Dear Parents

With Easter arriving so early this term has been about as short as it could be.  Whilst the Summer Term will inevitably make up the balance, it is amazing what an enormous amount has been achieved in these ten weeks throughout the school.  In fact I understand it will be another 152 years before it happens again!

Year 6 finished their exams and all are delighted with their results and future destinations. To date:

Jack Bear – Uplands Community College
Daniel Colbran – Skinners
Guy Dexter – Rosehill
Jack Hutchings – Skinners
Jack Maynard – Bethany
Charlie Mcvickers – Skinners
Ben Spackman – Uplands Community College
Harry Sykes – Bennett Memorial
Christopher Threshie – Bethany
Imogen Clark – Kent College
Amelia Hepburn – Bennett Memorial
Jemima Hepburn – Bennett Memorial
Lydia Jones – Uplands Community College
Simone Ritson – Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar School
Sacha St John – Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar School
Evi Yates – Kent College

With exam pressures over for the moment they are now discovering the excitement of broader education!

Dining Room Opening

We cannot imagine The Mead without the Dining Room.  It is a terrific success and has quickly become central to school life.  Breakfast Club is well established to the great benefit of staff and children!  It is highly appropriate therefore that exactly a year after the builders moved in we end this term with its ‘official’ opening.  We are greatly looking forward to welcoming Richard Philips, TV Celebrity chef and known by those of you who dine at Thackerays, to school on Wednesday.  The room will be festooned with balloons and the official blue and gold ribbon cut before we are all treated to Richard giving us a demonstration of his skills.

We end this celebration with a huge chocolate cake!

TV Fame

The television is rarely on during the day in my household so when we were asked to participate in the BBC’s ‘Politics Show’ shown on a Sunday it was rather a surprise!  The question under discussion was “How can we interest children in politics?”  Five members of staff were interviewed and hopefully we did The Mead proud!  In a nutshell – if policies were clear, succinct and relevant we would surely all be interested!

Parent Consultations

These are always extremely valuable for parents, staff and subsequently children.  Please do not hesitate to contact either myself or your child’s teacher should you have any concerns.  Do not feel you have to always wait for the formal occasions!

Nursery School visits

We have greatly enjoyed welcoming a number of heads/principals of local nursery schools to The Mead this term.  It has been lovely for them to re-meet former pupils and lovely for us to share our school with them.  We look forward to greeting some more guests next term.

Class Assemblies

As usual, these have been very special and I have been delighted that many of you have managed to enjoy a ‘re-run’ later in the day.  Topics this term have included J1 Tudors, J3 Victorians, Country Dancing, People who help us – even dragging the local bobby off the street and having Glyn dress up in his fireman’s uniform and a wonderful Top Infant assembly based on their favourite book which had us all laughing.

Church Study

We are extremely fortunate to have the Church of King Charles the Martyr as our school church.  As the oldest church in Tunbridge Wells it is steeped in history and this, together with its unique architecture, make it a fascinating study for Year 5.  The children were a joy to take and were even able to teach the vicar and curate a few facts – well done children and thank you Rev Avery and Sarah.

Nit War

Whilst the war is yet to be won, there is no doubt we have had fewer infestations this term and those we have endured have not been so prolific!!

The girls have generally been brilliant about keeping their hair in plaits – please keep this up.  Boys need to keep their hair off their ears and their collars as these are the nits’ favourite resting places!

KINDERGARTEN

Kindergarten have been busy as usual this term!  We have been thinking about pets and farm animals, and have enjoyed visits from Fern the dog and Bugs (yes, you’ve guessed) the rabbit.  We ended our topic with an outing to Blackberry Farm, accompanied by many wonderful parents, where we fed and stroked lambs, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs and llamas!  We also had a tractor ride and enjoyed the fantastic play area.  Several Mums and one brave Dad were spotted on the trampolines and the zipwire, so the fun was not confined to the children!  Thank you to all our parents, for your ongoing support and involvement.

On a more serious note, if you would like to reserve a Kindergarten place for your child, please register as soon as possible in order to avoid disappointment.  Our lists for 2008/08 are almost full.

