Newsletter

Newsletters are emailed out to parents and carers every week on a Friday. If you do not already receive you can read it here or have it emailed by contacting the office on: office@hollypark.barnetmail.net

To see the full colour version of this week’s newsletter including photographs please scroll further down this page. You will also find there a full list of previous newsletters.

This plain version of the newsletter will translate into different community languages using the Google translate button at the bottom of this page.

Anti-Bullying Week

This week has been Anti-Bullying Week. There were a couple of assemblies about this. The children also watched the John Lewis advert in class and discussed it. It is all about showing kindness and links really well with Anti-Bullying and also filling our Holly Park buckets with kindness. The national theme this year is “United Against Bullying”. This year, more than ever, we’ve witnessed the positive power that society can have when we come together to tackle a common challenge. Anti-Bullying Week is no different. Bullying has a long lasting effect on those who experience and witness it. But by channelling our collective power, through shared efforts and shared ambitions, we can reduce bullying together. From parents and carers, to teachers and politicians, to children and young people, we all have a part to play in coming together to make a difference. We’re all a piece in the puzzle, and together, we’re united against bullying. Each class did a lesson on this very idea. Each child decorated a paper. These were all attached together to make a visual reminder in the classroom that we should be united against bullying.

Following Holly Park Rules

Just a reminder to parents that at Holly Park we have a behaviour policy we follow. This policy is accompanied by our Holly Park Helping Hands which supports children with 5 easy and clear steps to follow if they are having issues with another child in the playground. Recently we have had some children tell us that they have been told by their parents that if a child does something to them – they should do it back. E.g – If a child hits them – they should hit them back. This is NOT the Holly Park way and not how we expect children to behave. Please don’t recommend this course of behaviour to your child. As they say – two wrongs don’t make a right – and inevitably this line of action only makes things worse. As adults in society this is not the course of action the law would recommend. We are teaching the children to be lifelong learners and to operate beyond primary school and be able to operate in wider society as they grow into teenagers and then adults.

Enabling Enterprise Day Linked With Our National Charity – Coram Children’s Society and World Children’s Day 2020

Today it is World Children’s Day and the anniversary of children’s rights! The children have been marking the day by taking part in an Enabling Enterprise Challenge Day where they had to work in teams to research, design and make greetings cards that said “Happy Children’s Day” or “Happy birthday Children’s Rights”. They ended the day with presentations showing their cards and explaining why they chose that particular design. We have also marked the day by raising money for Coram, the UK’s oldest children’s charity which has been supporting vulnerable children for 280 years. Coram has a legal centre that is the UK’s dedicated children’s rights centre. It also has an adoption centre, it helps children who are in foster care, supports children through play therapy and music therapy and helps families with childcare. Coram also works with education settings in the UK as well as aboard.

Email contacts

I appreciate that at the moment it is more difficult to make contact with class teachers on a daily basis. A reminder that you can send in a note to your class teacher and they will get back to you. I am getting an increasing number of emails to the headteacher email address that should be directed elsewhere.

For that reason, please see below a list of email addresses and what they can be used for:

For matters to be directed to the class teacher if needed : office@hollypark.barnetmail.net
For nursery & reception extended day invoicing: office@hollypark.barnetmail.net
For attendance matters, absence notification, holiday requests, moving school and medical matters: aneedham@hollypark.barnet.sch.uk
For dinner money, Free School Meal applications, texts, emails and School Money: mhounslow@hollypark.barnet.sch.uk
For behaviour problems that have already been to the class teacher in the first instance: mmichael@hollypark.barnet.sch.uk
For mental health, social issues and wellbeing matters: kpuzey@hollypark.barnet.sch.uk
For SEND matters: dkelly@hollypark.barnet.sch.uk
For safeguarding matters: mmichael@hollypark.barnet.sch.uk
For Looked After Children & Young Carers: sthomas@hollypark.barnet.sch.uk

Parent Consultations Year 1 to 6

A reminder that parent consultations via telephone are next week. Please make sure that you remember your time slot for each child. The class teachers will only try calling twice – if you don’t answer they will move on to call the next parent on the list. Please be advised that the call will almost certainly come from a blocked or unidentified number as teachers are calling via their own telephone but having blocked the number. If you receive an unidentified number at the time of your appointment – please do answer it.

Childcare Vouchers

I have had a suggestion this week from a parent about child care vouchers – which some parents may wish to send these to the school as their contribution following my letter. It might be that lots of you have more money in your childcare vouchers this year as there have been fewer opportunities to use them with the school closure last academic year and lockdown. Several parents have already contacted the school and decided to donate the child care vouchers to the school as their contribution to my letter. The parent who emailed did explain that donating the vouchers feels like less of a hit to personal finances than donating money as in many ways that money (for vouchers) has already been spent! It may be worth checking how much money you have sitting in childcare vouchers. If you would like to donate childcare vouchers – please contact Mrs Hassan in the school office.

Supporting the PTA – Amazon Smile

The PTA have registered on Amazon Smile and for every purchase a small % is donated to our PTA. It’s so easy to set up and all one needs to remember is to shop on smile.amazon.co.uk instead of the usual Amazon web address. This is the link to choose our PTA (“Holly Park Parent Teacher Association” is the full name) as your charity of choice: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1101344-0. Hopefully with Xmas shopping coming up we can raise some effortless funds! Please sign up – it costs you nothing. I will be using it. It’s so easy.

Decorations Day

We are going to have our yearly Decoration Day very soon to get the school ready for Christmas. We would like every child to bring in an empty cardboard toilet or kitchen towel roll as soon as possible. They will be using these as a base for our recycled decorations. If you can collect and bring in more than one then that would be brilliant. They need to be in school by Thursday 26th November at the latest. The class teachers will make a place in the classroom to put them ready for use. Thank you for your support.

Diary Dates

Monday 23rd November Nasal Flu Immunisation
Week of 23rd November Parent Consultation
Week Friday 27th November INSET DAY
Monday 30th November Decorations day
Tuesday 8th December Nursery drop in for new children 4-5pm
Wednesday 9th December Christmas Lunch
Friday 11th December Nativity Dress Rehearsal
Friday 11th December Y5 and Y6 parties
Week of 14th December Y3 Nativity
Tuesday 15th December EYFS
Wednesday 16th December Y3 and Y4 parties
Wednesday 16th December KS1 parties
Thursday 18th December Term ends at 1.30pm

Parent Contributions

The generosity of many Holly Park parents has been fantastic over the last week. Thank you so much for your support with these contributions. Whilst donations can never make up for the loss of income to the school during COVID, the donations will ensure that class teachers can continue with creative activities which require consumable equipment. Therefore the curriculum for the children can continue to be delivered in full. The current amount raised is: £4,520 which includes £905 from EYFS donations.

Attendance

Attendance over the last week was 97.69%. The best attendance last week was from: Reception Palm Red 100%, Y3 Willow Class 100% and Y5 Juniper 100% Attendance In line with my ongoing messages about attendance, I just wanted to remind you that in line with our practice in previous years, you will be receiving a letter after the Christmas holiday about your child’s attendance. ALL parents will receive a letter indicating how their child’s attendance has been after the first term of the school year. A green letter will indicate attendance of 96% or more – which is great. An amber letter will indicate attendance of 94%-95.9% – which is around the expected mark. A pink letter will indicate attendance of 90% – 93.9% – this is of concern because it is below the expected attendance levels. A dark pink letter which will indicate attendance below 90% – which is of serious concern At parent evening in the Spring Term you will receive a breakdown of your child’s attendance. This will give the exact attendance figure and will show where the absences have occurred. We hope that you will find these two pieces of information useful.