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Happy Friday all!

 

We have had a very good week here in school again.

 

The school council started their healthy tuck shop on Monday which has proved a success with our Key stage 2 children.

 

Mr Almeida's class performed a brilliant class assembly and we were all very proud of them.

 

Next week is set to be a very exciting and busy week as we take part in science week. We know you have received a letter about all the activities and we think the children are going to have a brilliant time exploring all things scientific!

 As a school we believe that our children should have exposure to as many opportunities as possible to widen their understanding of the world around them and help them to aim high for their own future choices. Who knows we may have a Nobel prize winner amongst us!

 

There will be a cake sale on Tuesday 15th March run by the STEM ambassadors after school. Any donations of cakes would be appreciated.

 

A reminder that if your child tests positive for Covid that day counts as day zero, you then count 5 days on from the next day, testing on day 5 and 6-providing a negative before they return. We have seen a slight rise in cases as per the national picture after half term but these are steadily declining. We ask that you continue to be vigilant. I suggest parents order some lateral flow tests in from the Gov.uk site in anticipation of these needing to be paid for after 31st March.

 

We understand that there are many pressures on parents at the current time - not least financial. The predicted rise in living costs is definitely a big worry for many. If any parents are struggling to cope please do contact me or the family Liaison officer and we will do our best to support.

 

I hope you all have a great weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Friday all,

Well that was the fastest week ever!

It is a very busy term so I think we are going to be seeing lots of weeks whizzing by. 

 

Thank you for your help with the car park and scaffolding situation, it has all gone very smoothly so far.

 

At the moment we have our book fair where children can buy a book and use their £1 book token towards the price. When a book is bought a % is donated to the school with which we can buy more classroom books for the children to read from the fair, so it is a great way for us to encourage reading all round. 

Book fair is on after school till Tuesday.

 

I have pasted a link below to some free training for parents on reading.

https://www.dandelionlearning.co.uk/raising-a-reader-top-tips-for-parents-to-foster-a-love-of-reading-free-training/

 

Look out for a letter for KS2 children today from the School Council who have been planning a healthy 'Tuck' shop. This will be starting next week.

 

Behaviour around school this week has been very good on the whole and I have been very pleased with how the children have been looking after each other. We know there is a lot in the news that some children may be seeing and may be finding a worry so it is especially important that we exercise our value of Respect. As a school we address news issues very sensitively, and gently guide the children to discuss in age appropriate ways. This means they can air any worries but we do not give them frightening information that they may not have come across at home. 

Our position on the situation in Ukraine will be to think about fundraising ideas and supporting people who need our help. 

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

 

S Houseman

 

 

 

Happy (and very windy) Friday all!

 

We have come to the end of the first spring term and are amazed how quickly it has gone. Time flies..etc. 

 

Remember to check your class pages for assembly dates so that you have advanced warning for these. It has been lovely getting them up and running again and the children have been brilliant, some for their first assembly ever!

 

If you are wanting to book into Easter holiday club (or even for the summer) please make sure you contact the club in good time to secure your place.

 

As mentioned previously we are having the school roof replaced. The scaffolding goes up over the half term break and we will let you know any changes to drop off and pick up once we have risk assessed when it is in place.

 

INSET days for next year are on the calendar. Please check these out. Also please ensure you are booking holidays in school holidays as we will not authorise absences except in exceptional circumstances. Unauthorised holidays will result in absence monitoring and could lead to a fine.

 

Miss Martin has placed some THRIVE activities under the THRIVE tab on this website. Lots of useful tips can be found here so do access these.

 

As usual I will be asking the teachers to turn off their dojos over the holiday. School can be contacted in case of emergency through the headteacher email.

headteacher@dovedale.derbyshire.sch.uk

 

We will see you all on Tuesday 1st March.

 

S Houseman

Happy Friday all,

 

The first 2 weeks back have been very productive and the children have returned ready to learn!

 

We continue to have very few new covid cases in school and are grateful for the support we are having from parents. Please continue to lateral flow your children and watch out for those symptoms.

 

INSET days and Jubilee day

The INSET days for 2022 2023 are now on the calendar. A reminder from my update last July that schools were instructed by the DFE to take the jubilee day as a public holiday. As the given date falls inside the school half term schools were instructed to take the public holiday outside of this. We therefore attached it to half term so school will be closed on 6th June. WRAP around club will take the public holidays on the Thursday and Friday the same as everyone else so that WRAP club will be open for children on the 6th. If you wish your child to attend WRAP please contact Michelle directly- details on the website.

 

If you had a new phone number over Christmas don't forget to update the office.

 

EYFS equipment install

We have new equipment being installed in the EYFS play space. This is due to start on Wednesday 26th and will cause some disruption to the path way. The company have postponed this work already form the start of term but Mrs Norton will keep you informed once they are on site.

 

Roof works.

We are finally getting our new roof completed. Work will start over the half term. This will cause some disruption in the front car park and to the side gate entrance due to scaffolding. We will inform parents and children of the alternative routes into school where necessary. Classes will continue as normal.

