LAWN PRIMARY SCHOOL

NEWSLETTER Dear Parents and Carers What a great start to the new academic year! Our new Reception children are settling in really well, new shoes and new uniform certainly being put to the test. I hope that you all had a lovely summer break and feel refreshed for the long weeks to Christmas. This week we had a wonderful visit from Andy Cope, author of the Spy Dog books. Andy is a Derby man and loved being in a Derby School. Years 2 to 6 listened to a very inspiring assembly from him and his dog Star about how the stories of Spy Dog came about, including the walks on Markeaton Park! The children then went off to write a story. Year 5 had to write a story with as many chocolate/sweet names in and they were fantastic. Hopefully we will have some up on the wall soon. Andy then spent most of his lunchtime signing books for the children. He delivered a great,inspiring and positive afternoon for Y5 and 6, followed by some positivity training for staff and a few parents. I certainly enjoyed the day and I know from talking to the children they loved it. Thank you so much to the LSA for funding this great day, we couldn’t have experienced this without the funds you raise. Next week we celebrate our annual Harvest festival. All the donations will be gratefully received by the Padley Centre in Derby who work hard with families. I hope that you have found the curriculum evenings useful this year, especially in light of the new curriculum being statutory from

September. I know the teachers are looking forward to teaching some great topics this year. Key Stage 2 have started to learn Spanish via two fluent Spanish teachers who are delivering the lessons each week during the teacher’s PPA (planning, preparation and assessment) time. From the conversations I have had with staff and children this seems to be having a great impact. As part of our drive to get Lawn to be a good or better school we have introduced a few new things this September. Each class now has a name and a class motto, please ask you child what theirs is. These are all based on an animal theme that the children have decided as a class. Some examples are Miss Ayub’s dolphins, Mr Walter’s wasps, Miss Alexander’s dragons. Also we have introduced a system of class ambassadors for when we have visitors in school. If you have the fortune of a visit round school, two children in the class will welcome you to their classroom and tell you what they are learning. Apart from a little confidence boosting, the children have started their new jobs really well. If you follow the school on twitter you will know that we have been having some handwriting training in school. We have been working with a consultant for the last couple of weeks on improving the presentation of children’s work. Mrs Clarke and Mrs Cousins our literacy leaders have added a piece later on in the newsletter with more detail. They are hoping to deliver a couple of parents sessions in the next couple of weeks.

Issue 1 26th September 2014

You may have heard from the children that we had a photographer in school last week. As part of drive to being good or better, our school website is going to have a make over. In the next couple of weeks work will start to make the website more informative, easier to use and update and to show what Lawn is like. I will update you when it will be going live. Thank you for those parents who would like to be involved in the logo/uniform consultation. If you could either send me an email or speak to me on the gate to say you are still interested in being involved as I am hoping to get an initial meeting sorted this half term. Our assessment results for last year are fantastic and in the next newsletter I will be providing you with a brief overview of how well Lawn has done compared to other local schools. We are really proud of these results and I thank all the staff for all their hard work last year. Finally, I would like to say thank you for all the lovely positive comments that school receives, it certainly helps Lawn’s staff continue to do a great job and be positive day after day. Sometimes we don’t get it right and if this is the case please come in and see us and talk it over. Here’s to a great year and a year to put Lawn back at it’s rightful place.

Sarah Allison

Head Teacher

s.allison@lawn.derby.sch.uk

Clubs

Due to our security procedures at the end of the school day please come into school at the main reception door to collect your children from after school activities. Staff will be available to help you gain access.

Staffing for 2014/15

Foundation Stage 2 – Mrs Richards/Mrs Levesley, Miss Ayub and Miss White

Year 1 – Mr Cooper, Mrs Shepherd and Mrs Sowerby

Year 2 – Mr Walters, Miss Yates, Mrs Burton and Mrs Hathaway,

Year 3 – Mrs Clarke/Mrs Cousins, Mrs Harland and Mr Fox

Year 4 – Mr Archer, Miss Golding, Mrs Brown and Mr Fox

Year 5 – Mr Molineux, Miss Alexander, and Mrs Cordwell

Year 6 – Mr Green, Mr Wilkins, Mrs O’Hare, Mrs Smith, Mr Fox

Mrs Hutchinson and Mrs Brown will be undertaking interventions.

