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Byron Primary School

05 Nov 2009

Number 5 - 5th November 2009

Children in Need
Next Friday November 20th is BBC Children in Need Day. This is a charity that Byron has very generously supported for many years. This year we will be holding a mufti day and children can wear their own clothes for a donation of 50p or more.  If you would like to send in more money with your child this will be of course be very welcome.

Anti Bullying Week – November 16th– 20th 2009
This year the theme of Anti Bullying week is Cyberbullying. We have recently been carrying out surveys with staff, children and parents about use of the internet and internet safety. Many people are not fully aware of how the internet can be used to bully and intimidate other people and as parents we have to be extremely vigilant when our children use the computer. A worrying fact from the children’s survey carried out was that 13% of the children in Years 3-6 have used Facebook and their parents did not know about this.  During the week the children will carry out some activities looking at Cyberbullying and there will be an assembly on Monday by Ms Downes to introduce the week.

On Thursday 26th November at 3.30pm there is a parents meeting being led by Ms Sayers to raise awareness of Internet Safety and Cyberbullying.

Byron parents are also invited to a Parent eSafety evening being held at Smitham Primary School at 7pm on Tuesday 17th November. I have attached a flyer to this Newsletter about this event.

Keeping Safe
At Byron we work hard to keep the children safe and as part of this work we regularly have visitors into school to talk about keeping safe. Last week the Community Police came to school and did an assembly for the children on Fire Work Safety. This was very informative and certainly made everyone think about how to use and enjoy fireworks safely. We have also been visited by the Road Safety Officer and we will be introducing Junior Road Safety Officers in the school. There will be 4 Byron children who will be trained to raise awareness about Road Safety and work with all the children across the school.

ParentPay - IMPORTANT
Just a reminder about the letter that went home last week about ParentPay. This secure way of paying for school lunches is being introduced in January and from this date lunches will have to be paid for in advance using this scheme either online or at pay points. If you missed the letter or have lost it please call into the school office to get a copy.

Swine Flu
This week we have had lots of children absent from school with sickness, colds or flu. There have been 2 confirmed cases of swine flu and in line with our guidance we have reported them to the Local Authority. The recent guidelines from the Local Authority and the Health Protection Agency are that any cases of swine flu are advised to stay at home and seek advice from their GP or their PCT. The advice is still:
• All staff and parents to ensure that children wash their hands on a regular basis especially before eating food.
• Children to be guided not to put their fingers in their mouth.
• ‘Catch it, Bin it, Kill it’

Now that the virus is circulating widely in the community, closing schools when there is an outbreak of influenza will generally do little or nothing to slow down the spread of the virus, so schools are not advised by the Health Protection Agency to close. However, it is recognised that a school may have to close for operational reasons such as if a high proportion of staff are absent due to having flu or are having to look after dependents as this would cause unsafe staffing levels.  At Byron families would be notified by our text system if the school was to close on a day to day basis and updates would be placed on the school website.  The aim would be to have the school opening as soon as possible.  It is therefore important that parents/carers ensure we have the correct mobile phone number for us to contact you on.

The following websites are available for staff and parents to contact if they require further advice:-
www.direct.gov.uk/swineflu Advice for parents
www.hpa.org.uk Health Protection Agency
www.bhwp.nhs.uk Public Health Agency

Building Work
Thank you for your patience and understanding during the work being carried out on the ramp. This area is now beginning to look very smart and hopefully the work should be completed in the next couple of weeks.

Sports Clubs
We are very fortunate to have a variety of clubs running this term. Many of these have been organised by Mr Madden:
Monday after school – Lacrosse (Y3-6)
Tuesday lunchtime – Cross Country (Y3-6)
Tuesday after school – Hockey (Y3-6)
Wednesday after school – Football Squad (Y5-6)
Thursday lunchtime – Games club (Y4-6)
Thursday after school – Football Club (Y2-6)
Friday lunchtime – Active Stories Club (Y1-2)

If you require information about any of these clubs please do ask at the school office or see Mr Madden.

Cross Country
Children in Years 3 – 6 have been carrying out Cross Country trials and their times have been matched against other schools. Out of 100 girls competing from Year 3-6, Katrina Ashby in Year 4 has come 14th and for the boys Thomas Clark in Year 6 has come 51st.  On Monday 9th November 22 children went to Grange Park to compete against Coulsdon C of E.  Again Katrina came 2nd in the year 3-4 race, Jade Browne finished 3rd in the year 5-6 race.  All of the children who took part represented our school fantastically well.
Well done!

Attendance
We are once again doing our ‘In to Win it’ attendance related reward scheme. Every week each child who attends every day and arrives at school on time will have their name written on a special slip of paper. At the end of term all the slips of paper will be put into a draw for two special prizes – one for the child and one for the parent! There are 14 weeks this term so if your child has attended every day for 14 weeks they will have 14 slips of paper in the draw. Remember you have to be In it to Win it!

Class attendance for the last two weeks is as follows:

Class	Week ending November 6th	Week ending November 13th
Reception	94%	91%
Year 1	88%	93%
Year 2	90%	98%
Year 3	96%	75%
Year 4	89%	89%
Year 5	95%	94%
Year 6	91%	92%

Unfortunately due to illness attendance this week for some classes has not been good.


Clare Wingrave