Tuesday 23rd April 2024

Dear parents and carers of Stepney Park Primary School.

Welcome back to school and to the start of the summer term; let’s hope that warmer weather will soon come our way!

I hope that you have all enjoyed the Easter break and, where applicable, a great Eid. 

Parents' questionnaire.

Thank you again for your responses to our communication questionnaire.  We have now had a chance to analyse all the feedback, and we are very pleased to share that we had overwhelmingly positive responses to the questions we asked.  We have carefully considered your comments and have already planned actions following some of your suggestions. For example:

• We will put ‘SPPS’ at the end of text messages, so parents who have children in several schools know from which school the text message came.

• We are looking into using GoogleForms for trip permission slips.

• We will refresh the photos on our website to make them more up to date.

• We will explore more ways for sharing progress and attainment data with parents and will provide better guidance about the expected standards in each year group.

• At the end of this term, we will start sharing termly year group specific subject leaflets; they will give parents some very detailed information about their children’s learning, so that parents can talk with their children about their learning and help them keep things fresh in their minds.

 

Following very positive parental feedback from the Yr 4 ‘showcase of work’ in the South Middle hall during the parent teacher evening, we are looking to expand this next year, so we will get more year groups involved- watch this space!

Please remember the following about telling us confidential information:

• If you have concerns around the safeguarding of children, please email the DSL (Designated Safeguarding Lead) at the following email address: dsl@apps.stepneypark.towerhamlets.sch.uk 

• If you are not comfortable sharing any sensitive or confidential information with admin staff in an email, you can still email them and ask to speak to a senior member of staff without saying what the concern is about.  They will then contact you within 48 hrs, although often much sooner. Please let us know if your request is very urgent, so we can make staff aware of this.

Our amazing lunchtime offer for children

I am not sure if parents are already aware of the quantity and quality of activities that are on offer for our children at lunchtime, so I will list them below, as it is something to celebrate! The activities below ensure that all of our children have a positive lunchtime, regardless of their interests and social confidence. No child will ever need to be bored, lonely or sad in our school.

Every day (some are seasonal and weather permitting):

• 2 sports coaches supporting and leading a range of sports and also helping children to become sports leaders themselves. 

• A reading room with a library full of exciting reading materials, reading competitions and two members of staff leading all of this,  who have a passion for reading.

• A wide range of play equipment such as scooters, hula hoops, balls, beanbags, skipping ropes, colouring in resources, drawing equipment,  and chalk for drawing on the floor.

• 2 very large and suitably challenging climbing frames.

• Table tennis tables

• Football cages 

• Basketball hoops

• Woodlands club

Once or twice a week:

• Football league 

• 2 choirs (KS1 and KS2)

• Girls only football club

• Netball club (mixed gender)

• Maths puzzles club

• Coding club

• Chess club

• Ecology club

• Community and volunteering club

Half termly:

• Dancing

The clubs and activities help our children grow strong, confident and stay healthy and also help them develop a range of skills including social, sporting, musical and strategic thinking skills. In addition they  help children develop empathy and resilience and as such they are a great extra curricular offer in our school. Thank you to all dedicated staff who lead these clubs. 

School Closure for polling day

Please remember that our school will be closed on Thursday May 2nd for polling day

Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope to see you soon.

Kind regards.

Edith Philipsen

Headteacher- Stepney Park Primary School