Newsletters

Stanley St Andrew's Church of England Primary School 

NEWSLETTER JUNE 2024

Changing weather  

All children need a water bottle and hat at school as the weather starts to change. In addition to this, please can you help by making sure any hay fever sufferers have taken medication before coming to school. This helps keep these children comfortable during the day.  Please make sure sun cream is applied before coming to school each day.

Staffing  

Mrs McGuinness has worked really hard all year to achieve her teaching apprenticeship and she will get her results at the end of July. She enjoyed starting the year with the Rashford children and finishing her apprenticeship in Parks' class. Mrs McGuinness has given 6 years of her life to us at Stanley. She started out as our school administrator and then, having been inspired by our talented staff and amazing children, took on the role of apprentice teacher. The time has come for her to move on and secure a teaching position, so she will be leaving us at the end of this academic year. We know that she will be an amazing teacher and has so many skills to offer a school she will be snapped up. We will celebrate Mrs McGuinness' time in true Stanley style later in the term.  

Amiee will also be leaving us at the end of the year as her contract is due to end. Amiee has enjoyed being part of our family this year and has enjoyed the roles she has taken on at breakfast club and the office. Due to the decrease in reception children nationally and the increase in staffing costs, it is not viable. Breakfast club and office work will be taken up by existing staff within school to keep the costs down. We wish Amiee the very best in what she decides to do next. We will be celebrating her time with us towards the end of the term.  

Father Julius will also be leaving us this year. Father J was only ever on loan from Kirk Hallam as we do not have any clergy in place in St Andrew’s. Father J has been exactly what we have needed within school to help us support the spiritual needs of our children and staff. He has brought alive worship within the church and has given us a real flavour of how worship is personal, but can also bring people together. Father Julius is also one of our governors and again gives us the real sense of why being a church school is important and how, as leaders, the decisions we make are made within a Christian framework. We are very grateful for the time that he has dedicated to our school, children and staff. His presence has made each one of us feel special. I know that our children will miss his Monday worship, hearing his beautiful voice and his sharing of the bible with us. Again, we will have a collective worship for father J later in the term.  

Attendance  

We continue to closely monitor attendance for all children in school. This is to ensure that all children are safe and are not missing chunks of education. I have shared the new DFE attendance information via Parenthub. This change in policy and increase in price is to bring all authorities in line with each other. Also, to send a clear message to parents and grandparents that attendance is important and can impact upon outcomes for children.  

 It is crucial that parents and grandparents check the school website for term time dates and inset days. In addition to this, before booking flights please check times as to not cause confusion about morning and evening flights.  

Since the start of this academic year, we have had over 30 parents/grandparents apply for holidays, which has resulted in over a total of 80 days lost learning. In addition to this, we have had a number of parents phone in telling us their child is ill only to have the child or peers tell staff that the child is on holiday. It is important that we know where all children are during term time in the event of an incident. We want to be able to support the family and the children within school. Also, if a school deems a child to be on holiday when they report ill, the Local Authority may ask parents to be able to prove that they were at home and this can be used as evidence. 

Our current attendance figures 

Parks class 88.9% 

Angelou class 95.5% 

Rashford class 97.5% 

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Bishops visit  

Bishop Libby and Bishop Malcolm came to visit our after-school provision. It was brilliant to see Belle, Caden, Daisy and Casey take complete control of the meeting. The four were confident doing a tour of school and spending time with them to discuss our school values. The Bishops and their team were very impressed with the children’s knowledge of our school and why the values are important for staff and children in order to live our lives. Bishop Libby took the opportunity to pray in the space where our year 6 were sitting their SATs, which I know the heads and deputies felt was a privilege. We continue to work closely with the Diocese in providing training space and our expertise of being a small church school.

Mrs Gresswell continues to lead worship and RE within school, planning a range of events to make sure that we continue to focus on giving our children a good view of world religions. Mrs Gresswell has the privilege of working with NATRE, which is a team of professionals who make changes and create resources for RE teaching for both Primary and Secondary professionals across the country. We look forward to trialling resources and gaining feedback from Mrs Gresswell over the next few years.  

