IMPORTANT CHANGE TO START OF THE SCHOOL DAY – SEPTEMBER 2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

In March 2022, the Government introduced an expectation of a 32.5-hour minimum core school week by September 2023. In July 2023 the deadline to meet this expectation was deferred to September 2024 at the latest, in recognition of the pressures facing schools. This applies to all mainstream, state-funded schools in England.

As a result, to conform to Government regulations, starting from September 2024 the start of the school day will brought forward by 10 minutes to be 8.45am, and there will be no soft opening. Children should be ready to start their lessons in the classroom at 8.45am.

Being on time for lessons at the start of each day is vitally important for children. Often in Early Years and the infants,  the first lesson is phonics where children learn the building blocks of reading. Older children frequently start the school day by practicing their ability to complete maths calculations – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

I do ask for your continued loyal support by doing all you can to ensure your child arrives at the new, earlier start time of 8.45am from September 2024.

God bless

Mr Deane OBE

Head teacher

Dear parents and carers,

World Book Day takes place on Thursday 7^th March 2024 and we are going to celebrate in school with lots of activities on the day.

Every year on World Book Day we are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of our school community. We know that this year many of us may find ourselves in a difficult financial situation - we don’t want our celebrations to be an additional burden. Dressing up or bringing books into school can be a big part of the celebrations but we would like to do something different this year.

We won’t be dressing up in fancy dress, instead we will invite children to wear their pyjamas and bring their favourite bed time story book in with them on the day so we can share with the class.

We will have many fun activities taking place throughout the day including:

• Reading with the children
• World book day quizzes
• Library competitions
• Live world book day lessons from BBC
• Children receiving a £1 book token
• Writing a shared story
• Book hamper raffle where children can win prizes for being reading role models.

Here are some links to find out more about World Book Day and reading at home:

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/

https://www.worldbookday.com/families/

We’re very much looking forward to celebrating World Book Day, which could not happen without the support of parents and carers - thank you.

Many thanks,

The English Team

(Mrs Abbott, Mrs McGuire and Miss Sale)