Mrs Goodman will be cover supervisor and doing 1:1 teaching.

Mrs Hallam will be doing cover supervisor and booster groups and leading improvements in teaching and learning.

Medicine

The school staff are only able to administer medicine that has been prescribed by a doctor to be taken 4 times a day. Should your child need to be given medicine during the school day please complete a form at the school office. Can we please ask that children DO NOT carry any medication in their school bags or on themselves as this is potentially a serious health risk to other children.

Appointments, collections and

Absence

If your child is absent from school due to illness please contact the school office by 9.15 a.m. This will need to be followed up by confirmation in writing to their class teacher. If no message has been received by 9.30 a.m. a text message will be sent asking you to call to authorise the absence. Although we do not encourage your child to be late or absent from school we are aware that sometimes this is unavoidable. However where possible please arrange appointments outside the school day. If your child is going to be late to school or needs to be collected early please send a note to the class teacher or call the school office. If you arrive after the school gates have been closed please remember to bring your child into the main reception area and sign them in. If your collection arrangements change please let us know in advance who will be collecting your child from school.

DIARY DATES

Tue 30th Sep LSA meeting at 7.00 p.m. Wed 1st Oct FS2 Curriculum/Phonics 5.30 – 6.00 p.m. Thur 2nd Oct Y6 Curriculum Evening Fri 3rd Oct Harvest Festival at St Nicholas Church Tue 7th Oct FS2 Stay and Play Thur 9th Oct FS2 Stay and Play Tue 14th Oct Open Day for new FS2 parents Wed 15th Oct INSET day Wed 22nd Oct Parent Evening Thur 23rd Oct Parent Evening Thur 23rd Oct Open Day for new FS2 parents Thur 23rd Oct Y1 Stay and Play Fri 24th Oct School closes for half term Mon 3rd Nov School opens Mon 10th Nov WW1 History Week Fri 14th Nov Children in Need Day

Mon 17th Nov Anti Bullying Week Walk to School week Mon 17th Nov Family photo sessions Thur 27th Nov KS2 Romeo & Juliet

performance Fri 28th Nov LSA Christmas Fayre

Fri 5th Dec Open Day for new FS2 parents Tue 9th Dec FS2/Y1 Production to parents Tue 9th Dec Y3-6 to Derby Theatre Thur 11th Dec FS2/Y1 Production to parents Fri 12th Dec Christmas Jumper Day Mon 15th Dec Y5 Christmas Party Tue 16th Dec Y5 Carol singing Park Farm Wed 17th Dec KS1 to church Wed 17th Dec Y5 Carol singing at Park Farm Wed 17th Dec Y1 Stay and Play 1.30 p.m. Wed 17th Dec Lawn Panto to parents Thur 18th Dec KS2 to church Thur 18th Dec Lawn Panto to parents Fri 19th Dec School closes for Christmas

break Mon 5th Jan School re-opens

Class Assemblies

Class Assemblies this year will be held in the Davies Hall at 9.00 a.m. unless otherwise notified.

Friday 24th October Y4A Friday 21st November Y6G and Y6W Friday 12th December Y2W Thursday 5th February YRL Friday 27th February Y3C Friday 6th March Y5M Friday 20th March YRA Friday 27th March Y4G Friday 24th April Y1C Friday 1st May Y3H Friday 15th May Y1S Friday 22nd May Y2Y Friday 19th June Y5A

Whilst every effort is made to ensure that all dates are correct when each newsletter is published

some dates may be subject to change

School Year 2014/15

Autumn Term 2014

Thursday 4th September – Friday 24th October

Monday 3rd November – Friday 19th December

Spring Term 2015

Monday 5th January – Friday 6th February

Monday 16th February – Friday 27th March

Summer Term 2015

Monday 13th April – Friday 22nd May

Monday 1st June –Thursday 23rd July

Bank Holidays

Christmas: 25th December 2014, 26th December 2014

New Year: 1st January 2015,

Good Friday: 3rd April 2015

Easter Monday: 6th April 2015

Monday 4th May 2015, Monday 25th May 2015, Monday 31st August 2015

INSET Days 2014 - 2015

Wednesday 15th October 2014

Friday 6th February 2015

Monday 13th April 2015

School Year 2015/16

Autumn Term 2015:

