West Town Lane Academy WHERE LEARNING IS AN ADVENTURE

Welcome Welcome back to the new academic year and one of some

significance for us as our cohort of 90 children has reached

Year 6! This means we are now completely full, including our

wonderful new Ladybirds class, with almost 700 children in the

school.

We are pleased to welcome a few new staff- Mrs. Gillett is

joining the nursery team, Miss Chandler in Reception, Mr.

MacLeod in Year 1, Miss Coombes in Year 2 and Miss

Matthews in Year 3. We also have a number of new lunchtime

and facilities staff to complement the teaching team. Take a

look at the website wtl.academy for more information on our

staff and the variety of roles they undertake.

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Clubs

A list of clubs will be coming out next week, including a return of our Streetdance club and new clubs such as ‘Newsround’.

Wrap Around

Please go to the website to book places in the Breakfast or After School clubs as we do have spaces. The ‘drop in’ breakfast club is still available for children in Keystage 2 from 8.30, and for parents to grab a coffee or bacon roll!

Vacancies

We have two vacancies currently- one as a play worker in our Breakfast and After School Club, the other on our lunchtime team. Please see the office for details and an application form.

Free School Meals All children in Early Years, Years 1 & 2 are automatically

eligible for a school dinner at no charge each day. This is part

of the ‘universal free school meals’ scheme.

However, some families are entitled to Free School Meals due

to low income/ on receipt of certain benefits. It is really

important you check your entitlement, as it then also entitles

your child to additional tuition in school, assistance with costs

for clubs or trips, music lessons and so forth. Check your

eligibility here:

https://efsm.bristol.gov.uk

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WHERE LEARNING IS AN ADVENTURE SEPTEMBER 2017

Uniform

The majority of children are in excellent uniform on their return to school. Please make sure they

wear correct uniform each day (with their name in it) including black shoes or trainers. Children

are allowed to wear stud earrings and a watch, but no other items of jewellery please. Our PE kit

is a white T Shirt and black or navy shorts (children should have tracksuit or outer layer for winter).

Holidays

Our attendance has improved incredibly over the past few years, with the

majority of our children in school for over 96% of the time. However, we

continue to have families taking holidays during term time or

disappearing for periods of unexplained absence (and often then

returning with a suntan). May we politely remind you that holidays are not

permitted within term time, and that other suspicious periods of absence will result in an

investigation and possible penalty notice.

Caremonkey

Approximately 75% of families are now registered with Caremonkey (new Early Years parents will

receive an email in the next couple of weeks to register). This is an important system for us as it

holds all the medical records for children but is also the method of communicating information

about trips and visits. Please register or see the office for help (we know there were a few

problems setting it up!).

Facebook

Don’t forget we are on Facebook- we have an open page which will

advertise events and generic information (no photos) and a closed group

with lots of photographs from school. You need to be ‘authorised’ to join and there are a couple

of questions to answer regarding your link to the school, but it really does show you what is going

on.

EYFS outdoor area

The Early Years outdoor space is not a ‘cut through’ for families in the morning as the area is set

up with learning activities for children, so please use the various gates around the perimeter to

get to the playground or use the path adjacent to the field. We appreciate families with a child in

Year 1 AND Year 2 may be slightly late as it takes time to walk round, but otherwise the older

children can walk straight to class if you need to drop off at Year 1. Early Years parents should use

the rear playground to wait before dropping off at the EYFS gate.

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WHERE LEARNING IS AN ADVENTURE SEPTEMBER 2017

Dates

September 11th – Swimming begins for Year 6 12th- Y6 Information Meeting 14th- Y1 Information Meeting 18th- Y3 Information Meeting 19th- Y5 Information Meeting 21st- Y2 Information Meeting 28th- Y4 Information Meeting 29th- Coffee Morning

Information Meetings

We are holding meetings for all year groups starting at 3.30pm (see above for dates) so that you

know what is going on in your child’s class and the expectations for the year ahead. The teachers will

also be handing out booklets for each year with all the key dates as in our last questionnaire you said

this was something we could do better at! Please try to attend if you can, but otherwise we will get

the booklets to you after the meetings so you have the necessary information.

Menu

The school menu will continue until the October half term break. Copies are being given out to the

Early Years classes, but a copy of the menu can also be found on the website. The food is all

prepared on site by a great team of people using predominantly local suppliers, well worth £2.25.

Walking home

Some of our older children have permission to walk home on their own from their parent/ carer. Now

that we started a new year you may have changed your mind about whether your child is able to

leave school without an adult being present. A short permission request will be sent out by

Caremonkey by the end of the week to families with children in Year 3 and above which will require

you to simply say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to allowing your child to leave school on their own. Any child without a

specific permission will not be allowed to leave and you will need to arrange an adult to collect them.

Macmillan Coffee Morning

We will be holding a coffee morning on 29th September in the Discovery Rooms in aid of Macmillan.

Our coffee mornings are usually very well attended, raising money for charity but

also giving you the opportunity to talk to staff. We sometimes ask for donations of

cakes, but on this occasion the school staff will supply them.

October 3rd- Reception Information Meeting 2.30pm 9th- Y5 Architecture Workshop 9th- 3D visit ‘We the Curious’ 10th- Parent’s Evening 3.30-6.30 11th- 3H visit ‘We the Curious’ 11th- Parent’s Evening 3.30-5.30 12th- 4B class assembly 13th- 3M visit ‘We the Curious’ 13th- 4C class assembly 18th- Break up