We are Blogging Mad

I hope many of you saw in either the Sheffield Star, The Journal or Look Local the recent article about some of our pupils in Y5 who have been blogging with schools in the USA.
The local press were very keen to find out more about the work undertaken at school and Councillor Harry Harpham was in school to celebrate the work of some of the pioneering children in the project. Our Y5 children first got involved in working with Sheffield University when they were Y3 with Miss Murray as part of a visual literacy project—superheroes.
Mr Winter has been working with the children on internet safety and using blogging as a form of communication was a powerful way of getting the message across about internet safety.
We will continue building on the work of the blogging group and I, as Headteacher of Monteney, also blog with other head teachers on a number of websites to share ideas, pose questions and find out more about schools.
It is yet another success at Monteney so keep on blogging!

Click the link for the Star article: http://www.thestar.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=58&articleid=2994800

Dance X

We’ve all heard of Pop Idol, then came the X Factor, Fame Academy, Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing on Ice and more recently Britain’s Got Talent.
All these reality TV shows select individuals through eliminator heats from across the country who have a gift or talent in a particular area. The lucky few are then part of a week by week knock out programme which has us all gripped to see who the eventual winner is.
Previous successes—depending on your taste include Girls Aloud, Will Young and Alex Parks.
Soon to be shown on BBC1 is the latest show—Dance X., you may have seen the trailers currently showing.
I am delighted that one of our ex pupils, Ashley Shaw, who has a sister here in Y4, has been selected to be on the show.
I would like to offer the very best of luck to Ashley and on her behalf can I get parents and children to tune in and support a local talent!

Report Feedback

Last week you should have received a copy of your child’s report form their class teacher. I do hope that over the week end you have had a good opportunity to read the report and celebrate some of the achievements you child has made over the past year at Monteney primary.
Each report clearly identifies a number of targets for literacy, numeracy and science and I fully expect that with your support, your child will work towards meeting some of these targets over the coming weeks, and the holiday in preparation for the next year of learning.
May I also remind you that you do have an opportunity to make a response back to school on your child’s report and we very much welcome this feedback.

Please remember that Wednesday is our first Summer Fair by the new fundraising group—The Monteney Fundsters.
I do hope you will come along and support the group in their new venture. They have some very exciting things happening like the climbing wall—so come on and give it a go!
The fun starts after school.

Reading Book Amnesty

Please can all children and parents have a good tidy up or sort out and bring back to school any reading books they find that they know belong to school.

This year we have spent over £6000 on reading books and this level of funding can not be maintained. We do rely on you bringing back books and as we are now nearing the end of term we need to undertake an audit of resources. Please, please bring them in !

Uniform Orders ready for September 2007

If you are requiring new uniform ready for the start of the school year can I please remind all parents that they need to get their order into school as soon as possible. Could all new uniform also be labelled as we are having an increasing number of lost items, or clothing being taken by he wrong owner.

Volume 5 Issue 19 Newsletter Date 27.6.07

Monteney Fundsters

I am delighted to let all our parents know about our new fundraising group—”The Monteney Fundsters” The group chose the name following consultation in schools so congratulations to Robert Youlton Y1HC for the suggestion.
The group have now met on several occasions are are really keen to get going with some fund raising events including a Summer fair on Wednesday 11th July.
For this to be a success they are asking for donations of different items for the event to go well.
If you have any teddy bears—large or small, other cuddly toys, books, DVD’s and videos or games please could you bring these into school by July 6th.
They are also keen to run some of our popular stalls including nail painting so if you have any nail varnish colours that are spare or unwanted please bring them into school.
Any help for the group would be very welcome, especially on the day in setting up and running stalls. The face painting stall will require some help so please let Mrs Somerville know if you can help out with the fair.
Thank you

Transition Day

On Thursday July 5th all the children in school will be spen

ding the day with their new class teacher. You will be informed of the new class teacher the day before.
The majority of our Y6 pupils will be at Yewlands and those not will be supporting us in school with the transition day.
The theme for this years transition day will be India, as this also fits in with the children’s festival work we are engaged with.
We are also preparing to undertake our parents evening very differently by inviting you to attend a meeting with your child’s new class teacher, rather than this years one. You will be invited to an hour long meeting to find out about your child’s new year and the expectations school has in that year.

