Dear Parents/Carers

Please see some key information for our upcoming walk:

Timings

Our 10 mile walk will commence at 8am prompt therefore we ask all children to arrive by 7:50am, come in through reception.

Our 7.5 mile walk will commence at 8:10 therefore all children need to arrive by 8:00am, come in through reception.

Our 5 mile walkers can come to school for our usual time of 8:30am, come through normal gates and go straight to the hall.

Breakfast Club will NOT be on. Any issues please let us know.

Packed lunch

All children will require a packed lunch with some additional small snacks that can be eaten along the route for energy. Please ensure your child has plenty of fluids but absolutely no fizzy drinks are allowed.

Sun Cream

Please ensure your child is wearing sun cream before arriving at school and bring additional sun cream to top-up throughout the day (even in cloudy conditions).

Money

There will be an opportunity for all children to purchase an ice-cream along the route so children can bring £2-£3.

Clothing/kit 

Please ensure your child is wearing their Monkton sports top or school jumper, shorts/tracksuit bottoms, sun hat and a pair of comfortable trainers. We recommend trainers which provide adequate comfort and support so Converse/Vans are not the best. Children will be required to carry their own kit throughout the day so a bag with two shoulder straps would be most beneficial. Children to also bring a light, waterproof coat in the event of rain.

Sponsorship

Hopefully you have started to collect sponsorships using the sponsor form your child brought home last week. We will not be collecting sponsor money in until after we have completed the walk

All expected to be back at school and leave at normal time of 3pm. Updates will be provided by text if needed.

If you have any questions, contact the school office or email Miss Sheriff on [email protected]

Many thanks.

Dear parents and guardians,

We write with a reminder/update about key information linked to our visit to Kielder on Thursday.

We ask that pupils come to school dressed suitably. We suggest that pupils still wear their school jumpers or sports top however they wear suitable trousers (jogging bottoms, leggings etc) and shoes (e.g. trainers, walking boots) for walking around the forest area.

The weather for Thursday currently looks dry, but overcast. We would still recommend a waterproof coat and pupils to come to school wearing suncream, as we all know how changeable the weather can be. Bringing suncream in bags for use during the day would be advisable too. We would recommend that all children bring a backpack for the day, with their packed lunches stored inside. Please note, pupils will be responsible for looking after and carrying their own backpacks, so this should be considered in terms of the size of the bags pupils bring.

We will be travelling to Kielder via coach, leaving school at approximately 9am. This is a fairly lengthy journey, approximately 1 ½ – 2 hours, therefore if your child tends to suffer with travel sickness, we would recommend that they take suitable medication in advance of coming to school that day.

We hope to return back to school for 4:30pm. We will be updating the school office with arrival times as we leave the centre. Please keep an eye out for any text message updates through the day.

We would expect most pupils will be collected from school at 4:30pm. If you are happy for your child to walk home, please inform the school office as soon as possible about this. We will not be allowing pupils to leave without this information.

We’re looking forward to a great day!

Miss Heathfield and Mr Bircham.

Dear Parent/Carer,

We are writing to let you know about an exciting whole-school event which will be taking place in the summer term. As a school, pupils, staff and governors will be taking part in a ‘celebration walk’ on Friday 24^th June.

We have decided that this year we would like to raise funds to purchase a defibrillator which will be placed on the school gates to serve our school and the local community. I am sure you will agree that this is a much-needed piece of equipment to provide lifesaving support should the need arise. We are hoping to raise, via sponsorship, in the region of £2000 to purchase, install and maintain the unit.

The walk is designed to be relatively challenging so that children can feel a sense of achievement upon completion, in line with our school ethos – INSPIRE. EMPOWER. ACHIEVE.

