July 2022 Newsletter
14th July 2022
14th July 2022
July 2022 Newsletter
Dear parents, carers and the Lemington community,
End of term events and celebrations
It’s almost the end of another school year. Next Friday 22nd July we will be saying goodbye to our Year 6 children. For me personally I have particularly special memories of this class, as they were the first class based ‘next door’ to my office when I first became headteacher here back in 2019! We are so proud of everything Year 6 have achieved during their time at Lemington Riverside, including some excellent end of Year 6 SAT scores that we are all very proud of. But of course, at Lemington Riverside we’re not just about test scores, and the most important thing is that this talented group of young people leave Lemington Riverside with memories for life, ready to thrive at their new high schools. We wish you all the very best and don’t forget to keep in touch! We will also be saying goodbye to a small number of children from other year groups on the final day of term, again, we wish them the very best in their new schools.
On Friday 22nd July at 9:30am we invite all year 6 parents/carers to join us for a special graduation ceremony in the main hall. On the final day of term, class teachers across the school will be organising fun activities in class for all of the children to enjoy.
We have a couple of exciting end of term activities taking place. On Tuesday 19th July, Year 6 will be visiting York for the day on the train. On Thursday 21st July we will be visited by ‘Animals About Town’ mobile petting farm, who will be bringing a whole range of animals to visit us from a farm in County Durham! All children from across the school will have the opportunity to visit the farm over the day.
Staffing updates:
At the end of this term we will be saying goodbye to a couple of members of staff who have made a huge impact on the children of Lemington Riverside over many years. We say farewell to Paula Stones, our Attendance & Welfare Officer, who has worked with and supported lots of our children and families over the years. We also say farewell to Carol Ramshaw, who has been a lunch time supervisor at Lemington Riverside for many years – we wish Carol a very happy retirement.
Kim Cole will be our new Attendance and Welfare Officer from September. Kim will be working in school every morning.
We will also be welcoming Mr. Dan Jordan, who will be joining us as a teacher. Mr. Jordan will be teaching in Years 1, 2 and 3 alongside Ms Turner, Miss Brush and Mr. Carter from September where we will split children into four smaller teaching groups for English and Maths. From our assessment data, we can see that these year groups have been hit the hardest by the pandemic and this is why we are reducing class numbers even more in these year groups from September. In the afternoons, Mr. Jordan will cover class teacher planning time in various classes.
Uniform bundles, uniform exchange and uniform expectations from September:
Mrs. Bainbridge and Mrs. Harris in the office are busy sorting all of the children’s free uniform bundles and they will be sent home with the children before the end of next week. We hope that the free bundles are beneficial and ease at least one financial pressure this summer.
From September, we will expect all children to be in full uniform every day (unless there are agreed special circumstances agreed with the headteacher where this is not possible).
Don’t forget, we also have our ‘uniform exchange service’ running from the school office now too – if you need any spare uniform, just drop us an email or call using the details above and if it’s in stock we will arrange for you to be able to collect it. Thank you to everybody Please note, we have relaxed our uniform policy until the end of this term due to the warmer weather. Our full uniform expectations will resume in September.
Summer activities in Lemington:
There are a number of free summer activities for children aged 5-11 in Lemington this summer both at the Lemington Centre and at Sugley Church. All of these activities will also include a free healthy lunch for children. Check out our Facebook and Twitter pages for more information. If you would like a personal call from our local ‘Family Partner’ to talk about activities available during the summer, please let Paula or Mr. Heeley know and we can arrange for that to happen.
Sunny weather & drinks
We continue to enjoy the sunshine this summer in Lemington! We do ask that you ensure your child comes to school with a bottle of water/squash, wear a sun hat/cap and apply sun cream before the start of the school day on sunny summer days.
Please note, from September children will only be allowed to bring bottles of water or still flavoured water into school as we move towards ‘Healthy School’ status. Fizzy, isotonic (including Oasis and Fruit Shoots) and energy drinks will not be allowed in school and if children do bring them in will be confiscated by staff and handed to parents/carers at the end of the day. Thank you for your support with this.
Free school meal supermarket vouchers
Newcastle City Council have notified us that we will be funded to provide free school meal vouchers for the summer holidays to those families entitled to free school meals. They will be sent out via the usual channels on Wednesday 20th July. Please note, if your circumstances have changed recently, your child may be entitled to free school meals. To apply for free school meals, Google ‘Newcastle Free School Meals’ and complete the online form. Alternatively, we can give you a paper copy of the application form if you visit the school office. If you ever find that you are struggling financially, please do come and have a confidential chat with us as there are a number of ways we might be able to support.
Parents evening and end of year reports
It was great to see so many parents and carers in school for our end of year parent’s evenings this week. It has been a pleasure to read each of the children’s end of year reports and write on my comment. If you were not able to attend parents evening this week, please do speak to your child’s teacher and we would be happy to arrange a short chat before the end of term.
Parent/carer conduct charter:
At the start of the new school year, we will be sending out our parent/carer conduct charter that has recently been approved by our Full Governing Body. This sets out our expectations of parents/carers to ensure we can all work together for the best for your child and we will expect everybody to follow this charter.
And finally…
Thank you for all of your support throughout the 2021/2022 school year – it really does make a huge impact when we work together for the best of our children. The first term was still hampered by Covid, but after Christmas we have certainly got back to more normal ways. Your children have been a credit to you all throughout – they have worked so hard to catch up on the learning missed in the pandemic, they have enjoyed some magnificent trips and experiences over the year and have all made so much progress from where they started off the school year.
I would also like to place on record my thanks to the staff and governors of the school who have worked tirelessly over the year for our children. The Ofsted inspection in April was a great reflection of how far we have come as a school. Only this week, we received a lovely letter from Mark Patton (Director of Education, Newcastle City Council), congratulating our school on our recent inspection outcome.
We are all very excited for the 2022/2023 school year and wish you all a lovely summer.
Kind regards,
Mr. C Heeley
Headteacher