St. Michael’s Weekly Post – 30th September 2022

30^th September 2022

Oak and Rowan Classes have attended Marlborough’s annual Lit Fest and had the opportunity to meet  Catherine Johnson, author of historical novel Freedom and true story Race to the Frozen North. She shared how she creates historical character, inspiring our year 5 and 6s in their writing.

Today we have all enjoyed our first Celebration Assembly of the year and it was wonderful to welcome parents in to join us to celebrate the children’s successes.  Celebration Assembly will usually take place on Fridays at 2:40pm and parents are to come into school via the main entrance should they wish to join us in future.  You do not need to inform us that you are coming each week, just turn up as and when you are available to join us.

Parents Evening – Date Amendment – Tuesday 8^th November and Thursday 10^th November

Following last week’s Post, there has been a slight amendment to this year parents evening dates.  It will now take place on Tuesday 8^th and Thursday 10^th November.  Appointments will be bookable via the Weduc app and parents will have an option of attending face to face or via a phone call.

Phonics Workshop

As a reminder, Acorn Class parents are invited to join a phonics workshop on Monday 3^rd October at 2:15pm.  Please come to school via the main entrance.

Harvest Festival

Our school Harvest Festival will take place on Friday 14^th October at 11am in the Church and families are very welcome to join the celebration. There will be no Celebration Assembly on this day.

As last year, we will be collecting produce for Swindon Food Collective and we will be accepting donations at both entrances of school from Wednesday 5^th October.  We have been advised that at the moment, they have plentiful supplies of cereal, pasta and tinned soup and beans but they would really love the following items:

tinned Potatoes                             tinned fruit                                         tinned Puddings

small jars of coffee                       small bags of sugar                          biscuits

cleaning products                         male & female toiletries

Sponsored Welly Walk

In the afternoon of 14^th October, following the Harvest Festival, children will take part in a sponsored Welly Walk, which is run by the PTA.  Further details will follow next week, on Weduc.

Lost Property

We do already have an over flowing lost property box in our school entrance and will be placing the lost property box on the playground each Friday, when the weather is dry.  We would love for the items to make their way back to their owners, so please do look through the box.  Please remember to label all clothing.

Unfortunately we do have a new, navy Mountain Warehouse coat (age 10-11) that has gone missing and we would really appreciate it if you could check if it has accidently gone home with the wrong person.  It is named “Alfie Baker”.

House Day

As a reminder, our first House Day this year will take place on Wednesday 19^th October. This House Day we will be welcoming new children into their houses.  Children are invited to come to school in non-uniform, wearing their house colours, this can be as simple as a hair band or socks, or head to toe in their house colours. Please do not go out and buy something especially for this.

Military Families – Wraparound childcare

We recognise we have a number of Service families attending St Michael’s and we understand that Service families with children aged 4 to 11 years can now benefit from wraparound childcare. The Wraparound Childcare (WAC) scheme provides up to 20 hours per week of free childcare before and after school during term time for eligible military parents.  Further details on eligability and how to claim are on Gov.uk.

Message from the PTA:

PTA Meeting Minutes

Please find attached PTA meeting minutes from the 20^th September 2022.

PTA AGM – Tuesday 11th October at 7.30pm
Join us for the PTA Annual General Meeting. We will be discussing the previous fundraising year 2021/22, the accounts and the committee. We will be aiming for the meeting to last no longer than 40 minutes.

If you’d like to join the PTA committee, please let us know in advance of the meeting by emailing aldbournepta@gmail.com.

Message from Carbon Neutral Aldbourne:

Thank you to everyone who came to the Community Garden last weekend and helped to plant the new St Michael’s School Cherry Tree. Many hands make light work and it was lovely to see the children working together to give the tree a great start in life. We hope that children for many years to come will be visiting the garden and enjoying the cherries that the tree produces.

Term 1

Term 2

TD days

Monday 31^st October 2022

Monday 20^th February 2023

Monday 26^th June 2023

Monday 24^th July 2023