We wish everyone a nice and healthy 2015! With a new year ahead we like to do our very best to make it a good one with the children and one in which we learn a lot…

Lost and found items Many towels, garments and so many other items remain at school after the gymnastics lessons but also at the coat racks. Tomorrow these garments will be displayed in the room at the gymnastics hall entrance. Could you please come by to have a peak whether you recognize items belonging to your child(ren). Children of groups 5-8 could even take a look themselves and hopefully, many (lost) items could be returned to the rightful owners. Items that have not been picked up by the end of the week, will be donated to the Salvation Army.
Birthday celebrations: handing out treats
Children celebrating birthdays get to hand out treats to the teachers as well. We like to start the year with a minor change: Children only go to groups located at the same floor as their group. This way, things do not change for the infants who were not allowed to use any stairs. For groups 3 and 4 this means that they stay at the ground floor. The only exception are children of groups 5-8 who are allowed to go to group 6 and vice versa (group 6 is allowed to visit groups 5,7, 8 including Taal). All this is to guard that children spend their time doing school work.
Infants The new theme will be : “a new year” a year we all started with fireworks. We work with Schatkist, where we read from the story Happy new year, Slak! (snail) Children learn to deal with the concept of time. Learn to look at the clock (entire hours). Children work on different activities with apprehension of concepts like seconds, minutes, the months of the year, days of the week, quick, slow and short. We will also read the book of Kikker who celebrates his birthday, where he also starts with a new year (of his life). Monday 12th January you will receive the theme letter with additional information.
Holidays school year 2014-2015 and days off:
Spring holiday 23rd February – 27th February
Good Friday & 3rd April
Easter Monday 6th April and 7th April (including Easter weekend) a study day for the school team, children have the day off.
Koningsdag 27th April
May holiday 4th May – 15th May
2e Pinksterdag 25th May
Summer holiday 10th July – 24th August
Lice check: Hooray, we are still free of lice and nits! Could we all continue checking the children’s heads by combing their (wet) hairs, since the next lice check is planned on Wednesday 7th January 2015.
Lunch hour Children can only spend their lunch hour at school when a card for lunch has been bought with Ms Hannie in the kitchen upstairs. Ms Hannie is available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Could you also please fill in the form at our school website? This way we get to make an overview for the teacher what the children’s regular days will be for having the lunch hour at school. Without a card for lunch hour children cannot spend their lunch hour at school. We like to thank you in advance.
Coming to school too late:
Many children still enter the school after the second bell, which is too late. We would like to stress that coming to school on time is a necessity. It is not good for anyone if children enter the classroom late. When children of groups 3-8 are late: it is no longer necessary to get a “red” card, since sometimes that could mean loss of time (and at times even disturbing the group twice). The teacher makes note of children that enter the group late. The first bell is at 8.25am, if everyone could make sure to be in the group at that time, the lessons could actually start at 8.30am. (second bell) When children come late to school too often we have the obligation to notify the Hague department for leerplicht, which is when children are late 9 times or more.
Calling sick
Could you please contact our school when your child is ill before school starts (which is at 8.30am) using phone number 070-3540457. This is new policy which we are obligated to do on account of leerplicht. We need to get a phone call from home as long as your child is ill(or not feeling well)every day, preferably before the lessons start. This is another obligation of the department of leerplicht. The administration makes a round along the groups and in case the teacher had not yet received a message from you then you can expect a phone call from school. If we still do not get contact with you we are obliged to report that your child is absence illegitimately and when a child is absence more than 2 days we need to inform the department for leerplicht. That is the reason why we like to stress that you please let us know on daily basis that your child is absence, for which we like to thank you in advance. In case of an appointment for doctor(GP), dentist or any other appointment, please hand your child a note to inform the teacher.
Skills for Kids (extended school day)
New lessons start as of next week. You will receive an e-mail on this at home. Several activities still have room for extra children. (street dance for instance!\) In the course of this week, the final lessons will be for cooking and drawing cartoons.
Taalklas for infants At our school, a pilot will start on 12th January; a Taalklas for infants. In this group the teacher likes to emphasize learning Dutch in a playful way, particularly for children of the ages 4 and 5 years. The teacher’s name is Saskia van der Schans who will be guided by HCO (The Hague organisation for guiding primary education). We like to wish her all the best.
Trips: In the morning of 13th January, children of group 3 will visit the library and groups 6 and 8 will visit the library on Thursday 15th January. The annual school family church service has been scheduled for Sunday 8th February 2015 at the Prinses Julianakerk. We hope you like to reserve that date in your agenda. Children of groups 5 and 6 will prepare the service by doing a quest to the church on 5th February next.
Ukkepukkies
The Christmas holiday is now over, time flew by very fast! We hope that everyone was able to enjoy very nice holidays and we will all be able to make a fresh new start for the new year. A year in which we will be working on the themes and many activities for Spelinloop. For the new parents a brief explanation: During 4 weeks we work on themes where children learn the language in a playful way and where the different areas for development like arithmetics and motorics are being practiced. On average we organise activities for spelinloop once a week during the themes. We would appreciate it if many parents will be able to make time to stay fifteen minutes longer than usual. On regular basis we notice that children do not attend their groups 4 times a week, which is the intention of the groups. If we could all pay extra attention to this. The schedule for this month can be found below:
Spelinloop theme Hatsjoe!
Monday 12th January, for all groups.
Tuesday 20th January, for all groups.
Thursday 29th January, for all groups.
We like to ask you to stay for fifteen minutes at the start of the part of that day. We would like you to do the activity with your child. You will be there, won’t you?