Dear Parents / Carers,

Uniform is incredibly important to us at Newdale: it underpins our ethos, values, and emphasis about how children should approach life at school.  We understand there are differing opinions on the need for school uniform, but through my personal experience in many different educational settings, uniform does set a positive tone for expectations around conduct, behaviour, and attitudes; this in turn has an impact on the smooth running of lessons and the atmosphere within the school.  We will continue to place a high emphasis on children wearing it correctly and well and your continued support in this respect is very much appreciated.

We request children wear a navy jumper or cardigan and grey or black skirts / pinafores or trousers along with a light blue collared shirt. If you would like to order uniform with our school logo on, please do so via Baker and Sons Schoolwear in New Street, Wellington 01952 641897.  Please note that this is not compulsory: uniform without a logo is acceptable if it matches our chosen colours. In warmer months, blue gingham dresses / black or grey smart shorts can be worn.

All children need to wear sensible black shoes (no heels or trainers please). In the colder weather, girls are permitted to wear black, navy or grey tights.

We have decided that we will continue to allow children to come to school in their School PE kit on PE days.

Our reasoning behind this is that some children take a long time to get changed which can impact the length of a PE session; in addition, there is a lack of private space for children to get changed, and we do not want to resort to the unhygienic option of children changing in the toilets.

It is important to us that children do come in proper school PE kit: we do not want children coming in with other sport clothes please. All uniform should be clearly named. Any lost unnamed uniform will be taken to lost property. Lost property still unclaimed after a realistic period will be sold or donated.

The school PE kit is as follows:

White t-shirt

Black shorts

Black pumps / trainers

And for winter or when it is colder:

White t-shirt

Blue / black sweatshirt

Black shorts

Black jogging bottoms

Black pumps/ trainers

If children forget to wear kit or have incorrect kit on PE days, we will ask them to get changed into one of our clean spare kits. The expectation will be that they bring this spare kit home to be washed before returning the clean kit to school as soon as possible.

Please note we only allow plain stud earrings and ask that all other jewellery is left at home. Earrings will be taped up just before PE, to always ensure safety.

Nail varnish is not permitted in school and the school does not permit children to have extreme haircuts that could serve as a distraction to other children and are not in keeping with the ethos of the school. This includes patterns shaved into the hair, excessive use of hair products and false hair. The definition of an extreme hairstyle is at the discretion of the Headteacher.

School kit

We do not have cloakrooms outside of the classrooms and therefore the space available for children to store coats and bags is limited. Please refrain from buying them huge school bags. School supplies everything they need in lessons, so there is no need for pencil cases, notebooks or other stationery and they certainly will not have time for toys please.

Thank you for your support in this area. We are a ‘BeSMART’ school, and we want all children to feel part of our team whilst wearing our ‘BeSMART’ uniforms.

Miss Cook

Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers,

We are suffering ongoing issues with a few children who sneakily drop food under the tables at lunchtime.

Very often this food has hardly been touched e.g. whole apples and sandwiches.

Some children are throwing food under the table that has been supplied by home and other times it is food supplied by school.

It is really important to have conversations and better still get children involved in making their own packed lunches so that they have some control over what it is they will eat. Our teams try so hard to ensure that children are eating a good lunch so they have enough energy for their afternoon sessions.

I have asked our catering managers to come into school to see if they can do anything differently in order to prevent school food from being dropped on the floor.

We understand that some children are just so desperate to get outside to play that they rush their lunch. However, during assembly we will again be discussing the need to slow down and eat a good lunch.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Miss Cook

Headteacher