Newsletter 5 ~ Summer 2015 Dear Parents/carers

Here we are at the end of another busy and successful year for the school.

Our Year 6 children have made fantastic progress during the year and

our end of year SATs results are a tribute to the hard work and motivation

of both staff and pupils. 98% of pupils who took the tests achieved level 4

and above in Literacy and Numeracy. In Mathematics 49% of children

achieved level 5 and 16% achieved Level 6. These are fantastic results very

well done! In Reading 63% gained Level 5, again another marvellous

achievement. Very well done! In the SPAG test 96% of pupils achieved a

Level 4 and above, 72% achieved a Level 5 and 8% achieved a Level 6. In

Science 98% of pupils achieved Level 4 and above, with 55% achieving Level

5. Very well done, everyone!

Our Key Stage 1 results were also very pleasing: In Reading 38% of pupils

achieving a Level 2a and 33% achieved a Level 3. In Writing 30% of

children achieved a 2a and 20% achieved a Level 3 and in Mathematics

26% of pupils achieved a 2a and 40% of children achieved a Level 3. Very

well done everyone!

I hope you enjoyed reading your child’s report as much as I did. Once

again there were lots of very positive comments. I was very impressed with

the children’s levels of achievement and the amount of progress they have

made. There were also lots of positive comments regarding social skills,

behaviour and manners all of which are very important. Well done

everyone.

The staff and I would like to wish our Year 6 pupils a fond farewell and

every success at their new school. We hope they all settle in well and are

happy in the new phase of their education. We hope they will all keep in

touch and visit us from time to time. The very best of luck!

Finally we would like to wish you all a very happy and relaxed summer

holiday and look forward to catching up with you at the start of the

Autumn Term.

Christine Myers

Dates for Diary

20/07/15 ~ Family Evening (6.00 - 7.00pm) 23/07/15 ~ Y6 Leavers Assembly 10.00am 23/07/15 ~ School Closes for Summer Holidays 23/07/15 ~ No Acorns Club PM SESSION 04/09/15 ~ Autumn Term 2015 – School Closed INSET DAY 07/09/15 ~ Autumn Term 2015 – School Closed INSET DAY 08/09/15 ~ School Open to pupils 17/09/15 ~ Y6 Taster Sessions at HHS 18/09/15 ~ Jeans for Genes Day (fundraising event) 09/10/15 – 11/10/15 ~ Y6 PGL Visit Winmarleigh Hall, Garstang 20/10/15 ~ Tempest Photography (Individual/Sibling Photographs) 21/10/15 ~ Halloween Disco (Infants 6-7pm & Juniors 7.15-8.30pm) 23/10/15 ~ School Closes for half term holiday 02/11/15 ~ School Closed to pupils (INSET DAY) 03/11/15 ~ School Open to pupils 13/11/15 ~ BBC Children In Need (fundraising event) 16/11/15 ~ Bags 2 School (fundraising event) 01/12/15 ~ Full Governing Body Meeting 18/12/15 ~ No Acorns Club PM Session 18/12/15 ~ School Closes to pupils 04/01/16 ~ School Opens to pupils 03/02/16 ~ Young Voices Concert Y5 & Y6 12/02/16 ~ School Closes to pupils 22/02/16 ~ School Opens to pupils 22/03/16 ~ Full Governing Body Meeting 24/03/16 ~ School Closed to pupils (INSET DAY) 25/03/16 ~ School Closed to pupils (Public Holiday) 28/03/16 ~ School Closed to pupils (Public Holiday) 08/04/16 ~ School Closes to pupils 25/04/16 ~ School Opens to pupils 27/04/16 ~ Tempest Photography (Class Photographs) 02/05/16 ~ School Closed to pupils (Public Holiday) 05/05/16 ~ School Closed to pupils (INSET DAY – POLLING STATION) 27/05/16 ~ School Closes to pupils 06/06/16 ~ School Opens to pupils 26/07/16 ~ Y6 Leavers Assembly 26/07/16 ~ No Acorns Club PM Session 26/07/16 ~ School Closes for Summer Holiday Information such as dates for diary and activities and events can also be found by visiting our school website at www.helmshore.lancs.sch.uk (School Diary & Newsletters/Notices). A copy of the holiday list for the Academic Year 2015/16 can be found at the end of this newsletter. Please note that details of the school holidays for the Academic Year 2016/17 are also available on the school website under ‘Holidays’.

