Dear Parents/Carers

 

I hope you had a good summer and managed to get some rest and relaxation.  I have had a wonderful start to the term and I have been made very welcome by the staff, children and the parents.

 

The children have been fabulous today, looking very smart in their new uniforms and showing real enthusiasm for being back at school.

 

Your children may have come home tonight and talked about some changes that have happened in school and I wanted to inform you of these and our rationale for the change.

 

Lunchtime

We have aligned lunchtimes at Cator Lane so all children now have the same time.  This will help with balancing the teaching time across the day.

Lunchtime at Cator Lane site is now 12.15 until 1.15. 

At Meadow Lane it remains unchanged at 12.00 until 1.00.

 

Break time

We have also reviewed break time during the afternoon for year 5 and year 6.  This has now shifted to a ‘flexi’ break meaning that the class teachers will make the decision about giving the children a short pause in their learning for up to ten minutes.  The rationale for this is to enable the teachers to have a sustained period of time on a piece of work and to have the flexibility not to interrupt the flow when children are really focused and engaged.  We will be monitoring this during the half-term and considering introducing this for other year groups.

 

Communication

I have reviewed the answers to the questionnaires from last term and there was a strong thread of communication – sometimes too much, sometimes too little, sometimes too late and in too many ways!  I will be looking at streamlining this during the term and will be working with the staff to ensure we are communicating the right information to the right people at the right time.  As part of our communication approach will review and update the parent communication policy which will outline our systems and processes.  Please bear with us on this.

 

Something I have discussed with the staff is the expectation of communicating with you, and you with them.  When sending emails to staff please be mindful that they will only be able to review emails between 7.30am and 6.00pm and only when they are not teaching the children.  With this in mind I have asked the staff to ensure they respond to you within 24 hours of receiving the email and between these hours.  If a communication is urgent then please ring or email the office who will do their best to resolve any issues as soon as possible.  Staff are always available for a brief chat at the start and end of the school day.

 

Year group specific information

As part of our communication review, we will be considering the purpose and content of the year group weekly newsletters.  You will be receiving some information this week which will outline some of the key information about your child’s year group, for example PE days, any visits planned, outline of any key learning. 

 

Uniform

It was great to see so many children in their new school uniforms, they looked incredibly smart and had a real sense of pride in the way they carried themselves around school.  We will be keeping a close eye on this during the coming weeks and in the event of any uniform not meeting the school uniform requirements, teachers will discuss this sensitively with the children.  Please refer to the website for the current uniform policy if you are unsure about the expectations - https://www.thelanes.notts.sch.uk/school-uniform-information/

If for any reason you are having difficulty in providing the correct uniform, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

 

A strong thread of the INSET day and the assembly theme today has been that of excellence.  I have challenged the children to consider how they will be promoting excellence in all that they do – I have already seen a lot of this at playtimes, lunchtimes and walking around the school.

 

This is just a short update to let you know some of the decisions that we have made and I will keep you informed as we review how we work to ensure we are doing our very best for your children.  I look forward to meeting you on the playground and if you have any questions or queries then please do not hesitate to stop me and have a chat.

 

Thank you for your support

 

Mr Pete Wilkes

Headteacher