Newsletters

Prescot Primary Newsletter                                         Oct 2023

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OCTOBER 2023

Welcome!

We hope this half term's newsletter finds you safe and well after a  very productive eight weeks of learning!

We know that our youngest learners have grown so much and are now settled into their routines with their new friends. A special well done goes out to all of those Nursery and Reception children who have made their families proud - and make us smile every day.

Breakfast Club and After School Club

... or Early Birds and Night Owls as they are now known!

You only have to scroll through the X/Twitter account of our wonderful wrap-around provision to see what a fabulous time the children have before and after school. The teams at either end of the day have worked hard to plan lots of fun learning opportunities where children of all different ages can mix under the care of our own school staff. These clubs really are the icing on our cake and we know how valued they are by all the families who use them.

All the windows are now open for Autumn 2 term until Xmas. If you need clubs W/C 6/11/23 please book by next Thursday (3rd November), thanks.

Reminder:  'Night Owls' is CLOSED on Wednesday 8th November due to whole staff Safeguarding Training. Please rearrange your childcare, thanks.

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Early Years Update

Reception 'Stay and Play' session

Thank you to all of our parents/carers who attended our Reception Stay and Play session.  It was lovely to be able to spend so much time together and have the opportunity to speak in more detail about your child. The feedback that we received from this was brilliant - thank you - it is great that you have had a snippet of the rules and routines of Reception and seen first hand how the children are taught the Read Write Inc speed sounds.  We know that you will agree in saying that we are so proud of how settled they are after their first term in school. 

Nursery 'Stay and Play' session 

Letters have been shared for our Nursery 'Stay and Play' which is taking place on Wednesday 15th November - don’t forget to return ASAP.

Request for resources!

We are always grateful for natural and real resources (no plastic) e.g. 

- neutral cushions

- neutral fabrics, sheets, table clothes

- plants - real or artificial 

- pots, pans 

- cooking utensils

- metal teapots, serving dishes, 

- old photo frames

- craft items, material cut offs

- wooden blocks

- fidget toys e.g. poppets, spinners

- torches, sensory lights 

Save us your greeting cards please!

Our EYFS children LOVE 😍 to have real greeting cards to write in - birthday cards, anniversary cards, Christmas cards….  It gives them a real purpose for their mark making.  Please can you save them and send them into school for us?  Just rip off the hand written part and send in the cover.  We like to try and keep our writing areas fully stocked and between our whole school community hopefully we can! 

 

NB: Nursery closes for Christmas on Wed 20th December.

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EYFS Admissions

Places have now been allocated for January 2024, but we do have a limited number remaining.  Please email admissions@prescotprimary.org.uk ASAP if your child requires a place if you know anyone who does. 

Our admission list for September is also building fast, so if you want a nursery place for September 2024 please get your child added to the list now.  Our nursery offer is as follows:

15 hours universal offer = AM 8.30-11.30am or PM 12.30-3.30pm, Monday to Friday, term time only.

30 hours ECO offer (24 places) = 8.30-3.30pm, with £5 lunch club (£25 per week) Monday to Friday, term time only (you can check your eligibility at

https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

You can also extend your child’s nursery day by accessing our Busy Bees Wrap- around Provision, managed by our staff. 

Busy Bees breakfast club = 7.30-8.30am, £5

Busy Bees after school club = 3.30-5.30pm, £10 

Reception Application 2024 Deadline

The deadline for applying for school places in 15th January 2024.  All applications are to be made online through the local authority you reside in. 

Knowsley residents: https://www.knowsley.gov.uk/residents/education-and-schools/apply-for-a-school-place/annual-school-admission-procedures

St Helens: residents https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/article/2868/Applying-for-primary-school-for-September-2024

Liverpool: https://liverpool.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/school-admissions/

Halton: https://www3.halton.gov.uk/Pages/EducationandFamilies/Schools/PrimarySecondarySchool.aspx

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Attendance

Knowsley have produced an attendance strategy. For more information click here:

Knowsley Attendance Strategy 2021-2024

For Prescot Primary's attendance policy, click here:

PCP Attendance Information

Can we remind all families that children must be in school for 8.50am. Gates will be closed and your child will be marked later if they arrive at this time. Children who regularly arrive late can have an unsettled start to the day and feel unprepared for their first lesson. We would urge you to think about the impact that lateness has on learning and minutes lost as a result. 

