While I continue to learn and develop a clear sense of what I need to do to help the school maintain its excellent reputation, we have managed to make a start in improving some aspects of the school building.  To date, four upstairs classrooms have been refurbished with new ceilings and lights – this was long overdue.  Also the path at Norwich Avenue gate has been extended, and a small waiting area outside the new extension should help avoid congestion.

I am sending out a big plea to those who use these areas to try and educate all the community to use the paths and hard standing areas and not cut off the corner!

Currently we are also planning to spend some money updating the school computer systems but making the right investment is key at this stage.

Having talked to all staff on 3 January 2012, there remains an air of confidence and satisfaction in what the school is doing, but we are not complacent and would like to hear from you if you feel that there are outstanding issues that we as a school should be dealing with.

For those not aware, the school population is rising and will continue to do so, with four classes moving into the juniors from now on.  Because of this the governors and I are working with the local authority in planning for this expansion, which will likely mean more refurbishment and updating of facilities and classrooms.

I am more than happy to receive complaints from parents, etc., regarding the state of the windows and the waste of energy/heating, as these complaints will be forwarded to Southend-on-Sea Borough Council.  The precious money that the school receives should be used by the governors and I to ensure the best educational outcomes for your children, and should not be spent on capital expenditure programmes which are the responsibility of the local authority.

Following the emergency closure of the school on 6 January (due to electrical failure in the locality) it has come to light that our text messaging service was not as efficient or effective as it should be.  Please could I ask that:

a) Any parent/carer not signed up to Parentmail to collect the forms from the school office and subscribe to the service

b) Check that the school office has a current and valid mobile phone contact number.

It is likely that in the next two weeks we are going to send a trial message to all parents/carers on our data base to check the system.  We will give you written warning and we can check how good the system is at that time.

The school is looking forward to a full and extensive programme of events this term, which includes working with other local schools to prepare for a big Olympic style event at Garons Park later in the year.

Dates for your diary:

Parents’ Consultation Evenings:                     6^th – 10^th February 2012

Schools’ Olympic Event, Garons Park:           w/c 9 July 2012.

YR6 – SATs Week (Public Exams):–              w/c 14 May 2012.

YR6 – Isle of Wight  Residential Trip:         24.6.12 – 29.06.12.

Mr T Barrett

Headteacher

The school population continues to grow and I know I must work with the Governors and Local Authority to plan for this continued influx of children, especially at the younger end of the school.  I am also aware that these numbers are putting more strain and stress on both the school and yourselves regarding nursery and lower school places.

I hope to arrange some informal parent drop in sessions to meet parents and share ideas or concerns that you may have individually or collectively.

Change of Dates 

Initial parent consultation meetings will take place in the week of 10^th October. Separate class letters will be sent out shortly explaining the times and arrangements.

Free School Meals – First Time Applicants

Southend Borough Council is launching an online service for checking eligibility for Free School Meals.  This is a safe site, where you can enter your details and receive a quick notification of your entitlement to Free School Meals. This service can be found at: -

www.southend.gov.uk/fsm

If you receive notification that you are entitled, please contact the school office and they will advise you of the next steps, to ensure you continue to receive this often, much needed benefit.

For all parents of children already receiving Free School Meals, the arrangements remain unchanged.

Dear Parents,

This is my final letter to you as Headteacher of Temple Sutton. It is a sad time for me but also a time for looking forward, both for me and for our school. I could not have worked in a better place these last nearly thirty years. I have had the privilege of knowing many hundreds of excellent parents who have worked with us to secure success for their children. I have known thousands of children, some of whom have been challenges in their time but the vast majority have been delightful and a real pleasure to teach. I have worked alongside hundreds of dedicated and, in many cases, quite brilliant staff members. I have worked also with a very supportive and enlightened group of people who are our Governing Body. Together we have all produced our outstanding school. I thank you all, very sincerely.

