A warm welcome back to Park Hill Primary School. I hope that you have enjoyed your summer break with friends and family. Please take the time to read our latest newsletter.
Regards,
Paul Griffin
Head Teacher
Welcome to the Summer Term
Welcome to a brand new term at Park Hill Primary School! I hope that you have all had a great Easter and enjoyed some quality time with your family. It was great to welcome the children back into school yesterday morning and catch up with some of the children’s news stories. Please be aware that a copy of the April Newsletter is available for you all to read and I welcome you to do when you can. http://www.parkhill.coventry.sch.uk/docs/Park_Hill_News_April_2016.pdf
Regards,
Paul Griffin
Head Teacher
Parents Evening
Hello to you all,
I am looking forward to welcoming you all into school this afternoon for Parents Evening. You will have an opportunity to view your child’s work and to peruse their books since September. Please be aware that we are not able to offer any creche facilities this time around and reluctantly are not encouraging children to attend. I have made an exception with Year Six children – these children are working towards their SATs and are also moving on to new schools shortly and should be included in conversations. Looking forward to seeing you all later.
Paul Griffin
Head Teacher
A New Half Term
Dear Parents,
A warm welcome to a new half term at Park Hill. I hope that you have all enjoyed a break over the half term and that you and your families had some quality time together.
It was great to welcome the children back into school on Monday and share with them during assembly their memories and experiences over the break.
I am looking forward to the next 5 weeks where my focus is to spend much more time in every classroom and to get to know even more children.
Paul Griffin
Head Teacher
Coffee and Chat
Dear Parents and Carers,
Next Friday 12th February 2016, marks the end of my first half term at Park Hill Primary School. After my assembly at 9.30am, I would like to invite you into school for an informal ‘Coffee and Chat’ session until around 10.30am.
I think that this meeting would be an opportunity to meet you and to share some of my initial thoughts about the next steps at the school as well as for me to listen and answer any of your questions that you may have for me. I am hoping that Jane Jones – Chair of Governors at Park Hill – will be in attendance and join the meeting.
Paul Griffin
Head Teacher
Staff Car Park
Dear Parents and Carers,
I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that the Staff Car Park is just for Staff. Space is limited already. We are seeing an increasing number of parents driving onto the school site at the beginning and at the end of the school day. We ask that you do not use the staff car park for collection or drop off. Whether you are using ‘Buddies’ or ‘the School Office’, can you park safely off site and make the short walk to your destination.
Paul Griffin
Head Teacher
Free Flow Entry
Dear Parents & Carers,
We are two weeks into using a new Free Flow Entry system into school each morning and I am really pleased with how it is running. Firstly, thank you to those of you who have passed on comments about how you feel it is going and for your general support around this. From my point of view, things appear much calmer at the start of each day and the children are ready for assembly and learning much sooner. This is really pleasing to see. Out on the playground, it is much more controlled and out on the roadside, the parking seems to have been alleviated slightly as I think that parents can ‘get on their way’ much sooner. This is great too. Thank you once again for your support regarding this change.
Paul Griffin
Head Teacher
A New Chapter begins…
Hello to you all,
I would like to introduce myself as the new Head Teacher of Park Hill Primary School in Coventry. I am really to pleased to be finally here.
The school has a great reputation across the city and achieved well at its last Ofsted Inspection in March 2014. My aim is to build on these achievements and maintain its excellent reputation.
I am looking forward to working with you at Park Hill Primary School and working alongside you all for the best possible outcomes for the children.
Paul Griffin
Head Teacher
End of term…
Dear Parents/Carers,
As we enter the final week of term, and my last few days as headteacher of Park Hill Primary, I thought I’d take the time to write to you one last time. It has been an honour and absolute privilege to lead this school over the past three and a half years and I leave with a real sense of mixed emotions. On one hand I feel excited about what lies ahead but on the other hand (and this seems to be the overriding feeling I have at the moment) I have a real feeling of sadness that my time here is drawing to a close.
Park Hill is a wonderful school with brilliant children and a talented group of staff that work really hard to make a difference to each and every child’s life. I am indebted to the staff for their support and commitment over the past few years – they are a fantastic group of professionals. I am also indebted to you and the wider community for the support that I have received from the very first moment that I took up the post until the moment I leave. I really have appreciated this. It is important that I thank the Governors as well, as their support and guidance has helped to shape the vision and direction the school has travelled in.
