Nurturing the infinite worth of every person through love, respect, perseverance, honesty and forgiveness

Dear Parents, as we approach the end of term we would like to thank parents and children for all their support in helping us maintain the covid measures that we have put in place to keep everyone safe. We feel so proud of all the children in the way they have all bounced back to school with a happy, positive and normal approach to lessons despite the unusual world we are living in right now. They are a credit to you all.

A message from Olivia and Elsie in Y6

Our Harvest Festival! - How we celebrate harvest at our school

Outside our school office, we had a box for any food donations such as tinned or canned food, vegetables or other snacks. These were all delivered to St. Peter's church this week. Thank you for all the donations. You can also support our community by donating to local foodbanks or charities.

Dealing with Covid at School

At school we have three bubbles: Year One, Two and Reception; Year Three and Four and Year Five and Six. Every Friday, we try to have a whole school celebration assembly via zoom with Mrs Howarth. Reverend Toni has also led worship in this way. We split our playground into sections using cones and we play in our bubbles. Although it is harder at the minute to have as much fun and activities as we usually would, our teachers are trying their best to make this year as great as possible!

We hope you feel safe at school and are having a good time seeing your friends again. Stay safe and have fun!

By Olivia and Elsie

Covid Changes from November 2nd

Many thanks for bearing with us whilst the times are staggered. From November 2nd we will run with our usual school hours, as follows:

• KS2 (Yrs 3-6) and KS1 / YrR Siblings arrive at 8:40am through the front gate
• KS1 and YrR arrive at 8:50am through the front gate.

If you are able to leave your child at the Church Street gate, this is much appreciated. Otherwise, please continue to use the one way system and exit through The Sorrells

Pick up will also resort to our normal school hours:

• 3:10 for YrR, KS1 and any KS2 siblings
• 3:15pm for KS2

This seems to be the point where more parents congregate. Therefore, KS1 please stick with the one way system in place already there. YrR parents, please wait, socially distanced in the space by the office window, and not blocking the pathway by the YrR play area.

Y3/4 parents, please wait well back from the classroom door and remain socially distanced. Any Y5/6 parents please wait socially distanced by class door.

Please could we also remind you not to arrive early and not to stand, closely chatting, whilst waiting. Once you have your child, they should remain with you and you should leave the grounds as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Parents Evening

Thank you to all those that were able to take part in our new online version of parents evening! We feel it was a great success and it went very smoothly. If however you have any follow-up questions/issues for the teacher please don’t hesitate to get in touch and arrange an appointment to discuss.

Year 5 & 6 Netball Club

Netball club is coming soon! Commencing on Tuesday 3rd November for Year 5 & 6, sessions will run weekly on Tuesdays, 3:20pm – 4:15pm and will be led by Mrs Jenkinson. The sessions are free of charge and will be a great way for the children to be sociable, active, develop skills and have fun!

Please ask your child if they would like to come to Netball club and let Mrs Jenkinson know or email the school office if they would like to take part.

P.E. & Sport

KS2 are currently all taking part in a Virtual Competition – more updates when we know the results! We are also currently working with two sports coaches in school. They are both covid-compliant and really enjoying working with your children.

Flu Immunisations

The school nursing team will be delivering the flu immunisations on Friday 6th November.

If you would like your child/children to have the immunisation and haven’t yet filled in the online consent form there is still time, click on the link: https://www.nhft.nhs.uk/flu (Isham School is categorised under Rothwell). All consents need to be completed by Friday 30th October, latest.

If however you do not wish for your child to receive the flu vaccination, you are not required to submit the consent form.

Residential Trip to Grafham Water Centre

We are super excited to announce that we have re-booked the Grafham Water Centre residential trip for the current Year 3 & 4 children. Unfortunately due to the pandemic this trip was previously postponed and we have since confirmed a booking for next September 2021. This is a fantastic opportunity for the children to experience a range of outdoor and adventurous activities that will help them develop skills and gain confidence:

• Working with others, developing teamwork, communication and respect for others
• Improving own performance, self-awareness, confidence, taking responsibility
• Problem solving, planning, leadership, creativity
• Developing Outdoor Activity skills
• Supporting other subjects in the National Curriculum

Please note, if a situation arises/government advice changes, at the time of this trip, the school will be able to claim on the Trust insurance.

