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.
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.
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
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!
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
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