Whole School
Newsletter - Autumn 2025
Dear Families,
The start of the academic year is well and truly underway and the children have made a brilliant start. It has been a wonderful fortnight so far and I am very grateful for everyone’s kindness in welcoming me to be part of the Newlaithes community. If you’re also new to the community, I’d like to extend a warm welcome on behalf of everyone at Horsforth Newlaithes Primary School.
In this first whole school newsletter, I would like to share with you some important reminders and expectations as well as some dates for your diary.
Attendance:
I have been so impressed by the levels of attendance and punctuality so far. Being on time for school is vitally important for children’s education. Being frequently late adds up to lost learning:
- Arriving 5 minutes late every day adds up to over 3 days lost a year.
- Arriving 15 minutes late every day is the same as being absent for 2 weeks a year.
- Arriving 30 minutes late every day is the same as being absent for 19 days a year.
The school day starts at 8.45am for KS2 pupils and 8.50am for Reception and KS1 pupils. If your child arrives late they will need to come in through the front entrance and sign in at the office.
Punctuality not only helps your child to start the school day in an orderly and organised way and ensures that no vital learning is missed, but it is also reassuring to your child, removing any additional worry of missing out or needing to catch up with the rest of the class.
In terms of attendance, every day really does count. Whilst it is natural to expect the occasional missed day when children are too unwell to attend school, we do otherwise expect full attendance throughout the academic year.
National Penalty Notice Framework
Schools MUST consider a penalty notice for 10 unauthorised sessions (usually 5 school days) within a rolling 10 school week period of time (these sessions do not have to be consecutive and can be made up of any unauthorised absences and can span different terms and school years).
Penalty Notices are issued per parent, per child (For example, if there are 3 children in a family, each parent may receive 3 separate penalty notices).
Excellent attendance and punctuality are vital for success at school, and to establish positive life habits that are necessary for future success. Our target is 97.4%.
Important Reminders
- Parents should report any absence to the school before 8.50am.
- Parents should provide the child’s full name, class and reason for absence.
- Parents should contact the school for each day a child will not be attending school.
If the school is not notified of an absence, parents will be contacted by 9.45am to request the reason for absence.
Class Newsletters: It was lovely to welcome so many parents to the welcome meetings which were held over the past fortnight. If you weren’t able to make it, the information shared will be sent home and will take the place of your first newsletter.
Jewellery: We have a ‘no jewellery’ policy which includes fabric bracelets and festival-type wristbands. Children may wear a watch and one pair of simple studs if ears are pierced. For health and safety reasons, earrings should not be worn on PE days. In addition, nail varnish and transfers should not be worn for school. Any watches which have cellular functionality or cameras are not permitted to be worn during the school and will be kept safe by teachers in line with the protocol for mobile phones.
Water Bottles: It is really important to remain hydrated during the school day so please provide your child with a named plastic or metal water bottle which can be refilled. These need to be returned home each day to be cleaned.
Premises: Over the summer, there was a considerable amount of work done to improve the learning environments in our KS2 area. The improved classrooms and new intervention spaces have given school a fresh feeling and we look forward to developing the learning environment over the year ahead.
WHOLE SCHOOL TRAINING DAYS 2025-26
- Friday 10th October 2025
- Friday 22nd May 2026
- Monday 20th July 2026
- Tuesday 21st July 2026
Training Day for Reception Class: School will be closed to Reception pupils only on Friday 24th October due to a Reception team training day. The rest of the school will remain open as usual.
No Nuts Policy: Please do not allow your child to bring into school items of food containing nuts due to a number of pupils with nut allergies. Thank you.
Data Collection Sheet: Please update school if any of your details have changes. Data collection sheets can be requested from the school office.
PTA: The PTA is a huge asset to the school as it has funded countless projects which have enriched or improved our pupils’ experience. The PTA is looking for new members who can support with running some much-loved events such as the Christmas Fair and school discos. Representatives from the PTA will be around on our Parent Consultation Evenings if you’d like to chat to them about potentially being involved.
Reading: You should have received a leaflet which is full of tips for reading with your child with information relevant to their year group. We hope you find this useful. Information can also be found on our website.
Thanks to the generous support of parents at our book fairs last year, we were able to buy more than £1000 worth of books for classrooms. We have invested in class sets of books to enhance our whole class reading provision. Our first book fair of this year will be running from 17th to 22nd September, before and after school in the main hall. Please support this if you are able to.
Parent Consultation Evenings (PCEs): Parents and carers are encouraged to keep in touch with their child’s class teacher, developing an effective partnership which supports children in their learning. Over the school year, formal consultations take place in the autumn and spring terms, followed by a written end of year report in the summer term. The first of these consultation meetings with your child’s class teacher(s) will be held during w/c 6th October for and will be held face to face. More information will be sent out in due course.
Parking
I’m sure it was a great relief to many that the road outside school was resurfaced over the summer. The council are due to repaint the markings in the coming days and I would like to thank you in advance for your courtesy in parking considerately, both outside school and in the surrounding area. We do encourage as many families as possible to walk to and from school.
Thank you for reading this newsletter and here’s to a wonderful academic year.
Yours sincerely,
Marc Hayes
Headteacher
Dates for Your Diary
Wednesday 17th - Monday 22nd September - Book Fair in school
Thursday 18th September - Rec and Year 6 flu vaccinations
Tuesday 23rd September – Reception Parents Meeting – Characteristics and RWI
Thursday 25th September – KS1 Parents Meeting RWI Launch and Maths meeting
Tuesday 7th October - Parents' Evening
Thursday 9th October - Parents' Evening
Friday 10th October - Whole school training day
Friday 17th October – PTA disco
Friday 24th October - Additional training day for Reception only
Friday 24th October - School closes
Monday 3rd November - School reopens
Tuesday 4th November - Year 3 Stone Age workshops
Monday 10th November - Individual Photographs
Friday 14th November - Children in Need
Wednesday 3rd December - Christmas Dinner Day
Saturday 6th December – PTA Christmas Fair
Tuesday 9th December - Reception Christmas shows 2:30PM & 6PM
Wednesday 10th December - Year 2 Christmas shows 2:30PM & 6PM
Thursday 11th December - Year 1 Christmas shows 2:30PM & 6PM
Friday 12th December - KS2 carol concert rehearsal in church 1-3PM
Tuesday 16th December - KS2 carol concert at St, Margaret's - 6PM
Wednesday 17th December - Year 1-3 Enrichment, Year 5/6 Christmas parties PM
Thursday 18th December - Rec - Year 4 parties
Friday 19th December - Year 4, 5 & 6 enrichment morning
Friday 19th December - School closes
Monday 5th January - School reopens
Other letters to parents