Newsletters

Prescot Primary School Newsletter       May 2021

Welcome to the return of our half-termly newsletter! 

It’s always a busy time of year but we can certainly say that the last couple of months have been extremely busy as we begin to fall back into our annual rhythm. We have one half term left of this academic year and we will really try to make the most of each week.

Early Years Update

Another busy term in our EYFS.  Reception children have all welcomed Mr Dobson into their Reception team and we are not sure who is having more fun… the children or Mr Dobson!  Nursery have been enjoying some cool colour experiments and our PM children have settled into school life so well.  It is lovely to see how quickly the children have settled back into school and how much they enjoy learning.  We are sure that our conservation project will be another topic that they will love. It is something that they can become passionate about and spread the word at home too… get ready to reuse and recycle!  

We have now offered nursery places for children due to start in September, so if you haven’t requested a place, or know someone who needs one, please tell them to email admin@prescotprimary.org.uk ASAP with the child’s name, date of birth, address and parent/carer contact number - thank you!

You can register your child as soon as they are born, so get their name down now - we already have our first applicant born in 2021! You can never be too organised!  

Reporting pupil progress

As we move towards the end of the year, you will receive information on the progress your child/children has made during this very different and difficult year. Teachers use a variety of digital platforms to assess progress in a low-threat environment to support their own judgements. 

We would usually open our doors to parents and carers to discuss pupil progress but we will continue to be cautious regarding visitors in school and have therefore decided to invest in a digital alternative. ‘School Cloud’ allows parents to book video appointments with teachers. Find out more here: 

https://www.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/features-video-meetings.asp

Our video Parents’ Evenings will take place on Wed 16 June. Please check your upcoming emails for a booking  link. parental guidance on how to use the system and to book your appointment with your child's teacher.

We are also planning to send a written report with any additional progress data attached.

Attendance

School attendance has been good as we get back to normal. Thank you for your support in getting your children to school with a smile.

There are some reminders that we feel are important:

  • Please contact school by email or phone as soon as you know that your child is unwell and will not be attending school. This will reduce the calls our 'first response' team make each morning.
  • Remember that the gates close at 9am under our staggered system, We are still seeing children arrive after this time, which is already later than our pre-COVID start time. This does have an effect on the start of your child's day as they will miss part of a lesson input.
  • Please avoid picking up your child early, unless for unavoidable medical appointments. We have seen an increase in occurrence of this and it does, again, impact negatively on your child's day. 

Reading success

In spite of the lockdown, we have some new millionaires and even two double millionaires! Well done to Jak Chao (Y5) and Kalli-Jo Stott (Y4) for doubling their achievement. Our new millionaires are Tejaswi Ganjam, Ben Fraser and Jacob Frasier.  That’s 13 millionaires and 2 double millionaires in total - we are very proud of them. 

Our Accelerated Reader programme allows us to calculate the number of words that each child has read, in addition to checking comprehension and progress towards a reading target. It gives us the tools to discover that even through the prolonged lockdown our children have read more words than in any other year, with the current total reaching past 60,000,000!

Well done to all of our children who have reached their targets and enjoyed celebrating with an own-clothes/ice-cream treat day!

Thanks also to our children and parents for all of their book donations which keep our library current and interesting - we are getting it ready to be loved and visited again soon.  

Conservation Project 2021

It has become part of our annual long term plan that we teach our children the importance of looking after our planet. Our aim is to invest in the future custodians of this beautiful planet, making them aware of the current issues surrounding climate change and pollution and also encouraging them to use their voices to 'act for change'.

We have a tradition of working alongside Chester Zoo and will continue to access their support during this year's project. We have decided to go ahead with what should have been last year's focus and will concentrate on the blue planet. Our project is called 'Ocean Heroes'. Each year group will focus on how the oceans become polluted and will explore one endangered sea creature in particular.

Our conservation project would usually include a grand finale with a great display in school which the community can come to visit. Our aim this year is to create an art installation at the entrance of school for all to view in a safe manner.

With this in mind, we would like you to start to save and collect any lids, such as Pringles lids or Lenor caps. We will put boxes outside of school for you to drop them into. We would appreciate it if you could wash everything and check for sharp edges before you pass them on.

Also, we would like the children to make their own sea sculptures out of recycled, re-used or re-purposed plastic, (see examples below of fish made from plastic bottles). We would like to display these outside so would like them to be weatherproof and easy to hang if possible. This will be a competition with prizes that we will share more details about after the half term. Start planning now!

PGL 2021

Our Y6 Wolves have been waiting since September (our original date) to see if this much-loved trip would go ahead. Their patience paid off as we were able to board the coach on the very first day that PGL Boreatton Park opened it's doors!

The four days away were packed with challenges that began with saying goodbye to families. We have seen children step off high towers, jump over high fences, build (almost) sea-worthy rafts, abseil down towers and fly down zipwires  - not to mention walk many thousands of steps!

The staff took over 900 photographs of the activities and smiles which tells you just how much fun was had! We will discuss a safe way of sharing these with Y6 parents.

We were so pleased with all the children but decided to award some for overcoming specific challenges. Well done to Joe, Lacey, Olivia D, Molly and Adam.

Sports Week 7-11 June 2021

We are very proud of our annual Sports Week and are looking forward to its return this year. Throughout the week, the children will focus on sports skills and games and will attempt to achieve some personal bests. Sports Week will take place in the first week back after the half term.

Usually during this week, we would also hold our annual Sports Days for each key stage and invite families in to cheer the athletes on. We remain cautious on the matter of holding large gatherings in school and will therefore be holding our sporting events without a crowd this year. We will share photographs and videos on our main Twitter feed and class feeds.

Some important information:

  • We would like all children to come to school dressed in a sports kit ALL WEEK - this does not have to be their school PE kit. House colours will not be required this year.

  • Bring in a water bottle and sunhat.

  • Apply suncream if needed.

Go Neon for Neonatal Day - Fri 11th June

When we last joined together to raise money for this special cause in school, we heard many personal stories from our children about their own early births or those of other family members. We realised that our children really do appreciate the work done by the NHS - and Liverpool Women’s Hospital in particular - in protecting the tiniest of babies. Liverpool Women’s is the largest specialist hospital in Europe and currently has a fundraising campaign to provide more comfortable living accommodation for families with babies on the Neonatal unit. 

https://www.liverpoolwomens.nhs.uk/charity/big-tiny-steps-appeal/

We would like the whole school to support this campaign on Fri 11th June, the final day of Sports Week. Pupils and staff can wear their brightest neon clothes for the day and donate whatever you can towards the Big Tiny Steps Appeal. You can donate via the website above or we will have a school collection on the gates at drop off and pick times on this day,  any donations will be greatly appreciated for this special cause.

Online Safety

As always, when a school holiday is imminent, we would like to remind you of the importance of online safety, especially when your children may spend more time on-screen during their holiday. 

Whilst we cover many aspects of online safety in school, we would like to point you in the direction of some quality websites where you can find useful information and guidance. Our own website now has a stock of online newsletters that could prove useful too:

http://www.prescotprimary.org.uk/information/online-safety

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/

https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

https://beinternetlegends.withgoogle.com/en_uk/buildyourlegend/

Please do get in touch if you have any worries about your child's online activity. We must work in teams to protect our children from any dangers that the online world may present.

On our return, we will continue with our staggered start/end times and maintain the class bubbles. We will monitor the guidance for schools after June 21st and will inform you of any changes, giving plenty of notice beforehand.

We hope you all enjoy a relaxing two-week break.

See you on Monday 7th June!

TEAMPCP