St Luke's C of E Primary School, Glossop

St Luke’s CE Primary School Newsletter 

10.9.2020

Dear Parents,

As this is the first real newsletter of the new school year welcome back. It is so lovely to have school back to a full complement of pupils. It is also lovely to be dealing with the usual such as children (and staff) who suddenly hit that first full week back wall yesterday. If your child was one of those who suddenly felt sooooo tired don’t worry it is normal and gets better!

I cannot praise the parents, friends and family of St Luke’s enough for how sensible and considerate you have been. Even though a number of you may have been anxious over the children coming back you have shown care for our whole school community and tackled the new normal with a smile. I know the rules are getting stricter from Monday with the number permitted in a gathering both inside and outside being reduced to 6. This new rule will not affect how school is operating so there will be no changes to the current arrangements.

An email was sent out earlier this week about flu immunisations for the children, please remember to register your child for this. It is even more important this year to reduce the spread of flu.

I know it feels odd to be reminding you about the rules around holidays in term time at a time when most of us are trying to feel the love for holidays at home but it is one of those things that I need to do.

In September 2013 the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 came into force. These regulations make it clear that Headteachers should not grant approval for any leave of absence during term-time, including holidays, unless there are exceptional circumstances. These regulations also state that holidays cannot be authorised retrospectively.

Any requests should be on an official school absence request form and handed into the school office for consideration prior to any holiday/leave arrangements being made.

You may be issued with a Penalty Notice should leave be taken which is not authorised. If unpaid this could lead to prosecution under section 444(1) of The Education Act 1996.

I am also including the information about our facebook page again just so you have it. I will try to get better at remembering to use it, I know I am rubbish at posting on it put it down to my age!

if you are a Facebook user we would welcome you to ‘like and follow’ the St Luke’s Church of England Primary School official Facebook page. The Facebook page has been established by the staff and governors to share information and events about the school to the school and local community. Its aim is to be a source of information, it is not to be a page for queries and/or concerns regarding your child/children. If you have any questions regarding school matters then these should be directed through the traditional channels of the school office or your child’s class teacher. The School staff will of course respond to comments as soon as possible should a response be required but this may not be immediate. We would be very grateful if you could respect this page and the users who use it – we will have to delete inappropriate comments should this be required. The staff and school governors hope that this will be a great new additional communication tool for the school, all the other communication channels will remain in place.

The school Facebook page can be found using the following link: https://www.facebook.com/StLukesPrimaryGlossop/

We recommend that you set up the St Luke’s Facebook page as a ‘favourite group/page’ by following these simple steps (from a desktop computer):

1) Like and follow https://www.facebook.com/StLukesPrimaryGlossop/ on your personal Facebook profile

2) When on the St Luke’s Facebook page. Click the ‘following’ button and under ‘in your news feed’ section, tick the ‘see first’ button. This will ensure that when a new item is posted on the official page you will see this first in your newsfeed.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation.

I am aware of a real and particularly nasty viral post going round on TikTok. The company are dealing with the situation and it should be cleared within the next few days. I am mentioning this to you as it gives you the option to prevent your child using TikTok temporarily if you think that is appropriate.

At this time in the term I usually send out a list of dates but unfortunately at the moment there are few dates I can give you. I know our lovely PTA, which you are all members of, are frustrated that they cannot meet and plan events. Keep an eye on the newsletters and I will let you know what is coming up when we are able to have things.

On Tuesday 15th & Wednesday 16th the first group of Y5s will be doing their bikeability course, we will keep our fingers crossed for fine weather for them.

Stay happy and healthy

Alice Littlehailes