Dear Parents,

Just a note to give you some information regarding activities during the run up to Christmas.

Children in Need

Dress Up / Down Friday! Children and staff are welcome to wear whatever they like to school on Friday and any donations sent in will be passed to Children in Need.

Christmas Play

Due to the size of the school hall we are severely limited to the number of people we can allow in for each performance and maintain everyone's safety. For this reason, and to allow everyone the opportunity, we have to limit the number of tickets we can provide per child. In the first instance this is three tickets. You are welcome to request more but this request will only be dealt with once everyone has had opportunity to purchase their allocation (1st December). After this we will issue the remaining tickets to parents who have requested them or refund people's unfilled requests. This is not how we like to do things, but the health and safety of children, staff and parents must be paramount. We thank you for your understanding in this matter.

AGPM and Uniform

Next Thursday 26th of November the Governors of the school will be presenting their report for last year in the school hall to which you are all welcome. There will also be opportunity to share any views you have regarding a possible change to school uniform policy.

The suggestion is that children currently in school whose parents do not wish their child to wear uniform would notify the school, and the child would be welcome to wear clothes of their own choice. However the rule would change so that all children who start from January 2010 or current pupils whose parents do not opt out, would be expected to wear school uniform. The reasons for this change are:

• currently the vast majority of pupils do wear uniform;
• uniform is compulsory for school visits (and sometimes forgotten, causing problems);
• peer pressure and the need for the latest "Label" is on the increase even here in school;
• we believe in the objective of the current policy which is:
  • "Our intention is that pupils who attend Ysgol Comins Coch will be proud to belong to the school and will wish to be identified with us by wearing our distinctive school uniform. School Uniform is a royal blue sweatshirt and a yellow polo shirt with the school badge. Whilst wearing school uniform is not compulsory it is very practical for all activities and establishes a very healthy sense of unity and teamwork.
    On the grounds of health and safety the school insists on uniform being worn for all visits and activities where children need to leave the school site, including swimming lessons. The cooperation of parents in ensuring a full and correct maintenance of the uniform is requested."

Please be clear that there is no intention to insist that individuals currently at the school who object, be forced to wear uniform. If you would like to discuss the matter with Mr Fanning or to share your views please contact the school or attend the meeting next Thursday.

PTA

We are very proud of the School PTA and the work they do on behalf of the school community organising activities, improving resources and raising funds. Every parent is a member of the association and any help or support you can offer is very much appreciated. The committee will be holding their AGM to which you are all invited after the AGPM next Thursday. We promise that these meetings will not take long, be as informal as possible and there will even be free cheese and wine! We would be grateful if as many of you as possible could attend.

Yours sincerely,

Tom Fanning