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Wrap around care  

The DFE expects all schools to offer wrap-around care from 8am – 6pm, which is affordable and allows parents and grandparents to go to join the workforce. We reviewed our charges for the first time in over 9 years last term, giving all parents over 6 weeks' notice of the increase. Please note that our breakfast club opens at 7:30 am, which is 30 mins before the DFE statutory requirement to enable parents and grandparents to work flexible hours. We continue to monitor the use of our wrap-around care and, in conjunction with the governors, we have introduced some additional benefits for those who use it.  

A sibling discount: the first child will be charged £6 and the second child will be charged £4.  

The early bird drop off starts at 8:30am each morning for £1. 

A late bird pick up: children can be collected at 3:30 instead of 3:15. This will allow those who may need that extra time to collect without paying for the hour.  

Please don’t forget if you use childcare vouchers, you gain 20% off your childcare.  

All booking for after-school club need to be done before 1pm. Any booking after 1pm will incur a late booking fee of £2 this has been introduced due to the high number of parents phoning up at 3pm to book children in.   

There is no need to book children into breakfast club.  

Payments  

All payments for clubs, wrap around care and school dinners must be paid in full. If you are struggling with payments, please contact Hayley in the office, who will help you set up a payment plan and also signpost you to apply for support.  

Government Assessments  

EYFS  

Well done to our Reception children who have worked hard all year towards their Good Level of development (GLD). Thank you to all parents who have supported their children with homework set by the Parks team.  

Year 1  

Our year one children have completed their phonics screening. We can see how much the daily sessions of phonics teaching have built up their confidence when approaching this task. Thank you to parents and grandparents for supporting the reading and phonics homework set. 

Year 2  

Our year 2 children have completed their SATs and, in true Stanley style, they have taken them in their stride. These assessments cover reading, spelling, grammar and maths taught over the year. Thank you to the parents and grandparents who have supported children with maths, spelling frame and reading homework. This will all have contributed to their overall outcomes.  

Year 4  

The year 4 cohort completed their multiplication test set by the government online. The children have the choice of using a laptop or iPad. The children have 25 questions to answer, having only 6 seconds to answer each question. We are hoping that all the work children have done using TT Rockstars in school and as homework will impact on the outcomes. Thank you to those parents and grandparents that have supported this online homework task. 

Year 6

Well done to the year 6 children who completed their SATs in May. They had brilliant attitudes towards the whole process.  As we know, these results do not make us who we are. Thank you to parents who supported the booster work and homework tasks which were all linked to supporting the teaching in Rashford class. 

Thank you to all the staff and governors who have supported our children while completing all the assessments.

We are really proud of the way they have taken them in their stride.

We await to find out the outcomes for all pupils. 

Lea Green  

The Rashford class had an amazing time at Lea Green. They enjoyed camping, and the weather was very kind to them. The children took part in a range of activities from paddleboarding, high ropes, team swing and soft play. There are lots of photos on the class pages of the adventures they got up to. 

This is the last residential that we will be doing until possibly 2026. 

RE visit  

Last half-term we had three visitors from the open centre who came in to do a workshop for each class. Each class had a workshop on a different world religion. Parks’ workshop was on Islam, Angelou’s was on Sikhism and Rashford’s was on Buddhism. All children enjoyed the experiences on offer, from dressing up, trying different foods and crafting all within the RE curriculum. These workshops were to support children continuing to learn about RE in the real world.   


Classes for 2024/25 

 

Staffing  

Years  

Total 

Parks 

Mrs Gresswell, Mrs Stals, Mrs Hardy-Fryer 

R,1, 2 

24 

Angelou  

Ms Middleton, Mrs Richardson , Mrs Davies, Mrs Ellis 

3,4 

23 

Rashford  

Miss Price, Miss Willets 

5,6 

31

 

 

Responding to Parent questionnaire feedback  

Homework  

We have reviewed our homework set, and many have given great feedback on handing it in towards the end of each term. We still have some parents who are struggling to support this part of their children’s learning. This term we are asking that you complete reading 4 times a week with your child. They will receive their raffle ticket and a small prize.  

