St Margaret's Newsletter

Hello all. Welcome to this weeks newsletter. As you can see we are using a new format which you will be accessing via an email or the new school communication app. I hope that you will find this new way of communicating with you to be effective and useful to you.

Thank you to all of the parents who have completed the home learning survey. Your input has been valued and will help to shape a new home learning policy. As ever our intention is to improve outcomes for our children and we really appreciate the support that you as parents and carers are able to give. We are also mindful that many of you have very busy homelives and that many of our children are engaged in a wide range of activities and we want to ensure that no one feels home learning to be an onerous task which impacts negatively on family life. We as a school value and celebrate the out of school activities that many of the children do.

 KS2 CHURCH VISITS

 Tuesday 25th November – Year 3 church visit

 CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS

 Tuesday 9th December -               Year 2 Christmas Play 9.20am

                                                          Year 1 Christmas Play 10.30am

 Wednesday 10th December -      Rocksteady Concerts (more details to follow)

 Thursday 11th December -           Year 5 & Year 6 Christmas Concert 5.00pm

  Friday 12th December -                 Nursery Christmas play 9.15am (for all Nursery children)                                

                                                          Reception Christmas play 10.30am

Tuesday 16th December -              KS2 Church Christmas Service 2.00pm at St Margaret’s Church Wednesday 17th December- Christmas workshops with Georgina Thursday 18th December- Animal Family visit (PTA funded)

 Friday 19th December -                  REPORTS OUT TO PARENTS    

Story: McDonald’s changed the colours of its famous Happy Meal box in the UK, making it white on three sides, for children to colour and design it themselves.
Question: What are some of the different ways we can express ourselves?
Virtual Picture News: www.picture-news.co.uk/discuss

Our Thursday after school sports club this half term is Years 3 and 4 Multiskills. Children can be signed up through: Aspire Sports Portal https://aaeg.magicbooking.co.uk/ The dates will: 06/11/25, 13/11/25, 20/11/25, 27/11/25, 04/12/24. Club times: 15.30-16.30

PE days for the Autumn term:

Year 1:  Wednesday and Thursday

Year 2: Tuesday and Friday

Year 3: Thursday and Friday

Year 4: Monday and Wednesday

Year 5: Monday and Thursday

Year 6: Tuesday and Thursday

Children need to arrive at school ready for PE. PE Kit is as follows. A plain white t-shirt, plain black jogging bottoms/leggings/shorts, trainers, school jumper or cardigan. No jewellery should be worn, long hair needs to be tied back, piercings that cannot be removed must be taped up- tape/plasters provided from home. Any religious/cultural jewellery that cannot be removed must be secured/covered- sweat bands are perfect for this.

As a school we like to promote health and well being and while we allow children to bring a snack to have at break time, we ask please that this is a healthy snack such as a piece or pot of fruit. We have noticed an increase in children wanting to have crisps to take out at break time. We do not consider crisps to be a healthy snack and while these may be fine as part of a packed lunch, we ask that children do not have them for break time snack. Thank you for your support.

All reading and library books will be given to children over these first couple of weeks. We aim to ensure that the books children are issued are in line with their need and ability. Children will have 2 books, one school 'levelled reading book' and one Reading for Pleasure book. The Reading for Pleasure book is aimed to foster a love of reading. We expect children to be heard read at least 3 times per week and comments written in their reading record. Children should have their reading book and reading record in school each day. We ask for your support with this.

Any lost or books damaged beyond repair will incur a  £5 fee to allow us to replace them.  This will be issued via ParentPay. 

Many children like to bring their own pencil cases and stationary items into school. This is fine, but please remember that all items needed for school work will be provided by school. We ask that no scissors or sharp items come into school. School will provide children with safety scissors to use in school when required.

Useful items may include: pencils, rulers, crayons, a protractor (Y4+), a blue handwriting pen (KS2), felt tips and a glue stick in a sensibly sized pencil case. Again there is no requirement or expectation that pupils have their own items from home.

Children can also have a water bottle with a sports cap, containing water unless agreed otherwise, their reading book and reading record. In most circumstances there should be no need for other items to be coming into school without prior agreement. We ask for parents support with this. Please ensure all items of uniform are named to ensure that we have the best possible chance to return lost items to the right people.

A reminder to parents and carers to be careful and considerate with their parking when dropping off and collecting children. It is imperative that the front of school remains clear, and that we respect neighbouring properties and ensure they are to access and egress their homes and businesses. This seems to be a particular problem with parents parking in the Grove and on the resident car park at Sophie Gardens. We ask that parents and carers do not park across people drives or in residents spaces at Sophie Gardens, and remember our school value of Respect when talking to one another.  More than anything we need to keep everyone safe. I hope that you have seen the signs that we have purchased to help remind parents and carers about parking, one is outside the main gates and another on the 'island' in the layby towards the under passage on the Birmingham Road. If the yellow and red lines are not sufficient reminders about parking perhaps our new signs will help.

We are pleased that we are able to have an arrangement with the Holiday Inn J7 to allow parents to use car parking facilities at appropriate times. If you are interested in this please contact the school office and they will help arrange a pass for you.

Safeguarding is very important to us at St Margaret's, and we firmly believe that everyone has a role to play in keeping children safe. Should you have any safeguarding concerns please contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), Mr Jones, or in his absence Mrs Boud or Mrs Humphries via the school office. If you have a concern for the safety of a child outside of school time you are able to report this directly to Sandwell Children's Trust on 0121 569 3100 or https://www.sandwellchildrenstrust.org/report-child-risk/ . If a child is in immediate danger, you should contact the police (call 999).

Should you have any need to contact school to discuss anything, your first port of call will most likely be your child's class teacher. The way to do this is via the school office who are happy to pass on a message, or arrange a call back. We ask that you do not engage teachers in conversation on doors when dropping off or collecting children, as the primary focus has to be the safe arrival and dismissal of children. Further information on communicating with school can be found by following the link below.

Address:

St Margaret's CE Primary School

Birmingham Road

Birmingham

B43 7AP

Telephone:

0121 357 2758

Email: postbox@st-margarets.sandwell.sch.uk

OR

Use contact us page on website: https://stmargaretscofeprimaryschool.co.uk/about-us/contact-details/

Website: https://stmargaretscofeprimaryschool.co.uk/

Information on our Communications Protocol and Procedures and Parent Code of Conduct can be found on our website.

https://stmargaretscofeprimaryschool.co.uk/parents/policies/