Christmas Update 9.12.2022

9th December 2022

9 December 2022

Dear Parents/Carers, 

I hope this letter finds you, your family and friends all safe and well.

Welcome to our new office staff

We are absolutely delighted to have appointed a new member of staff to our school office team to work alongside Mrs Watson. Please welcome Miss Stacey Brown who is our new Administrative Support Assistant. Miss Brown will be working at St George’s on a Tuesday and Wednesday of each week.

Christingle Service

Our Christingle Service was wonderful this year. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the performances and join in with our Christmas preparations.

Christmas Performances

We are very much looking forward to seeing our KS1 performance next week and our KS2 Carols by Candlelight Service in the last week of term. Please come and join us if you can.

Poverty Proofing the School Day – No Gifts Sent into School Initiative

At St George’s we have begun a new initiative in school called, Poverty Proofing the School Day.’ Poverty proofing is a means of identifying and overcoming the barriers that children and young people from families with less financial resources can face at school. We already support all of our families in a number of ways at St George’s. We provide all of the children in KS2 with a pencil case filled with their own equipment and we have a stock of very good condition uniform items which is free to collect from school. We also subsidise any trips out of school as much as possible to ensure all children can participate.

This year and moving forwards, as part of our poverty proofing initiative, we are asking parents/carers not to send any gifts into school for any members of staff at Christmas or at the end of the academic year. Children should not feel under pressure to bring gifts into school because other children do and this pressure is then passed onto our families causing unnecessary distress at home. Some families also have more than one child on roll at school and the cost of buying several presents soon mounts up. The giving of gifts to school staff has somehow over time become an expectation and it really shouldn’t be. Never has poverty proofing our school been more important than it is now and this initiative is something we have discussed at length as a school team and which all staff feel very strongly about. We will be discussing this approach with our children and asking them not to bring in gifts and explaining the reason why. We don’t want to upset anyone with this decision and we genuinely believe this is the right thing to do for all of our children. We would really appreciate everyone’s support with this initiative. 

In agreement with staff, any gifts which are sent into school in the future will be donated to local charities. Please do not send any gifts in.

If parents/carers want to express thanks to staff then please send in a card, a letter or an email. This feedback is so valuable to our well-being and has such a positive impact on our morale and really is very much appreciated.

Christmas Party Days

The Christmas Party Days are a gift from us for all of the children. Children can wear their party clothes on their party day. There’ll be plenty of dancing and party games and the children will all enjoy a free Christmas Party Lunch on the day.

If you would like to discuss this further or have any other queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for your continued support.

Best wishes,

Mrs Anne Bullerwell

Headteacher

 

Dates for your diary – December 2022

Monday 12th December

Aladdin – pantomime in school

Tuesday 13th December

Y5/6 & Ukulele/Guitar players Carol Singing at Waverley Lodge Care Home

Wednesday 14th December

Christmas Lunch

Wednesday 14th December

2.00 pm Christmas Fair - families welcome

Thursday 15th December

2.15pm Early Years & KS1 Nativity– families welcome

Friday 16th December

9.15am Early Years & KS1 Nativity– families welcome

Monday 19th December

2.15pm KS2 Carols by Candlelight in Church – families welcome

Tuesday 20th December

9.15am KS2 Carols by Candlelight in Church – families welcome

Thursday 22nd December

Christmas Party Day – own clothes
Party Lunch

School closes 3.15pm (No after school club available)

Please note that we do our best to adhere to the dates set in the diary however the above may be subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances.

 

St George's Catholic Primary School is part of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust

A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company registration number No 7841435.

Registered Office: Fenham Hall Drive, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 9YH