Newsletters

24.01.22

Restrictions across the country have been relaxed today and in line with this, school's request for cooperation will also be relaxed moving forward. Our guidance in school is changeable dependent on the situation nationally, the situation locally, and indeed the situation in school.

During enhanced national regulations, we've been asking for parental cooperation in keeping kids off when there is COVID in the household.

From today, if there is COVID in the household, you may send your child into school as normal but we do ask that you lateral flow test them every morning until your household is COVID clear.

Thank you all for your cooperation in keeping children off school during the enhanced restrictions, it has been vital in our efforts to keep cases in school to a minimum and ultimately keep classes, and indeed school, open.

As restrictions are relaxed, staff will continue to wear masks in school and we will continue to temperature children on arrival at school.

PARENT ONLINE SAFETY ZOOM BRIEFING

On Wednesday 2^nd March at 7.30pm, there will be a zoom online safety briefing for parents.

Here are the Zoom access details

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86857844456?pwd=UWNtYURhQkRvaGNNMVVNcjA4QWI5UT09

Meeting ID: 868 5784 4456

Passcode: 941519

About the briefing

An ‘essential’ online safety briefing for parents, guardians and carers.

Duration: Approximately 1 hr 10 mins with time for questions.

Many people, including young children are users of the internet.

Having access to online information and the functionality that the internet can offer has many benefits and for most it plays an important part of our everyday lives. However, as technology moves on at such a pace it is difficult to keep up with new trends and developments, particularly with regard to mobile devices/games technology and safe accessibility to online material.

During the COVID19 restrictions with more young people potentially spending more time online, issues relating to the exploitation, manipulation or abuse of young people has added to concerns regarding online safety.

What are our children doing online?

Do we know how they are behaving?

Are they safe?

Who are they communicating with?

Do they know what to do if they come across something suspicious?

Are they accessing age appropriate content?

Are they giving away too much personal information that may make them vulnerable or affect them in the future?

Are they spending too much time online?

We would ask at least one parent/carer from each family to attend this online session where a Lancashire Education Authority Consultant will present an online Zoom Internet Safety briefing to address some of the issues mentioned above.

The session is for parents/carers only and will last for approximately 1hr with an opportunity for questions during or after the presentation.

The Local Authority and our school have policies in place to ensure children are learning in a safe and secure environment which includes being safe online. Therefore, this session has been organised to help you to contribute to this process in helping children to be aware of the potential problems associated with using the internet and modern technologies.

THE SESSION IS NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN

The online safety briefing leads us in nicely to introduce our new monthly safeguarding newsletter.

This newsletter will be in addition to this regular newsletter and will be full of information and resources for you as parents on everything you need to know to keep your child safe.

It will also give you an insight as to what we do in school with regards safeguarding. Nic Cook will be taking the lead on this newsletter so if you have any questions regarding safeguarding, get in touch with Nic.

The first edition is attached to this newsletter.

St Michaels Youth Worker Assembly

Balance Bikes Reception

All Day

From 01 Feb until 02 Feb

Y5 / Y6 Sports Hall Athletics Clayton Green

1:15pm – 3:00pm

February

Education Sunday Church Service

9:30am – 10:30am

February

Young Voices POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19

5:30pm – 9:30pm

February

Balance Bikes Reception

All Day

From 08 Feb until 09 Feb

February

Fire Servce talk Class 6 & 7

1:30pm – 3:00pm

February

We currently have a number of cases of chicken pox in reception. Please keep an eye out for the following symptoms:

itchy, spotty rash
a high temperature
aches and pains, generally feeling unwell
loss of appetite

If your child has chicken pox, they will need to be kept off school until all spots have formed a scab. This is usually 5 days after the spots have appeared.

More information can be found on the NHS website.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chickenpox/

Movie Night, from Mr Norris!

School council will be working hard over the next few weeks to organise their annual movie night which will be taking place on Thursday 27^th January. Due to covid-19 and the great success of the revamped movie night last year, it will once again take place in classrooms. Children are invited to stay in their classroom after school on this date and watch a movie with their classmates. School council will be handing out cinema treats too.

Parents - please pick up your child between 5:45 and 6pm from the same place that you would normally collect your child at the end of the school day.

Tickets for Movie Night 2022 will cost £2 to cover the cost of the snacks and to help raise some money for the school. This can be paid through Scopay.

Many thanks for your continued support and School council cannot wait to see lots of you there.

*Please note all other clubs are cancelled for this evening.

Dear friends,

Here is today’s reflection: https://stgeorgechorley.co.uk/news/news_inner/163

Here is the notice sheet: https://stgeorgechorley.co.uk/brochure/theway.pdf

A song we sang today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDPCFbAysBc

God bless,

Fr Mike

CONFIRMATION 2022

The date for this years Confirmation service is Thursday,16th June at 7pm.

