Dear Children, Parents and Carers,

I’ve so enjoyed seeing the reaction of the children (and sometimes their parents too!) on Zoom as we’ve celebrated the news about school reopening for everyone. Their joy and exuberance has been priceless! I’m glad that so many of us are really looking forward to coming back to a full school and learning alongside friends. Obviously there will be some children feeling a little unsure, just as they would at the start of a new academic year. We will be carefully planning the first couple of weeks to make sure that they all settle back in and make a positive return to school. If you are concerned about your child’s emotional wellbeing, or would like to update us on any family changes in circumstances, please do let me, our homeschool link workers, or your child’s classteacher know.

I hope that you’ve all managed to book a time for a parent consultation with your child’s teacher. Do call the office if you’ve had difficulty with this. These important meetings will be such a vital communication tool as the children return to school. Please do tell us about your experience of home-learning and together we can make plans for the second half of this academic year. Thank you so much for all that you’ve been doing to support the children – you’ve all done such a great job! And for those of you that have had to juggle many other responsibilities too, the end is in sight!

Next Thursday is World Book Day; normally in school we would be marking this event with lots of book-themed celebrations. Many of the year teams are planning interesting home-learning activities and one of these is a great idea that we can all join in with. If you’d like to put a copy of your favourite children’s book in the window of your house, or encourage your child to draw a poster of their favourite title to display there, we can enjoy a walk around our local community spotting all the different books on show. It’ll be a bit like all the joyful rainbows that children drew for the last lockdown and will be a great way to end our time apart.

Please take a careful note of the letter that you’ll receive on Parentmail about our return to school arrangements. I would like to emphasise again how vital it is to remain vigilant and socially distant – the country is still in lockdown and schools have only been allowed to open because of the importance that we all place on children’s education. We mustn’t use it as an excuse to socialise or drop our guard – let’s keep being determined to keep the local infection risk low. Hopefully, we will be able to review all our restrictions as the summer approaches, but for now we return to school as it was in the autumn term.

Have a great weekend in the spring sunshine; with March just around the corner, the long winter months will soon be a distant memory!

With love,
Clare

Thought of the Week: Love is not ill-mannered – are you a polite person?

Whole School

Clubs+/ PUPs / Breakfast Club
From Monday 8th March, our extended hours provision will return to the previous arrangements that were in place in the autumn term. If your circumstances have changed, you need extra sessions, or you no longer need childcare on the days that you’d booked, please contact Sam Andrews (pups@htpd.surrey.sch.uk). Please see the Before & After School page of the website for further information.

Recycle Reduce Resuse - 8-12 March
We are delighted to announce that HTSC & FOP’s will be holding a clothing collection with Happy School Bag Fundraising Project.

This scheme is designed to help schools raise needed funds as well as helping the environment by keeping textiles away from landfills. By taking part in this scheme you help reduce the amount and give the clothing a new lease of life.

To take part you simply need to fill and tie up any plastic bags with unwanted but clean and reusable clothing.

We accept:

• Adult’s and children’s clothing
• Paired Shoes
• Fashion accessories
• Handbags, Belts, Hats

We don’t accept:

• Uniforms, Underclothing
• Toys, Books, DVD’s
• Duvets, Pillows, Household linen
• Carpets, Blankets, Curtains
• Bric-a-Brack
• Dirty, Damaged, Wet Clothing

Remember the more you fill up the bag the more the school can rise. Happy School Bag will pay 50p per Kg of clothing. The Happy School Bag van will be collecting on Monday 15th March.

• Bags must NOT be dropped off at school.
  
• Please bring all your tied bags to the garage of 40 Harvey Road, GU1 3SE.

Due to Covid restrictions we cannot accept bags into school. To keep everyone as safe as possible we have allocated different days for each year group. These are as follows:

Clothing for recycling can be dropped between 8.00 - 9.30am and 2.15 - 4.00pm
Monday - Year 3
Tuesday - Year 4
Wednesday - Year 5
Thursday - Year 6
Friday - Reception, Year 1 & Year 2

Please make sure all bags are tied up, and nothing is loose. Only bags will be taken.

