Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Sports Camp during May half term holiday

  Mon 23 Apr 2018 Mr. Matthews

  During the half term holiday at the end of May, our sports coach is running a multi sports camp through the week.
  Please see below for details.

   

  If you are looking for something fun, enjoyable & active for your little ones to do in the school holidays.. BDM Sports are running an exclusive holiday Camp here at Ashleigh Primary School with giveaways & prizes to be won... Book now at www.bdmsports.co.uk/bookings.

• Netball Team

  Fri 20 Apr 2018 Mr. Matthews

  Our fantastic netball team have done brilliantly well this season, as usual.

  They go in to the finals which will take place in a few weeks time, in an incredibly strong position.

  Well done to all the girls and their coaches!

  

• Run, Jog, Walk

  Thu 19 Apr 2018 Mr. Matthews

  Our St George's Day 'Run, Jog, Walk' on Monday 23rd April, will be raising much needed money for Sport Relief, East Lancs Hospice and the school fund. Children can wear anything red, white or blue when they do their run, but need to wear their usual school uniform for the rest of the day. Please return sponsorship forms back to school after the event. Let's hope the weather is kind to us, as it often isn't when we do events outside!

• Scarlet Fever is in the Darwen area

  Wed 18 Apr 2018 Mr. Matthews

  We mentioned scarlet fever a few weeks back, sadly, it's still in the local area.
  Please look out for the symptoms, and if you suspect your child may have it, get them checked by a GP. GPs are saying that some parents are a little reluctant to bring children in, believing that they simply have a virus, when in fact sometimes it turns out to be scarlet fever. So if in doubt, get them checked out!

  If your child is diagnosed with it, they will begin to feel much better within a day or two of starting a course of antibiotics.
  https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/scarlet-fever/

• Healthy Lunches

  Mon 09 Apr 2018 Mr. Matthews

  We have launched Healthy Lunch Box Fortnight this week.
  Everyone should have had a letter home last night about it. It aims to give parents more ideas about what can be included in a healthier lunchbox. If you are able to use some of these ideas, that's great, if not, they are there for you to try out when you can. If you have any thoughts or comments, as ever, please come and have a chat with me.

  Here is a copy of the letter which went home...

  Monday 9th April 2018
  Dear Parent,

  Over the next couple of weeks, we are hoping to highlight the sticky topic of lunch boxes and exactly what goes in them each day.

  I came across a startling statistic the other day,

  ‘only around one in a hundred packed lunches
  in England meet children’s nutritional needs’.

  Assuming this is even vaguely accurate, and it does come from the Children’s Food Trust, so it’s probably not too far from the truth, this is a pretty grim assessment of packed lunches across the country.

  I am far from an expert in this, and wouldn’t dream of preaching the ins and outs of what should or should not be in a healthy lunch box. However, the Children’s Food Trust are better qualified to talk about this, so much of the following is from their website,

   

  http://www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk/

   

  A balanced diet is about eating lots of different foods to get the nutrients you need, and it’s hard to get that variety into lunchboxes (but much easier to do in a hot meal). So if you’re going down the packed lunch route, be prepared to put in a fair bit of time and effort.
  The cost of a decent packed lunch varies a lot depending on where you shop, but if you’re smart about preparing lunchbox foods in batches, it’s possible to do it very economically. But don’t forget to factor in the effort that good packed lunches take – school meals might seem more expensive, but they do save a lot of time.

  What should my child’s packed lunch include?

  A starchy food …
  …like bread, pasta, cous cous or potato. Wholegrain varieties contain more fibre so choose these where you can. And while sandwiches are often our go-to choice, you can use different types of bread to give kids variety – pitta, wraps, bagels, chapattis or toast fingers with a dip. Some children prefer to make their own sandwich up if you give them the components. And don’t forget, leftover pasta, noodles, potatoes or cous cous can be the makings of a cold packed lunch salad the next day as long as you cool and store them properly.