Monday 7 September 2015 – Friday 23 October 2015

35 days

Monday 2 November 2015 – Friday 18 December 2015

35 days

Spring term 2016:

Monday 4 January 2016 – Friday 12 February 2016

30 days

Monday 22 February 2016 – Thursday 24 March 2016

24 days

Summer Term 2016:

Monday 11 April 2016 – Friday 29 April 2016

15 days

Tuesday 3 May 2016 – Friday 27 May 2016

19 days

Monday 6 June 2016 – Tuesday 26 July 2016

37 days

Total (including up to 5 days to be set by schools as inset days)

195 days

Bank Holidays: Christmas - 25 December 2015, 26 December 2015 New Year - 1 January 2016 Good Friday – 25 March 2016 Easter Monday – 28 March 2016 May Day - 2 May 2016 Spring Bank - 30 May 2016 Summer Bank - 29 August 2016

LITERACY

If you've already attended your child's curriculum evening you may have discovered that one of the (many) things we are focussing on this year is presentation. We want our children to be proud of the work they produce here at Lawn and one of the first things to tackle is handwriting, not just in literacy but across all subjects. Handwriting? Why? In the age of emails and social media, why on earth would children be taught how to form letters and join their handwriting. Well, it's a dying skill and, we believe, an important one. Many employers now ask for handwritten applications from potential candidates and so it's important to make good handwriting and letter formation habitual from an early age. If you follow us on Twitter (@lawn_school) you may have seen pictures from our staff meeting where we have had specialised training on handwriting. We're introducing a semi cursive (which essentially means joined but not all letters joined) form of handwriting and from Foundation through to Year 6 your child will be taught discrete handwriting. This will be an intensive programme (10 minutes a day for the next few weeks. The intention is to raise standards of presentation for all children across the school. Now, if your child struggles with their handwriting, or doesn't think their handwriting is very good we know that this programme will help and support them. It's about building confidence in our children and enabling them to understand that they CAN produce beautiful handwriting. It's not just about handwriting, it's about self esteem. We already know, from feedback at the curriculum evenings that some of you are interested in supporting your child with their handwriting at home (this is wonderful to hear!) and so we are going to be holding some literacy "drop in" sessions so we can show you how we will be teaching this. These sessions won't just about handwriting, but about literacy in general and how you can help your child at

home. Our literacy co-ordinators, Mrs Clarke and Mrs Cousins will be in touch very soon with the details of these workshops and we hope lots of parents/carers will come and find out more.

MATHS CHALLENGE

Find the word that links the

pictures

Answer at the end of this newsletter

Newsletter Distribution

Our newsletters will be emailed to parents and will also be available on the school website. If we do not have your email address or it has changed please let the school office know as soon as possible. Copies will be available at reception if we cannot contact you by email.

Harvest Festival

Our annual Harvest Festival service will be taking place at St Nicholas’ church on Friday 3rd October. With the exception of our FS2 children all classes will be attending the service. If you would like to make a donation to the Padley Centre please bring your items in to school on Thursday 2nd October.

Battle of Bosworth

On Wednesday 10th September 2014 Year 6 did a re-enactment of the Battle of Bosworth. We have a quote from one of the people who took part (Honey Hickson) ‘This battle was great fun and I enjoyed fighting Taylor and winning’. There were three sides to our Battle of Bosworth. King Richard 111’s army, Henry Tudor’s army and Lord Stanley’s army. King Richard 111 had Lord Stanley’s poor young son captive so in the middle of this battle Lord Stanley changed sides. Henry Tudor was crowned King when King Richard’s army was destroyed. It was a great, fun experience of a historic, gruesome battle for the English throne.

