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Pulteneytown Academy
Newsletter 13 December 2004

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-

• 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)
• 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)
• 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

• 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.
• 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.
• Double parking in the car park � causing congestion.
• 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.
• 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).
• 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.
• 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.
• 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

• 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.
• 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.
• 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