Qu – 1, Why do our children have to play out in the pouring rain then having to sit in wet clothes?

Issues raised: This was raised at a meeting in January and the response is the same.

Response: - The children go out to play as often as possible to have exercise after sitting for so long in class. Obviously, we don’t send them out when it is raining heavily. If it is light, drizzly rain we ask them to put on their coats and have a run around. However, some children choose to go out without their coats and, sometimes, a small number of children arrive to school in really wet weather with no coats at all. Even after giving the children advice about playing sensibly outside when the ground is wet after it has been raining, some children choose to jump up and down in the puddles with the result that their clothes get soaked through.  

However, we are caring folk and we would never expect the children to sit in wet clothes. We have spares for all ages and, on the odd occasion they get wet, they can change into their PE kit until their clothes have dried.

Although we have some excellent outdoor play areas, we are aware that some children are getting muddy/wet in nursery area and we are currently looking into all in one suits (waterproof suits) for the Nursery children and next month replacing the grass with nomow. (an artificial grass that can stand up to all-weather conditions).

Qu 2 – Will it be possible for teaching assistants to be more polite to the children?

Response: - All our teaching assistants are polite to the children. We have an excellent team who worked very conscientiously to ensure every child receives the best care and attention. However, if you have a complaint or a concern about any individual member staff, then it is better if you come and see me so that I can look into the matter straightaway.

Qu 3 – Can the Christmas plays be performed during school time as lots of children are very tired the next day and also they don’t like going out on dark nights.

Response – The KS1 children do have their performances in an afternoon. We organise evening performances so that people who work can come along to see their children. Now if we just had one evening performance, we would have to really limit numbers and some parents would be quite upset if they didn’t get to see their children. So that is the reason for the two shows in an evening. However, I agree it can get late, so this Christmas we will start our shows at 6.15 pm instead of 7.00 pm and hope this is better for everyone. 

This question was raised in January 2008 Would it be possible for the KS1 Christmas Play to be performed once in the afternoon and once in the early evening to allow parents who can’t take time off work to see the play. Also could KS2 do the same?

Response at that time -  When we became  a Primary School, we considered this but a lot of parents, at that time, told us KS1 children would be too tired for evening performances and that they wouldn’t want to bring them back.

We appear to have differing points of views here
so we need to think through all the options for this coming Christmas!

Qu 4 - Can we have a Buddy Bus Stop System as the Buddy Benches do not seem to be working well?

Response – Our Buddy Benches do work well but sometimes the monitors forget to put them out on the playground. However, we could introduce Buddy Bus Stops for the winter months. Our Bus Stop system in the school hall presently works very well for the Reception aged children. They wait at the Bus Stop after they have eaten their lunch so that they can be safely supervised to the playground.

Qu 5 - On parents evenings can we hear more about our children other than English, Maths and test results?

Response – We have to report on all areas of the curriculum, which we do in the annual school summer reports. However, if some parents feel we are only covering a couple of subjects and tests then I will speak to the teachers about this.

Qu 6 – The children in Reception seem to come out at varying times. We arrive at 3.15 pm yet the children come out later. When should the children be leaving?

Response – The children should leave at 3.15 pm, so I will talk to the teachers about this.

Qu 7 – Can we please keep white polo shirts as these are far easier to keep clean and look much better?

Response – We were trying to avoid white polo shirts as they seem to lose their colour more quickly than the other colours. However, I do realise it is perhaps easier to purchase white ones (and cheaper) from local stores, so we will keep white in our polo shirt choice.  

Qu 8 Please could we have a general reminder about using the correct language on and around the school site.

Response – This has cropped up before and I agree everyone should make an effort to use the correct language particularly when children can hear adults speaking. However, it was brought to my attention last week that some children were swearing on the playground early one morning. Please, if you hear any of the children using inappropriate language let me know so that we can talk to the culprits. Thank you.

Qu 9 – Please can we have a separate playing area for KS1 children as we feel our children are too small to be playing amongst the older children.

Response – Many schools only have the one play area for all the children. However, we have different play areas around the school for the children to use and a Lunch Club as well. This reduces large numbers of children playing together. We also have Play leaders who help the children play games and socialise appropriately together. Next month, we are also extending out Adventure Play Area so this will spread out the play areas even more. Hopefully, next year we are looking into providing another play area around the playground which will be very exciting for the children. So all in all, compared with other schools, we think the children have enough space for them to all play nicely together

Qu 10 – Are the sun hats for sharing around. If so we are concerned about nits.

Response – The Sun Hats were donated by Cancer Research and the sun cream as well. Every sun hat is to be numbered so each child will have their own. At the end of the year, the hats will be washed and renumbered for the new class.

I checked with the school Nurse if anyone can get nits by wearing someone’s hat. The response was the nit egg, when hatched into a louse, can only live if the hair is attached to the human head because the louse feeds on human blood. The louse could not live in a hat for any length of time because it needs blood for food. The Nurse suggested hats are shaken before wear just to make sure there is nothing in the hat. E.g. a sleeping spider!

Qu 11 – Are we meeting the Government target of two hours each week for PE time?

Response – I checked this out with Mr Murray who is the PE Leader. Key Stage 2 children get two hours a week and Key Stage 1 just under. Some children get more because of out of school PE activities. For example, gym. However, Mr Murray is looking into the possibility of all the classes having a five minute Wake and Shake session every day which would add on an extra 25 minutes each week to PE time.

Qu 12 - Dance Club costs. Can parents be encouraged to recycle shoes etc and be made aware that there are pairs to recycle. Also after the initial leotard and shoes there should be no further costs.

Response – We do recycle shoes and leotards that are given and parents are aware that there are recycled shoes etc available. Please see staff who run the Dance Club. There are no additional costs after leotards and shoes are bought. After the Dance Festival, some parents like to buy their child’s costume but this is voluntary and not compulsory.