Happy new year to you all!! I hope you had a lovely time with your families and that 2012 brings you everything you’d want it to. Nearly two weeks are up already and time seems to be speeding up! So much to do and so little time… As you will have been told by the children I’m sure, we have been trialling a different approach to lunchtimes here at Blandford St Mary Primary School. With ever growing numbers and limited space around the school—lunchtimes were becoming in-creasingly challenging for staff and children to negotiate with regard to keeping our children happy and free from bumps and scrapes that are inevitable at these busy times of the day. To that end—we decided to try making use of all the areas around the school by running lots of different ac-tivities, supported by our year 6 leaders, that the children could choose from. It is important to note that the children do have a choice about what they take part in at lunchtimes. Now that the scheme has been running for a while—we can see the areas that need de-veloping and the positive aspects too. We have found that some activities are more popular than others—which means we can extend these and possibly remove the least popular. We can also add numbers to each activity if need’s be so that more children from each class can take part if they want to. This will mean bigger friendship groups get to play together at lunchtime if they

want to. We have been very pleased with the majority of the leadership from our year 6 children, but we (and they) are aware that there needs to be some improvements. The Year 6 Com-mon Room proves to be an incentive for these children should they choose to lead at lunchtime. We should also consider the positive impact of children developing friendships across the school rather than simply with their own classmates. The amount of difficult issues we have had recently at lunchtime have dimin-ished hugely. Bumped heads and scraped knees have reduced (we’ll never get rid of them completely!) massively. As have incidents of having to deal with squabbles following arguments due to there not being enough room to play. I know it can seem a rather ‘structured’ way of conducting lunchtimes. How-ever, our children still have the oppor-tunity to play freely both at lunchtimes (the activities are not drilled!) and at break times. They have an ever increas-ing choice of activities to choose from and lunchtimes are a happy, vibrant, exciting time. Please be assured, we are always seeking to improve opportunities for our chil-dren and will continue to do so in this area. Any feedback—in any area—is gratefully re-ceived.

Dear ParentsDear ParentsDear ParentsDear Parents

Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter

January 2012

Volume 4, Issue 17

Headteacher: Mr Paul Lavis Deputy Headteacher (on secondment): Mrs Lauren Houlston

Celebration

Assembly Dates 20th January - Year 3

27th January - Year 2

3rd February - Year 1

10th February - Recep-tion

Contents: Thank you 2 Cycle pods 2 School Nurse drop – in 2 Lunchboxes 2 After school clubs 2 Bad weather 2 Parent Support Group 3 Parking 3 FOS 4 Diary dates 4

Page 2 Volume 4, I ssue 17 Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter

School Nurse DropSchool Nurse DropSchool Nurse DropSchool Nurse Drop----InInInIn

The next School Nurse drop in is on Tuesday 31st January at 8.50am. Please let the office or one of the class teachers know if you would like to make an appointment to see Sarah. You can also just pop in on the day.

Notice BoardNotice BoardNotice BoardNotice Board

We would like to say a big thank you to Mr McCarry who is a par-ent of one of our children in year 2. Mr McCarry very kindly donated a number of pieces of gardening equipment to the school. As gardening is one of the choices for the children in our new lunchtime activities this will come in very handy. Thank you.

Thank youThank youThank youThank you

LunchboxesLunchboxesLunchboxesLunchboxes

Please can you ensure that your child’s lunchbox contains healthy nutritional food. We are seeing more and more sweets and crisps appearing which does not reflect the healthy eating message that we endorse in school. Can we also remind you that there should not be anything provided that contains nuts, due to severe allergies of some of our children.

These will resume this week. Your child/children will have been notified of which club/clubs they have secured a place for. Please ask at the office if you are unsure.

After School ClubsAfter School ClubsAfter School ClubsAfter School Clubs Bad WeatherBad WeatherBad WeatherBad Weather Can we please remind you, that in the event of snow. A notice will be posted on the school’s website page informing you if the school is to be closed that day. We will also inform Heart FM. We will always aim to re-main open as long as we can ensure the safety of both the children and staff.

Cycle podsCycle podsCycle podsCycle pods

We are very excited to be able to inform you that we will be having 3 cycle pods delivered and installed in the school grounds this Tuesday. This will then allow some children to keep their bicycles or scooters at school during the day. More details will follow next week. How exciting!

Page 3 Volume 4, I ssue 17 Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter

Parent Support Group Parent Support Group Parent Support Group Parent Support Group

The parent support group will be meeting every other week in the hall immediately after Friday’s assembly. Please come along.

Parking Parking Parking Parking

Once again, we are having to remind the par-ents who drive their children to school, to be mindful of where they are parking. As we are situated on a residential estate we really do have to be sympathetic to the other residents. Can we also ask that you are extra cautious when approaching the school. We have had an incident reported where by a parent has almost been hit by the car of another parent from this school. The thought of anyone, parent or child being hurt in this way doesn’t bear thinking about.

Blandford St Mary Primary SchoolBlandford St Mary Primary SchoolBlandford St Mary Primary SchoolBlandford St Mary Primary School Birch Avenue

Blandford St Mary, Dorset DT11 9QD

Phone: 01258-453331 Fax: 01258-455865

Blandford St Mary Primary School Newsletter

Website : www.blandfordstmary.dorset.sch.ukWebsite : www.blandfordstmary.dorset.sch.ukWebsite : www.blandfordstmary.dorset.sch.ukWebsite : www.blandfordstmary.dorset.sch.uk

School Diary Dates:School Diary Dates:School Diary Dates:School Diary Dates:

Monday 13th February - Friday 17th February ~ Half term Friday 30th March ~ Children break up for Easter holidays Monday 16th April ~ Children back to school Monday 7th May ~ May bank holiday Monday 4th June - Friday 8th June ~ Half term Monday 2nd July ~ Staff training day Friday 20th July ~ Children break up for summer holidays Monday 23rd July ~ Staff training day

On Friday 20th January M&M Theatrical Productions are coming to the

school to perform their pantomime, Peter Pan for us. M&M Productions are one of the UK’s largest touring children’s theatre companies; they are experts in family entertainment, children’s pantomimes and primary school productions. This pantomime experience is available to all our families and is ex-tended to our friends, neighbours and the families of Little Birch Pre-School. The event is a family experience at a cost of £3 per seat or a *family charge of £10. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Seats must be booked in advance as there are limited seats so please book by returning the attached slip to the School Office (tickets will not be issued). This is not intended as a fundraising event but we do hope to cover the costs. Refreshments will be sold during the interval. Best wishes

YÜ|xÇwá Éy fv{ÉÉÄ Friends of Blandford St Mary Primary School * Family refers to immediate family only.

Friends of schoolFriends of schoolFriends of schoolFriends of school

PantomimePantomimePantomimePantomime