Noticeboard

Happy Friday all,

 

Well spring term one has come and gone and it has been a busy one as always. 

 

This week we had the pleasure of watching the reception children's play. The children were so well behaved, spoke and sang beautifully and showed developing confidence and resilience. It really put a smile on our faces. Thank you to the reception team for guiding the children through this and making it such a success.

 

I had a query last week about progress on the interim reports so just wanted t clarify a point. The level the child is at on the interims is for the autumn term data. This may mean that your child appears to be lower than they were at the end of summer last year. However, by summer this year they should have made the correct progress if they are working at expected progress. If you do have any queries, do message the class teacher who can clarify anything or arrange a meeting.

 

Below are 2 links for parents to support with online safety. These are quick but very useful reads which help you support your child with their internet choices.

If you copy and paste these into your search bar they will come up.

 

Is whatsapp safe for my child? 

Includes tips for privacy settings, safety features, location sharing etc.

 

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-safety-blog/2023-01-12-is-whatsapp-safe-for-my-child/

 

Parental controls

https://ssslearning.co.uk/parentsandguardians/parental-controls?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA8Lu9BhA8EiwAag16b5IQFB_S9NwVSz9sS1-Vdg5F3qT6a90JDikEYAACAzKw6TzRf8SDthoCHpEQAvD_BwE

 

Please remember that if you need help with food bank we can sort this for you, collect and drop off. Just ask.

 

I hope you have a lovely half term, we return to school on Monday 24th-no INSET, and please do email me if you need to over the break.

 

S Houseman

Hi all,

 

On Friday 31st you will receive your child's interim report. This report details how your child is progressing academically towards their individual targets. These give you a snapshot for this time of year. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher for an update. Please remember you can ask your child's teacher for an update meeting at any time if you have any concerns.

 

I have had a few queries regarding next year's INSET days. 

Our next INSET days this year are: 23rd May and 4th July.

In September we are planning the one INSET day which will be on Thursday 4th with Children back in school on the Friday. We have not yet set the others but will inform you as soon as we do. The school takes 5 INSET days a year. Parents should therefore check the calendar on the website to know school dates and INSET days and not assume there is an Inset day after every holiday.

 

Please see below a flyer for an event with breakfast and crafts on the 2nd February at All Saints Church, Sawley.

 

Very soon the school will be moving to an online medical tracker. you will receive a letter about this. When you get the emails if your child has any accident in school you do not need to contact school, the email just replaces the slips that are sent home. We will still continue to contact you via phone for head bumps or anything more serious. If the email says injury this just means we have applied first aid which could be an ice pack or plaster.

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Happy Friday all,

 

I hope you have all had a good week.

 

Behaviour over the last 2 weeks has been excellent with only 1 visit to reflection time so this is a very positive start to 2025.

 

Likewise we have just completed the Spring 1 census and the attendance data is improved since this time last year. This is excellent news. Whole school attendance is at 97% against a national of 93% so this is very promising, so thank you for your continued support with unauthorised absences. We do know that this time of year leads to more illness and naturally if your child is sick then this cannot be helped.

 

If you have noticed a new male addition to the Dovedale team this is Stephen Kirk, our new Site manager. You may have met him on the gate or around school at drop off or pick ups. Stephen has already proved himself a great asset to the team so we would like to welcome him to the Dovedale community.

 

Please do remember that if you are struggling at home for any reason please do get in touch. We are able to support with food banks or advice or just an ear to listen to you. We are here to support our families.

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

 

Happy Friday all!

 

We have had a wonderfully busy few weeks in the lead up to Christmas.

 

The Christmas fair was a huge success and a massive thanks to our wonderful PTA for organising and resourcing this and to our parents for supporting it.

 

The year 1 and 2 Christmas play was so lovely and got us all in the Christmas spirit. The children were so mature, delivered their lines effortlessly and sang and spoke beautifully. We were all very proud of them.

 

This week we have had visits from Santa - again orchestrated by the PTA- and the children were very excited indeed to pay him a visit in his lovely grotto.

 

We know that Christmas for some can be a very stressful time though so please get in touch if you would like to have a chat or need some support. We will do our best to help.

