Newsletter - Friday 24th March 2023

The next All Age Service at St Luke’s will be on Sunday 2^nd April at 11.00am.  It would be really lovely to have lots of families join in this Palm Sunday Service.  I will be asking children in school if they would like to take part in the service, please help them to do this should they wish to, or come and join in anyway.

Please be aware that if you are thinking about your child attending Ripley St Thomas for High School, their Admissions Policy has changed slightly.  Your child will still get points for attending a church school but no longer do they get ‘extra’ points for attending this school.  I order to ensure your child gets a place it is highly recommended that they (and you) attend church regularly over a period of time.

If you would like more information about this, please get in touch with Rev Caitlin or Mrs Armistead.

School offers an excellent Breakfast Club and After School Care Club which many of you use either on a regular basis or as emergency support.  We want these clubs to continue to grow and provide the best wrap around care for children in our local community. 

Due to the cost of running the clubs increasing, we will be increasing charges after the Easter Break.

The new charges are:

Early Birds

£6.00 per session

Night Owls

£6.50 for 1^st hour (until 4.30pm)

£11.00 for 2 hours (until 5.29pm)

The decision to do this has not been taken lightly and we thank you for your continued support.

The Choir Church lessons and after school club are up and running and the children are singing beautifully across the school.  We had an amazing turn out on Wednesday 22^nd February when parents were invited to attend the club after school and join in with a singing Eucharist in the school hall. 

Please come and join us at 3.40pm on Wednesday 29^th March. 

Miss Stephenson and Mrs Walling Lewis will be running a workshop looking at The ZONES of Regulation. The ZONES are used throughout school to help our children have a common emotional language and an understanding of how different emotions and feelings can be linked to the 4 zones. This has helped children with self-regulation, self-expression and given them individual strategies to try out.

Our school SENCO, Mr Molloy, will also be present at the workshop.

ZONES workshop in school

Friday 31^st March 9:30am (straight after Worship).

Agenda

• Resource packs handed out and introduction to The ZONES.
• Questions, ideas and suggestions.
• Refreshments.
• Time to chat with others.
• Finish by 11am.
• Please email helen.walling@skertonstlukes.lancs.sch.uk or phone 01524 65445 opt 3 if you would like to book a place.

We hope to see you there. 

We are planning to relaunch Times Tables Rock stars in order to encourage children to learn their times tables.  You will be asked to log in to the website again so that we can start competitions across the school and beyond.

On Friday 21^st April we are having a Rock stars day in school. Children can come dressed as a rock star and join in the fun whilst learning their tables.

Children MUST wear full uniform including black school shoes, except on PE days.  On PE days we encourage children to come to school in PE clothes (school t-shirt, track pants or shorts and trainers)

No rucksacks or other bags.  Book bags, lunch boxes and water bottles only please.  Long hair MUST be tied back and all jewellery must be removed.

Please ensure all items are labelled with your child’s name.

PLEASE NOTE: Hair must be tied back if longer that shoulder length.  Children are not permitted to have their hair dyed or have lines or designs cut into their hair.

A reminder of all the ways that we communicate with you and you can communicate with us:

ParentApp – PA Connect – all newsletters, forms, information and letters will be sent out via ParentApp as a push notification, text message or email.  All parents MUST have access to this as it sends you the latest messages etc.

Parent Pay – all trips, residential, music lessons, clubs, night owls and early birds are to be paid for using Parent Pay.  In paying for the activity, you are also giving consent for your child to attend the activity.  We MUST have this permission for activities that take place outside the local area of the school.  All parents need access to Parent Pay.

CONTACT US – Any information that needs to be shared with the teacher, office staff, Mrs Armistead, our SENCO or Pastoral Team can be emailed to contact-us@skertonstlukes.lancs.sch.uk.  Someone will endeavour to reply to your email within 1 working day of receiving it.

Telephone – You can call school anytime on 01524 65445.  If there is no one available to take your call, you can leave a message and someone will endeavour to get back to you within 1 working day.  Follow the phone instructions to talk to the office, the Business Manager or the Pastoral Team.

CLASS DOJO – This is specifically used to share learning including homework and home learning during periods of isolation.  Parents are encouraged to see their children’s learning and the whole school pages where we share whole school information.  It is very easy to message staff using Class Dojo but all too easy for staff to miss these messages. 

PLEASE DO NOT MESSAGE STAFF USING DOJO. 

Please call or email contact-us@skertonstlukes.lancs.sch.uk .  We will endeavour to reply to your messages within 1 working day of receiving them.  It is NOT ok to expect a member of staff to reply before 8.00am, after 5.00pm or at weekends.

Please Note: Mrs Armistead WILL NOT reply to any messages sent via Class Dojo.  If you want to contact the Headteacher directly, please email contact-us@skertonstlukes.lancs.sch.uk OR phone 01524 65445

in person – Staff members are always in the playground before and after school, as are members of SLT.   The office is open before and after school for advice and to take orders e.g. Photographs, Friends activities etc.  If you require a longer discussion with a member of staff, please telephone or email to make an appointment. 

We are looking to restart Right Start Training with the younger children in school. We have previously taken part in this programme every year before the pandemic and would love to start it again now.  

The programme is designed for use with children age 5 – 7 and involves schools and parents working in partnership to enable children to become safer pedestrians. Training for the trainers take approximately one hour and thirty minutes.  The trainers would then offer this programme to the children over a 6 week period.

We are looking for parents/ grandparents who would like to get involved with the training and delivery of the programme in school.  We need a minimum of one adult per two children for the programme to run.

If this is something you might like to get involved with, please contact Miss Quilliam in the school office.

A huge thank you to the members of Friends of Skerton St Luke’s.  Without these volunteers we would be unable to run the amazing activities we do for our children.  Every parent is automatically a member of FOSSL so please come and join in with anything you can to help raise much needed funds to help our children have the best opportunities they can.

Activities that are coming up include:

Bags to School – prepare now to bring along unused clothing etc on Wednesday 28^th June

Chocolate Mufti Day – Children come in own clothes and bring chocolate to ‘pay’ for the privilege, chocolate is used for prizes at Chocolate Bingo – Friday 24^th March

Chocolate Bingo – Come and join Chocolate Bingo in the school hall – Wednesday 29^th March 6-8pm. Mr Andrew has kindly agreed to be our new Bingo Caller for this event so please come along and support him!

Uniform Swap/Donation Stall - Friday 21st April straight after school 

The next FOSSL meeting date is on Friday 21st April straight after worship in the school hall. 

As you may be aware there is a huge demand for boxes and support from the local food banks and they do an amazing job in helping people in our community.  We continue to be fortunate enough to receive donations from Rapid Relief Team who provide boxes with food that has a long shelf life for people to access.  If you, or anyone you know, could do with support from this charity, please contact Mrs Armistead direct to arrange – head@skertonstlukes.lancs.sch.uk OR 01524 65445.