Our Children's Centre is closing

Dear Parents,

As you will know, Haringey Council recently restructured Children’s Centre services in the borough. As a result of this restructuring, Earlsmead Children’s Centre will close as a Sure Start Children’s Centre on Thursday 24th March, 2016.

What does this mean for you?

  • If you’re a parent of a child in the FreeFor2s Nursery Programme, there will be no change. The nursery is unaffected by this restructure, and Earlsmead School will continue to offer high-quality nursery care for eligible children.
  • If you’re a parent of a child who attends Stay & Play, there will be very little change in the short term. Earlsmead School will continue to offer three supported playgroup sessions per week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons.
  • We hope that the conversational ESOL class, and the craft club will continue, at least until the end of this school year, depending on the availability of the volunteers. We will re-evaluate this for next year.
  • We will continue to look for adult-learning opportunities for our families, such as ESOL and Family Literacy, and hope to offer these in the future from the centre.

Sadly,  Dara and Rosanne will be leaving on the 24th March, but Michele will be staying on and Sayera, Sheila, Tania, Bibi, Marina and Christine will still be employed in the centre nursery.

The nearest Children’s Centre to Earlsmead will be Triangle, on St Ann’s Road N15, and Welbourne on Stainby Road, N15. Timetables and contact information are available from the office.

On a personal note, we would like to thank all of our children and parents/carers for the friendship and support you have shown us over the last eight years. It has been a joy and privilege to work here with you and your families.

With love,

Dara O’Reilly, Centre Manager. 

Earlsmead Children’s Centre will close on 24th March, 2016. The nursery will re-open on Tuesday 12th April, 2016. The last Stay & Play of the term will be on Wednesday 16th March, 2016 at 1:15pm and the next Stay & Play after that will be on Wednesday13th April, 2016, also at 1:15pm.

Mobile messaging services: information for parents/carers

The Assistant Head Teacher recently sent out the following letter regarding the use of some mobile applications at home.

Dear Parents/Carers,
I have recently spoken to a large number of children about their use of some of the applications they are using on their mobile phones.  
There have been ongoing problems with children using apps such as WhatsApp and Google Hangout.  Some of the children are in group chats on these applications.  They are in these group chats from the moment they leave school up to when they are in their bedrooms late at night.  
Some of the children I spoke to today informed me that they are receiving messages at very late times of the night, sometimes after midnight!
On a few occasions insults have been part of these chats.  This has led to a number of children coming into school worried and upset.  Some of the children are also tired during their lessons due to the late night nature of the messages they are receiving.
We would like to work together and address these difficulties.  We are asking parents/carers to monitor what apps their children have on their mobile phones and how they are using them.
Please look at messages with your child on a regular basis making sure that your child is not sending insults or receiving them from others.  
Some of the members of the group chats may be people you or your children do not know.   If this is the case please try to ensure that they leave these groups.  
Another tip to prevent children using group chats late at night is to use night time as a time where mobiles are charged in a different room other than their bedroom or turn off WiFi after a certain point in the evening.
I would also like to take this opportunity to emphasis that if you choose to allow your child to bring their mobile phone to school, it is their responsibility to hand it in to their class teacher, who will store it in their class safe at the start of the day and then collect before going home at the end of the day. It is only for the period that their phone is in the care of the class teacher in the safe that we will accept responsibility for it.
If your child’s phone is damaged or stolen when it is in your child’s care (when it is not in the class safe), the school does not accept any liability for it loss or damage.
Thank you for your co-operation in this matter and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have further concerns.
Regards
Sarah Drummond
Assistant Head teacher: Inclusion

WhatsApp Messenger is a popular instant messaging app, averaging over 800 million monthly users. But did you know the minimum age requirement to use the service is 16 years? You can find a how-to guide on WhatsApp safety for parents here.

Cooking Club Update

Ms Wright runs a cooking club for Year 6s after school. Here are a few updates on what they have been cooking.

12th October 2015 - On 12th October Year 6 at Earlsmead School had their first Cooking Club session. We made Hooray for Houmous, a Cheese and Chive Dip (from the Autumn Recipe Book) with Carrot Dippers and Pita Chips to dunk. It was widely agreed that the houmous was the most fun to make (mainly because we got to use a handblender) but the Cheese and Chive Dip was the most delicious - especially when eaten with pita chips fresh from the oven. We were so engrossed with tasting our products that we didn't realise that our parents had arrived to collect us, luckily we doubled our recipes so there was plenty to share and soon we had half the teachers tasting our goods. It was widely agreed that our first session was a great success and we can't wait for the next one.

20th October 2015 - On 20th October Year 6 at Earlsmead School had their second Cooking Club session. We made Carrot and Raisin Muffins. We were very excited at the thought of making muffins and being able to have them for tea fresh out the of the oven that afternoon. In groups we set about weighing the ingredients. First combining the wet ingredients and then the dry ingredients, before mixing it all together. We didn't realise how many carrots would be needed and 2 of us bravely volunteered to grate all of the carrots that would be needed. We discovered it is a messy job! It was here we went a bit off recipe. Half of us made the carrot and raisin muffins, and the other half made carrot and pineapple muffins. We spooned them into cases and popped them in the oven. Whilst they cooked we cleaned up and then sat eagerly waiting for them to be ready. Suddenly, our parents showed up and told us we had to go home. We were reluctant to leave the muffins but were appeased by the promise of fresh muffins for breakfast the next morning. At 8.30 am the next day we all showed up and finally got to try the muffins. They were delicious, we even had a few spare to share with our teachers.