‘Hairspray’ Hits all the High Notes in Helmshore!

Over fifty pupils from Year 5 and Year 6 recently backcombed their bee-hives and coiffured their quiffs for the high-energy musical, ‘Hairspray’, performed at Haslingden High School’s Sixth Form Theatre!

The school’s own version of the Broadway smash hit musical was a sell-out success on all four consecutive nights, from Wednesday 8th – Saturday 11th July. Our enthusiastic cast welcomed the audience to the sixties, with Isabelle Lord, age 11, playing teenager Tracy Turnblad, as she pursues stardom as a dancer on a local TV show. The story, set in Baltimore in the 1960s, promotes the themes of love, respect and acceptance.

The pupils have been toe tapping to the upbeat 60’s pop tunes for several months in preparation for the show, demonstrating an incredible amount of dedication, professionalism and commitment. Congratulations to the ‘Nicest Kids in Town’, who made it impossible for the audience to leave the theatre without a smile on their face; with their big hair, big hits and even bigger talent!

Photographs from the show are available on the Moodle area of the school website and you can order a copy of the DVD from the school office for just £10.00.

Welcome to the Sixties!

This year our whole school “Art Attack” topic is called “Welcome to the Sixties”. This topic is providing an opportunity for the children to investigate the music, art and fashion of the sixties and examine some of the major events that occurred during that time. They have been given the opportunity to complete some lovely art work, some of which was on display in HHS Sixth Form theatre during the production and some have been included as part of our large hall display which you will have seen during our recent Family Evening.

We are using a bright colour scheme of yellow, orange, pink and green and a vast array of flower power designs and retro patterns. If you have any Sixties memorabilia, memories or information you are happy to share with the children we would love to hear from you. Perhaps you may be interested in speaking to groups of children about the Sixties and what they mean to you?

Year 2 Outdoor Maths Adventures! Pupils in Year 2 have been making the most of the dry, sunny weather by getting out and about in our numeracy lessons. We have done lots of estimating, measuring and comparing lengths and capacities using the playground and adventure trail as starting points. Task 1 involved estimating the perimeter of the playground, then measuring part of the perimeter in metres and centimetres in groups. Once results were in the challenge was then to find the total!

Task 2 was to find the longest, shortest, widest and narrowest activity on the adventure trail. The children soon realised that a tape measure was needed to measure some of the dimensions along with their metre stick!

Task 3 involved estimating, measuring and comparing capacities. Fortunately no one got too wet! The children’s discussions involved plenty of mathematical and problem-solving vocabulary and required good cooperation skills. Lots of fun was had by all, with a great deal of learning too.

EYFS

The Reception children are a lovely group who are continuing to progress in leaps and bounds! Before half term, they enjoyed the theme of “Adventures“, as part of our year with Julia Donaldson. We enjoyed adventures with pirates, dragons and the Gruffalo. We also learnt a lot about Julia Donaldson from her biography. The children enjoyed creating story maps about their adventures.

In Mathematics, the children have enjoyed a wide range of activities to develop their understanding including measuring, developing patterns, money and exploring shapes. Many children have been enjoying some difficult challenges involving addition, subtraction, doubling halving and sharing.

Just before half term, Mrs Holt very kindly brought a lamb to visit us and it was lovely for the children to be able to see the lamb, ask questions and find out some interesting information about it. Thank you to Mrs Holt for giving the children this lovely experience.

We were very proud of all our present Reception children when our pre-school families came to visit. They sat beautifully in the hall, sang for our visitors and then came back to class and worked in a very mature way as our visitors looked round. Fantastic, everybody!

We are now basing our work on “Room on the Broom”, a theme which encompasses witches, wizards and magic. The children have already had good fun writing some lovely magic spells.

Their motivation to write and their progress in writing is amazing!

