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Newsletter 28th February 2022

2nd Mar 2022

Week Beginning 28^th February 2022

Nursery Places Available

Do you have a child or know a child who was born between 01/09/2018 and 31/08/2019? Annie Lennard Primary school nursery have places available for September 2022. Please contact the school office to reserve your place on 0121 429 4284.

COVID changes

You will all be aware that last week the government announced that restrictions have been lifted, there is no longer a legal requirement to self-isolate and we now have to live with Covid. New guidance has now been issued to schools;

There is no longer a legal requirement for people with coronavirus (COVID-19) infection to self-isolate, however if you have any of the main symptoms of COVID-19 or a positive test result, the public health advice is to stay at home and avoid contact with other people.

The following advice is for:

people with any of the main symptoms of COVID-19
people who have received a positive COVID-19 lateral flow device (LFD) or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result
people who live in the same household as, or who have had close contact with, someone who has COVID-19

This also applies to children and young people who usually attend an education or childcare setting, with additional information available for these settings.

So if your child does have any symptoms we will still be asking for you to get them tested, this has not changed.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-people-with-covid-19-and-their-contacts/covid-19-people-with-covid-19-and-their-contacts#what-to-do-if-you-have-covid-19

If you have COVID-19, stay at home and avoid contact with other people

If you have COVID-19 you can infect other people from 2 days before your symptoms start, and for up to 10 days after. You can pass on the infection to others, even if you have mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. If you have COVID-19 you should stay at home and avoid contact with other people.

Children and young people with COVID-19 should not attend their education setting while they are infectious. They should take an LFD test from 5 days after their symptoms started (or the day their test was taken if they did not have symptoms) followed by another one the next day. If both these tests results are negative, they should return to their educational setting if they normally attend one, as long as they feel well enough to do so and do not have a temperature. They should follow the guidance for their educational setting.

What to do if your child is absent from school due to COVID

If your child is isolating and they are well in themselves they will be required to log into Teams where they will be able to join their classroom virtually and access everything the pupils in school are doing. Log ins remain the same from last year. If you need your log ins please contact the office and arrangements will be made to give you the information you need. If your child is ill we do not expect them to join in with the online learning until they are well enough to do so.

Reporting your child absent

If your child is going to absent from school for any reason, please call the school absence line 0121 429 4284 option 1 and leave a message stating child’s name class and detailed reason for their absence, this needs to be done for each day of absence. If your child has a medical appointment, please provide proof to the office.

Home Time

If someone different is going to be collecting your child/ children can you let the school office know before the end of the day. We will not let your child go with anyone other than you or the person who normally collects them until we have had confirmation from parents.

Attendance Matters

As a parent it is your legal responsibility to ensure your child receives a suitable full time education. It is your responsibility to ensure that your child attends school each day and is on time.

Please see below the impact that consistent lateness will have on the amount of days that your child will miss is a school year:

Minutes late each day	Number of days missed in a school year
5	3 days
10	6.5 days
15	9.5 days
20	13 days
25	16 days

Please see below the impact that consistent absence will have on the amount of days that your child will miss in a school year:

Yearly % school attendance	Number of days missed in a school year
95%	9 days
90%	19 days
85%	29 days
80%	38 days

We understand that there are times when it is not possible for your child to attend school however here are a few things to consider before keeping your child off school:

MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS - When possible, book them outside of school hours.
ILLNESS - Unless it’s serious, bring your child into school and we will keep an eye on them throughout the day.
FAMILY HOLIDAYS - You have 175 days a year when you’re not in school. Please do not take your child on holiday in term time. They will miss out on such a lot of learning

If you have any worries or concerns regarding your child’s attendance please come and talk to us, there are lots of things we can do to try and help. Please call the school office and ask to speak to Mrs Hadden.

Our current Attendance figure for the year so far is 94.3% Our target for attendance is 97%

Praise Assembly

Spring 2 will see the reintroduction of praise assemblies for pupils. They will be on a 2 week rota (one week will be Reception, year 1 and year 2 and the following week will be year 3, year 4, year 5 and year 6). We are hoping to invite parents of children who have certificates to these assemblies from the 18^th March – more details will follow nearer the time.

