Hillfort Newsletter 14.10.22

14th October 2022

Dear Families,

I do hope that you are well. I wanted to look at three issues in my note today – one is new,, and two are issues that I’ve raised previously.

Let’s start with the new one!

Bagel station:

In the light of ongoing cost of living rises, we’re increasingly conscious that children might not be getting full breakfasts. This can easily lead to slower rates of learning and grumpiness – something my own mother would readily identify with. Consequently, we’re setting up a “Bagel station” at the start of the day to distribute our Magic Breakfast bagels. It will operate out of the gazebo where children will be able to pick up a toasted bagel at the start of the day. It’s not a full fry up, but its something to start the day, and if children really are still hungry, we have cereal available for individual children.

I’m not quite sure what the demand for this will be, so let’s see how it goes in the first few days – you might have to work with us and be patient whilst numbers settle down! However, we hope that this is part of a wider package to ensure that no child goes hungry at Hillfort.

And please do remember that the school can act as a referrer to the Food Bank – please do not hesitate to speak to a teacher, or a senior colleague ‘on the gate’. Its a super easy process and we can help support in that way too.

Medical information:

The most important job that we have is to keep children safe, but we can only do that if we have full knowledge of any medical conditions. Of course, these can develop and change over time and the first thoughts for a parents after seeing a doctor and getting worrying news might not be to tell the school! But, we’re here to help and are always very happy to sit down and amend medical plans – and that includes for asthma. Just book in with a class teacher!

Online safety:

I think it’s fair to say that after the visit of the Stay Safe team on Monday, we were really quite shocked. Perhaps it’s due to the pandemic where everyone had to use computers more, but the numbers of children using social media have soared – and I mean rocketed! Richard Pomfrett (the owner of Stay Safe) advised me that the Stay Safe content has had to change – the material that used to be delivered at secondary level is now being taught to Year 5/6s, and the old Year 5/6 material is now being delivered at Year 3/4 – such is the change of usage. So, please do make yourself aware of how to keep your children safe online. In all honesty, a great place to start would be on our website at E-Safety – Liskeard Hillfort Primary School – and there are a whole range of links to get started on. Equally, the NSPCC and CEOP have great resources too:

Keeping children safe online | NSPCC

Kindest regards,

Tim Cook
Our Reception pupils had a special visit yesterday from our very own Liskeard Community Fire Station Firefighters! 
We got to find out more about what the fire fighters do, how to call them, what uniform they have to wear and more! 
We then went outside where we were able to see their fire truck
Thank you for visiting our school and answering some important questions for us! 
Our very talented singers had their first performance in front of the school today in assembly, and may we say, it was absolutely beautiful! Our group performed A Million Dreams to over 400 pupils and did so with such confidence and bravery. Well done everyone!
On Tuesday our Year 5/6 football team played against a very good team from St Germans Primary School. 
This was another great opportunity for our new developing team to play against some very experienced players.
Although we didn’t quite get the result we would have liked, everyone enjoyed playing and representing Team Hillfort.
Well done. 

School Clubs
Our staff will be hosting parents evening between Tuesday 1st November – Thursday 3rd November. Sign-up sheets will be put out in the office next week.
Kernow Health will be in school on Wednesday 2nd November with the nasal flu vaccine. Please follow the links below to find out more and fill in the consent form, should you want to opt in your child to have the vaccine on this day.
Kernow Health will be in school on Wednesday 2nd November with the nasal flu vaccine. Please follow the links below to find out more and fill in the consent form, should you want to opt in your child to have the vaccine on this day.

Parent Letter