Moss Hall Junior School

Moss Hall Juniors is part of a Project in Barnet in developing the use of the London MLE.

MLE stands for a Managed Learning Environment on a computer. We have the use of Fronter MLE at the school. The Fronter website which can be found at www.fronter.com/barnet is a secure, safe environment in which all children at our school have their own individual username and passwords (given out to children last year and will be given to new pupils next week) which allows them to log on to the site and use the Learning Environment.

By logging in the children will be in the Moss Hall MLE, a site only accessed by the Moss Hall community. No-one from outside Moss Hall can enter this site without a username and password, and you can only get a username and password if you are registered at the school or a member of staff or Governor at the school, or been given special access to our site by us as a visitor. In addition, we can monitor everything that is put on this site or sent from one user to another.

The Moss Hall MLE is just like a school with separate rooms. When your child logs in they only have access to a limited number of rooms: their own classroom, the News Room and some selected other rooms. It is the News Room which is of particular use to you as it includes a This Week section outlining what is happening at school that week. In addition all of the School Newsletters can be found in this room and photos of school activities.

Congratulations to the  following children who have recently passed a  Music Examination:

Violin

• Isha Bokhari –Grade 1 (Merit)
• Dylan Clarke—Grade 1 (Distinction)
• Iman Pinnock—Grade 1 (Merit)
• Siobhan Mullarkey—Grade 2
• Trisha Campos— Grade 2
• Helena ling—Grade 3 (Merit)

Guitar

• Priyanka Siregar—Grade 1 (Merit)
• Shusuke Morishima—Grade 2 (Merit)

Clarinet

• Ben Luxton—Grade 1 (Merit)
• Celia Falkenstein—Grade 1 (Distinction)

Brass

• Lottie McCrindell—Grade 1 Alto Saxophone (Distinction)
• Thea Evans—Grade 2 Eb Horn (Merit)
• Martin Evans—Grade 2 Horn in F (Distinction)
• Takanari Honda—Grade 1 Trumpet (Merit)

If a child is going to be absent from school we expect a parent to telephone the school on the first day of absence. It is essential that this call is made before 9.30am as we operate a First Day Response Service at the school. If your child is not at school and we have not heard from you by 10.00am we will phone you.  We still need a written explanation on your child’s return to school.  If we do not receive an explanation or if the explanation is unsatisfactory, we will not authorise the absence, and this will show up on your child’s end of year report. If you experience difficulties communicating in this way please speak to Mr. Marlow.

School starts at 8.50am. It is really important that pupils arrive to school on time. Registration closes at 9:10am prompt. If your child arrives between 8.50am – 9.10 am they will be marked late. If your child arrives after 9:10am they will receive an unauthorised absence mark instead of a late mark. Pupils who arrive after 8.50am should report to the office and tell a member of Admin Staff that they are at school. Where children arrive after 9:10am parents are expected to send a note to explain the reasons for lateness as well as reporting to the Office.  Until such a note has been received and the explanation for lateness accepted by the School your child’s mark will remain unauthorised.

If you have any worries, concerns, questions etc please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your child’s teacher or Ms. Fox (Deputy Head), Miss Dhillon (SENCO), one of the School Admin Team: Mrs. Kiernan, Mrs. Beirne and Mrs. Gruner or myself. If your question is about the class routines/homework etc then your child’s teacher should be your first point of call (please avoid Monday’s after school as the Staff have Meetings on this day). If you have a question about Special Educational Needs and the support that your child is given please see Miss Dhillon.

If your query is regarding school uniform, school lunches or is of a medical nature then you should see Mrs. Kiernan. If it is about Music Tuition you should see Mrs. Gruner. Ms. Fox and myself are always available to see you if you would like to discuss anything with us.  We aim to have an “open door” policy at the school and really want you to come in if you have any concerns. However, after saying this, we need to ensure that the school is a safe and secure environment for the children. Therefore we do not allow any parents/carers in the school building unless they have first reported to the School Office and collected a Visitor Badge.

If you use the pedestrian entrance in Moss Hall Grove you will notice we have a new Entrance to the school now.

In the mornings the children will enter the building through this new entrance but at the end of the day will exit the same way as before using the doors near to 4W’s Classroom. Please remember that the Nether Street Entrance to the school should not be used by children even if accompanied by their parent.

The Nether Street Entrance is a vehicle entrance so is dangerous for children.

As you know we have new Caterers providing the school lunches for your children. They are Pride Catering and have been selected as we are confident that the quality of meals will improve with them without the need to increase the cost of meals to you. New equipment has been purchased for the Kitchen and Dining Room to make the lunch experience as pleasant as possible. As before, the children have the choice of school dinners or packed lunch each day.

Their Class Teacher will ask them each day what they are having so you can therefore change between school dinners and packed lunch daily giving you more flexibility. However, you must have credit on your child’s account for your child to receive a lunch. School dinners remain at £2.00 per day this year but you can pay as much as you like at any one time. We ask that you send dinner money in on a Monday if possible in a sealed envelope with your child’s name and class clearly indicated.

Cheques should be made payable to “Pride Catering.” If you are entitled to free school meals and are new to the school please contact Mrs. Kiernan so she can see evidence of your entitlement to free school meals. If you are unsure whether you are entitled to free school meals please come in and see Mrs. Kiernan. Packed Lunch Boxes must be clearly labelled with the child’s name and class.

So here we are again, welcome back everyone! After what hopefully was an enjoyable Summer Holidays for  everyone, we are back to commence a new school year. Welcome to all of our new Year 3 children and to all the other children new to the school who have started in the other year groups.

Our new Year 3 have made a really excellent start and have settled in quickly to their new school, helped not only by the Staff at the school but also by their Year 6 Buddies. Every Year 3 child has a Year 6 Buddy who they can turn to if they need any help, assistance or don’t understand any of the school routines.

In the first couple of weeks at the school their Year 6 Buddy is very important to them and activities are organised to build this relationship and ensure the Year 3’s have a safe, secure and happy start to the school. One of these activities involves the Year 6 taking their Year 3 Buddy around the school finding key locations on a map of the school and playgrounds. Those new to the school often find the building a bit of a maze at the beginning of the year and activities like this help out with this confusion.

So another busy and hopefully successful and hugely enjoyable year is off and running. All of the children have settled well into their new classes with their new teachers and teaching assistants who you will formally get the opportunity of meeting tonight and tomorrow at the Meet The Teacher/Assistant Evenings (tonight for Year 3 and 4 and tomorrow for Year 5 and 6) at 3.40pm in your child’s classroom and will last about 45 minutes. It is really important that every child has a representative at this meeting.

The new School Meals are proving to be very popular with the children and staff. Everyone has noticed an improvement. There will be opportunities soon for you to come in and sample the school meals, more details to follow. It is really pleasing to see the children choosing to have salad with their lunch from the new chilled salad bar (shown below) and the new range of fruit, including water melon is proving very popular. All contributes to the 5 fruit and vegetables a day!