Welcome back – or welcome if you are just joining the Galley Hill community for the very first time. While the alarm clock has been a bit of a shock, it has been such a pleasure to be back in school with the children this week! We have enjoyed hearing stories of their summer holiday adventures and seeing how much they have grown.
In assembly on Wednesday, we talked about the new school year being a little like a pair of new shoes – a sign we are growing up, exciting but possibly a little uncomfortable at first. We acknowledged that even the staff feel a bit nervous at this time but it will soon all become perfectly normal and comfortable once again. We hope that the Welcome Meetings that are currently taking place are supporting you, as parents, in feeling a little more comfortable about what is to come in this new school year. We are very much looking forward to adventuring through it with you all.
Allergy Awareness / Birthday Sweets
You will know that we have been an allergy aware school for many years and request that parents refrain from sending their child to school with nuts or nut containing products. You may have heard on the news that schools are now required to follow Benedict’s Law with regard to managing allergies. This is following the death of a child, Benedict Blythe, following an incident at his school.
In order to prepare for Benedict’s Law, we have been risk assessing aspects relating to allergy awareness. Within our new policy, which will be shared with parents as soon as it has been ratified by governors, we have stated that the school will NOT hand out any food that has been provided by parents. This unfortunately means that we will no longer be in a position to hand out birthday sweets / treats. We do want to acknowledge our children’s special days’ and we encourage you to get them to wear a badge on their birthdays and the other children will sing to them (if they would like this) but we do need to prioritise the safety of the children in our care.
Staff News
We are absolutely delighted to share with you that Miss Carden gave birth to a baby girl on 6th August. I am sure you will all want to join us in congratulating Miss Carden and her family and welcoming Betty May into the Galley Hill community.
In other fantastic news, other staff have heard this week that they have passed National Professional Qualifications. Mrs Cook is now a qualified Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator and Mrs Birtchnell now holds a qualification in leading behaviour and culture in schools. Congratulations to you both!
Next week, we will be saying a temporary farewell to our Computing Technician, Mr Edwards, who is off to study in Japan for a year. We hope that he has the most incredible experience! We should not see too much change within school as we have successfully appointed his brother, also Mr Edwards, to temporarily replace him.
Mobile Phones
In line with revised government expectations, we will shortly be releasing our Mobile Phones Policy. This should not bring about any major changes to the day-to-day procedures at Galley Hill however we would like to remind all children that do have a mobile phone on the way / way back from school that this must be turned off as soon as they enter the school premises and taken to the school office. Children should not be using phones at all, at any time, while on the school site. Thank you for reminding your child of this if relevant.
Start of the School Day
Just a reminder that the official start of our school day is 8:45am, with children being able to enter the building from 8:40am. At 8:45am, all children should be in the classrooms and learning should be starting. Unfortunately too much learning time is being lost by children continuing to arrive until much later. This causes disruption for all.
Please ensure that your child is in school for 8:45am each day. The gate that leads onto Gadebridge Road will be locked at this time each day. The gates on Pudding Lane and by the main school entrance will be locked at 8:50am. Please ensure that you have left the school site by this time so you do not get locked in. If you are running late and will not be able to vacate the premises before this time, please take your child to the school office.