Our Attendance Raffle is a weekly initiative intended to raise pupil awareness of the importance of attendance and to celebrate those who have 100% attendance. This raffle resets each week to allow all children to have a chance to win a prize. Favourite treats have included an afternoon tea, a special breakfast and a chocolate party.

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Rights Respecting News

As many of you will know, we have recently had our accreditation for Rights Respecting School GOLD Award. We do not yet know the outcome as we are awaiting our report, but we do know that the UNICEF accreditors were extremely impressed with our children during their visit. We will let you know as soon as we know... watch this space!

Our second RRS Coffee Morning was held in early October, for the families of Reception and Y3 children. Our RRS Pupil Leaders presented confidently to the adults who joined us for a cuppa and some cake. It is good for our children to share the message about children's rights as they really do underpin life at Prescot Primary for both pupils (Rights Holders) and adults (Duty Bearers).

Watch out for the next Coffee Morning date - next time it will be open to families of Y1 and Y4.

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Y6's PGL ADVENTURES

We know that this seems such a long time ago but we can't miss an opportunity to celebrate our Y6 Kangaroos who had a blast on their PGL residential in September. This experience is a big milestone in our 'TOP 50' list of things to do at PCP and this year did not disappoint.

During one of the hottest weeks of the summer, our oldest learners zip-wired, rafted, climbed, balanced, ate and sang their hearts out at PGL Boreatton Park near Shrewsbury. As ever, we watched fears being faced and challenges smashed alongside new friendships being formed during the 4 days away from home. We think this PCP tradition is the very best way to start their final year at primary school. Well done Kangas!

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SEND Update: The Zones of Regulation

As always, we are striving to perfect our inclusive provision for all learners in our school.  We value the expertise of our staff and the power of our whole school approach. 

You may have heard your child talking about the 'Zones of Regulation' and some parents have asked for more information on how this is used in school. We believe that it is benefiting all of our children as it supports them in talking about their feelings.

 The Zones of Regulation framework is a tool to support children to develop an awareness of feelings, energy and alertness levels while exploring a variety of strategies for regulation, prosocial skills, self-care and overall wellness. The Zones of Regulation provide us with an easy way to think and talk about how we feel on the inside and sort these feelings into four coloured zones, all of which are expected in life. Once we understand our feelings and zones, we can learn to use tools and strategies to manage our different zones in order to meet goals such as school work, managing big feelings and healthy relationships with others. 

The children have become confident over the last year in talking about their feelings in relation to the colours of the zones and they may have been doing this at home too! The zones are split into four colours. When we have identified the zone that we are in, we can then develop tools and strategies to help us to cope in that zone and regulate our emotions. 

Green - Ideal state of alertness - happy, focussed, calm, content, proud. A strong sense of internal control is felt when in the Green Zone

Blue - Low state of alertness - sad, bored, tired, sick

Yellow - Heightened state of alertness - worried, frustrated, silly, excited, anxious, stress, fear. Energy is elevated but there is some sense of internal control

Red - Extremely heightened state of alertness - rage, explosive behaviour, panicked, angry, terrified. There is a loss of control when in the Red Zone.

Below are some links to more information about the Zones of Regulation and some resources that you may like to use in order to continue the language of the Zones of Regulation at home.

https://zonesofregulation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/all_the_zones_are_ok_coloring_page.pdf

https://zonesofregulation.com/explore-and-purchase-the-zones-products/

https://zonesofregulation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/english_reproducible_e_2021.pdf

https://zonesofregulation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Zones_Reproducibles_C_E_BB_New_Emotion_Imagery_2021_FINAL.pdf

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Black History Month

As part of our Guest Speaker initiative in weekly assemblies, it was wonderful to welcome one of our TAs, Mrs Ojuromi, to talk to the children about her home country of Nigeria. Mrs OJ currently supports Y6 pupils, who are curious about her life and family back in Nigeria, so we thought it would be great for her to share this with all of the children.