Opposite the garage are on-street parking bays and in front of the garage is a wide pavement. Please be aware of children and pedestrians if mounting the pavement.

This is a residential address. The garage is at street level. Please do not leave bags outside the garage/house if the garage is not open.

If any parents are able to help with opening up the garage during these times please get in touch with Laura Hinton (parent of 4A).
 

JUNIOR

Dates for the Diary
Year 3 Greek Day – Tuesday 16th March

Clubs Update
We are pleased to announce that after school activities will start up again from Monday 8th March until Friday 26th March, to ensure the children have the opportunity for some additional exercise, a chance to try something new and to meet up socially with friends in their class bubble, as well as allowing parents to work longer hours. Please download/view the schedule here.

All clubs finish at 4.15pm and children are asked by the club leaders to wash their hands before meeting their parents and returning home. For sports clubs, pick up will always be in the bottom playground. For clubs running indoors, at 4.15pm the club leader will take the children to where their class bubble is usually collected from; Y3 from the car park, Y4 from the playground and Y5 and Y6 from their usual collection points.

A gentle reminder that as we have two or three class bubble clubs going on at the same time, please ensure that you are socially distanced from other parents whilst waiting for your child in the playground.

Laura Sutton
HTPD Sports Co-ordinator
 

FOPS News

Hello all,

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Sponsored Read and to your generosity. We’ve raised an incredible £807.40 which will buy “a LOT of books”!

Dates for your diary
Friday 12th March: Clothing collection
Saturday 27th March, 8pm: FOPS quiz, more details in due course
Friday 2nd April (Good Friday) – Friday 9th April: Easter Trail in conjunction with Holy Trinity, more details in due course

Happy weekend all!
Kate
 

HTSC News

Hi Everyone,

Well, I’m certainly counting down the days until the children go back to school! There are a few things to update you on for these remaining weeks before the Easter break.

Recycled Clothing Collection – Happy School Bags
We have rearranged the collection date for 15th March – all the details are above in the main section of the newsletter. Please do not bring anything into school.

Bake Sales – we’re making the most of being back at school before Easter!
Don’t panic, you don’t need to do anything unless you have volunteered to be a baker! Instead of asking for cake donations from everyone, or people to man/sell, we have a few keen bakers per year group who will bake a selection of cakes, individually wrap, quarantine, and then deliver a box of cakes to each class. A suggested donation is £1 which your child can bring in with them and put in the class jar, or there will be an online PayPal payment option if you’d prefer here.

If you have a child with an allergy, we would ask you to provide something suitable on the day of your child’s cake sale (we don’t have access to dietary information). If you would like more information or would like to volunteer as a baker, please email helen@thomasday.co.uk

The dates for this term are:
Years 3 & 4 – Friday 19th March (Red Nose Day)
Years 5 & 6 – Friday 26th March (Fluffy Friday)

Pitch 2020 Fund
Thank you to those who have donated and shared the link with other family members. We are using GoFundMe for direct donations to the Pitch 2020 Fund for families and friends of the school who are able to, and would like to, contribute in lieu of donating at events which we have not been able to provide this year. The fund will remain open until the end of this school year - click here.

Easyfundraising
If you are shopping online, one way to support the school is through www.easyfundraising.co.uk and selecting HTSC Holy Trinity School Community as your cause. Over 4000 retailers are affiliated and every purchase makes a difference.

Second hand uniform
If you have any uniform to donate, or need some uniform please contact her at simonechidlow@googlemail.com.

To pay for your items, please use the link here to pay via PayPal. Due to restrictions we cannot handle any cash at the moment.

Easter Trail
We are teaming up with FOPs at Pewley to run an Easter trail with FOPs in the local area around the school. More details to follow.

As always, if you have any questions, please drop an email to helen@thomasday.co.uk

Kind regards
HTSC Committee