Dear Parents

Welcome back to Shepley First School.  I hope you have all had a lovely summer, the children certainly seem to have enjoyed themselves, they have been telling us about all the things they did and places they went to with great enthusiasm.  The Reception children have made a fabulous start to school, they have impressed everyone with their independence, skills, their friendliness and how quickly they have adapted to routines.  They are full of smiles and energy and we can’t wait to see how they develop during this first year at school.

We have had some fantastic homework/ random acts of wildness brought in by the children, it has been great to see such a variety of different things.  It isn’t too late to send something in from the summer.

We have made a few improvements to the school over the summer.  Firstly, I am sure you have noticed our wonderful new pond on the henny.  Temple View, the company who look after our grounds maintenance have done a marvellous job of creating this fabulous pond!  A dragonfly and water boatman have already been spotted.  The children and staff can’t wait to see how it evolves and changes over this first 12 months.  I am also delighted to let you know that this pond has been entirely funded by Shepley Spring.   We are so grateful for FOSFS making contact with Shepley Spring and then for the incredibly generous donation.  We would like to have an official opening of the pond this half term and invite Shepley Spring to see what a difference they have made to the school.

We are currently considering how to spend the money raised by FOSFS last academic year, the staff have plenty of ideas!  We will be making a final decision in the next couple of weeks and will let you know what we have decided.

We would like to express a huge thank you to one of our parents Jane Middleton for creating the wonderful murals in our bike sheds.  In next week’s first school newsletter of the year, we will show you some of the photos of the children working with Jane to complete these, they really brighten up the bike sheds!  We really appreciate Jane giving her time as an artist to us and making this contribution to the school.

Steve Cunliffe our caretaker has been busy re-painting a lot of the woodwork around school, fixing and mending items for us.  Steve has also overseen some improvements we have made inside the school building.  We have a new hall floor, the woodwork has been stripped back and treated and now looks extremely shiny!  Miss Pearson’s class has been refurbished and decorated, she now has new storage and a brand new smartboard in her classroom.  Over the last two years we have refurbished Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. 

We have also had CCTV fitted.  This sadly is due to the regular damage caused by young people spending time in our grounds at night.  You will also recall we had a large section of the roof stolen from the bike sheds last year too.  Hopefully it will prevent the issues we had this year.

The weather is changing already and as we know here in Shepley it can be a little unpredictable!  We suggest that you keep a small waterproof jacket in your child’s bag at all times.  We aim to have the children playing out all year round whenever possible as they need the fresh air, it really helps us if they all have a coat.

This year we will be communicating more information about your child’s attainment and progress.  We will soon issue a ‘Parent’s Assessment Calendar’ so you know what information you will get and when.

In the summer term when we had very hot weather we allowed the children to bring cordial/dilute juice or fresh fruit juice to school to drink.  As you can imagine the children drank a lot more and I don’t think that was due entirely to the hot weather!  It is very difficult trying to get the children to drink enough during the school day and so we have decided to allow the children to continue to bring dilute/cordial or fresh fruit juice to school.  Keeping hydrated helps their concentration and helps to keep them well.

We are really looking forward to this year and working with you to give the children at Shepley a very enjoyable, fun and inspiring year!

Mrs Bowman