Thank you!

Mrs L Pincott & Mrs J Ovenden

RECEPTION INFANTS

Reception Infants have had a busy but enjoyable term.  We celebrated Chinese New Year with food, stories and music.  The theatre group delighted us with their production of “Jack and the Beanstalk”.

This term our topics have been ‘People Who Help Us’ and dinosaurs.  Dr Williams brought in medical supplies to show us how she performs her job as a GP.  We had a super visit to the fire station with Mrs Morgan dressed up as a fire fighter.  We visited Paradise Park and learnt a great deal about dinosaurs.

We have learnt to add and subtract, recognise coins and shapes.  We continue with our Fourway Farm Science project, enjoy our music, drama, PE, swimming, ballet, judo and French.

Last but not least we enjoyed dressing up for the book ‘Peter Pan in Scarlet’ for World Book Day and went to the cooking, drama, music, yoga and painting sessions.

What a busy term!

TOP INFANTS

The Top Infants decided to focus on one of their favourite stories “Giraffes Can’t Dance” for their assembly, after some initial resistance from the boys about dancing with the girls.  This involved every child (depicting an animal) participating in a Jungle Strictly Come Dancing commented on by Mead Judge Len the Cricket.  The children (as animals) showed the school a variety of dances including jive, cancan, Irish, breakdance, quickstep, waltz and even tango.  Lucy, as Gerald the Giraffe, learnt to dance to her own music despite the other animals.  As if that wasn’t enough they also managed a group dance to “Beat It” by Michael Jackson and finished with their own version of a country dance.  Thunderous applause erupted and Miss Gaskell breathed a big sigh of relief.

BALLET & DRAMA

We have just had a most interesting and productive term – and with it being so short, an extremely busy one!

We began the term with a visit from a new children’s theatre company, “Support Act” Productions, who presented a wonderful presentation of the fairy story “Rumpelstiltskin” for both J1 classes and J2.  With just two cast members and a puppet, some lovely costumes and very impressive set the children were spellbound.

All the Juniors were lucky enough to have a workshop given by Kate Griffiths, a professional make-up artist, who demonstrated and then guided the children, in doing their own “Casualty” and special effects make-up.  The J4 class found this particularly impressive and produced some extremely real “wounds” and “burns”!  The remainder of the Juniors got carried away recreating fantasy characters, such as “Golom” from “The Lord of the Rings”.

The Drama Club and Choir shared a wonderfully successful trip to see the musical “The Lord of the Rings” at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.  This was a magical experience for children and staff alike, recreating this stirring epic through incredible sets, effects, music and stunning individual performances.

A meeting was held for all “Ballet” parents to learn about the grooming requirements for the forthcoming ballet exams to be held on the morning of Thursday 20 March at school.  We wish them every success after all their hard work and dedication.

The Classic Fairytale Company made a welcome return to us to perform for all the Infant and Kindergarten classes.  They treated us all to a most evocative and entertaining production of “Jack and the Beanstalk and the Three Wishes”.  With excellent mime and storytelling skills the dining room was transformed with enthralled children absorbing every word and gesture.  I’m sure they will long treasure those memories, as will the staff who joined them.

Both J1 classes are busy preparing a Tudor “feast” for an assembly in the last week of term.  This will be the culmination of both their class discoveries, hugely augmented by their recent visit to Michelham Priory, and their drama work this term.

All that remains is to wish everyone a very happy and restful Easter holiday, ready for a productive Summer Term working towards our show in July.

Toni Hassan

COUNTRY DANCING

All members of the country dancing group participated weekly with great enthusiasm and energy.  Five dances were practiced this term and the three favourites were performed to the whole school during assembly in the last week of term.  The whole school participated by clapping along to the music and showing their appreciation with lots of applause.

YOGA CLUB

Yoga club has been attended by both new participants and more experienced yogis this term.  Some sessions were spent looking at partner work whilst other sessions were spent in the creation of new postures.  Every child created a new yoga posture linked to an object.  They then designed a poster depicting the posture which will be used in our yoga assembly at the beginning of next term.  During that assembly each child will show their poster and demonstrate their new posture to the school.  Look out for a display next term of the posters and photographs of the children practicing during sessions.

