PARKDALE NEWS & VIEWS

Newsletter 208

Feb 10, 2022 | Newsletters

TALKING HEAD

News & Views from the Head’s Office

As we approach the end of what has been a very challenging half-term, we would like to thank you for your usual wonderful support. We now expect that all Covid restrictions will be lifted by the time we return and this should ease the difficulties we have been having with staffing.

Throughout the half-term, the children have been amazingly resilient and upbeat. They are producing brilliant work and doing fantastic things in the classroom and beyond. As ever, they make us feel very proud indeed!

Whatever you are up to, have a good half-term week…

Crisp Packet Recycling To End

Unfortunately, the crisp packet recycling scheme we have been supporting is coming to an end. Walkers have withdrawn their funding and the organisers are ceasing collections in April. You can still bring packs to recycle up to the 18th of March, after which supermarkets should be picking up the scheme.

INSET Day

Just a reminder that Monday the 21st of February is an INSET Day. School is closed for staff training. We re-open to children on Tuesday the 22nd.

Admissions September 2022

The window for applying for a place as September’s new intake to Reception has closed and places are being allocated by the local authority. As usual, we look likely to be over-subscribed.

It is still possible to place a late application and these will be processed by Notts County Council in line with the published Determined Admissions Arrangements, which you can find on the Admissions page of our website.

DIARY 

REMINDERS

INSET DAYS

There are two remaining INSET Days:
Monday 21st February
One additional day tbc in the Summer Term

 

 

Mental Health Week

Mental health is always a big focus for us. It’s been particularly in the spotlight through the pandemic and we reallise just how much children’s lives have been impacted over the past two years. 

This week, we have been using the wonderful book by Tony Norbury, Big Panda and Tiny Dragon to focus particularly on Resilience, Kindness and Bravery. We strongly recommend the book as a valuable and heart-warming read for adults and children alike. Why not get a copy for home?

To mark the week, we had a dress-up day on Wednesday on which we all came as our ‘Ambition’. What a variety we had! From an Astronaut, through to an Ice-cream sales lady,  lawyers, doctors, rock Stars, footballers and a pleasing throng of would-be teachers, many of whom brought their own standard-issue thermal coffee cups!

Our thanks to Wellbeing Lead Mrs Troop, who works so hard to keep lots happeniing in this important area. You can see more of our work on this at the Wellbeing and Mindfulness page of the website and/or on each year group page.

Playground Plans

We are currently making plans to redevelop the main playground. It’s a great space and we are very lucky in that respect. However, we now have the capacity and soke funding to look at making it a better place for unstructured play and also for hard-surface sports. The concrete is a bit dreary and is certainly unforgiving if you take a tumble on it.

We are looking at a programme of resurfacing, hopefully to include a more user-friendly multi-sports area. With the pandemic, it has been difficult to get suppliers to come and do site visits to quote, but we are starting to get some interest now and hope we can get this project moving.

Keeping Up To Date

As we continue to further develop our website, more and more news stories from each year group are appearing on their own pages rather than in the Newsletter. If you want to know what is happening in your child’s year group – or any other come to that – you are recommened to pay regular visits to their page.

If you follow/like our Facebook page, you will receive automatic notifcations whenever a new post is added.

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

YEAR 6 TRIP

On the afternoon of Monday 7th February, Year two made kites out of old recycled plastic bags. This activity reinforced the children’s learning about reusing recycled goods and they thoroughly enjoyed it especially testing if their kites flew! We had the perfect weather with lots of gusts of wind! Hooray! Photos on the Y2 Page Gallery..

Carbon Footprint Cops

To help reduce our school’s carbon footprint, members of Year 4 have been chosen to be Parkdale’s Carbon Footprint Cops! Watch our video to find out more. https://youtu.be/MuNBiSgl6ps

Clubs

We have been looking closely at our offer of after-school activity clubs and are planning to get back to the full range now the Covid situation is settling down (fingers crossed). Look out for an exciting new range of clubs to complement the current (mostly) sporty offer. We hope the new clubs will appeal to a wider, more inclusive range of children. Thanks to our staff who have responded so positively to this and volunteered to provide an activity on top of their already busy working day – it’s appreciated.

Y5/6 Athletics Triumph

Our Y5/6 Sportshall Athletics Team are through to the District finals after coming in the top 5 schools in the heats last term. The final is on 28th Feb! The team have only just heard the news and are already out practising!!

Visit From Mrs Dunne

Year 5 were delighted to get a social visit from Mrs Dunne yesterday, 9th Feb. It was great to see her looking so well and she’ll be back again soon she promises!

A Farewell to Mrs Mohammed

We would like to wish our lovely Play leader Mrs Awa Mohammed a very happy and successful future. Awa is moving to Derby and this week is her last with us. We would like to thank her for all her care and support for the children of Parkdale over the three+ years she has been with us.

Year 5 Climate Scientists

On Monday, we had an outdoor lesson as a cohort. We used the Scavengar EDU app to answer questions about climate change. The children worked incredibly well as a team and had a great time doing so. Photo in the post on the Y5 page.

Attendance Lottery

This has been a great success. The children love the excitement and the prospect of a fabulous prize and there has been a significant improvement in punctuality. Thanks from us for your support with this. The lottery, which has actually become more ‘Wheel of Fortune’, complete with cheesy theme music, will continue for the remainder of the Spring Term.