Dear Parents/Carers,

Happy New Year! I hope that you had a lovely Christmas and we wish you all the best for 2012.

Curriculum

We aim to plan an exciting and stimulating curriculum for your children with a lot of the work linking together in topics or themes. This makes the learning more meaningful for your children as they can make links between subjects. You have the details of your child’s curriculum in the ‘Booklet for Parents’ which you received at the beginning of the school year (or in the reception parent’s pack) – this is a useful reference throughout the year and will help you to help your child. There is also a link to this booklet through the website: www.laneend.stockport.sch.uk. Knowing your child’s theme should help you talk to them about their work.  Sometimes there is just one main theme for a term and sometimes more. The themes for this term are listed below:

Thank you for supporting your child at home, it really does make a tremendous difference to their education. Children should be reading each night and completing their homework on time. Please also remember to regularly log on to our VLE and the web-based learning tools we subscribe to such as ‘Mathletics’ and ‘Curriculum Visions’ to get the most out of the online learning available to your child.

 Clubs

 French Club and Gym Club start today (Wednesday 4^th January) and Junior Sports Stars football starts tomorrow (Thursday 5^th January). No other clubs are on this week and we will send home a new club

 list and letters later this week. Unfortunately, Duncan Collins, who took the tennis club is now no longer able to commit to the time after school, however I am pleased to say that we have a new tennis coach – Susan Morrison, who will be running the club from next Friday for Year 1 and 2 at the same time of 3:15-4pm.

 Parent Governor Election

 Congratulations to Vanessa Morrissey, who has been elected as our new Parent-Governor. Thank you very much to the other two parents who applied as well. I am very pleased that we have parents willing to put themselves forward to help the school in this way, it is very much appreciated.

 Staff News

 Welcome back to Mrs Chamberlain who has returned to school after her maternity leave. A big thank you to Miss Joseph for doing such a good job teaching Class 2 while Mrs Chamberlain was away – Miss Joseph will also be covering Mrs Love’s maternity leave from March.

 Useful Dates for your Diary

 Wednesday 4^th January                     School Re-opens after Christmas

Wednesday 11^th January                 Year 6 SATs/Robinwood Meeting – 7pm

Monday 6^th February                                    Year 6 to Robinwood

Wednesday 8^th February                  Year 6 back from Robinwood

Monday 6^th February                                    Year 5 Parent-Teacher Interviews – later night

Wednesday 8^th February                  Year 5 Parent-Teacher Interviews

Friday 10^th February                           School Closes for Half Term

 Monday 20^th February                       INSET

Tuesday 21^st February                        School Re-opens after half term

Tuesday 6^th March                            Parent-Teacher Interviews – later night

Wednesday 7^th March                      Parent-Teacher Interviews

Thursday 15^th March                         Full Governing Body Meeting – 6:30pm (observers welcome)

Friday 23^rd March                              PTA Sports Relief Disco

Friday 30^th March                               School Closes for Easter

 Monday 16^th April                               School Re-opens after Easter

 Year 6 parents – please note the date of the Year 6 SATs/Robinwood Meeting: Wednesday 11^th January at 7pm.

 Year 5 parents – please note the different dates for the Year 5 Parent-Teacher Interviews: Monday 6^th and Wednesday 8^th February (before Mrs Love’s maternity leave).

PTA

 The next meeting is on Monday 16^th January at 7:30pm – everyone is welcome!

PTA Theatre Night – A letter will be coming home soon from the PTA about a PTA Theatre Night - "Black Comedy" a farce by Peter Shaffer, Monday 23rd January 7.45pm at Players Theatre, Anfield Road, Cheadle Hulme, Tickets £7.50.

The PTA funded benches have been installed in the playground for the children (and waiting parents!) to use. Thank you very much to the PTA for funding these – without PTA support (both help and parents attending events) we wouldn’t have the money for a lot of the ‘extras’ that they provide. 

We aim to be approachable and work in partnership with parents, so if there is anything you wish to discuss, please do not hesitate to come and talk to us.

 Yours sincerely,  

 James Twigg