Pilot Specialist School

On June 11th the headteachers from the family of schools—Monteney, Mansel, Fox Hill,, Grenoside, St Thomas More RC and Woolley Wood Special school attended a meeting in London to hear about some fantastic news for our schools.
The government is very keen to find out if primary schools with a specialism can further enhance the learning and therefore the outcomes for children the school serves. For 4 years the government with the specialist schools and academies trust is working with 34 primary schools across the country to see if having a specialism would enhance the education. We are delighted to be 1 of the 34 school invited to take part.
As a family of schools we have selected Science to be our specialist subject and we will be working with key people from around the country to enhance our science teaching at Monteney.
The project is due to start in September and I will be sharing with staff, pupils and parents what we will be doing over the years as part of this project.
Well Done Monteney!

School Uniform

Agreement has now been made on the school uniform for September 2007.

All children will be expected to wear a royal blue sweatshirt, jumper or cardigan with a white polo shirt. These can have the school logo on or can be purchased from most good retailers. All children will also need to wear dark (black, navy or denim) bottoms—skirts, shorts, trousers and girls can wear gingham blue dresses in the summer. We want all children to wear black shoes, boots, sandals or trainers.
Please can no child wear bright coloured trousers or skirts, or combat style bottoms to school.

Planning Permission for
Monteney Children’s Centre

Those of you taking a keen interest in the development of the house on site will be pleased to hear that planning consent was granted for the refurbishment to the house to take place last week at a council planning meeting.
The plans for the building and the outdoor landscape can be viewed on the Sheffield City Council website by following the planning applications links.

Volume 5 Issue 18 Newsletter Date 12.6.07

Whats Going On
Although we are already into our second week of this half term there are still plenty of things taking place in school over the coming weeks to inform you about.
Class Assemblies start this week and as usual they are on Wednesday mornings at 8.55am. Parents or carers are very welcome to attend:
Wed June 13th —Y1HC
Wed June 20th —Y3PH
Wed June 27th —Y2RO
Wed July 4th —Y4BM
Wed July 11th — YRClS
Wed July 18th —Y5KO
This half term is also very busy with a number of external artists supporting the children in preparation for work towards the Children’s festival.
We have two local artists in for 4 days undertaking music, puppet and art projects with our Key Stage 2 pupils (Y3—Y6). We also have our KS1 pupils working towards taking part in the Lord Mayors Parade on Saturday July 7th. The KS2 children will be then taking part in a variety of activities at key venues throughout Sheffield including the Crucible and the Winter Gardens.
Transition day will be held on Thursday 5th July when all children will spend a day with their new class teacher. You will find out who your child’s new class teacher is before this day.
Reports are due out on Friday July 6th. You will also be invited to a new style parents meeting on Thursday 12th July.

Class Moves

Over the coming weeks we will be asking all children in Y2 and Y4 to let us know about any friends they want to move class with as it is the time when we plan all classes for
September.
Please let me know by letter if you want to make representation for your child to be with specific friends or not! and the reasons why by
Friday 22nd June.
We will not be moving our current reception children into new classes for Y1 as the September class was split in January when the remainder of the year group joined them.

I will endeavour to accommodate all parental wishes but need to make it clear that we do need to balance the classes on gender, age and ability too.

Just to remind all parents that our final INSET day is scheduled for Monday 25th June. School will be closed for all children on this day and reopen on Tuesday 26th.
Bug Busting
We are also due to start a “Bug Busting” campaign. It runs from 15th June to 27th June. Please help us
“Beat those Bugs”

The Circus is coming to town

I have received a flier from one our local schools, St Thomas More RC Primary who have an event taking place at their school. On Friday 22nd June they have the National Festival Circus (a human circus) at the school and they have tickets on sale to go along and enjoy the show.
If you want to find out more, please ring the school on 2468020 or contact 07818 053660 for more details. Shows are at 4pm, 5.30pm and 7pm

SRE Week

Last week saw all children throughout school undertaking a wide range of activities based on the SRE curriculum. I have no doubt the children shared with you the work they had been undertaking during the week and it was great to see so many parents in school undertaking the workshops and activities put on for you. Thank you for your support.

Summer Fun

As we are now well into the summer term, it is also the time of year when children spend most time outside, both at school and at home, sometimes in extreme sunshine at the hottest time of the day.
Can I please remind you of our sun policy which includes children bringing sun hats to school to be worn during the heat of the day. Children are encouraged to wear loose clothing including blue check sundresses for girls and shorts for boys, although they need to make sure that any jumpers or cardigans they do bring have their name clearly labelled in them. We have a huge amount of lost property, much without names in!
Children also have access to free cold water during the day and this is important for re-hydration, especially in the hot weather
Please can I also remind parents that children should be encouraged to put sun cream on before they come to school. Unfortunately staff are unable to apply sun cream to the children during the school day.
Thank you.