Written by Oliver Riley, Francesca Rainsford and James Young

Staff in the Spotlight

Hi my name is Donna Hallam and I have only been working at Lawn Primary for a short amount of time but I am loving it. All the staff, children and parents have been so welcoming, thank you. Previous to working here and becoming a Deputy Headteacher I worked at another school in Derby City, and have lived in Derby all my life. However, I did spend three years by the seaside, in Bournemouth, studying for my degree and then I moved to Lincoln to obtain my PGCE. I loved both of these places but my favourite was Bournemouth as I love being by the sea! As much as I love being by the sea I really enjoy visiting capital cities and exploring different cultures and ways of life. I would love to go to places ranging from New York to Iceland. When I am not working I love spending time with family and friends. My favourite time is with my two little girls. We love being outside and and playing games and most of all reading books and creating things. We really like baking and trying new recipes out on the rest of the family. I am looking forward to being part of all aspects of Lawn Primary and to meeting many more of you in the future.

Governors Corner

Dear Parents and Carers, Hope everyone had a lovely summer and you are back into the school routine. School had a very busy and successful summer as major building work took place in the kitchen , front of the school and the floor in some of the infant classrooms. September has already seen some fantastic new initiatives with a handwriting expert going into every classroom and staff room and Andy Cope coming to work with our children. Governors have had a busy start to the year. Already this term we have evaluated our skills to check we have all the necessary skills , we have completed a self evaluation and agreed an action plan for 2014/15 and we have to review our constitution in line with statutory changes. When this has been approved by the local authority I will update you fully. Could I remind you how to contact Governors. You have various options: 1) Email governors@lawn.derby.sch.uk. Replies will be within 2/3 working days. 2) You can leave a message at the Office and a Governor will call you. 3) You can send a letter to school for the attention of the Chair of the Governing Body. 4) See a parent Governor at school ( see end of year report for a list of all Governors). Regards

Debbie Haynes Chair of Governors

governors@lawn.derby.sch.uk

Governor in the spotlight

Hi I’m Suzanne Dixon and I’m a parent governor here at Lawn. I have been a governor for just over a year and I sit on the finance, premises, health and safety committee. I am married to Wayne and we have three little girls. Olivia is in Mr Coopers class in year 1, Summer (4) and Amber (1) are at nursery. I work part time as a health and safety consultant and delivering training courses. In my spare time (I don’t have much!) I love spending time with my family. We are national trust members and can normally be found at one of their estate on a weekend. I’m a bit of a home baker and would love to be on bake off one day!

LSA News – September 2014

Welcome back !!! Thank you to everyone for

supporting our events last year. In total we

raised a brilliant £8,571.64. Due to the

continuing support and help offered by

parents and teachers, the children continue

to enjoy the benefits of the funds we have

raised during the year.

LSA Spending Overview

2013/14 – where the money

went !

Over the last school year we have funded :-

New outdoor equipment for play times;

annual visit from Pocket Panto; lots of books

through the commission received from

Scholastic and the Travelling Book Fair; two

outside storage sheds, revamp of infant

library; materials to run the KS2 Gardening

Club; megaphone to use at events, CD players

and earphones for infant children; equipment

for role play areas in FS2; various storage

units for all infant classrooms, Artist

workshop for Arts Week, magazines for

junior library; prizes for Lawn’s Got Talent;

the floats for Money Week; the Y6 Leavers

Party and finally fish tank supplies to keep

the fish happy and healthy in the Davies

corridor tank.

We are also contributing to the purchase of

a bank of iPads to benefit the whole school!

Tea and Tissues We held a ‘tea and tissues’ morning

for the new reception parents on the first day

of school. It was lovely to meet lots of new

parents over tea, coffee and cake ! All the

reception children took home at the end of

the day a ‘welcome’ yummy homemade

gingerbread man.

CD Bell

To all those who usually order

Autumn and Summer plants, the

wholesaler who supplies them has sadly

closed due to rising costs. We will be

looking in the future to see if we can find

any alternative company who would offer us

commission on plant purchases.

Rags2Riches

A big thank you to everyone

who supported the recent

rags2riches collection. We raised a

fantastic amount of £264.68. We really

appreciate you carrying your bags into school

for our collection.

Thank you to Y6W for moving the bags to

the van, there were 97 of them. You were

fantastic and the driver said how nice it was

to have you all helping so willingly,

enthusiastically and how much you seemed to

be enjoying doing it!

Another collection has been arranged for

January (date to be confirmed).

Scholastic Book Club

New catalogue will be circulated

at the beginning of November

after half-term. For every £1

you spend on books through Scholastic Book

Club, Lawn School receives 20% commission

to stock the library and classrooms. If in

the future you do order directly online then

please REMEMBER to select Lawn so we

receive the commission!

