Weekly Newsletter
Friday 4th October 2024
Updates & info
Week 5...Thanks to everyone who joined us at our open classrooms on Thursday to see their child's new classroom and some of the work they have been doing. We will hold our parents' evenings later in the term once the children have done their first set of assessments so we can share how they are doing.
Parent Governor We had one nomination for our Parent Governor vacancy, which means that Mr Nick Winn is automatically appointed to the role for a 4-year term with effect from 1.10.2024.
Harvest Come and join us for our Harvest Service at St Wilf's church again this year on the morning of Thursday 10th October. Because of the size of the school, we need to do 2 sessions: 1 starting at 9:30am and the other at 10:45am. As they have just joined the school, the Reception children will stay in school that day. We will walk down from the school and this time we are not looking for any parents to walk with us.
9:30am Galaxy, Earth, Saturn, Meteor, Asteroid, Nebular
10:45am Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Constellation
Like last year, we are supporting the Selby Food Bank and ask taht any donations are sent with your child next week, ideally on the day, as they will take the items down to church with them. The Food Bank are happy to receive tins and packets of any type of food, they do urgently need the following:
- Tinned meat/fish and fruit
- Tea bags (80s), Coffee
- Jam
- UHT milk
Parent survey update At their last meeting, the governors looked at the responses to the Edurio Parent Survey which was open in April-May this year. We had a very small response (less than 10%) so it was very difficult to look at any themes. For example, some responses felt there was too much communication from school across too many channels, while others appreciated the level of communication! One thing that did emerge was around awareness of what being part of the STAR MAT means for the school. As this was something that came out across all the STAR MAT school's responses, the central team and trustees at STAR are considering how they can work on this going forward.
Leave in term time The DFE guidance around attendance in schools has changed, with a tougher approach to leave in term time. Some of the categories which would have been considered as 'exceptional circumstances' in the past have now gone, and others have been made much clearer. The STAR MAT policy is below, along with the leave form which has been updated in line with this.
Across the MAT and the LA, applications for Fixed Penalty Notices can be made for ANY 10 unauthorised absences (1 day would count as 2 absences) in a 10-week rolling period of time.
We have also sent out a letter about attendance from the STAR MAT: please take the time to read this.
North Yorkshire Community Messaging (from NY Police) North Yorkshire Community Messaging allows members of the public to register to receive alerts, crime notifications and community news from North Yorkshire Police, this also includes businesses and schools within our communities in Selby to sign up to. This allows us to create an appropriate list of contacts and be able to reach out to you with crime prevention advice, this is a free service, and the information comes to your email only. (There are no text messages pinging away all day and night.) Sign up on this link https://www.northyorkshirecommunitymessaging.co.uk/#signup-section
Safeguarding newsletter The September Spotlight on Safeguarding parent newsletter is available here https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/brayton-cofe-primary-school/UploadedDocument/a6f00626-1fdf-4c44-9956-a97620202764/spotlight-on-safeguarding-september-2024.pdf Please take the time to look over it: this week there is advice on Snapchat, sleep and first phones.
School day timings Just a reminder that the main gates now open at 8:45am and children should go straight to their classes ready for school to start at 8:50am. If the gates and doors are closed, please go to the school office where you can sign your child in.
Contacting school Messages about absence, medicine, appointments & changes to after school picks ups must come through the school office either by phone 01757 704308 or email admin@bp.starmat.uk. Messages through Dojo don't work if a member of staff is absent, and also staff do not have their phones with them in the classrooms while they are working with the children so they can't always pick them up.
Term dates 2024-25 The term dates for this year are on the school website at https://brayton-cofe-primary-school.secure-primarysite.net/term-dates/
Jewellery No necklaces, bracelets, rings or other jewellery should be worn to school. If your child has earrings, these must be removed for PE sessions, or earrings can be left at home on PE days. Earrings for school should be small stud types so they don't get caught and cause any injuries.
Free school meals: save up to £450 a year Apply online at https://fisportal.northyorks.gov.uk/Synergy/fsm_prereq.aspx The application is very straightforward and there are only a few questions to answer. All the information is on the NYCC website at https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/free-school-meals
If you would like any advice or support with this, please contact the school office. We treat these matters with complete confidentiality and are always happy to help if needed.
If your child is eligible for free school meals you can also access other support, such as for visits and school holiday activity vouchers through FEAST https://northyorkshiretogether.co.uk/feast/
Allyson Buckton (Headteacher) & Becca Cameron (Deputy Headteacher)
Whole School Attendance
Whole-school attendance fell this week, mainly due to holidays taken within term time. De to the national tightening of the rules around attendance, fixed penalty notices (fines) will be followed up by North Yorkshire Council for any 10 or more sessions of unauthorised absence within a 3-year rolling period as below:
The first Penalty Notice issued to a parent in respect of a particular child will be charged at £160 if paid within 28 days, this will be reduced to £80 if paid within 21 days.
A second Penalty Notice issued to the same parent in respect of the same child will be charged a flat rate of £160 if paid within 28 days.
A third Penalty Notice cannot be issued to the same parent in respect of the same child within 3 years of the date of issue of the first Penalty Notice.
In a case where the national threshold is met for the third time (or subsequent times) alternative action will taken. This will include considering prosecution but may include other tools such as one of the other Legal Intervention to address poor attendance.
11% (40) of our children were persistent absentees with attendance below 90% last year, missing the equivalent of 1 month of school. Missing this amount of school has a massive impact on friendships and mental health as well as learning, which is why we always try to pick up absence concerns quickly.
Please remember, we will always contact you if your child is unwell during the day, so please make sure they are here as much as possible. With your help we made massive improvements in attendance over the last 2 years and this is now better across school than it has been in a very long time!
DIARY DATES
Wednesday 9 October - School photos (individual and family groups)
Thursday 10 October - Harvest services at St Wilf's (am)
Monday 21-Wednesday 23 October - Y6 Kingswood residential
Wednesday 23 October - School closes for half term
Thursday 24 October - Training day (school closed to children)
Friday 25 October - Training day (school closed to children)
Monday 4 November - School opens
Thursday 19 December - School closes for Christmas
Happy Birthdays!
Many many many many happy returns for all the birthdays over this week!
Talisha L
Sophia R
Max W
Kian B
Isla L
Tsvitoslava M
Noah W-D
Maya P
Aria B
Abigail L
This week's superstars!
Stars - Timothy H
Moon - Bella W
Mercury - Leo M
Venus - Donnie J
Galaxy - Ella J
Earth - Sam J
Mars - Poppy B
Saturn - Anna S
Jupiter - Ronnie S
Neptune - Nancy M
Meteor - Anna M
Asteroid - Ella M
Pluto - Iris M
Nebular - Lacey B
Constellation - Tom W