  Fruit and veg ...
  …we all need to eat more of these, whatever our age! Get veg into packed lunches in all sorts of ways: on their own (e.g. sticks of cucumber, carrot, pepper, celery, cherry tomatoes, baby corn, sugar snap peas, pots of mixed salad), as part of sandwiches or stick pulses like kidney beans and chickpeas in pasta salads. Halved cherry tomatoes in a pot, instead of tomato slices in sandwiches, can help to avoid the soggy sandwich effect.
  For fruit, children often prefer a pot of chopped fruit rather than whole fruit (especially younger children). Try chopped apple (stop it turning brown by rinsing it in diluted lemon juice), satsuma segments, strawberries, blueberries, halved grapes (longways) or melon slices on their own, or as a mixture. Small pots of canned fruit in juice can work well, or with some yoghurt (remember the spoon!)
  Raisins, sultanas and dried apricots are another popular choice – and they’re cheaper and often healthier than processed fruit snacks, which may contain added sugar and be more damaging to children’s teeth.

  Beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins…
  …mix it up rather than the failsafe ham sandwich: try strips of chicken, beef, pork, cooked or canned tuna or salmon. Meat alternatives like soya, tofu, Quorn, or cooked egg can also work well in sandwiches or salads. Try houmous or other bean dips with strips of pitta and veg sticks, or as a topping for crispbreads and crackers. Peanut butter’s another option.

  Dairy foods ...
  Pack milk as a drink (go for semi-skimmed or 1% milk – all the same vitamins, just less fat). If you want to go for flavoured milk, check the label and choose one with lower sugar. You can also put cheese in sandwiches, with crackers or fruit, or as sticks or cubes. Don’t forget, cheese can be high in fat and salt so choose stronger-tasting ones (you can use less of it) or reduced-fat varieties cheese, and don’t pack cheese every single day. Yoghurt or fromage frais are also great choices – go for the plain varieties or check the labels and choose pots that are lower in sugar. Rice pudding pots or custard with fruit are also good packed lunch puds.

  A drink ...
  Plain milk or water are the best choices for children’s teeth. If you want to pack fruit juice in your child’s lunchbox, stick to a 150ml portion. Better still, dilute it with still or sparkling water to make it more hydrating. It’s best to avoid drinks like squash, fruit juice drinks and flavoured water (even if they’re labelled as ‘sugar-free’, ‘no added sugar’ or ‘reduced sugar’) – they offer very little nutritional benefit, and some schools ask you not to bring them in

  Don't forget ...
  • instead of chocolate bars or cereal bars, pack lower-sugar alternatives like scones, malt loaf, fruit bread, plain popcorn or fruit in sugar-free jelly
  • instead of processed fruit snacks, choose fresh fruit or plain dried fruit
  • instead of crisps, try plain rice cakes, oat cakes or breadsticks with cheese or unsalted nuts
  • get children involved in choosing and preparing what goes into their lunchbox, to help encourage them to eat it
  • pre-prepared fruit and veg are generally more expensive than doing it yourself, so get some small pots and prep them yourself to cut the cost
  • using leftovers as part of packed lunches is a good way to cut down the prep time, but make sure it’s cooled and stored properly
  • make sure that what you pack is easy for little fingers to open, and to eat
  • children often love a bit of DIY – wraps and pots of fillings can be more exciting if they get to put them together
  • dipping foods rule for many kids, so give breadsticks or toast fingers, veg sticks and a pot of houmous or our fabulous fish pate a try.

  Later this week, lunchtime staff will start to give children ‘Healthy Lunch Box’ tokens, which will be used in a weekly lottery. The winners each week will get the chance to eat on a special table the following week. Staff will be looking for the healthiest of choices in lunch boxes in order to award tokens.

  We hope that this, along with a number of other initiatives a select group of the school council have come up with, will help to make everyone’s packed lunches better than ever before!

  Thank you for your continued support.

  Mr. Matthews