 

Smart watches

We have requested that smart watches are not worn in class as they are causing a distraction as they can perform other applications other than telling the time. Teachers cannot be responsible for looking after these items so they are best left at home.

 

Mental health week

We are participating in Children's mental health week on the week commencing the 7th February. Mrs Tomlinson, our mental health lead will post details of our activities under the parent's tab on the website-mental health and well being.

 

Online safety

I have put a leaflet supporting parents in understanding online sexual harassment under the key info tab-safeguarding. This is a useful document to help parents understand some of the issues and how to address them.

 

Poppy appeal

We have been thanked for our support of the poppy appeal last November. As a school community we managed to raise £879.23 for this worthy cause. 

 

Have a lovely weekend.

Happy Friday all!

 

We have had a very busy and productive week here at Dovedale.

 

On Thursday Mrs Kelly's class did their class assembly which was excellent. The children have missed out on performing to an audience for 2 years now and it is so lovely to see them have the confidence to show off their talents.

 

Next week we have the Reception Nativity, with social distancing ut in place we are happy to have these go ahead as we know it is so important for children and parents for these miles stones to happen if they can. We are obviously being careful with our risk assessment measures but are hoping to continue with these type of activities as long as they do not pose a threat of increase in cases.

 

On a similar note, next Friday 10th is our Christmas market. This starts at 3.15 and is on the school playground. We ask that all parents come through the side green gate (not the bin gate) and wait on the playground to collect their children. We will open the gate earlier on this day to save a rush. Once your children have been collected you can then make your way to the market or leave via the school car park gates. The larger gate will be opened at 3.15 to allow the year 6s to exit and for people to exit after visiting the market.

We would ask that visitors wear masks wherever possible and if you are lateral flow testing this will give us extra confidence. 

The market is shaping up to be a lovely festive event with several stalls and games, hot dogs and hot chocolate. Come wrapped up warm to listen to our school choir and maybe win on the raffle.

 

Miss Martin has placed a THRIVE kindness advent calendar under the THRIVE tab under parents on this website. Check it out for some lovely kindness ideas.

 

Can I remind all parents that dogs are not allowed on the school grounds at any time. 

 

I have had a record number of absence alerts this term and although many are due to Covid isolation some are not. Please remember to ring the office first thing if your child is off ill otherwise this is an unauthorised absence and causes us some concern if we do not know where the children are. If your children are late this also results in an absence mark for that session. If children have absence data below 90% contact will be made with the parents to discuss improving this-this may include children whose absences are as a result of repeated illness. This is because it is our job to help the children be in school as much as possible so communication to see if there are any triggers or factors can be really helpful. We also acknowledge that if children are genuinely ill it is rather annoying to get contact from us, however we do need to be doing our job around attendance diligently and fairly.

 

The Children in Need cake sale raised a massive £650. Thank you for all your donations they were very well received by the children (and staff!).

 

Thank you once again for your continued support with all our test requests. They do seem to be catching the asymptomatic cases and helping to stop the escalation. Let's hope we can continue to do this together.

 

Mrs Robinson has gone off on her maternity leave today and we wish her all the very best for the next few weeks as she awaits the arrival of baby.

 

Have a lovely weekend all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello all,

I thought I would do an update today as I was waiting to hear back from Santa before sending out.

The PTA were rather overwhelmed by the amount of tickets requested as we had based it on usual numbers. However we have managed to come up with a solution which hopefully will allow everyone who wishes to take part to be involved. I am sending an updated letter out today which will enable years Reception  to year 4 to buy tickets for the original offer if you haven't already done so and an alternative for years 5 and 6.

The Christmas fair is shaping up to be a wonderful event and we fully appreciate the PTA working around the restrictions we have in place to make this go ahead.

 

In school we have seen a rise in Covid cases over the last week in various classes. We do inform parents if their child is a close contact as younger children will not always know who their close contacts would be and test and trace are not always contacting children's contacts. We think it is vitally important that contacts get tested at a test site to stop the spread and potential class closures and to keep our families and staff safe. As with all families we have staff in school who have vulnerable family members or they themselves have underlying issues and it is important as a community to support those people who are on the front line with this. We really do appreciate all your support.

 

As a school we are trying to get back that 'normal'feeling whilst keeping safe and last week was an excellent week with school photos, school council voting, a class assembly and our Remembrance activity which made school feel much more normal and vibrant! This term promises to be a busy one so let's keep being covid vigilant so that we can do all the brilliant activities we have planned.

 

One activity planned is on Friday - Children in Need day. Children can dress up (or down) for a £1.00 donation. We are also having a cake sale which we have asked for donations for. If children bring in 50p for this they will be able to buy a cake at their classes allotted time. All proceeds will go to Children in Need. Any cake donations, homemade or shop bought, can be bought to school on Thursday after school, or Friday morning.

 

Can I remind parents to be considerate with their parking, there was some congestion again on Wenslydale last week which results in the school getting angry complaints from residents.