Our ongoing thanks go to all those Reception parents who are supporting and encouraging their children with very beneficial work at home. Reading regularly at home really does make a difference. It is always lovely to read comments in Home/School Activity books about their experiences at home. Lots of parents have also been completing “Star Moments” sheets to tell us about the children’s special achievements at home. These form a valued part of their Learning Records, which the children will bring home at the end of the school year: a lovely memento to keep and treasure. Thank you! Mrs Perry and Miss Thomas

Year 2 Visit to Blackpool – 16th June 2015 Our Year 2 children had a highly enjoyable visit to Blackpool Zoo on Tuesday 16th June. During the day children had the opportunity to see wild and domesticated animals in controlled surroundings, watch some of the animals being fed, learn about the conservation work being undertaken by the zoo and find out information about the wide range of animals kept there. The children also took part in an education

session about habitats led by trained zoo staff. The session proved very informative and the children (and staff!) were even invited to stroke a bearded dragon and hold a hissing cockroach! The excellent behaviour and intelligent questions and answers were commented upon by the zoo staff. The sealion display provided one of the highlights of the day, even though Elmo the male sealion had to single-handedly (or flipperedly!) do all the work, due to Anya having very recently given birth and the sealions from Madrid still settling in. This was closely followed by our walks through Lemur Wood and the Dinosaur Safari. The children had a great day out and all said they wished they could have stayed longer (although judging by the amount of sleeping children on the coach, the timing was just about perfect!). A huge thank you for your voluntary contributions to the trip - without these we would not be able to facilitate these types of visits.

Year 5 News

By: Macey Glynn, Charlotte Clements and Ella Fielding

Our proud Westholme STEM Challenge winners

Well done to four of our Year 5 pupils, Nathan Green, Xavier

Blackledge, Daisy Roberts and Conner Westerman, who

represented our school at Westholme’s STEM challenge. The

children had to complete five tasks relating to different elements

of the curriculum. They completed all five challenges so well that

they were the overall winners. This is a fantastic achievement!

Year 5’s Journey to the Jungle

This half term, the Year 5’s have ditched their pencil cases in favour

of magnifying glasses and binoculars, as they have explored deep

into the Amazon rainforest, as part of the innovative topic, ‘Amazon

Adventure!’

We have done lots of work on this terrific topic; including making

some amazing models at home (photos below). All that was needed

was: an empty shoe box, some cardboard, tissue paper and lots of

imagination! Everyone managed to complete them in the time they

were given, and are looking lovely on display. Here are some of the

models:-

Now let’s move on to Awesome Art!

In Art, this term, we have completed lots of work which we all enjoyed doing, including a whole

display full of magical things! We have focused on artists Ruth Daniels and Henry Rousseau, and

have all drawn in their style. The whole of our year have created a border for the wonderful

display including butterflies, leaves, and lots of other amazing Amazon animals!

Here are some examples of the artwork we did:

Now it’s time to move on to what we did in Literacy!

The fabulous writers in Year 5 have invented a story all about

getting lost in the Amazon Rainforest; we had to think of a magical

conclusion to escape! After we had planned it out in our Literacy

books, we edited and improved it onto a sheet of paper with an

Amazon based border! Everybody made a booklet with a front

cover based on ‘Journey to the River Sea’ by Eva Ibbotson! Inside

it we pretended to be authors and wrote a fantastic story formed

from Journey to the River Sea!

Now, let’s move onto some amazing

facts that we have looked at! We

designed information posters, full of fascinating facts about the

amazing Amazon including the biome of the Amazon (an eco-system)

and the rainforest basin (the part of South America drained by the

Amazon River and its tributaries).

These are some facts that we have found most mind-blowing this half term:

The droppings of the Amazonian

humming-bird form into new plants.

The Amazon Rainforest covers over 5.5

million square kilometres, it’s so big

that United Kingdom and Ireland would

fit into it 17 times!

In 2007, a man named Martin Strel

swam the entire length of the Amazon

River (7,050,000 square kilometres!).

Martin powered through the water for

up to 10 hours a day for 66 days.

There are 427 different mammals, 1300 types of birds 378 types of reptiles, more than

400 types of amphibians and around 3000 different types of fresh water fish!

There are also between 96,660 - 100,000 invertebrates and that’s only what’s been

discovered, there’s still more that haven’t yet been discovered!

Year 5’s Take a Trip Back in Time

The Year 5’s took a trip back in time to World War II on the 19th June when they visited Bury

Transport Museum! As part of our homework before the visit, we had to design a gas mask box,

so when we went on the trip, we looked like real evacuees! All the children, teachers and

teaching assistants dressed as they would during the Second World War for the visit and during

the day we had the opportunity to examine artefacts and money from the period and

experienced a journey as an evacuee on a steam train.

Year 4 visit to Eureka

On Thursday 18th June Year 4 visited Eureka Children’s Museum in Halifax. During the day the

children experienced the ‘All About Me Gallery’, the role play areas and a Blast from the Past

workshop where the children looked at medicine and health care through the ages. It was

fantastic to see the children recalling lots of information from the topics we’ve covered. The

children were very well behaved and a fantastic day was had by all.

