Monteney News

2007-07-09T13:57:00.000+01:00

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

2007-07-09T13:52:00.000+01:00

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

2007-07-09T13:43:00.000+01:00

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.

Volume 5 Issue 17 Newsletter Date 1.5.07

2007-05-02T10:03:00.000+01:00

Family of Schools

There is to be a parents consultation meeting here at Monteney Primary School this coming Friday, 4th May at 8.45am.
You should have also received a copy of the first edition of the Family of Schools newsletter, which gave more information about our work as a family of schools.
The consultation meeting this Friday is your opportunity to find out about our work, the joint teaching posts and our curriculum developments. It is also an opportunity to share how we want to work in conjunction with the pupils and parents of children in all our schools to ensure the best possible outcomes for the children. We also hope that you will bring your ideas about collaborative working to share with us.
If you are unable to make this meeting, there are also meetings arranged for Tuesday at 6pm at Yewlands or Wednesday at 3pm at Mansel primary.

Success with Reading

Following research and monitoring undertaken in school, Miss Skinn has identified that a significant number of pupils are not being heard reading at home each night.
Reading, as you know, is a key basic and life skill and because it is so important, we have many strategies in school to support children with reading.
We have committed a huge amount of funding and time to the development of and support for reading and we ask that you play a small part in helping your child become an independent reader. If you want to find out more about how to help your child read please speak to your child’s class teacher in the first instance or ask Tina about some of the literacy courses we have running in school.

Huge thanks to the 3M’s

Over the past 10 years the 3M’s, The Monteney Money Makers, have been instrumental in raising thousands of pounds for school funds by arranging a wide range of school based and after school events like the school discos, summer fairs, Easter competitions and many raffles. This has in turn enabled the school to have many luxury items including computers for the ICT Suite; reading books and resources for the pupils; outdoor and play equipment; sports equipment and new furniture around school.
Unfortunately due to children moving to secondary school and work pressures, the chairperson of the 3M’s has reluctantly decided to finish her work so we now have no fund raising committee.
As fund raising is so important to our school we would be very keen to hear from any parents or carers who feel they would like to start a new fund raising committee for school. The only criteria for being able to do the work is enthusiasm, good ideas and of course time.
If you would be interested, please contact Mrs Somerville in the school office.

News In Brief

This week in school we are pleased to have 4 students from around the world. They will be working with KS2 pupils in a variety of lessons. I hope the children will learn more about the cultures, country and life of the 4 students who come from Germany, Armenia, Nigeria and India.

Student Council pose questions to David Blunkett MP

Last Friday, 27th April, I was delighted to take Tyler Jay (Y3) and Charley Wilson (Y5) to Mansel Primary to meet David Blunkett MP. David was meeting with the student councils and headteachers from our family of schools and he was asked some very interesting and challenging questions by the children.
The pupils have jointly agreed to undertake some work on the problem with litter in our community so expect more information from our school council soon.

Polling Day
This year we are delighted that the school is NOT going to be used as a Polling station. Polling will be at St Paul’s Church Hall.
School will therefore be open, as usual this Thursday, 3rd May.

Volume 5 Issue 16 Newsletter Date 18.4.07

2007-05-02T09:05:00.000+01:00

Dates for this term

At the start of what promises to be yet again a very busy half term, I wish to notify parents and carers of all forthcoming dates.
Please make sure, by reading class news, that you have further information about specific year group activities.
Already today our Y1, Y2 and Y3 pupils have enjoyed the Crucible theatre delivering a multi-cultural event entitled “The Leopard”. Follow up work will take place in school following this performance.
Class Assemblies start again next week at 8.55am on Wednesday mornings. You are very welcome to attend your child’s class assembly:
Y2MP on Wed 25th Apr
Y6CH on Wed 2nd May
Y1CF on Wed 9th May
Y4RG on Wed 16th May and
RCJ on Wed 23rd May

This term also sees our school taking part in preparations for the Children’s Fesitval during June and July. The theme for this year’s festival is India.
As last year, we will have artists and musicians in school working with all the pupils on a number of projects including shadow puppets, “A row of lights” and music on an Indian theme.
KS1 pupils will also be part of the Lord Mayors Parade on Sat 7th July. The theme being “The Jewel in the Crown”.

