Letter home: Friday, 14th October 2022

October 14 2022

Dear Parents/carers,

Harvest Festival:

Our Harvest Festival is taking place on Wednesday 19^th October at 10.30am at St Mary’s Church. Our service will be led by Year 2 and so families of these pupils are welcome to attend.

Parents Evenings:

If you have not yet booked an appointment for parents evening please do so. There are still appointments available, but if you can’t make the two evenings then please contact school to arrange an alternative time. Bookings are made on the online system.

https://gomersalstmarysce.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/

Parents evenings are taking place on:

Tuesday 18^th October 4pm – 6.30pm
Thursday 20^th October 3.30pm – 6pm

High School Applications:

Don’t forget to make the deadline for High School applications. Please follow this guidance from Kirklees:

Apply online, apply on time by Monday 31 October 2022.
Name three preference schools on your application
Include a catchment area school as one of your preferences.

Tesco Community Tokens:

Earlier this year we applied for the Tesco Community Grant to make improvements to our outdoor areas around school. We are pleased to say that our application was successful!

This means when you shop at Tesco and are given a little blue token to put in the box our school will feature on one of those boxes. This started on Saturday, 1st of October, and runs all the way through to January.

It would be amazing if you could support our school by choosing the ‘Gomersal St Mary’s box’ for your token. The more tokens we get the bigger the grant for school!

Our selected stores are:

Cleckheaton Superstore, BD19 3HS
Birstall Express, WF17 9EH

Thank you in advance for your support.

Food Bank Non-uniform

Thank you very much for all your kind donations for the Cleckheaton foodbank. The donations will be collected from school and I know they will be greatly received. As we all know money is very tight at the moment and there are a growing number of families who rely on the foodbanks to feed their families.

Chocolate apples:

I know it’s a bit early for Bonfire Night, but we are having chocolate apples in school on Friday 21st October. They will cost £1 each and you pay on ParentPay. The last day for payment is Tuesday 18^th October so that we can order the right number of apples…and chocolate! The money raised will go towards a Christmas treat for the children.

Coffee Morning:

All welcome to our informal Coffee /Tea mornings (drink and natter). These are held every Tuesday after dropping your children off at School (8.45 till 10.00am). Under school age children welcome too as there are lots of toys for them to play with. Please join us in the Children’s Centre with Mrs Priestley suppling the drinks and biscuits.

Thank You

Parent Workshops

Tuesday Morning 9am-10.30am

ASC (Autism) Awareness 8th November 2022

Healthy Relationships with Food 31st January 2023

If you are interested in any of these courses, please see Mrs. Earnshaw to book a place.

(15 Places available for each course)

What a brilliant idea:

This is a volunteer service where families can register to collect a bag of food worth £35 at a cost to them of £7. Collection points are Howden Clough, Chickenley and Dewsbury Moor.

https://www.breadandbutterthing.org/members

Ear-rings:

We have a no ear ring policy for PE. That means that pupils with any type of ear ring will be prevented from fully taking part in the PE lesson. This includes small, transparent ear rings. We also ask that pupils only wear stud earrings to school. This is again for health and safety reasons. The general rule is that ear rings can be taken out for periods of time, such as PE lessons, from 6 weeks as long as there are no issues.

Financial Support:

Here is a website that might be useful if you are a family who are struggling with paying bills/debts/fuel costs/mental health/unemployment etc.

Cost of living | Kirklees Council

Mobile phones in school:

Some of our older children bring a mobile phone into school. This is usually because they are walking home on their own. If you wish your child to bring in a mobile phone, please can you request a permission form.

New phone number?

If you have a new phone number, or if there is a change in contact details, please contact school to update us.

ParentPay:

Please ensure your account is cleared for Breakfast Club and Tea-Time club. If there are any outstanding amounts on these accounts from this point forward you will be unable to use Breakfast Club and Tea-Time club. If you are having any problems paying off these amounts please speak to the school office.

Packed Lunches:

Please can I remind families that pupils should not have nuts, fizzy drinks, sweets or chocolate bars in their packed lunches. Thank you for your support.