Baskerville School - baskvill.bham.sch.uk · At Baskerville School, we believe your child is entitled to the very best education with students achieving academically and socially.

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A warm welcome back to everyone. We hope you had a

good summer holiday.

Weekly newsletters like this one will be sent home with

the students on Friday each week. The aim is to keep all

families / carers informed of matters relating to school

activities that have been going on during the week, and to

let you know of our students’ achievements. We also try to

include useful information for our students and their

families. (Please see disclaimer overleaf.)

If you have any ideas or views on what should be included, or if you would like to share

any of your child’s achievements or some useful information, we will be very pleased to

hear from you. Please contact Jane, our PA. Please also let Jane know if you would

rather receive this newsletter by post or email.

Please note the term dates and staff training days in the right hand side column.

Baskerville School Newsletter

TERM DATES

Year 2018/2019

Autumn Term

Tuesday 4.9.18*

to Friday 26.10.18

HALF TERM

Monday 5.11.18

to Friday 21.12.18

* Staff training

days on Monday

3.9.18, Monday

1.10.18, Tuesday

2.10.18 and

Friday 23.11.18.

Spring Term

Monday 7.1.19 to

Friday 15.2.19

HALF TERM

Tuesday 26.2.19*

to Friday 12.4.19

* Staff training

day on Monday

25.2.19.

Summer Term

Monday 29.4.19

to Friday 24.5.19

HALF TERM

Monday 3.6.19 to

Monday 22.7.19

(School will be

closed to

students on all

staff training

days. Students

will go home at

2:30pm on the

last day of term.)

Message from Jackie Smith,

our New Head Teacher

Thank you to the staff and students for a warm

welcome. I am delighted and privileged to be Head

of Baskerville School from September 2018.

We have had a productive week with a focused

training day on school vision and safeguarding.

Our new students have settled in well, along with the rest of our students.

I am passionate about Special Educational Needs, having worked in special schools for

over 10 years, including seven years in an Autism specialist school.

At Baskerville School, we believe your child is entitled to the very best education with

students achieving academically and socially. We aspire to provide a happy, calm,

thriving school with passionate, committed staff in purposeful learning environments.

From my visits to the School in the past few months, including a thorough review of

provision, I am confident your child will continue to prosper at Baskerville, with such a

dedicated staff team.

Everyone at Baskerville School will work with you closely to ensure your child achieves

to the best of their ability. We believe strongly in working in partnership with parent /

carers to ensure students’ well-being and academic success are both secure.

Diary date reminder: Friday 14 September 11am to 12 noon - Parents’ / carers’ coffee

morning - a chance for me to meet you.

I look forward to meeting you at Baskerville School and please do not hesitate to contact

me. Jackie

Parents / Carers’ Coffee Morning - Next Friday 14 September

(see details below)

Staff Training Days - Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 October

(School will be closed to students)

Half Term - Monday 29 October to Friday 2 November (School

will be closed to students)

Staff Training Day - Friday 23 November (School will be closed to students)

Awards Evening - Wednesday 28 November (Normal school day for students; Students

receiving awards / certificates and their families / carers will be invited to attend the evening

ceremony)

Parents’ / Carers’ Coffee Morning

Please come to our first Coffee Morning next

Friday 14 September from 11am to 12 noon

to meet Jackie, our new Head Teacher.

Some of our school governors and members

of the school’s Autism Support Team will also

be present. This is also a good opportunity to

meet other parents

and share your

experiences.

All parents and carers

are warmly welcome!

Disclaimer From time to time, we will include

in our newsletter information on

services, activities or events

provided by other organisations that might be of

interest to our students and their families.

Please note that Baskerville School has not vetted the

organisations providing such services or organising the

events, nor does the school recommend or endorse

them.

It is up to individuals to decide what is most

appropriate for their child and to carry out their own

checks to ensure the safety of their child and the

quality of the services offered.

Healthy Eating at School

Baskerville School is accredited with

the Healthy Schools Award. Students

are encouraged to eat healthy foods

and we positively discourage students

from bringing certain food items into

school, for example crisps and sweets.

Fizzy drinks and chewing gum are also

not allowed in school.

If you do send in food for your child at

break time could you please make sure

that it is a healthy option such as fruit, a

cereal bar or similar. Any packed

lunches brought into school should also

comply with nutritional standards and

the school’s policy as outlined above.

Please let the school know if your child

is suffering from any allergy, needs to

follow any diet or is intolerant to

certain types of food if you have not

already done so.

