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- Welcome
- Our successful summer fete
- Goodbye to some familiar faces
- The start and end of the school day September 2022
- School uniform
- Pencil Cases/Stationery for next year
- Nursery & Pre-school
- A thank you from 'Love Without Boundaries'
- Holly's Tiger Appeal
- Support over the summer holidays from the Children and Families hub
- Summer reading challenge
- And finally ..
As another successful school year ends, I would like to thank everyone for the invaluable contribution that they make to our community.
Your fabulous children continue to embrace their learning with enthusiasm and determination, and we thank you for your ongoing support. It has been wonderful to welcome families into school this year to share in the excitement and opportunities that school life brings.
I would also like to thank everyone who works at Dunalley. Staff continue to work tirelessly to ensure that children succeed, flourish and enjoy the whole school experience. An exceptional team effort has achieved this with everyone playing an important role. Our premises, admin, OPAL, Earlies, Lates, nursery and school teaching teams have worked exceptionally hard – thank you.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful summer break. Our year 6 children are ready for their move to secondary school. I am in no doubt that their positive and productive attitudes to learning will enable them to embrace new opportunities and succeed. We look forward to welcoming everyone else back in September for more smiles and success!
Alison Godfrey
Thank you to everyone who supported our summer fete last Friday, we raised an incredible £1,098.00 for the school funds.
We are already starting to plan our family events for next year.
We wish the following staff our very best wishes as they leave us today and would like to thank hem for all that they have done at Dunalley.
They will be greatly missed.
Sarah Cheal
Olivia Ashton
Jo McDonald
Debbie Harries
Zara Cornish
Kirsty White
Abbie Moore
Jenny Bilas
The start of the school day
- Children in reception, year 1 and year 2 need to be dropped off at the main school entrance at 8.40am. Staff will be there ready to welcome them at the double doors near to the main entrance. To ease congestion, please enter the school grounds via the nursery field and exit via the main pathway (we will maintain the one-way system).
- Children in years 3, 4, 5 and 6 need to be dropped off at the gate to the main school field at 8.45am.
- If you have children in different key stages, please drop both of your children off at the main entrance at 8.40am. Siblings in year 3, 4, 5 and 6 will be able to walk to the top of the playground (towards the bandstand) and around the building so that they can access their classroom at 8.45am via the field entrances with their peers.
- Families must not cut through the staff and authorised visitor car park as it is not safe to do so.
The end of the school day
- Children in reception, year 1 and year 2 need be collected at 3.10pm. Parents/carers should enter the school grounds via the nursery field gate and enter the central playground via the double doors near to the main entrance. Class teachers will dismiss the children into the playground when they see you.
- Families who then need to collect older siblings should to walk to the top of the playground (towards the bandstand) and wait for them outside their classroom on the field side of the building. Having done this, families should leave the school grounds via the main field gate.
- Families that do not need to collect siblings in years 3 to 6 should exit the site through the double doors near to the main entrance and walk up the main path.
- Children in years 3, 4, 5 and 6 need to be collected at 3.15pm. Families that are only collecting children from these year groups should enter and exit the school site via the school field gate.
We politely request that families leave the school site as quickly as possible. This is because children attending Lates and after school clubs will need to stay inside the building until families have left the site and the gates have been locked. Thank you for your understanding.
Earlies, Early Birds and Lates
All children attending Earlies and Early Birds must be dropped off at 8am at the main school entrance. Please be punctual - staff are not available to welcome, and ensure that late arrivals get safely to their group, between 8 and 8.40am as they have other duties to attend to during these times.
Children who attend after school clubs and Lates will be dismissed via the main entrance. Please use the main school pedestrian entrance to enter and exit the site.
Nursery & Pre-school will inform families via Tapestry
You may recollect that governors sent out a school uniform survey during the autumn term. They published the outcomes in a December newsletter. You can access this here. Please follow this link and refresh your memory.
You will see that the changes are scheduled to be implemented from January 2023 as 70% of families felt that a transition period of a year was appropriate.
Next term, all children (reception to year 6) should continue to wear their active uniforms every day.
Children in years 3 to 6 should not return to school in September wearing the more traditional uniforms that are due to be introduced from January 2023, as this would mean that some children would need to wait, whilst others needed to change their clothes for P.E. and Commando Joes sessions.
If you have already purchased traditional uniform for September as your child will be in key stage 2, and you would like it to be worn before January, please make sure that your child wears their current active uniform to school on P.E. and Commando Joes days, and their new traditional uniform on other days of the week. Class teachers will confirm the PE / Commando Joe days at the beginning of term.
Can you help?
The individual stationery packs that your children have been using this year have been really useful so we will continue to work in this way next term.
Are you able to supply your child(ren) with the following items in September?
- An inexpensive, small, plain, wipeable named pencil case
- 12 coloured pencils
- 2 HB pencils
- 2 rubbers (plain are best)
- 1 named glue stick
- 1 highlighter pen
We will provide everything else. We would like these items to stay in school all of the time.
If you have not yet responded to our survey (link below) please do so ASAP to let us know if you are able to send your child into school in September with these items. We will use the money that we save to buy additional books for class libraries.
We are delighted that our old Ducklings t shirts have been very well received by a charitable organisation and are now worn by children in Cambodia.
The Early Childhood Development Centre in Rangsei village were handed some Dunalley Ducklings polo shirts kindly donated by our Nursery & pre-school.
These are some of the most needy children as they live on the local landfill site.
Please see the information below about the fabulous work which the Love Without Boundaries charity does, we are absolutley delighted that we can support such a worthy cause.
See the Love Without Boundaries information here
There are still some to be delivered and they will go to Uganda in September.
The Holiday Activity and Food Programme (HAF and HAP)
The HAF programme will be returning from 1 to 27 August covering 4 weeks of the summer holidays to provide families with enriching activities and nutritious food for families who receive benefits -related free school meals.
Our extended Holiday Activities Programme (HAP) offer will also be returning so that all families in Gloucestershire will have the chance to participate in the holiday fun.
To stay up to date on news, families can subscribe to our HAF newsletter by clicking the link below:
For more information, visit our website at www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/haf
Holiday Food Boxes
Holiday Food boxes will be available across Gloucestershire for the month of August.
Eligibility for the Holiday Food Boxes requires your children to receive benefits-related free school meals.
Household Support Fund
On 30 September 2021, the Government announced that a new Household Support Fund (HSF) would be available to Local Authorities to support those most in need during the winter, which has now been extended until 30 September 2022. The Government has provided funding to Gloucestershire County Council to support people who are struggling to:
- buy food
- pay energy and water bills
- cover other essential costs linked to energy and water and wider essentials (including sanitary products, warm clothing, soap, blankets, boiler service or repair, purchase of equipment including fridges, freezers, and ovens)
The application form for the Housing Support Fund can be found on the Gloucestershire County Council website here: https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/gloucestershire-welfare-support-scheme/local-support-grant-find-out-more-and-apply/
The Household Support Fund is available until 30 September 2022.
Returning to school
We look forward to seeing our Year 1 - 6 children back on Tuesday 6th September and our new reception starters on Wednesday 7th September.
Nursery & pre-school will start back on Tuesday 6th September.
Stay safe and have a fabulous summer holiday.
From us all here at Dunalley.