I am pleased to share that year 6 children have arrived safely at Whitehall and are enjoying some lovely Derbyshire sunshine this afternoon. 

We are looking forward to having our whole school photograph taken on the morning of Friday 10th June. Fortunately the weather forecast looks good as the picture will be taken outside. 

All 450 children and 50 staff will be on the photograph that is being taken to commemorate the opening of our school building on Laund Nook 50 years ago in 1972.

The last time a whole school photograph was taken was 6 years ago and visitors to the school and see it displayed as they come into our school in the entrance corridor. 

Families will be able to purchase the photograph, we'll be sending home details of how to do this as soon as possible.

This whole school photo replaces the annual class photograph that is normally taken every school year. Next school year we will return to having the traditional single/sibling photograph and class photograph for sale that we have historically had before COVID stopped this taking place. 

Any families that are concerned about their children being in the whole school photograph are to contact school on Thursday to let us know that they don't want their child on it. 

Household support fund

The household support fund (HSF) is available to help Derbyshire residents facing financial hardship over the coming months by providing grants and other financial support.

Click on the link below to be taken to the Derbyshire website where you will find further information.

Derbyshire Household Support Fund Link

Mrs Carvell

Parents and families are invited to help us try to win £1000 worth of books for our library. It should only take a minute for parents to complete the form to help us. 

Information is on the National Book Token website CLICK HERE. 

A considerable amount of lost/unclaimed property has accumulated yet again this term and our lost property bin is now full. We have coats, jumpers, trainers, book bags, dresses, water bottles to name just a few items!

We check through lost property regularly and have returned items to their rightful owners this term which is easy when items are named and placed in the lost property box. However, the vast majority of lost property is not named and therefore is impossible to return. 

At the end of the school day on Thursday 26th May we will place all unnamed property outside, at the front of school, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. for you to collect anything that you have missing.

Please ensure all property is named and checked regularly so that it can be returned to you easily following a lost property check.

Thank you.

Mrs Carvell

We have been asked to share the following information from Derbyshire Police

People in Belper have been targeted by scammers impersonating police officer.

More Derbyshire residents, this time in the Belper area, have been targeted by fraudsters pretending to be police officers.

Please share this warning with friends and family so we can help protect older people in the community, who are typically targeted. 

The scammers claim to be a DC Matthew Phillips, PC Christy or Sergeant Atkins from a police station in Derby. They already know personal details, such as the resident’s name, address and basic banking details. Please note this is not an exhaustive list of possible names or police stations that could be used by scammers.

The victim is asked to stay on the line and dial 999 to verify the identity of the ‘police officer,’ however someone will answer the call pretending to be from Derbyshire police and will then verify the caller.  Due to the fact the victim is asked to stay on the line and dial 999, the original call is never terminated, and they remain in contact with the fraudster at all times.

The caller goes on to say that he is investigating the unauthorised use of that person’s bank card at local stores such as M&S and Asda. The use of locations that will be familiar to the victim makes the call appear more genuine.

Secrecy is the key and victims are advised they should not tell anyone about this call as it may jeopardise the police investigation.

We know that this type of call can be linked to courier fraud.

This means that victims will be encouraged to withdraw funds from their bank accounts or Euros from local bureau de change to give to a courier, arranged by the ‘police officer’ making the call under the guise of ‘assisting with a police investigation.’

The police will never contact you asking for banking information or request that you withdraw money from an account to aid an investigation. 

If you receive such a call, you should not give out any personal information and hang up the call immediately. Wait five minutes and ensure you can hear a dial tone before calling 101. To call your bank, please use the number found on the back of your card.  All reports of this nature also need to be reported to Action Fraud 0300 120 2040 or online https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/

We are looking forward to providing sun cream in school again for children to use and self administer this summer. 

We have not been able to do so for two years to help keep us COVID secure. 

The sun cream has been delivered to school this week. The children will be bringing home a letter next week with information about how they will be able to use it and self administer any cream. As always, we recommend that on sunny days you apply sun cream before school to help keep your children as safe as possible during the day. 

Parents may have noticed gas engineers in school at the end of the day today (Wednesday 4th) helping us with a suspected gas leak. I am pleased to share that no leak has been found.

As a result of the work today we will have another couple of engineers on site site tomorrow (Thursday 5th). As a result of this we will may not have any heating in school until lunchtime. The weather forecast is for a warm and dry day, however, you may want to ensure that your children have their jumpers with them. Secondly, the kitchen may have to prepare hot food using our electric ovens, which means that the menu choice may be different to what is published. 

Thank you for your support. 

Mr. Averis

Children in Ockbrook - Mr. Hallam's year 5 class

Unfortunately Mr. Hallam is not able to run his parent evening tonight, Monday 4th April. We apologise for the inconvenience that this causes but look forward to rearranging the evening after the Easter holiday. 

We do not expect Mr. Hallam to be able to meet parents tomorrow night, Tuesday 5th April, either, but will confirm this tomorrow. 

We are looking forward to supporting this day at St. John's for the first time. We are going to use the day to draw attention to what Down's Syndrome is and how we can play and learn happily at St. John's along side children and adults who have Down's Syndrome. 

Children and adults with Down's Syndrome are born with an extra chromosome, 47 instead of 46. To recognise and learn about this extra chromosome we are asking children to wear one extra 'thing' with their school uniform for the day, for example a hat, scarf, false moustache, shorts on top of trousers etc. We are not fundraising, no money needs to be brought to school. 

Parents are invited to visit the UK's Down Syndrome page to find out more about Downs' Syndrome www.downs-syndrome.org.uk