Dear Parents and Carers,

My favourite part of this last week was the short time that I spent in one of the Year 5 classrooms reading the children a story. Seeing their excited faces as the plot took a surprising turn, laughing with them as we acted out the sound effects and facial expressions, and noticing the pin-drop silence as they hung onto my every word, I can fully recommend it to anyone, especially if you find yourself anxious about Covid19; take some time out to enjoy a great book with your children. You’ll soon be swept away with them into a different world! I’ve been so pleased to see reading stories is being prioritised across every year group. Take a look at some of the photos on Twitter – our staff are doing a great job and the children are loving it.

Huge thanks to the children too for their politeness, courtesy, respect and gratitude. It’s been delightful seeing how much they appreciate being back at HTPD with their classmates.

If your child has a cold and is well enough to be in school, they can still attend, just as they would have done before Covid19. Sniffles are part of normal primary school life! Of course, a high temperature, or a persistent cough, and / or a loss of taste or smell would be different; your child would then need to be tested before they can return. Take a look at the helpful guide (What to do if…) that we’ve linked to the website advice page. We are so grateful for your ongoing support to keep the school safe.

We’re working hard to provide home learning for any child that’s having to stay at home due to coronavirus advice or self-isolation. If however, they are ill, all they need to do then is rest and recover – they won’t need to engage in home-learning! I’ll share more details of our contingency plan for remote learning provision next week, but thank you in advance for keeping to the government guidelines regarding school attendance. Please do keep working hard to socially distance at the school gates; gathering in groups larger than six would not be appropriate. As soon as your child is either dropped off or picked up, please move quickly away from the playgrounds and entrances.

I was delighted that Year 4 successfully took part in our first big day-out of the school year. They visited Butser Ancient Farm, bringing their topic on Iron Age Britain to life as they experienced round houses and traditional crafts, as well as enjoying a coach trip and a picnic. The trip obviously involved a lot more planning and risk-assessment than usual, but it has proved to us that it can be done! We were so encouraged that HTPD’s rich diet of exciting learning experiences can continue…and as the first school to visit the farm this term, we were given the gold-star treatment! The success of the day gave us the confidence to plan for other similar events later in the term! Next up, is Year 3’s Marwell Zoo trip, and it’s great to hear that the Wild Place is back on the timetable at Pewley.

With love,
Clare

Thought of the Week: “Dare to care.” Care for others as God cares for you. Who should you be caring for?

Whole school

Please remember when bringing dogs to areas outside of school that some children are wary of them and dogs must be kept under control at all times. A reminder that dogs are not allowed on the school premises and please be courteous to residents and ensure any mess is cleared up.

Infant

Hand washing
Some parents have noticed that with all the extra hand washing, their children’s hands are becoming dry. Please do feel free to send in moisturiser if that would help. Do let us know also, if your child has any skin condition like severe eczema; you would of course be able to provide a pharmacy-sourced or medically-prescribed soap substitute. Just email the class teacher.

Menu for week beginning Monday 21 September
Mon: Spaghetti with Bolognese or Vegetable Sauce; Flapjack
Tues: Thai Chicken or Mild Vegetable Curry with Saffron Rice; Chocolate Sponge with Chocolate Sauce
Weds: Roast Turkey with Roast Potatoes & Gravy or Roasted Vegetable Tart; Jelly
Thurs: Sausage or Vegetarian Sausage with Mashed Potatoes & Gravy; Fresh Fruit Salad
Fri: Fish Fingers & Chips or Homemade Pizza; Rice Pudding
Selection of seasonal vegetables also available daily.

Junior

Current Year 6
This is a little reminder to the parents and carers of Year 6 children that applications for secondary schools are now open. The secondary schools in Guildford are running Open Evenings over the next few weeks, virtually or otherwise. Please check the respective schools’ websites for dates and details so that you can arrange to attend them.

Please note that on-line applications are preferred by SCC, and e-Admissions forms together with further information are available on their website https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools/admissions/secondary/apply. Should you require a hard copy, please e-mail schoolbooklets@surreycc.gov.uk or telephone 0300 200 1015. Paper copies should be returned directly to Surrey County Council. The closing date for all applications for entry in September 2021 is Saturday, 31st October 2020, which happens to fall on a Saturday during half term this year and it is vital that you submit your application on or before this date.

