Menston Primary School

September 2024

School day timings – thank you

Huge thank you to all of our families for making sure that children arrive ready for our earlier start time.  Starting our school day ten minutes earlier means that children access an additional 50 minutes’ learning time every week, which equates to a whole additional week of learning over the academic year.

Parents and carers will appreciate that our gates and doors are staffed by teaching support staff who need to be in classrooms as soon as possible to support children’s learning. We are therefore very keen to close gates and doors as soon as possible after the drop-off window. You will also appreciate that bringing children to the office late disrupts the work of the school and can make children feel anxious, so we know that you will always aim to make sure that children arrive within the ten-minute window.

Uniform

• Children should not come to school wearing any make up. This includes eye make up and nail polish. We appreciate that some children have their nails decorated for special occasions, but all nail polish/decorations should be removed for school please.
• Hair accessories should be plain, practical and in school colours and jewellery should not be worn apart from stud earrings.
• Children should come to school wearing P.E. uniform on their P.E. days. Shorts should be appropriate for school and not ‘hot pants’ style. Trainers should be plain dark blue/ black without flashing lights etc. We appreciate that it is difficult to get plain black/ blue trainers, so it is acceptable for children to wear trainers with a small amount of colour, as long as they are primarily black/ dark blue. Details about school uniform, including P.E. uniform, can be found on our school website here.
• All items of uniform should be clearly labelled with your child’s name please.

We encourage our families to donate outgrown uniform that is in excellent condition to our PTA. Parents can then buy        high-quality pre-worn uniform items for as little as £1:00 (£2:00 for branded items). Uniform can be donated/ purchased by emailing fompsuniform@gmail.com or by speaking to Mrs Meakin on the Key Stage 1 gate.

Car Safety

Bradford Council have provided our school with a child measuring guide which provides important advice for parents and  children on road safety, child car seats and in-car safety. The measuring guide is located outside the school office on St Peter’s Way for children and parents to use.

Dogs

Please can we request that families avoid bringing dogs into the school grounds unless the dog is carried by the owner and is under very close control.

Attendance

Our overall attendance  for the last academic year was 96.63%, which is slightly lower than our target of 97%. It is our aim that every child in school achieves attendance of at least 97% so I would urge families to check our school term dates carefully before booking any holidays.  Children should only be absent from school if they are too ill to attend or for other truly exceptional circumstances and holidays in term-time are not classed as exceptional. We encourage families to send children into school if they have a mild cold or other mild symptoms of illness. Children will always be monitored by staff and parents will be contacted if we feel that a child is too ill to stay at school. If you are not sure about whether your child is too ill to attend school, please refer to the NHS website Is My Child Too Ill for School? where you will find advice on a range of common childhood illnesses. We should take this opportunity to remind parents that children with diarrhoea or vomiting should stay away from school until they have not been sick or had diarrhoea for at least 2 days (48 hours).

If you have anything that you need to ask me about or let me know about, please email the school office, come to see me or give me a call and I will get back to you.

Mrs Marie Wilson