Earlsmead Easter Egg-straveganza!

Well done to all the children who decorated eggs for the egg decorating competition. There were so many beautiful and creative entries this year which made it egg-stremely hard to choose winners but well done to Tia-Louise who took 1st place for her Ant and Dec entry. All children who entered their eggs were rewarded with a well deserved chocolate egg from the Earlsmead Easter Bunny!

Well done to all children and their families and thanks again for your egg-cellent support!

Happy Easter!

Sports Relief at Earlsmead

A fantastic effort from everybody during our Sports Relief Run a Mile event on Friday.  Well done to everyone who ran!

So far we have raised £710 and the money is still coming in!  Don't forget to collect your sponsorship money!  

Remember, £3 could pay for life-saving malaria medication for 15 children in Africa and £10 could provide a young carer in the UK with a fun activity day, giving them a much-needed break from their responsibilities at home.

Dogs Trust Visits

Kelly Craig, the Dogs trust’s Education and Community Officer came to our school with her dog Tigger to talk to our children. It was an opportunity for our children to meet a very friendly dog and its responsible owner.

Lots of our children were able to stroke Tigger safely and give Tigger well earnt treats.

Kelly and Tigger will return to our school in the summer term to run a workshop for our parents, so look out for further information! 

Autism Awareness Week

Next week, 14th -19th March is Schools' Autism Awareness week sponsored by the National Autistic Society.

Earlsmead Primary School is an inclusive school and we want to join in this campaign; increasing understanding and creating a more autism-friendly UK.  The aim is to raise awareness and educate all the children in our school about the behaviours and characteristics of autism, and let them know what they can do to help. Autism affects how a person thinks, feels and learns, and we believe it is crucial that teachers and schoolmates know and understand as much as possible about autism. We want children who are on the spectrum to get the best start possible and have the chance to enjoy their time at school as much as everyone else.

During the week, as part of their PHSE lessons, children will have time to learn more about autism.  There will also be assemblies supporting this work.

Right in the middle of Schools’ Autism Awareness Week is The National Autistic Society’s very own Onesie Wednesday™ on Wednesday 16 March.  If the children have a onesie they can wear it to school on this day.  We would like to raise money for the National Autistic Society and suggest that children who dress in their onesies donate £1 each. 

Last day of the nursery - Tuesday 22nd March

As part of our commitment to creating a stimulating, safe and attractive Nursery environment, we will be redecorating the nursery over the Easter holidays and hopefully improving the Nursery playground.

In order to prepare the Nursery for the decorators, there will be no Nursery on Wednesday 23rd or Thursday 24th March. In these two days, staff will be packing away Nursery resources and then storing them in another space so that the decorators are able to carry out their work.

When the work is complete staff will need to reorganise the Nursery and put everything back in place. In order to do this we will have to keep it closed for the first two days of the summer term. Nursery children will come back to school on Wednesday 13th April.

The last day of this term for Nursery children will be Tuesday 22nd March. Nursery will reopen on Wednesday 13th April.

World Book Day 2016

Earlsmead Primary was a showcase of famous characters on World book Day this year. Everyone from the Paperback Princess to Peter Pan was there to celebrate all things readable. The children at Earlsmead Primary took part in numerous book challenges and competitions. Children who entered the book challenge received a merit and 2 children from each class were awarded a book prize for excellent book reviews. Children also had fun visiting other classes during The Big Read. At 3 o’clock, an alarm sounded in the school and we all had to stop whatever we were doing and READ! 

Thank you to all the volunteer readers and to Linda George for running our book stall in the afternoon. We also managed to raise money for Book Aid International. Well done Earlsmead! Thank you for all the encouragement you give your children with their reading- it is paying off! Why not visit the library and spot the winning book reviews? 

 

Our Children's Centre is closing

Dear Parents,

As you will know, Haringey Council recently restructured Children’s Centre services in the borough. As a result of this restructuring, Earlsmead Children’s Centre will close as a Sure Start Children’s Centre on Thursday 24th March, 2016.

What does this mean for you?

  • If you’re a parent of a child in the FreeFor2s Nursery Programme, there will be no change. The nursery is unaffected by this restructure, and Earlsmead School will continue to offer high-quality nursery care for eligible children.
  • If you’re a parent of a child who attends Stay & Play, there will be very little change in the short term. Earlsmead School will continue to offer three supported playgroup sessions per week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons.
  • We hope that the conversational ESOL class, and the craft club will continue, at least until the end of this school year, depending on the availability of the volunteers. We will re-evaluate this for next year.
  • We will continue to look for adult-learning opportunities for our families, such as ESOL and Family Literacy, and hope to offer these in the future from the centre.

Sadly,  Dara and Rosanne will be leaving on the 24th March, but Michele will be staying on and Sayera, Sheila, Tania, Bibi, Marina and Christine will still be employed in the centre nursery.

The nearest Children’s Centre to Earlsmead will be Triangle, on St Ann’s Road N15, and Welbourne on Stainby Road, N15. Timetables and contact information are available from the office.

On a personal note, we would like to thank all of our children and parents/carers for the friendship and support you have shown us over the last eight years. It has been a joy and privilege to work here with you and your families.

With love,

Dara O’Reilly, Centre Manager. 

Earlsmead Children’s Centre will close on 24th March, 2016. The nursery will re-open on Tuesday 12th April, 2016. The last Stay & Play of the term will be on Wednesday 16th March, 2016 at 1:15pm and the next Stay & Play after that will be on Wednesday13th April, 2016, also at 1:15pm.

Mobile messaging services: information for parents/carers

The Assistant Head Teacher recently sent out the following letter regarding the use of some mobile applications at home.

Dear Parents/Carers,
I have recently spoken to a large number of children about their use of some of the applications they are using on their mobile phones.  
There have been ongoing problems with children using apps such as WhatsApp and Google Hangout.  Some of the children are in group chats on these applications.  They are in these group chats from the moment they leave school up to when they are in their bedrooms late at night.  
Some of the children I spoke to today informed me that they are receiving messages at very late times of the night, sometimes after midnight!
On a few occasions insults have been part of these chats.  This has led to a number of children coming into school worried and upset.  Some of the children are also tired during their lessons due to the late night nature of the messages they are receiving.
We would like to work together and address these difficulties.  We are asking parents/carers to monitor what apps their children have on their mobile phones and how they are using them.
Please look at messages with your child on a regular basis making sure that your child is not sending insults or receiving them from others.  
Some of the members of the group chats may be people you or your children do not know.   If this is the case please try to ensure that they leave these groups.  
Another tip to prevent children using group chats late at night is to use night time as a time where mobiles are charged in a different room other than their bedroom or turn off WiFi after a certain point in the evening.
I would also like to take this opportunity to emphasis that if you choose to allow your child to bring their mobile phone to school, it is their responsibility to hand it in to their class teacher, who will store it in their class safe at the start of the day and then collect before going home at the end of the day. It is only for the period that their phone is in the care of the class teacher in the safe that we will accept responsibility for it.
If your child’s phone is damaged or stolen when it is in your child’s care (when it is not in the class safe), the school does not accept any liability for it loss or damage.
Thank you for your co-operation in this matter and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have further concerns.
Regards
Sarah Drummond
Assistant Head teacher: Inclusion

WhatsApp Messenger is a popular instant messaging app, averaging over 800 million monthly users. But did you know the minimum age requirement to use the service is 16 years? You can find a how-to guide on WhatsApp safety for parents here.