GROOVY GREEKS!

Just after half-term there were Greeks to be seen walking to The Mead School dressed in their finest robes and armour!  The children of Year 4 were taking part in an end of topic celebration dressed as gods, goddesses, soldiers and wealthy citizens.

During the day their teacher, Mrs Preston Bell, had arranged a variety of activities including mask making, exploring meanings behind Greek words used in the English language, writing messages to the gods using Greek symbols on the computer and the most popular activity – food tasting!  The children looked wonderful in their costumes and greatly enjoyed tasting the olives, humous and yoghurt.  These history days enable realistic links to be made with the ancient world and our own as well as demonstrating how much the children have learnt.

WORLD MATHS DAY

This year, for the first time, The Mead took part in World Maths Day on 5 March.  After some initial teething troubles with the website and an overheating server sitting on an ice-pack, the children were able to log on with their personal code number and password to compete as ‘Mathletes” against children from all over the world.  A roving cursor over a map of the world identified where their opponents came from and there was much enthusiasm and excitement at being able to compete in ‘real time’ against children who might be on the other side of the world. 

They had to answer mental arithmetic questions as quickly as possible in order to avoid being ‘struck out’.  At the end of each game they were given immediate feedback about their position in relation to the other children they were competing against.

The day was so successful, with approximately 18,000 children competing at any one time, that the organisers kept the website active and available until 16 March so that the children could continue to compete. World Maths Day was judged by the children as enormous fun and a great success which we hope to repeat in the future.

F.O.M.

It’s been another fun-packed successful term for the F.O.M.

The Valentine Disco was as popular as ever and the children really enjoyed tea in the dining room with their teachers.

The Easter hats and Easter egg carriers were all superb and the judges had a very tricky job indeed.  Chocolate Easter eggs were awarded to the lucky twelve and a very huge thank you to everyone who took part.

Our 70’s/80’s disco was fantastic, everyone had a brilliant evening.  The footage from the bands of that time was great and the film show of us dancing the night away was hilarious.

Thank you as always to everyone who has helped to organise, run or support our events.  We really do appreciate it very much indeed. 

The Summer Term will soon be here and with it comes one of our biggest fund raisers of the year … the Summer Fayre on Saturday 28 June 12.00 – 2.00 pm.  Sadly this will be Janette and my last event of our chairmanship so we will try to make it our best.

Thank you again and have a brilliant Easter holiday.
Jane Morgan and Janette Dodd

PS. Anyone who would like to become F.O.M. Chair please let us know – you really will enjoy it.

CHILDREN CELEBRATE BOOK WEEK WITH A SCARLET STORY!

Last week children at The Mead School, Tunbridge Wells, celebrated World Book Day through the award winning book  Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean raising £400.00 for the Great Ormond Street Hospital charity.

The focus for the charity event was the ‘Big Time Rhyme’ which took place at exactly 9.15 am on Friday 7 March when, alongside hundreds of children around the country, the children recited a passage from Peter Pan in Scarlet.  The aim was to have over 250,000 children reading simultaneously and to break the world record attempt.  Our contribution of 95 children reading was accomplished with great enthusiasm and independently witnessed by Rev. Robert Avery from King Charles the Martyr Church.

Dressed as characters from Peter Pan stories pupils entered a world of treasure chests, swashbuckling and imaginative islands.  Each class moved around the school taking part in literacy, creative, musical, dramatic and sports activities in a challenging yet fun-filled day.

Infant classes were treated to a cake decorating feast making sweet-filled treasure chests, yoga stories casting them away on an island, drama full of rowing pirates and hunting for gold coins.  There was also an art activity creating Peter Pan and the Ravelling Man from collage materials and plenty of songs and pirate rhymes.

Junior classes created an enormous treasure collage from gold sprayed pasta, wrote descriptions of imaginary dragons, chose qualities of character for their own treasure chests and hot seated each other in their character costumes.  The theme of becoming the character of your costume was explored during a drama session and finally the children let off steam in the gym with a series of quests around an assault course!

