Newsletter from Mr. Gulley                              February 2011

Dear Parents,

It has been good to see so many of you in the school this week for our interim consultation sessions. Thank you for your continued support for your children and for what we do here at Temple Sutton.

There are five issues I would like to draw to your attention. The first is that we have had a number of instances of children who were supposed to be collected from the school gates and parents not arriving on time. Would you please reaffirm with your child that if no-one comes for them then he or she should return to the school office area where they will be looked after until you do arrive. Thank you. The second is that I am receiving a number of complaints from local residents about the parking in the streets around the school at the beginning and end of the school day. People are parking across drop kerb paths, not allowing residents to get their cars in or out. I would ask that this practice should discontinue. Again thank you. Thirdly, some parents are continuing to drive into the school car park at these times also to drop their children off. This is unacceptable and dangerous and I have written to you before on this subject. We shall have to spend valuable funds on a gate system for entering the car park if this should continue. I would much rather spend our money on our children! Fourthly, I received queries from a small group of parents recently about having to pay for experts coming into school.  I do understand that times are difficult for everyone at the moment but when I ask you to support these events it is because they are very worthwhile and have proved very helpful in the past. I also try to balance out those the school pays for and those I ask you to support. For instance, in Year Three recently the children have had ‘Travelling By Tuba’, a film animator and the ‘Rock Man’, only one of which I asked for a donation. I thank those who have continued to support us in this way without complaining. Our aim is to provide all our children with as many valuable experiences as possible. Finally, the cost of our dinner tickets sadly has to rise to £2 from the start of the summer term. We have kept the cost down for as long as we could but food, as you well know, is costing a lot more these days. Thank you for your attention to these matters.

An apology from me for the state of the path leading from the Lewes Road gate during the recent bad weather. The main problem area now has a new tarmac cover. I hope that this will address the problem.

I promised I would keep you up to date with the appointment of a new headteacher to replace me after I leave in the summer. The Governing Body decided not to interview any of the applicants after the first advertisement in December and they have readvertised the post. They are meeting on Monday next week to shortlist from the new set of applicants and I will keep you in touch with their progress.

Some good news at last!

• Our Years 3 & 4 Sports Hall Athletics Team won a recent boroughwide competition and we have a lovely ‘gold’ cup to keep.
• Our Netball Team won their last match against a primary school 23-0!
• Our Table-Tennis team only lost in the semi-final of the South East of England Zone at a major sports centre in London recently
• Our Chess Team has reached the final of the East of England Secondary Schools Championship, and they play against the Norwich School, a large independent school next Monday evening in the final, having already knocked out three other secondary schools, including Southend High for Boys.

A reminder that we break up for half-term on Friday 18^th February at the normal time. The end of term is Wednesday 6^th April and we return on Tuesday 26^th April. Friday 29^th April is a national holiday for the royal wedding. Friday 17^th June is a teacher training day and Thursday 21^st July is the end of the school year.

Best wishes to you all.

Mr. Gulley