Good Morning Brown Clee!

Today I want us to start thinking about our Christian value for this half term – which is FRIENDSHIP.  On Monday we learnt about the importance of trust – trusting in God and also trusting in our friends through the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the Fiery Furnace.

Today I have got a quiz for you – your teacher is going to read out the questions one at a time. Each question has two possible answers and I want you to vote for the answer that you prefer by putting up their hand.  Here we go….

1. What would you rather do at playtime: play football or sit on a bench and chat to your friends?
2. What do you prefer to do with your friends: play on a games console or go swimming?
3. If your best friend was away, would you sit on your own for a day or go and sit by somebody else?
4. If there was a new child in your class, would you ignore them or go and play with them?
5. If someone was being mean to you in the playground, would you hit them or go and tell a teacher?
6. If you had fallen out with your friend, would you go and tell everyone else how horrible your friend is or try to make up?

You all had choices to make in the quiz, all of them to do with friends. In the first three questions, the choices that you made were up to you – your answers depended on your personal likes and dislikes. However, in the last three questions, you could have made a good choice or a bad one with your answer. The choices that you made could either help you to get on with your friends or cause you to fall out.

I now want you to watch this story of Mary and Martha from the New Testament Book of Luke in the Bible….as you watch, have a think about what we can learn from the story…

What did you learn – did the story help you think about somethings that you could do better – some better choices that we could all make?  Here are some questions to help you think…..

• Why did Martha feel so cross with Mary in the story?
• In the story, Jesus told Martha that it was sometimes good simply to sit and listen. Why is it important to listen to our friends?
• How can listening to our friends help us not to fall out?

Let’s have a quiet moment to reflect – think about the importance of listening to friends – ask yourself whether you notice your friends enough?  Do you pay them attention when they are with you?

Prayer of the Day

Dear Lord,
Thank you for today’s story about listening.
Please help us to make time to listen to others.
Please help us never to be too busy to notice those around us.
Amen.

Children can start school in Reception at the beginning of the academic year following their fourth birthday. If your child was born between 1st September 2017 and 31st August 2018 they can start school in September 2022.
An application must be made by the closing date for applications of 15th January 2022 and can made made online via the Shropshire Council website using the following link
Shropshire School Admissions on-line application

Confirmatory PCR tests to be temporarily suspended for positive lateral flow device (LFD) test results

Confirmatory PCR tests following a positive lateral flow device (LFD) test result are to be temporarily suspended from Tuesday 11 January. This will mean that anyone who receives a positive LFD test result will be required to self-isolate immediately and will not be required to take a confirmatory PCR test.

We have a vacancy for a Cleaning Assistant, to work 2 hours a day at the end of the school day, and some holiday cleaning.  If interested please contact the school office – 01746 712652.

Good Morning Brown Clee!

It was so lovely welcoming everyone back yesterday and see everyone’s happy smiley faces and hear their cheery greetings!  We are straight into the Spring Term and I know that some of you have now set your own targets or resolutions following yesterday’s assembly.  Mine was to drink more water each day – as it is so important to keep my body healthy – so I have set myself the target of drinking all my waterbottle each day – something that I regularly failed to do in the past!

Taking care of ourselves is so important – and even though we have family and friends to help us do this, ultimately it is down to ourselves to learn to be responsible for making good choices – whether those choices are about our well-being and health, or our learning. Everything choice that we make is up to us – not anyone else.

Today I want us to think about responsibility – Being Responsible is one of our 3 school rules – and it involves making the right choices.  Have a watch of this video about making the right, or good, choice….and have a think about what you can do to help you make good choices…

So what have you learnt about making good choices?  Is there anything you can do to help make a good choice?

I learnt that you need to stop and take some time – to pause before saying or doing something – to THINK about what would be a good choice.  Have a think about a time when you have made a poor choice – what did you choose and what happened because of it?  Now think what you could have done to help you make a better choice…..

As you go through the day, see if you can try the traffic light method – and STOP – PAUSE and Breathe – then THINK – and make a good choice!  I wonder if it will help you have a more positive day?

Enjoy listening to this song about choices and reflect upon what good choices you are going to make today…

As we come to the end of our assembly, let’s take a moment to reflect  – We all have a lot of choices to make every day – some small, some bigger. How will you make your choices today and who will you talk to when you have big decisions to make?

Prayer of the Day

Dear God,
Thank you that you love us and let us make our own choices.
Help us to remember that our choices have consequences.
Please help us when we have difficult choices to make,
decisions that are helpful to us and to others.
Amen.

The menu for next term has been uploaded to ParentPay and you are now able to book any meals which your child may require right up until Easter.

If your child requires a meal on the first day back in school (Wednesday 5th January 2022) please remember that you can only book meals up until 2 days before the day the meal is required and ensure that you book this on Monday 3rd January at the very latest.

Don’t forget all children from Reception to Year 2 are entitled to a free school meal under the Government’s Universal Infant Free School Meal Scheme.  If you still haven’t activated your child’s ParentPay account contact  the school office in January and they will be able to provide a copy of this.

If you think that your child may be eligible for Free School Meals and they are in Year 3 and above you can apply on-line at Apply for free school meals | Shropshire Council .

Thank you very much for your kind donations of pants or money on Wear One Thing Christmassy Day.  We have received many pairs of pants and also the brilliant sum of £83.50 which we will send to Karibuni to help with their work.

Once again thank you and Merry Christmas.

St John the Baptist Church will be holding their Christmas Carol Service on Sunday 19th December at 11.30am and will be joined by the Group Choir.

The Crib Service is being held on Christmas Eve at 4pm.  Hear the Christmas Story and then go home and prepare for Father Christmas.

Our lost property box is bursting at the seams with items of school uniform, socks and other clothing that have been misplaced around school.  We will be putting the box out on the playground at the end of the day, as well as encouraging children to have a browse so that we can return the clothing items to their rightful owner.

If the items were named, we would be able to return the clothing directly – so a helpful reminder of the importance of naming uniform.

Please do check the Lost Property Box – and you can always ask the children about what will happen to any items not claimed!

Don’t forget the children will be served their Christmas Lunch next Wednesday.  The last date you can pre-book your child’s meal is Monday but we would appreciate it if you could book this weekend (please select the roast dinner option – as although this shows roast beef it will be the Christmas dinner).  If you haven’t yet activated your child’s ParentPay account please contact the school office urgently for a copy of their activation code.

Don’t forget all children in Fireflies and Grasshopper are entitled to free meals under the Government’s Universal Infant Free School Meals Scheme.

Today we are thinking about how we keep ourselves healthy through looking after our personal hygiene.  Hygiene means the practice of keeping clean to stay healthy and prevent disease, and includes washing our hands, brushing our teeth and having a shower or bath.

Brushing our teeth is a really important part of oral hygiene – do you know how to do it properly?

So you should:-

• Brush in a small circle movement on top, behind and in front of teeth. Don’t forget to brush the gums too. This should take about 2 minutes.
• Use a pea-sized blob of toothpaste.
• After brushing, spit out any excess toothpaste. Don’t rinse your mouth immediately after brushing, as it’ll wash away the concentrated fluoride in the remaining toothpaste.

Cleaning hands is important – why?

We have been continuing with our Healthy Living Week, and today have been learning about the importance of sleep.  We have had a think about the following questions:-

Why do we need sleep?

How much sleep do we need?

What can we do to make sure we get enough sleep?

Our Christmas Post Box will be open on Monday 6th to Friday 10th December in the school’s practical area for children to post any Christmas cards that they may wish to send to each other.  We will then deliver the cards the following week.

Fireflies will have their own Christmas class postbox in their classroom.