Welcome Back Letter (Jan) – PDF Version
We hope everyone has had a great Christmas and New Year – and everyone is looking forward to another great term. Here is some information that we thought would be useful ahead of the new term.
Wraparound Care: After-school Clubs and Careclub
Last term, we made a number of changes to extend our wraparound care provision (care for children before or after school).
Careclub can be accessed earlier before school (7:30am-08:45am) and later after school (3:15pm-6:00pm). If you wish to book your child into Care Club, please email Mrs. Godfrey (careclub@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk). You will then be asked to pay for this via Parent Pay – unless paying via the tax-free childcare payment system. The current cost is £1.50 for every 15 minutes. Please note you can book your child into Care Club up to a term in advance.
Last term, we did have a number of cancellation and/or children arriving later than their booked time. In these cases, we would really appreciate an email/phone call to let us know this will be the case – as, at times, we have had staff in school with no-one present. Unfortunately, we may have to look at charging based on booked times in the future – as this kind of thing does have a wider impact on the school budget.
We now have a wider range of after-school clubs available – with two clubs running every day after school. Further information on next term’s clubs can be found on the school website (https://browncleeschool.org.uk/after-school-clubs-for-spring-half-term/). Please note that booking for after-school clubs now takes place via Parent Pay. Information on how to do this can be found using the link above.
Start of the day and buses
Our start-the-day routine will be remaining the same. However, last term, there was an increase in late arrivals. Whilst these are usually only by a few minutes, it does have a noticeable impact on those children regularly affected. Lessons do start at 08:45 and any arrival later than that mean children will miss out. In Fireflies and Grasshoppers, this is Phonics, and in Dragonflies, Bees and Scorpions, this is the beginning of their maths lessons – so missing the beginning of these sessions does have a significant impact.
On a similar theme, a number of parents have raised concerns about the timing of the buses being affected by drivers having to regularly wait for children to be at their designated pick-up location/time in the morning and parents being there to pick their child up in the afternoon. Whilst understandably, this very occasionally may be unavoidable, it naturally does have a knock-on effect to all the other families on pick-up and drop-off.
Celebration Assembly
Just a reminder that all parents, carers, grandparents etc. are invited to attend our weekly celebration assembly (Friday mornings at 08:55-09:30). Here we give out any certificates for children for activities on TTRS, Numbots and Spelling Shed – as well as present our weekly trophy to the highest class on TTRS. We also share some of our favourite things from the week, celebrate any pupils that have received recognition awards, share any other significant events (e.g. sports competitions) and draw our winning reading raffle tickets.
School Meals – Update
I would like to update you on some ongoing concerns we have had with our external catering company. As you may be aware, the school’s catering has been externally managed for a number of years.
We are lucky to have two excellent cooks in Laura and Carla – without whom, the quality of school dinners would much poorer than they are due to the limitations on menus and orders placed on them. The school are now having significant additional charges placed on us to continue this service (which takes funds from the budget that could be spent directly on the children).
As a background, our current service was outsourced to Entrust – who initially subcontracted this out Chartwells and then to Edwards and Ward. Over this time, we have had significant increases in school meal costs. The latest of which (last April) was not actually shared with school, so has meant that school has had to cover the difference in cost since then. School dinners should currently be costing parents £2.95 (currently, we are charging yourselves £2.83). Entrust are planning on raising this again in April to £3.20. This, along with the additionally incurred costs to school and ongoing restrictions with menus, means that we are having to consider ending this agreement – as I cannot, in good conscience, be asking yourselves for that much of an increase on school meals.
The current proposed plan of action is for school to take the catering in-house and managing the service ourselves from April this year. This is something that a number of Shropshire schools do (and we have discussed, visited and assessed with them). For us, the catering team (of Laura and Carla) would remain the same. We will hopefully be able to keep our meal prices at the same £2.83 cost. It will also give us more flexibility and control over the quality and selection of menus – which will hopefully enable an increased uptake. All regulations on nutrition, training and health and safety will be maintained.
In the period between now and then (i.e. this term), school meals will continue to free for all of infants (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) as shared earlier this year (https://browncleeschool.org.uk/universal-infant-free-school-meals/) and meals will remain at £2.83 (with school continuing to cover the difference) for children in KS2 (Year 3-6). We will endeavour to keep you updated on how things progress.
On the topic of school meals, can we please ensure that meals are booked and paid for via ParentPay in advance (where possible). Late-booked or un-booked meals (whilst sometimes unavoidable) do cause a lot of additional admin work in school and the kitchen.
School Website updates
As always, key information and dates are regularly updated on the school website. To receive automated email updates from the school website, you can sign up here (https://browncleeschool.org.uk/home/parents-area/updates/news-subscription/).
Currently, there are no proposed events (other than sports competitions) in this first-half term; however, any changes in this will be shared on the website – as well as an update on events due after half term.
If you have any questions or queries, please contact your class teacher on their class email or the school office (admin@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk).