Message from New Chair of Governors

As incoming chair I would like to acknowledge the work of my predecessor Geoff Hulme. Geoff has served as a governor for the past 4 years with 3 of those years as chair. Geoff has personified excellent leadership and always sought to engage students, parents and staff at Coleham and all this in addition to his more visible role as the face of the Pimms stand at the September Social. We wish you the best of luck with your new role on the 318 Education trust board.

I would also like to thank Ashley Cooper, Andy Howitt and Darren Payne who have reached the end of their terms and together with Geoff and the remaining board of governors have worked tirelessly with the school leadership: Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction, holding senior leaders to account for the performance of the school, staff and its pupils, and overseeing the financial performance of the school.

It is a pleasure and privilege to take on this role and the governing body and I, together with the new leadership team will do our part to ensure Coleham school continues to deliver its vision “For Every Child, An Excellent Education”.

There are some vacancies on the Local Governing Body and we are keen to recruit an inclusive and diverse board and we would also benefit from individuals with knowledge, experience and skills in finance.  Please contact myself dave.jones@318education.co.uk  if you would like further information or to express an interest in the parent governor election.

Giraffes Class Choral Day Trip to Shrewsbury High School

Dear Parent/Carer

GIRAFFES CLASS CHORAL DAY TRIP TO SHREWSBURY HIGH SCHOOL

Giraffes Class have been invited to attend a Choir Day at Shrewsbury High School on Thursday 19th October 2023.  Some other local schools will also be attending to make up a large choir of over 200 pupils.

We will be walking to Shrewsbury High School for 10:00am.

Your child will need to bring a coat and water bottle.  Shrewsbury High School will be providing lunch for every pupil and Mrs Morgan has collected sandwich choices from the children already.

This trip is free.

HOME TIME & COLLECTION ARRANGEMENTS

At the end of the day there will be a short Showcase Performance for parents (which will take place at 3:00pm)  If parents or relatives would like to attend this performance please book a free ticket using Eventbrite.  See link below.  YOU WILL BE ABLE TO COLLECT YOUR CHILD AFTERWARDS AND TAKE THEM HOME.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/year-6-choral-day-parents-performance-tickets-718394466187?aff=oddtdtcreator

Information for Parents/Relatives

If you are going to watch the concert please do not arrive before 3.00pm and to enter our school site through the car park gate off Crescent Lane, SY1 1TR. Please note we do not have parking on the school site for parents. We will be asking parents to sign in when they arrive at the gate using the list drawn from Eventbrite. There will be tea/coffee available for parents when they arrive and students / staff on hand to direct them to the correct location.

ALL OTHER CHILDREN WILL WALK BACK TO COLEHAM SCHOOL WITH MRS MORGAN FOR APPROXIMATELY 4:00pm.  Please collect your child from the front of school unless they are going to After School Club.

Please note that this visit is covered by the Annual Consent Form for Trips/visits & Medical Information. Please notify the school immediately if there are any changes to your contact/emergency contact details or medical information.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Hilbert

Administration Manager

Message from Chair of Governors

Dear parents/carers

I would like to update you with some changes to the Coleham Local Governing Board.  My role as Chair of Governors ended on 30th September as I take up a Trustee position with The 3-18 Education Trust.  I am pleased to inform you all that Dave Jones will be taking on the role of Chairman and Craig Kynaston will be the new Vice Chair.

I have enjoyed a fabulous time as Chairman of the Coleham LGB and I would like to acknowledge the incredible support I have received from all the people associated with Coleham from pupils and parents to governors and Trustees.  In particular working with two outstanding Headteachers in Claire and Tom have made my role as Chair an easy one.  I have every confidence that Coleham will continue to go from strength to strength.

Keep up the outstanding work.

Geoff Hulme

Former Chair of the Coleham LGB

Careers Week

Get involved in Careers Week

Our Careers week takes place week beginning 16th October 2023.

We love to open our doors and invite you to help us educate the children.

Can you come into school and talk to a class about your job, hobby or career? 

We are looking for a few more visitors to fill some gaps, especially for our Reception Classes Badgers & Foxes, can you help?

Please speak to Miss Harris or Miss Melville or the school office.

We can’t wait to hear from you!

Special Menu Thursday

School Census takes place on THURSDAY and school funding is linked to the uptake of school meals.

It would be great to see as many children as possible eating a school lunch on Thursday please.

Menu

Chicken nuggets

Potato Wedges

Baked beans or sweetcorn

Salad Wheelbarrow

Ice cream, jelly, Yoghurt & Fruit

Headteacher Message

Dear Parents & Carers,

It’s been another busy week at school with lots going on!  It was lovely to see Ms Jones again as she spent yesterday at school with David O’Toole (the 3-18 Education Trust CEO).  They spent the day observing school operations; popping into lessons; speaking to staff, children and leaders to get a picture of life here at Coleham.  It was a very positive day and they were happy with what they saw – we are very lucky to receive such supportive feedback from the Trust in this way.

A special well done goes to a footballers this week: the girls in Year 5 and 6 played a number of matches against Prestfelde on Wednesday and scored some great goals.  It was wonderful to see such passion and determination from the girls, and to also see how they encouraged each other.  Great stuff!

We’ve also enjoyed a Greek workshop in Year 5 this week, and have spotted the posters around the local area reminding people to clean up after their dogs – well done Josie: the world needs people like you to care more about their environment!

On Monday, we have our Harvest Festival Assembly, with Rev. Fi from Holy Trinity coming in.  Please see the article below about bringing in tinned food etc. for the food bank.

Have a super weekend, everyone!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

 

Arbor Reminder

Please remember that ALL payments are now live on Arbor.

We would really appreciate you checking your balance for school dinners and wraparound care and making any outstanding payments.

Unfortunately, the ‘shopping basket’ facility doesn’t yet work on the Arbor app so you can’t pay for multiple items in one transaction.  You can do this if you are using a desktop.

Parent Governor Election

Dear Parent/Carer,

We are writing to inform you of a vacancy for the role of parent local governor on our Local Governing Body (LGB).

The role of the LGB

The school’s LGB is responsible for providing confident and strategic leadership, and creating robust accountability, oversight and assurance for the school’s educational and financial performance. The LGB is passionate about education and committed to continuous school improvement to ensure the best possible outcomes for our pupils.

The role of a parent local governor

As a parent local governor, you’ll work with the LGB to ensure it effectively carries out the duties referred to above. You’ll also play a vital role in ensuring that the LGB is connected with, and is aware of the views of, parents and the local community.

To be a parent local governor you should have:

  • A strong commitment to the role and to improving outcomes for children.
  • Good inter-personal skills, curiosity, and a willingness to learn and develop new skills.
  • The specific skills required to ensure the governing board delivers effective governance.

Being a parent local governor can be demanding but very rewarding.  All local governors serve a three-year term of office and under usual circumstances, can expect to spend between 10 and 20 days a year on governance duties.  These include:

  • attending meetings of the LGB, usually outside of school hours and contributing to LGB business;
  • reading reports and papers and keeping up to date on the progress that the school is making; and
  • visiting the school from time to time during the school day.

You will have to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and sign the local governors’ Code of Conduct.  A copy of the Code of Conduct, Role Description and more information about the LGB can be found on LGB’s pages of the school’s website.

We have a supportive induction process which will enable a period of settling into the role.

How to apply

If you’re interested in applying for the role, please email the Governance Professional, Carole Warner by email by 10am Friday 6 October (carole.warner@318education.co.uk).

You should also include a personal statement (approximate 250 words) to support your application.  We encourage candidates to be succinct when setting out the skills, experience and attributes that they can bring to the LGB to support their application. Nominations of other parents will be accepted, but please seek their prior consent.

Applications/nominations can only be accepted from parents or carers who have children registered at the school on the day that nominations close. If we receive more applications/nominations than there are vacancies, an election will be carried out. We will inform you after the nomination deadline if we have to do this.

If you have any queries about this process or would like to find out more about the role, please contact the Chair of the LGB Mr Geoff Hulme or the Headteacher, Mr Tom Larkham

Yours sincerely,

Mr Geoff Hulme                                                         Mr Tom Larkham

Chair of LGB                                                               Headteacher

 

 

Skipathon

Thanks to all the children and adults for skipping their way through the September Social fair!  Challenge complete and Mr Halford announced the top 5 skippers in each age category to the children in assembly.

 

Daily Dash 3 Peaks Challenge

Our new Daily Dash Challenge starts Monday.  We are going to run the distance of the 3 peaks and back, running from Shrewsbury, to Snowdonia (up & down), to Scafell Pike (up & down), to Ben Nevis (up & down) and back to Shrewsbury. The total miles we will run together are…

959 miles!!

Three Peaks Challenge • RTS Support Group

This may take us a few weeks to complete and so we will keep going until the challenge is complete! Miss Lewis will have a UK map with the route marked on it.

We would love to see parents and carers joining in too.

The more runners that take part, the quicker we complete the challenge.

 

Headteacher Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

I’ve sat down to write this message and was surprised that it’s only the third week!  So much has happened already and school is very definitely in full swing.

Thank you to everyone who came along to enjoy or help out at the September Social – it was wonderful to see so many of you helping to grow our community and it a lot of fun chatting to you all as you dropped you £1 coins in my bucket.  We raised over £1100 for the school – THANK YOU!