Menu - Week 3

Socially Distanced Takeaway Macmillan Coffee Morning:
Laura H and Svenja T, with boys in Year 4 and Year 6, are organising a Macmillan coffee morning on Friday 25th September as a take away service from 40 Harvey Road with social distancing in place. Delicious home-baked cakes and tea or coffee will be available to collect for a kind donation from 8.30am until 12pm approximately. Nothing stops cancer, so nothing should stop us from having a coffee morning and raising some money for a good cause along the way. As you probably know Macmillan provides care and support for people living with cancer. If you would like to help on the day or get baking, please get in touch with Svenja or Laura in advance of the event as cakes will have to be “quarantined” and packaged up beforehand. Or just come along and visit https://thyg.uk/BUU004690221

FOPS News

Hi All,

It's a shorter newsletter this week with two key items:

1. We are starting preloved uniform sales through the office. Please email Ruth and Jane and Ruth with details of what you would like, and they will endeavour to find it for you. We are looking to try and set up a PayPal pool for this, but currently, it will be cash into an honesty box on collection.

2. FOPs are still looking for FOPs Chair/Chairs and a FOPS Secretary.

Please please do contact us if you have any questions about the outstanding roles or would like to put your name forward. It would be a great shame if we were unable to continue with the PTA this year…...

Also, please don’t forget that Friends of Pewley Down School is registered with easyfundraising. So, although we’ve been unable to get together and hold fundraising events in person since March, we can continue to raise free funds with easyfundraising, at no extra cost to you.

In the coming weeks, if you’re buying new school uniform, PE kits, rucksacks and stationery online, please remember to shop via the easyfundraising website or app. There are thousands of retailers on easyfundraising, including M&S, John Lewis, Clarks, WHSmith and The Works, who will all give free donations to FOPS when you shop with them.

If you’re not already signed up, it only takes a few minutes, then you can begin using the easyfundraising website or app straightaway - simply visit easyfundraising first and then shop online as normal. This will be an enormous help to us, at no extra cost to yourself. Please visit our easyfundraising page to get started: You shop. Friends of Pewley Down Infant School, Guildford gets money. For free.

Thanks, Sam and Jo (FOPS Chairs)

HTSC News

Hope you’ve all had some time in the sunshine this week and looking forward the weekend.

Class reps
Thank you to the below for volunteering to be class reps this year – all the classes are filled for years 3,4 and 5; just need Year 6 reps now.

Confirmed reps for 3A – Steph & Mel,
Confirmed reps for 3C – Suzie
Confirmed reps for 3S – Vera & Moriam
Confirmed reps for 4A – Laura & Becky
Confirmed reps for 4EL – Buffy & Claudine
Confirmed reps for 4N – Svenja (if anyone could join Svenja, that would be great).
Confirmed reps for 5JJ – Rebecca & Jenny
Confirmed reps for 5T – Lou & Kim
Confirmed rep for 5S – Marisa & Caren

Second Hand Uniform
Simone Chidlow is very kindly keeping all our donations at her house. If you have any to donate (age 7-8 upwards), please drop her an email simonechidlow@googlemail.com to arrange dropping it off at her house. If you need any uniform from her, please email her and she will do her best to sort it out for you. We are using Paypal this year for uniform payments as we cannot handle cash – please pay for your second hand uniform using this link https://paypal.me/pools/c/8scngiBObf

Meetings
We will be holding our termly meetings and our AGM via Zoom in the next couple of weeks – dates/times and links for these will be shared via your class reps once the dates are confirmed. We still need a Secretary (to minute the meetings) and a Treasurer (looks after the accounts/payments – all online) – both of these roles can be shared between 2 people to lighten the load. As we cannot have any physical events this year, there will be less work for these roles to process and less time required, making this a good transition year to come on board.

Once we have had our AGM and the formalities of this process are concluded, we will have our first committee meeting via Zoom. All parents are invited to join with any ideas you may have for fundraising this year. Thank you for the suggestions that have arisen in conversation at the gates for some virtual events. We cannot hold any events at school or gather in groups for the foreseeable, but I’m sure we will be able to continue to support the school community in other ways.

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 £1900 has been raised through this so far with only 78 supporters – it would be great if more signed up as this is a really simple way of supporting the school while shopping online.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this. As always, if you have any questions, please drop me an email at helen@thomasday.co.uk

Kind regards
Helen
HTSC Chair (Issy 4EL, William 5S)
 

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been amazing to see how many families have been able to join in with our “Meet the Team” evenings. With only Year 3 and Reception left to meet, I’ve been glad to connect with over 80% of our parent-body! Thank you so much for your partnership. If you didn’t manage to log on, do take a good look at this week’s JTLYK pages as much of the information is repeated there.