Spellings or phonics will continue as normal for any parents who are struggling with the spelling frame online. A paper copy will be sent, if requested. 

TT rock stars will continue, and children will be awarded based certificates and be able to take part in local competitions.  

We hope this review helps to support those parents who are finding homework a battle or, indeed, for those who do not have time.  

 

Charity contributions 

As a school this year, we have given to the following charities this year: 

Autumn  

Harvest gifts donated to the local feed bank.  

Remembrance Day Poppy items are sold to children or adults. 

Children in Need donation for cake sale non-uniform colouring competition  

Christingle donation of pennies. 

Spring  

Skipathon donation in aid of Alana local sibling within our community. 

Red Nose Day donation  

Summer  

Raffle items for our summer fair. 

Festival change £3 for stalls.

These charities have been chosen as we feel they help children to show compassion, kindness and to think about others.

As a school, we only ever ask for a donation or gesture and would never want any family to feel pressurised to take part. 

 

Earrings and uniform  

The school has a uniform policy to meet the guidance set out by the DFE. We have actively encouraged parents not to buy designer items nor do we insist on wearing logo items. This is to help keep the cost down when purchasing. We also recycle items to make sure that every child in school has quality items which they are able to wear during the week. Uniform helps children get ready for their secondary school and gives them a sense of belonging. Non-uniform days, including discos, are planned throughout the school year so that children can express themselves and enjoy wearing other items of clothing.  

Earrings are not part of our school uniform and are difficult to manage within school due to the health and safety implications.  We ask that children have their ears pierced at the end of the academic year so that earrings can be removed ready for school in September.  

Stanley’s Got Talent  

Rosie took the plunge as creative curriculum leader to host the Christmas version of Stanley’s got talent as a rehearsal for the event. Rosie has decided that she would like to run Stanley’s got talent, and she is happy to open it up to parents and grandparents. This event is always very difficult to time as the afternoon can quickly get eaten up with children enjoying the atmosphere. To plan the event if your child wants to take part, it would help Rosie if she was given an idea of the time it would take, as auditions do not give us an accurate time due to nerves and sorting music. This event will take place on Thursday 11th July at 1pm. If the weather is poor, we will have to have this event inside and may not be able to open it up to an audience. If this is the case, all acts will be recorded and put onto the school website for parents and grandparents to view.  

Summer fair  

The summer fair will be on 12th July from 3:15-5pm. This year we will hold the fair at the village hall to help ease the traffic congestion. We intend to take the whole school up to the village hall at 2pm where we will have a school event on for the hour.  This will give all the year 6 children the chance to set up their stalls ready for the fair. All children can be collected from the village hall at the end of the school day. Any children who have been booked into ASC on that day will remain at the village hall with staff until they are collected. 

Stanley festival 

Stanley school festival, as many of you will know, was always Mrs McGuinness' input through her husband's business ‘Furthest from the sea’. For the final time, we are going full circle and ending on a Pirate theme as requested by the children. The date for the festival will be 19th July. The children will be able to come to school dressed up as pirates or in non-uniformed for the day. As usual, school will cover the cost. We just ask that you send your child in with some change, a maximum of £3 which they can use for activities. 

Angelou class trip
All Day
26
June
Stay and Play session
2:00pm – 3:00pm
26
June
Sports Day
10:45am – 1:00pm
28
June
Sports Day reserve
All Day
05
July
Guitar Performance
2:45pm – 3:05pm
09
July
Summer Fair
4:30pm – 6:00pm
12
July
Rashford Production
All Day
16
July
Rashford Production
All Day
16
July
Stay and Play
2:00pm – 3:00pm
17
July
Untitled Event Year 6 leavers event
All Day
18
July
Festival Day
All Day
19
July
Leavers service
All Day
23
July
Break up for summer
All Day
23
July
Leavers Service
10:30am – 11:30am
23
July