There are three walks taking place across the course of the day so that we can cater for every child’s ability and most importantly, ensure that all children experience success! The whole school will be meeting at lunchtime to sit down together and eat, before continuing the final leg of their journey back to school. Maps of the planned journeys can be found attached to this letter. The three walks taking place are:

• Stadium of Light à School – a distance of approximately 10 miles
• Stadium of Light à South Marine Park – a distance of approximately 7.5 miles
• South Shields à Marsden (and back) – a distance of approximately 5 miles

It is really important that children are properly equipped for this walk so that they are comfortable and avoid injury. Please ensure that your child has the following:

• Comfortable and supportive walking shoes/trainers – these should be suitably ‘worn’ to avoid blisters.
• Suitable socks – mid-length sports socks are ideal (not trainer socks).
• Packed lunch and waterbottle – this will be eaten over the course of the day so please try to ensure your child’s packed lunch can be split across two to three little meals (high energy foods/slow release carbohydrates).
• Backpack with two shoulder straps – children will be required to be self-sufficient and carry their own equipment throughout the day, a comfortable backpack is very important.
• Cap & sun cream – staff will be paying close attention to the weather forecast in the lead up to this event. From here, we will be in a position to best inform parents of the best clothing choice for children.

Preparation walks are something you may wish to complete as a family outside of school. We would love to see photos of children completing training walks outside of school, please email these to [email protected]academy.co.uk and we will celebrate this within school! Alternatively, if you post your photos on social media, use the hashtag #MONKTONMILERS to help us raise the profile of this challenge.

To help us collate the responses quickly and efficiently, we would appreciate if you could complete the online Google Form provided on our school website, the app or our school Facebook. Paper copies can be made available for those who require it.

We hope you will support your child in this fantastic fundraising cause.

Please see below for link to form –

https://forms.gle/6h6b9m5FJdvZ6HcE8

Yours Sincerely,

Miss Sheriff & Mrs Moat

Team PE

Thursday 19^th May 2022

Dear parents, carers and pupils,

We are writing to you with an update linked to our Platinum Jubilee celebration on Wednesday 25^th May. A reminder that no hot lunches will be served in our kitchens on the day. Pupils were invited to bring their own packed lunch or order one from school. Thank you for your responses linked to this. Picnic blankets/towels on the day will be greatly appreciated for our picnic on the field. We have had an overwhelming response to our tea and scones invitation, with over 250 grown-ups expected later in the afternoon. We feel it’s important to make you aware of this, should large groups or crowds be of concern. We are hoping for good weather (this is an outdoor event) so hopefully we can all spread out in the fresh air to celebrate.

As we are expecting so many guests, we ask if you could start arriving on at school from 2:15pm, through our upper yard gates on Dame Flora Robson Avenue. We ask you to be mindful and of where you choose to park on this day, respecting local residents, as school will be an extremely busy place on this day. Upon entering, you will be able to collect a scone, some, jam and cream yourself. We will be serving tea and coffee too. We will aim to make sure this is as quick and easy as possible, but please be patient with us. We’ll be doing our best! After this, please take a seat, or find a spot. Our choir are currently working on a song to perform for you and we are hoping you’ll join us in singing our national anthem too.

Obviously, this part of the event does depend on good weather. In the event of poor weather, we will aim to serve drinks in the hall and invite you to classrooms to enjoy your scone and spend time with your children instead. We will inform you via text message on the day if plans change to this.

A reminder that pupils are invited to wear red, white and blue non-uniform on the day.  Feel free to join us in patriotic colours if you wish! We are welcoming voluntary donations of £1 towards our chosen charity Place2Be on the day from pupils, visitors are also welcome to donate in the afternoon.

Looking forward to celebrating with you all

All at Monkton Academy

3^rd May 2022

Dear Parent/Carer,

Year 6 Leavers Hoodies

We are currently in the process of ordering leavers hoodies for our Year 6 pupils. There will be no charge to parents, as this will be provided as a leaving present from staff at Monkton Academy.

Please complete and return the slip below to give consent for your child’s name to appear on the back of the hoodie. Please also provide a size for your child using the size guide below.

Reply slips must be returned to school no later than Friday 13^th May 2022.

If we do not receive the reply slip we will assume that you do not want your child to receive their end of year hoodie.

Yours sincerely,

Mr S Bowler

Principal

We would just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has shown their kindness so far and have already made donations to help with the replenishment of our Forest School equipment. Miss Connelly has been absolutely blown away by your generosity.