 

Online safety

Over the Christmas period children may be online for longer periods of time so it is especially important that parents are checking who they have as friends on their games and setting parental controls

 

Link for putting parental controls on roblox :https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/en-us/articles/30428310121620-Parental-Controls-Overview

 

A link to set digital rules such as screen time: https://families.google/familylink/ 

 

and the NSPCC guidance on parental controls covering a range of online resources: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/parental-controls/

 

We break for Christmas next Friday 20th at the usual time and return to school on the 6th January.

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

 

S Houseman

 

 

 

 GOLD have won the house points for Autumn 1. Well done.

They will get an extra playtime on Friday this week.

Happy Friday all,

 

We have had a lovely couple of weeks at school! Children's behaviour is continuing to be excellent with very few visits to Reflection time-the lowest in the last couple of years for this time of year- so we are super proud of all our children for showing Dovedale respect. General behaviours around school are calm and considerate.

 

We are also proud of how everyone pulled together once again to contribute to the food bank collection. The donations were piled high and the Long Eaton and Sawley food bank were very grateful for your contributions. See the Thank you below. The food in total weighed 341 KG.

 

A reminder that children should not be wearing jewellery to school other than stud earrings and functional watches. Hoops, bracelets and necklaces should not be worn. We do allow some charity bands at certain points in the year.

A heads up also that I have had to mention to a couple of children about the wearing of mascara to school. They will be asked to remove this with a hypoallergenic wipe if this occurs.

 

Last week also saw the children participate in the votes for school parliament representatives. Miss Nadin and Miss Hardaker created a voting centre for the children, complete with booths and the children entered to complete their slips and post into the ballot boxes. The winning candidates from each class will now form our House of Commons, with last year's House of Common's children becoming the new House of Lords. Our school parliament is an important and integral part of our children's voice, and we know they will make many important decisions this year in the best interests of their constituents (classes).

 

Please see below a leaflet with regard to a light party at All Saints Church hall on Sunday 3rd November.

 

Have a lovely weekend.

 

Hi all,

 

I just wanted to give you a few updates.

 

Firstly the last day of the Autumn term is Friday 20th December!

 

All school dates can be found on the school calendar but dates for next year can be found on the Derbyshire school's website. This will not of course include our INSET days.

 

Attendance this term as a whole school has been sitting around 98% which is great! So please let's try to keep those unauthorised absences to a minimum.

 

A reminder that if your child brings a packed lunch this should reflect our healthy eating policy. Therefore a biscuity chocolate treat or equivalent is great but sweets are not. Also a reminder that we say no to nuts due to allergies on site.

 

We would very much welcome  reading volunteers in school. If you have any time to spare, please do get in touch as we need more hands on deck!

 

Long Eaton youth club have a Christmas fair on the 2nd -flyer below. But don't forget that our very own Christmas fair is on Saturday 30th November. Contact the PTA if you would like to get involved.

 

Also below there are details of 2 harvest activities at All Saints Church this weekend. A Harvest breakfast and a Harvest supper with some information about the food bank as well as quizzes and activities.

 

On the subject of food banks, if any of our families are struggling please get in touch with Miss Martin and she may be able to help with food bank support or point you in the direction of other support. 

 

 

 

 

Happy weekend all!

 

We had a great start to the school year on Friday with all children looking smart and coming back to school with a great, ready to learn attitude.

 

Our newest reception children came in super ready, and were an absolute pleasure. We very much look forward to seeing them grow over the next few months and know they will be a real asset to our Dovedale family.

 

Next week we will see the start of work on our long awaited year 6 classroom build which will be craned in on Tuesday. This will sit alongside the current 'new' year 6 classroom. Not only will this be a great classroom space it also allows us to expand on our WRAP club into the 2 rooms which we know is vitally important for our parents. The children will be able to watch the building be craned down (from a safe distance of course), and we know from last time this is quite an exciting spectacle.

 

Below I have attached a visual of some of this terms key dates as a reminder as we know it's a very busy term and it can be tricky to keep up to speed with everything on offer!