New Parent Governor

Following on from the parent election that closed on the 21^st January 2022, I would like to welcome Mr Inderjit Samra onto the governing board. Thankyou to all of you who voted and thankyou to those who put themselves forward for the position.

Grand Opening of Sensory Room

On Friday 5^th March the sensory room will be officially opened by Sandwell’s New Director of Children’s Services and Education (DCS) Michael Jarrett MBE. Michael is a former pupil of Annie Lennard and we are delighted to be welcoming him back.

Early years - The doors are wide open and we can't wait to welcome you back!

We are very excited to announce that we're resuming our parental workshops and Stay and Play sessions in Early Years over the next few months! It's been such a long time coming, but in line with current guidelines, we are able to open our doors once again and we cannot wait to see you!

Please join us for our informative workshops where you get to find out just how and what we teach your children in Nursery and Reception and then join us for a 'stay & play' session where you get to play and learn alongside your child in their classrooms! Come on in, the children and staff can't wait to show you!

We are also eager to share that we will be holding a Bedtime Story event, where you can join your child in their class to cuddle up and share a book! Rumour has it, there may even be hot chocolate and a biscuit!

Dates for your diary

Wednesday 9^th March 2022 09:00-10:30 - Nursery & Reception Maths workshop & Stay and play session.

Wednesday 23^rd March 2022 09:00-10:30 - Reception Literacy workshop & Stay and play session.

Wednesday 6^th April 2022 09:00-10:30 - Nursery Literacy workshop & Stay and play session.

Wednesday 25^th May 2022 09:30-10:30 - Nursery & Reception bedtime story event.

Wednesday 29^th June 2022 09:30-10:30 - Nursery & Reception bedtime story event.

School meals

Currently cost £2.40 daily and must be paid online via ParentPay BEFORE meals are taken. The school does not cook meals on site and, therefore, all dinners must be ordered by 9:15am.

Trips reminder

All trips have places available and need to booked via ParentPay.

Year 2 and 3 Residential trip to Edgmond Hall 23^rd - 25^th May

Roblox

Do your children play on Roblox? If they do please take the time to read this article it may result in you not wanting your child to play this game due to the explicit sexual references contained in the game.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60314572

Dates for your Diary

March	1^st	KS1 parent consultation (tbc in school or via phone call)
	2^nd	Early Years parent consultation (tbc in school or via phone call)
	3^rd	KS2 parent consultation (tbc in school or via phone call)
	3^rd	World Book Day – dress up as book characters
	4^th	Sensory room is being officially opened by Michael Jarrett MBE (Director of Children and Education for Sandwell)
	15^th	Theatre Company in school
	30^th	EYFS Easter Performance 9.00 - 9.30

April	7^th	KS1 Easter Performance 9.00 – 9.30
	8^th	Pupils Break Up for Easter Holidays today
	25^th	School reopens to pupils
	29^th	Year 3 and Year 4 at Young voices concert (NEC Birmingham)

May	2^nd	May Day Bank Holiday school closed
		Year 2 SATS will be undertaken throughout May (Statutory Tests)
	9^th – 12^th	Year 6 SATS – all year 6 children must be in school this week (Statutory Tests)
	17^th	Year 6 visit Harry Potter Studios
	23^rd – 25^th	Year 2 and 3 residential trip to Edgmond Hall
	27^th	Sports Day – provisional date
	27^th	Pupils Break Up for Whitsun Holidays today

June	6^th	School reopens to pupils
	6^th – 10^th	Year 1 Phonic Screening Test (Statutory Test)
	6^th – 24^th	Year 4 multiplication Test (Statutory Test)

July	15^th	Reports out to parents
	19^th	Year 6 Leavers Assembly
	19^th	Provisional Date for Year 6 leavers Party
	20^th	School closes to pupils for Summer holidays today
	21^st	Training Day School closed to pupils

Documents

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28th February 2022 newsletter 2nd March 2022 0.35 MB