Lunch menus are available from our

school website and kitchen staff Karen,

Rose (main school) and Eve (Post 16)

are always happy to provide information

and answer questions.

Policy on

Mobile Phones &

Electronic Devices The school is keen to

support teaching and

learning through the use of new

technologies. Students have access to

computers and iPads during lessons where

appropriate.

However, in order to help students to

focus on learning, all students are

required to hand in their phones and

electronic devices to class staff at

registration in the morning so that they

will not be distracted during lesson

time.

Students will be allowed to get their

phones / devices back during lunchtime

but will need to hand them back at the

beginning of the afternoon session. The

devices will be returned to students

before they go home at the end of the

day.

Any students who refuse to comply with

this new policy will be required to leave

their mobile phones and electronic

devices at home. It would be very much

appreciated if parents and carers could

remind their child of this policy.

School Uniform

and Personal

Properties The vast majority of students came back to

school looking very smart in their school

uniform. We appreciate the effort parents

and carers have made to ensure that

students wear the required school uniform.

Please don’t forget to check your child’s

personal belongings, school uniform and PE

kit etc and make sure they all have your

child’s name clearly written or sewn on

them. If you have any queries relating to

uniform please contact Pat or Becky.

Information on school uniform can be

found on the school website.

Exam Results

GCSE and Entry Level results were published

on Thursday 23 August. Again, all our students

have performed well. Congratulations to all of

them. The range of subjects and courses

undertaken by students is incredible. Our

annual Awards Evening will be held in

November to celebrate the achievements of our

students.

Improvement Works During the summer holidays, a lot of

routine maintenance work has been

done around the school. A much

larger classroom was created for 3E

and some alterations were done to the

Key Stage 3 quad to make it a more

pleasant and calming area. We also

plan to extend the ‘Kabin’ to create 3

classrooms with breakout spaces, a

staff room, staff work space and a

learning resource area. Work will start

in October. Many thanks to Sheila and

Judy for organising all

the work.

Variety Children’s Charity Safari Park Event As in previous years, Variety (the Children’s Charity) is

offering families of disadvantaged children the chance to

enjoy a day out at the West Midlands Safari Park on

Saturday 13 October at a reduced cost of just £2 per

wristband. A letter has been sent out to all parents /

carers. If you would like to apply for a ticket, please

complete and return the reply slip on or before next

Monday 10 September. Please also

note that due to the limited number

of tickets available, not everyone can

be allocated tickets. Please only apply

for tickets for your immediate family.

Dinner Money Many thanks to parents / carers who send in dinner money for their child every Monday. To

remind those who do not send in dinner money promptly, the school is taking the following

steps:

Parents /carers will be contacted by reception staff immediately if no dinner money comes in on

Monday.

If the due amount (currently £2 per day / £10 per week) has still not been received by the end of

the week, a letter will go home informing parents to send in packed lunches for their child for the

following week or until the due amount has been received.

If no packed lunch comes in with the child the following week, parents will be called to deliver a

packed lunch to school, to pay the balance of dinner money due, or to take their child home for

lunch.

If you believe that your child should be eligible for free school

meals, please provide the necessary documentary proof to the

school. If you need any assistance or further information, please

contact Becky, our Finance Officer.

Bikes Appeal

On Saturday 4 August, some

intruders came into the school

site. They smashed the door of

the bike shed and stole most of

our two-wheeler bikes. We have

not had incidents like this before

and realise now that our bike

shed was not secure enough to

keep our bikes safe. More will be

done to keep our bikes secure.

Although the school has Local

Authority insurance, this does

not cover the bikes. We are

hoping to launch an appeal for

donations to replace the bikes.

Any unwanted bikes in good

condition that your child has

outgrown will also be very

gratefully received!

Student Data and Contact Details A letter will be going out to all parents and carers asking you

to confirm that the details on the student’s data sheet is up

to date. Please take a minute to check all the details and

amend them if there have been any

changes and return the form as soon

as possible.

Please also call Becky if you have not

yet set up ParentMail, our electronic

messaging service.

School Website If you have not yet done so,

please have a look at our

school website

(www.baskvill.bham.sch.uk)

where you can find lots of

useful information about the

school, including safeguarding

information, important school

policies, term dates, lunch

menus, school contact details, information on staff and

school governors, newsletters, snippets of news,

information about special events, sports achievements,

photos and much more. Visitors to the website can also

leave their comments in the ‘Guestbook’.