We have our Careers Week coming up soon, and want to ask if you, or anyone you know, would like to come into school to talk a little about your day-to-day work; how you got into you line of work and what it’s like.  We have a wide range of interesting careers within our school community, and we’d love to have you in (even if you think your job is not that interesting!) to help inspire our children.

Have a lovely weekend

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

BT Box

Eye Spy another creative project involving our pupils! 👁

Watch this space…

More information coming soon…

Arbor Update

Trips, Clubs, School lunches and Breakfast and After School Clubs are now on Arbor.

You can now make payments via the app.

We still have places on Coleham Voices for Years 4,5 & 6

Please also check all your details are correct and make any amendments

Thank you

Relationships & Health Education

Dear Parents/Carers,

Relationship and Health Education (RHE)

It is compulsory for all schools to teach Relationships Education and Health Education. The purpose of these subjects is to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe – to equip them for adult life and to help support children to make positive contributions to society.

As part of this, all schools are required to consult with parents/carers when developing and reviewing their policies for Relationship and Health Education, which will inform decision on when and how certain content is covered.

Effective engagement gives the space and time for parent/carers to input, ask questions, share concerns and for the school to decide the way forward. We will listen to your views, and then make a reasonable decision on how best to proceed. When and how content is taught is ultimately a decision for the school, and consultation does not provide a parental veto on curriculum content.

Relationships & Health Parent Information/Consultation Evening

When: Tuesday 19th September

Where: Owls Classroom-please sign in at Reception

Time: 3:30pm -4:15pm

You can find further details about the introduction of compulsory Relationships and Health Education, as well as answers to many other frequently asked questions, on the Government website.

Our current policy

You can read our current Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) policy by clicking on the link below.

Relationships and Sex Education Policy: Primary phase

Completing the survey

You can complete the survey by clicking on the link below.

https://forms.office.com/r/U1N3aNwe9g

Please note the survey is available to complete at any point, with no end date – responses will be reviewed periodically, and considered when the policy is reviewed each year.

Thank you very much for your time and helping support the school.

Mrs Field

PSHE  Co-ordinator (Personal, Social, Health & Economic Education)

Headteacher Message

Dear Parents & Carers,

It suddenly feels like we’ve been back at school for weeks now that we are back into full-swing.  It’s been great to see so much already going on in all the classrooms this week – well done to all our Reception children this week for their first full-time week!  It’s not easy working hard at school all day for the first time!  In addition to that, they enjoyed their first assembly in the hall, and I was incredibly proud of the whole school for helping demonstrate excellent, polite behaviour in the hall.

This week has seen House Captain elections where the candidates spoke in front of their peers, showing great courage and perseverance.  Well done!  We are also busy electing the School Council and Eco Council, and children in year 4 – 6 are applying for a range of jobs across the school from Playground Friends to Dinner Hall Help.

We are proud to have also opened our first ever dedicated art gallery: The Townsend Art Gallery.  Our gallery is named for Judy Townsend – former mayoress, magistrate, former Coleham teacher and founder of the Belle Vue Arts Festival.  Regardless of whether you knew Judy, her passion for creative arts still has a massive impact on life at Coleham to this day.  It’s a wonderful opportunity for our whole community to share their creativity – watch this space for new exhibitions!  A huge thanks goes to Miss Heap and Miss Othen for organising and creating this wonderful space.

Hopefully we will see many of you tomorrow at our September Social – 11:00 am to 2:00 pm – where there will be plenty of entertainment and fun for the whole community.  It’s a really good opportunity for the whole school community (past, present and future) to get together.  If you haven’t yet managed to meet any of us or have a chat, please do come along and say hello.

Have a super weekend, everyone!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Park and Stride Option

Parents/Carers can park for free at St Julian’s Friars and Asda car parks each morning or evening for 30 minutes to help with drop off or school pick up.

Please contact the school office so we can issue you a parking pass from the council.

Thank you

NSPCC Programme

Dear Parent/Carer,

NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. programme

I am pleased to inform you that we are participating in the NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. Programme this term. Speak out. Stay safe. is a programme for children aged 5-11 which aims to help children understand abuse in all its forms and to recognise the signs of abuse. Children are taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a safe adult or Childline.

This child friendly programme is aligned with the curriculum and consists of age appropriate virtual assemblies and supporting classroom based activities which we have reviewed, alongside NSPCC volunteer led face to face workshops for children aged 6-7 and 9-11. The content is delivered in an engaging and interactive way with the help of the NSPCC mascot Buddy. If you would like to know more about the Speak out. Stay safe. programme visit www.nspcc.org.uk/speakout.

Additional NSPCC resources for families to help keep children safe

The NSPCC have shared some important information below on wider NSPCC resources and support to help keep children safe.

