Welcome Back to our Families

Dear Parents, Carers, Children and Friends,

First of all, may I say I hope this Summer has been wonderful for you all, with plenty of sunshine, fun and fresh air. Now might be an opportune moment to get yourself a cup of tea as this may well be a long one!

We now find our heads returning to school and the new year ahead of us. As a staff, we are extremely excited to enter this year for so many reasons: Our programme of improvements has begun with some of the classrooms and corridors being freshly painted. We have also received the majority of our new, high-quality sports equipment, purchased through your generous donations last year. Our brilliant new phonics scheme has arrived (sad goodbyes to Floppy’s Phonics!) and teachers are looking forward to launching this on our return. We have plenty of sports events lined up and this year we will endeavour to send an A and a B team to as many tournaments as possible, to allow more children opportunities to participate. Teachers will be accessing the most up-to-date training to ensure children make the best progress possible in fun, exciting, rigorous lessons. All in all, we have a lot of hard work and a lot of fun ahead of us this year.

As we know, while Covid was prevalent, adjustments had to made to keep everyone safe. Some of these actually turned out to be an improvement on previous practice (such as coming dressed in PE kit on PE days) but in places standards slipped. Now that we have returned to a time of “normality,” I think it is important we remind ourselves of the standards we aspire to.

Uniform

We want our children to look smart and tidy, but also feel strongly that no child should feel uncomfortable or excluded because they are not wearing the “correct” uniform. The vast majority of our uniform (white polo shirts, grey trousers/shorts/skirts/pinafores, gingham dresses, white socks, black shoes) can be purchased from supermarkets cheaply. We would prefer all children to wear an All Saints jumper/cardigan with a logo. We will offer assistance to any family who needs it with the purchase of these. Please contact the office or me if you need any help purchasing uniform with the All Saints logo as we will be happy to help.

Shorts, trousers, skirts and dresses are acceptable at any time of year – we simply ask that children are dressed appropriately for the weather. Parents of children in Nursery and Reception are also advised to bring in a named bag of spare clothes which can be kept in school in case of accidents.

Jewellery

Permitted Jewellery items are a wrist watch and a pair of plain studs in the earlobes. Please ensure your child can remove their own earrings on PE days, or that they aren’t worn on those days. It would preferable if new ear piercings that need to stay in place could be done in the Summer holidays. If this is not the case, however, we ask that parents provide tape to cover their child’s studs.

PE Kit

We feel strongly that it has been very helpful having children attend school in their sports kit on PE days, as it removes the hassle of children having to change in school. However, there has become a lot of inconsistency in sports uniform which we would like to improve. Our PE kit is simply a plain white t-shirt (with or without our logo), navy or black shorts/joggers/leggings, black or white plimsolls/trainers. On colder days, children may wear a navy zip-up jacket or their normal uniform jumper over the top.

Please note, although we want to raise the standards of our uniform, we understand that things sometimes go wrong – for example, shoes breaking, uniform being left somewhere, etc. This is not an issue and children will not be penalised for coming to school incorrectly dressed while the issue is being rectified. Uniform should never be a source of anxiety for any parent or child.

School Day Timings

As you know, we have altered the timings of the school day to avoid lengthy wait for parents, and ensure a prompt and productive start to the day for all children. This means that from September, all year groups will begin and end at the same time. The timings for all year groups are:

Nursery: 8:45am-11:45am (Morning session) 12:15pm-3:15pm (Afternoon session)

Reception – Year Six: 8:45am-3:15pm

The gates will open at 8:35 every morning and close at 8:50am. Children who arrive after 8:50am will need to enter school via the office. Where parents have children in multiple year groups, we will of course keep children safe until you come to collect.

We have considered that these changes may cause congestion on the pavements out the front, so we would ask that parents stand considerately so as to allow quick drop-offs and collections. Please note, the staff car park should not be used for drop-offs in the morning (even quick ones) unless by prior agreement.

Resolving Issues

From time to time, you may be unsure about an aspect of school or unhappy about a particular issue. Like you, we want issues resolved as quickly as possible. In the first instance, we would ask that you speak to your child’s teacher who will be happy to listen, act on concerns, and report back to you. If an issue persists, or you feel it is of a more serious nature, please contact the office to make an appointment with Mrs McCarthy or me. In our experience, it is much more helpful all round when issues are brought to us quickly, rather than being allowed to drag on and worsen, so please do come and speak to us. If you wish to make an official complaint about an issue, our complaints policy is available on our website. Equally, if you are particularly happy with any aspect of school life, please do let us know!

Stationery

We will provide children with the stationery they need in school, such as a black pen, pencil, rubber, sharpener, scissors, ruler and glue. However, these resources do drain our budget quite quickly. We are therefore always grateful when children bring in pencil cases with their own equipment in. If this is something you are able to do, we are happy to allow children use their own stationery. If you would rather your child use school equipment, we are happy to provide this.

New Website

As you will have seen, our new website is up and running. It is, at this stage, very much a work in progress and will be updated regularly to ensure you can find everything you need. Please note - this year, the Head's Newsletter will be sent out half-termly. Class blogs will be updated twice a half term, and news/important communications will be updated several times a week in the News section of the website. Every Friday, a text will be sent to parents with a link to the News section so you can catch up on the latest info. Please keep checking class blogs for exciting updates.

There will be plenty more information and updates from us in the coming weeks. If you have any questions that have not been answered, please contact either the office (from w/c 5^th September) or me - headteacher@allsaints-alrewas.staffs.sch.uk

I look forward to seeing you all in September.

Kindest regards,

Miss E. Wilson