One aspect that hasn’t been covered in these meetings is our annual request for financial support. As a church school, we are able to access generous funds from the Diocese of Guildford to complete building works. In recent years, this has included the new gates at the juniors and toilet refurbishment at the infants. Moving forward we have secured funds for resurfacing the carpark at HT and installing a new fence and electronic gates at Pewley. The only drawback is that the school has to find 10% of these costs – for that we rely on regular parental contribution.

In addition, several of our families are supported through our hardship fund to engage with the full experience of living life to the full at HTPD. This includes residential visits and day trips, swimming lessons and Fluffy Fridays. This fund is only able to operate thanks to the generosity of both parents and staff within the school community. Please do take a look at these two forms: one for regular contributions, and one for stand-alone gifts. Any amount makes such a difference; just get in touch with the finance team if you would like help in managing your donation and also for advice about match funding if your employer takes part in this initiative (finance@htpd.surrey.sch.uk).

With all the important information that’s been shared recently, it’s easy to forget to pass things on to you all – the most important of which is to tell you about our wonderful new all-weather pitch at the juniors. Thanks to our huge team effort in fund raising, we were able to get the work done over the summer break and the children are loving being able to use this resource. It’ll be a fabulous sports arena for many years to come and, even though we’ll still need to continue fundraising for a while yet to complete the project, I’m so glad that your children are already able to enjoy this space. It’s been great to see PE lessons getting underway at both schools – and the children seem so happy to be able to enjoy the whole breadth of our curriculum, as well as to play with their friends.

At the end of our first full week, I’d like to thank you so much for keeping to our staggered arrival and pick up times. We’ve been so pleased that the start and end of the day isn’t too crowded around both sites. It’s also safer with fewer cars arriving and leaving all at once. Please do try to keep to your allotted times moving forward. Only those with siblings, or specific circumstances should be in classrooms before or after the time that they’ve been given.

Finally, I can introduce you to our assembly series for the term ahead. Each week we’ll be introducing one of a collection of HTPD heroes. These famous people each demonstrate a particular characteristic and will hopefully inspire us all to make a difference in the world. We’ll also be looking at Bible heroes from the Old Testament and learning that God has always used people to build his kingdom on Earth. We’re sure to spend a lot of time thinking about one of our school values, “To imagine the journey in another’s footsteps; nurturing understanding, respecting all.” As an introduction this week, we’ve considered how each of us is unique and treasured – we’ve challenged ourselves to be the very best that we can be. As the weeks go by we’ll encourage the children to choose their favourite HTPD hero…I wonder who will come out on top in the vote at the end of term?

Have a great weekend.
With love, Clare

Thought of the Week: “You are unique.” What plans have you got for your life? What plans does God have?

INFANT & JUNIOR

Swimming
Swimming lessons for Years 2, 3 and 4 have now been postponed until after October half term.

Use of WhatsApp
Several parents have requested that we mention this. Please be careful when using WhatsApp when you communicate information. Try to leave opinions and concerns to more private groups. With over 90 families in each group sharing anxieties can be alarming. Please feel free to contact the school with any questions you may have.

INFANT

Nasal Flu vaccination, Monday 16 November (years R, 1 and 2)
We will be sending out a ParentMail next week with information on the nasal flu vaccination and an e-consent form. The deadline for completion is Monday 9 November.

Menu for week beginning Monday 14 September
Mon: BBQ Chicken or Quorn with Rice; Flapjack
Tues: Pasta Carbonara or Mac & Cheese; Marble Cake with Custard
Weds: Roast Beef with Roast Potatoes & Gravy or Stuffed Roasted Peppers; Jelly
Thurs: Beef or Vegetable Taco with Rice & Peas; Fresh Fruit Salad
Fri: Fish Fingers & Chips or Homemade Pizza; Ice Cream
Selection of seasonal vegetables also available daily.

JUNIOR

We have been made aware of a disturbing video that has been widely shared on social media by young people. This video has appeared on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok. If you would like more information, do read this BBC news article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54069650.

We would advise parents to monitor their child’s usage of social media and remind parents of the recommended age restrictions associated with the different Social Media apps.

Dates for the diary
Monday 14 September -Year 4 trip to Butser Farm

Second Hand Uniform
If you would like to make use of our second-hand uniform stocks please email Simone Chidlow (email: simonechidlow@googlemail.com) and she will be happy to advise you. We are really grateful for any donations that come in through this scheme.