 

I would like to congratulate Miss Nadin and Miss Hardaker for enabling us to achieve Teacher Gold teacher Ambassador status for the work they have done with the school parliament and British values. This is the highest level for this award and we were commended for all the work that the children do around democracy and understanding how the British parliament system works. We look forward to electing our new House of Commons children this term with our existing House of commons moving to the role of House of Lords.

 

Have a lovely weekend all.

 

 

Happy Friday all! Let's hope the sun shines at least a little this weekend!

 

Since my last update we have had a visit from Severn Trent water, explaining the water processing and treatment process and sharing with the children ways to save water. This was a really informative assembly and the children got fully engaged with the higher lower game of what uses more water. Did you know that a 10 minute shower can use up to 150 litres of water which is the same as a bath. That's a lot of water!

 

Can I ask that parents supervise their children in the front car park.? Children have been seen scootering around the parked cars, running around them with sticks or hiding behind them. It is a car park and I would hate for any cars to be damaged but more importantly it isn't a particularly good message for the children to be playing around parked cars. I have spoken with the children about this also.

 

Thank you for your support with the changes around the polling station. This all went ahead very smoothly.

 

As the weather appears to be tentatively creeping up a little warmer please provide hats or cream for your children. We are finally able to get on the field after all the weather so we do want them to be able to play out safely without the fear of sun burn or sun stroke

(I know I may be being a little optimistic here!).

 

I have asked the teachers to turn off their Dojos over the bank holiday to allow them a proper break. Any urgent messages can be sent to the HT email address which is regularly checked.

 

There have been a few  children bringing 'special toys' into school recently. Unless this has been agreed with the class teacher for specific reasons can we ask children not to bring them in as they are starting to cause a distraction, may get lost or damaged and are affecting lesson time. Thankyou for your support with this.

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Stay safe

 

S Houseman

 

Happy Friday all!

 

A reminder that curriculum aspects of your children's learning journeys can be found either in their class pages or under the curriculum tab which outlines all of the curriculum maps.

 

Parking again has been a problem more than usual this week. WE have had 4 complaints about parking over driveways. Please don't park on corners or in front of dropped curbs. There is also a hidden bus stop! Opposite the actual bus stop along from school on the same side there is a slightly raised curb-although no bus stop sign. The bus company have asked if we can refrain from parking on it. I have enquired as to whether they intend to put a sign and zig zag lines to make it clearer for parents.

 

Last half term some of our Parliament children had a day visit to the Houses of Parliament. This was a wonderful experience visiting the House of Commons and House of Lords, meeting our MP and learning about the business of Westminster.

The children were an absolute credit and asked our MP -Maggie Throup -some really pertinent questions and were able to speak confidently about democracy and the rule of law.

A huge thank you to Miss Nadin and Miss Hardaker for organising the trip.

We look forward to repeating it next year!

 

Also last term we had Science week organised by our Science lead Mrs Ganguly. What a wonderful week the children had with workshops and activities, the children were engaged and enthused. Again a huge thank you for the organisation and planning of this to Mrs Ganguly.

 

We all know that children are now at greater risk from grooming online. However we also need to be fully informed of other threats to our children that they may encounter when out and about.

I have attached a link to some information about County lines. This is a huge problem in some areas where children get themselves, often unwittingly, involved with drugs trafficking gangs. Children are known to have been targeted as young as 10.

Please check out the information.

https://www.internetmatters.org/issues/online-grooming/what-is-county-lines/

 

I have also sent an email with information about different ways of keeping children safe online. Please read as I have tried to include some practical measures that can support you. This is also directed towards parents of some of our younger children as they are increasingly at risk-so please do give it a read. 

 

Our word of the week next week is devious. See if your children can use it in appropriate and interesting ways. This is just one part of our drive to extend vocabulary and oracy skills across school. 

 

Next week Severn Trent Water are coming in to give an assembly and complete workshops on water safety.

 

On 2nd of May one of the year 6 classrooms will again be used as a polling station for the local elections. This means that children will not be able to access their classrooms via the 'bin' gate. All children will need to enter school via the side gate (left hand side facing the school). We will therefore open the gates 10 minutes early to allow children to enter. There will be no lining up on this day.

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

 

S Houseman