29 November 2024
Dear Parents/Carers
We survived Storm Bert, but sadly we had to postpone house cross country; house spelling has taken its place so there’s still housepoints to be won. This week in school has felt a bit like the calm before the storm! There have been snippets of Christmas - singing in the hallways, the sound of carols emerging from the orchestra in the Chapel, rehearsals for Born in a Barn and A Christmas Carol have been in full swing and the Pewley ballet show was a delightful end to Thursday – the children performed snippets of The Nutcracker beautifully; however, the real madness begins next week! This all starts with the juniors Christmas Fair at The Spike after school today, I hope you can join us!
Sadly, I’ve received further communication from residents on Semaphore Road. Please, please ensure you are not blocking driveways or leaving your car running at drop off and pick up. When waiting in your car, we ask you switch off the engine and do not leave it idling. In addition, our school really values respect at all levels, between the children, staff, staff to child, with parents and the wider community. We appreciate the roads are very busy at drop off and pickup; however, we ask that any dialogue you may have with local residents or staff is polite and respectful. Our aim is to keep the roads and pavements safe for everyone, not to be difficult and we strive to be strong role models whilst doing this.
It has come to our attention that a small number of children have been bringing smart tags with them to school or on school trips. These devices are small keyrings which allow someone with a phone to track their location. They are designed to attach to valuables so that they can be easily tracked and found, not designed to track the whereabouts of a person. There are a number of issues that mean we do not allow these devices in school or on school trips:
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The device only tells you the location of the tag, not necessarily the child. For example, if a bag has been lost on a school trip, this could cause undue panic.
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The information provided by smart tags relies upon mobile phones nearby. If it is not able to update the location, or the tag fails in some way, this could cause undue alarm.
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Staff are in regular communication with the school office about any issues that arise on school trips. Smart tags and parent/carer WhatsApp groups can result in an unofficial feedback loop, which may then lead to the wrong information being communicated.
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To avoid smart tags being used to stalk people, phones that have an unfamiliar smart tag following them will alert the user. This results in staff receiving worrying notifications when out with children.
We thank you in supporting the school in this matter. Please contact Tom Everard (tome@htpd.surrey.sch.uk) should you wish to discuss in more detail.
If you are out and about on the High Street at the weekend, take a look at some of the infant’s beautiful art work in the window of Knight Frank estate agency; it must have been a very difficult task to narrow the entries down to a few from each year group.
Sunday sees the start of advent, the season of remembering and celebrating the arrival of Jesus on Earth. The children can look forward to lighting the first candle on the advent crown on Monday, as well as the unveiling of the HTPD advent calendar (with a twist, as you would expect)!
Have a wonderful weekend, I hope to see many of you at the Fair!
Vicky
Thought of the Week: “Forgive as you have been forgiven.” Nelson Mandela: Who do you need to forgive?
WHOLE SCHOOL
Parent Governor Election
A reminder that the deadline for returning nomination forms is 12.00noon on Friday 6 December. We are inviting nominations from parents of pupils in both schools. One parent governor will be elected by the parents of pupils at Pewley Down, and one by the parents of pupils at Holy Trinity. If you would like to find out more about the governor role, there is more information on the website. You can also contact either of the Co-chairs, Deborah Pepper at dpepper@htpd.surrey.sch.uk or Helen Murray at hmurray@htpd.surrey.sch.uk,or Vicky at (vickye@htpd.surrey.sch.uk).
Infant
Christmas Play, “Born in a Barn“, Tuesday 10 December, 2.00pm at Holy Trinity Church.
A reminder to order tickets for the play by next Monday 2 December via the ParentMail form. Tickets are limited to two per family.
Teacher-led clubs
The teacher-led clubs (Football and Paper Plate Craft) are cancelled on Tuesday 10 December.
