Newsletters
END OF SPRING TERM NEWSLETTER
Here we are at the end of yet another term, a term that brings to an end the old Arthur Bugler Infant and Junior Schools and one that brings us to the threshold of the new Arthur Bugler Primary School which will officially come into being on April 1st. How exciting!
This term has been a very short one and time has flown by but the children have achieved many things, both in their learning and in extra-curricular activities. As always, all the children continue to be such a credit to the Arthur Bugler Schools in whatever they do. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff for their hard work and care for the children at our school. Thank you too to all of you for your support throughout the term, the school community continues to be a real strength here at Arthur Bugler.
There are a few things to share before we break up for the holidays:
Parent/Teacher Meetings: Thank you for attending our Parent /Teacher meetings on the 18th March. Almost every parent and carer came along to meet with the class teachers and to have a look at the children’s work in the classrooms. We hope you found the sessions helpful, we certainly did. We know also that the children enjoyed sharing all their work with you. We are sure that you were all impressed by the work the children have done and by the progress that children have made – the school was certainly full of very proud children the next day! There were also some delightful comments shared by parents and carers following the meetings, a big thank you for those as well.
Easter Activities: Once again, we have had a very ‘eggsciting’ Easter time in school. Easter Bonnets from Early Years to Year 3 were shared in a special assembly and those children from Years 4, 5 and 6 who made bonnets shared them with the rest of the school. There was also an Easter Egg Hunt for children in the Infants, followed by an Easter party. Well done to the children in both schools who were the winners of the Easter Bonnets competition. The names of all the winners will be displayed on the School Websites. It was a VERY difficult decision to decide upon the best ones because there were so many wonderful creations – so well done to every child who made a bonnet.
PTA: Thank you to the ABC and FAB for their continued hard work on behalf of us all. They have helped to make this week special for the children in both schools by providing the party food for the Easter parties and the prizes for the Easter Raffle and the Easter Bonnets. They also organised the discos in the Junior School and the visit from the Easter Bunny in the Infant School. On behalf of all the children – thank you. Thank you also to all of you who have given up your time and energy for fundraising on behalf of our schools. Please do come along to get involved in PTA events for the new Primary School, it will be an ideal opportunity to get involved for the first time.
Attendance: The class in the Junior School with the best attendance since the beginning of the school year is Moonstone Class (Mrs Cooper’s Year 3 class) with 97.9% attendance. In the Infant School the class with the best attendance is Jade Class (Mrs Green’s Year 2 class) with 97.3%. Attendance so far this year in the Junior School is 96.2% and in the Infant School it is 95.9%. In the Juniors there are currently 38 pupils with 100% attendance since the beginning of the school year and 27 pupils in the Infant School – well done to all of those children. Again, names will be put on the school websites.
School Football: We are well known in Thurrock for having brilliant football teams, both boys and girls, and this term our teams have scaled dizzy heights. The boys rounded off a great year with an emphatic victory over Stanford Primary and finished third in the league. The boys also participated in a premier league event where they qualified for the finals tournament in London at the West Ham training facilities. Every member of the team continually showed their impeccable core values throughout, for which they received many compliments from school staff and the tournament organisers themselves. The Arthur Bugler girls have had their most successful season where they have once again become the Thurrock schools cup winners. The girls have had some nail biting conclusions to their games, keeping all staff and parents on their toes. They finished second in their league. Well done to all our football teams and thanks to Mr Armstrong and our team of helpers.
Building Works: The Easter break will be a busy time for our building contractors. The work between the schools will continue and work inside the school will get underway. The internal work will all take place in the Infant School building, with a remodelling of the kitchen area and the foyer area next to the Infant School office. However, there will be no changes to the temporary arrangements we have put into place during this half term and we will continue to use the Infant School building as the main entrance into the school and no cars will be allowed into the school premises, other than at the morning ‘drop off’ time.
School Clubs: School clubs will start once we are back to school after the Easter break. Year 2 clubs will start on Monday 13th April. God Story Club (for two weeks only) and Italian Club will also commence that week. All Junior School clubs will commence with the exception of Gym Club (usually held on Wednesdays and Fridays) and Art Club. We will let you know when these clubs are due to get underway once again.
