It has been an absolute pleasure to welcome pupils and parents back into school for the new academic year. The previous two years have been difficult for us all at times – from remote learning and bubble closures to recovery curriculum and catch-up intervention. However, the way our school community has pulled together to ensure that any disruption to our pupils’ learning has been truly remarkable. I would like to thank all parents and carers for their help and support so far. I am also looking forward to meeting some of our newer parents/carers when we host our first parents evening of the year in early October. Our pupils have made a fantastic start to the year; it has been wonderful to get into classes and see first hand some of their outcomes (I am already having nightmares after reading some of our horror writing in Y6!). I look forward to the rest of this term, where we will have more events for parents to attend and celebrate our pupils’ work. Welcome back.

Mr Fallon

Diary Dates

We have got lots of exciting and important events coming up in school! We have listed the events below, but the dates can also be found on the HCPS school website.

Monday 11th October – Tuesday 12th October – Parents Evening – Information to follow

Monday 25th October – Friday 29th October – Half Term – School Closed to Pupils

Monday 1st November – INSET – School Closed to Pupils

Monday 20th December – Friday 3rd January – Christmas Break – School Closed to Pupils

Monday 21st February – Friday 25th February – Half Term – School Closed to Pupils

Monday 14th February – Tuesday 15th February – Parents Evening – Information to follow

Monday 28th February – INSET – School Closed to Pupils

Friday 8th April – INSET – School Closed to Pupils

Monday 11th April – Friday 22nd April – Easter Break – School Closed to Pupils

Monday 2nd May – Bank Holiday – School Closed to Pupils

Monday 30th May – Friday 3rd June – Half Term – School Closed to Pupils

Friday 24th June – INSET – School Closed to Pupils

Thursday 21st July – School Closed to Pupils for Summer Break.

Please note the last day of this school year will be Wednesday 20th July. These dates may be subject to change – all updates to school closures etc. will be communicated via the Arbor app and the school website.

Checking Information on Arbor

We would like to take this opportunity to ask all parents to check the data that is shown on their child's Arbor Account and update any information accordingly. If any of the information that is shown is incorrect, then please update with the correct details.

Definition of a parent

A parent means: All natural parents, whether they are married or not; Any person who has parental responsibility for a child or young person; and, Any person who has care of a child or young person i.e. lives with and looks after the child. The local authority and school will need to decide who comes within the definition of parent in respect of a particular pupil when using the legal measures, but generally parents include all those with day to day responsibility for a child.

Parental Responsibility

From 1st December 2003 - if parents are unmarried but father is present when mother registers the birth and has his name on the birth certificate - he has parental responsibility. (Date of registration of birth is important - e.g. if child born before December 2003 but birth registered after 1st December and dad present for registration/name on birth certificate - he has parental responsibility). Prior to this date, unmarried parents - father only gains responsibility through signing official agreement with mother or through court order. (Person with whom child lives will usually have precedence though).

If any court orders are in place please provide documentation to the School Office.

Primary and Secondary Emergency Contacts

Alternative Emergency contacts are used when School is unable to get in touch with parents for any reason in an emergency or if parents work out of the area and have named someone else to be contacted in case of illness. The Primary Contact would be called first and ideally this would be someone local and/or a family member. If we could not get in touch with parents or the person stated as primary contact we would then go on to try the secondary emergency contact.

Parental Permissions/Consents

Please make sure that you are checking over the permissions section on your child's account and giving permission to things you would like them to do or not giving permission for things you would not like them to do. We have attached an explanation of the consents below.

• Local Walks- Occasional walks around the local area are planned when relating to topic work.
• Sporting Activities- Regular sporting activities and tournaments take place within school. Often sporting events are organised with other Local Schools, further consents will be sent out if your child is chosen to take part in an event out of school.
• Supervised Water activities- In year’s 3 and 4 pupils attend weekly swimming lessons. Year groups 4 and 6 go on residential visits where supervised water activities may take place. Further consents will be sent out for both swimming lessons and residential visits.
• Images recorded on video- At times video will be used to document and evidence learning within school. This important especially for times when written or photographic evidence doesn't do the situation justice. This video will be stored within the secure school network and at times used to celebrate learning on the school website.
• Childs photo to be used on the internet- We believe that the responsible use of children’s images can make a valuable contribution to the life and morale of the school. The use of photographs in school publicity materials, including our website, can increase pupil motivation and help parents and the local community identify and celebrate the school’s achievements. Photos can be used on our locked Facebook page, Twitter Account and website but will only ever be used to celebrate the life of the school.
• Photo used in school (i.e. displays)- Displays are an important part of our school environment and to make them meaningful to the children we include photographs of the children and the learning they are taking part in. We feel this is extremely important and allows children to make connections with the displays around school.
• Photos used in the Local Press- School may be visited by the media who will take photographs or film footage of high profile events which may appear in Local or National newspapers or televised news programmes.
• Use of Local Authority Email in school- At times children will be asked to send emails through the school email system for research and communication purposes. Any emails will be moderated by the teacher involved in the project prior to being sent. Emails received will go through the school filtering system.
• Use of internet for educational purpose- Children are given access to a range of ICT resources in which they can research information related to their work. Educational websites are often used in lessons where children have the opportunity to work individually or in pairs.