Science Week 07

The penultimate week of last term saw another successful Science Week in school. As many of you will be aware the focus for this year was Horrible Science. The children took part in a number of workshops and had the opportunity to find out more about the science behind many disgusting things that often fascinate children. Workshops included making very realistic fake wounds, making sneezing balloons and simulators, producing fake sick, making slime and how to make the runniest snot! Gross!!! But as you can imagine the children loved it!
We have a display of fabulous photographs on display in school, please make sure you have a look!

A big thank you to all of you who took the time to enter our Horrible Science Quiz.
The winner of the trip to Magna was Niamh Baker in Rec ClS and many more children received other science related prizes.

Family of School Consultation

You should have by now received a copy of the first newsletter on behalf of the Yewlands Family of Schools.

As a family of schools our work has gained local, regional and national recognition in terms of transition, cross phase teaching, developing leadership and other innovative practice. Our work is also helping inform the governments views on education.
The headteachers are very keen to share with all our community the work of the Family of Schools and I would like to point out to you the date of a forthcoming meeting at Monteney Primary School on Friday May 4th at 8.45am.
The aim of the meeting will be to share with parents and other community members the work we are currently engaged with, and to gain your views about how we can continue to work collaboratively in the future.
You are of course very welcome to attend any of the meetings that are detailed on the newsletter so if you are unable to attend on the specified date and want to attend another venue please feel free to do so.

News In Brief

The Big One

Thank you for your support with the recent Comic relief day.
I am delighted to report that we raised £313.42 for a very worthwhile cause

Easter Holiday Refurbishments

I hope by now that any parents of Reception or KS1 pupils will be aware of the refurbishments that have taken place during the holidays in the infant toilets.

Following consultation with you and the pupils it was agreed that this was a priority, so I hope you will see it has made a big difference to an area of school.
We fully aim to undertake similar refurbishments in the boys and girls toilets during the remainder of the year.

You will have all seen the bright yellow notice placed at the front of school reminding parents about their responsibilities to park carefully and legally outside the school. This campaign has been supported by Sheffield to make children’s schools safer.

Volume 5 Issue 14 Newsletter Date 27.3.07

2007-03-30T09:04:00.000+01:00

How Can You Help?
One of the questions that we are frequently asked in school is “How can I help my child with their learning?”
As a result of this, we want to let you know about a fantastic government website just for parents. The website includes lots of vital information for parents and carers including articles on behaviour and discipline, education and learning. The website includes some very informative publications which are available to be downloaded. These include:
A guide for supporting reading for parents of primary school children
*Getting the most from school reports
*How is your child doing at school?
*Making the most of time with your child
*Making the most of formal meetings with teachers
*Making the most of parents evenings
*Free early years education and the Foundation Stage
*Help your child to discover

The link for the website is on the newsletter links and on our school website.
We hope you find it useful and fun!

Please Help Our Neighbours
I am sorry yet again to report that I have received and continue to receive letters of complaint from local residents and parents collecting their child by foot, about inconsiderate parking.
Local residents report drives being blocked, grass verges being churned up and verbal
abuse from some of our parents.
Parents who have walked to school have also expressed concern about the inconsiderate parking and attitudes of some of our parents whilst waiting for children to leave school.
I am currently in discussion with the Highways Agency about Monteney Crescent and how possible solutions could reduce the parking and therefore problems we have on a very regular basis.
I do hope that with better weather people may decide to walk to school so, at least in the short term, we have a reduction in parking problems.

Congratulations To all our Family Learners
Earlier this term we were delighted to hear that a significant number of our family learners had either received recognition and certificates for their work in school or been awarded with Family Learning Awards at a recent Town Hall celebration.
Congratulations to Andrea Lamb, Michelle Hyatt and Sharon Kewish for their achievements.
Please look out for more family learning opportunities coming your way after the Easter break, including family learning in our new resource—the ex building supervisors house.