Finally … this is my last Newsletter and my final day at Arthur Bugler. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone for making my time here the wonderful experience it has been. Arthur Bugler is a very special place with a wonderful school community and I have had the privilege and the pleasure of being part of that over the past six and a half years. I want to say a huge thank you to every pupil, member of staff, parent, carer and governor who have helped to make being Headteacher of Arthur Bugler Infants and Juniors the wonderful role it has been. I am very sad to go and to say goodbye to all of you but I know Arthur Bugler Primary School will be an outstanding school and I know that in passing on the Headteacher baton to Mr Bryant, the school will be in very safe hands because, like me, he is going to be working alongside the whole Arthur Bugler school community team – and what a team that is! Goodbye everyone, thank you for absolutely everything. I expect to hear great things!
Have a great Easter break. School opens again on Monday 13th April.
Ms Phillips
27th February 2015
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back everyone - what a busy week it’s been! We are writing to let you know how the new arrangements with regard to the building are going and to let you know about other events happening this half term.
Building Works
In assembly today we praised all the children for how very sensible they have been with regard to the arrangements we have put in place around the building work and we would like to thank all of you also for your co-operation and for helping us to ensure that everyone stays safe whilst the work is in progress. Thank you.
We have reviewed our plans this week and just need to make a minor change with regard to the drop off in the mornings. Please drop off ALL children in at the gate in front of the Infant School entrance so they can enter the school through the Infant School Office area. We have noticed children wandering around the cars once they have got out of their own cars so need to change these arrangements as of Monday.
Also, we appreciate that parking is difficult outside of school but PLEASE DO NOT PARK BETWEEN THE CROSSROADS AND SCHOOL GATE AT THE END OF THE DAY. We need to leave room for emergency vehicles to access the school if needed and parking and reversing in a small area where families and children are crossing the road is extremely dangerous. We have been observing the situation this week and it is the same families each afternoon who park in this area – please do not do it! If you are a little late in collecting the children because you have parked further away we will understand.
If you are bringing children to before school clubs or collecting from after school clubs by car, please remember that you must park outside. During this time the contractors’ deliveries will be taking place and it would be dangerous for pedestrians to be in the car park area.
World Book Day
Don’t forget it’s World Book Day on Thursday 5th March. Children can wear their pyjamas to school on that day or dress as a book character. We have planned lots of book activities throughout the day so we know it’s going to be fun.
Parents and Carers’ Meetings with Teachers
Parent/Teacher Consultation Meetings which will be taking place on Wednesday 18th March.
On that Wednesday both Arthur Bugler Infants and Juniors will be closed and children will not be in either school for their usual school day. However, as we have done in previous years, you are invited to come into school with your child during that day to meet with your child’s teacher and to have the opportunity to look at your child’s work in their classroom.
This is a very important mid-year meeting so we hope very much that you will be able to attend. In addition to the children sharing all their work with you, the teachers will also be talking with you about how the children are doing, what their targets are for future progress and ideas for how you can support your child’s learning at home.
From Monday, 2nd March, timetables will be displayed for each Early Years and Infant class so that you can sign up for your appointment time for the 18th March in the Infant School. For those of you with children in the Junior School, this will mean you will know what time your appointment is in the Infant School before ‘signing up’ for a time in the Junior School. Miss Jones and Mrs McAllister will put their timetables on their classroom doors where you collect your child from at the end of the school day. Mrs Green’s timetable will be displayed at the double doors leading into the school from the playground and Mrs Hilder and Miss Pugh will have their timetables displayed at the Early Years entrance. A letter will go out midweek next week so you will be able to state your preferred time to meet with the Junior School teachers.
As mentioned above, we hope that all the children will also be able to attend the meetings, so please sign up for a time when you are able to bring your child to school with you. The meetings will commence at 9 am and the final appointment will be at 7 pm.
We look forward very much to meeting with you all.
New Assessment arrangements
Lots of you have already signed up for Miss Glandfield’s meetings on the 11th March to come along to find out all about the new assessment arrangements. If you would like to attend, it’s not too late to let us know. It will be a very useful meeting and you will be able to find out more about how to support your children at home. We hope to see you there.
