September 10 – 2019

It has been wonderful to meet the children and many of you over the last two weeks. We are very fortunate to have such enthusiastic, skilled and dedicated staff who have been working hard to ensure a smooth start to the year. I have been impressed with the calmness around school and how well the pupils have settled back into our routines.

The pupils look very smart – thank you for ensuring your child is wearing the correct uniform. This encourages them to have pride in their appearance and take responsibility for their belongings.

As new Headteacher I would like to get to know our community better. I will be holding two welcome events on:

Tuesday 17^th September at 9am

Wednesday 18^th September at 2.45pm

If you are free, please come along and join us for something to drink and a treat to eat. I would love to hear your ideas about how we can continue to work together to give our pupils and families the best opportunities.

From Monday 9^th September there will be some changes.

• The entrance gate for pupils will close at 55am when the bell is rung. Pupils are expected to be in the school playground by 8.55am. If your child arrives after this time you must walk them around to the main entrance to be signed in and registered. This is part of our safeguarding arrangements and is very important. Whilst I appreciate that it is an inconvenient walk between the pupil entrance and main office, I hope you understand that these arrangements are in place to keep all children safe.

 

• If your child arrives after 8.55am they will be registered by our office team and given a late sticker so their class teacher knows they have been marked ‘in’.

 

• A few minutes after the bell has been rung at 8.55am in the playground, a second bell will be rung to kindly request parents to leave the playground. This is so we can ensure the gates are locked promptly and we know our site is secure. We anticipate this may be slightly longer during the next week whilst parents of Reception children are helping them to settle.

 

• At the end of the day, we will lock the main gates promptly at 3.25pm to ensure the site is secure.

Over the next term I would like to explore how we can improve home time collection, increase our parent events and move to a paperless system where information will be sent electronically and payments can be made via the internet. If you have any suggestions or views on the above, please either come and talk to me at one of our coffee events or catch me in the playground.

I am very excited to be working here at Barnfield and look forward to getting to know you and your child over the forthcoming weeks.