Dear Parent / Carers,

As many of you will have seen we have had to keep the interior gate closed for a period of time due to the creation of Dudley bear. From today the gate will reopen again but we need you to carefully supervise your children at drop off and pick up times please.

Dudley has got some sharp edges which children need to be careful of. A message has gone out to all classes to talk about Dudley’s rough edges and our Safeguarding Champions are going to be monitoring carefully.

Many thanks

Miss Cook

Headteacher

I am writing to inform you of some proposed changes to the structure of the school day here at Newdale. This proposed change is in line with recent Government recommendation.

Currently the official start time in our school is 9 a.m. Anyone arriving after this time is classified as late. As you know, we have encouraged children into school at 8.40 a.m. for many years now.

Schools now have to offer a minimum of 32.5 hours schooling each week and in order to formalise this offer we propose the official start time for all children in school moves to 8.40 am. Anyone arriving after this time would subsequently be classified as late.

Should this change be approved, it will come into force from the first day back after summer half term, Monday 6^th June 2022.

I believe that these changes will be beneficial to the school community and will have a positive effect on your child’s education. The best time for children to receive intervention and recap on misconceptions is during the first slot in the morning. Currently some children are missing valuable intervention time that would have a positive impact on their learning.

We do not see that there will be any disruption for the vast majority of our parents or children, as most children are already on site at 8.40 am anyway. The information in this letter has also been sent to the local authority.

I appreciate that these changes may affect a small minority in terms of childcare or working arrangements. For this reason, I would like to invite you to give your feedback by sending your responses to newdale.primary@taw.org.uk

We will release the results of the consultation by Friday 6^th May 2022 and let you know of the outcome by Friday 20^th May 2022.

Yours sincerely,

Miss Cook

Headteacher

Newdale Primary School and Nursery

As a treat for winning the half term house points, Ironbridge are having a dress down day on Friday 8th April 2022.