Where did the summer holidays go? Weren’t we lucky with all the beautiful sunshine! The autumn term is traditionally a very busy one for us in school and I don’t anticipate this year being any different! We would like to extend a warm welcome to our new pupils and their families into our school community. We hope you enjoy your time with us at William Ransom.
I would also like to welcome Mrs Marie Herbert and Mr Oliver Palmer to our teaching team and Mrs Fiona Kershaw and Mrs Aliya Ozdemir as our new teaching assistants; we are looking forward to having them all as part of our team.
At the beginning of a school year we always have a purge on names on uniform! Please ensure your child’s uniform and PE kit is named clearly. All uniform is now available from Beat, the uniform shop in town and of course our own Uniform Shed is an excellent source of high quality second uniform!
Within the first week we will be sending home a list of known dates for this academic year. Please keep it handy. We make every endeavour not to change dates once they have been set, but there are times when this is unavoidable, however we will try to give as much notice as possible.
There is a new Government White Paper giving schools more information about improving attendance. It is very clear that we are to avoid granting permission for pupils to be absent during term time. The law is quite specific about this and allows for parents to apply for permission for their child to be absent, for UNAVOIDABLE reasons only.
If your child’s attendance dips below 90% they are classed as persistent absentees and the Attendance Improvement Office will then become involved.
Children are only at school for 190 days out of a possible 365 and therefore every day is essential.
It was lovely to see some of you at the school gates this morning. It was quite busy out there and we are trying to keep human traffic down to a minimum. All the gates will open from 8.35 and the children should be in the playground by 8.45. Children in reception and Year 1 will go straight into class but from year 2 onwards they will meet their teacher in the playground and lead into school once the bell goes. The gates are locked quite quickly after 8.45 and if your child comes after this time they must come into school via the school office and sign in as late. We know it is not usually the children’s fault if they are late, so please help them to avoid getting into trouble by being in school on time.
We are encouraging all our pupils to develop independence as they spend their time with us. Part of this is remembering to bring everything they need for school with them in the morning. Please help us by encouraging your child to remember what they need for school and sending all forms and monies into school with your child. If your child forgets their water bottle there is water available in school. Obviously if you have any queries or issues you would like to discuss, please email in the first instance and then we can arrange a meeting.
We continue to work with Herts Catering Limited to offer good quality lunches every day. By using Live Kitchen, children can order the food they want and you can see what they have. We are very fortunate to have such a lovely group of cooks working in the kitchen who endeavour to provide what has been ordered. However, HCL have now informed us that they will charge for all meals ordered. Therefore, if your child is absent, please ensure you cancel their dinners. If you have any concerns about this please do not hesitate to contact us.
If your child is ill (unrelated to COVID) and unable to come to school:
- Please telephone school and leave a message on option 1 before 9.00am
- Alternatively you can email any information to the school office on admin@wransom.herts.sch.uk
- Please phone or email each day to keep us informed of their progress.
- Once your child returns to school please send a letter explaining their absence if you have not emailed.
- In the case of long term absences we will assume the pupil will be off school unless you tell us otherwise.
- Any unexplained absences will be followed up with a phone call before 10.0am.
All of these procedures are intended to keep your child safe, please help by keeping us informed. I hope these arrangements are clear but if you do have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me.
Every year we write a School Plan to highlight the areas of our work which we will be focussing on during the academic year. For the academic year 2022 – 2023 we have three areas of focus:
- PE – we are introducing a new curriculum so that we are building on skills across the years
- Science – we are looking at new science assessments so that we can track progress.
- Pupil Wellbeing – Herts County Council have chosen this as an area of focus for us for this year so we will be looking at what else we can introduce.
We will keep you updated with our progress with these and if there are areas where we feel we can involve parents we will let you know.
Please remember if you have any concerns about your child at school, do not hesitate to come in to see me.
I look forward to seeing you in school in the very near future.
Yours sincerely
Mary Driver