10th November 2015 - On 10th November Year 6 at Earlsmead School had their third Cooking Club session. We made pizzas! These weren't any old pizzas, they were personal pizzas! Each created according to our personal taste. We prepped a huge variety of toppings - cheddar, mozzarella, red onions, mushrooms, sweetcorn, tomatoes and red, yellow and green peppers! Then it was time to assemble out pizzas. We used pitta bread as our base and spread tomato paste on it. Then we approached our toppings table - buffet style, selecting our favourite vegetables and scattering the cheese liberally. We made some interesting combinations and sweetcorn quickly emerged as the most popular vegetable, appearing on nearly every pizza. We rushed them into the oven and then discovered there was enough left for seconds! After 12 minutes in the oven they were ready, they smelled incredible and tasted even better. We all agreed it was the best cooking club so far, we even had a pizza each to take home for dinner!

17th November 2015 - On 17th November Year 6 at Earlsmead School had their fourth Cooking Club session.  Following last week's successful personal pizzas we decided to stick with the savoury and personal theme.  At 3.30 pm sharp we were chopping up the sweet potatoes into wedges, tossing them in olive oil and sprinkling on salt and pepper, then putting them in the oven, so that they would be ready by home time.  After that we could relax a little and work at a more leisurely pace.  We made rainbow couscous salads (rainbows because when you add all the fresh vegetables it is so bright and colourful).  We chopped up the vegetables whilst our teacher looked after the couscous.  Then it was time to assemble our salads, again we made individual dishes.  Each person had a tupperware container, the couscous went in first and then we chose the vegetables we wanted to mix it.  We also had some feta which several of us had never tried before, we were very brave and all tasted a bit (there was mixed response).  After generously heaping the vegetables and cheese into the tupperware, we drizzled the dressing over it all and mixed it all together.  The timer pinged and an amazing smell informed us that the wedges were ready.  We bounded over to the oven and whisked the tray out.  Luckily we had cut up a lot of potatoes and there were 2 trays to share.  We went home
very happy with lots of treats to share with our families!

E-safety app for parents and children

CyberSense is a new app designed to help parents talk about e-safety issues with their children to ensure that they make smart choices to stay safe online.

Developed by internetmatters.org, the app is aimed at children aged between 8-10 to help them think about what they would do if they were faced with different situations online; from cyberbullying to sharing content with someone they don’t know.

CLICK HERE to download the app for iOS and Android and to learn more about CyberSense.

Become a Digital Leader

Are you passionate about technology?

Are you good at explaining new ideas and skills with others?

Would you like to help test new equipment and spread the message of e-safety?

If you answered yes to all the questions above then you may have what it takes to become a Digital Leader.

Digital Leaders are students who are passionate about using technology and want to join a team of like-minded pupils whose role it is to support the use and to further the development of computing in school.

To enter, answer the questions in the questionnaire below. The application process will end on February 1st and the Digital Leaders will be announced shortly after that. Please see Mr Orr if you would like more information.

Apply to be a Digital Leader here.

Earlsmead Poetry Slam

Here at Earlsmead we have been listening to, reading and writing our own poems. Over two weeks, we had special visits from poets and took part in poetry workshops. All our work culminated in an incredible poetry slam performance with all the poems themed around our anti-bullying focus Make a noise about bullying. Take a look at some of the photos, and read some of our brilliant poems, below.

Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen came into our school to kick off our poetry fortnight and did a workshop with the year 3 classes about performing a poem based on the song ‘Happy’ by Pharell. 

Our new library

There was a special ribbon-cutting ceremony to open our brand new library.

Paul Lyalls

We were fortunate enough to be treated to a superb assembly by Paul Lyalls. He then went in to the Year 1 classes for a special workshop.

The Animated Poet

After an incredible audio-visual assembly, the Year 4s were given plenty of inspiration by the extremely talented poet Lemar Barret aka The Animated Poet. 

Discover Story Centre

Year 2 took a trip inside a humongous chocolate cake and went swishy swashy and splash splosh through a Bear Hunt at the Discover Story Centre in Stratford.

Our Poems

We all wrote some fantastic poetry during November. Have a look at a selection of them throughout the year groups. We focused on writing our anti-bullying poems from the perspective of the victim, the bully and the bystander.

The Poetry Slam


Superheroes for Children in Need

This year for Children in Need we had to dress up as either a superhero or as someone who is a hero to us. As a result of all your efforts we raised a total of £311.76.

Thank you for all your donations!

Erol Parlak visits Earlsmead

We were very lucky to have famous Turkish folk musician Erol Parlak visit Earlsmead for a special music assembly. Take a look at the pictures below.