Red Nose Day
Red Nose Day’ is on Friday, 13th March and, as usual, we will be taking part this year. We will let you know our theme for the day very soon.
So once again, welcome back everyone and thank you again for your patience and cooperation whilst the building works is underway.
Ms K Phillips Miss L Glandfield Mr G Thomas
FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER
Another half term gone by! And once again a very busy time has been had by all. Exciting things have been happening in all the classrooms throughout the half term and the children have again achieved so much throughout the school. Formal amalgamation is now just around the corner and we have continued to work together as one school in so many ways. Our new Headteacher, John Bryant, has continued to visit the schools weekly and has been able to get to know members of staff and the children. I know he is looking forward to meeting with many of you once he has officially started at the school. In the meantime, his visits have meant that we have been able to work together on many school areas for improvement, working towards a smooth handover at the end of next half term.
As we break up for the half term holiday there are some things to tell you about:
Building Work
As you will know from the recent letter from the Chairs of Governors, the building work will finally get underway next week. It will be wonderful to have our new building which will physically and symbolically join both the schools but it will cause some upheaval whilst the building work happens. When we return to school following the half term break there will be a number of changes immediately visible. The contractors will have set up their compound and there will be a parking area for staff members only in the Infant School playground. We will continue to offer the morning ‘drop off’ but in a greatly reduced area, so please drive with great care if you are intending to continue to use the ‘drop off’. The limited area will mean that there will be no parking in the school grounds before, during or after school hours, including if your child is attending before or after school activities. All children, except those Junior children arriving by drop off, will have to enter through the Infant School foyer. All children can be collected at the end of the usual school day in the normal way from either building. However all children attending after school clubs or events will have to be collected from the front of the Infant School.
We do know that parking outside of the school will be very busy and we ask all families to walk to school if possible or to park at a further distance away and walk the final part of the journey. Please do not park on the road from the school gates down to the St James’ Avenue crossroads because we must allow space for emergency vehicles access.
New School Uniform
All the children have been asked about their thoughts about what they would like to have as the Arthur Bugler Primary School uniform. The Governors would now like to get your thoughts on the new school uniform and will be holding a Parents’ Forum meeting in the second week back after the half term break. Further details of the meeting will be provided as soon as we get back to school. Talking about school uniform, please can I remind you that children should not wear trainers to school and should always have appropriate footwear. A number of children have also been wearing different colour jumpers and cardigans to school, please let us know if there is a problem with providing school jumpers and cardigans as we do have some extras in school which your child could borrow for the day.
e-Safety Workshop
We had a very good turnout at the e-Safety Workshop for parents and carers this Wednesday and I know everyone who attended found the session extremely useful … and quite alarming! We will hold another session later in the Summer Term so hopefully even more of you will be able to attend at that time. It is very important that as adults we raise our awareness of the possible dangers our children could face online, helping us to help our children to keep safe. I would like to thank Carianne Mailey, our Governor with responsibility for e-Safety, for arranging this important event.
Parent/Teacher meetings
I would like to remind you that on Wednesday 18th March the school will be closed. However on that date you will be invited to attend the school to meet with your child’s classteacher and to look at your child’s work. Letters will go out as soon as we get back to school so that you are able to sign up for an appointment time on that day. Mrs Armstrong however will be meeting with the parents and carers from her class on Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th February prior to her commencing her maternity leave.
Parentmail
We know from your feedback that use of the Parentmail communication system is a hit with the Infant School parents. Once the Primary School systems are set up in April we will be able to use Parentmail across the entire school. Instructions on how to register will be sent out nearer the time.
Future Inset Days
The school will also be closed on Friday 26th June and Governors have agreed that Thursday 3rd And Friday 4th September will also be school training days so in the new academic year the children will return to school on Monday 7th September.
New Year 2 Clubs
The new after school clubs for Year 2 children will commence as soon as we return to school on Monday 23rd February. The children have all been informed of which club they will attend and can be picked up in the usual place at 4 pm every Monday. If your Year 2 child is not attending the Monday clubs please collect them as normal.
