Smartphone Free Childhood update

As you will have seen from the press and Smartphone Free Childhood campaign, a number of schools in England and in our local cluster, have decided to ban smartphones in primary schools from September 2025. At this point, we are not choosing to opt into this initiative. This is for several reasons:

• we don't want parents who have already invested in the technology to have to buy a new 'brick' phone
• some children rely on their smartphone for communication needs
• we are in effect smartphone free in school anyway as children have to hand their phones to staff as soon as they enter the classroom
• if children still have access to smartphones outside of school, this does not solve any of the anti-social aspects of them - it could be more effective for us to tackle this through education rather than a ban

In the next few weeks, we will be consulting with all stakeholders on their views regarding the next steps for King's Oak. We are asking parents to complete the short survey found here. We will be also asking for the views of staff and our School Council.  For more information please see the Smartphone Free Childhood website.

Update from Governors

We held our final full governing board meeting of the Spring Term last night and had lots of very positive discussions.  In terms of membership of the governing board, we welcomed a new governor to the team - Liz Edwards. She is a retired headteacher who lives locally who wants to continue to support education.  She will be a great asset to the team and we warmly welcome her to King's Oak.  We also discussed the role of parent governors as Brenda Baker's term of office is finishing shortly.  If you think that you would like to become a parent governor, please contact our clerk, Anne Jones who will let you know more about the role, responsibilities and the selection procedure - clerk@kop.rbksch.org.

We also had a presentation on the work continuing with the School Development Plan.  It was very positive to hear about the progress being made in phonics, retention on knowledge in the foundation subjects, food waste reduction and the activity towards the school attaining the Attachment Aware School Award.

The governing board would like to wish the whole community a very happy Easter break.

Free Football Opportunity

Parent Workshops

   Booking link:
   https://forms.gle/1314oKc96KDdeqWYA
   Contact: 020 8397 2006/ 07784 006661
   Siobhan.meacher@achievingforchildren.org.uk

Healthy Schools

As you are aware, we are a healthy school and try to reinforce healthy lifestyles and well-being at every opportunity. Children are encouraged to be physically active and eat healthily. As part of this commitment, children are not permitted to bring in cakes or sweets to share with friends e.g. to celebrate a birthday. If you wish to commemorate your child's birthday, please consider buying a birthday book for the class. This can be shared with all the children and will be a lasting memory for the class.

End of Term

We've reached the end of another busy term.  Thank you for all the support and commitment you have all shown this term.  I hope that everyone has a great Easter break and gets some positive relaxation, opportunities for fun and family joy.  The Summer Term starts for Years R to 6 on Tuesday 22nd April, for Nursery on Wednesday 23rd April and Pre School on Thursday 24th April.

Thank you.

Ian Hutchings

Headteacher