Safer Internet Day 2017

Safer Internet Day 2017 is being celebrated globally today, Tuesday 7th February, with the theme 'Be the change: unite for a better internet'. There will be e-safety lessons taking part throughout the school, promoting safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology.

For more information please see the Safer Internet Day website and our Internet Safety page.

If you haven't done so already please complete our parent and carer e-safety survey. It will only take a few minutes, the results are anonymous and they will help towards improving our e-safety policies at Earlsmead. Thank you.

Congestion and security at the end of the day

Dear Parents / Carers,

You might recall that I wrote to you in October last year about the congestion and concerns around safety and security at school building entrances in the mornings and at the end of the day.

At that time, we urged parents and carers to avoid using the entrance points that children use and instead to use the main school entrance on Broad Lane if they needed to go to the school office for anything including making appointments to see members of staff.

Unfortunately this has not been a success and having a free flow of parents, carers, staff and children using the same entrance and exit points has lead to dangerous congestion in these areas and has left the school unable to control and manage who is in the building in the mornings and at the end of the day.  

As a result we will be implementing a different and hopefully more secure and straight forward system from Thursday 2nd February, so please note the changes below:

The start of the school day

  • At the start of the school day only staff and pupils will be allowed to enter the building and parents and carers will need to say goodbye to their children in the playground.

  • If you have children in both KS1 and KS2, a member of staff will be on duty so that children line up with the member of staff to be led into the building and taken to their classes.

  • Parents and carers will only be allowed to enter the building by going to the school office using the entrance on Broad Lane.

The end of the school day

  • Children from Reception Classes will be dismissed as usual. Year 1 children will be bought downstairs from their classes and children will be dismissed from the front entrance of their building so we will ask parents to be patient and to not stand in front of these doors.

  • Children in Year 2 Pink will be dismissed from their class playground exit. Year 2 Yellow will be dismissed from the main entrance from the infant playground.

  • Children in Years 3 Orange and Year 3 Purple will be dismissed from the playground entrances in the junior playground.

  • Years 4, 5 and 6 will be bought out in a line to the junior playground by their teachers and dismissed from there. If you collect your child please ensure that you arrive collect them promptly at 3.15 p.m.

If your child collects a younger sibling from another class, they will be accompanied by a teaching assistant to wait with their siblings’ class and then be dismissed with that class.

If your child attends an after school activity it is up to the club leader to decide whether parents and carers are allowed to stay and watch. Please note that if you do watch your child or come and collect your child from a club you will still need to use the entrance to the building that is on Broad Lane.

There may be issues that we have not thought of but we will be regularly reviewing the process. Please do keep in mind that these changes are designed to keep your children safe so we would appreciate your patience and cooperation whilst we implement them.

Yours sincerely,

Hina Shah

Headteacher.

 

We’re counting down to Number Day 2017!

Dear Parents/Carers

We are delighted to be supporting the NSPCC by taking part in their Number Day on Friday 3 February 2017.

Children deserve an equal start in life

The NSPCC believes that all children deserve a childhood free from harm but, sadly, that’s not the case for many children. That’s why the NSPCC is fighting for every childhood and working to help keep children safe from abuse.

The NSPCC needs our support. By raising money, we can help to fund their vital services like ChildLine – the helpline that’s always there for children and young people whatever their problem or concern.

Making maths meaningful

Number Day is a great way to make maths fun and bring about a positive, ‘can-do’ attitude towards it.

On 3 February we will be taking part in The Great Earlsmead Number Challenges!! Pupils will be learning number facts and times table facts to complete their year groups timed tests. To help raise money for the NSPCC, we are asking for families and friends to support and sponsor children to complete their number challenges. Please complete the sponsor form on the back of this letter and return it with any sponsor money in an envelope to your child’s class teacher.

Also on that day, we’ll be taking part in Dress up for Digits and pupils will be invited to wear number themed fancy dress or an item of clothing with numbers, shapes and patterns on it. To help raise money for the NSPCC, we are asking for a suggested donation of £1, we’d love everyone in the school to take part!

It all adds up

We’re looking forward to all the fun of Number Day, and we really appreciate your support. All the money we raise will make an enormous difference to children today and help change the lives of children tomorrow.

You can find out more about the NSPCC’s work at nspcc.org.uk

Many thanks for your continued and appreciated support. If you do have any queries or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Adell Horbury - Assistant Headteacher

 

 

Please watch this video and help us win a set of Chromebooks!

Since we made the change to Chromebooks last year the students have been loving the learning opportunities that the new devices have given us. As part of a competition to win a set of 30 brand new touch screen Chromebooks, we have put together this short video explaining why we love them so much. The video with the most views is the winner so please share it with your friends and help us win the competition!

Amazing African Drumming Videos

Drumming teacher Ben has been teaching some students in Key Stage 2 how to play African drums. You can watch some of their fantastic music and dancing below!

Large turnout for our Parent coffee morning

Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to the coffee morning!

We were delighted to host the coffee morning with a view of establishing future  social as well as more formal occasions for the parents to come, meet and discuss ways we can work together to support their children and take a part in the school community.

To embrace the language diversity of our school community, the members of the support staff used their language skills to socialise with the the parents who speak additional languages to English.

Year 5 go back in time to the Victorian era

In their local history topic, Year 5 are currently doing a project on Victorian schools in our area. 5 Indigo had a session in the museum at Bruce Castle to give them an idea of what the schools in Victorian times looked like (Bruce castle itself used to be a school). The class dressed up in Victorian clothing, did some writing on chalk boards and used old ink pens. Then they had an outside session looking at the history of the building, it was a fantastic trip!

Black History Month

The focus of Black History Month this October was ‘Freedom fighters’. This has enabled children to learn about a range of historical figures both male and female and from different cultures and times in history who have made a stand against injustices. It has been fascinating to explore the freedoms and rights we take for granted, particularly democracy and freedom of speech along with the responsibilities that come with these and to also consider what could happen if they were ever taken away.

Year 1 read the book ‘Frog is a hero’ and talked about what it means to be a hero.

Year 2 discussed rights and responsibilities and wrote about famous freedom female fighters-Rosa Parks and Emmeline Pankhurst

Year 3 discussed articles from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and learnt about the Civil rights movement in the USA

Year 4 discussed freedom fighters and values which inspired them to bring about a change. They learnt and wrote about Harriet Tubman and Malala Yousafzai.

"As part of our Black History topic on ‘Freedom Fighters’ we looked at the rights of children as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We looked at 5 of the rights and ordered them according to the importance of them. We had to discuss each right and explain why we ordered them the way we did."

Year 5 have been reading Journey to Jo’burg and discussed apartheid in South Africa. They learnt about Nelson Mandela and other very important historical figures who were involved in the struggle against racial discrimination such as M.L.King, M.Ghandi, or Jesse Owens.They also read and discussed poems by Benjamin Zephaniah with a theme related to racial discrimination and diversity.

Year 6 learnt and wrote about Muhammad Ali and his protest against the Vietnam war.

Year 5 and a group of year 6 took a part in an African drumming workshop and performance with Ben Edwards.

The Sankofa Bird reminds us that we must continue to move forward as we remember our past. And at the same time we plant a seed for the future generations that come after us.

The Sankofa Bird reminds us that we must continue to move forward as we remember our past. And at the same time we plant a seed for the future generations that come after us.