Monday 19th November 2012

Welcome to another Copthorne Blog
Last week was another busy one at Copthorne. A large number of our Year 6 pupils took the entrance assessment tests for Dixons. I know that they will all have tried their very best and we wish them every success.

Road Safety Training
At Copthorne we strive to keep our children safe and feel that it is very important to give children the skills they need to be able to make informed decisions when it comes to their own safety. Consequently we work with the Bradford Road Safety Team to provide road safety training for all our pupils when they are in Year 3. Children are taught where and how to cross roads safely and what to wear so that other road users can see them. In addition, the children are taught how important it is to be on the lookout for dangers by making sure they can see and hear clearly e.g.Taking out earphones, not listening to music and not using a mobile phone when crossing the road.
Our present Year 3 began their training last week and this continues this week on Thursday 22nd November. I hope everyone has an enjoyable and informative time.

Forest Schools

Hoof Fungus

Our weekly Forest Schools experience continues this Friday and, at present, it is 4 Poplar who are the lucky class that will be spending the day at St Ives Woods. It's great to see the range of interesting things that are found on each visit. A couple of weeks ago it was a piece of fungus called Hoof Fungus which the children found growing on the trunk of a tree. The fungus is so hard, like a horse's hoof, that it has to be almost sawn off. We wish this week's group a great visit and look forward to hearing about their discoveries.

Ladies' Evening
As promised in my previous blog the date for the Ladies Evening is confirmed as Thursday 6th December. The event will take place from 5.30pm to 8.30pm and will include: a hot meal, fashion show, dancing display, mendhi and hand massages, and a DJ - all included in the price of the ticket: £7.50 per person. In addition, there will be a professional photographer on hand to take pictures and a couple of stalls. It promises to be a great evening and I look forward to seeing as many female members of our community there as possible.
Tickets will be available to buy from the office by the end of this week - Friday23rd November.

Parents' Feedback
In last week's blog I began the process of publishing the suggestions and comments made by parents and carers during our most recent parents' consultation evening and, as explained last week, I will continue to add to these on a weekly basis:

Suggestions

• Introduce sewing and mendhi classes for teenagers. Through Exceed - our LAP extended schools provision - we provide after school and weekend activities for the young people within our community. I have passed this request to the Exceed Coordinator. If the sewing and mendhi courses for teenagers are being widely requested by our community then Exceed will do their utmost to provide these. At present, however, there have been very few requests for courses of this nature.
• More parents should get involved with school activities. We welcome parental involvement in our school as we believe that it is partnership with our parents and our community which is one of Copthorne's great strengths. One of the ways in which parental involvement can be increased is for parents/carers to accompany classes on trips and visits. By December, therefore, a letter will be sent home asking parents/carers to say whether or not they would be happy to accompany classes on trips. We will then approach those interested.
• Reintroduce Cycle Club. Teaching children how to be safe cyclists is a really important life skill and, at Copthorne, we run Bike-ability training for any Year 5 and 6 pupils who are interested. This training takes place each year in June or July and parents/carers will be informed of this in plenty of time
• Provide a creche during parents' classes. I understand how useful this would be for our parents/carers but I am afraid that we do not have the facilities and/or staff available to be able to provide creche facilities at this moment in time. However, there are two Children's Centres in our locality which often provide childcare/creche facilities: Farnham (01274 573297) and Princeville (01274 573298). Please contact these directly for more information.

