St Luke’s Church of England School Newsletter 24 March 2016 Message from Mrs Tyler Staff, children and parents were all treated to a wonderful evening of music at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday. We were very proud of our KS2 children who sang with the Camden Schools Music Festival Choir – they have practised incredibly hard and seemed to enjoy every minute of this special occasion. Thank you to the members of staff who accompanied the children and a special thank you to Mrs Cawthorne, who has spent the last two months preparing the children for the Festival. We are very fortunate to have someone so enthusiastic about music and so dedicated to ensuring our children have every opportunity to experience such memorable events. Today your child will have brought home their end of Spring term report. You will remember from the Parent Consultations in February that the purpose behind these new ‘end of term’ reports is to let you know where your child is working in relation to the ‘end of year expectations’ and to share their next steps of learning with you. Please do remember it is the ‘end of year expectations’ we are required to assess to, so you would not expect a child to have met these at this stage of the year. As ever, please do ask if you would like further clarification. Thank you to KS2 for starting off our Easter holidays off with their moving Church Service. I wish you all a Happy Easter and hope you have a relaxing time with your family over the holidays. I look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Monday 11th April. 100% Attendance Congratulations to all the children who have been in school every day this term: and all those who have been in school every day this half term: School Meals Costs – KS2 only We have been informed that Camden has “increased the price of primary school meals from £2.30 to £2.34. This will take effect from the first day of the summer term, 11 April 2016. Since the introduction of London living wage (LLW) in September 2015, the cost has been subsidised by the council by 14p per meal. However, it is now necessary to increase the meal prices to reflect the actual costs. The council is hoping that there will be no increase in 2017/18 or the increase will be minimal.” House points: Love 818 Faith 840 Hope 832 If you would like to donate to the 'Help Keep Camden Music Alive' appeal mentioned by Jon Snow at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday night, the details are: “Text 'CAMD16£5' to 70070 to donate £5 and help keep music alive in our schools.” Thank you. Congratulations to all those children who entered the PFA’s Easter Bonnet Competition – the creations were all lovely! Library Project Update As we approach the end of our Spring term, we wanted to let you know how we are getting on with developing the school library, which is to be funded by those donations made in memory of Assaf. There are, of course, two aspects to this library project – the physical building works and the books themselves! At Christmas we invited Penny and Assaf’s parents to look around the school building to discuss the possible location of the library. Since then a list of suitable contractors has been drawn up. Two companies have been to look around, with another due the week after Easter. Once three quotes have been gathered, plans for the layout will be finalised and a contractor chosen in liaison with the Governors and Assaf’s family. We hope to then use a library design service to help us make the most of the space we will have available. We have also begun to catalogue the books we already have in the school. All KS2 (junior) fiction is now complete, with picture books and non-fiction books still to go. The older children are being encouraged to return fiction books to their place in alphabetical order and to begin a list of any books they’d like to see in the new library. Our next task will be to compile the list of books we need to purchase, using the children’s ideas, the curriculum requirements and advice given to us by the Camden Schools Library Service. We are also assessing the purchase of computers and iPads for the library. In the meantime, we have joined the “School Library Association” which provides invaluable advice on everything from library layouts to reviews of the newest children’s fiction and Sam Hardwick will be attending a project management course to learn how to help things progress smoothly but swiftly! We will continue to keep you updated, but our aim is to have the library ready for the start of the new academic year – September 2016.