2^nd September 2024

Dear Parents

 

A warm welcome back to our pupils, parents, and staff. I hope you all enjoyed your summer holidays.  As we begin the new school year, you will be given the annual consent and medical questionnaires as well as a data capture sheet.  Please complete both forms and return to school signed and dated (please do this at the bottom of the data sheet) by FRIDAY September 9^th 2024. These forms are personal to your child and need to be completed to update all our records. If your child is new to the school, you will already have received this pack and if you haven’t done so already, please return it by Friday.  A Home-School Agreement will also follow in the coming weeks.

 

It is extremely important that you keep us up to date of any changes in circumstances throughout the year e.g., change of home address, new telephone numbers or any medical conditions.  Our data privacy notice is available upon request and on our school website. Thank you in advance for your cooperation on this matter.

 

Some general information:

Access to school: Both the bottom gate and the main parent gate will be open each morning and afternoon for drop off and pick up and locked at all other times. Please use the walkway around the car park for safety.

 

Car Park: This will soon be inspected by the Road Safety Team for ways to improve and maximise on-site parking as well as ensure road safety of pedestrians. Further information will follow on this. In the meantime, the car park is a bonus for our school as not many have their own car park. We ask that you use the car park safely, park only in designated areas and treat all user of the car park with respect. If the car park is full, please do not double park, find an alternative parking spot outside the school premises. Please do not park on the drive and please do not park on the entry way to the staff car park. In case of an emergency, this is the route that emergency vehicles will take and must not be blocked.  When you have collected your child, please leave the car park to make room for others. If you have children finishing at different times, you are welcome to collect all of your children at the later finishing time of 3:40pm. If this is the case, please let your classroom staff know.

 

School start: Your child needs to be in school before 9:10am as this is when children are in class ready for registration. Arrival after this time is marked as late which is monitored by the school and local authority attendance officers. 

From September, if your child arrives late, you will need to sign your child into school in the Late Register detailing why they are late. We do understand that there may be one off occasions where lateness happens however, we need to record reasons for all late arrivals. Persistent late arrivals will be monitored, and the school will need to follow the appropriate procedures. Late arrivals not only impact your child’s learning but also the others in class who’s learning is disrupted.

 

Uniform: The school uniform consists of a white polo t-shirt, dark bottoms and a royal blue jumper or cardigan with the school logo and black school shoes. PE Kit consists of a blue crew neck t-shirt and dark bottoms with trainers. We kindly ask that children adhere to the school uniform policy. There are several items of free pre-loved uniform available at school if you require any. New uniform can be bought at Picton Sports, Heol Aur, Dafen Industrial Estate. Book bags can be purchased from the school or from Picton.

 

P.E forms part of the curriculum. Pupils are to wear their school PE kits to school on their allocated days (below). This consists of a blue round neck t-shirt with school logo and blue or dark shorts. We are awaiting a delivery of PE t-shirts at school for you to purchase directly from us (or go to Picton Sports). In the interests of health and safety children are discouraged from wearing jewellery at school. If jewellery is worn, it must be removed during PE sessions. The school will accept no responsibility for the loss or damage of items of jewellery.  

Please write your child’s name on ALL uniform (and reapply after washes) to help reduce the amount of lost and found and to make it easier to return to the correct owner if lost.   

 

P.E. Timetable

 

Water bottles: Pupils are to bring their own water bottles to school on a daily basis which can be filled up at our cold-water dispensers to stay hydrated. Please write your child’s name on their bottle.

 

Snacks: We actively encourage children to bring in healthy snacks such as fruit and water, instead of fizzy drinks, sweets, crisps. Energy drinks are not permitted. This will help with your child’s health and their development and goes hand in hand with the Healthy Schools Award Scheme. We are a nut free school. We have some individuals at school who suffer with nut allergies. Considering the severity of these allergies, our school needs to be nut free. We ask for everyone’s cooperation on this matter.  Please do not send your child in with any food that contain nuts e.g., tracker bars, snickers, granola bars, snack packs etc.  

 

A reminder for Years 3-6 as per end of term letter. You will have already heard in the media that funding for schools have been reduced this year along with increases in costs of almost everything. From September, we ask that all pupils in Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6) bring their own pencil case to school daily. A pencil case will need pens (black ink), pencils, rubber, sharpener and a ruler. Thank you in advance for helping us with this request.

 

School Meals: Meals can be pre booked and paid for on the school meal website www.parentpay.com

Parent Pay is also used for school trips. If you have not received your log in, please let us know.  Any pupils new to the school will have their log ins soon as it takes a few days for the system to set up.  Universal Free School Meals are currently available for all full-time pupils in Nursery, Reception, Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Some pupils may be eligible for Free School Meals which also allows access to other grants and provides additional funding to the school. If you think you qualify, please visit https://www.carmarthenshire.gov.wales/home/council-services/education-schools/school-meals/free-school-meals/

 

The After-school club letter will be issued shortly. Clubs will start the week after next on Monday September 16^th 2024. Please return this letter asap as club spaces are allocated on a first come first serve basis. If you are successful in being allocated a place in your chosen club, the consent and payment information will be open on Parent Pay for you to secure your space prior to its start.  Refunds will only be issued if the club is cancelled by the school.  

 

Our school Website is being updated regularly. It is a work in progress so please bear with us if some content is not available yet. The new website much more user-friendly with options for translation to multiple languages (click on the British flag at the top right of the screen for different language).  https://www.stmarysllanelli.org/

 

Own clothes days will continue to be held on the last Friday of most months (except for April/July). We kindly ask for a donation of £1 per child on these days. If you would like to pay for this in advance, this option will be available on Parent Pay. See the school calendar below and the school website calendar for dates.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this rather detailed letter. Please remember to return your completed data forms by Friday so that we can update your child’s records. 

 

Wishing you all a warm welcome at the beginning of a new school year. 

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Mrs Howells, Headteacher

 

School Calendar (more dates will be added)