THE FORESTSCHOOL NEWSLETTER July 2011
YEAR 11 LEAVE THE
Year 11 had a fantastic
last week at school; they went fishing to Spofforth
with Mrs Roe and caught lots of fish. They also went to Knaresborough with Mrs
Davy and had a relaxing day down by the riverside. The Prom at Dr. Bs was the
highlight of their week, where they dressed up and looked so smart in their
evening wear of ball gowns and black ties. On Friday they met Andrew
Jones MP at their final assembly. All the parents were present and
celebrated afterwards with a buffet produced by Mrs. Stewart- Smith and pupils
in years 8 and 9 food technology lessons. A big thank
you also to Mr Bunting for the wonderful BBQ and quiz on Thursday.
SWIMMING GALA
Our senior school
pupils will be taking part in the annual swimming gala on Tuesday 19th
July at Harrogate Hydro, 11am to 12pm. Please come and support the
children if you can.
SUMMER FAIR
Our Summer Fair on
Friday 17th June was a great success despite the terrible weather,
and many parents and grandparents attended. The children raised £397.56
for the school, which is a fantastic achievement. Thanks to everyone who
attended or contributed towards this popular event.
NEW ARRIVAL
Im delighted to
announce that Mrs Dwyer gave birth to a baby girl just two days after finishing
work! We wish the family well.
SUMMER READING SCHEME
North Yorkshire County
Council Libraries are once again running their successful reading scheme this
summer. This years theme is Circus Stars. Children can register
at their local library and collect stickers and medals as an incentive to
read. More details are available at your library or see the website www.northyorks.gov.uk/circusstars
BRINGING SCIENCE TO
LIFE
A brief visit to the
Science Lab at
In September we were
given two leopard geckos, two gold fish and five tropical fish, to add to the
pair of giant African land snails we already had. Later in the autumn
term we bought six spiny stick insects, to go in the large tank we had been
given. Our latest additions are three bearded dragons again donated to
the school. As these lizards need quite a lot of live food, we also have
a breeding colony of locusts and a regular supply of crickets.
At the moment we are
looking after a tame female toad, until its owner returns from holiday at the
end of term.
The secondary pupils
all have an opportunity to handle the animals and help look after them. They
have also been used in specific biology lessons on topics such as variation,
feeding relationships, categorising and the seven characteristics of living
things. In physics we have used them to investigate weight and mass, and
speed. Im sure its only a matter of time before they are used in a
chemistry lesson too. Whatever the excuse, the animals are always very
popular, and it is very rewarding to see our pupils confidently handling
animals that some of the adults find it difficult to hold.
Looking after the
animals takes a lot of hard work. This is largely done by Mrs Watson, a
teaching assistant at the school. In fact, to help pay for the food for
the geckos and dragons, she has also started a regular cake sale in the staff
room.
If you would like to
support this work, we are offering an animal sponsorship scheme. For just
£2 a month you can help pay for the upkeep of one animal. For this you
will get a picture of the animal, and termly updates as to how it is doing. If you are
interested in this, please contact Mr Organ at the school.
What next? As we
have three out of the five vertebrate groups (fish, reptiles, amphibians), we
are thinking of adding a mammal perhaps a white rat. It is unlikely we
would get a bird, so we have recently bought some RSPB toys with authentic
sounds. As for invertebrates, it is unlikely that we would get ourselves
a tarantula, but you never know
.
Patrick Organ
Science Teacher
RESIDENTIALS TRIPS
A total of over 50
pupils will have been involved in residential opportunities this year
including trips to Bamburgh, Scarborough,
The commitment to, and
passion for, these trips demonstrated by the staff is huge and our children
would not get such opportunities were it not for the time, effort and care that
is freely given. I am very grateful to all who support our children in
this way and I feel sure that you would like to join me in thanking those
staff.
CAR PARK
A new car park at
last! The plans for creating the extension to the school car park are
proceeding and we are informed by the contractor that it will be completed
before the beginning of next term. We intend to consider the layout and re-marking of
our present car park in September. We should then have a much safer provision,
with a traffic system for school transport that all users understand and can
easily follow with specific visitor and disabled parking too.
PARENT TEACHER EVENING
It was good to see so
many of you at this recent event. We do our best to be communicating
continually with you and these formal events enhance the supportive framework
around the children that we all wish to have in place.
Some parents that I
spoke to talked of a wish to meet up with other parents just to have
opportunity to share experiences and support each other. We will look at
how we might arrange that next term.
As a result of some
comments you have made we are also looking at creating some Parent Groups
next term. The topics could be of your choosing and I have suggested some
on the attached sheet. If you would like to be involved please return the
reply slip so that we have an indication of how many of you are interested.
PARENT VIEWS
The annual Parental
Questionnaires continue to come in thank you for those. If you have
not sent yours in please do so. If for some reason you did not receive
one, please let us know we really would like to hear from you. The comments
we have had so far are really very reassuring and complimentary. We have
extended this form of evaluation to all of our Professional Partners.
They are giving us formal feedback now and this too will help us decide
how we can get even better.
STAFF RUNNERS
Congratulations to Mrs
Watson who did the Three Peaks Challenge (23 miles) in 9 hours, in the pouring
rain - an incredible feat. One of our Governors, Rev. Bob Jones is
running a 10K race in September with some colleagues and we wish him well.
He is raising funds for the school and if anyone would care to sponsor
him please let us know.
SWIMMING
Parents tell us just
how much children enjoy the weekly swimming sessions organised by school.
We are delighted by that and agree that the children get so much out of
them. The learning from each visit is not just in the water but more often is
to do with everything else that goes with it preparing to go, organising
ourselves, travelling to the pool, getting changed etc. etc.
However, sad to say,
the present economic climate includes budget cuts. On top of this costs
for participation and travel have increased. Consequently we are not able
to sustain the present swimming sessions without raising the cost for you the
parents. We will be writing to you at the beginning of next term
outlining the new amount we will have to charge for the swimming sessions and
we will try our best to make it similar to that charged by other local schools.
We will also find it very difficult to afford swimming nappies for the
little ones from now on and will be asking you to provide those
yourselves. We are really sorry to have to ask and appreciate what a
difficult time it is for everyone. We hope you will be able to support
us.
If anyone has any spare
clean towels, or outgrown/no longer needed swimwear, please could you donate
them to school as we often need spare items.
Thank you.
STAFF LEAVING
Some of our staff are moving on at the end of term and we wish them every
success in the future. Catherine Greenhalgh,
Erin Gardner and Peter Lowe are leaving us and we thank them for all they have
done for the pupils and the school.
It is with great regret
that we also announce the early retirement of our School Bursar, Linda
Wilson. She has been a permanent fixture in our school for over 17 years.
Linda has not only been responsible for all financial matters in the
school but has also been a source of sound advice and support for a huge number
of staff over the years. Even in my short time at the school I have come
to rely upon her knowledge, skill and ability to eek out every last penny from
increasingly challenging budgets. She leaves with our very best wishes
for a happy and fulfilled retirement.
SPEECH & LANGUAGE
THERAPY NEWS
Makaton
Training
Wendy Brotherton has just run a Makaton
enhanced course. Her next Foundation course will be in 2012 let Wendy
know if you would like to book a place on (tel 01423
798945)
Countrywide support for
commumnication
Wendy and Kath Pringle
are contributing to a new
Hello campaign
Dont forget 2011 is
National Year of Communication. Ideas for activities to do in the
holidays are attached. Please go to www.hello.org.uk for
more information.
ECAT
Wendy and Kath have
become ECAT (Every Child a Talker) accreditors for
partner schools.
SCHOOL DINNERS
Good news on the school
dinners front too.
North Yorkshire County
Caterers have advised us that there will be no price increase to school
meals. Therefore meal prices remain at £2.10 per child per day.
The sibling discount
rate is to end, so all children will pay the same amount from September.
Some children are
entitled to free school meals. If you need any more information about
this please contact the School Office or see the website www.northyorks.gov.uk
TRANSITION
DAYS
Last week The Forest
School held two transition days for the new year 7
pupils starting in September. We welcomed new pupils from South Milford,
Selby,
We wish them well in
their new and exciting journey at The Forest School and we look forward to
meeting with them again in September.
JAMES THE HERO
James, one of our year
10 students, proved to be a real hero recently. Whilst out horse riding
with his Mum, she was involved in an accident which resulted in her being
concussed. James was very organised and took the
horses back to the stables and raised the alarm. An ambulance was called
and Mum was treated whilst James remained very calm. Well done James -
what a hero! We are pleased to hear that his Mum has made a full recovery.
A list of dates for the
next school year is enclosed with this newsletter.
We hope you all have a
fabulous summer break heres hoping for some good weather! We look
forward to welcoming the children back to school on Monday 5th September
2011.
Peter N Hewitt
Headteacher
Your support for your
son/daughters education is crucial to their progress and wellbeing.
Please tell us if there are any adjustments we need to help you support them,
for example: letters in large font; letters in different languages, wheelchair
access, explaining things over the phone or a
discussion with a colleague of the same gender.
Parent Groups
As a result of comments from several parents we are
investigating the possibility of setting up a Parent Group next term. I have
outlined below ideas for possible sessions that some of you have said you would
like. We would get qualified and experienced trainers to run the sessions
and the focus would be on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding of
supporting children.
The sessions would run once a week and the whole programme
might run for say five or six weeks
The programme would be free and could be run in various
geographical areas at different times. So do not be put off by the fact that
you live a long way from school or do not have any transport.
We see each session as being an opportunity for you to learn
from those leading it and also for you to share with others what works for you.
If you are
interested, please complete this form and return it to me at school.
Please also add any other ideas you may have for sessions.
Many
thanks,
Peter
Hewitt
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Please tick
those areas below that are of particular interest to you.
□
Playing with children and learning through play.
□
Sensory play
□
Communication with my child
□
Using praise and rewards with my child
□
Setting limits and giving clear instructions to my child
□
Managing the behaviour of my child
□
Using social stories with my child
□
Healthy lifestyles diet, sleep, continence,
□ being
resilient, family and me time.
My ideas
for sessions would be
.
.
(please continue overleaf if necessary)
I would be
very interested in joining a Parent Group, learning new skills and developing
my understanding of best supporting children. Please let me know when the
sessions may be starting as I would like to consider joining the group.
Childs
name:
...
Parents
name:
...
Signed:
...
Date
...
School
Closes
School Reopens
Summer
Fri 22nd July
2011
Mon 5th September 2011
Half-term
Fri 21st October
2011
Mon 31st October 2011
Christmas
Tues 20th December
2011
Mon 9th January 2012
Half-term
Fri 10th February
2012
Mon 20th
February 2012
Easter
Fri 30th March
2012
Mon 16th April 2012
May Day
Fri 4th May
2012
Tues 8th May 2012
Half-term
Fri 1st June
2012
Mon 11th June 2012
Summer
Fri 20th July
2012
Training
Days (Staff Only)
Thur 1st September 2011
Fri 2nd
September 2011
Fri 6th
January 2012
Tues 10th July
2012
Wed 11th July
2012