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 last week explaining that you can sign up by logging into the Arbor app. Busy Bees will take place in the KS2 shared area and parents can collect via the Year 4/6 door.

FRIDAY 24TH OCTOBER - SCHOOL CLOSES FOR HALF TERM

MONDAY 3RD NOVEMBER - SCHOOL RE-OPENS

TUESDAY 4TH NOVEMBER - Y4 VISIT ST. ANNE'S ACADEMY FOR A 'LANGUAGES DAY'

WEDNESDAY 5TH NOVEMBER - REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE 5TH NOVEMBER HISTORY THEME DAY

FRIDAY 7TH NOVEMBER - NON-UNIFORM DAY FOR WINNING HOUSE (TBC)

ATTENDANCE 

It’s been fantastic to see our whole-school attendance reach over 96% on several days this week – thank you for your continued support! Every day in school really does make a difference. Children who attend regularly not only achieve better academically but also build stronger friendships and develop greater confidence. Let’s keep working together to make sure every Parkfielder is in school, on time, every day which gives them the very best start possible. 

MAD SCIENCE CLUB 

The club will start after half term each Friday from 3.15 - 4.15pm for those that have requested the place through the Mad Science company. If you have any questions please contact the school office. This is a great opportunity for those pupils to extend their Science knowledge.

SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHS 

The school photographer took photos of individuals and siblings yesterday. Please ensure you follow the instructions that have been sent home to order your photos online. For info, class photographs are taken later on in the school year.

STAFFING CHANGES

On Monday, we were 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.

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.