Weekly Newsletter-14th February 2020

Dear Parents,
The past 6 weeks seem to have flown by and already we are halfway through the academic year.

Advice for parents/guardians from the DFE (Dept. of Education
You should not be unduly worried about the possibility of your children catching the Coronavirus.
There is no reason why your children should not continue to attend their early years, school or further education setting as normal.

We recognise that some families or children may be planning to travel to China during the forthcoming half-term period. If so, please refer to the FCO’s latest travel advice via the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/novel-coronavirus-and-avian-flu-advice-for-travel-to-china

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china

We are aware that the directives with regard to this situation are changing daily so request that any families travelling to/from China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau over the half term break please let us know.

Diary Dates
Monday 24th February-Year 4 swimming starts for this half term today. There is a meeting for parents of our year 5 pupils going on the residential trip to Mersea after school

Wednesday 26th February - Dinosaur workshop for our Reception children in school and some of our year 3 children will be attending a Forest school session during the afternoon

Friday 28th February-Some of our Mead singers will be entertaining the elderly visitors at the Painsbrook day centre this morning


World Book Day is Thursday 5th March this year and Havering Catering service have put on a special menu to celebrate the day-See below:
Red - Sausage baguette
Blue - Hunters chicken with rice
Green - Cheesy quesadilla with potato dippers
Baked beans
Peas and sweetcorn
Iced sprinkled sponge


INSET Dates for 2019-20
Please note the school closure dates for this academic year.
INSET day 1- 4th September
INSET day 2- 3rd April
INSET day 3- 20th July
INSET day 4-21st July
INSET day 5- 22nd July


Please note that the final day of the summer term for pupils will be on Friday 17th July, 2020.
Term Dates 2019-20
https://www.havering.gov.uk/downloads/file/2023/term_dates_2019-2020


Havering Catering Services
Week beginning Monday 24th February is week 3 on the Havering catering services menu. All meals are served with unlimited salad and vegetables and cost £2.25.
Please be reminded to top up your child’s catering account as we cannot provide dinners for pupils whose accounts exceed a debt of £10.
Havering catering Service now provides a breakfast club for Mead pupils. For £1.50 your child can have a bacon or sausage sandwich or beans on toast or cereal or toast or fresh fruit or yoghurt plus a drink.
We will also have speciality days when other items such as pancakes and muffins will be available.
In order for you to book a place you will need to deposit the money in advance in your Squid account.
Please do not send your child to school to attend breakfast club if there are no funds in your account as they will not be admitted.


A message fromHavering Catering Service
We would like to reassure parents whose child may have a Dairy Allergy or Intolerance that the School Kitchen only use Dairy Free Sunflower Spread at Breakfast Club and Lunch time.


Key Diary Dates for this term
Monday 17th -Friday 21st February -Half term-School closed
Monday 24th February -Back to school-Swimming starts
Monday 23rd March -Last swimming session this half term
Monday 30th/Tuesday31st March -Parent afternoon/evenings
Friday 3rd April -Inset Day-school closed
Monday 6th-Friday 17th April -Easter holidays-School closed
Monday 20th April -Back to school


Attendance update
Well done to Mexico class who had the highest attendance in Y5&6 at 96.7% . Germany had the highest attendance in LKS2 and overall at 97.9% and Australia had the highest attendance in KS1 at 97.3%. Well done to them!. The overall attendance was disappointing at only 94% which is well below our target! Hopefully we’ll do better next half term.


I hope everyone has a good restful week and that the children will return ready on Monday 24th February for another very busy 6 weeks on the run up to Easter.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs L Smith
Headteacher