March 2016 Newsletter

MARCH NEWSLETTER 2016 Hello, We have exciting, but possibly difficult times ahead. As you know, due to us being a popular and good school East Sussex are expanding the building to bring the Nursery on site and become a two form entry school. We have had the plans in the corridor for you to have a look at, but will bring them outside if the weather is good, so that you can familiarise yourselves with them as it is now time for the building to begin!

Yes, we have a start date of Monday 14th March. The impact of this will be mostly on the Nursery and parents who access both the School and Nursery for their children. This is because there will be NO ACCESS TO THE REAR OF THE BUILDING, THE TURNING CIRCLE OR THE PEDESTRIAN GATE, as this area will be managed by the Contractors, Morgan Sindall. We are working very closely with Morgan Sindall and they will be giving regular updates, please see their first communication with this newsletter.

One way that you can help is, by leaving the car at home and walking to school if you can. As we already know congestion is an issue; all the buses will now also be in the Sports Centre car park making this worse.

So let me explain how we will manage; Nursery Access Rye College are supporting the Nursery drop-off and pick-up through allowing parking on their site to enable parents, children and staff to use the pedestrian access gate next to the College, The College gates will be open to allow free movement through their playground before 8.40am. When College is in session, from 8.40—3.20pm parents will have to take the pedestrian route either by the River Tillingham, or back to the Sports Centre and round Love Lane.

School Access All access will be via the Sports Centre car park and the pedestrian walkway into the main Reception.

I know there will be some tricky situations to deal with, but my main concern is the safety of our children, parents and staff, so I greatly appreciate your patience during the building works. The result of having a through school from 2—11 years in one building will be immense for the educational experience of our children.

Thank you for your continued support, Jane Howard Headteacher

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Attendance Percentages since September 2015 We are constantly trying to improve our attendance which remains below the national average and thank the PTA for their funding support in giving the winning class £10 each week to bank for their own financial management decisions. We will therefore publish the class percentages on each newsletter for your information.

Please help us by ensuring your child attends school at all times unless they are too ill to do so.

Well done to Clownfish, Sea Turtles, Lobsters, Barracudas, Killer Whales, Stingrays, Jellyfish, Sharks and Dolphins for achieving 95% or above.

Minnows

91.6%

Lobsters

95.6%

Marlin

94.1%

Sardines

94.4%

Barracudas

95.0%

Jellyfish

95.9%

Clownfish

95.7%

Cuttlefish

95.1%

Sharks

95.6%

Seahorses

94.9%

Killer Whales

95.7%

Dolphins

95.6%

Sea Turtles

96.3%

Stingrays

95.8%

The average is 95%.

Smoking

Thank you!

We would like to remind all parents and carers that the school is a nonsmoking area. We are sure you will all agree with us the importance of abiding by this rule. In order to protect our children further, we request that if you feel it necessary to smoke, that you wait until you are well away from the school site.

We have noticed our independent superstars who are saying goodbye at the door and coming into school by themselves in the morning—well done!

Disco Update!

Let’s see if we can get everyone doing this, it really does make a difference and helps the children who are already in school to concentrate on their early morning learning.

We have had an update from the PTA who have confirmed that 91 children attended the disco on the last day of term, and they raised £137.40!

Uniform

We hope everyone enjoyed the disco, and a big thank you to everyone involved in the organising

Please help us to keep our school ‘Rye Smart’ by sending your child to school smartly dressed in the correct uniform.

We would like to thank everyone who sends their child into school smartly dressed in our uniform. There are however, a few children who are starting to wear alternative items of clothing.

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Pugwash News……

Library Visit Our Nursery children walked up to Rye Library where they listened to a few stories.

We have some registration forms at the Nursery, so please collect one to complete so that your child can join and choose different books to borrow.

Chinese New Year Celebrations Pugwash children celebrated the Chinese New Year by making dragon masks and joining the Reception children for a parade.

They tasted lots of different Chinese snacks throughout the week, and even tried to use chopsticks.