Attendance
As you all know, it is very important that children attend school at all times. The Government consider 95% attendance to be satisfactory but it is important that we aim to make attendance the best we can. In the Junior School the whole school attendance is 96.2% and in the Infant School it is currently 95.8%. The classes with the best attendance so far are Jade Class (Y2 Mrs Green) and Amber Class (Early Years Mrs Hilder) with 97% and in the Junior School Moonstone Class (Y3 Mrs Cooper) with 98.1% attendance. Well done to those classes and well done too to those children who have 100% attendance so far.
Have a happy and safe holiday everyone, we’ll see you back at school on Monday 23rd February.
Ms K Phillips
Headteacher
END OF AUTUMN TERM DECEMBER NEWSLETTER
Thank you to all of you who came along to St Margaret’s Church to join in the Years 5 and 6 Christmas celebration and those of you who came along to the school to join in with all the other year group Christmas celebrations. The children certainly did a wonderful job with all their productions and it has certainly helped to put us all in the Christmas mood. Well done to all the children, as always they do the school proud!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff for their continued hard work and care for the children at our school. Thanks too to all of you for your support throughout the term. Once again we have been busy showing prospective new parents around our school and we always tell them how lucky we are to have such good support from our parents and carers and at Arthur Bugler we really do have a whole school community working together for all the children.
Thank you too to all the members of the Arthur Bugler Carers and Friends of Arthur Bugler. Our PTAs have worked very hard throughout this term in their efforts to raise money for our schools. Once again they have made this Christmas at school very special for all the children. They have organised the Christmas Shopping Day in the Infant School and the Christmas Shopping Week in the Junior School and have organised and helped out at the Christmas parties and discos. In the Infants they even asked Santa if he would come and visit our school. From the monies raised from the Adventure Island wristbands, the PTAs were able to fund the Christmas Panto visit in both schools. Thank you to all of you who have been involved with ABC and FAB this term – all of us really appreciate everything you do!
Thank you too to our School Governors. We have a brilliant Governing Body who work behind the scenes for both schools. They have been very busy meeting about our future amalgamation and supporting the schools in a wide variety of ways in their monitoring role – thank you to all of them for the time they give up to carry out this important role.
We must also say thank you to those parents, grandparents and family friends who come into school every week to support the children with their reading or who come in to help with the library and other activities. Thank you too to all the parents and grandparents who have helped with sporting events and have come along to cheer our teams on. Again we really appreciate your support.
Well done too to the Junior School Choir who have represented the school around the local community so well and brought many smiles to those who have been able to listen to them sing. Well done also to all our sports teams and our cross country runners who have achieved great things this term.
As we have said, it has been a very busy term with great things happening around the school. Each class teacher and Learning Support Assistant were asked to choose their ‘Achievers’ for the whole term. Do have a look at both school websites to see which children were chosen and which children were our Lunchtime Award winners too. Also on the Website is the list of the children who achieved 100% attendance this term.
As you all know, it is very important that children attend school at all times. The Government consider 95% attendance to be satisfactory but it is important that we aim to make attendance the best we can. In the Junior School the whole school attendance is 96.3% and in the Infant School 95.9%. The classes with the best attendance are Moonstone (Y3) with 98.3% and Jade (Y2) with 97.5%. Well done to both classes. Please do encourage your child to try and achieve 100% attendance. In the Junior School this term we have 66 100% attendance achievers and 55 in the Infant School. Well done to 4LTC and to Mrs McAllister’s class and to all of our 100% attendance achievers.
Fingers crossed that in the New Year we will not have any extreme weather conditions this year but just in case! When the weather is severe we do everything we can to stay open but try to make our decision as to whether the schools will be open as early as we possibly can. We will always make a joint decision for both schools and will then update the School Websites as soon as possible. We will also let you know by Parentmail or by Text in the Infants and by tweet in the Juniors. If the schools are closed this will also be reported on BBC Radio Essex 95.3 or 103.5 or on SX Heart 95.6 or 102.6. If the schools are open, please do try to bring your child to school if it is safe to do so. If you need a little more time to get here, don’t worry, we would rather see you and your child arrive safely.
When we get back after the school holidays, please remember that you can only drive into the school premises in the morning if you are using the morning ‘drop off’. There should be no parking on the school premises at any time unless you have arranged to do so. At the end of the school day please remember that only those carers who have disabled blue badges will be allowed access to the car park. Please do not follow other vehicles into the school car park at the end of the day if you are not in possession of a relevant blue badge. Please also remember at all times to drive safely in the car park.