The Mead School whole experience was exciting and tremendous fun!

SPRING TERM SPORTS REPORT

We have had a very busy and exciting term in the Sports Department.

We have enjoyed great success with a number of superb wins for both boys and girls.  These have been in both contact and tag ruby, football and netball at U9, U10 and U11 age groups.  Well done to all those who have taken part.

The boys also played extremely well in the ISA Tournament at Chislehurst, but unfortunately failed to get through to the final round. 

May we thank those parents who have very kindly supported and transported our players to matches, this is very much appreciated.  Thank you.  The more help we have with transport, means more players can be given an opportunity to take part.

We have also awarded 177 swimming badges this term which is excellent.  Well done to all.

Once again may we please request that all PE kit is clearly named.  Lost property is a huge problem, made much easier if kit is labelled.

We look forward to an exciting Summer Term when we shall be playing cricket, rounders and athletics.

Please remember to put the dates for sports day and the swimming gala in your diaries.

Pierre Leroy and Jo Fox

J1 VISIT TO MICHELHAM PRIORY

Two reports follow from pupils:

“What We Did At Michelham Priory

The first thing we saw was the gatehouse, we walked through the gatehouse to go to the Great Barn.

Then we went to the priory and we acted out some Tudor scenes about King Henry VIII and his six wives.  After that we saw some models of Tudor people.

We all went into the kitchen garden and learnt about the different tools in the kitchen and there would be a little boy in the corner of the fire place.

We went back to the Great Barn and saw the blacksmith and he made us a pretty pole to take back to school.

Later we went to the stew pond and that’s where they keep all their fish and the stew pond is so big.

My favourite bit was when we went to the kitchen because I love cooking.”

Issy

“When we first went through the gatehouse we saw the moat surrounding Michelham Priory.  We had a talk about it.  My favourite part in the visit was the dressing up part.  I was Henry VIII’s second wife.  (By the way Oliver played Henry VIII in dressing up not the real Henry VIII)  Then we had a tour round the house.

We split up.  Mrs Faure’s class went downstairs while Mrs Crouch’s class went upstairs.  (I am in Mrs Crouch’s class just to tell you).  My class went to the priest room, first we saw the chief priest (Harry played that in dressing up).  We had some questions and then we went out of the room into the bedroom (I do not know if it was Mum and Dad bedroom or my kind of bedroom – do you know?)  We saw lots of games like football, hopscotch, things where you throw a hoop and try to get it on a pole and your up and down spinning toy.  Then we went downstairs to meet Mrs Faure’s class. Then we went to have a look at the things downstairs.

First we went to the kitchen to see what the Tudors ate.  We went to have a good look at the spits.  One was a very hard to turn spit.  Also somebody had broken that spit.  The second spit was easier, you turned the handle and the fan turned.  Hey presto!  The spit turned.  The third spit was easy.  It was clockwork.  You turned the key and the meat turned.

We went to the blacksmith’s hut before the tour.  He had a big pair of bellows which he used to keep the fire going.  He made us a nice metal fire poker.  It had a swirl on the end and a twist in the middle.  The blacksmith let us keep the fire poker.

Back on the story – after the tour we went to the garden of Michelham Priory.  We saw the stew pond first.  That is where the fish go when it’s caught.  Next we had our picture taken.  Elizabeth had a private picture because she ran down to show us the end of the old church.  Then we went to the stocks, most of us went in them (not to stay in them).  Then we went home (not home home, The Mead School).
 
Katie Voice

MUSIC

At the beginning of term, we welcomed Lucy McIntyre as flute teacher and Jane Hanna, brass.

The term started with some promising results for the 12 examinees in violin, cello, piano, flute and clarinet.  Special congratulations to Charlotte Dixon (Grade 5 violin with merit), Natasha Bharucha (Grade 4 violin and Grade 1 piano with merit), Olivia Ziani (Grade 3 violin with distinction), Paul Forster (Grade 3 clarinet with merit) and Imogen Clark (Grade 2 flute with merit).  This term’s entry was much smaller but it has been the first time that children from The Mead have been entered for theory exams.