Permission to walk home independently

To ensure that the school can continue to monitor the safety and welfare of your child, we would request that you complete the consent section on Arbor to give consent for your child to leave school grounds on their own at the end of the day.

Parents Evening

Parents Evening will take place on Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th October, appointments will be face to face and will last approximately 5 minutes each.

Appointments can be booked via the Arbor app under the Guardian Consultations section. The appointments go live on Arbor at 12pm on Friday 24th September.

Please note that Arbor is our main channel of communication at school and we encourage all parents to download to Arbor App. If you have got any questions or issues in relation to accessing the app, please speak to the school office and we can assist you further.

School Photos

We are happy to announce that pupil and sibling photos are booked in for Wednesday 3rd November. There will be more information to follow.

INSET Day Reminder

Please note that on Monday 1st November, school will be closed to all pupils. School reopens to pupils on Tuesday 2nd November.

After School Clubs

After School Clubs now finish at 4:15pm and pupils will need collecting from the classroom that is stated on the club timetable. If your child is doing Football, Multiskills, Gymnastics, Dance or Drama, they will need collecting from the brown doors outside the main reception area.

We do still have some availability in Dance Club but we have allocated all available spaces for other clubs. However, if your child would like to go on the waiting list for a club, please contact the school office to notify us.

Please send your child with an appropriate PE if their club requires it, if you are unsure on what they may need, please refer to the below section titled 'PE' or speak with the member of staff that runs the club.

Book Club- Please can children attending book club, bring in a book that they would like to read during the club. They can bring in any type of reading material; books, comics, newspapers or anything else that they may enjoy reading.

Term Time Holidays

We would like to remind all parents that if you are taking your child out of school during term time, that you must complete an Absence Request Form. These can be found on the BMBC Council website or collected from the School Office.

https://www.barnsley.gov.uk/search?search=absence+request+form

If you take your child on holiday in term-time without the school's consent, you'll receive a fixed penalty notice of £60 for each child. If you don't pay this within 21 days, it will be increased to £120. You'll need to pay the increased fine within 28 days or court action can be taken against you.

Lunch Time Menu

Lunch at the Movies

On Thursday 7th October, the kitchen are hosting a Lunch at the Movies menu. On this day there will be the below lunch options and jacket potatoes only. If your child does not want any of the above meals, please send them with a packed lunch from home.

School lunches are £2.10 and can be paid on the Arbor App. If your child receives free school meals, you will not need to pay for their meal.

Free Funding Scheme

Please see attached a link to show you how to apply for free school funding if you think that you may be eligible.

Attendance and Punctuality Rewards

Here at HCPS, we seek to ensure that all of our pupils receive a full-time education which maximises opportunities for every child to reach their full potential. In order to achieve this, good attendance and punctuality are essential.

Please see attached below a link to the Attendance at HCPS presentation. Within the presentation, it outlines the attendance initiatives and rewards that children can earn within school. There are lots of wonderful rewards and opportunities but we need your help too! Read through the spark and set yourself some attendance goals for this term!

https://spark.adobe.com/page/wCnbG9cYdvLuf/

PE

If your child has got PE at school, can parents please make sure that they have sent appropriate PE kit on the day that it is needed. Children will need their house PE top, weather appropriate bottoms (PE shorts, leggings, track suit bottoms) and appropriate footwear (trainers for outdoor PE and pumps for indoor PE). We also ask that children have got a drinks bottle that they can reuse and fill up at school.

We have got 4 different house at HCPS; Fitzwilliam (Light Blue), Rockingham (Yellow), Wentworth (Green) and Strafford (Dark Blue). If you are unsure which house your child is in, please contact the school office or speak with Mrs Berry.

House PE tops can be ordered from Vortex Clothing. Please call into the school office to grab a uniform order form or visit www.vortexschoolwear.co.uk.

This is a reminder to all parents that if your child cannot take their earrings out, they cannot take part in PE. Staff within school cannot do this for your child. Children must be able to independently remove their earrings and put them back in. Please do not send your child with tape/plasters to put over their earrings as they will not be allowed to participate in the PE lesson.