Year 4 concert ‘Welcome to the 60s’

Earlier this term the Year 4 children performed for their families at our ‘Welcome to the 60’s Concert’. The children sang some familiar songs, including a Beatles Medley, and we even had performances from Diana Ross and the Supremes and the Beach Boys. They all dressed in sixties outfits and danced and sang their hearts out. They even found time to pick out some key events from history that they had learnt about during our recent Hall Project; Man landing on the Moon, the First episode of Coronation.

Our Year 3 "Rock 'N' Roll" topic

Our Year 3 class have just completed a topic called "Rock 'N' Roll". During this topic we were learning about Rock 'N' Roll music, The Stone Age, Rocks, Volcanoes and the Earth. As part of the topic, we had to make a Stone Age model for homework. We were very creative and made Stonehenge, Caves, Axes & Tools, Jewellery and Woolly Mammoths. We even had two Stonehenge cakes made which we really enjoyed eating! We really enjoyed completing this topic as it was fun and we learned a lot about a period of the past which took place a long time ago.

GYOP Potato Council Competition – Year 1

In January Class 1I (Mrs Isherwood’s Class) took delivery of some seed potatoes from the ‘Grow

your own potatoes’ challenge. We had to start ‘chitting’ the small seed potatoes on the 24th

February; this means we had to leave them in daylight until dark green shoots appeared from

the ‘eyes’ on them. On the 10th March we had to plant them outside in special growing bags.

We looked for the first leaves showing above the soil and covered them with soil each time

they grew another 60mm! We had a very bad frost that seemed to destroy some of the leaves

but the plant recovered and carried on growing. We kept a timetable and on the 16th of June

our crop was ready to harvest! We were very excited and were pleased to find lots of small new

potatoes in the soil – it was like digging for treasure. We weighed the crop and have sent the

results off to be judged. We enjoyed eating the potatoes after they had been boiled. Watch this

space for the results of the competition!

Ready to harvest … We’re sure they’re in here somewhere!

Year 6 ~ First Aid Training

On Wednesday 17th June and Thursday 18th June the children from Class 6H and 6K were

involved in First Aid Workshops delivered by Malcolm Sweetlove. The children listened with

great care and interest and worked practically; developing their understanding and ability to

give basic first aid. The children learnt information about and were taught key skills such as:

CPR and how to use a Defibrillator, The Recovery Position, sprains and strains, bleeding and

shock. Mr Sweetlove was very impressed with the children’s skills and was very complimentary

about their behaviour and manners. Well done Year 6!

Year 6 - Passport to Safer Cycling Work As part of our PSHE work Year 6 have been learning about how to be safe on the roads. They have covered work on bicycle control, using hand signals, following road signs and markings and have completed practical sessions to improve their confidence and control in various situations: Setting off, approaching junctions, turning left and right, overtaking obstacles and roundabout manoeuvres. Thank you to our Cycle Trainers: Mr Palmieri, Mrs Hall, Mrs Tiler, Mrs McEvoy, Mrs Gregory and Mr Holt for working with our Year 6 children again this year. Well done!

HELMSHORE SPORTS NEWS …… We have had a busy and successful sporting year … these are just some of our successes: This year the school have once again organised a variety of different friendly football matches against other local schools involving children from Year 2 to Year 6. The boys and girls football teams have also played numerous football league and cup matches.

Our Tag Rugby Team

Here is the tag rugby team who finished fourth in the Rossendale Schools tournament and were asked to represent Rossendale in the Lancashire Youth Games in Blackpool on 30th June 2015.

Mixed Kwik Cricket Competitions.

Our mixed Kwik Cricket team from Year 5 took part in a competition held indoors at Fearns on 22nd May (after having been cancelled twice due to the weather). The team played very well and despite not winning anything they all really enjoyed taking part.

Our Year 6 Mixed Kwik Cricket team won their qualifying round at Bacup Cricket Club on Wednesday 9th June, winning all four of their matches, and progressed to the Finals, again held at Bacup Cricket Club on 15th June where they finished third. All the children played extremely well as a team and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They were very proud of coming third out of all the schools in Rossendale.

Girls Football Club

The Year 5 girls have continued to take part in girls football club each Thursday, they have enjoyed taking part in various matches both home and away and have participated in a competition run by Rossendale Schools Sports Partnership, which took place at Fearns on the 3G astro turf.