The choir have worked very hard with the Vivaldi Gloria and Joseph.  The Vivaldi, sung in Latin, was quite challenging and was part of a very successful concert at King Charles the Martyr on 2 March which involved some staff and parents as well.  There were string and recorder items in the programme, carefully chosen with the children in mind.

‘Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ the choir have performed three times: at the ‘Young at Heart’ Club, to the school and at the end of term concert.  This has proved highly popular and great fun for all. Thanks to Mrs Hassan for help with the ‘semi-staging’ and Mrs Preston Bell.

The strings have been working on another Vivaldi piece: ‘Spring’ from The Four Seasons.  They are a strong group, many of whom took part in a special String Workshop held at TWGGS in the Autumn playing music by and conducted by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

Lower down the school, I have started a new group for the beginner violins and cellos.  This has been a great success and of a standard tailored to each performer.  The group have their debut at the end of term concert.

The Spring Concert this year mainly involves group work.  Not only the strings and wind band but also all the recorder groups in medley and special duets and quartets for flute and clarinets and a debut performance for the four new brass players.  The solos are from those who have recently won their classes at the Tunbridge Wells Competitive Arts Festival – Charlotte Dixon, Natasha Bharucha and Lottie Collins with a sprinkling of wind from Yasmin Absolon on flute, Paul Forster on clarinet, Harry Holford on guitar and Sasha St John on cello.  J4 round off the first half with a class rendition of ‘Steppin’ Out’ with vocals from three boys, dancers and a variety of instruments.  The sub plot of the concert is ‘dance’.  How many do we recognise having watched ‘Strictly Come Dancing’?

Next term I hope we shall have a ‘solos’ concert in the dining room.  There have been so many who could have performed this term and many able pianists.

MATHS WHIZZ AND WORD SHARK UPDATE

Many improvements have been made to all our children’s Maths Whizz accounts which have caused much excitement and interest for Mead children. A whole new bedroom environment, new games and interactive options continue to motivate and inspire! Increased transparency for parents in terms of pupil performance, enables the achievements of an individual child to be seen in greater detail.

Word Shark continues to be a great success, both in class lessons and in our lunchtime computer clubs. The ability of all children to be able to work at clearly differentiated levels both motivates and challenges them. The colourful graphics and fun games attract pupils of all ages and abilities.

Thank you to those parents who attended the Maths Whizz Refresher Meeting, it is always great to meet new faces, as well as having an opportunity to discuss issues and opinions on the Maths Whizz Programme.

As always if you have any questions or queries about your child’s Maths Whizz account please contact me in school (J3F).

Isobel Feaver
Director of Studies

ECO NEWS

SCIENCE

The survey was completely anonymous (no names were provided to Teachers TV or logged-on, only a one-use only and randomly generated code was supplied to access the site, according to the number of children taking part).  At the end of the activity some general tips were displayed on how to improve the children’s readiness to learn.

The final report based on the findings of the experiment will be available during the Summer term.  We hope it will provide a valuable insight into how ready our children are to learn, with results that are personal to them and beneficial to teachers and schools.

Mrs Gemma Bowles - KS2 Science Co-ordinator

SCHOOL COUNCIL UPDATE

In the light of the exciting developments of our new non fiction research area that is to be situated outside Mrs Culley’s new office, our intrepid school council have come up with many great and innovative ideas.

‘Book of The Week,’ a new school Library / Book club, book-based theme days each term, library competitions and eye-catching posters are a selection of some of the super ideas already floated by our children. These ideas have been fed back to our Literacy Co-ordinator, Mrs Preston-Bell and Mrs Culley, both of whom welcomed all the suggestions.

So watch this space – the school council will now focus on refining these initial ideas and will begin to implement a selection of them in partnership with Mrs Preston-Bell!
Isobel Feaver - Director of Studies

J4 VISIT TO IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM

“On the 28 January (which was a Monday) J4, Mrs Waight and Mrs Preston Bell went to London on the train to the Imperial War Museum.  Everyone enjoyed it!

