15^th September 2023

Dear Parents/Carers

Welcome back to the new academic year at Ryvers. A particularly warm welcome to families who are new to the school; it has been lovely to drop in to our Nursery and Reception classes to see how quickly the youngsters have picked up school routines and are already beginning to ‘Grow, Learn and Give’.

You will all have seen the shocking news about failing concrete in school and hopefully will have read my note out to you all before the start of school to reassure you that Ryvers has none and that our buildings are safe, secure and well maintained – many thanks to our school team for ensuring this is the case.

As you know, we have a new After School Club group running our sessions and having dropped in a few times already this year, I can thoroughly recommend them as they have an excellent balance of physical and academic activities and a lovely friendly atmosphere too.

As always, as you would expect from a Headteacher 😊, I want to encourage you all to take a strong partnership role in child’s learning this year. We have a ‘Meet the Teacher’ session next week on Monday and even if you’ve been through the system a few times, it is always worth attending to get a picture of the specifics for your child’s class and year group.

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of reading for all our youngsters. Research has proven a clear link between early reading skills and success at GCSE maths and indeed in A Levels and university too. Encourage your child to read alone, with you, in your home language, listening to an audio or e-book – absolutely any and every way you can!

Please also have a look at the Knowledge Organisers which are sent home for each subject. These will give you an overview of the areas your child will be covering in all the different curriculum areas and will allow you rather than just asking, ‘How was school today?’ to be much more specific and enquire, ‘What did you learn about volcanos (etc.) today?’

Trips and visits

We have worked hard to create an exciting and educational range of educational trips, visits and school-based activities to enhance the curriculum in each year group. We are particularly aware of financial constraints and have chosen low cost activities which we hope most families will be able to afford. Can I please ask you to book these up as early as possible as, if we don’t get the required numbers within a reasonable time, we will have to cancel events which would be a real shame. Our office staff, honestly, spend a little too much time chasing parents/carers for deposits with, ‘Sorry I forgot,’ or ‘I was very busy’ as the most common reason!

School Uniform

We are gradually moving over to all our uniform having our new logo on it but please don’t worry if your child has the older version with clothes that still fit. There’s no rush or pressure to change. We still have a number of pre-loved items available if any families are struggling with rising costs. If your child has an after-school sports activity they should wear school uniform all day and bring their PE kit in to school, unless it is their designated PE day.

Please do remember we no longer have shirts and ties in the older year groups – everyone is in the more comfortable polo shirt now.

Parking and travel to school

EVERY letter home has me asking you all to be thoughtful about how you bring your child to school. I love seeing pupils who live close, walking, scooting and cycling – well done you; very healthy! I often think we should have a parents scooter race on the path outside as I see you all carrying them after dropping your children off! 😊 The red cycle shed, just further on from the small gate through which you all exit, is where you should leave any scooters or bikes you want to leave in school. If you leave them anywhere else (Key Stage 1 playground) our pupils think they are school property and want to play with them during break and lunch!

For those of you who live further afield and come by car, can I again remind you to be mindful of our local neighbours. I have already had two complaints about parking across driveways and we are only two weeks into the year! For those of you new to the school it is worth me explaining again that we have had discussions with Slough BC about increasing the yellow zig-zag lines and various other strategies but at the moment they have no money to put into such schemes – I will continue to press our case!

Slough Borough Council has recently made improvements to their A4 cycle route, details of which can be found here A4 Cycle Route and Road Safety Improvements - Slough Borough Council - Citizen Space

Gates

If you are coming into school by the pedestrian gate to the Office, could I please ask you to note that this gate has a slow opening time. Nothing you or your child do to push or pull will make it open more quickly and indeed will inevitably damage it; so please don’t.

We have had a couple of occasions where people have parked across our gates (‘I’ll only be a couple of minutes!’) Again, please don’t – staff and other visitors are regularly moving in and out of school and it would be awful if an ambulance was delayed entrance due to selfish parking.

Coffee Mornings

We will be starting up our monthly coffee morning get togethers for parents who can make it again this term. We have changed the day to a Tuesday to allow some parents/carers who had commitments on Fridays to join us. Our first session is straight after drop off on the 26^th September – please do come and join us. Other dates for your diary are 17^th October (this is also Harvest week), 4^th November and12th December – all are Tuesdays.

And finally

We are really looking forward to electing our Head Students over the next few weeks. Once elected, they will be welcoming you to many of our events and activities and generally representing all that is great about Ryvers!

Please do always feel free to have a chat with me (and Jurgen) on the gate – I love our interactions whether on a Marvellous Monday or a Fantastic Friday. That said, if you have a minor concern or question it is generally better to ask the adult on duty in your child’s specific area as they are more likely to know the answer and be able to pass on a message more quickly.

As always; thank you for all the support you give to our Ryvers family; we can all be very proud of our school and community and we ‘Grow, Learn and Give’!

Best wishes

Pete Rowe

Executive headteacher

Ryvers School