We are boxing and and posting the pants for Karibuni Children at the end of this week, as Joy Murphy, our friendly Trustee is heading out to Kenya on the 12th February and will be hand delivering them to the children at the Wesley Empowerment Centre.

So far we have collected 155 pairs of pants for the children but it would be great to be able to increase the amount.

We are also going to be sending some pictures and messages as we have a link with the Social Worker who works directly with the project so that we can really strengthen the link – so if children wished to send cards, pictures or messages they are more than welcome to do so!

Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income.

We love books and we massively value the importance of teaching children to read, which we do through the daily teaching of phonics, daily whole class reading sessions, story-telling sessions, buddy-reading and generally immersing children in books to hopefully embed a love of reading.

But we NEED your help!  Nationally, not enough children are reading at home (with or without a parent) and without this extra reading practice we are unintentionally limiting their long-term opportunities.  We fully appreciate how busy parents and families are, which is why the only homework we ask of children is daily reading, along with some practice of their spellings and number facts.

World Book Day is on the 2nd March this year, and we will be celebrating it with the focus being very much on books, stories and the love (and importance) of reading – watch this space for further information, especially as we will also be inviting you to join us in the afternoon!

Both videos are slightly dated – but the message isn’t: Reading is a vital skill that is needed throughout life and opens up doors and opportunities.

We were delighted with a surprise visit from our Firefly Jake today! He wanted to pop in and see his classmates before heading back to Birmingham Children’s Hospital for more treatment, and we were all thrilled to see him!

It was lovely to share our news with Jake and see him smile, and tell him how much we are missing him! We told him what a hero he is!

All our best wishes for the next round of treatment!

We are delighted to welcome everyone back at the start of the new term, and a particularly special welcome to our new pupil, Beatrice, who has joined the Fireflies.

We are also delighted to announce that the new classroom is now in use, and the Grasshoppers are enjoying being in a much better sized room for their learning!

This has also meant that the Bees are in their new permanent classroom and the Fireflies have use of both their main classroom and The Pod – so all is back to normal!

We have some sad news, that Mrs Michelle Morris, our Friday Firefly Teacher will be leaving us at the end of this half term – but we will be recruiting and will keep you informed throughout the process.

We are missing one of our team, Jake from Fireflies, as he is currently receiving treatment for lymphoma at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. We are all wishing him well and sending our wishes and prayers for a strong recovery along with our warmest thoughts to his family.

We wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone for supporting our Nativities, ‘Wear Something Christmassy Day’ and ‘Wear Something Blue Day (Jake’s favourite colour is blue!) – because all donations and ticket sales have raised the fantastic sum of £649 which is going to Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity.

Thank you!

Please see the following letter regarding homework, along with the Homework Policy.

Homework

Homework Policy

We held our Safer Schools Meeting last week with staff, governors, children and Ian Bartlett, Shropshire Council’s Safer Schools Officer.  We are delighted to have been awarded Safer School’s Accreditation again:

The following is the report that Ian made following the meeting:

I’d like to congratulate Brown Clee CE Primary School on maintaining their ‘Safer School’ accreditation.  The Safer School initiative is a risk management approach to school security, created by West Mercia Police and supported by Shropshire Council.  The school was accredited in 2012 and has continued annual meetings as a review. Miss Relph recently held a Safer School review meeting. A thorough, positive and productive meeting involving  governors, staff and pupils. The pupils contributed well to the meeting, providing good ideas. An important aspect of the initiative includes involving pupils and parents/carers and the school had carried out surveys for the meeting. Excellent feedback and some good constructive observations. The meeting concluded with the school receiving a new Safer School certificate. Excellent work!

Ian Bartlett

Safer Schools

Shropshire Council

We would also like to thank parents for their support in returning the Safer Schools Survey, and you can find a summary of the responses in the following letter:

Parent Survey Summary

We are now in Advent and as such are rapidly approaching the festive period in school.  nativity rehearsals are well under way so we thought we’d just remind parents of what is happening and when in December.

Christmas Church Service: Tuesday 13th December 2pm:  All parents welcome to join us celebrate Christmas in John the Baptist Church with Reverend Mark Dayborne and the Open the Book Team.

Christmas Lunch: Wednesday 14th December: Christmas Lunch – don’t forget to pre-order a Christmas meal.

Wear One Thing Christmassy: Wednesday 14th December

Fireflies’ and Grasshoppers’ Nativity: Wednesday 14th December 6pm and Thursday 15th December 2pm – Have you booked your tickets for the evening performance of the Nativity?  All proceeds going to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Wear Something Blue Day: Friday 16th December – We are inviting children to wear something blue on the last day of term for donations to Birmingham Children’s Hospital where Jake is receiving his treatment.

Please see the following link which gives all the information for Santa’s visit to Ditton Priors on December

Dance along with the Raving Santa

Please find attached a letter providing information regarding changes to school uniform.  We hope that parents see these changes as a positive step, and will see the many benefits these changes will bring.

School Uniform Changes

The children are now in first place….can we stay there until 7.30pm tonight?!

Brown Clee have entered the Times Tables Rock Stars Maths Week England national competition called ‘England Rocks’ for the past 3 years, and if you look at the wall in Reception you will see the success that the children have had!
This week sees their 4th attempt to reach the wall of fame, and today is the final day of the competition….at the moment the school is in 2nd place!

The winning school is the one with the highest average number of correct answers per student, and the competition closes at 7.30pm today! There is a 60 minute limit playtime per student each day so we really need every point we can get.

Well done Brown Clee….this just shows what you can do if you work together…let’s show that team-spirit and really all put our 60 minutes in and see if we can earn another certificate….there is a place on the wall waiting!

Thank you to parents who attended our Parent Feedback sessions last week; we hope you found them informative and helpful.  We really value the partnership between home and school, as it is invaluable in order to help children be the best they can be.

We handed out the following leaflet regarding reading at home – and in case parents have misplaced it, or were unable to attend the sessions, here it is again.  We can not stress enough how important it is that children read every day!  Reading impacts learning across all subjects, and yes we teach reading, and practice it in school – but it is impossible to hear children all read individually.

If children are not fluent readers it can have significant negative impact on their future – so please, have a read of this leaflet and then open a book and read with your child!  C

Young people use the internet for a variety of activities including games, research and homework and, of course, for accessing social networking sites. Whilst they are confident with the technology children are not always able to make the right decisions about what they access, who they talk to and what they might post about themselves and others on the internet.

Our website provides lots of information and guidance on the risks involved online, along with how you can help teach your children to avoid these risks.  These can be found if you click the following link:-

We would also like to share the following guidance

Child_Online_Safety_for_Parents_guidance_booklet

At our upcoming parents feedback sessions, we will be providing further information regarding the risks involved with children and the online world.