If you would like to consider being confirmed (adults) please speak to Fr Mike; if you are the parent of child thinking about confirmation please speak to John Bradley.

You will need to show your baptism certificate to confirm your place, and be free on Sunday, 20th March, 12-5pm for a trip to Whalley Abbey with Bishop Philip.

An confirmation application form is attached to the newsletter.

For more information please email Fr Mike: vicar@stgeorgechorley.co.uk

New from White Rose Maths

A free app for Key Stage 1 to develop fluency and confidence in number-all in one minute chunks!

https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths

Dear Parents and guardians, aunties and uncles, brother and sisters

We are on the lookout for any volunteers who may be able to help out with our STEM week in school which is due to take place the week commencing Monday 27^th June. We want to inspire the children about all things STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and would love to show the children the huge range of careers and opportunities that are available to them within these areas. If you work within any of these fields or you feel your job requires skills in these areas, please get in touch to find out more about how you could help; it would be superb if some volunteers were willing to speak to the children during that week. Please talk to Tom, Naomi or Emma, or send an email to t.norris@st-georges.lancs.sch.uk.

Many thanks and we look forward to hearing from some of you!

Tom Norris, Naomi Harrison and Emma Smith

As COVID restrictions are being relaxed, it is looking more likely that our trips to PGL will go ahead.

Our Year 6 kids are off to PGL 13th-16th May 2022

Our current Year 5 kids (who will be Year 6 by then...) are off to PGL 16th -19th September 2022.

Our PGL trips are at Boreatton Park Adventure Centre in Shropshire.

For many children this may be their first experience of staying away from home without you. PGL staff and I will be on hand throughout to encourage, reassure and help, so that your child returns home even more confident and independent with a real sense of achievement.

We have chosen to book with PGL because not only do they offer excellent value but they also have a reassuring 60 years of experience organising trips for schools. Their extremely high standards ensure that your child will be in safe hands at all times.

The website is below for you to be having a look at.

PGL

There will be a parents meeting closer to the time to provide you with information about what the kids will be doing while they are there and what the eating and sleeping arrangements are.

PGL have their own kit list which is available on their website and on the following link.

Kit List

The cost of the trip is £260 and is payable via Scopay. You can pay this in instalments as and when suits you.

The cost includes:

· Return coach travel from school

· A full daily programme of adventure activities

· Fun evening entertainment

· All meals and accommodation

· Full comprehensive travel insurance (details available on request or enclosed)

If you are struggling to fund the trip, please do get in touch with us.

As COVID restrictions are being relaxed, it is looking more likely that our trips to Bibby's Farm will go ahead.

Our Year 2 kids are off to Bibby's Farm on 7th-8 th July.

There will be a parents meeting closer to the time to provide you with information about what the kids will be doing while they are there, what the eating and sleeping arrangements are and what they need to pack.

The website is below for you to have a look at.

Bibby's Farm

The cost of the trip is £80 and is payable via Scopay. You can pay this in instalments as and when suits you. If you are struggling to fund the trip, please do get in touch with us.

A message from Miss Horder

Great news everyone, we have a new concert date! Our concert is now…

*Wednesday 25th May*

This is the current information I have -

• IF YOUR PREVIOUS DATE WAS 7TH FEBRUARY: then we will be re-issuing you with new tickets so please keep hold of your old tickets for now (we have these in school).

• If you haven’t received your tickets yet then don’t worry - we are slowly fulfilling all the remaining orders and you should receive your tickets soon (as long as the invoice is paid in full).

• Please try and tell all of your parents (whether they have bought tickets or not) that you have a new concert date. Some of your parents may have bought tickets directly with the box office (or may wish to do so) and some parents may not realise or understand the date change process as well as you do. Please note, parents are not to contact the YV office as they will only be referred back to the account holder ie. The School.

• If we do have tickets left for the rescheduled concert once the changes have been made then we will go on sale with them direct from the box office. Unfortunately we are not reopening schools bulk ordering via the teacher centre.

NB: If a parent therefore requests a refund and then wishes to buy a ticket at a later date it will be more expensive due to box office charges. In addition, some concerts are also sold out so the ability to re-book tickets is not guaranteed.

It’s still in the early stages of changing on our account, but if you have any queries, please feel free to e-mail me:

s.horder@st-georges.lancs.sch.uk

I'll leave you this week with a couple of pictures of some lovely things that has been happening around school last week. Class 3 went to Church on Wednesday to take part in the 10am service. Class 3 had a good look around Church, Father Mike was there to talk to them all about what happens in Church and what it means when he wears different coloured robes! Another lovely event took place on Friday when our youngest children set off outside to enjoy their very own teddy bears picnic.

It is so often that we get caught up with the pace of life that we forget to stop and reflect on the positive things that we have in our lives.

If you get a couple of minutes today, pour yourself a cuppa and instead of scrolling through social media, take a moment to reflect back over your week, consciously being grateful for everything that is good.