Big Pedal - our best day so far!
Today, we’ve recorded the highest number of active journeys by bike and scooter for the Big Pedal – 64 pupils (30%).
It would be great to increase these figures for the last few days of the Big Pedal.
Netball
Well done to our Year 5/6 netball team who took part in the Leeds North East High 5 netball competition at Allerton Grange today.
There was some great netball skills and teamwork from the children in all their matches. The team were proud to be complimented on their play by one of the umpires.
If you’d like to improve your netball skills, our after-school club starts next Tuesday and there are a few places available.
Term-time absences
In the summer term, the number of parents / carers requesting term-time absence increases a little. We do not authorise term-time absence for holidays or other reasons that are avoidable. This follows our Attendance Policy which the Governing Body agree, and follows the recommendations from the Department for Education.
If a child has unauthorised absences, there is the likelihood that parents will be issued with a penalty notice from Leeds City Council.
The National Association of Headteachers has produced some guidance recently, extracts of which are shown here:
The Education (pupil registration) (England) (amendment) Regulations 2013, which came into force on 1 September 2013, made it clear that head teachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless ‘exceptional circumstances’ prevail.
The fundamental principles for defining ‘exceptional circumstances’ are that they are ‘rare, significant, unavoidable and short’.
Term times are for education. This is the priority. Children and families have 175 days off school to spend time together, including weekends and school holidays. Head teachers will rightly prioritise attendance. The default school policy should be that absences will not be granted during term time and will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances.
If an event can be reasonably scheduled outside of term time then it would not be normal to authorise absence for such an event – holidays are therefore not considered ‘exceptional circumstances’.
Do you need wheels for the Big Pedal?
Big Pedal Day 3
MORE PRIZES announced for The Big Pedal!
School dinner consultation
Thank you to all parents and carers who provided feedback on the recent school dinner consultation of meal choices for the September menu.
Catering Leeds, our school meal provider, can offer an alternate jacket potato and sandwich option alongside the meat and vegetarian daily option and we welcomed your feedback on whether this would work for you and your child(ren).
There were a number of parents/carers who were interested to try this option but the majority of responses expressed an interest to keep the options as they currently are. The main feedback was for children to have a hot meal for their school meal rather than a sandwich.
As a result of this, we will continue with the existing daily meat, vegetarian and jacket potato option.
The September menu is currently in the planning stages and we have liaised with Catering Leeds to ensure the menu is tailored to our children’s preferences, while still meeting the national school food criteria. Once finalised, this new menu will be made available to parents/carers at the end of the summer term.
Our current menu can be viewed in the Health section and is displayed around school.
Thank you once again for your feedback on our school meals.
Themed menu
Catering Agency, our school meal provider, will be running a special themed menu on Tuesday 15 May.
Please contact the office, by Friday 04 May, if your child would like a school dinner on this day.
Big Pedal day 2
We’ve had a great increase in the number of journeys to school by bike and scooter with 24% of pupils travelling in this way today. Thank you for your support to promote this sustainable travel.
Reception continue to be the class with the highest number of pupils biking or scooting with Year 2 in second place today.
Remember, if you have to come by car to school, park further away so your child can scoot or bike the rest of the way.
The Big Pedal
Today was the first day of the Big Pedal, a Sustrans initiative to encourage sustainable travel to school by bike or scooter, running from 23 April to 04 May.
Well done to Reception who were our winning class today with a third of the children travelling to school by scooter. Year 3 were second and Year 4 were third.
Schools will be entered into daily prize draws if we have over 15% cycle or scoot on each day of the challenge. Let’s try to increase numbers of children who bike or scoot to school tomorrow as we compete with schools locally and across the country.
The Big Pedal is back!
Get set… we’re taking part in Sustrans Big Pedal 2018, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooting challenge, that inspires pupils, staff and parents to choose two (or three) wheels for their journey to school.
The Big Pedal will run alongside our year round Living Streets WOW sustainable travel initiative where the children record how they travel to school on our daily travel tracker.
The Big Pedal challenge focuses on journeys made by bike and scooter and runs from 23 April to 04 May. We would love everyone to be involved.
The details
On each day of the challenge, schools compete to see who can record the greatest number of pupils, staff and parents cycling or scooting to school. Our best five days will determine our final position in the challenge. We’ll be competing against other schools right across the UK, and if we clock up the most bike and scooter journeys, we’ll win!
Why we’re taking part
It’s a great way to get more of our pupils travelling to school on their bikes and scooters. We will be competing to become one of the UK’s top schools for two-wheeled journeys and will be in with a chance to win prizes including bike and scooter stunt shows and fantastic cycle and scooter storage.
What’s next?
All you need to do is encourage your child(ren) to cycle or scoot to school every day during the event, and join them on their way.
If you do need the car to bring your child(ren) to school, you could park further away from school and bike or scoot the last part.