Dear Parents and Carers,

 

We hope that you found yesterday evening's Internet Safety Seminar both useful and informative.

 

The internet has changed all of our lives, particularly our children’s. For parents and carers this opens up a whole new world of things to be aware of. For many of us, this can all be a bit too much.

 

You might be struggling to keep up with the things your child is doing online, you might wonder whether what they are doing is safe, and you might also be thinking how can I be as good a parent online as I am offline?

 

The following website aims to make online parenting simple - https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/Primary/

 

Even if the only search engine you use is a pair of binoculars, do not despair. This website will provide you with many practical tips and simple guidance.

Best wishes,

Mr Pavely
Computing Leader

Dear Parents and Carers,

What a great first half term! I would firstly like to thank our Literacy Team (Mrs Morgan, Mrs Couslon and Miss Pirt) for organising yesterday’s author visit which linked neatly to the Rugby World Cup; the children were treated to a workshop from Sports Author Tom Palmer and the buzz was palpable, both during and after his assembly. Tom is the author of three Puffin fiction series for hildren including Football Academy and Foul Play. He has also written a new children’s Rugby Academy series starting with Combat Zone for Barrington Stoke. His first novel Foul Play was short listed for the Blue Peter Book Award. Do take a moment to visit his website - particularly if you are the parent of a reluctant reader who is fanatical about sport… Our staff work very hard to encourage the children’s passion for reading and we hope that this week’s visit has helped to strengthen this aspect of work; hopefully it will really help our children develop a long long passion for the enjoyment of reading and books.

It was lovely to see the Parents and Carers from Class 3P in school on Tuesday for ‘Come dine with me’. The children were certainly very excited. For more information about school dinners at Yattendon, click on our Useful Information section.

Congratulations to all forty children who were deservedly presented with a shared vision trophy this morning. Please take a moment to chat with your child about the reasons why they were presented with this award.

Congratulations also to Gandhi House who take the House Team Cup this half term with 2125 points. Please see the home page of the school website for further details.

I look forward to seeing you later at the FoY fireworks night.
Finally, on behalf of all the staff at Yattendon, I would like to wish you all a happy and restful half term break.

With best wishes,
Dave Cole - Headteacher

We are now very busy organising the Fireworks night, Christmas fair and other exciting events to raise money for the children.
 
We are pleased to let you know that we have just made our yearly donation to the school of £500.00 per year group and £650.00 for year 4 (to cover the extra class). The teachers can spend this on whatever they feel will benefit the children; each year group have already used part of their donation towards the History workshops taking place in November. We will keep you updated on how the rest of this donation is spent, as we feel it is important you know how the money we raise is used to enrich your children's time at Yattendon.
 
Our Fireworks Night is now a tradition at Yattendon and over the years has been a great success. This year’s event will be taking place on Thursday 22nd October 2015. There will be a fancy dress competition for the best Halloween    costume (with a prize for a boy and girl of a hamper of goodies), a barbeque and licensed bar. We will also be   welcoming the Mayor of Reigate and Banstead during the evening who will be judging the Guys made by children across the school and awarding a special shield to the winners.
 
Tickets can be ordered through the office and are priced at  £12.00 for a family of five or £3.00 for an individual adult/child ticket. Tickets can be purchased on the gate but a small surcharge will be added. The long-term forecast is clear and dry so please get your orders in, come and have fun and support us.

On Wednesday 7th October, Yattendon held its first House Team Charity Day of the 2015-2016 academic year. Churchill and Pankhurst house teams, led by Mr Pavely and Mr Stewart respectively, coordinated and managed the afternoon’s activity.

 

Every child across the school participated in the charity fun run, with money raised from generous donations from parents/adults being split between ITP Support Association (Churchill’s Charity) and RSPCA Godstone (Pankhurst’s Charity).

 

Throughout the afternoon each year group ran the fun run on the playground due to the unfortunate weather of late. However, the event was a huge success! Firstly the Year 3’s braved the cold and ran, danced, twirled and skipped for the full ten minutes. The other year groups followed with equally brilliant costumes and running styles.  Each member of Churchill and Pankhurst House Teams also assisted in the marshalling of the fun run. Those children formed a human track for the others to run round whilst providing encouragement and support which was lovely to see.

 

We would both like to say a massive thank you to all those who donated and supported this event. The children were all fantastically behaved and a credit to all of you. We will be passing on the money to our charities in the coming days with the total currently standing at over £280.

 

Well done to all the children for running their socks off!

 

Many thanks,
Mr Stewart and Mr Pavely
House Team Leaders

Parents – are you feeling anxious about how you can protect your children online?

 

Internet Safety Event at Yattendon School – 7:00pm to 9:00pm on Wednesday 21st October

 

Parenting is extremely challenging at the best of times, but when we give our children access to the internet, we need to be sure that our children are as safe as they can be. Children often do not have the maturity to understand dangers associated with their online activity, so parents need to do as much as they can to understand risks and support their children in managing these. I would therefore urge you to come along to the school hall at 7:00pm on Wednesday 21st October for an evening that will hopefully enlighten and reassure you. After a very successful evening session for parents a couple of years ago, we have asked a speaker from The Lucy Faithfull Foundation to come and hold an Internet Safety information evening for parents. The Lucy Faithfull foundation are experts in the field of online safety and we are very lucky to have their expertise in our school. Please put this free event in your diary.