Mrs OJ spoke about her personal history and the cultural traditions of life in one of the largest countries in Africa. She brought in some traditional clothes - which were very colourful - and some plantain for us to try. The children loved listening to Mrs OJ and continue to ask questions when they see her around school. Being a Guest Speaker can be a little nerve-wracking, as Mrs OJ discovered, but it is a great way of helping us to understand each other's lives, and differences, and to celebrate what we can all offer to enrich each other's understanding of the world. #nooutsiders #crcarticle2

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Children in Need - Be Spotacular!

Our children love to support other children and really do understand the principles behind the annual BBC Children in Need event. We love to encourage our children to be 'bothered' and act for change, helping to improve the lives of children all over the country.

This year, we would like to invite children to dress in yellow, spots or Pudsey merchandise on the day of Friday 17th November.

We would suggest a donation of £1 that will be collecting in buckets on the gate.

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Remembrance 2023

Poppies and poppy merchandise will be available after half term. Children can bring in donations to support the British Red Cross. 

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Prescot Pilot News

It has been wonderful to begin new journeys with our Prescot Pilots 23/24. Thank you to everyone who signed up.

We have seen great attendance at our school clubs including Running Club, Dodgeball, Dance, Judo and Football. We love to see children interacting with each other on so many levels. Thanks also for sharing photos of your home achievements. If you would like to share successes, please follow @PCPPilots on X/Twitter.

And finally, we mustn't forget all those children who volunteer to support younger children  in the their leadership roles each week. Thank you to all of those pupil leaders in Y5 and Y6 for helping us to keep our learners safe and happy. 

See below for some of our cross-country competitors and also fr the new club timetable for Autumn 2.

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Reading News

Our Prescot Primary bookworms have started their new school year with a bang. The darker nights are proving to be a perfect opportunity to snuggle down with a book, and our children have already read nearly 13,000,000 words over 1,500 quizzes. Our readers have borrowed over 1000 books from our incredible library, and we thank everyone again for the generous book donations which everyone benefits from.


Last year, we asked our local community if they would like to sponsor our reading. We are very proud of how well our children do, and how reading is at the very heart of everything we do. We love to reward their individual reading, and Accelerated Reader allows us to do this. However, this comes with a cost which has risen as our readers have gotten more and more successful.
We were staggered by the response we got. Firstly, we would really like to thank M&Y Maintenance who made a very generous donation which will go a long way towards making sure our children are rewarded for their efforts. Also, our governor and local business owner, Sarah Benyon, made a generous contribution which we are so grateful for and will use wisely.
And the parents of our ex-pupils, Pranav and Teju Ganjam, handed us a cheque to say
thank-you for the boys’ time at Prescot Primary, and to help other children enjoy the success which their boys did. All of this means that we can carry on giving our children the recognition they deserve and keep moving forward in our reading journey. We just want to say a massive thank-you. It will make a difference.


We are looking forward to our first Word Millionaire; it won’t be long now. Keep reading everyone. It feels like it’s going to be a very successful year.

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Pupil Leaders take over!

We value the importance of pupil leadership in our school and like to give children the opportunity to think independently and creatively.

Leading an assembly is one of those opportunities and some of our Y6 leaders loved presenting in assembly this week.

Well done to the YELLOW HOUSE who are our overall winners for this half term. Yellow House Captain, Bella, is very proud of her team. You have the most house potion and have earned a non-uniform day treat - please wait for the email to tell you when!

Thanks to all of our pupil leaders in school.

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Forward financial planning!

All trips will take place only if COVID rates & restrictions allow. Further details to follow.

Y2 Pandas - Trip to Liverpool, November 2024

Y4 Penguins - Trip to Grosvenor Museum in Chester. December 2024

Y4 Penguins - Kingswood Colomendy Residential. March 2024

Y5 Tigers - Y6 PGL Residential. Sept 2024

From all of us at Prescot Primary  and Nursery School, have a safe and happy half term break.

See you on Monday 6th November!

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