Newsletter – 12-Jul-24

In the week leading up to the May half term, most of our Year 5 class entered a Young Writers competition entitled ‘Once Upon A Dream’. The children planned and wrote their poems and then submitted them directly to our class account with Young Writers. The aim was to see if any of our poems would be chosen to be published in a poetry anthology. This week we had the brilliant news that 18 of our entries have been selected for publication! In the next steps the children will each receive a certificate and a letter will go home requesting parental permission for their work to be published. Needless to say we are incredibly proud of the children’s work and thrilled to have our very own published poets! Well done Year 5! We can’t wait to see the published book.

Star of Wonder Awards

YEAR R: Annie, Harley and Elliot

YEAR 1: Teddy, Archer, Grace and Elin

YEAR 2: Toby and Jessie

YEAR 3: Ella, Sofia, Dhyanam and Nicholas

YEAR 4: Oscar, Orson and Alexander P

YEAR 5: Summer, Harry B, Elsie and Aurelia

YEAR 6: Isla, Amelli, Clemmie and Belle

Piano Awards

Alexander H from Y4 and Ese from YR

Safeguarding and Wellbeing

Children’s Dental Health

This week we have been fortunate to have a local team of wonderful school nurses in running Healthy Me workshops with all of our classes from Year R to 6. The activities included sessions on healthy diets, sugar intake and sugar swaps, trying healthy snacks, the impact of exercise on our bodies and the importance of dental hygiene.

Helpfully, the school nurses have flagged some important feedback that came from their conversations with the children around teeth and dental hygiene. Some of the children who talked to the nurses described how they do not see a dentist at all during the year and were struggling with toothache or decay at this time. The nurses stressed to all of the children that it is important to visit the dentist twice a year.

We are all aware of the national problem in terms of availability of dentists for families and sadly more and more schools are seeing the issues with children’s dental health.

The school nurses are well aware that finding an NHS dentist is not easy and so they have provided the following QR code and link to aid with finding an available dentist.

As well as the concerns highlighted for us as a school, it was also great to hear that the majority of our children had excellent knowledge around how to keep their teeth healthy.

This is the QR code on how to find a local NHS dentist

And this the link Find a dentist – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

For any other concerns or questions about your child’s health, the School nurses can also be reached va the CHAT HEALTH services – https://www.hampshirehealthyfamilies.org.uk/chathealth

Reporting concerns

Key actions to take if you have a concern that a child is in danger, may suffer harm and maltreatment…

MAKE A REPORT IF…

• If you fear that a child is in immediate danger CALL 999 and report the concern
• IF YOU HAVE CONCERNS AND YOU ARE NOT SURE WHAT YOU SHOULD DO – report your concerns to the DSL and team at school

Alternative options – as a member of the public you can report a concern to Hampshire’s Child Protection Services directly – information about the services is available here – this site provides useful information and learning about a range of abuse as well as what will happen when concerns are reported –

https://www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/childrenandfamilies/safeguardingchildren/childprotection

If you are a member of the public and wish to report any welfare/safeguarding concerns DIRECTLY TO CHILDREN’S SERVICES:- you can complete Hampshire’s online form here: online enquiry form

You can report a concern over the telephone and via email –

Phone 0300 555 1384   
Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5pm
Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm

Email childrens.services@hants.gov.uk     Please note: Emails are dealt with during normal office hours Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. At other times phone our out of hours number.      

Out of hours – Out of hours contact telephone number for Children’s Services Phone 0300 555 1373 

REMEMBER – SAFEGUARDING IS  EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY

Summer Clubs

Please note that there will be two new summer camps running at The Priory this summer and The Oaks will continue to run their summer club at Mortimer St Mary’s.

• 22nd – 26th July:  Summer Camp with Mrs Enticknap

  (a Priory parent and qualified teacher) . Please click here for full details and then click here for the booking form and email to zoe@hillyardmail.com

• 29th July – 16th August: Curveball Summer Camp with Coach Zack

  Please click here for more information and click here to book

• 5th – 23rd August:  The Oaks at Mortimer St. Mary’s

  Please click here for details or email office@theoakschildcare.co.uk for more details.