Without doubt the biggest element that I will miss about Park Hill is the children. Each and every one of them is a kind and caring person – you should all feel very proud of them as they are a credit to you. Standing on the gate in the mornings has brought me a constant stream of positivity into my day and it is a wonderful thing to see so many smiley faces which are happy and eager to come to school and learn. Along with this letter, I have also written to the children (a copy of which is below) – if you get the chance please can you spend a minute reading it through with them as the theme of their letter relates directly to what has been covered in numerous assemblies.
If you have the opportunity please do drop in and say goodbye on Friday after school (complimentary mince pies will be available). Thank you for your support and I have no doubt that when Mr Griffin begins in January the school will move on to even more exciting opportunities.
Steve Taylor
Headteacher
LETTER TO THE CHILDREN
Being You
To the children of Park Hill,
As you grow up, here are five key things that I want you to try to remember:
1. Make sure that you work hard at school and give 100% effort in everything you do.
2. Think big about what you want to achieve in life and aim high. Never let anyone tell you that you are not good enough at something. Prove to them that you can achieve anything.
3. To be brilliant at something you have to accept that you will make mistakes – the key is to learn from your mistakes and improve. See the picture below.
4. People who achieve their goals in life put time and effort into working on things they are not so good at – even talented people. It’s all about hard work and effort.
5. The main aim in life is to be happy – make yourself and others happy by always being kind and considerate.
Things don’t always go according to your plan and to achieve your goals you will need to persevere.
It has been brilliant being your headteacher over the past few years and I am proud of each one of you. You are all special and lovely people.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.
Mr Taylor
Important information
Dear Parents/Carers,
As we approach the Christmas break I thought that I would take the opportunity to keep you up-to-date of a number of developments and pass on some key information.
There have been lots of exciting learning opportunities taking place in school and it has been a real pleasure to see our children so engaged in their learning. In the coming weeks we have: guitar assemblies, Reception Nativity, KS1 Nativity, Middle School Roman event, class assemblies, German assembly. It is a testament to the staff and children that we have so much on in what is an already busy time.
As you are aware, Hazel Phillips (our SENCO) and I will be leaving at Christmas and because we both feel so passionately about the school and children we would like the opportunity to say goodbye. With this in mind we will be doing a whole school Rewards assembly at 2:45pm on Friday 18th Dec which will be open to parents and the community and, following this, we will be having a ‘mince pie to say goodbye’ in the hall from 3:30 – 4pm when you are more than welcome to drop in, have a free mince pie, and say goodbye. I understand that everyone’s lives are very busy and for many of you trying to juggle a variety of commitments and attend the drop in will be difficult. Please rest assured that in the last week I will be on the gate as much as possible to try and thank parents and families for your fantastic support over the past three and a half years.
Over the past few weeks we have revisited a number of our health and safety procedures at school including:
- The outer doors of the school will be locked at 9am sharp each morning. Please keep this in mind if you are dropping your child off at this time and are running late – you will need to escort your child to the office and sign them in. It is important that if you arrive at 9am or after, you do not leave your child unattended on the playground without checking that they can gain access to school.
- I have asked Richard Howkins, our new caretaker, to be an added presence in monitoring the parking situation outside the front of the school (he will be wearing a high visibility coat). In recent days I have witnessed a small minority of cars parked in an exceptionally dangerous manner which, on one occasion, almost led to a mother and daughter being run over. We are now in the process of ordering parking cones to go outside the school to specifically highlight where cars should not park.
- Can I please remind parents that both car parks on the school site are for staff only and should not be used as drop off and collection points for Buddies, school or after school clubs. We do this with the paramount safety of our children in mind as this route has pedestrian access. Please park legally outside the front of the school (where it is safe to do so and there is space) or use The Unicorn car park.
- The school gates at the end of the day will now be opened by the caretaker at 3:20pm each day. This is to allow PE lessons on the playground to gain the maximum time required.
It has come to my attention that we have had issues with head lice in some classes in school. Could I please ask that when you treat your child with medicated shampoo that you also consider treating the family. Research suggests that a family approach to dealing with nits has far more success than treating only the individuals with the head lice.
The PTA have a number of events taking place over the coming weeks including the fashion show on the 4th Dec – this promises to be an excellent event. If you would like a ticket please send your money into the office. The PTA will also be holding Christmas discos this year on the 11th Dec with the EYFS/KS1 disco running from 4:30 – 6pm and the KS2 event running from 6:30 – 8pm.
Thank you for your ongoing support and I will write to you again as we enter the last week of the term.
Steve Taylor
Headteacher
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