For those who were wondering what was taken, we can now confirm that some of the items stolen from us were; a large amount of spades, a tool box with its entire contents including saws, peelers, secateurs, flint and steel and other items, first aid kits and fire safety equipment, shears and garden forks. We will also, unfortunately, have to replace our shed and will be looking into how we can ensure the next is more secure.

Once again we would just like to say thank you and we will make sure to keep you updated along the way. We are overwhelmed by the appreciation we have felt over this last week and can reveal that with the help some of our Year 3 parents, the kindness of one of our Year 4 pupils, Skateboard UK and Bare Knuckle Boxing, a total of £845 has been donated, meaning we can not only replace what we lost but also extend our Forest School resources to give our children an even better experience than they were already getting.

Dear Parents/Carers,

We have had a few enquiries asking if children will be dressing up for World Book Day this year. Each class will be doing something to celebrate the day, but we ask that children come into school in their uniform as normal please.

We want to avoid placing any unnecessary pressure on parents/carers as we acknowledge the financial implications that such a day may bring.

Thank you for your support.

Friday 7^th January

Dear parents and carers,

As you will be aware, we value the importance of good school attendance and punctuality and aim to instil the very best values to our pupils. We would like to extend a huge thank you to you all, pupils and parents, for helping us in our journey to do this. The overwhelming majority of our pupils arrive in school on time, ready to learn. We appreciate that school attendance has been hindered drastically due to illness in recent months, including COVID and many other winter bugs. Nevertheless, it was wonderful to see so many pupils enjoying the rewards on offer at our attendance shop before Christmas.

Punctuality is something we are aiming to improve further across our school by promoting high standards for all. As you will be aware, pupils are greeted on the yard at 8:30am each morning. We do allow time for those children who attend breakfast club to finish and move into our classes ready for learning to start, so registers for the morning session are taken at 8:45am each day.

We will record pupils who arrive in school after a register has been called at 8:45am as late. Our registers will stay open for late arrivals until 9:15am. Any pupil arriving after this point will be marked in school as ‘late after the close of registers’. This does count as an unauthorised mark for the morning session.

When a pupil arrives in school after 8:45am we now ask that they come into school through the main entrance. Where possible, we ask that they are accompanied by an adult to sign a pupil in as late, giving reason for this. Where a child has walked to school alone, a slip will be sent home to confirm similar details. This will help us monitor punctuality more carefully, offering support where it may be needed.

We really do appreciate your ongoing support in promoting good morning routines and prompt punctuality to ensure all of our pupils receive the very best start to each school day.

Kind regards

Miss L. Heathfield

Vice Principal

Dear Parents/Carers

We would like to welcome our children back after the Christmas break and provide an update for the coming half term.

As before Christmas we will continue with the following measures –

• Limit the number of visitors within school, please contact the School Office if you would like to speak to a member of staff in the first instance. All visitors must wear a face covering.
• We will continue with the additional attention given to ventilation, cleaning and hand hygiene measures.
• We will reduce mixing between year groups where possible.

The current Government Guidance for a positive Covid 19 case is as follows –

• If there is a case within your household, other members do not need to isolate and children can still come to school.  – ‘People who are fully vaccinated, or children and young people aged between 5 and 18 years and 6 months, identified as a close contact of someone with COVID-19, should take an LFD test every day for seven days and continue to attend their setting as normal, unless they have a positive test result or develop symptoms at any time.’
• The main symptoms of Covid 19 are still – a high temperature, a new continuous cough and a loss of taste and smell.
• The Isolation period following a positive case has changed – ‘Individuals may now take LFD tests on day 6 and day 7 of their self-isolation period. Those who receive two negative test results are no longer required to complete 10 full days of self-isolation.’

Please keep school updated and inform us of a positive case. If leaving a message before the office opens at 8.30, please give full details of your child’s absence so we can determine what is Covid related as quickly as possible.

Breakfast club will start on Wed 5^th Jan and the children will be kept socially distanced.

There are no after school clubs/sports clubs for this first week – updates will follow.

Swimming will go ahead on Wed 5^th Jan, a text will be sent out separately regarding this.

Thank you