Mufti-Day on 13th November

We will be having a mufti-day on Friday 13th November to raise money for 'Children in Need'. All children can come to school in their own clothes and donate a £1.00 (weather appropriate clothing and no high-heels please).

New Website

This is nearing completion and will be launched very soon – with stock pictures until the photographer has been in after the holiday. If you did not consent to your child being on the website, they will not be used for any pictures.

It has been a vastly different and unusual start to the term for FOIS. All our usual activities have been cancelled and we are having to think a bit differently about how to maintain our fundraising.

As most of you are aware the Christmas Card Fundraiser deadline was this week – thank you to all the children that took part, it was really lovely to see all the beautiful designs that they had created! We hope they had fun and liked seeing their final masterpieces! This also helped raise funds for the school.

The FOIS AGM will take place as a thinned down virtual meeting this year, with Nina, Sarah and Emma happy to stay on in their roles as FOIS Treasurer, Secretary and Chair. However if you would like to stand for one of these positions please fill in the form that came home last week or email: fois@ishamprimary.org.uk.

We would like to say a HUGE ‘Thank you!’ to all of the parents that have sent in donations for the Harvest Food Bank Collection – it was wonderful to see so much generosity and we’re sure that the food banks will be extremely grateful and happy to pass this on to those in need.

Online shopping – this is our big initiative in the lead up to Christmas. As most of us will be online shopping this season, we are encouraging you all to sign up to 'easy fundraising' and 'Amazon Smile'. These are fabulous incentives that cost you nothing but the companies that you buy from online will donate to FOIS. For more information please look at our Facebook page or email us and please get involved.

We also have a large selection of good quality preloved logo’d school uniform at much reduced prices. If you are looking for something in particular, please contact Sarah via FB messenger and it can be brought to school.

If you haven’t already, please 'like' our Facebook page as this will keep you informed of all activities. We are always looking for PTA support. We know time is valuable, but if you could spare us some to get involved please let us know. We are particularly looking for volunteers from lower down the school who may have new ideas and suggestions. Thank you for your ongoing support - The FOIS team.

Isham St Peter's Church Service

Cupcakes and Fizz

As we are currently unable to attend church, the children’s Isham church service called 'Cupcakes and Fizz' has been moved online. Each month the Cupcakes and Fizz team will make a children friendly service with activities, or organise an outdoor event, (parents will be notified).

Please click on the link for the October service of 'Cupcakes and Fizz', for you and your children to watch, enjoy and participate in together: https://youtu.be/AkFYjWEsbQw

New Teacher

We are pleased to confirm that we have appointed a new Music Teacher with effect from November 1st .

David Hole will be joining us each Thursday and working, as Kathryn Martin did, with all our classes. Some of our Y4 and Y5 children have already worked with David, although I suspect they may not have known that his specialism is music. We are delighted to have him back.

A larger KS2 bubble

After the holiday, we will start to merge the separate Y3/4 and Y5/6 bubbles together. This will be a slow process, but means that we can differentiate across the key stage to allow for more focussed teaching of spelling. We are hopeful that it will also alleviate some lunchtime space issues. For now, the times where they join as one bubble will be limited in frequency and duration, but don’t be surprised if your child comes home saying they have mixed with another class.

As always, many thanks for your continued support. Please do not hesitate to contact me, should you need.

Yours, Kirstin Howarth

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Dates for your diary

Dates for the term (we will add more as & when Covid restrictions lift)

• Friday 23rd October 3:15pm - Close for Half Term
• Monday 2nd November - Re-open
• Tuesday 3rd November - Netball Club begins - Yr 5&6
• Friday 6th November - Flu Immunisations
• Friday 13th November - Mufti-Day for 'Children in Need'
• Friday 11th December - Christmas Jumper Day!
• Friday 18th December 12pm - Close for Christmas Holiday

All the staff at Isham CE Primary School would like to wish you all a peaceful and relaxing half term, take care and see you all again on Monday 2nd November.