Autumn Half Term Letter

17th October 2008


Dear Parents

Autumn Term Update

It doesn’t seem long since the children were coming back from their Summer holidays and the start of the new academic year. Still that was six weeks ago and I would like to update you with what has been happening before we begin to dwell on the run up to Christmas which tends to dominate much of what happens in school during the next few months.

There is an awful lot happening at school over the second half of term and the main purpose of me writing is to let you know what will be going on, what the children will be doing (and ask you to ensure the children don’t forget anything important). Better still; I hope that as parents you will want to come along, join in and enjoy the many events taking place.

Exclusions
It is very rare for the school to exclude pupils temporarily however it does happen from time to time and consequently I do need to point out some legislation that may affect parents.

There is a requirement for parents to be responsible for pupils during the first five days of any exclusion. It is now a criminal offence, punishable by fixed penalty fine or prosecution of the parents if a child is seen in a public place during normal school hours without reasonable justification, during the first five days of exclusion from school.


School Individual Photographs
Individual photographs for year groups KN to L5 will be taken on Tuesday, 4th November. All family groups and U5’s will be photographed on Wednesday, 5th November.

Parents Evenings
Parents evenings take place for all Junior classes, Kindergarten classes, Shell, Lower 5th and Upper 5th classes on Tuesday, 4th, Wednesday, 12th and Thursday 20th November between 5-8.00pm. A more detailed letter regarding parents evening has already been sent home by Mrs Margetts our Director of Studies. This will enable parents to book times and dates to see specific teachers.

Parents’ evenings for all other year groups will take place in February/March. Details will be published in the Spring term calendar.

Staffing News
Mr Leigh McKee will be leaving us at the end of the Autumn Term to return to Australia. His place as teacher of boys PE/Games will be taken by Mr Anthony Vaughan whose present temporary appointment becomes permanent.

Miss Charlotte Bassett will join us as teacher of girls PE/Games in January. Miss Bassett is a graduate of the University of Wales and presently a teacher at Folkestone Academy.

J5/Remove Plays
J5 and Remove school plays will take place on Tuesday, 2nd and Wednesday, 3rd December. J5 will perform Aesop’s Fables, ReB Aladdin and ReV Cinders. Further details will be sent to parents nearer the time. However, parents may wish to make a note of the date in their diary.


Lost Property
All lost property will in future be found at the Dickens’s Café operated by the Friends.

There will be a one week holding period for uniform that is unnamed, therefore giving parents and pupils the opportunity to find and retrieve lost items over this time. Following this, the unclaimed uniform will be treated as donations to the second hand uniform shop and will be offered for sale.

For all named and labelled uniform there will be a two week holding period where the pupils name will be displayed on the blackboard outside the Hut and written notification sent to parents via the class register. The pupils name will remain on the blackboard until either the 14 days are up or until the item is reclaimed. The notice and letter give clear indication of lost items to both parents and pupils. After that time those items that remain unclaimed will be added to the second hand uniform stock and considered to be a donation.

For any other lost personal items, these will also be held at the Hut and can be claimed over a period of one month and then will either be added to school uniform stock or donated to the ‘Blue Bags to School’ collection.

All lost property is co-ordinated by Lindsey Relf and Dee Ramsell.
Enquiries will be dealt with by any member of the Friends on duty at the Hut.

Given that the Friends spend considerable time sorting, retrieving (and in some cases cleaning) the lost property a voluntary service charge of 50p will be levied on those pupils retrieving lost property.


Kindergarten Nativity Play (Advance Notice)
The Kindergarten Nativity play will take place on Wednesday, 10th December at 6pm at the Royal Dockyard Church, the Historic Dockyard, Chatham. Further details will be sent to parents nearer the time. However, parents and guests may wish to make a note of the time/date in their diary.

Carol Service
The school’s annual Carol Service will take place at 7pm on Thursday, 11th December at Rochester Cathedral. All Junior and Senior pupils are required to attend the service.

Mr Stone, our Director of Music is looking for a group of staff, parents/grandparents who would like to form an adult choir and perform an item in the Gad’s Carol Service. Rehearsals will take place a couple of times leading up to the event, dates and times to be confirmed. Please contact Mr Stone on j.stone@gadshillschool.org if you are interested.

And finally… Congratulations to:
Rachael Street and Kristy Deacon on their success at the Scope Festival of Showjumping.

Kristy Deacon for achieving 6th place, in an adult class, in dressage at the London and South East Championships and 3rd place in show jumping, again in an adult class. Kristy was the only Junior rider in the competition where 400 riders took part and covered the whole of the South of England and London area.

Laurence Routledge won second place in an U14 (Kent) Royal Engineers Museum Poetry Competition. Laurence and his family have been invited to the WW1 “Lest We Forget…” weekend to receive his prizes.

An exhibition of Mr Bertwistle’s trip to Zambia will take place in the Crypt of Rochester Cathedral from Monday, 20th to Friday, 31st October. The cathedral is open each weekday from 7.30am-6pm and on a Saturday from 7.30am to 5pm. Access may be restricted at certain times in the day due to services.

We send our best wishes to one of the school’s Governors Mrs Andrea Kingsley Smith who will run the New York Marathon on Sunday, 2nd November in aid of Breast Cancer. .

Yours sincerely

David Craggs