Print friendly version of this page: Dates for your diary
19th January 7pm FOBE
5th February Unicef Day for Change non–school uniform day
8th February Parents’ Evening (late)
9th February Parents’ Evening
15th to 19th February Half Term
17th February Ash Wednesday
All term dates for 2010 to 2012
Date Feed 
Snowy Weather
Weather and Transport Advice
Family Planned Giving
Parents’ Evening
Unicef Day for Change
International and Sustainable School Awards – Working Group
Helping Hand
Packed Lunches
Money collection—Monday only
Reading and Spelling
Snowy Weather
Despite the recent weather conditions, we have been able to keep the school open. John Hughes, our Premises Officer has worked really hard to keep pathways gritted and clear. Thank you John!
Weather and Transport Advice
As we are only part way through the winter season, it is possible that we may have more difficult weather conditions over the coming weeks.
As previously advised, please check the school website www.bishopellis.leics.sch.uk for up to date information. This will be updated by 7:30 a.m. each morning during periods of snowy weather. We will also include the latest available information about school buses. Alternatively, listen to BBC Radio Leicester.
Family Planned Giving
I would like to thank the 52 families from our community who contribute regularly to the ‘Planned Giving’ scheme. You may not be aware that Catholic schools are not fully funded by the Government and we are obliged to raise 10% of all monies needed for capital buildings, improvement projects and ICT infrastructure. Therefore in Leicestershire, we encourage families to join our ‘Planned Giving’ scheme. The purpose of the scheme is to raise this 10% shortfall in funding. Your child currently benefits from the facilities at the school. Our school would not be here without the contributions that parents/carers and parishioners attending our churches have made over many years. If our school is to continue, we need your financial help. It is suggested that each family contributes £10.00 per month (unless on income support). Letters and forms are being sent out this week. Please consider joining this scheme; we really do depend on these contributions. Thank you.
Parents’ Evening
Parents’ evenings will be held on Monday 8th February (up to 7:30pm) and Tuesday 9th February (up to 6:00pm). Letters will be sent out next week. Please return the slips to school as soon as possible and by Monday 25th January at the latest.
Please can I remind parents not to allow children to play unsupervised on the playground. Thank you.
Unicef Day for Change
There will be a non–school uniform day on Friday 5th February to raise money for Unicef. The focus for this year is to improve children’s health and education in Mozambique. Every day in Mozambique, about 400 children under the age five die, mainly of preventable causes. One in two children lack safe drinking water and around one in three girls do not get the chance to attend primary school. To help support the work of Unicef we recommend a £1 donation for the non–school uniform day. Thank you.
International and Sustainable School Awards – Working Group
Over the coming two years, as part of our School Development Plan, we are going to be working towards achieving the International and the Sustainable Schools Awards. As our curriculum includes a comprehensive approach to multi–cultural education and, through our charity work, we teach the children about places overseas, we have already successfully achieved the intermediate level of the International Award. Also, our Year 5 link with Mayflower Primary School and the link with the teacher training institution in Switzerland has contributed to this success. We are now working towards the full award alongside the Sustainable Schools Award which covers the following areas: food and drink, energy and water, travel and traffic, purchasing and waste, buildings and grounds, inclusion and participation, local well–being and a global dimension.
Would you like to be involved in a working group of teachers, parents, governors and children on this project? It would mean one meeting per term (probably after school 3:45pm) and some responsibility for carrying out ‘actions’ in between time. We need two or three parents. The first meeting will be after half term. If interested, please leave your name at the school office. Thank you.
Helping Hand
If you have any difficulty accessing the school site or school events due to a disability, please let us know and we will be happy to try and help you or to make reasonable adaptations to meet your needs.
Packed Lunches
We have found that the children who eat packed lunch at school have been leaving an excessive amount of litter on the hall floor. We are also concerned that a small number of children have been throwing away uneaten food. In order to help reduce these two problems, we are going to ask that children keep their own litter and left over food in their lunch box to take home. You can then clearly see what they have or have not eaten. This is, in fact, what most schools do. Please help your child by giving them an appropriately sized packed lunch i.e. not too much! Thank you.
You can find tips on making your child’s packed lunch healthier and suggestions for lunches for 5–8 year olds and 9–12 year olds on the following website: http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/agesandstages/children/lunchboxsect .
Money collection—Monday only
I would like to thank those parents who always send in their dinner money on a Monday in a sealed envelope clearly marked with their child‘s name, as previously requested on many occasions. We are currently tightening our procedures for collection of dinner money due to the fact that some money, sent in as loose cash, has gone missing. Please can everyone cooperate with following:
1. Only send money on a Monday (i.e. dinner money and money for other things);
2. Always place cheque or money in an envelope marked with child’s name, class and amount (and say what it is for).
It is also helpful if money is sent in the form of a cheque wherever possible. Cheques for dinner money should be made payable to Leicestershire County Council. Please note that dinner money can be paid in termly or half–termly amounts rather than weekly. Cheques for other payments, such as school trips, need to be made payable to Bishop Ellis Primary School.
From now on money will only be accepted on a Monday. Please do not send money into school on any other day, it will not be collected. (If you do need to bring money into school on a different day then you will have to bring it directly to the school office yourself.) Thank you for your help with this.
Reading and Spelling
Please make sure that you read regularly with your child at home from their school reading book and other books. Children also need help every week to learn their spellings. Ten minutes a day is better than 1/2 an hour once a week. Children do benefit from this regular reading practice so thank you to those of you who set aside this valuable time to support your child’s learning and progress. Tips on hearing your child read can be found on the following website: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/familyreading/parents/index.html
bishop ellis catholic primary school - thurmaston
bishop ellis catholic primary school - thurmaston