MONDAY 13TH OCTOBER - HARVEST DONATIONS PLEASE

TUESDAY 14th OCTOBER AT 9AM - Y3 FAMILY LEARNING - SCHOOL HALL - Year 3 families are welcome to join their child for a maths lesson.

THURSDAY 16TH OCTOBER - SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHER - Photos will be taken of individuals and siblings if they are also in Parkfield. If your child is in Year 1 or 2 and you would prefer to have a photograph of your child dressed in their school uniform, please send them into school wearing uniform with their PE kit in a bag ready to change into.

WEDNESDAY 22ND OCTOBER - 3.30 - 6.30PM - PARENT'S EVENING Families are now able to sign up on Arbor to speak to your child's class teacher and find out how they have settled into their new class. An email was sent earlier this week explaining that you can sign up by logging into the Arbor app. 

STAFFING CHANGES

On Monday, we’re delighted to welcome Mrs McKenna to the Parkfield team. Mrs McKenna joins us with many years of experience working in a local primary school and will be supporting teaching and learning in the Year 5 classroom.

In other news, we’ll be saying goodbye to Mrs Bradshaw at the end of this half term after nearly five years with us. Mrs Bradshaw is moving on to an exciting new role at a special high school in Manchester — a position we know she will thrive in. We thank her for her hard work and commitment to our children and wish her every success in the future.

EASY FUNDRAISING - ONLINE AND APP

We’d like to let you know about a simple and completely free way to help raise funds for Parkfield Primary School through an online platform called easyfundraising that we have currently raised £40 from.

Easyfundraising allows schools, charities and causes across the UK to receive donations whenever supporters shop online. It doesn’t cost you a penny, as over 7,000 retailers (including John Lewis & Partners, Argos, Iceland, Amazon, eBay and M&S) donate a small percentage of your total spend to the school every time you shop via their site or app.

So far, over 190,000 causes have raised more than £56 million through easyfundraising, proving that every little really does help.

To make it even easier, you can download the easyfundraising app to your phone. This means you can raise donations for Parkfield automatically every time you shop online.

To get started and support our school, please click here: Easyfundraising  for Parkfield . Every donation makes a difference to our pupils.

NEW DINNER MENUS

New autumn/winter dinner menus start on Monday - https://www.parkfieldprimary.com/parents/dinner-menus. 

SWIMMING FOR Y4

Unfortunately, swimming lessons for Y4 have been delayed by a couple of weeks due to the ongoing improvements at Middleton Arena. They're expecting to be open early November and we will update you when we have the dates confirmed.

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR CHILD IS POORLY

If your child is unwell, please call the school office before 9am and speak directly with a member of our team – Miss Pritchard or Mrs Cummings. We don’t use an answerphone service, as speaking to someone in person means we can offer advice, confirm how long your child may need to stay off school, or even suggest they come in if we feel they’ll manage with support during the day. Quite often, our Parkfielders perk up once they’re in school and benefit from being around their friends and teachers. 

Please note that if your child is absent and we haven't been notified, we will contact you shortly after registers have been taken.

ATTENDANCE UPDATE

Our whole school attendance so far this academic year is 94.8%, which is below both our school target of 96% and the current national average. While this may not sound like a big difference, even a few days of absence can quickly add up and have a real impact on a child’s progress, confidence, and long-term outcomes.

Attending school every day really does matter. Children who are in school consistently not only achieve better academically but also build stronger friendships and develop the positive routines that help them succeed.

To put this into perspective, our school target of 96% attendance allows for no more than 7 days of absence across the whole year. Missing more than this can start to affect learning and make it harder for pupils to keep up. That said, our ambition is for all pupils to achieve above 96%, giving them the very best opportunity to thrive.

We know that illness and absence are sometimes unavoidable, but we hope that over the coming months we can work together to improve attendance and give every Parkfielder the very best chance to shine. Parents can support this by avoiding term-time holidays and, where possible, booking medical appointments outside of school hours. 

ARBOR - WE NOW HAVE 83% OF OUR PARENTS AND CARERS SIGNED UP!

Firstly, we'd like to thank you for you perseverence and patience with our new system - Arbor. The vast majority of parents and guardians have had no trouble logging in and using the app / website but there have been a few teething issues which we were expecting because it is a new. However, if you need any support with logging in, booking clubs and making payments, please contact the school office and Miss Pritchard and Mrs Cummings will be happy to help.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS, FREE HOLIDAY CLUBS AND FOOD VOUCHERS

Did you know that if you are entitled to free school meals you also get access to free holiday clubs and food vouchers during the holidays? To apply or if you're not sure if you are eligible, please  read the information and apply using the link here. School receives additional funding for those pupils that are entitled for free school meals and this much needed funding helps better support all Parkfielders. Even if your child is in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2 or they're on packed lunch - please still apply. In addition, if there has been a change in your family circumstances (i.e. recently become unemployed) you may also be entitled to apply for Free School Meals.