The Lawn Lottery

Give yourself the chance to win a

CASH PRIZE every month and School wins

every time!

Prize money currently stands at £79.

We want to try and get the prize up to a

huge £100 per month, but we can only

achieve this if we get just a few more

members. You have to be in it, to win it !

It only costs £2 a month - £1 goes to the

prize fund and £1 to School – and is

collected by a monthly direct debit or one-

off annual payment.

Please pop into the school office to find out

more and pick up a registration form.

Lottery Winners - July Ball No 34 Amanda

Clarke wins £84.00

August Ball No 21 Jill

Alcock wins £84.00

For those of you who

don’t know about the

Nearly New Uniform Rail,

it is available all year round

and is stocked from your donations of good

quality unwanted uniform.

Do you know that every time you shop online

you could be raising money for the school for

FREE! Over 3,000 retailers (including

Amazon, M&S, Boden, Argos, Debenhams,

Vodafone, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Ebay, Toys r

Us, Next and many more..) will donate a

percentage of what you spend when you shop

with them, via fundraising website

http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk. Instead

of going directly to the retailer’s website, go

to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk FIRST

- click on "I want to support a good cause"

then select Lawn School Association (LSA)

School PTA – Derbyshire, Allestree using

the easy search box and click ‘Support’,

sign up in just a couple of minutes and then

choose the retailer you want to shop with, you

will then be redirected back to the retailer’s

website and then everything you spend with

that retailer earns a donation to school. It’s

completely free to use and your shopping

won’t cost you a penny more – the stores

donate the money not you !

Some of you may have heard of (or even

used) Easy2Name products before but for

those who haven’t, they specialise in iron and

sew on labels, stickers and tags for school

clothing, lunchboxes, shoes, gym bags,

backpacks etc.

Easy2Name will give our school 20%

commission every time an order is made! You

can order over the phone or via the internet

www.easy2name.com. Be sure to quote our

reference Lawn School Association DE22 on

all orders.

We have a few samples of labels and tags if

you would like to take a look, please ask at

the school office. Many thanks for your

support in this fundraising activity

Yellow Moon

Parents now order online

throughout the year, so please remember to

always quote the LSA’s source code when

ordering – SLA1157.

LSA Noticeboard

Don’t forget, we have our own

LSA noticeboard on the wall next to the

Nearly New Uniform rail in the Smedley

Hall. This will be kept up to date with all our

forthcoming events for the school year –

please come and have a read ...

Lawn School Association

(“LSA”)

The LSA is our school parent-

teacher association (PTA).

PTAs are best known for their fundraising

work but they have a useful social function

too as fundraising events provide an

opportunity for parents, staff and pupils to

get together. The money raised at our

events (e.g. Christmas Fair, Easter Bingo,

School Discos, Travelling Book Fair, Dinner

and Dance, etc.) are intended to provide

‘extras’ not already provided by the school's

main income – often 'fun things' that make

learning more interesting and exciting.

A new LSA Committee will be elected on

30th September 2014 - Louise Hubner (Y3

and reception mum), Terri Gotts (Y1 mum),

Clare Shelton (Y4 and Y6 mum) and Emma

Taylor-Brittan (Y1 mum) !!! If anyone

would still like to join the committee then

PLEASE get in touch as it is really useful to

have as many committee members as

possible.

If there are any parents/carers who don’t

fancy being on the committee but would like

to help the new committee with running of

events, etc. but who only have a limited

amount of time or would like to form a sub-

committee for helping with a particular

event, then please get in touch via the LSA

Hotmail address to let them know what you

would be comfortable doing – we never turn

away any offers of help, however small – the

more parents involved the easier it all is !

If you would also like to be on our circular e-

mailing list to be kept in the loop e.g.

receiving the minutes of our meetings, etc.

then please send your email address to our

Hotmail account below.

The next LSA Meeting and

AGM will be on

Tuesday – 30th September,

2014 at 7.00 pm at school

Everyone please come along

to our next friendly meeting

to find out what the LSA will

be planning

for this school year !

The LSA Team

lawnschoolassociation@hotmail.co.uk

Maths challenge answer: rotate