Concerns

• The Year 4 doors close before 8.45 and then a child is marked as late. Registration begins at 8.45 am and it is, therefore, essential that all children are in school by this time. Doors will, therefore be closed just before 8.45 am each day but we will ensure that they stay open until 8.44 am.
• I would like more support for children with disabilities during trips.The quality of care provided for all of our pupils both in school and during trips is of an excellent standard. Thorough risk assessments are carried out for every off-site activity so as to ensure that staffing is at the correct ratio and also of the best quality to enable each child to have an enjoyable visit and successfully access the learning. Where parents have individual concerns please feel free to call int to see me so that we can discuss and address these.
• More encouragement is needed for children with speech difficulties. At Copthorne, speaking and listening activities are very important parts of each lesson and learning experience. Strategies such as talking partners are used to encourage children's speech and language development. Where a child is identified as having speech and/or language difficulty then parents are informed and the child referred to the Speech and Language Support Service by our SENCO - Mrs Bradley. We then work in partnership with this service to ensure that the child's needs are effectively met.
• People are unlikely to get a job at this school because they go to people who are known rather than on a fair basis. Copthorne's recruitment policies and procedures were audited by the local authority this September. As a result we have developed a rigorous recruitment system and are confident that only the best candidates for posts, at every level, will be short-listed and recruited regardless of connections with the school or individuals within it. However, if you do still have concerns of this nature please do not hesitate to see me at any stage.

Thanks again to everyone who made suggestions and/or voiced concerns which will help to make Copthorne even better. I will publish and respond to more of these next week.

Have another great week.

Mrs Shepherd

Monday 12th November 2012

Hello again everyone.
It was lovely to see our children returning to school, last Monday, happy and rested after a good break. Everyone has settled back to work very quickly and is showing the Copthorne drive to succeed in all they do.

Copthorne School Dinners are nearly here!
The refit of our school kitchen began during the half term holiday and is almost complete. This means that we will soon be able to begin producing and serving our own food. I know that many of you have concerns about the dinners provided at present. Please be assured that we are in constant contact with our suppliers to improve the quality of the food provided. Thanks to everyone for their patience in this matter.
 
'Even when we think we have nothing we have Copthorne Primary School.'
This was one of the wonderful, positive comments made about our school by parents and carers during our recent parents' evening. Thanks again to everyone who made comments and suggestions. We really value your ideas and comments as we want Copthorne to continue to be outstanding in every way.

Here are the positive things that our parents/carers had to say about our school.

• Good standard of teaching/education 
• It’s a really good school 
• Excellent refurbishment and layout of new build/school looks much better/ improved facilities/very up to date colours/furnishings 
• Excellent staff/pupil relationships
• Lots of after school, Saturday Clubs and holiday activities
• Focus on students/all teachers’ efforts go in to helping children
• Excellent communication between staff and parents/ Keeping parents updated with child’s  progress
• Commitment and passion to succeed
• Very good school/very happy with it
• I like everything/ Don’t change anything
• Very nice teachers
• Very friendly, helpful staff
•  Organisation
• Good speed, security and accuracy in addressing issues
• Good learning environment
• Raving Readers
• Very supportive of children with disabilities
• The children are really enjoying their experience of school life – credit to all staff at Copthorne – keep up the good work
• RM Maths is good and provides help
• Nice clean environment
• School has a good feel to it
• Happy with the way school is run
• Even when we think we have nothing we have Copthorne Primary School

There were a great number of very helpful suggestions given. I will list and respond to a number of these each week:

    Make parent’s evening start a little later – we will certainly investigate the possibility of extending our parents’ evening by half an hour so that it finishes at 6.30 and, therefore, provides the opportunity for those parents/carers who work late to attend

       Increase length of appointment time for parent’s evening - again, we will investigate the ways in which we will be able to increase the time available for individual appointments by, for example, spreading parents' evening over two nights.

         Children should be able to change their lunch choices every other day – In order for our caterers to ensure that we are supplied with the correct number of dinners and allow them to purchase the correct level of stock we are unable to allow children to change dinner options on a day to day basis. This will also be the same when we move to providing our own food after Christmas. Children will be asked to choose either school dinners, home dinners or packed lunches at the start of each half term and stick to that choice for the entire half term.

        Run a Summer Club - as part of Exceed (our LAP Extended Schools Provision) we already provide a large number of holiday clubs including summer holiday clubs. These clubs are held at a number of schools within our LAP and are open to all the children attending those schools. All children are given information about the holiday clubs available approximately 2 weeks before we break up- this is usually in the form of a leaflet or booklet. Please ask your child about this I will make sure that a text message is sent to all parents when the booklets have been sent home. 

