Brentry Primary School

1. Brentry Primary School Newsletter September 13thTerm 1 Learn Together - SHARE Success Hello! – Welcome back to a new year at Brentry Primary School. A special welcome to brand new parents of children in Reception Class. I hope you enjoy a long and fruitful relationship with us as your children continue their educational journey. They’re in safe and very capable hands! It has been a very positive start to the term. The pupils seem motivated and excited to be in their new classes with new teachers. The new Reception pupils are close to starting full time, and have settled very nicely so far. They are a typical Brentry intake – bubbly and full of character. It is always great to see the new Year 6 class in their red uniform for the first time. A busy year for all but especially for them. Several Year 6 children have taken on the role of Prefect with much enthusiasm. We have a new School Council and continue with the Eco Team and the Health and Safety Patrol – giving the pupils the chance to have their say in running the school. Trust me…they’re more than happy to ‘say’ a great deal! We have also welcomed quite a few new faces to the school. 7 children have joined us in the first two weeks, and each of them has been a fantastic addition to our school. Thanks for choosing Brentry. Construction– Just to confirm what is probably fairly obvious to those who have been on the school grounds – there is quite a bit of building work going on. We have had to fix a storm drain under the KS1 playground which had collapsed and caused flooding. We have also had to resolve issues with the hall roof. We hoped these would be sorted over the summer, but both turned out to be larger jobs than expected, and mean that the KS1 playground remains out of use for the immediate future. The children are having their playtime in the Reception play area, which they actually seem to prefer! The Children’s Centre are expanding in an area behind the school. They are working very hard to minimise disruption, but there will obviously be some impact as traffic levels will increase and several parking spaces will be lost for the duration of the build, which could be up to 4 months. It is therefore even more important that our parents do not drive on to the site to drop pupils off at this time. Please walk, cycle or scoot the children to school! Website - We are very pleased, at long last, to announce that our brand new website has gone live. This is our second attempt at a new one…the first turned out to be impractical for a variety of reasons. We have worked hard with a firm called Primary Sites to develop a very user friendly site which we hope you will like, and will visit regularly. Under the ‘Contact Us’ section, you will find an email contact form, which you can use to tell us what you enjoy about the site, and suggest improvements. Find the site at: www.brentryprimaryschool.org.uk France 2014– We are planning to take another party of Year 5 and 6 pupils to Rue in France in December this year. They will be staying in the historic Chateau du Broutel. Excursions will include a trip to Boulogne to visit a giant sea life centre, and a day on the Somme exploring the battlefields. We are, as far as I know, unique in Bristol in offering a residential trip abroad to primary aged children. It is a great opportunity for the children to learn about a different culture and develop their language skills.

2. A message from our School Crossing Patrol, Mr Windsor– ‘Hello to all who use the school crossing at the main gate in Brentry Lane. I would like to welcome all the new parents and pupils and welcome back the regular users. Thank you to the majority of parents and children for crossing the road safely throughout the last school year. However, there are still just one or two parents who set a bad example for the children. Please use the crossing point responsibly by waiting on the kerb for my instruction to cross. Your child will follow your example. If you are using a bike, please dismount before using the crossing point. One last item to remember, as a request from many parents, please do not park your car anywhere near the main school gate or on the adjacent or opposite kerbs. This blocks the view of the oncoming traffic and people using the crossing alike, which could lead to a serious accident. Thank you for helping to keep the children of Brentry safe.’ Violins and Guitars – We have a record number of children taking part in music tuition, which is fantastic news. If you have any violins or guitars at home that are no longer used and you would like to sell, please contact Mrs Price at the school, as we are trying to help equip the new starters. Uniform– Thank you so much to those of you who read the recent letter about school uniform and acted upon it. The children look very smart at present, and only two pupils in KS2 wore trainers instead of shoes to school over the week. A vast improvement! Holidays– A reminder that no holidays will be authorised during term time from now on, after new government guidelines came in to force. No absence will be authorised at all unless in ‘exceptional circumstances’. Holidays taken without authorisation will result in fines. It was pointed out to me recently by one very helpful Mum that each parent receives a fine, for each child. At £60 a go, that could add up. Thank you for being so understanding about this new rule change. POMs– The wonderful POMs team are looking for new faces to join them in the fantastic work they do for the school. If you can help out in any way, please get in touch with Trish Law at the school. Better still, come and join them on Tuesday mornings in the Community Room for a coffee, cake and gossip! Funky Photos – Class photos will be taken on Monday 16th September. School Dinners – From September, the price of school dinners increased by 5p to £2.25. According to Eden, our dinner providers, the rising cost of ingredients and fresh produce has lead to this increase. SMSA vacancies– We have three vacancies for SMSAs at present. If you are free from 11.50am to 1.10pm and would like to join our wonderful group of SMSAs in helping the children safely enjoy their lunchtimes, please contact Sue Davis in the office. Breakfast Club– As promised, we have revamped our pre-school arrangements to create the BBC – Brentry Breakfast Club. We are offering good food (hot food on three days a week), better supervision and more activities - at a cheaper price. If you are interested, please contact Elaine Spears at the school, or complete one of the forms on the new website and hand it in to the office. The menu is on the website too. After School provision– We are aware that several of you are desperate for us to provide some kind of after school provision. We are looking to do so, but are mindful of the cost, as last time, uptake was very poor. If any parents are able to volunteer some time after school to support such provision, please can they contact me and let me know. Thanks. Have a great couple of weeks. Geraint Clarke Head Teacher Brentry Primary School Brentry Lane Brentry BS10 6RG T: 01173532261 F: 01179503323 E: brentryp@bristol.gov.uk