It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that one of our parents and school governors, Leo Gorman, died at the start of the week.  Leo has been a strong supporter of the school, over many years, and will be greatly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this very sad time.

New Term

Welcome back! We hope you had a lovely Christmas and a safe and restful break. Once again we are looking forward to a busy term ahead.

 

Primary School Performance Tables

The Government released their Primary School Performance Tables shortly before the Christmas break. These tables list the top performing schools based on the end of Key Stage 2 SATs tests. We are pleased to announce that, for the second year running, we topped the Hillingdon table with 90% of pupils achieving the government’s ‘expected standard’ in reading, writing and maths.
 

Special Educational Needs (SEN) – School Information Report

The Department for Education (DfE) requires all schools to publish a SEN Information Report on their school website. This includes arrangements for assessing individual pupil needs, planning and implementing provision and reviewing the impact of this support. In light of recent developments, we have prepared a revised draft policy. This is available to view on our website:

http://www.st-marys.hillingdon.sch.uk/page/title=Special+Educational+Needs+%28SEN%29&pid=33

As this is intended as an information report for parents/carers of pupils with SEN, and/or disabilities, we were hoping for feedback on its usefulness. If you have any comments to make, or would like the report to include any additional information, then please complete the reply slip below and return it to school before Friday 13^th January. It would be helpful if you could provide the name of your eldest child so we can follow up any feedback – if required. All amendments will be included in the policy and then ratified by the governing body. Thank you for your time in advance.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Parent/Carer Reply Slip – SEN Information Report Feedback

Name of eldest child:___________________________                Year: _____

Are there any changes you feel we should make to the Information Report? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  

Is there any further information that you feel would be helpful?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  

______________________________________________________________________________

 

Bilingual Parents’ Talk

Thank you to all the parents who attended our Bilingual Talk, last term, led by Dr Froso Argyri from the University College London. The UCL has just launched their new BiLingo website offering lots of practical advice for parents. For more information please visit: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bi-multilingualism

 

Lunch Box Policy

We actively encourage our pupils to eat a healthy, balanced diet and as a result of our work we have been awarded the Healthy Hillingdon and Healthy London awards. Our Lunch Box Policy was written by our pupil School Council and includes the following:

Never allowed in school

Fizzy drinks, sweets, chocolate bars, chips, burgers, hot food/drinks, nuts, items of food on skewer sticks and fruit winders.

Allowed on Friday only

Crisps, sweet biscuits and cakes.

For a full copy of our Lunch Box Policy please visit:

http://www.st-marys.hillingdon.sch.uk/page/?title=Policies&pid=23

 

Term Dates

The term dates for the next academic year, 2017 to 2018, are as follows:

Autumn Term 2017

• ·Teacher INSET Day 1 (School Closed): Monday 4^th September
• ·Pupils return to school: Tuesday 5^th September
• ·Teacher INSET Day 2 (School Closed): Friday 29^th September
• ·Teacher INSET Day 3 (School Closed): Monday 30^th October
• ·Half Term: Monday 23^rd October to Friday 27^th October
• ·Term Ends: Wednesday 20^th December

Spring Term 2018

• ·Term starts: Thursday 4^th January
• ·Half Term: Monday 12^th February to Friday 16^th February
• ·Term Ends: Thursday 29^th March

Summer Term 2018

• ·Term starts: Monday 16^th April
• ·Half term: Monday 28^th May to Friday 1^st June
• ·Term ends: Friday 20^th July

 

Diary Dates this Term

Please visit our school website for a complete list of dates:

http://www.st-marys.hillingdon.sch.uk/

Date	Time	Event
Wednesday 11th January	9.30am	Reception (Upper Early Years) Hearing and Vision Tests
Wednesday 18th January	8am	Gymnastics lessons start
Friday 10th February	3.30pm	End of Half Term
Monday 20th February	8.40am	All pupils return to school
Monday 27th February		Start of Book Week
Thursday 2nd March		All pupils to come to school dressed as their favourite book character
Monday 6th March		Start of Hinduism Week
Friday 31st March	1.30pm	Term ends