Friday 19th November 2021

Dear parents and carers of Stepney Park Primary School,

Parents' Evening

It was great to see so many of you attending our parents’ evening this week.  I know how grateful many parents were to be able to finally see their child’s classroom and the space where they spend so much time.  We value the time we had with you to discuss your child’s progress and to offer suggestions about how you can support your child with their learning at home.  There will be another parents’ evening in the spring term, alongside a mid-year report.

Bangla Class

I attended a parents' coffee morning a couple of weeks ago, and a dad asked me if we had any plans to start a Bangla class (Bangladeshi language class).  Learning an additional language is a very useful skill for anyone and in particular for children who may be growing up with relatives (including grandparents) who do not speak English as a first language.  Some of our children do not speak Bengali very well, and communication with some relatives may be difficult for that reason.  Learning a community language, such as Bangladeshi can really help with this.

We want to explore how many parents would potentially be interested in sending their child to an after school Bangla class.  In the past, these classes were funded by Tower Hamlets council, but funding was stopped a couple of years ago.  If we were to restart this class, we would need to ask parents for a contribution, to cover the cost; the more families would sign up, the lower the cost per child.  A Google Form will be shared with you in the next few weeks to express your interest. 

Parent Pay

As you know, since the start of 2021, we have stopped taking cash payments, and now only accept Parent Pay electronic payments.  Some parents have asked for help with accessing Parent Pay, so we have asked the Pastoral Care team (Khaleda, Shipa and Shapna) to be available to support parents with this on Monday mornings from 9.15am-9.45am in the parents' room during the coffee morning.  There is no need to sign up, just come along by coming to the Smithy Street gate at 9.15 (with your mobile phone).

Calling in child absences

In order for admin time to be better streamlined and for registers to accurate, we would like parents to report their child’s absence as follows:

• Call our school before the start of the school day

• Leave a Voicemail (selecting option 1) 

• Clearly state: 

  • your child’s name, 

  • year group, 

  • teacher’s name (not the class name) 

  • reason for absence

Thank you for your help with this. 

Breakfast Club

We have a free breakfast club which operates from 8.00am to 9.00am every day.  At the moment it is not over subscribed, and it is free to everyone on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. However, places do need to be booked in advance.  Please contact the school admin office by email if you would like to book a place.

School Development Plan

At Stepney Park, we are always trying to improve our school to make it as good as possible for all our children. Here are some of the things we are working on this year:

• Quality of Education: we will focus on developing the curriculum, feedback to children, spoken language, writing and basic maths skills, so that our children:

  • study a rich curriculum, which covers all subjects well

  • are remembering their learning over time

  • are able to use teachers’ feedback to make good progress 

  • are using the ABC (add/ build on/ challenge) sentence stems and are actively engaging in talk across the curriculum 

  • are producing longer pieces of writing and use more appropriate grammar and vocabulary 

  • develop good maths skills such as number bonds and multiplication tables

• Personal Development:

  • We will introduce new learning behaviours and make sure that they are encouraging children to show empathy, try new things, be responsible, be ambitious, show curiosity and be able to collaborate 

  • We will focus on Personal, Social, Relationship and Health Education

    •  so that our children will develop great social skills and learn to get on with children from different ages and backgrounds

    • are able to talk about their emotions and their worries and know where they can go for help and get the support they need if they need this help

Have a great weekend everyone!

Kind regards,

Edith Philipsen

Headteacher- Stepney Park Primary School.