Healthy Eating Children have been learning about the benefits of healthy eating and having a healthy lifestyle, so please can you make sure that lunchboxes are as healthy as possible and sweet treats are kept to just one treat per lunchbox.

For healthy lunch box ideas, please speak to a member of staff who will be able to give you some tried and tested ideas.

Easter Break Don’t forget—the Nursery is closed for the Easter Bank Holiday on 25th and 28th March.

The last day for term time only children for the Easter school holidays is Thursday 24th March and they will return on the 11th April. For children taking the stretched offer the nursery will re-open on the 29th March.

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Rye Primary News…..

Year 3’s Artic Experience It was very chilly in Year 3 when they took a trip to The Artic at the end of last term! They had a wonderful day celebrating a fantastic Term's learning, when they had been able to find out more about polar animals, research into Artic life and even make some yummy polar bear cookies!

Rye Primary’s Big Bang Experience!

On the last day of term, Sharks and Dolphins went over to Rye College to take part in The Big Bang, an afternoon of science based activities. Our groups took part in a talk about astronomy and the formation of the planets, they also had the opportunity to look through telescopes that were extremely powerful.

They then went onto a practical session involving various scientific challenges, which really made the pupils think hard to solve the problems set before them.

Finally, the children went into the hall where various groups were demonstrating their expertise. They talked to animal specialists, electricians who helped the children to make simple torches, students who were testing different forces and others who were making a variety of chemical combinations.

All in all the children and staff had an amazing afternoon and were buzzing with knowledge and excitement to find out more!

Big Art welcomes in the Chinese New Year Parents and carers were invited to celebrate the Chinese New Year at our Community Art Event at the end of last term.

The children made Chinese lanterns, copied some Chinese writing (looking carefully at the brush strokes) and created some wonderful dragon drawings and collages.

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Books Galore!

We were very pleased to welcome children's author Alan Durant to our school recently. Alan writes books for all ages, from toddlers to teens and his books include topics from football to fairies!

He held separate assemblies for KS1 and KS2 which were entertaining, interactive and extremely funny. (Mrs Wilson particularly liked the custard poem!) He then went into three lucky classrooms, Clownfish, Barracudas and Marlin, to work with the children.

We hope the children enjoyed the visit and are now inspired to

Sports Update Netball Tournament - our KS2 Netball team will be taking part in the finals this Thursday at St Leonards Academy after coming joint first at the recent tournament at Rye College.

Top Play Multi –Skills Festival—our Year 2 children will be taking part in the tournament this Wednesday morning at Rye College.

Sports Leaders—We would like to thank all the parents who have attended the Sports Leaders Club. This is the final term for the current group, and we are looking forward to an exciting new sport next term.

Christmas Fair We would like to say a huge thank you to the following business who donated a prize for our Christmas Fair : Brighton & Hove Albion / Amex Stadium The Rye Retreat Poppy’s / The Rye Bakery Johnson’s Fruiterers Rye Barbers Hayden’s Bosun’s Bite The Shop Next Doore The Rye Bookshop Ironmongers Extraordinary Wobbly Wardrobe Adams of Rye Olde Worlde Wines Fletcher’s House Marino’s Fish Bar Rye Dry Cleaners Craft Magic

Sainsbury’s Vouchers Don’t forget to bring your Sainsbury’s vouchers in—we have a collection box in the front entrance. Thank you.

Swimming If you have any old swimming costumes or trunks that your child has grown out of, we would be very grateful if you could donate them to the school so that we can lend them to children who have forgotten to bring their kit in on swimming days.

Photograph Donation Following our individual and family photos, we are very pleased to confirm that £83.00 has been donated to Cancer Research UK in conjunction with Braiswick Photgraphic Company Limited.

This amount was calculated from the number of photographs which were ordered, so thankyou to everyone who placed an order.

Class Photographs We have Braiswick coming in again on Monday 21st March to take our class photographs, so please ensure your children are extra ‘Rye Smart’ on that day!