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NOVEMBER 2006

1 STAFF CHANGES
2 FRENCH
3 TRAVEL SURVEY
4 PE KIT (Juniors)
5 ATTENDANCE
6 JEANS FOR GENES DAY
7 TESCO VOUCHERS
8 CHILDREN IN NEED
9 CONGRATULATIONS
10 KEEPING PARENTS INFORMED
11 DIARY DATES
12 CHRISTMAS EVENTS
13 RETURN SLIP
14 FOHF NEWS


Dear Parents

Thank you for your contributions to this year’s Harvest Festival. We delivered the food to Grangemead and Hare Lodge. The School Council children entertained some of the Day Care adults with “The Wheels on the Bus!” A big thank you to Reverend Tomalin for his harvest message this year.

1 STAFF CHANGES
Our Site Manager, Mr Procter will be retiring at Christmas. He has worked at the school for the past 9 years. During this time he has become a valuable and much respected member of the staff. It will definitely be a very hard act to follow. We wish him all the best in his retirement and thank him for all of his years of service with us.

The Governors have appointed a new Caretaker – Mr William Driver who will start on 1st December. There will be a month’s handover period before Mr Procter finishes at the end of term.

2 FRENCH
Over the past year we have been involved in a pilot project with the local education authority looking at the introduction of French in Primary Schools. Currently, French is taught in Year 6, but we are looking at introducing this throughout the school. The aim at present is for all children to have the opportunity to

experience another language and find out about difficult cultures. With this in mind, we have employed Mrs King-Mason, a language specialist to support us in this aim. Therefore, you might find that your child comes home and says “we did a French story at school today”. Our pilot is due to finish in March, 2007, and we hope that the government will continue to fund this excellent opportunity. I will keep you informed of development through the monthly newsletter.

French support will be in Year 6, and Year 2, with extra French club at lunchtime for Year 6.

3 TRAVEL SURVEY
As part of our 2006 Travel Plan, we are now requested by the DfES to survey parents each year on how the child/ren travel to school. Please return the attached slip before the end of November. Thank you for your help.

4 PE KIT (Juniors)
During this term the juniors will have PE sessions outside (unless wet)! They will need to bring in a tracksuit top and bottoms to keep warm as well as their normal PE Kit. Additional PE sessions will be run on a Wednesday afternoon with the Youth Sport Leaders from Hailsham Community College.

5 ATTENDANCE
A reminder to parents that Hailsham Primary Schools which includes Hawkes Farm, do not authorise holidays in term time. Our target this year from the Education Welfare Department is a combined total of 3.7%.

Figures for 2005 / 2006 were:

Autumn 2005 3.2%
Spring 2006 6.0%
Summer 2006 4.3%
Combined 3.4%

The increase in the Spring term was due to illness, which cannot be predicted. If children are ill they should be at home and not at school. The figures for Autumn and Summer were due to unauthorised holidays.

As you can see our new Target from the LEA is 3.7% which is looking to improve on this year’s figure. Your help would be appreciated in achieving this.

6 JEANS FOR GENES DAY
The School Council organised a whole school charity day in support of Jeans for Genes Day. This raised a total of £377.03. Thanks to all of you who took part in this worthwhile event.

7 TESCO VOUCHERS
A reminder that the Tesco Scheme has now finished. Please send in your vouchers this week.

8 CHILDREN IN NEED
The School Council have discussed ideas on how we can support this year’s charity day. A separate note is attached to the newsletter explaining this year’s activities. We hope children will take part in this year’s event.

9 CONGRATULATIONS
Well done once again to the Hawkes Farm Football Team. For the fourth year running they have brought home the Football Tournament Trophy. Well done to the team and their coaches.

10 KEEPING PARENTS INFORMED
At our recent Governor Meetings we discussed how we might keep you informed of developments and answer those frequently asked questions. One suggestion which was agreed by all Governors was to include a ‘FAQ’ (Frequently Asked Questions) section to the monthly newsletter. You can contribute to this by leaving a ‘question’ at the office. Please help by making it a question that may be useful to most parents at the school. If your question is not answered in the next few newsletters, please do be patient as we will endeavour to prioritise, or it might be that we are waiting for an answer from another source.

FAQ
1 Why do school trips cost so much?
The day trips which usually take place in the summer term can range from £9 – £12. This includes costs such as: coach, insurance, entrance fees, special site tutor, voluntary contribution and extra adult costs.

We always subsidise the trips by using school funds. We do try and keep the costs down to a minimum. It is important that all parents contribute to the trips.

2 Can the infant playground be resurfaced?
Recent information (Nov, 2006) from the LEA informs us that the costs for resurfacing is an LEA responsibility. This has been highlighted in their survey, but not marked as a priority. This will now be an area I will highlight to Governors so that we can be proactive in getting this on the LEA list of priorities.

11 DIARY DATES
15th Nov ESCC Music Recital for KS2
16th Nov Year 5 Victorian Day
17th Nov FOHF Turkey & Tinsel Quiz Night
22nd Nov Year 3 Roman Day
1st Dec Year 3 Christmas Art Morning (parents invite letter has already been sent)
8th Dec ‘Winter Theme’ (FoHF) Mufti Day bring a tombola prize for Xmas Fair
19th Dec Last Day of Term
20th Dec INSET DAY (PSHE Focus – Personal, Social, Health and Emotional Education)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

8th Jan START OF TERM 3

Mrs V Cobb
Headteacher

14 FOHF NEWS
We hope you all enjoyed your half-term holiday. The Friends have a busy agenda this term and must apologise in advance for all the flyers that are coming out to you via book bags; it is the only way of keeping you all informed as to what is going on.

Pumpkin Disco: A spooktacular evening! We saw a wonderful array of spooks, witches, spectres and princesses. We believe that everyone had an enjoyable time at the event and we would like to report that with your support we raised a magnificent sum of £1,300!

Treasure Hunt: Entries are coming in fast and furious and it looks like it is going to be another tough decision for the judges to pick the best as they all look great! We shall announce the winners on our notice board in the next week or so and all entries will be returned back to their composers via book bags with their ‘something special’ section intact!

FORTHCOMING EVENTS:
Second hand uniform sale – Tuesday, 7th November: Pick up a bargain from 3.00pm to 3.45pm in the Infant Playground.

Yellow Moon Fundraising catalogues: Lots of quality creative products and toys from just £1.99. We will receive up to 25% cash-back (excl. VAT and p&p) from the purchases that are made to go towards Friends’ projects. Please note that p&p is free on online orders over £45. Group together with friends to reduce the cost of your p&p!

Turkey and Tinsel Family Quiz night – Friday, 17th November: Come and enjoy an evening of family fun! A licensed bar, refreshments and a raffle will be available. Ticket details are being sent via your child’s book bag – if you do not receive any, please ask at the office for copy.

Tombola – Saturday, 18th November: in the Quintins shopping Centre, Hailsham raising the community’s awareness of our forthcoming Christmas Fair.

Christmas Fair – Saturday, 9th December: from 2pm to 5pm: As we prepare for the event we would extend a warm welcome to those parents and friends who may be able to offer help or can give us items that can be used at the fair such as cakes, biscuits, books, toys. These can be dropped into the school no earlier than week commencing Monday, 4th December.

Santa letters: A personalised letter for your children and their younger siblings – this was a very popular event with parents and friends last year – details on this will be sent out in due course.

Thank you again for your continued and valued support.

Melanie Izon - Chairperson