Dear Parents/Carers,

We know that you are all aware of the adaptations we are making to school life as a result of the flooding that occurred in the infant block at half term. It has been lovely to see the children eating together in the marquee this week and having jacket potatoes if they wanted a hot lunch.

We are really keen to provide the children with the opportunity to have a Christmas lunch in school but to make this possible, given the large number of children that we will be catering for, we will need to spread this out over a few days. There will be a roast turkey or Quorn roast option for the children. The full Christmas lunch menu is shown on the attached poster.

Next week, KS1 (Year 1 and Year 2), will have their Christmas lunch on Tuesday 10^th December, KS2 (Years 3 – 6) will have theirs on Wednesday 11^th December and then Nursery and Reception on Thursday 12^th December. On these three days, the Christmas lunch will be the only hot option – there will be no jacket potatoes but there will be a cold lunch option (cheese, ham or tuna sandwich) on offer or you can choose to send your child in with a packed lunch. This means…

On Tuesday 10^th December, Year 1 and Year 2 will have the choice of a Christmas dinner or a sandwich provided by school or you can send a packed lunch from home. Reception and KS2 will only be able to order a sandwich from school or bring a packed lunch from home.

On Wednesday 11^th December, KS2 will have the choice of a Christmas dinner or a sandwich provided by school or you can send a packed lunch from home. Reception and KS1 will only be able to order a sandwich from school or bring a packed lunch from home.

On Thursday 12^th December, Nursery and Reception will have the choice of a Christmas dinner or a sandwich provided by school or you can send a packed lunch from home. KS1 and KS2 will only be able to order a sandwich from school or bring a packed lunch from home. Year 6 are on a school trip on this day so there are separate arrangements already in place for this day so they won’t need to order a lunch on Thursday 12^th December.

If you would like your child to have a Christmas lunch on their designated day, you will need to make a payment of £2.90 for junior children via Parent Pay or request a barcoded letter. (NB: this will not show as a separate item on your Parent Pay account, just make a payment for lunch in the normal way). Those children entitled to Free School Meals and Universal Free School Meals will automatically receive a lunch but please still complete the link to make their lunch choices.

Please can you complete the lunch choices for your child using the link below. You will need to complete the form for each child you have but please use the correct link for the phase your child is in.

·       KS1 Christmas Lunch Choice form  https://forms.office.com/e/rLdtiLwyme

·       KS2 Christmas Lunch Choice form  https://forms.office.com/e/qzeUAD7yAZ

·       Reception Christmas Lunch Choice form  https://forms.office.com/e/PwSDDsBq8W

When selecting options on the link for the three days, you will only be able to choose a pudding on the day your child will have a Christmas dinner.  On the other days the children will have vanilla shortbread.

The logistics of preparing the food in the kitchen and then moving the food up to the marquee to be served, mean that we really need to know the numbers we are catering for. Please can we ask you to complete the relevant link to make the lunch choices for your child by 12pm on Friday 6^th December. It is really important that we receive a response for every child to help us plan appropriately, even if your child will bring a packed lunch from home on those days. Please be aware that if we don’t receive a response from you, we will not be able to provide a Christmas lunch for your child. Your support in completing the form by the deadline is very much appreciated.

On Monday 9^th and Friday 13^th December, the children will have the usual jacket potato option for their hot choice or a sandwich from school or packed lunch from home as they have this week. They will order this during morning registration as they normally do on those days.

We are asking that the children wear their Christmas jumper on the day that they have their Christmas dinner so Christmas jumpers for KS1 on Tuesday 10^th, for KS2 on Wednesday and Nursery and Reception on Thursday. Although Christmas Jumper Day is an initiative from the charity Save the Children, as we have asked parents for several donations recently, we are not asking for individual donations but will talk to the children about the charity in assembly at the start of next week and should you wish to make your own donation, there are different ways to do this using the website link below.

https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/christmas-jumper-day/about/how-to-pay-in-your-fundraising

Nothing we do in school at the moment is quite ‘normal’ but we know from the conversations we have had with parents that you appreciate that we are still trying to incorporate all of the things that make school a special place to be.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Yours sincerely

Mr Chamberlain                  Mrs Gray

Head Teacher                      Deputy Head Teacher