Mr. Barrett, who is taking over as Headteacher in September, is especially keen that everything stays as it is and, I know, he will be seeking to make things even better. There will be some other staff changes. Two teachers are retiring as well as me, Mrs. Wathen and Mrs. Whitelaw. Mrs. Wathen came to Temple Sutton to be our Nursery Teacher in 1995 . Her work subsequently in extending the Nursery and leading the Children’s Centre has been simply outstanding, as many of you well know. Mrs. Whitelaw has been our Literacy Co-ordinator for many years and another dedicated teacher. She too will be sorely missed. We are also losing the services of Miss Ross, another very popular teacher, who has taken a post at a school much nearer to where she lives. She has been travelling a great distance to and from school every day in all weathers. She has also been awarded a well-deserved promoted post. Finally, very recently, we have had the news that Miss Townend has been appointed as Head of Music in a British school in Rome. This is a very prestigious appointment and one which Miss Townend clearly deserves, given her outstanding work at this school. I wish all four a very happy and highly successful time in the future. We have already made four new appointments because we are also gaining more than forty children overall in our school next year. These are really exciting appointments, each of which will add much talent to our total. Mr. Barrett will be appointing a replacement for both Mrs. Wathen and Miss Townend as one of his first tasks in the Autumn term. There will be an interim period without a music specialist and we shall let all parents know what the arrangements are for the Autumn term as soon as we have made them.

Your children at the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 have achieved quite significant results in their SATs tests and assessments this year. I am very proud of what they have achieved. In Key Stage 1 the children achieved 83% at Level 2 and above in Reading and 30% at the higher Level Three. In Writing it was 84% at Level 2 and 18% at Level 3. In Mathematics it was 94% at Level 2 and 22% at Level 3. These are brilliant results. At Key Stage 2 the children achieved 88.6% at Level 4 in English with 29.5% at the higher Level 5. In Mathematics it was also 88.6% at Level 4 and 50% at Level 5. Those who achieved Level 4 in both English and Maths, a key Government criterion, were 85.2% at Level 4 and 27.3% at Level 5. All these scores are well above national and local averages. All the children and all who taught them and all those who have been supporting them at home deserve huge congratulations.

I shall give you an update on sporting and other activities before the end of term as I know that there are some quite interesting events that are still to happen in the three weeks this term.

Thank you very much for all that you have done for me and for our school.

With my very best wishes.

Mr.G.

Dear Parents,

I am writing to inform you that due to industrial action by a number of teachers on Thursday next, 30^th June, I am unable to open the school for children from Foundation Stage Two upwards. This means that only the Children’s Centre and Nursery will be open on that day. I regret having to take this action and, I know, so do the teachers taking the action, but there is considerable anger about the Government’s policy on public sector pensions.

On a happier note, I hope that you will be able to attend our Summer Fair on Saturday and I hope that some of you will be able to volunteer to help our Circle of Friends on the day. Please let them know if you can by filling in a brief form outside the School Office. This help would be very much appreciated. They would also be very grateful for donations of cakes. Thank you.

A reminder about some other dates:-

July 1^st Foundation Stage 2 & Year 1 Sports Day

July 1^st Year 6 Induction Day at their new secondary schools

July 4^th 7 o’clock  Summer Concert (letter issued)

July 4^th Year 2 Sports Day

July 5^th 9.30  Summer Concert  (letter issued)

July 5^th Year 3 Sports Day

July 6^th Year 5 Sports Day

July 7^th Year 4 Sports Day

July 8^th Year 6 Sports Day

July 8^th Annual reports issued

July 8^th Leavers’ Barbecue & Disco

July 11^th Meet new class teachers

July 21^st End of the School Year

With my best wishes

Mr. Gulley

Dear Parents,

I thought that you might like to know that our collection for Red Nose Day has reached £3090! I am amazed by your generosity. We have sent about £1000 to buy two shelter boxes to Japan to assist there and the rest is going to the Red Nose Day Fund. Well done!

I would also like to say thank you to all those parents who have sent in donations for our Swimming Pool bills, as requested in my last letter. This really is essential to enable us to keep our swimming pool open. Thank you very much.