After School Clubs
We are delighted to be able to tell you that we are expanding our weekly clubs in Years 4, 5 and 6. Please see timetable  for your childs clubs. Once Year 3 have settled in we will include them.

Menu - Week 2

FOPS News

We hope you have all been settling in this week and getting into the new routine. We are collating new members of the FOPs team and are looking forward to thinking about how we can undertake covid-safe activities.

FOPs is a great opportunity for you to be involved in school life and the community spirit - you will raise money for supporting your child’s education with additional materials, equipment and even facilities, such as the new sports pitch at HT and at the same time you will get to meet new parents and have more involvement with the school.

We are currently looking for:

FOPS Chair/Chairs - this role sees you heading up FOPS and leading fundraising activities for the school. There is a weekly commitment to writing a newsletter, and then events planning and running. With covid still around though, the events this year are likely to be a little different.

FOPS Secretary - this important role supports all of the FOPS activities, including at FOPS meetings and ensuring we have the all-important licenses in place for the fundraisers.

We do however have a full set of class reps – thank you to:
Year R: Tania, Hester and Hannah (Willow) and Sally and Gini (Hazel)
Year 1: Ilona and Amber (Beech) and Becky and Caroline (Oak)
Year 2: Emma and Sabrina (Chestnut) and Catherine and Vicki (Walnut)

Again, please do contact us if you have any questions about the outstanding roles or would like to put your name forward:

Thanks, Sam and Jo (FOPS Chairs)

HTSC News

It’s Friday! Hope you’ve had a good week and not too tired!

HTSC Committee
We have 2 vacancies for this year – Secretary and Treasurer. Tillie Williams and Kirsty Terracotta’s children have moved on to Secondary school and are hanging up their hats – they have both done an amazing job while in post. If you would like to put yourself forward, or would like more information, please contact helen@thomasday.co.uk. These roles can be shared, if that helps encourage you to volunteer and handovers will be arranged. We cannot operate as a charity without these positions being filled.

Class reps
Although things are a little different this year, we still need class reps for each class. Class reps are a point of contact between the class teacher and the parents, a contact for the Committee with each class for fundraising events and also as a social organiser. If you would like to be a class rep for your class (max 2 per class) please email helen@thomasday.co.uk.
3A – Steph & Mel,
3C – Suzie (needs one more volunteer).
3S – Vera & Moriam
4A – Laura & Becky
4EL – Buffy (needs one more volunteer)
4N – no one has come forward yet.
5JJ – Rebecca & Jenny
5T - Lou & Kim
5S - Marisa & Caren
Year 6 – no reps have come forward yet.

It would be fantastic if we could have these last 5 classes filled by next week.

Second Hand Uniform
Simone Chidlow is very kindly keeping all our donations at her house. If you have any to donate (age 7-8 upwards), please drop her an email simonechidlow@googlemail.com to arrange dropping it off at her house. Year 3 have already had a sale at their coffee morning and there are still some outstanding payments for the uniform sold that day. We are using Paypal this year for payments as we cannot handle cash at the moment. If you have not had the link, it is here https://paypal.me/pools/c/8scngiBObf

Meetings
We will be holding our termly meetings and our AGM via Zoom – dates and links for these will be shared via parentmail.

Have a lovely weekend
Many thanks
Helen, HTSC Chair (Issy 4EL, William 5S)
 

Football Trials & Late Birthday Project 
Football trials, being held at a brand new Guildford centre in September. 'Late Birthday Project' offer
professional academy football coaching and games programmes on Friday evenings at Kings College Guildford. We would like to invite the pupils of Holy Trinity School, to our football trials. The age groups are U6 - U14 (for boys only at the moment, girls teams coming soon). For more information see LBP Letter & LBP Flyer.

ComputerXplorers has run after school computer clubs at Holy Trinity for several years however the current situation means that we can’t come into school at the moment. In lieu of this we are offering online clubs which students will access from home. The clubs will be taught live on Zoom from 4.15 each day and cover a range of activities. Please see our website for details https://westsurrey.computerxplorers.co.uk/classes. Most clubs start next week! 

SharpShots photography club - the after school photography club will be taught via live zoom workshop every Monday from 16:30 to 17:30 for ages 7-11. The class (costs £4) is limited to 15 students and any camera or mobile phone with a camera may be used. It will run from 14.09.20 and ends on 07.12.20. Please sign up at https://sharpshotsphotoclub.co.uk/live-online-after-school-photography-club/