Just a reminder that the children return to school on Tuesday 6th January 2015 at the normal time.
Finally ….
☺Happy Christmas holidays to everyone and very best wishes for a happy and healthy new year from all of us at the Arthur Bugler schools.
Ms K Phillips, Mr G Thomas and Miss L Glandfield
OCTOBER NEWSLETTER
It has been great to see so many of you at the Parent/Teacher Meetings this week and I know that many of you have welcomed the opportunity to meet with the teachers and to share all the fantastic work the children have been busy doing over the course of this half term. It has certainly been a very busy half term with the introduction of the New National Curriculum and our meetings were a great opportunity to share with you some of the new and exciting things the children are learning about throughout the school. Thank you very much for coming along to these very important meetings.
Miss Goodey’s Year 4 Class and Mrs Cooper/Miss Glandfield’s Year 3 class will have their Parent/Teacher Meetings on Tuesday, 4th November. Appointment times will be the same as those originally allocated.
‘Open Door Thursdays’
Don’t forget that you can pop into the Infants or Juniors any Thursday after school to have a look at your child’s work if you wish to do so throughout the school year.
Reading and Golden Tickets
Thank you to all of you who have volunteered to join our Reading Team. Mrs Livingstone and Mrs McAllister are now busy allocating times and classes to everyone. Also, don’t forget that we are continuing our Golden Ticket Challenge this academic year – so keep reading everyone.
School Fete
Our School Fete was held on Saturday 27th September and was a resounding success this year.
A wonderful time was had by all and a total sum of £3,600 was raised! Putting on the Fete takes a lot of very hard work and very many thanks to those members of the PTA who were amazingly busy preparing for the day and on the day itself. Thank you from all of us. Thank you also to all of you who volunteered your help on the day also – parents, carers, pupils, governors and members of staff all came along on the day to help make it such a wonderful success.
Olympic Coins Raffle
In assembly today we drew the winner of the Olympic coins. The coin set was won by Connie Stevens in Moonstone Class. Thanks to Mrs Westcott-Price for organising the raffle. Proceeds will go towards buying further sports equipment for the school.
NSPCC
We were fortunate to have a representative of the NSPCC come into school to talk to the children about the work of the NSPCC and ways that the children can make sure they stay safe. They also told the older children all about Childline and how it is there for the children to use at all times. In return we offered to fundraise on behalf of the Society and this week the children have been carrying out special sports activities to help raise funds for the NSPCC. Each child will be bringing home with them today a sponsor sheet showing what activity they took part in and how well they did. If you would like to take part in this fundraising activity, can the children please collect sponsors over the half term and bring back any monies raised after the half term.
Harvest
Thank you very much to all of you who sent food in for Harvest. Our Year 3 children have today taken all donations to St Margaret’s Church where it will be distributed to the Thurrock Food Bank. Year 3 were very excited to be representing our school at the Church and were very proud they had so much food to take with them to share amongst the families of Thurrock and our immediate local area.
Attendance
Our overall attendance so far this term in the Junior School is 97.1% which according to Government guidelines is very good attendance and 95.7% in the Infant School which is good attendance. Minimum satisfactory attendance is considered to be 95% but Government guidelines say that most children should attend school 97% or more of the time. 90% attendance is the same as having half a day off every week and 80% attendance is the same as having a whole day off every week. If you take a two week holiday in term time your child’s attendance will be less than 95%. Term time absence will not be authorised unless in VERY exceptional circumstances and we ask that you do all that you can to encourage your child to be at school every day. The classes in each school with the best attendance are Mrs Cooper’s and Miss Glandfield’s Year 3 class (98.6%) and Mrs Green’s Year 2 class (98.3%). Well done to those classes.
School Lunches
There is a new school menu which will start after the half term break. If your child is in the Early Years, Year 1 or Year 2 please ensure that you send the form showing your child’s dinner choices for the week into school on a Monday. This will help to ensure that your child gets their preferred choice of meal every day. Those children in Years 3, 4,5 and 6 will make their choices each morning.
