Newsletters

Headteacher's News - 12.11.2024

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Headteacher's News

All the most recent news from Edith

 

Tuesday 12th November 2024

Dear parents and carers of Stepney Park Primary School.

I hope you are all well and had a great half term holiday.

Reminder re medical issues 

Please remember to keep school updated of any important medical issues and changes. It is also important that you ensure that all medicine we have in school are in-date. The school office can be contacted in person or by email if there is anything you would like us to know or if you have any questions.

Consultation: holiday dates for the next school year 2025-2026:

As you know, the first half of the autumn term in this school year was 8 weeks long and, unfortunately, this will be the case again in the next school year.  The 8 week half term resulted in a number of issues for the school, including a significant increase in staff and pupil absence levels towards the end of the half term, as well as some other additional challenges such as less effective learning due to pupil tiredness and unsettledness.

We would like to hear your opinion about potentially extending next school year’s autumn break; some local schools already did that for this school year and all feedback from them about this has been very positive. This feedback included:

  • Lower absence levels (compared to ours) of staff and pupils towards the end of their half term.

  • Having a 2 week autumn holiday resulted in staff and pupils coming back from their autumn break refreshed and well rested, ready for the next half term.

  • Having a 2 week break also benefited families who wished to take a holiday during that time of the year, as flight and holiday prices were significantly cheaper in the week before everyone else had their autumn break. 

We would therefore like to propose the following for next school year:

  • Having a longer (2 week) autumn break from Monday October 20th to Friday Oct 31st 2025. 

  • Having a shorter (5 weeks plus 2 days instead of 6 weeks) summer holiday. The summer holiday in 2026 would start on Thursday July 23rd. 

Of course, the total required number of days children will be in school by law (190 days) will not change. 

We would like to hear your thoughts on this, so a very short GoogleForm has been sent to you. Please let us know your preference.

Here is a link to the GoogleForm also:

https://forms.gle/eAveLSNxgUmWG1ZZ6 

We would like parents to respond to this consultation by Friday November 22nd. The final decision will be made by the Governing Body. This decision will be communicated to parents by the end of November. Please do not book any holidays until then, as this may not go ahead.

Parent/ teacher meetings 

Please remember that we will have our parent/ teacher meetings on November 20th, and that school will close at 1 pm for this occasion. 

 

Thank you for reading this newsletter and for your continued support.

Kind regards,

Edith Philipsen

Headteacher- Stepney Park Primary School