Happy Friday everyone!
I hope you have all had a good week.
It has been a busy second week here at Dovedale and our new EYFS children are settling well. They attended their first whole school REACH assembly this morning and managed to sit really well whilst the certificates were handed out. We are seeing lots of smiles and they are growing in confidence every day.
Year 5 had their first swimming lesson this morning which they were all very excited about. We look forward to watching their progress over the term.
As part of our safeguarding updates I would like to tell you about our web filtering service. In school this means that we monitor what the children can access online. This is regularly reviewed and checked to make sure we are keeping our children safe. This is done through Smoothwall.
As parents is it important that you check what your children can access. If you look under the key info tab-safeguarding including internet safety -you will find a link to the parent safe website which gives lots of information about how to add filters and keep ahead of what is happening in the digital and online world. I have also added a link to a scare scam poster which helps parents understand how to talk to their children about 'scares' and 'dares' they may come across on the internet. This is very important as children may be encouraged to carry out tricks or dares which could put them at risk of injury.
I need to remind parents that holiday requests will not be authorised unless they meet the criteria in our absences policy. The reasons for absence must be exceptional. This includes funerals or unavoidable events but does not include family holidays. Although I can often sympathise or empathise with reasons for requests I will not authorise holiday requests.
Please make sure your child is wearing appropriate school uniform. We acknowledge that the rising cost of living is putting great pressure on households and we are not requesting that children have a logo on their uniform. We will put out 'lost' property regularly. If parents wish to donate good quality uniform please place in a bag with the age label and bring to the school office.
If any parent would like us to see if we have spare uniform for their child's size please contact the headteacher via email confidentially and I will look to see if we can support you with this.
For further guidance with uniform requirements please see our prospectus on the website or the uniform tab.
If there are any adults out there who would like to volunteer in school to support in class/hear readers etc we would love to welcome you to school. As with all adults in school you would be required to undertake induction and our usual safeguarding checks but this will be arranged by Mrs Tomlinson. Since covid, for obvious reasons, our volunteer numbers have dwindled so we would love to hear from you if you have an hour or so to spare. Please contact Mrs Tomlinson in the school office.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend.