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Christmas News

Christmas has arrived in school! Advent has started and we are very busy with our Christmas preparations. This morning the children decorated the big Christmas tree in the hall and we are very busy rehearsing our Nativity Play, ‘A Good Night’s Sleep’, about a very grumpy innkeeper. We hope that you will be able to join us during our Christmas celebrations.

This letter contains rather a mixture of information, but please take time to read it as I am sure that there will be something you need to know about.

SCHOOL FRUIT AND VEGETABLE SCHEME
We have received a response from the Department of Health regarding recent press articles about pesticide residue in the fruit and vegetables provided for schools. It is a lengthy response (3 pages) and can be seen on request at the school office or on the school website (www.ains.co.uk).

COLLECTION OF ART WORK
If you purchased your child’s art work from our exhibition, it is now available for collection from the school office. It must be collected by an adult as some of the frames contain glass.

If you did not purchase your child’s art work, this is the very last chance to buy a piece of your child’s framed work - price £3. The work will be available until this Friday, 2nd December, at the school office.

SCHOOL CHRISTMAS CARDS
Earlier this term we asked whether you would be interested in buying Christmas cards which showed work from each child in your child’s class. Many of you expressed an interest. We expect the cards to be available in the next few days. Each class will have a card with their work on. I will let you know as soon as they arrive and will give you details of prices, etc.

REMINDERS OF IMPORTANT DATES
Please find below reminders for all the important dates between now and the start of the new term.

Nativity Plays for children in Classes 1, 2 and 3
All children in Classes 1,2 and 3 will take part in all 3 performances

Monday 5th December - Nativity Play 2p.m. – speaking cast from Class 1

Tuesday 6th December - Nativity Play 9.30a.m. – speaking cast from Class 1

- Nativity Play 2p.m. – speaking cast from Class 2

For parents of children in Class 2 with speaking roles:
If you have difficulty in attending the Tuesday afternoon performance, please contact me as we may have a solution.

Nativity Plays for children in Class 6 and Nursery
Children in Class 6 will take part in both performances
Friday 9th December – Early Years Nativity Plays –
11a.m. – Class 6 and morning Nursery children
2.30p.m. – Class 6 and afternoon Nursery children

School parties – further details to follow later.
Monday 12th December
-Morning Nursery party (in usual morning session)
-Afternoon Nursery and Class 6 party (in usual afternoon session)

Tuesday 13th December – (where applicable) Children to visit new classes
- School Christmas lunch

Wednesday 14th December – Classes 1, 2 and 3 Christmas party in afternoon.
3.15p.m. NURSERY CLOSES

Thursday 15th December – FAINS disco (evening event: details to follow)

Friday 16th December – 3.10p.m. School closes for Christmas

Wednesday 4th January – 8.55a.m. School re-opens for new term
Please note: this date may differ from other local schools
Nursery closed (new children to visit)
Thursday 5th January – 9.00a.m. Nursery re-opens
‘Regular’ children back to Nursery

PESTICIDE RESIDUES SCHOOL FRUIT AND VEGETABLE SCHEME

We understand that parents and teachers, and those involved in the School Fruit Scheme, may be understandably concerned following a recent statement made by the Soil Association that has received coverage in the press. The Soil Association stated that Government testing undertaken by the Pesticide Safety Directorate (PSD) found more pesticides in samples of fruit and vegetables supplied under the SFVS than in samples of the same fruit and vegetables on sale in shops. They also suggested that lower quality fruit and vegetables are sourced for the scheme than are used elsewhere.

We wish to reassure parents and teachers that none of the residues found is at a level to cause concern for public health or for children's health in particular. The Department of Health takes the issue of pesticide residues in relation to the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme very seriously which is why we have set up a dedicated monitoring programme to test the fruit and vegetables being supplied.

Considerable care is taken at all stages in the procurement and supply of products to the SFVS and we strongly reject any suggestion that lower quality fruit and vegetables are being used for the scheme. Products for the SFVS are sourced from growers whose produce is grown according to the principles of integrated crop management, where pesticide inputs are minimised. In the case of UK grown fruit and vegetables, only those from producers who meet the standards of the assured produce scheme are used. Imported fruit used by the scheme is required to meet similar standards and is only drawn from those suppliers working towards, or having achieved, EUREPGAP certification.

We continue to explore ways to minimise pesticide residues further with our supply base.

We have asked the Food Standards Agency, the Pesticides Safety Directorate (the Government Agency responsible for monitoring pesticide residues in the UK), the Fresh Produce Consortium (the trade body for the fresh produce industry) and the suppliers to the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme to comment on the Soil Association's suggestions, please see their comments attached.

Further information about pesticide residues and the School Fruit and vegetable Scheme is available on the 5 A DAY website
http://www.5aday.nhs.uk/sfvs/suppliers/pesticides.aspx

We trust you will feel able to continue to benefit from the School Fruit and vegetable Scheme with confidence.

COMMENTS IN RESPONSE TO THE SOIL ASSOCIATION SUGGESTIONS

Dr Ian Brown from the independent Pesticide Residues Committee [who review the results of the Pesticides Safety Directorate] disagrees with the Soil Association’s claim that fruit and vegetables used in the National School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (NSFVS) are of lower quality for the UK’s school children
he said:
“The approach that the Soil Association have used is one intended to scare rather than inform consumers. It is statistically incorrect to make such comparisons between different surveys, for example the PRC looked at 300 tomato samples last year when the NSFVS looked at just 7 samples (when they were piloting this food). Such a small sample size is not representative of the food supply chain. The monitoring and safety assessments that we have carried out for both the SFVS and the general supply chain indicate that any residues found were not of concern for consumer health. The positive effects of eating fresh fruit and vegetables as part of a balanced, healthy diet are well proven and far outweigh any concern about trace levels of pesticide residues.”
Dr Ian Brown
BSc Agric. FRCP FFOM DDAM
Chairman Pesticide Residues Committee

Food Standards Agency comment:
It cannot be said that anything is absolutely safe and there will always be scientific uncertainty about the extent of risk, but on the balance of current scientific evidence the residue levels do not present a significant concern for children's health.

Comparisons made by the Soil Association are misleading. Samples of SFVS fruit and vegetables are not directly comparable with the Pesticide Residues Committee (PRC) national programme. The pesticide residue levels found in samples of fruit and vegetables supplied under the SFVS are very low.

Fresh Produce Consortium comment:
In our opinion the Soil Association is irresponsibly, selectively quoting information, which distorts the true position promoting ill informed consumer decisions and concern. Parents, teachers and children need not be concerned by the presence of the minimal pesticide residue levels found. All remain well below the mandatory levels set by EU and UK governments after considerable evaluation. For many years suppliers have adopted rigorous standards of crop husbandry including integrated crop management techniques, which promote the minimum use of pesticides. Adherence to these standards is independently audited on a regular basis and these principals are used extensively for all the industry’s customers including major retailers and the School Fruit & Vegetable Scheme. The results quoted are likely to be from sampling taken from different sources and at different times of the year, due to the seasonal nature of the products. The information cannot be used in direct comparison other than to monitor that products are being produced in a responsible manner which these results clearly emphasise. It is not, therefore, correct and is wholly inaccurate to state that School Fruit & Vegetable produce is inferior.
Nigel R Jenney
Chief Executive

Suppliers to the SFVS comments:

"I feel it is important to stress that our sourcing policy for SFVS produce is identical to sourcing for retail markets. In most cases the farms/suppliers are the same, the only difference being the size grades e.g. the smaller fruit is used for SFVS whilst the larger fruit is used for retail markets."
David Alder
Technical Manager Minor Weir and Willis

We consider the headlines that have been printed to be completely irresponsible. Watton Produce, as the largest supplier of fresh & prepared carrots to the SFVS, grow all of our crops to the highest standard, and, for the Soil Association to claim that there is a higher percentage of chemicals to be found in the supply to schools as opposed to the supply to supermarkets is absolute rubbish and we challenge anyone to prove it.
Katy Negus
Watton Produce

