The Southwoldian
Thinking for ourselves, respecting each other, achieving together

Friday 24th June 2011

Building update
So the lovely stairs went and no-one wanted a brick souvenir and we have a temporary exit staircase for emergencies via a classroom. We have practised our escape procedures twice and have managed to get the whole school out in three minutes and ten seconds, which is not much slower (about twenty seconds) than our record time. The additional container has gone into place and stairs will be added this weekend. The removal of any traces of asbestos went very smoothly over the last two weekends and is now complete. The air tests each weekend gave us the all clear each time and we now begin work in two areas—putting in steels to support each of the mezzanine floors inside whilst outside the piling begins in advance of the foundations going in for the new nursery, classrooms and stairs as well as the science garden and roof top play area.
Thanks for all your co-operation and understanding. The children have been very sensible throughout.

Next week….
On Monday 27th school is closed for our planned INSET Day—this is our final staff training day of the year. So please remember that there is no school on Monday.

As you will be aware from the media, teachers in NUT and ATL will be taking industrial action on the 30th June.

The action (a one day strike) will result in class or whole school closures across the country.

The decision to close the school or send pupils home is never taken lightly, but in this instance, where staff have elected to take lawful industrial action, I will have no choice but to take appropriate steps to ensure the health, safety and well being of all pupils especially as all teachers at Southwold are members of the NUT and we are very conscious of the fact that our building is currently undergoing major surgery and therefore health and safety of all our staff, pupils, families and visitors must be a prime concern.
We are aware that class/school closures inconvenience parents and carers and so I am writing to give you advance notice of the likely impact of the action on this school.

There are meetings scheduled between the Department for Education and the unions on Monday and if the action goes ahead the school will be closed again on Thursday re-opening as usual on Friday morning.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sports News:

Football
Southwold v Mandeville
A busy month for football with the Year 3 and 4 boys footballers taking on Mandeville on the 6th June in a massively entertaining 2-2 draw. The Year 5 and 6 Boys team played Mandeville this week but lost 1-3 The girls also took on Mandeville and although they dominated for long periods and had a goal disallowed Mandeville took the lead before Beverly Sivi made sure the girls got a result they at least deserved with a 1-1 draw.
Great effort all round with more games to come.
Cycling
Grass Track Round Two :
Southwold took on Gayhurst and North Haringey. In a good afternoon’s racing the girls won as usual and were as strong as ever with the girl’s pursuit team the stand out performers managing to avenge the defeat to the Gayhurst boys by smoothly beating the Gayhurst girls. Standout performances by Tamim in a difficult scratch race with fifth spot. Oliwia from Year 4 won all her events. The school took two teams to show our strength in depth and a great afternoon’s racing ensued.

BIKE ACROSS THE BOROUGH

Southwold took the biggest contingent of cyclists—pupils, staff, parents and a governor to the Bike Across the Borough event yesterday with over 200 pupils from across Hackney riding from Finsbury Park to the Olympic Viewing Point. The pupils enjoyed the whole event and said:

- "seeing the whole ride in front of me and behind me and being right in the middle"
- "riding with so many other schools"
- "the penny farthing"
- "when we went round the corner and we could suddenly see the the stadium"
- "the biscuits"
- "when the policeman was riding on the pavement"

However, the most resounding, most common and most enthusiastically expressed response was:
- "when we went downhill"

A great effort and well done the cyclists from all over Hackney.