Hello Lyndhurst Family,

I wanted to take a short moment to explain why teachers across the country are striking on Feb 1st. In 2010 teachers, like many civil servants, had their pay frozen since then we have enjoyed a few years of pay increases. The Institute of fiscal Studies suggests that equates to around a 13% real term drop in salaries. With inflation rising the current pay increase will result in an additional 5% real term drop. It goes without saying that teachers are not alone in this situation as can be seen by the huge amount of industrial action we are seeing. In fact, both Ofsted and The Department for Education are also on strike this week.

I realise that knowing the reasoning behind a strike does not make the inconvenience of school being closed any easier to deal with. I respect all of our teacher’s decisions whether that is to come to school or to strike because I know that each and every member of the Lyndhurst team is committed to not only making Lyndhurst a better school but ensuring that every pupil reaches and hopefully exceeds their full potential.

Here are this week’s notices:

Curriculum Meeting Slides:

You can access a short recording of the slides from our parent curriculum session here. We will be shortly publishing the slides from the SEND and Phonics coffee mornings.

Absences:

If your child will not be in school for any reason, please ensure you call the school to let us know why. If we have not heard from you we will have to contact you and possibly conduct a home visit or notify social services or the police that your child is missing.

Punctuality:

We have seen a steady increase in late arrivals to school, perhaps it is to do with the additional time it takes to get those winter layers on. Please ensure that your family arrive at school ready for an 08:55 start.

Free School Meals:

Due to the rising cost of living and everyone could use a bit of help.  If you are on a low income or on benefits, then you may be able to claim free school meals for your child. This means you will be eligible for the Southwark Councils Supermarket Voucher Scheme to the value of £3 per day for each child during the school holidays.  Once your child is entitled to Free School Meals an additional funding called Pupil Premium is allocated from the Department for Education, the funding is paid directly to the school to improve the quality of these children’s education. Your child will receive a 30% discount on all extra-curricular activities and 50% discount on all curricular activities as well as substantial discount in music tuition each term until the end of their current phase of education. If you would like to check to see if you are entitled, please visit https://pps.lgfl.org.uk/
Follow instructions below:
1: Click - Check My eligibility
2: Click - Proceed, create a new Account
3: Click - Drop down box Local Authority - Insert - Southwark
4: Click - Drop down box School - Insert -     Lyndhurst School
5: Read Terms - Before you can use the Free School Meals Eligibility Checker, you need to read and accept the Privacy Notice by ticking the box.
6: Input your Details: You must complete all of the boxes - Paying particular attention to those in the green area, which indicates information that is matched against DWP/HMRC data
7: Results will show at the bottom. if successful GREEN - Download certificate and send to fhsm@lyndhurst.southwark.sch.uk

Southwark 2030!

We will be hosting a listening event at Lyndhurst on Feb 24^th at 3:45 location to be confirmed. More details to come but families will be welcome to join together.

Girls Like Us Art Exhibition:

Calling all girls: Aunt Joy would like to invite girls between the ages of 8-14 to create an artwork based on JOY. Think about: How does joy make you feel? What makes you feel joy? Your artwork can be created in any way you desire.
Details of how to enter:
Email a clear photograph, of the artwork only, to girls@auntjoygallery.com by midday GMT, 18th February (files no bigger than 25mb).
Include: Name, age and answers to the following questions:
-Why do you love creating art?
-What makes you feel joy?
Selected submissions will be notified by email.

Friends of Lyndhurst Meetings:

The minutes to the last FOL meeting can be found here. Don’t forget the next meeting is this Friday at 9am in the library. All are welcome.

Period Workshops:

This week sees the launch of our Let’s Talk about Periods sessions. Details can be found on this flyer.

Key Dates:

You can find some of the key dates for the upcoming half term below.

• Period Talk in Dulwich 31^st  Jan 6-7pm
• School Closed (apart from nursery) 1^st Feb
• Period Talk in Borough 2^nd Feb 4-5pm
• FOL meeting 3^rd Feb 9am
• SEND Coffee morning 8^th Feb 9:15am
• Book Week start on the 20^th February.
• World Book Day is the 2^nd March.
• Comic Relief is the 17^th March
• Parents Consultations are on the 22^nd and 23^rd March (exact times tbc).  

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