Developments on Site
Following ongoing discussions with the local authority and with all your comments regarding the possible use of the ex-building supervisors house on site, I am delighted to report that very soon you should see some major developments taking place there to benefit the whole school community.
The Local Authority have finally given us the go ahead to develop, in the first instance, the house to accommodate our family learning; develop meeting spaces, one
to one consultation rooms and the possibility of a base for all our parents activities until at least September. Some of our family learners have already volunteered their services to get the house up and running.
If you would be available, after Easter, and would be happy to come along and help “transform” the building into a space fit for a variety of uses, please pass your name to the office. We would love to hear from any painters or keen DIY’ers who would be happy to give a few hours of their time.
I look forward to the house being opened soon after Easter and us all benefiting from the dedicated learning space it will provide.

News In Brief

Easter Activities
As we are about to start a 2 week break from school I would like to remind all parents about accessing the Monteney Primary School website. If you use the address above you will find a lot of information and links to other websites with ideas about how to keep your child interested over the coming weeks

This Friday 30th March we break up for our Easter Holiday. School re-opens for all pupils on Tuesday 17th April as Monday 16th is an INSET Day for all staff in school.
Dinner money will be £6.40 for those 4 days.

Volume 5 Issue 13 Newsletter Date 7.3.07

2007-03-30T08:22:00.000+01:00

City Award Winners

For the fourth year running I am delighted to report that nominations made for a number of categories in the Sheffield City Achievement Awards have been successful.
Representatives from school have won awards in 3 categories, Primary Teachers, KS1 Outstanding Progress and Primary Projects group.

As many of you know Jane Marshall and Nova Barnes not only teach Spanish at Monteney but in an innovative project
they work in 4 of our other local schools and also at Yewlands secondary. This work, part of the family of schools work has been recognised locally and nationally as outstanding practice so I am delighted they have jointly won the award.

Dean Wilson (Y2) was also nominated earlier this year for his hard work and effort with Mrs Trigg and his class teacher attitude to learning and using knowledge gained in lessons to support other learning.
Our final winners are the children who took part in the Blogging project with Mr Winter.
Mr Winter nominated the children for their enthusiasm and commitment to the project. All their efforts are now being used as examples of best practice.
All our award winners will receive their awards at the city hall on April 26th at a special award ceremony.

Uniform Consultation
I would like to thank all parents for the recent uniform consultation returns. We received 104 returns which gives us a good indication of peoples views. Based on the returns we have I will be consulting with staff and the pupils at student council about the findings of the consultation and how we move towards formalising our current school uniform.
94% of returns agreed that school should have a full compulsory school uniform and that this should take effect from September 2007. There was clearly mixed opinion about the colour
of the “bottom half” with grey, blue and denim receiveing a surprisingly similar number of votes, however black was the outright favourite.
The possibility of a staff dress code was more evenly split and further discussions are needed with staff to agree on a dress code, although many of you agreed that teaching is more important!

Reading Book Amnesty
Please can you check all bedroom cupboards, book bags, shelves and under bed’s at home. We are missing a huge amount of school books and do not have the funding to replace them all. Please return any school books so they can be enjoyed by others.

Dinosaur Picture by Dan & Jack Y3

News In Brief

RED NOSE DAY
Next Friday 16th is Red Nose Day.
Look out for information about how we can help support this charity event helping our pupils gain an understanding of how they can help others.
Please help us by joining in the fun.

Grease Is The Word
Calling all John Travolta and Olivia Newton John Fans!
For later in the Summer term (July 07) the family of schools are planning a performance of Grease.
Staff across the schools will collaborate on the production and we hope it will involve staff and pupils from all schools at all stages—performing, singing, costume design, scene making, music etc.

Please look out for more news about dates and ticket sales for the performance.

Reading Book Amnesty
Please can you check all bedroom cupboards, book bags, shelves and under bed’s at home. We are missing a huge amount of school books and do not have the funding to replace them all. Please return any school books so they can be enjoyed by others.

Be A Better Neighbour
Yet again I am sorry to report that I have received numerous complaints from local residents and parents coming into school about the inconsiderate parking of cars, especially at the end of the school day on Monteney Crescent, Tyas Road and Wordsworth Avenue.
With over 430 pupils leaving school at the end of each school day I appreciate that parents, especially in bad weather, want to park as closely as they can to school to enable a quick get away.
This however is having a huge impact on the local residents who have reported their drive being blocked, grass verges churned up and some abusive language directed at them from some of our parents.