Monday 14th January

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the Christmas holiday.Welcome back to another exciting term at Copthorne. It was lovely to see the children again last Tuesday They have all returned to school refreshed and ready to work really hard.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the wonderful Christmas cards and thoughtful gifts I received - thank you!

School Dinners
From last Tuesday - 8th January - 3 weeks earlier than originally planned, we started producing and serving our own school lunches. We have started quite simply with baked potatoes and toppings, pasta bakes and - the children's definite favourite - baguette pizzas and, once we have our Assistant Cook in place, we will increase the range of dishes available. Well done and thank you to our catering staff for making the first week such a success.

This week at Copthorne

Year 4 visit the Industrial Museum
Both Year 4 classes will be visiting the Industrial Museum this week (4 Poplar on Tuesday15th and 4 Beech on Thursday 17th). They will be experiencing what life was like for children during World War 2. I am sure that they will have a wonderful time and, as usual, be great ambassadors for Copthorne.

Inter-generational project
This Tuesday,15th February,sees the start of the Inter-generational project at Grange Interlink Centre. For the next 10 weeks 8 of our Year 5 children will be taking part in this project which will involve them spending 2 hours each week working with elderly people from our community. The project aims to encourage generations to share ideas and values so as to strengthen our community and develop mutual respect and tolerance.

Forest School
This Friday, 18th February, sees half of the children in 4 Poplar off to St Ive's Woods for their second day of Forest School. The children will continue to learn woodcraft skills, explore the environment, solve problems and develop teamwork outside. The children will need their packed lunches, warm clothing, a waterproof/winter coat and sensible footwear/wellington boots. It was great to see how excited our children were after last week's visit and I am sure that this Friday's experiences will be just as enjoyable.

Saturday Study Support
This began on Saturday 12th January and will run each Saturday until the Easter holidays. The sessions last from 10am to 12pm each week and are held at Horton Grange Primary School. The aim of the project is to help Year 6 pupils from each of the 7 schools in our LAP (Exceed Alliance) to secure their target levels in the SATs in May. Each Saturday the children are taught by experienced teachers for an hour each of Maths and English.The children are provided with refreshments and the teachers aim to make the learning great fun too. These sessions have been run with great success for the past 2 years and I know that the pupils from Copthorne will enjoy themselves and work their hardest to achieve their targets.
The sessions are also a great opportunity for the children to get to know others from the LAP schools.


School Shoes
In October, I wrote to you all - both in the blog and in a letter sent home with all pupils, explaining the Governing Body's decision that, in line with the school's uniform policy, all children must wear plain black, flat-heeled shoes and that trainers are not permitted -although these will still be required for outdoor PE. Parents/carers were informed that black shoes would have to be worn by all pupils from the start of January 2013.It is now essential, therefore that this rule be followed.Thank you to all parents/carers who have already ensured that the children are wearing black shoes and to all the children who have been reminding parents about this. I would ask that anyone still wearing trainers now change to black shoes immediately. If you feel that weather conditions are such that the children need to wear boots to school then I would be grateful if you could make sure that they have their black shoes or black pumps with them to change into once they arrive at school. Thank you so much for your support in this matter.


Snow days
According to the weather forecast there is a good chance that we will be experiencing snow over the next couple of days and/or weeks. Please ensue that you have read the letter which was sent home before the Christmas holidays or the blog: Monday 3rd December 2012 which gave details of the procedures we will follow when the weather is particularly severe. Thank you.

Dates for your diary

Road Safety Week: 21st to 25th January 2013
During that week we will be carrying out a range of activities aimed at increasing road safety awareness and skills. The planned experiences will involve our children, their families and the community as a whole. Activites include: shows for children and a talk for parents. In addition,a number of pupils will be working with the community police and council wardens to 'ticket' road users breaking the law and putting pupils in danger. A letter will be sent home with pupils during this week giving details of times and dates of activities. 

Bag to School: Wednesday 6th February 2013
We are holding a collection of unwanted, clean old clothing, bedding, hand bags, shoes, belts and soft toys. We will receive 50p per kilo we collect. The funds we raise will help us to continue providing the range of wonderful, extra activities for our children. Bag to school will be providing us with bags for you to fill which we will be sending home with the children nearer the time but they also accept black bin liners so, if any of you are having new year clear outs, feel free to start filling bags now. Bags you have filled can be brought into school from Tuesday 29th January until 9am on February 6th. I know that you will support us in this collection and thank you in advance.

Breakfast Club
Breakfast Club runs from each day from 8-8.30am. At 8.30am the children are sent outside to line up with their classes in the playground where a learning mentor (Mrs Robinson in the front playground and Mr A Khan in the black playground) is on duty. Children in Reception and Nursery are escorted to their classrooms by a member of staff from Breakfast Club.
 
Have a great week. Here's hoping the snow stays away!

Mrs Shepherd