FARNEY CLOSE SCHOOL
PARENTS AND CARERS NEWSLETTER
Summer 2024
Summer term 2024:
We have started the Summer term by celebrating our success in our March Ofsted social care Inspection. The report can be found on our website – please do have a read. We could not be prouder.
Over the Summer term educational school day trips have taken place to the British Library, the Houses of Parliament (where the children and staff actually got to meet and talk to the Prime Minister), Legoland with an IT and D&T focus and the Amex Stadium where Brighton and Hove Albion play. Our year 11s also went to Thorpe Park as a treat due to them coming to the end of their secondary education and our Post 16 also spent a day there. The residential girls went to Chessington as the “prize” in the Christmas House competition. Other trips are also planned prior to the end of term.
Our residential pupils continue to benefit from a range of activities each evening with us obviously taking the opportunity to enjoy the warm, light evenings. The slip and slide is always popular but geocaching has also made a resurgence and the girls have discovered the challenge of “Escape rooms”. Cooking, BBQs, Beach time, swimming, on site sports and mountain biking are also popular over the Summer months. We also have an outdoor cinema screen which is a new purchase ready for the Euro 2024.
Our Key Stage 2 children have been enjoying weekly swimming lessons at a local pool, this
term, led by one of our care team who is also trained as a swim teacher. They have also
been on various trips out to local areas with a bigger trip planned prior to breaking up for
Summer.
The Wooden Spoon Charity have kindly donated a wonderful outdoor classroom which will be able to be used all year round. This is a fantastic space which is being used by all of our Key Stages plus the residential children of an evening. It makes a perfect venue for our outdoor screen.
We have launched our Forest schools, but this is running mainly in the evening at the moment. Hopefully it will be something that our day pupils can join in with in time.
Farney Close became parents to 4 Ducks (Dave, Frank, Diesel, Dolly) over the Spring term. They have grown into large white ducks and been given a home by our lake so that they have space, water to swim in and are safe but still able to be visited by staff and children.
I hope that people enjoyed the opportunity to meet our education team at our various parent and carer consultations. We will be looking to gather dates for next year’s consultations so that you can get them in your diary.
Our KS2 and KS3 had the “pleasure” of attending a workshop to meet various small creatures. The brave ones actually handled them.
We hosted a local school for a Football match recently. Our team played really well but conceded two goals in the dying minutes to make it a draw. Our goalie got “man of the match” after playing a fantastic game.
End of this academic year:
Your child’s end of year reports will be sent home before the end of term. Please get in touch
with James, our Head of Education, jmills@farneyclose.co.uk if you have any questions regarding their school day report and Steve, our Head of Care,
stevedesouza@farneyclose.co.uk with any questions about their social care report.
Attendance postcards are going out to those that have 95% attendance or over for this
Summer term. Principal postcards will also go out to those that I have identified as doing
really well over the year.
For those with children moving into year 10, they will be made aware of their options for the
new academic year shortly.
Over the last two terms we have trialled having parents / carers consultations within year
groups rather than the whole school together, this has worked really well and will be
something that we will repeat next year. If you ever wish to get in touch at any point of the
year please do not hesitate to do so.
The staff at Farney Close extend their best wishes to all our year 11s, our year 12 and our year
13 that are leaving us to take up the next stage of their education. We look forward to welcoming three of our year 11 into our post 16 provision and are pleased that one of our year 12s will be staying on into year 13.
End of year celebrations:
I hope that you are able to join us for our end of year celebration on Friday 19th July. Our plan
is much similar to last years Coronation celebrations for those of you that were part of our
school then. We will have fund raising stalls (please bring cash), a sports day, refreshments
and a chance to mingle and chat. We will open at 10am and run until 1pm after which we
ask that you take your child home with you for the Summer break. For those of you not able
to attend your child will travel home by their usual means of transport. We would still
welcome donations for our raffle or tombola or stall prizes to support this event. Thank you
to those who have already kindly donated.
Fundraising:
Should anyone be interested in supporting the schools fundraising team, with fundraising
events or applications moving forward, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Fundraising
enables us to obtain those extra special bits!
Dates for your diary:
• Wednesday 4th September – Children return to school from the Summer break. Staff have two inset days on the Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd so will be in touch on one of those days to see how your Summer has been.
• Friday 25th October – Last day of the half term.
• Monday 4th November and Tuesday 5th November – No school – inset day for staff only.
• Wednesday 6th November – Children return for the second half of the Autumn term.
• Possibly Wednesday 6th November – we hope that the weather will allow us to hold our annual fire works display this year.
• Wednesday 18th December – Carol service / Christmas play (yet to be decided) but
you will all get an invite.
• Spring term starts for pupils on Tuesday 7th January 2025.
Please ensure that you do not book any holidays during term time so that your child does not
suffer any lost learning. Thank you.
I hope that you will join me in thanking all the staff that work at Farney Close for their
commitment and hard work. Without every member of our team we could not provide the
service that we do.
Thank you for the support you have offered the school and for the dedication that you show
your child that makes our job that much easier.
Have a wonderful break and we look forward to seeing your child back with us in September.
Kindest of Regards
Sara
Should you require support or advice over the summer break, please follow the links
below.
If you wish to contact us about a Safeguarding issue, please email
dsl@farneyclose.co.uk
The Senior Leadership Team (Sara, Ray, Steve and James) will also be accessing
their emails periodically over the break. The education and care staff emails will not
be checked over the break to enable these workers to have a well deserved rest.
A member of staff will be in contact with parents and carers on either Monday 2nd
September or Tuesday 3rd September.
The school reopens for children on Wednesday 4th September 2024.
If you require further support, please consider the following links:
Childline – 0800 1111 – https://www.childline.org.uk/
NSPCC – 0808 800 5000 – https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/ourservices/nspcc-helpline/
NHS mental health support – https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/mentalhealth-services/how-to-access-mental-health-services/
Action for Children –
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Internet Safety –
https://www.parentsprotect.co.uk/internetsafety.htm?utm_source=bing&utm_med
um=ad&utm_campaign=pp-online-safety
You can download this newsletter in pdf version by clicking here.