High 5 Netball Club

Children from years 5 and 6 came along to High 5 netball club during the Spring and Summer terms and also took part in a competition run by Rossendale Schools Sports Partnership, which took place at Haslingden High School. Considering this was our first outing as a team all the girls played extremely well and showed excellent sportsmanship.

Rossendale Primary Schools Key Stage 2 League ~

We came runners up in our mini league and runners up in the play-off semifinals.

Rossendale Sports Partnership Year 3 & 4 football competition at Fearns.

We entered 2 teams, one team played 3 matches - drew 2 and lost 1 and did not make it to the next round. The other team played 4 matches, won 4 and made it to the group finals. In the group stages of the final they played 2 matches, lost 1 and won 1 so did not qualify for the final but did qualify for the 3rd & 4th place playoff. The team beat Tonacliffe 2-1 and were 3rd place in the overall competition.

Well done to everyone who took part in this competition.

Kinder+ Sport Kids Cup Tournament

The school entered two teams into the competition organised by Accrington Stanley FC with one team reaching the quarter finals.

The school entered one team into the competition organised by Blackburn Rovers FC with the team trying their best in the group stage of the competition.

Junior Football Competition at Burnley FC Academy, Gawthorpe

The school entered one team into the competition organised by Burnley FC. The team won all of their games and reached the semi-finals of the competition.

KS2 Rossendale Primary Schools Knockout Cup

Helmshore Primary School won the Rossendale Primary Schools Knockout Cup in the Key Stage 2 Final. This was the 3rd time that they have won the trophy in the last 4 years. They played Crawshawbooth in the final at a neutral venue, St. Mary’s Rawtenstall.

Crawshawbooth were 2-0 up at half time and it looked all over for Helmshore, however, they came out fighting for the 2nd half and soon scored an early goal through Toby Smith who assisted a corner off Carter Travers into the back of the Crawshawbooth net. It was a very

close 2nd half as both schools played some great football and continued to threaten each other’s goals. Midway through the 2nd half, Helmshore Primary School’s Captain, Oscar Shuttleworth went on a surging run before setting up Jay Macgeachie to score the Helmshore equalizer.

With the score locked at 2-2 at the end of full time, the game went into extra time. With still no further score at the end of extra time it was time for the dreaded penalty shootout.

The first five penalties from both teams were either saved or missed. Then Helmshore took a 1-0 lead through Carter Travers. Crawshawbooth equalized then Helmshore took the lead again through Jay Macgeachie. Crawshawbooth had to score with their last penalty to stay in the shootout, they missed, which resulted in Helmshore being the eventual winners 2-1 on penalties.

It was a fantastic match with both teams playing end to end football. Both sets of children were a credit to themselves and their schools.

PE kit It is very important that all children take part in physical activities and to do this they must have a PE kit in school at all times. Pupils in Key Stage 1 need a drawstring pump bag with a pair of pumps, a t-shirt and a pair of shorts in it. This kit needs to be in school at all times. Similarly pupils in Key Stage 2 also need a PE kit but they also need a pair of trainers and a track suit if possible because they tend to work outside more. School PE kit is available to purchase from the school office.

School Uniform

Standard uniform items such as Polo Shirts, Sweatshirts, Fleece Jackets and Coats are available to purchase via the Marks & Spencer Website – www.mandsyourschooluniform.com

Items can be delivered to your home for a standard charge of £3.50/£4.95 for express delivery. All orders of £50 and above receive free standard delivery and all returns are free, using the returns envelope provided.

School PE kit, bags and ties are available to purchase directly from school (see order form attached to this newsletter). Payment can be made on collection of your order ~ cash or cheques payable to Helmshore Primary School Uniform. The school office will open for collection/purchase of Sports/PE Kit and bags on FRIDAY 4th and MONDAY 7th SEPTEMBER (9.30am – 4.00pm).

Reading at Home

Please hear your child read at home as often as possible. Those children who do read at home regularly to an adult benefit a great deal from this in terms of their confidence in reading and their progress in both reading and writing. Thank you to all those parents who write regularly in children’s reading/homework diaries. It is an enormous help to both your child and their teacher and is a valued channel of communication.

Make tracks to your local library for lots of fun tasks you can enjoy this summer! Children across Lancashire are invited to take part in the first Lancashire Reading Journey. SCHOOL READING BOOKS ~ We need your help!

