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January, 2008

1 Emergency Closure
2 New Reception
3 Children’s Health
4 Eco-School
5 Adult ICT
6 Diary Dates
7 Cleaning Vacancy
8 FoHF News

Dear Parents

Welcome back to the New Year. I hope you all enjoyed the Christmas break and are ready for 2008.

Thank you to everyone for the excellent and quick response to the school’s emergency closure on Tuesday, 8th and Wednesday, 9th January. The message went out on Southern FM Radio and BBC Southern Counties Radio between 8.00 – 8.30 am. Many parents supported us by contacting each other to pass on the message. This made a huge difference in making sure that all those who needed to know, got the message. The school closure was due to a blockage in the water sewerage pipes outside the school perimeter which caused all the toilets to be blocked. Therefore, as a health & safety matter it was not in the best interest of staff and children to allow the school to open in such a condition. Thank you once again for your support and my apologies for any inconvenience it may have caused to your current arrangements.

1 EMERGENCY CLOSURE
In the event of emergency closure due to health and safety reasons, or adverse weather conditions you are advised to listen to the local radio stations. Notification is made as early as possible to Southern FM Radio (102.4 – 103.5) and BBC Southern Counties Radio (104 – 104.8). This will usually go out on air between 8.00 – 8.30am. Staff at the school are contacted through an emergency telephone cascade system which is issued in Term 2 each year.

The school official opening time is 8.45 am when staff are on duty. We do open the gates at 8.30 am so that parents and children can wait in the safety of the school premises.

2 NEW RECEPTION 2008 CLASSES
Open week for all the Hailsham Schools will take place during the week of Monday, 21st January. If you would like a tour of the school, please contact the office for an appointment. The dates which are available:
Monday, 21st January 10.00 am
Tuesday, 22nd January 2.00pm
Wednesday, 23rd January 10.00am

3 CHILDREN’S HEALTH ISSUES
At this time of year ‘bugs’ do their rounds! Please be alert to colds, flu and the onset of a stomach upset. If your child is unwell please do keep them off school until they are fit to return. With stomach upsets there is the recommended 48 hours after the upset due to the high chance of passing on the infection.

If you are concerned about your child’s health, please seek further medical advice.

4 ECO-SCHOOL COMMUNITY CHALLENGE
We are participating in an East Sussex initiative to help reduce waste and increase recycling. Apart from being a great thing to do in its own right we can earn £500 for completing this challenge. The children have had a special assembly about this and will be bringing home A PLEDGE BOOKLET. Please, please sign up yourselves and encourage other family members to do so. Also, just by asking for information from ESCC about how to reduce the amount of waste which goes to landfill means we could get an extra £500, so please take part and return the pledges as soon as possible. Many thanks, The Eco-Team.

REMINDER - PLEASE REMEMBER TO KEEP SOME XMAS RUBBISH FOR BRINGING IN ON MONDAY 4TH FEBRUARY FOR MAKING JUNK ART.

5 ADULT ICT SESSIONS
We have a few spaces available on the Adult ICT sessions. If you would like to book a place, please speak to the office staff. The sessions take place in the ICT suite at school on Fridays 9.00 – 11.45 am and are run by Sussex Downs College tutors. They will run for term 3 and 4. We hope that this proves successful so that we can continue to offer more ICT sessions in the summer term.

6 DIARY DATES
Our public website calendar is no longer available as we are moving to a new system over the next few months. Therefore, you do need to keep up to date by looking at the ‘Diary Dates’ section in the monthly newsletters.

Thur 17/1 Flute recital for children in school
Tue 22/1 Flute Recital – meeting for parents 2.45pm
Thur 24/1 Clarinet Recital for children in school
(meeting for parents to be arranged)
Mon 4/2 Environment Week (see separate letter)
Tue 5/2 Re-think Rubbish Bus
Wed 6/2 Re-think Rubbish Bus
Fri 8/2 Quantum Theatre
Fri 15/2 Last Day of Term 3

Mon 25/2 Start of Term 4
Tue 11/3 Parents’ Evening 3.30 – 6.00pm
Wed 12/3 Rotary Club Yr 6 Quiz – Marshlands School
Thur 13/3 Parents’ Evening 4.30 - 7.00pm
Fri 21/3 Good Friday (school closed)
Mon 24/3 Easter Monday (school closed)
Fri 4/4 Last Day of Term 4

Mon 21/4 Start of Term 5
Thur 24/4 Class and Team Photos
Mon 12/5 Year 6 SATS test week

REMINDER - Years 2, 3, 4 & 5 tests take place in Term 5

Tue 20/5 Year 6 Residential Trip to Blacklands Farm
Fri 23/5 Last Day of Term 5

Mon 2/6 Inset Training Day (staff only)
Tue 3/6 Start of Term 6
Mon 23/6 Healthy School’s Week
Tue 22/7 Last Day of Term 6
Wed 23/7 Inset Training Day (staff only)

7 JOB VACANCY – CLEANER
We have a permanent vacancy for a Cleaner for 2 hours per day. This can be early morning or after school between 3.30 – 6.00 pm. If you are interested please ask at the office for an application form. Closing date is 28th January. This post will begin on Monday, 25th February.

8 FOHF NEWS – JANUARY, 2008
The first event for the new committee was the Christmas Fair. Without the hard work of the committee and helpers we would not have achieved an amazing net profit of £2,600 which is 4% up on last year and a staggering 53% up on 2005. We propose to use this profit towards the air conditioning of the new infant library IT suite. Love it or hate it, there is no doubt that computers will play an ever increasing part in our children’s lives and to have a state of the art computer suite in our primary school is a wonderful opportunity for our children to learn some very important skills to equip them for their future.
Forthcoming events which are being planned include, a Spring Disco, Race Night and Barn Dance. We hope to arrange these before our main event, the 2008 Summer Fair.
As you can see we are going to be very busy and new helpers are always needed. If you would like to be involved with FOHF whether on an ad-hoc basis or as a regular helper or even a committee member, then please drop your details (name, telephone number and email address) into the office and we will be in touch.
Having spoken to a number of parents and staff, there is a general concern that once you offer to help, we will continually pressurise you to help every time we hold an event. To alleviate any concern we have introduced an opportunity for you to be an ad-hoc helper. We will email or phone you as and when we require help and if you are unable to help we won’t ask you again until the next event.
The notice board in the main entrance foyer is currently being updated and will provide you with a reference point for our latest news and information.
Jenny Seale has asked me to inform you that her position as temporary chair terminates later this month. Without Jenny taking the reins last October there were serious doubts whether the FOHF would be able to continue. What a difference a few months make, we now have a strong dedicated committee with an excellent relationship with the school. We owe Jenny a great deal of thanks and wish her much success with her new business plans.
The Friends of Hawkes Farm wish you all a very Happy New Year and would like to thank you for your support in 2007. We hope that you will continue to support us as well in 2008.

Kind regards,

Mark Allen
Vice-Chair

Thank you once again for all your support.

Yours sincerely

Mrs V Cobb Headteacher