Helping children be the best they can be Dear Parents, Governors and Children, OUR NEXT HOLIDAY CHRISTMAS

S Our next holiday is Christmas. We break up at 3.30 p.m. on Friday 21st December and we return to school at 8.45 a.m. on Monday 7th January 2013. NO BREAKFAST CLUB 6TH DECEMBER As we need to set up for the Festive Showcase in the hall on the 6th December, there will be NO BREAKFAST CLUB on this morning. After this, Breakfast Club will be operating as normal on the Friday and until we break for Christmas. CHRISTMAS SHOWCASE We are organising an event for the children to showcase their work to parents on the morning of the 6th December and we hope to give this event a Festive theme. We are still promoting our raffle which we will draw on this date and very much welcome your support in purchasing the tickets along with donations of raffle or tombola prizes. More information will be sent out shortly but please save the date so you can come and support our Showcase. MINCE PIES PLEASE We hope to serve mince pies and refreshments at many of our Christmas activities but without the kitchen we are struggling this year! If at all possible, could you donate a box of mince pies for our events, from 6th 14th December. Please drop your donation in at the school office. Many thanks for your support. SCHOOL MEALS Thank you to everyone for organising your childs meals for the term this will be a great help. The work starts on our kitchen next Monday (3rd December) which will mean our meals will be transported from another kitchen for a short while. This will not affect the quality of the food served and it is guaranteed to be up to its normal high standard. The only issue we will have is we will only be able supply a school meals to those children who have signed up for the term as there is no capacity to adjust the numbers or cook on site so please stick to your planned preference. NATIVITY PERFORMANCES FOR RECEPTION, YEAR 1 AND YEAR 2 We are aware that many parents need to book time off work for our nativity performances, so we thought we would give you an early notice of these. Details are on the Christmas event sheet, sent home separately, but our nativity performances are being held on Tuesday 11th December for Reception, Wednesday 12th for Year 1 and Thursday 13th December for Year 2. All performances this year are in the morning, will start at approximately 9.30 a.m. and last for about 45 minutes. Tickets for these performances will be available from Monday morning, 3rd December and they are priced at 20p each, although there will be a limited number of tickets for each performance, owing to space in the Hall, and you will not be able to attend without a ticket for security reasons. We hope to see you there. EARLY NOTICE OF YEAR 6 SATS We thought you would appreciate early notice of the Year 6 SATs week. In 2013 it will be for the whole week, commencing 13th May 2013. If your child is in Year 6, please dont book your family holiday during this week. Thank you.

HELP US RAISE FUNDS WITH LITTLE EFFORT We are registered with The Giving Machine which is a website that if you login into you can then do your usual online shopping at many of your favourite major stores such as Amazon , ebay, major supermarkets and department stores. All purchases directed through the site then give commission at varying amounts to school. We are not asking you to purchase anything you would not normally buy just use this site initially and every purchase you make from any of the stores will donate a percentage of your sale to school. Please use www.the givingmachine.co.uk then find Balby Central Primary School on the menu bar and start shopping as normal. Many thanks every little helps SING THE WORLD EVENT

Janet Wood, a teacher from The Point, has been coming in doing Sing The World workshops with some classes and would like to invite interested parents to a Festive Sing The World family event at The Point on Saturday 15th December. The event is free but people need to book, so please contact The Point, 16 South Parade, Doncaster directly on 01302 341662 in order to book your place at this exciting event and for further details.
GO GET EM FM SCHOOL RADIO We are very short of listeners to our school radio station, Go Get Em FM. We would like parents and children to listen to the radio station at home in their free time, because if we dont get enough listeners then it may have to close. You can access our radio station through our website. If you Google Balby Central and follow the link to the radio station. Thank you. 30 MINUTE RULE - COLLECTING CHILDREN EARLY FROM SCHOOL Many thanks to those parents who are trying to make appointments out of school hours. We do appreciate that this is not always possible, but taking children out during lesson is disruptive to the whole class and interrupts the childrens learning. Please remember, however, if an odd occasion should arise when you do need to come to school and collect your child from class during lesson time, this is not a problem but please phone the school office least 30 minutes before you arrive to collect your child - this way we can have them ready at reception for you, causing less disruption to lessons and saving you from unnecessary waiting. CROSSING LITTLEMOOR LANE AND PARKING We now have a Crossing Patrol Warden, so please impress on your children that they should use the warden when they try to cross the road. Again we are asking that you park sensitively when you bring and collect your children, bearing in mind not blocking our neighbours drives or double parking and causing problems for children trying to cross the roads. Additionally, please do not park ON the pavement, as buggies and wheelchairs need the space on the footpath, as well as it being dangerous for children if you try to drive on the path. Thank you for your co-operation. CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR NEWSLETTER We are encouraging the children to contribute to our weekly newsletter with stories, pictures and items of interest they have done in the classroom our outside school. The contributions this week are from Year 1. Look out for more class contributions in the coming weeks

Our visit to Cusworth Hall

First we went on the big yellow coach to visit Cusworth . After that we played with an old wooden yoyo. Then we had our photo taken. Next Mrs Parkinson dressed as a Victorian teacher. In the old days if your hands werent clean she hit your bum or your hands. Then we washed the clothes and we dried them in a machine. Then we had our dinner. Then we had activities outside We went on a walk. By Suzanne Sharma Year 1

Our visit to Cusworth Hall First we went on a big yellow coach, it was fun. Then we arrived at Cusworth Hall. Next I went into a 100 year old kitchen. We had a look around in it. After that we got dressed up and the girls wore white dresses and the boys wore jackets and hats. Finally we had dinner and went back. By Briar Swift. Year 1