Message from Miss Emson

Welcome back to this, the second half of the spring term, albeit a rather wild and blustery one. Our newsletter is our main way to communicate with you – it’s always filled with relevant information about what’s coming up in school and what we’re doing. It’s important all of your contact details are up to date as email and text is our main way to communicate with you. We do, of course, send the occasional letter, if it’s year group specific, but it’s important to give you information in a timely manner. We have lots of exciting things coming up including our World Book day, our sponsored disability awareness day and comic relief! Watch this space. More to follow on each of these. Please be mindful that uniform expectations don’t slip – if you have any issues regarding this, please come and speak us. Thank you to all of you that are following us on Twitter. We no longer use the face book page so this is also our way of sharing information with you and celebrating all of the fabulous work we do at Great Coates School.

Emma Emson – Principal.

Rewards

Stars of the week

Key Stage 1

Mrs Woods – Shaye S

Miss Winn – Klay S

Mrs Watson – Millie H

Mrs Brown – The Whole Class

Key Stage 2

Mrs Cox – Lilly M

Miss Baxter – Rio V

Mrs Bradley – Hetty F

Miss O’Neill – Freya A

Mrs Martin – Evie G

Mr Baxter – Sienna T

Reading

Mrs Wood	Mrs Watson	Miss Winn	Mrs Brown	Mrs Cox	Miss Baxter	Mrs Bradley	Miss O’Neill	Mr Baxter	Mrs Martin
71%	88%	93%	100%	89%	86%	100%	90%	90%	100%

Miss Baxter’s class is the most improved this week, Congratulations. A big Congratulations to Mrs Martin, Mrs Bradley and Mrs Brown

Times Tables Rock Stars

This is the ongoing leaderboard for Times Tables Rock Stars. Well done these children for working hard on your times tables.

1. Deon O	Y6
2. Phenix M	Y3
3. Cody D	Y6
4. Jasmine M	Y6
5.Vienna H	Y5
6. Jack C	Y5
7. Max K	Y3
8. Olly C	Y6
9. Alicia J	Y6
10. Isobella H	Y6

To get on the leaderboard you need to play on ‘Studio’ on times tables rock stars and you need to play at least 10 times.

The school has now moved up to 17th in local schools. Well done!

News

World Book Day

We are very excited about World Book Day, which we will be celebrating on Friday next week. We are having an Alice in Wonderland themed day and have asked the children to come dressed up as a character from the book. Lunch will be Mad-Hatter’s tea party themed. You still have a chance to order this on Monday if you have not already ordered.

At the end of the day, parents will be invited into the hall as we have an Usborne book seller with a stall. Some of the children’s work will be on display and you can vote for the book face competition. If you wish to visit the book stall and see the children’s work, FS1 and KS1 parents may collect their children from 3pm, from the front office. They can also collect their KS2 children at this time. Parents who have only KS2 children can collect their children from the office at 3:10. If you wish to visit the hall from 3:20 onwards the book stall will remain until everyone has had a chance to look at the books. These times are staggered to avoid congestion.

We are also having a hat making competition. Please make hats at home bring them in on Friday. The prize will be a writing set.

We are also having a book selfie competition. Children are invited to re-enact the front cover of a book. Photos can be shared on twitter by tagging @PrimaryGreat and using #gcpbookface or they can be uploaded onto ClassDojo. All entries must be in by Friday 4^th March at 9am. A child from each key phase will win a prize.

Here are some examples:

All of the book face competition entries will be displayed in the hall and parents will be able to vote for their favourite entry. There will be a winner in each key phase and the prize will be a set of age appropriate popular books.

Shoe Box Reads

This week is our first week of shoe box reads. Every week, in each class one child will be chosen to bring home a box which contains hot chocolate, biscuits and a lovely book to share with your child. When you have read the book and eaten the treats inside please return the box to school so we can replenish it and pass it on to another lucky member of the class to enjoy. The response book inside is to write your feelings about the book. You might want to also draw a picture.

This term’s reading prize

This term the prize for reading 3 times a week, (and having those 3 reads clearly written in your reading diary) will be a disco. The disco will be during the school day and in the last week of term.

SATs Practise Week

Next week the Year 6 children will be having a SATs practise week. Good luck to them. Please can all children make sure they arrive at school on time.

Para-Athlete Visit

On 16th March, the school will be visited by the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup winner, Martin Norris. The children will take part in a physical activity with Martin and have an inspirational talk. The visit is sponsored by the organisation Sports for Champions. To fund the visit, pupils will have brought home a donation form so that parents can support the school to provide the activity and Para-athletes.

Please note that all money and sponsor forms need to be in by 8th March. Please return money in a labelled envelope to the office or class teacher. Remember there are prizes for different amounts of money raised so please label envelopes clearly.

Nursery Places

Do you have a child or know of a child who will be age 3 by 31 March?If so they could start nursery in April 2022 for 15 hours free funding or if eligible 30 hours funding.Please contact the school office now to find out more – email school office at [email protected] or give us a call on 01472 808608

Attendance

Mrs Wood	Mrs Watson	Miss Winn	Mrs Brown	Mrs Cox	Miss Baxter	Mrs Bradley	Miss O’Neill	Mr Baxter	Mrs Martin
98%	99%	99%	97%	98%	99%	99%	97%	97%	95%

Good attendance is classed as 96% and above. Fantastic attendance everyone this week. Very well done!

If you wish to take your child to an appointment, we need to see evidence of the appointment to mark it as an authorised absence. Please show evidence at the office or email the office on [email protected]

If your child will not be attending school, please call the school office on 01472 808608 or email the school on [email protected] to report their absence. For planned absences, please do this before the first day of the absence.

When a child does not attend school, and no explanation has been provided, the school will contact the individuals listed on our system as contacts, starting with the primary contacts. If we cannot reach any of these contacts, or we do not receive a satisfying response as to the whereabouts and safety of the pupils, we will immediately send a staff member to the pupil’s home. If there is no response, we will contact the police.

Dates for your diary

Year 4 Swimming Dates February 28^th, March 7^th, 14^th	06.12.21
Close for half term	11.02.22
Re-open	21.02.22
World Book Day	04.03.22
Visit to school by Para-Athlete. Martin Norris	16.3.22
Comic Relief – More details to follow	18.3.22
Swimming for Year 5 begins – Please check book bags as letter is going out today	22.3.22
Close for Easter holidays	01.04.22
Open for Summer Term	20.04.22
Close for Half-Term	27.05.22
Re-open	06.06.21
School Closed – Training Day	17.06.22
School closes	21.07.21

Safeguarding and Well-being

Parking on Yellow lines

Please can we remind parents that is is against the law to stop on the yellow lines in front of school. It creates hazards for children and parents entering and leaving the school grounds and causes congestion around the school. We have a large car park, which can be accessed through John Whitgift Academy.

Jewellery

Earrings – No-earrings except small studs are allowed in school. We have had a small number of children with hoop earrings in school. These present a Health and Safety risk to the children. If we deem that your child’s earrings are unsafe we will ask the child to remove them or telephone parents to ask them to remove them. No jewellery is to be worn in school including friendship bracelets.

No earrings at to be worn for PE.