When we arrived, we gave all our belongings to a lady who then wheeled them off.  We could now begin.  Firstly we walked up some stairs to a room where the public was not allowed.  There we met Sarah who told us all about the Allpress familyl

We were split into three groups.  I was in the group that looked at Model House first.  We walked around the house in the glass container and saw how different their house is to mine.  There was no TV, telephone, fridge, bathroom or microwave.  The list could go on for ever.

Secondly, I went to the ARP section (Air Raid Precautions).  We looked at photos, tried on an extremely heavy helmet, looked at posters and tried to put a firebomb in a bucket that would be filled with sand.  We had to wear gloves when we touched things.  However we could not try on the gas masks because around the rim of the nozzle it had a poisonous substance.

Lastly, we went to Sarah and she talked to us about the Allpress family - all the twelve individuals.  Then we focused on Betty.  She had a twin, Gladys, but she died.  We went through Betty’s bag and found a lot of clothing adverts and very important photos like Betty’s wedding and a picture of her and Gladys at the seaside.  We also saw that she worked as a WVS and sold drinks.

After the Model House project, we walked towards the shop.  I bought three cards, a ration book – clothing book and a general ration book.  Next we went to a room with lots of tables and had lunch.

After lunch, the class was split into two groups – one with Mrs Waight and one group with Mrs Preston Bell.  I was with Mrs Preston Bell, Simone, Daniel, Amelia, Isla, Jack M, Ben, Jack H and Harry.

We walked around looking at the huge planes that hang from the ceiling and saw camouflage tanks.  Then we saw the film “My Boy Jack” and the seats that had the famous names of people who had played in the film like Daniel Radclif.

Next we wandered into the children’s war.  We saw an old evacuee who told us about her experience in the war.  She got evacuated to Tottenham with her sister but moved because she didn’t like it there.  We also saw other evacuees on the wall.  Did you know that one million children were evacuated in September 1939 and 16,000 were evacuated overseas.

We then came to Kindertransport.  We learn that Inge Pollack was evacueed from England to Austria and brought lots of toys with her like an umbrella, puppet and sewing kit.  We also saw a gas bell and gas rattle for ARP wardens to alert the public of a gas attack.

We walked down a long corridor and saw some reports written by the evacuees.  This is one of them: “Some children treated it as a great adventure, others quietly sobbed”.  We also saw the “City of Benares” which isn’t actually a city but a boat transporting evacuees to Canada but it was torpedoed and sunk!

Next, we moved onto the Air Raid section.  Did you know that 200,000 homes were completely destroyed by bombing during the war and the youngest victim of an air raid in London was eleven hours old!?  We also saw a cramped air raid shelter.  It was designed to accommodate 6 people but I couldn’t see how!

After the Air Raid section we came to the 1940’s house.  It looked quite different to what my house looks like.  For instance, the rooms were a lot smaller and there was line in the bath to tell them how much water they were allowed.  There was also a Morrison shelter.  This is an indoor air raid shelter to keep you safe from falling bricks or wood.

We walked around a bend and saw a whole wall covered in posters.  All of them were persuading you to do something like grow vegetables or stop talking about the war because you don’t know who is listening.

We moved on and saw that a girl’s blouse and skirt were made from silk escape maps and we saw the food I would have to eat in a week.  It looked like the food I would have for my lunch (or maybe even less)!  Then we came to a classroom.  Isla was the teacher and everyone else were the naughty children.  The classroom was slightly different because it had wooden desks and a blackboard.

Finally we went to the room where the lady had wheeled off our bags and coats.  We put them on, walked to the station and went home…”

Sasha St John

BURSARIAL NEWS

Fees

As is customary at this time of year, we announce our fee structure for the next academic year 2008/09, a copy of which is enclosed.  Please note that there is now a part-time option for Lower Kindergarten.  Full details are available from the office.

Kindergarten Part-Time - 850.00 (discounted to £807.50)
Kindergarten (5 mornings) - £1355.00 (discounted to £1287.25)
Infants - £2600.00 (discounted to £2470.00)
Juniors - £2880.00 (discounted to £2736.00)

The discount applies to payments received on or before the first day of term.

