March 2021 Newsletter 2
23rd March 2021
Dear Parents and Carers,
ATTENDANCE:
As before lockdown, the Department for Education now states that school attendance is a legal requirement for all children. Please ensure that your child is in school, on time by 9, every morning.
If your child or anybody in your household bubble develops symptoms of Covid-19 (new persistent cough, high temperature, loss/change of taste/smell) you must self-isolate, seek a test for the person with symptoms and inform us at your earliest convenience on 0191 267 4315 or by emailing admin@lemingtonriverside.newcastle.sch.uk .
If your child is absent for any other reason, please inform the office on 0191 267 4315.
We must remind you that if your child’s attendance is a cause for concern, we will offer you a virtual meeting to discuss the reasons for this and if, following this meeting, there is still no improvement it may be necessary for us to refer your child’s attendance to the Local Authority for legal monitoring.
TERM TIME HOLIDAYS:
Term-time holidays cannot be authorised by the Head Teacher (this is another directive from the Department for Education). If your child does need to be absent during term-time, you must inform us by completing a term-time absence notification form. Copies of this can be requested from the school office or can be completed on our website by clicking on Parents > Term-Time Holidays.
SCHOOL MEALS:
If you pay for school meals you can now do this through the ParentPay app. We encourage all parents to begin using ParentPay now as from September 2021 we will no longer accept cash payments for school dinners in school.
Please note, you must give us at least one weeks’ notice if your child wishes to change from packed lunches to school meals or vice versa. A number of children continue to switch between packed lunches and school meals without notifying Mrs. Casey and this is causing a knock-on effect in the school kitchen.
Thank you for your support with this.
EASTER 2021:
Easter Raffle tickets are now on sale, priced at £1 per strip. Tickets will be sold in class every day between now and the morning of Wednesday 31st March. There are over 100 eggs to be won – thank you so much to everybody for your generous donations! All money raised from the raffle will go towards buying new resources for our children.
From the money we raised from our Christmas raffle we have recently purchased a brand new selection of home reading books for our Early Years and Key Stage 1 children. Your donations really do make a huge difference!
On Tuesday 30th March we will be judging our ‘Boiled Egg Competition’ – this years theme is ‘Heroes of Lockdown’. If your child wishes to enter, simply boil an egg and get creative, decorating it as a lockdown hero! This could be an NHS worker, another critical worker, a family member or somebody else who has been a hero to you during the past year. There will be a prize for one lucky winner in each class!
Take care,
Mr. Heeley