        Have a school newsletter/way of explaining what’s happening in school – A termly newsletter already goes home to each family giving details of all the events and activities taking place in our school. In addition I write the weekly blog giving information about the week ahead and any other matters arising. The blog can be accessed through our website: www.copthorne.ngfl.ac.uk and is located under both: Head of Schools’ Blog and the News area of the website. In addition, each Year group sends home a half-termly newsletter giving information specific to childrens' classes.

       Improve playground equipment – at present we are in the process of ordering a new trim trail for the front playground. This will be similar to the one at the back of the school and I am sure that the children will love the challenge this provides

 

In addition to the above comments, a number of issues were raised as regards aspects of school which need to be improved. I will also respond to a number of these each week:
 

     Dinners: This was, by far, the most common of the areas for improvement. We are aware of this and have taken very positive steps towards improving the situation. Firstly, we are in constant contact with the suppliers of our school dinners in response to parental concerns raised. As a result a number of meals have already been removed from the menu and replaced with more popular and healthier options. In addition, we have employed our own cook (Mrs Ramsden) who has designed and overseen the refit of our kitchen (see suggestions above) so that we will soon be ready to prepare all our own healthy meals for our children.  As soon as we are ready to begin serving our own meals we will be inviting parents in to sample the meals which will be on offer.Thank you for your patience and support in this matter.
   
    Too hot in school – temperature needs to be better controlled: The new build includes under-floor heating. This removes the need for radiators and is more efficient in that heat is stored for longer. We are gradually getting used to the best way of controlling our new system and the new part of school now seems to have a more regulated temperature - neither too hot or too cold.
    
     Children need to be encouraged to change reading books regularly: As part of our Raving Readers scheme school is open each day from 8.30am for children to come in and change their reading books. Children in Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6) are expected to put their reading record book and the book that needs changing into the designated area in each classroom at the start of the school day. Children are regularly reminded to do this. In Key Stage 1, likewise, children are asked - each day - to place books and reading records into the appropriate box. We would be very grateful if parents/carers could also remind their child to do this.

    Thanks, once again, for all your great ideas and comments. It is working together in this way which is one of the very special things about Copthorne.


Every day counts

    Over the past weeks I have met with a number of parents regarding requests for pupils'leave of absence for visits abroad or holidays.  Educational research shows that for every week a child is absent from school it can mean that child falling behind by 1month compared to his/her classmates. A 10 day absence, therefore, potentially means that a child will fall 2 months behind in his or her work compared to others in the class. At Copthorne we want our children to be able to achieve the very best and,although we are very sympathetic to the fact that many of our families have close relatives outside of the UK, we are unable to authorise any absences of this nature.We do have 13 weeks holiday each year and so would ask that holidays be taken during these times. It is a common misconception that children are entitled to 10 days leave.However, this is not the case.

    Authorised leave, of up to 10 days, may be granted in exceptional circumstances such as where a child needs to go abroad for medical treatment and this would always need to be supported by a doctor's letter.

     After 20 days of unauthorised absence we are legally obliged to remove a child from the school role and, as there are such a large number of children waiting to join Copthorne it is unlikely that children who have been removed from our role would be able to be readmitted.

     This policy is in line with all the other schools in our area and is in place to ensure the best possible outcomes for our children. I am very grateful for your support in this matter.

Young Writers

    Over the past months many of our children have been entered into several writingcompetitions. I am thrilled to tell you that a number of our pupils are now 'published authors' and the books containing their winning entries will soon be  available to borrow from our new library.Well done everyone! Keep writing!

 

      Have an enjoyable week everyone.

      Mrs Shepherd

 

Monday 5th November 2012

Welcome back.
Hello Everyone. I hope you have enjoyed the half term holidays and had a restful break and the chance to spend time together with family and friends. Last half term was a very busy one: everyone worked very hard and deserved a really good rest. I am spent the holiday with my family: we were finally able to walk to our new cinema in Halifax - the town has been without one for the past 20 years so it has always meant a car journey for us to Leeds or Bradford so it was a real treat to be able to walk there.
As usual this half term looks set to be very busy and exciting with lots of great activities planned for our children.

