canoeing, climbing, abseiling, zip wires, high wires and team games. They’ve been joined by Mr Taylor, Miss Francois, Miss Oliver, Mr Haw and Mrs Lewis who have also enjoyed their time away with the children and witnessing them pushing their limits, discovering what’s possible and being unusually brave. We are very proud of the way in which the children have conducted themselves and shown our school values at all times. There’s been lots of photographs shared via ClassDojo, Twitter and Facebook.

Every child has the right to learn and use the language, customs and religion of their family, regardless of whether these are shared by the majority of the people in the

country where they live. (Article 30) We are proud that our pupils come from a range of diverse and different backgrounds. Our school teaches the importance of

respecting and understanding different religions, nationalities and customs that make up our school and our wider community.

We are very excited to announce our forthcoming international project ‘Growing a Global friendship’, in which each of our classes will buddy up with a class of the same age from another school from around the world. We are fortunate enough to have established links with countries such as Brazil, Belgium, South Africa and Greece.

The purpose of this project is to develop international links with our partner schools to share examples of our learning, pen pal letters and to work on projects that address global issues. Through the British Council, we are hoping to gain the foundation level of the International Schools Award.

On Tuesday 12 March we are asking children to come dressed in international dress from ANY country.

We will be welcoming the legendary MC Grammar to Lea Forest on Monday 11 March for #GrammarTime. Children have been invited to dress up as a grammar rapper or punctuation character to help us celebrate in style. We’ll be having a rap battle in the hall as each class performs their favourite MC Grammar Rap. MC Grammar will

also be visiting each class.

Comic Relief is back on Friday 15 March and our school councillors have challenged the staff and children of Lea Forest to come to school on Red Nose Day with their wackiest hair styles for a £1 donation to Comic Relief . We will also be selling red noses in school throughout next week for £1.25 each. All funds will be donated to Comic Relief.

Please ensure that if your child attends an after school club ,they are collected at the time stated from Door 2 (on Hurstcroft Rd).

If you are running late, please let the office staff know by calling: 0121 675 3985.

We’ve been busy again lapping our golden mile circuit this week!

We have completed an incredible 1434 laps of our playground course.

That’s 80 miles collectively by our staff and children.

The winners this week are: 3JG with 333 laps, followed by 3ST with 288 laps.

Please ensure that consent slips and any payments for trips and educational visits are returned to the office promptly. If you require a paper copy of a letter, our office staff are always able to print out an extra copy.

Stay and Play returns on Monday 11 March from 9am-10am.

Pop along and spend some time in our Early Years department. Children under 4 and their parents are welcome to attend these sessions.

It is with great disappointment that I am having to write about parent behaviour and conduct, however, I have received a number of complaints from children, parents and staff about the unacceptable and inappropriate behaviour of a small minority of parents on the school playground and school gates.

I was absolutely disgusted with what I witnessed on Wednesday.

- It is UNACCEPTABLE to use bad language around the school site. - It is INAPPROPRIATE to argue and shout with other parents and (more importantly) towards members of my staff. - It is INAPPROPRIATE to congregate around the school gates causing a nuisance or display threatening, behaviour.

Any breaches of the parent code of conduct will result in a immediate ban from the school premises.

I would like to thank the vast majority of parents who conduct themselves appropriately at all times.

World Book Day kick started our week and I was overwhelmed by the wonderful costumes that our staff and children wore. We held a special assembly and awarded prizes for the best dressed. World Book Day is always a wonderful celebration of the love of reading. We fully embraced it this year and held workshops for parents during the school day and after school, which were really well attended.

Thank you for your support and thank you to all of the staff for going that extra mile to make sure that our World Book Day was the best it could have been. The rest of the week has seen more visitors visiting from schools in Lancaster, who travelled afar to see the wonderful mathematics curriculum we run at Lea Forest. We were also joined by Ian Taylor who is the Regional Curriculum Director for AET.

As always, the visitors left leaving highly positive feedback, complimenting the children’s learning behaviours, manners, our environment, the friendly and hardworking staff and lots more. It makes me incredibly proud to receive such lovely comments from other leaders from different schools. On Wednesday, most of our Year 6 children and staff left for their residential trip to Whitemoor Lakes.

Our overall attendance for this week was: 96%

Our overall attendance for the year to date is: 95.41%

We’ve reached our 96% target this week and nearly reached our target for year to date. Thank you for your efforts in making improvements. We’ve really seen an improvement.

Here’s this week’s best classes that have all achieved 96%+ for attendance:

1st = 1HM (99.33%)

2nd = 3JG (99.31%)

Joint 3rd = 2SJ and 2MC (98.67%)

4th = 4NN (98.00%)

5th = RGH (97.59%)

6th = 6CF (96.97%)

7th = 3ST (96.47%)

Monday 4 March - World Book Day Celebrations

Wednesday 6 March - Y6 go on residential

Friday 8 March - Y6 return from residential

Friday 8 March - 9:10am Celebration Assembly

Monday 11 March - 9:00 Parent Group Meeting

This Week

First of all, a huge welcome back from all of us at Lea Forest. I hope that you all had a great break and feel all refreshed ready for the long stretch ahead. It was lovely welcoming back everyone and opening the gates on Monday; with an added bonus of some sunshine (for a few days at least).

It’s (as always) been another busy week with wow days, dressing-up, trips, visitors, after school clubs, meetings, community work and lots going on behind the scenes. Some of the highlights of this week have included Year 3s ’Tribal Tales’ wow day, where we had lots of cavemen and cavewomen. Another highlight this week was the Year 4 trip to Safeside. More information about these events can be found on page 2 of this newsletter. I’m also delighted with the attendance this week.

We end the week with a CLOWN WORLD event which proves to be an exciting evening. Thank you to our wonderful PCAB for organising this event.

Online Safety

You may already be aware of an online game called the MOMO challenge. It made an appearance last year, but was short lived. However, it appears to have resurfaced over the last week, causing greater concern for our children. First of all, you need to understand the background of the MOMO challenge. This started as an urban myth and there has been a steady stream of ’fake news’ coverage on social media that has elevated the spread. The problem we face now, is the fact that the MOMO challenge is starting to appear in the middle of videos both on YouTube and YouTube for kids.

There are tips for parents online, that we have also shared on FaceBook, Twitter and ClassDojo. The main messages are: tell your children it is not real, be present and talk regularly. I would urge every one of our parents and carers whose children have access to a mobile device/tablet and social media to check the settings on those accounts and ensure they regularly keep updated about the content. It is hard to shun social media completely and it can be a great thing if used appropriately, but sadly this is not always the case. Please be vigilant and if you need any advice whatsoever, then ask someone in school and we can signpost advice where necessary. More information and links can be found on page 2 of this newsletter.