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.

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Our Local Charity this Term

This term we will be supporting a local charity. Our local charity of choice is a local food bank– Food Bank Aid. The food bank is situated on the Finchley Lido near to MacDonalds and across from the Vue cinema. Because many families have been affected financially throughout the pandemic and with the rising cost of living, many families locally and at Holly Park have had to use food banks. In October, our Harvest also supported this cause. This week in assembly Miss Michael told the children about our local charity and she talked to them again about what food banks are and why it is important to support them. Food Bank Aid is a grassroots charity which is tackling the daily challenge of food poverty in North London.

Operating as a central donation and distribution hub, they collect and purchase food, toiletries and household goods and distribute them to food banks where the need is most. For the thousands of London households facing impossible daily choices on how to feed and provide for their families, food banks are a lifeline. Each week donations received support 15-20 food banks across North London, which together, help around 10,000 vulnerable people including 3,000 children. On Friday 11th February we would like children to come to the hall in the morning bringing food and toiletry gifts for the food bank – just like they did for Harvest. We will then deliver the donations to the food bank that day. There will be more information nearer the time about what the food bank particularly need. Thank you for your support.

COVID

Covid cases have been particularly high this week right across the school. Eleven out of our sixteen classes have had cases of COVID at the same time this week. It has been a challenging week as we have also had 23 members of our staff absent. Unfortunately, this has meant that even with creative solutions, we have had to postpone some parent meetings, merge some classes and cancel some of our breakfast and after school provisions. This seems to be the picture across many Barnet primary schools at present. A massive well done and thank you to Miss Michael who has managed all of the cover for staff superbly and to the school office for fielding all of the parent calls and emails and questions about return dates etc. As you are aware from the letter emailed this week, I have had to contact the DFE Covid helpline to report our number of cases across the school. Public health then advise us what we should do. The school remains open and your child should continue to attend as normal if they remain well. Initial measures suggested to us are predominantly the measures we already have in place in school, such as regular cleaning, regular handwashing/sanitising and increased ventilation. However, there also needs to be a temporary suspension of activities that would bring large groups together – this means that at this time, the Infant show will still be recorded with no parent audience. We have been advised to suspend live performances and any large groups of parents on site.

Please can we ask for your help in assuring we don’t have to move to the next stage of control measures.

If your child has symptoms please take them for a PCR test (not a LFD test) and keep them at home and inform the school
We are asking all parents, carers and visitors to wear face masks again whilst on school grounds.
Don’t arrive too early at the end of the day so that people are not congregating in the school playgrounds

If your child has a positive lateral flow test, you should report the result online on the NHS website. You should send a picture of the confirmation you get back to the school office as confirmation that your child is positive. Whilst the government have moved the country back to plan A – every individual school setting is measured separately and by the number of cases at any one time. Cases here are high and at an unprecedented level. We have to report cases and be guided by advice. The DFE, Public Health and the London Coronavirus Cell have advised that we maintain our current measures. We will be monitoring case numbers over the next few weeks before half term to see if we need to introduce even more stringent control measures. If numbers do not go down or rise further this is when we will introduce more measures.

Education

In assembly on Monday we talked about Article 28 – The Right to an Education. Some of the teachers talked about what they enjoyed most about lessons at their primary school and also what helped them to learn. Please talk to your children about what your primary school experience was like – what you enjoyed most about lessons and what helped you to learn. Talk about the similarities and differences between your primary school days and theirs. Children love to hear your stories and experiences.

World Book Day – Advance Notice

World Book Day is on Thursday 3rd March. One of the special things for that day is that we are going to ask the children to come dressed as their favourite character out from a book. This could also be from a nonfiction or poetry book. We want to give you as much notice as possible to buy or make a costume.

Attendance

Attendance for the last week was 94%. This was above Barnet attendance last week which was 93% across all primary schools. Well done to Reception Palm Green with the best attendance at 99%

Dates

Monday 7th February KS1 performance this week
Tuesday 8th February Safer Internet Day
Friday 11th February Local Charity Event – Food Bank Aid
Friday 11th February End of Half term at 3.30pm
Wednesday 23rd February Y2 SPAG Meeting for parents at 9.30am
Thursday 24th February Y1 Phonics meeting for parents at 9.30am
Friday 25th February Holly Park Maths Day
Thursday 3rd March World Book Day
Friday 4th March Y4 Pyjama party
Monday 14th March First Aid lessons this week
Monday 14th March Times released online for parent consultations
Wednesday 16th March Y5 to The National Gallery
Monday 21st March First aid lessons this week
Monday 21st March Y5 Curriculum Meeting for parents 9.30am – Rights
Tuesday 22nd March Y4 Curriculum Meeting for parents 9.30am – RE
Thursday 24th March Y3 Curriculum Meeting for parents 9.30am – computing
Monday 28th March Holly Park Well-being Week
Monday 28th March Holly Park Wheel to School Week
Monday 28th March Parent Consultations this week for Y1 to Y6
Thursday 31st March End of term at 1.30pm

Platinum Jubilee Commemorative Medals

On February 6th 2022, Her Majesty the Queen will have reigned for a record breaking 70 years. This will be her Platinum Jubilee – an event that has never been seen before in British history and is unlikely to be seen again. To commemorate this historic royal event, Tower Mint are presenting the Platinum Jubilee Commemorative Medal exclusively for this event – only available to schools. The medal is 32mm and is presented in a bespoke regal purple and gold embossed card surround within a protective Perspex case. The medal is at a special price of £2.99 We need to have at least a minimum total order of £149 to proceed. If you would like to purchase a coin – please do so on School Money. If you would like to purchase more than one per child – please contact Miss Hounslow in the school office so that she can amend the amount for you. THE DEADLINE TO ORDER IS MONDAY 24th JANUARY I am sure that in the summer term we will celebrate and mark the Platinum Jubilee.

Snow & Icy Weather

As always as we move into the New Year, there will inevitably be a higher risk of inclement weather, linked with the possibility of school closure or later opening. In the event of heavy snowfall, parents should check for closure notices on the school website, as well as looking out for emails and texts from the school. Any decision to close is not taken lightly. We make decisions that we think are for the best at the time and at the heart of everything is the health and safety of the children in getting to and from school, the safety of staff and ensuring there is adequate supervision. Decisions are made with senior staff, the chair of governors and other local Headteachers. Every school in Barnet is different due to location and also where staff travel from. For various legal reasons, we are not able to grit the pavements outside the school – our responsibility is for the school site only. However the council have provided a grit bin opposite the school which parents are very welcome to use to grit the paths and entrance to the school in icy weather. Please do make use of this. We will also send out a text if necessary to ask for a group of volunteer parents with shovels to help Mr Reid clear paths – this has been very helpful in the past. Please be assured that we always have the health and safety of the children uppermost on our mind. We continually risk assess, consider and evaluate what we do in snow and icy weather. Thank you for your support in advance with what inevitably is always a difficult and stressful time.

This week’s newsletter: Newsletter 21.1.22