New Classroom and Staff-Room

The new extension has been erected over the Easter holiday. The old mobile classroom has been taken away and, as it was in such a poor state, disposed of. The new extension consists of a replacement class for Year 3 and a larger staff room. The new classroom was operating from the first day of this term.

The staff-room is almost complete and we will be moving in shortly. The old staff-room will be converted into another teaching space and will be known as the ‘Quiet Room’.
(Ed. comment - ‘quite a change there then’)

The new extension is a major improvement for the School. The money to pay for it comes from the School’s capital formula allocation, that is money allocated to schools over a number of years that can only be spent on capital projects.

School Budget for 2003/04

There has been a lot of news about schools across the country having inadequate funds for the current financial year. The School has just got enough money for this current year. There will be no reduction in staff. However, the School has had to reduce the amount of money for staff training and development.

School funding is a complex issue, but put simply, each school receives money for the number of pupils on roll plus grants. Grants are for:

A lot more money has gone to schools, but costs have increased hugely. Schools pay the employer’s contribution for salaries. So the cost to the school of teachers’ salaries has increased by over 9% (Pension contributions up by over 5%, National Insurance up by 1%, actual salary increase up by 2.9%). A lot of extra money is needed just to stand still. The School is alright for the 2003/04 financial year, but the position is less certain for the financial year from April 2004.

Cycling Proficiency

The School would like to be able to offer cycling proficiency lessons for Year 6 children, but to do this we need volunteers. The Road Safety Officer will teach a series of lessons for the children and will use this to train volunteers to instruct children in subsequent years. If anyone is interested, please see Chris Jones, the Headteacher. It is likely that Cycling Proficiency lessons will be offered in the Autumn term.
Nestlé Box Tops
Tokens were collected by the children and the School has received a cheque for £70 from Nestlé.

Security

With school security a balance has to be struck between ensuring safety of pupils and staff and making the school accessible to everyone. With that in mind, it has been decided to keep the exterior doors locked until 8.40 am and, as soon as the school has the electronic device, to lock the main entrance at lunch times.

From Wednesday 14th May the exterior doors to the school will be opened at 8.40am.

Dates for Summer Term