24th March 2023
Dear Parents and Carers of St Cuthbert’s,
PTFA Fundraising – Easter Raffle
Thank you to everyone who was able to donate an item for our Easter Raffle. We have some eggscellent (sorry!) prizes up for grabs! The raffle tickets need to be returned to school by Wednesday 29th March and the raffle will be drawn on Thursday 30th March. Prizes will be sent home with the children on Friday 31st March in time to enjoy over the Easter Holidays. Good luck!
Free School Meal (FSM) Vouchers for Easter
Any children who are entitled to a Free School Meal will receive a FSM voucher for £30.00 per child to cover a lunch for each week day of the two week Easter Holiday. These will be shared via text message/email before we break up for Easter on 31st March.
A Heartfelt Goodbye
Ms Broxup will be leaving St Cuthbert’s at Easter with her last day at school being the morning of Wednesday 29th March. Ms Broxup has served our children and school community for 17 years and she will be a huge miss. She is an amazing member of our staff team and has performed numerous roles over the years, all of them carried out with incredible skill, passion and dedication. Ms Broxup has shared her many talents and gifts so generously with the whole community and she has worked tirelessly to provide the very best education and learning environment for our children, particularly those in the Early Years. She really is the embodiment of the school’s Mission Statement: showing Christ’s love in all she does and she leaves St Cuthbert’s a better school for having being part of it.
On behalf of all of the children, staff, governors and Kenton parish community, past and present, I wish Ms Broxup the very best of everything in her new venture.
School Attendance
This is a polite reminder for parents and carers to please follow our school attendance and punctuality procedures. If your child is going to be absent from school, the expectation is that parents/carers contact school before 9.30am on the first day of absence to let school know your child won’t be in and the reason for their absence. It is really important that you contact school and keep us well informed and up to date about your child’s illness and possible return date to school. We are really pleased to share that St Cuthbert’s now has access to a School Attendance Officer who is able to support our school and any of our families whose child’s attendance is below satisfactory.
Residential Visits
We have had a few queries into school re: residential visits in KS2. Unfortunately, we have had to reduce the number of residential visits we are able to take the children on because of increasing pressures on our already tight school budget. The energy bills alone have increased £12,000 this academic year and with no extra funding provided, schools have had to absorb these rising costs. Historically, St Cuthbert’s has always heavily subsidised these trips to enable all children to go no matter what their own families’ financial circumstances. We have prioritised the children in Year 6 this year for a residential visit and will do so going forward so that every child has this experience at least once in their primary years. I am so, so sorry and really hate to disappoint the children but I do hope our families understand the pressures we are under and support us as much as they can. We will of course, continue with our wide and varied day visits and trips as we always have done.
To enable us to continue with other school improvements and developments, we are actively applying for grants and capitalizing on monies from fundraising events organized by our superb PTFA.
Thank you, as always, for your continued support.
Best wishes,
Mrs Anne Bullerwell
Headteacher
