Global Goal 4 – Quality Education - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Dear Families,

The last eight weeks have flown by and what a term it has been. We are well and truly into Autumn and I know how much you are all looking forward to your half-term break.

This term we have seen your children grow into their new classes. There has been excellent Family Home Learning, and it has been wonderful to see the progress your children are making not just academically, but socially and emotionally. This would have been shared with you this week in more detail during the parent's meetings held after school. 

So many 'Golden Tickets' have been awarded to children who are reading regularly, and you can see how much your children love reading, so no stopping in the holidays! We look forward to checking the Reading Log after half-term and seeing how many pages were read!

Kitchen Works update

The school kitchen renovation works started on Wednesday this week. I am pleased to announce that all the heavy removal has been completed, and the works are expected to be completed by the due date. 

Thank you for making your bookings online and a reminder to book for the first week back. 

The renovation will help the HCL staff to run a more efficient service and ensure that they have the latest equipment to do so! 

OPAL Platinum Award

I am excited to announce that on Tuesday 22nd October we were awarded the 'Platinum' award for our playtime provision. 

I would like to extend a huge thank you for your support throughout our OPAL journey.

The platinum award is a massive achievement for our school, and it's all down to the joint effort of the entire school community. Congratulations! Without your kind donations, our pupils would not have the amazing experiences that they are getting now.

This would not have happened without the efforts of Mr Revens and Mrs Verro. Their hard work, leadership and dedication to making the play experience so diverse and enabling opportunities for your children to assess risk in a dynamic way and look for the benefits has really developed the entire initiative! Thank you!

Sustainability Pledge 

Belmont School is working alongside Harrow School, John Lyons School, West Lodge, Weald Rise, Newton Farm and Pinner Park Primary to create a Sustainability charter that will provide the community a way in which you can promote and develop sustainable practices. 

One of the ways we would like to help with Climate Change is to prevent the use of 'Single Use Plastic' water bottles:

Switching to a reusable water bottle is not only easy but is an important way to cut down on plastic waste and stop tiny plastic pieces, called microplastics, from forming. These microplastics harm animals and the environment and can end up in our food and water, which is bad for us and future generations.

Therefore, after half-term, we would like all children to bring water in a reusable bottle with their name and class label on it. Please make sure that the bottle is not made of glass! Thank you in advance for your support.

Class Assemblies

The last three weeks we were lucky to have such wonderful performances from our Year 5! With such dedication to promoting wellbeing and excellent poetry recitals, Year 5 you have performed incredibly, and you should be so proud of yourselves! As always, a huge thank you to all the staff, pupils and parents for your continued support and dedication to developing children's performance skills and confidence. 

We are a Fit4Life Charter School

Schools in Harrow have joined with partners across the Borough to create the Fit4Life Harrow project.

Data tells us that children in Harrow are not performing well in terms of their health and fitness. The latest figures show that pupils coming into our Reception classes in Harrow are, on average, at 19% overweight or obese and then they are leaving our Primary Schools in Y6 with an average of 38% overweight or obese.

Harrow children also have very high levels of tooth decay. 42.4% of children at the age of 5 have decayed or missing teeth. Harrow also has high levels of Type 2 Diabetes.

Harrow Fit4Life has devised a School Charter which sets out the ambition for schools and parents working together.

We'll be sharing much more information over the coming weeks and months and we'll be displaying the charter in the school. In the meantime, we would urge every family to take a look at the charter and to commit to being a charter family. Here are the family pledges:

• Reduce the amount of sugary foods and drinks
• Provide healthy snacks at the end of the school day
• Exercise with children outside of school for at least 30 mins a day
• Sign-up and regularly attend an NHS Dentist and ensure children brush teeth at least twice a day
• Ensure children are up to date with vaccinations
• Talk each day to children about how they are feeling and how their day went

A Reminder About Bringing Unhealthy Snacks into school -

We wrote to you in our last newsletter that we had seen an increase in families bringing in unhealthy snacks to school at the end of the day and part of after-school snacks. 

Sadly, this has not changed! As a Healthy School, we do not allow snacks on school sites as they may contain allergens that are harmful to members of our school community.

Therefore, we are requesting no unhealthy snacks such as juice, crisps, biscuits and sweet treats be brought onto the school site. If seen, the staff will ask you to put it in the bin, or for you to take it home. So please do not bring these items on site. 

We will also be asking you not to pack any snacks for after-school clubs that finish at 4pm. 

Outstandingly Happy Harrow School!

The pupils in Year 5 have been learning more about living outside their zone of comfort and would like to share the following quote with you:

Do not forget that as a school we are all working in the 2% Mindset mode:

I look forward to handing out special badges to those in the wider school community who practice and spread the messages of joy and happiness! It might even be you!

Communication

A reminder to all families, that if you have any issues or concerns, please do not hesitate to speak to any member of staff on duty or email the school office via office@belmont.harrow.sch.uk or by submitting your query on our virtual form found on our website (https://www.belmont.harrow.sch.uk/contact-us-form). We aim to respond to queries within 10 working days as outlined in our Positive Communication Policy, which can be found in the policy section on our website, where you will also find:

• Community Behaviour Policy 
• Complaints Policy and Procedure 
• Managing Serial and Unreasonable Complaints Policy

Do remember that the clocks will go back 1 hour at 2am on Sunday 27th October, so do not forget to change your clocks!

We also would like to wish a Happy Diwali to all those who are celebrating the festival of light in the holidays! 

Finally, we hope that you have a safe and restful half-term holiday, and we look forward to welcoming you all back on Tuesday 5th November in the correct uniform. 

Yours sincerely,

Mrs P Aggarwall

Headteacher