 

I hope you all have a good week.

 

 

 

Happy Friday all!

It has been a great week here at Dovedale and a great end to what has been quite a long term. With all the uncertainties around how this term would play out I am appreciative for the community support we receive from our parents. It makes a tricky job so much easier! I am sure you are aware that there is renewed talk of new restrictions out and about and we will adjust our risk assessment accordingly if directed to do so, and as always I will let you know anything relevant as it occurs.

The children as always have been a delight and school has continued to be a calm productive, fun place to be.

I would also like to say a huge thank you to all our staff- it's been a funny term not knowing quite how it will unfold and as always they have carried on putting the children's learning and well being at the forefront of all they do. They really are a great team and I am grateful for all their hard work and dedication.

 

On that note I wanted to share with you a piece written by one of our year 6 children -Oliver- in the style of an M and S advert.

 

Delicious cuisine lovingly cooked by dinnertime Debbie and her excellent gang;

The best teachers in the world, freshly picked by our out of this world headteacher;

Resources for all topics, fun and enjoyable for anyone.

Toilets with such good plumbing that all the pipes make you go dizzy;

REACH values rich in matureness and coated in brilliance;

Clubs where you come to have a fantastic time and you leave with a smile on your face so big it looks like a banana.

Brilliant break time, lovely lunch monitored by smart, epic, covered with knowledge adults,

Thrive where you go with troubling worries and leave believing that that was the best day of your life.

This isn't just a school, this is Dovedale school!

 

Happy half term everyone.

 

Happy Friday all,

 

I hope you have all had a good week. We have had a lovely week here at Dovedale.

 

This week we have talked to the children about aiming high and being aspirational for themselves-there is nothing they can't do if they aim really high for their future adults! We have also had an internet safety assembly today. Please remember to regularly check in on your child's internet searches and make sure you've set parental controls so you know exactly what they can access.

The link below helps you to know how to do this.

https://www.pandasecurity.com/en/mediacenter/panda-security/parental-control/

 

Under the THRIVE tab Miss Martin has added some THRIVE activities to support mental health and well being. Do check them out.

 

We are asking the children who usually come through the side gate ( Not the bin gate) in a morning to line up on the grass so that we can get them in by year group.

This is to stop the stampede that we seem to be getting with all the children rushing through the gate at once. The children will line up in their year groups then once we open the gate at 8.50 we will take them in one line at a time.

 

If you collect your child from the main playground at the end of the day can we ask that you leave the playground promptly. The gates need to be locked by 3.25 to secure the space for WRAP club. Children should not be playing on the equipment as it is difficult for the adults to monitor the children who should be there and may cause a safeguarding issue. Thank you for you support with this. If you need to speak with the teacher and the gates are locked exit through the school main office.

 

As we know several families have experienced a change in circumstances due to Covid 19. If your income has changed and you are on benefits please remember to check to see if you are eligible for free school meals at

https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/education/schools/your-child-at-school/meals/school-meals/free-school-meals.aspx

Even if your child is currently receiving the infant free school meals ( also known as universal free school meals) you should still apply as there can be other advantages to this.

If any families find they are struggling please do not hesitate to contact us and we will do our best to support you.

 

A reminder that we break up for half term next Friday - children in school and Monday 1st November is an INSET day so the children are not in school - staff are doing first aid training on this day.

 

Don't forget to check out our Twitter feed.

 

Have a lovely weekend

Happy Friday all,

 

What a busy week!

We had a great harvest celebration day and it was lovely to see so many children wearing autumn, fruit or vegetable colours or full on costumes! We all had a great day and the donations were truly immense.

 

We are also currently completing activities for Black History month. Although we celebrate equality and diversity at all times throughout our school year we use this month to focus in on racism and inequality as well as celebrating the contribution made to Great Britain by individuals from African or Caribbean backgrounds (amongst others). This is a very important part of our values teaching.

 

Next week our assemblies in school will focus on mental health and the strategies we can use to keep our mental health healthy.

 

You should now be aware that parent's evening slots are open for booking. If you have any difficulties with this do contact your child's class teacher or the school office.

 

Don't forget to check out our twitter page to see some of the things we have been getting up to.

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

 

 

 

Happy Friday all,

 

We have had a good week at school with the children all making us proud once again.

 

It has been a tricky week also with some positive cases in year 2 and 3 but I have been overwhelmed by the positive response of our parents who have responded to requests for testing. I know we can get through it if we all work together!

I will of course update parents frequently so that informed choices can be made.

 

In other news it is the Long Eaton carnival tomorrow and we are excited to be leaving West park right at the front. If you are not joining us in the parade do come to wave us on- it is always a fun event.

 

Year 6 started their swimming today which was enjoyed by all.

 

If you have urgent need to contact the school at the weekend please email the head teacher. Teachers will not respond to all dojos at the weekend but the head teacher email will be checked though out the weekend. Non urgent communication will be responded to on Mondays. Thank you for your understanding.

 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.