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Dear Parent
December Newsletter 2 � 13.12.04
Winter Concert � Tickets are selling very quickly, but there are still
some available for both Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 performances.
Tickets cost �2 and are available from the office, doors open 1.00 for a
prompt 1.30 start. I would be grateful for donations of groceries or
other items for the raffle.
Christmas Lunch Arrangements � Children who want lunch on Wednesday 15
will already have completed a booking slip giving their choice of food.
Money (�1.45) should be paid at the front door between 8.45 and 9.10.
Children who are entitled to a free lunch should also come in to report
that they are in school and ensure their lunch is booked. As there will
be 3 staff working on this task, it should not take much longer than
usual, but please remind your child to come straight into school when
they arrive.
At lunchtime, P4 � 7 will watch a DVD from 12.00 to 1.00 while P1-3 have
their lunch and then P1-3 will watch a DVD from 1.00 to 2.00 while P4 �
7 have their lunch. In this way, staff will be able to have their lunch
during one sitting, while serving and supervising at the other. If your
child is going home for lunch this will be 12.00 to 1.00 for P1-3 and
1.00 to 2.00 for P4 � 7. Please note there will be no supervision in the
playground as everyone is needed in the hall and I would request home
lunches not to return to school until a few minutes before their return
time.
School Meals � Please find attached a copy of the new �Hot Meal� menu
which will come into place on Monday 10 January. Please keep this in a
safe place so that you can refer to it when planning your child�s
lunches. You should note the following changes-
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There will no longer be a 3 course lunch on soup days � only 2 courses
each day (except for Thursday week 3 where there is soup, sandwich and
pudding)
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If a child does not want the pudding of the day they may now have a
piece of fruit OR a yoghurt (in the past I had argued that they should
be entitled to both on cost grounds, but this will no longer be
happening as the new menus clearly state �Fruit OR Yoghurt)
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On one day (Tuesday in Week 2) there is no main course, just soup and
pudding.
In the meantime, the Health Bar option of a sandwich, drink and 2 bags
taken from a selection of fruit, veg, cheese, nuts etc will not be
changing.
Car Driving and Parking � My apologies to those of you who encourage
your child to walk to school and do the same yourself, but I really must
raise this issue again. I know many of you will be angered by this
lecture yet again, but please read this section.
Last week we had 2 children knocked down by cars in 2 separate
incidents. Luckily neither was seriously hurt, but I am concerned that
it is only a matter of time before I have to report to you about some
serious injury to a pupil.
Last week I spent 2 days covering the janitor�s duty of supervising the
road beside the bus and I was very disappointed to see the total lack of
consideration some drivers showed for other drivers and more so for the
pupils. In one case a taxi chose to drive up on the pavement as the way
was blocked by a car trying to squeeze between a parked car where there
really was not enough room and this had blocked the road completely �
the fact that there were 4 pupils on this pavement who had to take
evasive action seemed to be of little interest to people who feel they
have to collect their child by car and who were actually causing the
problem of congestion in the first place.
On Friday I went in the other direction to observe the car park and the
nearby streets and I have to say that the practices I saw broke just
about every sensible rule of the road that you could imagine. Some
examples
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Parking at the bottom of Seaforth Avenue making the turn out of the T
junction at the bottom of the road only possible on one side of the
road � thus causing congestion.
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Driving up Seaforth Avenue and parking on the right hand side with the
driver�s side of the car next to the pavement. This means when you
drive off (when lots of children are around) that you are doing so
without good vision.
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Double parking in the car park � causing congestion.
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Parking on both sides of the road (half on and half off the pavement)
which leaves just enough room for a car to squeeze through. This also
leaves little room for pupils to pass when they are correctly on the
pavement.
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Parking on the yellow zig zags (I know they have become very faint,
but you know where they are and even without bright yellow lines, it
is obvious to everyone that this blocks the children�s vision).
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Parking just outside the school gates where lots of children are
crossing the road thus making it difficult for children to see cars
coming and making it difficult for drivers to see them.
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Reversing as the only way to get out of the congestion. I understand
why, but going backwards in a car when children are around is just
asking for trouble.
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Cars going too quickly when children are around. Your speed should be
well under 20 miles an hour, if you move into third gear on your car �
you are going too fast.
That is just a selection of things I saw in my 15 minute session and if
I am honest, this is probably a good day as my presence tends to ensure
drivers behave better and not worse. Unfortunately I cannot be there
every day.
The problem as I see it is threefold
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Firstly, the school is built at the end of a road, surrounded by very
narrow roads which make it unable to cope with the increase in traffic
for about 15 minutes each morning and afternoon. Short of knocking
down a few houses to widen the roads I cannot see a solution to this.
A one way system may make things easier, but is unlikely to be
possible or popular with local residents for the other 166 hours of
the week. I have asked parents to treat this as a one way system when
approaching the school by coming around the square in a clockwise
direction and not coming into the car park at all, but the problem is
caused because some parents comply with this while others do not or
will no t and the roads are just not wide enough for cars parked and
going in two different directions.
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Secondly, the volume of traffic was never anticipated when the school
was built. The car park is for staff use and is not large enough for
parents to park at the beginning and end of the day. When parents did
use the car park there was a real danger to children crossing at the
entrance and the parking practices were very dangerous. Even if the
car park could be extended thus reducing the congestion in the
streets, they would still be narrow and this would have no effect on
the speed cars drive. Maybe a bit of congestion to reduce car speed is
not such a bad thing.
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Thirdly, there are just too many people coming to collect their
children by car when they are perfectly able to walk either home or to
a sensible, safe collection point not too far removed from the school.
There is in fact a car park less than 300metres from the school which
could provide a safe place to park while you collect your child on
foot and a walk of this distance is not far.
The only way I can see an improvement to this situation is to reduce
the number of cars in the vicinity of the school. This means everyone
needs to take this on board and try to walk to school with their child
instead of bringing and collecting them by car.
At the beginning of next term I will again investigate other ways of
keeping the children safe and will make enquiries of what is legally
possible to do, but a voluntary solution by parents simply not bringing
their cars close to the school would be a much more responsible
approach. In the meantime parents should NOT come into the school car
park at any time. Arrangements for Concert parking will follow next
week.
Hygiene � We have a problem in school with many pupils going to the
toilet and not flushing it after them. We have recently, as a health and
safety issue, had to remove the liquid soap from the boys� toilets as
someone was squirting this on the floor and making it very slippery for
the others. (Please note we removed bars of soap a few years ago as
children used them to block the sinks and thus flood the toilets.)
Children do have access to soap back in the classroom where they can
wash their hands properly.
As you may be aware we have had a number of children off sick recently
from some kind of �sick� bug where children have an upset stomach and
there is a possibility that these hygiene issues are not helping the
problem. I will therefore be reinstating the liquid soap to the toilets
to ensure hands are washed straight after going to the toilet and we
will be putting up signs about flushing.
I would be obliged if parents could also reinforce these important
hygiene issues with their children on a regular basis so that they are
getting the message from both sides.
Christmas Service � is confirmed as taking place in Pulteneytown Parish
Church on Thurs 23 Dec at 10.00a.m.
Yours sincerely
LILIAN M WARK
Head Teacher |