Menu: week 1 beginning 2 December
See below for FOPS News
Juniors
Dates for the diary
- Monday 2 December – 3N Swimming (Last one)
- Wednesday 4 December – 4SJ Swimming (Last one)
- Friday 6 December - Christmas Film Night ‘Elf’ 3.15pm to 5pm
- Monday 9 December - “A Christmas Carol” at HT Church: A matinée (1.30pm) and an evening performance (7pm) for Keller and Mandela
- Wednesday 11 December - “A Christmas Carol” at HT Church: A matinée (1.30pm) and an evening performance (7pm) for Shackleton / Nightingale
- Tuesday 17 December Christmas Lunch Y3 and Y4 (Y5 & Y6 to bring a packed lunch)
- Wednesday 18 December Christmas Lunch Y5 and Y6 (Y3 and Y4 to bring packed lunch).
On the day of your child’s Christmas lunch, they may wear something festive: Christmas Jumpers, tinsel etc.
Cancelled Clubs
- Wednesday 4 December – No early morning running club.
PTA
FOPS NEWS
Get festive and join us at the PD Christmas Fair on Saturday 14th December 2-5pm, at School
Join us for crafts, games, mulled wine and mince pies, and most excitingly…a visit from Santa!
Book your tickets now for Story Time with Santa!
Pewley children can enjoy biscuit decorating and a drink, while they get to meet Santa, who will read them a wonderful Christmas story and give them an early Christmas present.
Please book here soon so you don’t miss out! Due to limited spaces this is open to Pewley children only: https://www.pta-events.co.uk/friendsofpewley/index.cfm?event=event&eventId=90951
Enter our raffle for your chance to win!
The Pewley Down school raffle, sponsored by Knight Frank, has some great prizes to be won, including:
- £100 John Lewis Voucher
- Tickets to Bocketts Farm
- Tickets to Fishers Farm
- Family tickets x4 to Swan Lake at G Live
- £50 Guildford Theatre School voucher
- Waterstones books bundle
- Wagamama goodie bag (worth £35)
- Pinch of Nom cookbook bundle
- Rogues voucher
- £20 Fresco coffee voucher
- Two free coffees at M&R Barbers & Brew
- £5 Cook voucher and mulling syrup
- Bottle of mulled wine from Wine Rack
- And more to be announced…
Raffle tickets came home earlier this week – please buy and sell as many as you can and return completed ticket stubs to the Pewley Down school office by Thursday 12th December with payment in cash or cheque (payable to Friends of Pewley School). See Parentmail for more info.
We need your help!
**Volunteer** - To help run the event smoothly, please volunteer for a slot here: https://signup.com/go/YkBrTXE
**Donate** - Please donate what you can from the list below. Your donations are hugely appreciated and will mean lots of fun on the day for everyone.
- · Bottles of wine or fizz (plus empty screw top wine bottles)
- · Small toys, children’s books and Christmas jumpers in good condition for school age children
- · A large teddy
- · More raffle prizes
Please bring in your donations on Friday 6th December, Monday 9th December and Wednesday 11th December and leave them in the labelled boxes in the lower playground.
Thank you for your support, as always.
Other Notices
Chit Chat – a place for foreign residents to:
- practise English conversation
- find out about life in Guildford
- ask questions
- make friends
- enjoy refreshment
all in the friendly surroundings of St Mary’s Church, Quarry Street, Guildford GU1 3U.
Wednesday mornings in term time 9.30 – 11.00 am. For further information contact: snashallsusan@gmail.com or Andrea: 07885 116161
KOOSA Kids are pleased to be operating our Christmas Holiday Club at St. Joseph’s Primary School on Thursday 2nd & Friday 3rd January. Join us for a two-day Arctic Adventure! Children will take part in up to 9 activities each day, always a mixture of sporty and team games, arts & crafts, drama, imagination, squad rallies and of course our popular go karts. All from just £27.00 per child, per session (10.00am to 4.00pm and your third child goes FREE (siblings only)! Visit www.koosakids.co.uk/holiday-club for more information or call 01276 21884. Bookings are open. All children aged 4 – 13 are invited.
- Multi sports Guildford – flyer attached
- Cranleigh Netball Club – flyer attached
- Major Manger Mayhem Panto - flyer below
- KOOSA Kids