95% of the fruit [bananas] we supply to the SFVS is from Cameroon from which we also supply to Tesco and Somerfield.
This year we have tested fruit from these farms 12 times and, although residues have been found, (post harvest) they were less than 25% of the Maximum permitted level (MRL)
It should be noted that all of the banana is tested, including stalk and skin even though these are not eaten. No residues have ever been found on banana flesh/pulp.
Stephen Wilson
Technical Manager, JP Fruits

22nd September 2005

School organisation from January 2006

Further to my letter of 17th November announcing changes to all our carefully made plans, I am now able to tell you more about how we will be organising the classes from January 2006. These new arrangements for class organisation mean that fewer children will be changing classes, despite the changes of teacher that will need to take place.

Class 1: Mrs Kenworthy - 26 pupils
Year 2 pupils – 22 (no change) plus 4 pupils from Year 1

Class 2: Mrs Green – 23 pupils
Year 2 pupils – 23 (no change)

Class 3: ***Mrs Cooper / teacher to be appointed – 29 pupils
Year 1 pupils – 29

Class 5: Miss Edwards – 20 pupils
Reception (September starters) – 18

Class 6: Mrs Marshall – 24 pupils
Reception (January starters) – 24

***These arrangements are to cover Miss Wood’s maternity leave. Mrs Cooper and the teacher we are in the process of recruiting will be working as a job share, with Mrs Cooper working 3 days per week. The job share was fully organised at the start of this week, but ill health has created a problem for the teacher who was due to cover the 2 days per week and this part of the post has now had to be advertised. Mrs Cooper has worked in the school as a supply teacher on a number of occasions and was a teacher at this school a few years ago. Miss Wood hopes to return to school before the end of the summer term.

Miss Edwards will remain with us until the end of the summer term as the teacher of Class 5. Miss Edwards’ class will initially be in the spare classroom by Miss Wood’s classroom, where children will have access to a secure outdoor play area. When Nursery move back to their room (after the roof has been replaced), Miss Edwards will move into the Early Years Unit into the room vacated by Nursery.

Miss Edwards and Mrs Cooper will be visiting school before Christmas to meet the children they will teach.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this difficult, unsettled period.

A parcel arrives at our school

This morning, in Assembly, we opened a parcel that arrived at our school. Inside we found lots of white hares. One of them had a letter. It told us that we could have one of the white hares to keep. He has a Swedish flag and the name of our school on a label. Everyone was interested and excited to get the parcel. It has a DVD in too showing us lots of things about the school in Sweden.
We posted our parcel to Finland last week. If you want to read news about all the parcels, then click this link to:

The Incredible Journey.

Park and Stride

Dear Parents,

Thank you to everyone who has helped us by returning the Travel to School questionnaire and attending our meeting to discuss issues and ideas. There were many useful ideas and comments, some of which we hope to investigate and pursue in an effort to ease the congestion outside school.

One idea that we have been able to research and put into immediate action is the use of the Rose and Crown car park on Northgate for ‘Park and Stride’. The landlord has kindly offered the use of the large car park behind the pub as a place for parents to park and then walk to school. His only request is that parents park considerately and do not block any entrances or exits. We would be delighted if parents took up this offer and we feel it would have many benefits:

1. Using the Park and Stride would ease congestion outside school considerably, thus making it safer for everyone.

2. The 5-10 minute walk from the Rose and Crown would probably take no longer than battling to park and drive along and around Longcroft.

3. The short walk morning and afternoon would be healthier for parents and children!

4. Being already parked in the village it would be handy for popping to the shops after dropping off the children.

5. The Park and Stride could be a meeting place for parents and their children. The walk to school would then be a social activity for families to walk together.

We hope as many families as possible will take up this opportunity and use the Park and Stride.

Linda Stacey and I are currently moving forward with the School Travel Plan and we will keep you updated on further developments. We would still welcome any unreturned questionnaires or further comments/ideas.

Thank you,

Claire Kenworthy