Bonfire Night

As you will know, it is Bonfire Night tonight. This can be a great time for families and friends to get together but we ask that that you remind the children about keeping safe. We had a number of incidences in our local area, just before the holidays, of children from another school playing with fireworks which they had bought from a local shop. Like you, we obviously want to keep all our children safe so I would welcome your support in reminding the children never to buy or play with fireworks. It is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to buy fireworks and, similarly, illegal for shops to sell fireworks to anyone under the age of 18. Please could you, therefore, ask the children to tell you if they see any shops in our area selling fireworks to anyone below the age of 18. If you or the children see this happening, please inform our local Community Police Officer who will deal with the matter. Thank you.

Year 6 Support
Thank you to the parents who posted messages/questions in response to my previous blog, enquiring about the support which is/will be in place for our Year 6 pupils to support them through the SATs.
During the last 2 weeks of the half term all our children were assessed in Reading, Writing and Maths. We are now in the process of using this information to group the children according to the level of support they need to achieve/surpass their targets for the end of Year 6. The support may take the form of small group work or 1 to 1 sessions with a teacher/teaching assistant on a daily or weekly basis. Alternatively, it may mean that children are given extra writing/ reading and/or maths lessons during the school day to support or extend their thinking further - according to their particular needs.Whatever the level and nature of the support that has been decided upon you will be informed of by the end of the first week back (9th November). In addition, we are already running RM Maths before school each day to which identified children have already been invited and parents informed. If your child has been selected to attend please continue to support this work by ensuring that your child attends each of and arrives on time for these sessions.

Mathletics
In addition, every child from Year 2 upwards has access to Mathletics via the Internet: www.mathletics.co.uk Your child has his/her own unique password and user name for this. When they log in they will find that their teacher has set them a list of focused tasks. These tasks have been assigned individually to each child in order to address the areas of maths which your child needs to particularly concentrate on. Once the tasks have been completed each child has access to Live Mathletics where they can play mental maths challenges against other children all over the world which will help to further develop their mental maths skills. Please encourage your children to complete the set tasks regularly. Thank you.
For those of you who do not have access to the Internet, children can complete their tasks by attending homework club on Wednesday straight after school.

Saturday Clubs
I had the pleasure of being in school a couple of Saturdays ago and I felt that I needed to say what a wonderful place Copthorne is on a Saturday morning. There are over 60 children attending Saturday Club which includes Wii Club, Arts and Crafts, Archery and Healthy Cooking Club. Children rotate around the different activities so experience everything over the term. On the Saturday morning when I was there, the children's activities included making Halloween Puppets and decorating Halloween buns. Everyone was having a wonderful time and, as usual, our children's behaviour was outstanding and made me very proud. I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to the Copthorne Association for their financial support in helping to fund Saturday Club - because of the Association's support we are able to run the Clubs for the majority of the school year and so provide additional engaging and enriching activities for the children of our community. Thank you too to our Learning Mentors (Mr A Khan, Mr H Khan) and Teaching Assistants (Miss S Khawaja, Mrs F Rehman, Mrs A Khan and Miss A Parveen) who run the club and help to make it such a great experience for our children.

Coming up this half term

Ladies' Evening
Mrs H Nisar and myself are in the middle of planning a Ladies Evening to be held in late November/early December. The evening will include dancing, mendhi and, of course, food! If any parents would be willing to volunteer to help organise this event we would be very grateful. Please let Mrs Nisar or myself know as soon as possible.






4 Poplar to Culture Fusion
On Tuesday, 27th November, as part of our work with the Linking Schools project 4 Poplar will be spending the day at Culture Fusion in Bradford with pupils from our link school: All Saints in Ilkley. We have been linking with All Saints for a number of years and children from Copthorne and All Saints have formed good friendships and have developed a great understanding of each other's lives and cultures. I am sure that this particular meeting will prove just as positive.

End of term

This term will end at the end of school on Friday 21st December. and reopen on Monday 7th January after a 2 week holiday. As usual, we will be building up to the end of term with a festive week during which different activities are planned each day and, about which you will be informed nearer the time.


Wishing you all a great half term.

Mrs Shepherd