Friday 4th November 2022

Dear parents and carers of Stepney Park Primary School.

I hope that you had a lovely autumn break. Well done to all families who completed some fun ‘family homework’ this holiday!

Parent-teacher meetings

Thank you to all those who have booked a parent-teacher meeting.  Please keep an eye out for emails which will invite you to register and book an appointment to see your child’s teacher. We will have meetings on both Tuesday 15th November and Thursday 17th November. We would like to encourage families to organise their own translation but will try to support families where this is difficult - translation will be offered on Thursday 17th. It is important that you arrive at the allocated time and spend no longer than 10 minutes with the teacher, so that we do not run over time. Of course, if you would like a longer meeting you can arrange this with the teacher at a later date.  Please bring your child with you to the meeting.

Parent Governor Elections

We will soon launch a Parent Governor election, as we have one vacancy; please consider putting yourself up for the election and join our Governing Body. Full GB meetings are held (online) 3 times a year. In addition, Governors can choose to join either the Resources or Curriculum committee and become a Link Governor for an area of school development. Of course, new Governors will receive appropriate training and support. A letter with more information will be sent to all parents in the next few weeks. I would also like to encourage all parents to cast their vote, once the nominations are in. 

Holidays and leave in term time

Please do not book a trip away or abroad during term time without speaking to us first. Recently, there have been two families who have lost their place in school due to the fact that they stayed away for too long. Due to the fact that we are nearly full in most year groups, there is a real chance that you would need to find a new school for your child. As you may know, the process of applying to school needs to be done through the Local Authority and this can be a very slow and frustrating process. During this time, your child would not be able to re-start school.  In addition, almost all families who go away during term time will be fined the substantial amount of £60 per child/ per parent. 

Most importantly: children need to be in school to be taught, to learn and to make good progress. Denying your child this opportunity is not just against the law, it takes away their right to education and impacts on their progress. The allocated twelve of school holiday weeks a year gives plenty of time to visit relatives abroad, so I would like to strongly urge you to not book any type of leave or holiday during school weeks. Our holidays dates can be found on our website.

Thank you for reading this newsletter and enjoy the weekend.

Kind regards,

Edith Philipsen

Headteacher- Stepney Park Primary School.