Open Day
On Thursday 6th November we will be holding an Open Day for parents and carers of pre-school children to come along to find out more about Arthur Bugler prior to applying to Thurrock Admissions for a school place for September 2015. If you have a pre-school child born between September 1st 2010 and August 31st 2011 please do drop in between 9.15 am – 11.45 am or 1.15 pm – 2.45 pm. If your child is currently in Year 2 in the Infant School and you would like the opportunity to look around the Junior School building you too can visit on this day to have a look around during the same times as above. Just let us know in the Infant School Office if you intend to visit the Junior School on that day.
Parking
Once again we would like to remind everyone about parking in the school car park. Please do not drive into the school car park at the end of the day unless you are a ‘blue badge’ holder who has registered your badge number with the Infant or Junior School office.
This half term there have also been three accidents in Balmoral Avenue at school home time. Unfortunately cars have been damaged but luckily no adults or children have been seriously injured. Next time it could be that a child or adult is hurt in a more serious way. Please ensure you park safely in Balmoral Avenue and surrounding streets and always be aware of other car users, adults and children around you. Don’t forget than many of our older Junior children do walk home alone so please do be extra vigilant and safe.
Mobile Phones
As you know, children should not bring mobile phones to school. However we do understand that some children bring phones to school for safety reasons because they are walking home on their own after school. If your child needs to bring their phone to school for this reason, please ensure that the phone is clearly labelled with their name and left in the school office during the school day. Phones can be collected from the Office at the end of the school day.
Lost Property
There is a vast amount of lost property in the Junior School Office awaiting to find its owners! Some of the clothing found around the school is brand new but sadly none of the items have names inside. If you are missing jumpers, sweatshirts, fleeces or shoes please do pop into the School Office to have a look inside the box.
Uniform
Can we please remind you about the importance of the children wearing the correct school uniform. A number of children are now regularly coming to school in trainers, proper school shoes (black) must be worn at all times please.
Start of the School Day
Just to remind you that the start of the day in both schools is 8.45 am. Doors will open at 8.45 and children can go straight to their classes at that time. With the winter months fast approaching, please can we ask that children do not arrive too early and are waiting out in the cold for too long before the start of the school day.
Breakfast Club
Our Breakfast Club has been very successful this half term, with increased numbers of children attending. Can we remind you that children should not arrive before 7.45 a.m. Thank you.
Guitar Lessons
Due to Mr Pethers’ absence, guitar lessons will start again in the second week back after half term.
Here are some future dates for your diaries:
4th November Miss Goodey (Y4) and Mrs Cooper and Miss Glandfield (Y3) will
hold their Teacher/Parent meetings in the Junior School (these
meetings have been rescheduled from Tuesday 21st October)
6th November Open Day for prospective parents and for Y2 parents and carers
17th November Training Day (the schools will be closed)
24th November Maths Workshop for the parents and carers of children in the
Early Years (the children will be sharing some of their maths
learning with you)
6th December PTA Christmas Market (11 am – 3 pm) in both school halls
9th December Infant School Christmas Shopping event for children (the PTA
will be asking for volunteers for this event soon)
10th December Infant School Christmas Dinner
11th December Years 5 and 6 Rehearsal for Christmas Performance at St Margaret’s
Church
11th December Junior School Disco after school
12th December Year 5 and 6 Christmas Performance at St Margaret’s Church
15th December 2 pm Year 4 Christmas Performance
16th December 9.15 Early Years Christmas Performance
16th December Junior School Christmas Dinner
16th December 2 pm Year 2 Christmas Performance
17th December 9.15 Year 1 Christmas Performance
17th December Panto (performances for Infants and Juniors)
18th December 9.15 Year 3 Christmas Performance
18th December pm Infant School Christmas Party (in school time)
19th December Final day at school
It’s going to be a busy half term!
Further dates to make sure are in your diaries are Monday 5th January, Wednesday 18th March and Friday June 26th all of which will be days on which the school will be closed. ( Please note that Wednesday 18th March will be our Learning Conference Day where you will be asked to come up to school with your child at some point during the day to meet with your child’s teacher and to look at your child’s work.)
Have a good break, we’ll see you on Monday 3rd November.
Ms K Phillips Miss L Glandfield Mr G Thomas