Sadly I have to remind you that dinner tickets will cost £2 per day after Easter. I do, however, have some good news in this respect. We are involved in a scheme to encourage children to have a nutritious school meal every day of the week. The project is called ‘Five for a Fiver’ and will run from May 9^th for five weeks. If you buy five dinner tickets and your child has a school meal every day in those weeks it will only cost you £5 for the week’s tickets. This is being subsidised by the Local Authority and the PCT. We hope to double our numbers taking a school meal to encourage the authorities to make the project a permanent one. We also will be hosting five sessions when a master chef will be cooking and passing on tips and then the ingredients will be supplied by Waitrose at a cost of only £1. More details will follow after Easter. We are one of only two schools to be involved in this.

A final reminder – we break up at 3 o’clock on Wednesday!

Start of Summer Term – 26^th April

National Holiday – 29^th April

May Day – 2^nd May

Week commencing 30^th May – Half-Term

Training Day – 17^th June

End of School Year – 21^st July

Best Wishes!

Mr. G.

I am writing with several items of very good news.

I am delighted that our Governing Body has appointed my successor. His name is Mr. Tim Barrett and he is currently headteacher of a very successful school in Chelmsford. He officially takes over in September but will be visiting the school on a number of occasions before then. I have been very impressed by Mr. Barrett on the few occasions we have already met.

You will be pleased to know that we raised almost one thousand pounds last Friday for Red Nose Day. Unless I hear that people object, we are going to divert some of the money to sending a Shelter Box to the victims of the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami, just as we did for the Haiti Appeal. Thanks to you and your children for your generosity.

You will be interested to know that thirteen of our children passed the 11+ Test this year, twelve of whom chose to go to Grammar Schools and one to Shoebury High. Two of the children finished in the top twenty of all the scores in the whole county.

I have to ask you to help the school by donating towards our swimming pool expenses. I do not like doing this as I recognise that times are hard but the budget allocated to the school does not cover expenses such as these and we are at full stretch on our budget. If you could donate £10 if you have one child and £15 if you have more than one I would be so grateful. Thank you. Cheques should be made payable to ‘Temple Sutton Primary School’.

Finally I have to tell you that Mr. Griffiths will be leaving us at the end of this term to take up a post closer to his home in Basildon. We wish him much success in his future career and thank him for his work here. The end of term also marks the end of Mrs. Turrell’s career as a teacher, as she retires then. Mrs. Turrell has been an outstanding teacher at this school. We shall all miss her great, good humour and the children will miss the exciting lessons Mrs. Turrell always provides. We will also have to ensure that our gardening projects are taken over by someone as committed and dedicated. We all wish her good health and happiness in her retirement.

A reminder that we break up for the Easter Holiday at 3 o’clock on Wednesday 6^th April and we return to school at the normal time on Tuesday 26^th April.

With my best wishes.

Mr. G.

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

Dear Parents,

Thankfully we are back at school after the dire weather last week. The forecast is not so good but no snow is expected, so we shall remain open. Thank you for your co-operation.

Our annual Christmas Production by Years 1 & 2 will still go ahead this week as planned even though the children have not had as much rehearsal time as needed. I am sure that they will delight us! The Wednesday performance is at 10 o’clock for Year 1 parents and the Thursday performance is at the same time for Year 2 parents.

Our Christmas Fair had to be postponed due to the adverse weather – our Circle of Friends is now going to run it at 3.30 on Monday next, 13^th December, straight after school. I do hope that you will be able to support it on that day – we would still be grateful for any parents who could volunteer to help at that time. I look forward to seeing you on the day.

Our Christmas lunch is on Thursday of this week. Tickets at £2 are on sale from tomorrow.

The Xmas Discos will still take place as advertised on Friday of this week.

A reminder that the end of term is at 3 o’clock on Friday 17^th December and that the children should return on Wednesday 5^th January.

Stay warm and have a wonderful Christmas!

Mr. G