We would be grateful if you could return ANY school reading books you may find at home. Many of our classrooms reading materials are becoming depleted and we would appreciate if you could have a good look at home and return any you may find. They can be left at the School Office if necessary. Thank you!

Drinks in school

We acknowledge that it is very important for children to drink regularly and so every child is invited to bring a drinks bottle to school to keep in their classroom. Children are allowed to drink water at intervals throughout the day and fill up their bottle as necessary with water from our chilled filtered water dispensers situated in the infant and junior corridors. Please ensure that your child’s bottle is labelled with your child’s name and class. We are no longer selling drinks during the school day.

Pupil Council

The Pupil Council meets each week to discuss a variety of topics relevant to school and learning. Mrs Perry attends the meeting but it is the council members who produce the ideas, organize the activities and make the decisions! Our Pupil Council have continued to work very enthusiastically and have recently been working to deliver a safety assembly (safety around school, stranger danger, e-safety and road safety). It is so lovely to see a range of age groups working together from our youngest to our eldest children.

Chairperson: Bella Botham Vice Chairperson: Oscar Shuttleworth

Secretary: Charlotte Mousley Vice Secretary: Zahra Ishaque

Class RP Tony Dulson Class RT Madeline Fuller Class 1A Evie Robinson Class 1I Leo Howard Class 2H William Yinusa Class 2W Jake Hannay Class 3D Grace Wilkinson

Class 3FG Billy Howarth Class 4A Mason Howarth Class 4ASH Matthew Bolton Class 5B Xavier Blackledge Class 5P Lawrence Martinez Class 6H Grace Ellis Class 6K Bethany MacDonald

Scratch Club Success!

Our new coding group ‘Scratch Club’ has been an astonishing success!

Each Wednesday lunchtime the club is full to capacity with enthusiastic

coders from Year 5 and Year 6. The girls and boys enjoy creating their

own APPs, and using the many programs available through the Scratch

website.

With Scratch, pupils can program their own interactive stories, games,

and animations — and share their creations with others. Scratch helps

young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential

skills for life in the 21st century.

Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) Media Lab. Scratch software is provided for use in school and at home free, and can be easily downloaded from the internet.

Programming and coding in school and at home

If you are interested in finding out more about the programming and coding which your children are learning, you might like to visit ‘Discovery Education Coding’. This is one great resource which we use in school, and it is also

available from home through the Espresso login (Espresso link is on Moodle and the School website).

Login details are:

Username: student17917

Password: pupils

The educational website ‘Espresso’ continues to be a great source of information suitable for

children age 4 – 11 years. The website has recently been acquired by the media company

responsible for ‘The Discovery Channel’, and many of their fascinating resources are destined to

enhance the existing content. Pupils and parents are welcome to use the above login details to

access Espresso from home.

Sainsbury’s Active Kids 2015 Voucher Scheme 2015 Thank you for collecting the Sainsbury’s Active Kids Vouchers again this year we are grateful for your support. We have been very lucky in past years to have been able to obtain lots of new equipment using the voucher schemes. We have placed our order for additional PE equipment which we hope to receive in the new school year.

PARKING & DRIVING CONCERN outside Helmshore Primary School

As you are aware there is a considerable amount of congestion outside the school at the start and end of the school day. We have received countless reports of thoughtless driving, inconsiderate parking, aggressive behaviour and other dangerous activities taking place. The Police have visited the school premises and have witnessed this behaviour first hand. They are keen to support the school to avoid any unnecessary accidents and have asked that we report any incidents to them directly so that the people responsible can be dealt with.

If you see any incidents you feel require reporting please contact the school office on 01706 213756 or email office@helmshore.lancs.sch.uk so that we can report this to the Police OR you can contact Clare Pearson of Lancashire Police direct: Clare Pearson: 01282 472565 or email 3847@lancashire.pnn.police.uk

We urge you to think carefully when parking; give yourself a little more time and park in the streets a little further away from the school. Please do not park across driveways or on the grass verge outside properties on Gregory Fold. We try our best to keep up a good relationship with local residents and we would ask you to support us with this by parking with care and consideration to our pupils and local residents alike!