 

Parent/Carer support

Take a look at information, support, advice and activities from NSPCC for parent and carers.

www.nspcc.org.uk/parents

Activities to extend learning at home

Take part in games and activities at home to help children learn about speaking out and staying safe.

www.nspcc.org.uk/activities

 

 

Online Safety Hub

For information on a range of different online safety topics including gaming, social media, sharing images, parental controls and more.

www.nspcc.org.uk/onlinesafety

 

Childline – under 12’s

Childline have an accessible website with advice, support, games and activities. Children can change the language, enlarge text and also listen to the content.

www.childline.org.uk/buddy (5-7)

www.childline.org.uk/kids (7-11)

 

Talk PANTS with your children

Talk PANTS is a simple conversation to help keep children safe from sexual abuse. From P through to S, each letter of PANTS provides simple but important messages. Download the free resources at www.nspcc.org.uk/pants.

 

 

I hope you find this information about the NSPCC and the Speak out. Stay safe. programme helpful. Please do contact me if you have any further questions.

Purple Leaf Programme for Year 5

As part of our PSHE, we have also organised a series of four weekly workshops for year 5 where they will explore topics such as healthy friendships, consent, gender (stereotypes and how these affect beliefs and behaviour), sexualisation (in media content and society) and being an active bystander (how to respond when you witness something).

This will be delivered in an age appropriate way by a service called Purple Leaf.  The weekly sessions start 5th October.

We would like to invite all year 5 parents and carers to an information session  on Thursday 21st September at 2pm in the school hall. Please let the office know if you will be attending. You will have the opportunity to meet the professional who will be delivering these workshops and ask any questions you might have.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Field

PSHE Co-ordinator (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education)

Poetry Pandas for Year 1

To support Early Reading Year 1 use ‘Poetry Pandas’ going home bags to share a love of poems and rhymes at home.

Look out for the red reading bags that your child may bring home.

Secret Bookcase for Year 5 & 6

The Secret Bookcase is a very special bookcase, hidden in school, where all books have been signed by the author.  Each week members of year 5 and 6 are awarded the special honour of visiting the Secret Bookcase.

School Street Parking

Please remember that Greyfriars Rd is closed to traffic between 8:30 – 9:00 in the mornings and 3:00 – 3:30 in the afternoons.  If you park outside school before the road closes, you must stay until the road is opened again.  Please inform other families members who may be collecting your children.  The School Street scheme is a legal intervention and so traffic wardens will issue fines if they are present.

You are able to get hold of a park and stride permit from the office, which allows you 30 mins free parking at these times in St Julian’s Car Park.

Headteacher Message

Dear Parents & Carers,

What a wonderful week we have had!  I have been looking forward to getting back into routines of school life after a relaxing (and eventful!) summer, and it’s always a great pleasure to see everyone’s smiling faces coming through the school gates.  I have been impressed, but not surprised, at how calm everyone has been at school this week – we have had a really nice, steady start to the school year.

A particular well done goes to our brand-new Reception children who have had the most fantastic start to their school lives.  Every morning I have seen the children independently enter the classrooms and it has been a joy to see them through the mornings listening well and working well together with each other – I think they are going to have a wonderful time!  Similarly, our new Year 6 children have been demonstrating their maturity by setting an excellent example to the rest of the school – well done!

Please look out for information in this newsletter about the upcoming September Social – it’s a wonderful opportunity for our community to come together at the start of the year and get to know everyone connected with this fantastic school.

Please also take a look at your children’s class pages on the website, where you will find a curriculum bulletin.  The bulletins on each class page has important information about what your children will be learning this term, PE dates and reminders.

As ever, please do get in touch if you have any concerns or need any questions answered.

Have a lovely weekend!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Arbor Payments update

The School Office has been working really hard this week setting up payments so you can pay for school items on your Arbor App.

Clubs and trips have been set up.

We are still working on Breakfast Club and After School Club and School Lunches, these will be coming soon!

Christmas Dates

Our Early Years & KS1 Nativity and KS2 Christmas Performance Dates are all on the School Calendar!

There are performances for the parents of each year group but as always if you are unable to make that date, you may watch at one of the other performances.

 

 

Arbor Payments

From September we will be using Arbor for all school payments.

Thank you for signing up to the Arbor Parent App.

PARENTPAY WILL BE CLOSED 

Any credit/debit balances will be transferred over to Arbor and once we return to school we will be looking to set up school dinners, trips, clubs and wraparound payments on Arbor.

In the meantime, please do not worry about making any payments.

We will write to you again when we are up and running.  Please be patient and kind, there are bound to be a few teething issues as there are with anything new but we will of course resolve these for you as promptly as we can.