Contacting the School

Please be reminded that the school has a scheme where we can send out letters and communiqués via e-mail to selected classes, year groups, or the entire school.  If you would like to be included please e-mail your details including your child’s name and class to contact@meadschool.info.  Please note that this is not to be used for general correspondence – for this please use the normal school e-mail address which is meadschool@hotmail.com.

The main school e-mail address is meadschool@hotmail.com which comes through to me.  Appropriate e-mails are then forwarded to Mrs Culley or to other staff members.  Elizabeth can be contacted directly on her own school e-mail which is meadschool@hotmail.co.uk.  Please use this to notify us about changes of address, contact numbers, etc.

Please do not use this method to inform us about child absences.  If your child will not be at school please try and phone the main office before 9.00 a.m.  You may leave a message on the answerphone, but it is important to give us an indication of the reason for absence.  For example “Danny Smith in J2 will not be in today because he has stomach ache but I expect he will be back on Friday” rather than “Danny is not well and won’t be in today”.

Registration is taken at 8.45 a.m. and if we do not know that your child is ill, or has authorised absence (doctors, pre-agreed holiday, etc) then the register is marked as “unauthorised absence”.  If your child arrives after 8.45 a.m. then they must report to Elizabeth in the main office so that the register can be changed to “late”.  This is very important as the registers need to be correct both for accurate record keeping and for roll-call in the event of an emergency.

Uniform Requests

To order new uniform please enter your request in the black lever arch folder marked “Uniform Requests” which is kept in the main office.  Margaret is in school every day between 3.00 p.m. and 6.00 p.m. at which time she will look at the request book.  Uniform will then be sent to your child’s classroom to be taken home.

Please do not phone in requests as Elizabeth does not deal with uniform.  You may e-mail your request to meadschool@hotmail.co.uk which will be printed and passed on to Margaret.  We are also looking at adding an order form to the website which should be available by next term.

Clearly marked uniform exchanges, etc., can be left in the main office for Margaret’s attention.

The Uniform Shop will be open on Monday 14 April from 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m.  Please make sure you have the correct uniform to start the summer term.  Girls need summer dresses, blue cardigans and straw hats, boys need yellow airtex shirts, and everyone needs a legionnaire cap and cagoule - all available from the school.  Boys also need grey shorts (except for J4) but these are not sold in the school shop.   We do operate a strict uniform code and ask all parents to ensure their children are smart and have the correct kit when needed.  All items must be clearly named in line with our policy.    A very big thank you to Lisa Longworth for organising the Second Hand Uniform shop so efficiently!

Shoes are always an issue particularly for the older children and I do suggest you visit Andrea Afrifa (Isaac MI) who runs ‘Stampede’ along St Johns Road.  She is very aware of school requirements and has a wide selection of suitable shoes; blue for the girls and black for the boys – don’t forget to take the enclosed voucher with you!

Dropping Offi/Collecting

Here’s the boring bit!

Please do not park across either entrance or the driveway to the left of the school.  Access is required at all times. 

Only use the gate opposite the front door when walking, we have strict no pedestrian rule for the other gate so that vehicles arriving in the morning are kept away from parents and children.  Please also ensure that your child is appropriately supervised in the drive.  I have on many occasions witnessed children playing in and around the vehicles and have been horrified to see young children run out of the gates (ahead of their parents) towards the road. 

We are still waiting for Kent Highways to install the signage for our crossing patrol, at which point the road markings will be changed and vehicles will not be able to stop on the new zigzag lines.  At this time I would encourage all parents to consider safety first and park further up the Frant Road (on either side where there are single yellow lines) and have a very short walk down to school, utilising the crossing if appropriate.

Please be reminded that whilst the school is open at 7.45 a.m., teachers/classroom assistants are not on duty until 8.30 a.m.

MATCHES FOR SUMMER TERM 2008

With every best wish for a peaceful and happy Easter holiday.

We look forward to welcoming the children back on Thursday 17 April.

KEY DATES FOR SUMMER TERM 2008