Full School Calendar

VE Day Celebrations - please read carefully

8th May 2025

Location: whole school

On Thursday 8^th May, we invite you all to join us for a commemorative VE Day celebration. The children are asked to wear red, white and blue to school on the 8^th May instead of their school uniform (we kindly request no football kits thank you) and at 11.15 a.m. family members are invited – wearing their own read, white and blue! – to join us on the school field for a short burst of song (the children will be singing for you, although you are welcome to join in!) followed by family picnics.

How the day we will work:

• Families are invited to come into school from 11.15 a.m. bringing with them picnics, picnic blankets, deckchairs, etc. and pitch up on the school field – find a spot and claim your ground! You may like to listen to the children’s singing from your picnic spot or come and take a seat (there may not be enough chairs for everyone) in the ‘performance area’. Younger children and babies are very welcome as are grandparents, aunties, uncles, etc. It really will be an informal, community affair!
• At around 11.30 a.m. the children will take their places on the performance area ‘stage’ to perform a few traditional and modern songs connected to VE Day.
• Once their performance is complete so is the school day! Classes will be taken back onto the main playground from where we would ask just one parent to go collect them from their teacher. Once collected the children will join you and other family members/friends on the astro turf for your family picnic. You are free to go home with your children whenever you like having collected them from their teacher but equally you are welcome to stay and picnic for as long as you like.
• Don’t forget to wear your red, white and blue!

What do I do if I cannot make the picnic on 8^th May?

Please do not worry if you are unable to join our VE Day celebrations on 8^th May; we appreciate that many of you have work commitments and won’t be able to make it. If this is the case, please send your child to school wearing their red, white and blue WITH A PACKED LUNCH. They will then picnic on the astro with school staff and other children whose parents and carers are unable to join us: this really won’t be a problem, but they will need a packed lunch.

You will then collect your child as normal at the end of the school day according to their usual exit time.

Please do not compromise school staff by asking other parents to include your child in their family picnic as it is imperative that we ensure the safety of all children and can only guarantee this by keeping those children whose family members cannot join us with school staff. If you are unable to join us but are sending a nominated relative along to the event on your behalf (e.g. a nan, uncle, childminder, etc.) please inform us of this in writing (email will suffice) by 12 noon on Wednesday 7^th May at the very latest. If sending consent in by email please use VE Day Celebrations Parental Consent as the subject of your email and send it to the school email address.

If you do not send an email by 12 noon on Wednesday 7^th May telling us who you are authorising to collect your child following the short performance on 8^th May school staff will not release your child into the care of anyone other than a parent/carer or those people who routinely collect your child from school. Please don’t send emails after 12 noon on the 7^th May as they won’t be considered; we have to collate all the information and ensure its accurate distribution to teachers and late communication will undermine the effectiveness of these processes. We are not trying to be difficult here, we just need time to process all the information given to us and need a cut off deadline – that is not compromised by late communication – to enable us to collate and cascade information received so that all children are safe.

The safety of the children is our top priority so if you are nominating an adult to collect your child please include their full name and relationship to your child in the written authorisation you send to school and tell the person who is coming to collect your child on the 8^th May that they will need to bring photo id – such as a passport or driving license - with them so that we can verify they are who you say they are!

We hope that many of you will be able to join us from 11.15 a.m. on the 8^th May and are keeping everything crossed that the sun will continue to shine. Please do not forget to send your child to school with a hat and to apply sunscreen – it gets very hot on the astro turf!