Newsletter 26th September
Tewkesbury C.of E. Primary School,
Chance Street,
Tewkesbury,
Glos.
Dear Parents 26th September 2007.
You are warmly invited to join us for Harvest Festival on Friday at 9.15 a.m. in Holy Trinity church when the children will all walk across. We hope that everyone will be able to bring in tins, packets, fruit, veg. cakes and any bunches of flowers that you are able to send for the children to present in Church. The PTFA will sort the gifts ready for a sale after school. (Please check that tins and packets are within their sell-by date beforehand to save time.) We hope that you will be able to come to the sale in the school hall at 3.05 p.m. that afternoon and buy the produce to help raise as much money as possible for Tewkesbury's rescue equipment. Tewkesbury Fire Service has asked us to help purchase an All-Purpose Inflatable Stretcher (APS) which they need at times of flooding. (Picture in the noticeboard). This essential item is urgently needed so that they are able to rescue anyone in trouble who may be cold or wet, and be kept warm while being moved to safety easivcly - even by helicopter. The price is high - £1127.80 and our sale is unlikely to cover the whole cost, but everything that we can raise towards it will be valuable. We hope that the Reception children who come to school in the afternoon only at present, will be able to join us at Church that morning at 9.15 a.m., join their class to present their gifts and then go home with their parents afterwards.
There will be a non-uniform day on October 5th with a super-hero theme. Proceeds to the APS fundraising.
Free Fruit Week in school for Years 3 - 6. 1st - 5th October. To encourage all of the juniors to eat healthily at school breaktimes we will be buying fruit for the children to eat all week. We will provide a wide variety of exotic and exciting fruits and they will be encouraged to try as many as possible. Cutting up and preparing the fruit will be very time consuming and we would appreciate some help! Mrs. Meadows would be grateful for Mums and Dads who may be able to spare half an hour or so for this - please let her or the office know. As you know, we strongly encourage the children to eat fruit at breaktimes and hope that this will persuade them that they want to continue.
A reminder -You will be aware that we have been forced to consider stopping weekly swimming lessons at school as so many people refuse to pay the voluntary payment. Last year the school lost around £8,000 through parents not sending in the £6 payment each half term. Obviously, this money has to come out of the pupils' budget and means that there is a huge cut in the amount we can spend on books, pens, pencils, art materials etc. There is no subsidy at all from any source and with Cascades more than doubling their prices the children are missing out on things that we hoped to provide. So far this term 77 families have not made the voluntary payment (over £450) though we still hope that this will be made over the next week or so. Thank you to those who always regularly pay.
The new menu for Autumn & Winter is coming home today to start on 8th October when ?brown bag? meals will stop. There are several new freshly home-made options available using meat and vegetables from local suppliers.
The school garden suffered very badly during the floods being under water for some time. Many shrubs have died and others need trimming and tidying up. If you are able to come along to help with a major clear-up and prune we will be getting a working party of parents and staff together on Saturday 6th October from 9.30 a.m. - 12 noon. If you can spare an hour or two to improve the garden area for the children to enjoy that would be great. Please sign up on a list in the entrance hall. Thank you.
International Walk to School Month takes place in October and all children who live close enough will be encouraged to take part with stickers and charts. We will all be incredibly fit!
Mop Fair Parking for businesses. If you require day time parking at school until 6 p.m. during the Mop Fair please contact school and we will arrange it @ £5 per car per day. As ever, PTFA members and staff will open the car park for supervised public parking until 11 p.m. on each night of the fair ? October 9th & 10th
Yours sincerely
A.W.Holt.
Head Teacher. Newsletter 004.