School Meals We would remind parent and carers that a one week notice period is currently required if you wish to change your child’s regular meal pattern. Please ensure that your child is aware of their lunchtime meal pattern to avoid any confusion. Regretfully we are unable to provide lunches on an ad hoc basis. We thank you for your support with this matter! School meals cost £2.20 per day/ £11.00 per week. Please send dinner money to school at the beginning of the week (cheques made payable to Lancashire County Council or LCC) either directly to the office or via your child’s class teacher. To assist office staff we would ask that you place dinner money in a sealed envelope clearly labelled with your child’s name and class. Attached to this newsletter you will find a copy of our AUTUMN TERM MENU.

Free School Meals ~ Are you entitled? As you are probably aware all Infant children (those in Key Stage One) are now entitled to Free School meals so you may wonder what is the point of applying? The number of children in our school on FREE SCHOOL MEALS has an impact on our school budget as we get additional funding for all pupils in receipt of them. In effect you are helping school if you apply. If you are in receipt of the following benefits you may be entitled to FREE SCHOOL MEALS and may also receive assistance with the cost of school trips etc.

Income Related Employment and Support Allowance

Income Support

Income Based Jobseeker’s Allowance

Support Under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

Guarantee Element of State Pension Credit

Child Tax Credit (BUT NOT entitled to Working Tax Credit and your annual income does not exceed £16,190)

Working Tax Credit during the four week period immediately after your employment ceases or after you start to work less than sixteen hours per week.

If you feel that you may be entitled to Free School Meals for your child(ren) please contact the school office for further information or telephone the local Area Education Office (East) on 01254 220711 providing your Name, DOB and National Insurance Number to enable them to check your entitlement using direct database access – you will usually be given an immediate response to your enquiry.

Defibrillator & First Aid Training

The staff in school routinely receive compulsory First Aid training and during the Summer term the school invested in a Defibrillator. All teaching staff and a group of support staff in school have received training on how to use this equipment. This life saving equipment is located in the main corridor area. We would like to thank Malcolm Sweetlove of Sweetlove Training Ltd who supported the school in the purchase of the equipment and training requirements.

Community News:

Arthouse Ltd – Creative Writing Competition (ages 4-11) – entry deadline Sunday

4th October 2015 – visit www.arthouse.com/imaginefun for further information.

Helmshore Primary School

School Holidays ~ Academic Year 2015/2016

AUTUMN TERM 2015

School opens School closes

Tuesday 8 September 2015

Friday 23 October 2015

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Friday 18 December 2015

SPRING TERM 2016

School opens School closes

Monday 4 January 2016

Friday 12 February 2016

Monday 22 February 2016

Friday 8 April 2016

SUMMER TERM 2016

School opens School closes

Monday 25 April 2016

Friday 27 May 2016

Monday 6 June 2016

Tuesday 26 July 2016

In addition the school will be closed on the following days ~

Thursday 24th March 2016 (Inset Day)

Friday 25th March 2016 (Public Holiday- Easter)

Monday 28th March 2016 (Public Holiday - Easter)

Monday 2nd May 2016 (Public Holiday)

Thursday 5th May 2016 (Inset Day – Polling Day)

HELMSHORE PRIMARY SCHOOL UNIFORM Name of Child: …………………………………………………………………………………………. Class: ………………………………………

Phone Number: ………………………………………………………………………….

Standard uniform items such as Polo Shirts, Sweatshirts, Fleece Jackets and Coats are available to purchase via the Marks & Spencer Website – www.mandsyourschooluniform.com

Items can be delivered to your home for a standard charge of £3.50/£4.95 for express delivery. All returns are free using the returns envelope provided.

The following items are still available to purchase directly from the school. Please pay when ordering ~ cheques payable to Helmshore Primary School Uniform.

Cash’s Nametapes are also available to order ~ forms are available from the School Office Or visit www.jjcash.co.uk/75062C6

Cost £ Qty Colour Size (specify age required) Total

School Tie 5.50 Mixed Infant Junior

Reading Bag 3.50 Navy or Royal N/A

PE/Swim Bag 3.50 Various N/A

Back Pack 7.00 Red, Navy, Royal Blue Infant (small) Junior (large)

Satchel 5.50 Green / Navy N/A

PE KIT Hooded Top 14.00 Black, Red, Royal Blue 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14

PE KIT T-Shirt 5.00 Blue, White, Emerald 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14

PE KIT Shorts 4.50 Blue, Black 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14

PE KIT Jog Pants 8.50 Black, Red, Royal Blue 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14

**SPECIAL OFFER** PE KIT Full Set

28.00 (please indicate size and colour above)

PE Rain Jacket £21.00 Navy Junior - Small Medium Large

TOTAL TO PAY