F.O.B.C.S AGM 5.45 Wed 8th October 2025

Friends of Brown Clee School, A.G.M

All parents / Carers are invited to the AGM on Wednesday 8th October 2025. At school

Everyone is welcome to join and it would be really great to see some new faces, and have some fresh ideas.

 

Kerry

 

 

 

Spelling test

The spelling test for this week will be on Monday as I was out of class, on a course, this morning. The children can use ‘Spelling Shed’ to learn their spellings or use their spelling books to do ‘Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check’.

Many thanks

Shropshire Star First Day of School Special Edition

Our Reception children will be appearing in the Shropshire Star First Day of School Special Edition which will be available to purchase on Monday 13th October.  You can also pre-order this for delivery to school on the day of publication. Please see more information below.

Brown Clee CofE Primary School- Parent_Guardian First Day

 

Special Harvest Menu – Wednesday 8th October

Laura and Carla will be serving a Special Harvest Menu on Wednesday 8th October.  Please see below for details.

This can be booked and paid for in the usual way through ParentPay.  If your child would like the roast chicken click on the roast of the week option and if they would like the loaded Yorkshire click on the veggie sausage toad in the hole option.

Harvest Festival – Thursday 9th October

Reverend Joe will be hosting our annual Harvest Festival Service at St. John the Baptist Church, Ditton Priors on Thursday 9th October at 2:00pm.

All parents, carers, grandparents etc. are invited to join the service – which will involve some readings, songs and prayers.

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Fireflies’ Church Visit

Fireflies made their teachers very proud when they all went on their first class trip to church on Friday. When we arrived Revd. Joe Simons welcomed us all. Then the children took part in a scavenger hunt and we were all impressed with their curiosity and knowledge. They also took part in a short prayer service and spoke confidently about what they wanted to say thank you for. Churchwarden Mr Smith was on hand to show us inside the font, the pulpit and some of the special items that are kept in the vestry. Before we left, he even rang the church bells for us all to listen to. We had a lovely morning and learnt so much about our church during the visit.

Spellings/Phonics/Reading books

Spelling test

As I am out on a course tomorrow, the spelling test for this week will be on Monday instead. It gives the children some extra time to learn their spellings. Their spelling list is on Spelling Shed in ‘Assignments’, if the children would like to use ‘Spelling Shed’ to learn their words.

 

Phonics

Some children have a little plastic bag in their reading wallet which contains the phonic sounds that they don’t yet know. Please could you support your child to learn these sounds.

Google ‘Sound Sayer’ for a brilliant game, which says the sound and gives a virtual pack of words to read containing the chosen sound.

 

Reading books

Just a reminder that the storybooks the children are bringing home are books that they may not be able to read themselves. These are just books to share for pleasure, with an adult if need be. You do not need to write these into their reading record.

The Twinkl phonics books are their main reading book and are closely matched to the phonic sounds that they know. Please record in their yellow reading records when they have read and which page they are up to or if they have completed the book. Reading books are checked daily.

Thank you very much for your support with spellings, reading and phonics. The input from home has a huge impact.

Please do get in touch if you have any questions. Our class email is: grasshoppers@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk

 

 

 

Shropshire Homes – Room Design Competition

As mentioned before the summer, we have a competition in school (ran by Shropshire Homes) – where children will need to design a bedroom around the theme of a book or story. This can again be done in groups or individually. If children wish to enter this competition, they will need to complete these at home and bring their entry into school. The deadline for this is the 1st October. This has been discussed with children in school.

Children will need to complete the following floor plan (COMPETITION ROOM LAYOUT) – paper copies of these can be collected from school – and create a mood board.

 

A mood board will include colour schemes and ideas around their theme of their chosen book/story – and could include drawings, images and quotes. Children can be as creative as they wish with this! The mood boards can be completed as drawings, digitally, physical collages or even a photo take of objects arranged to create the mood board.

 

Examples of mood boards can be seen below:

 

How this may look around a book could be as below:

 

The winner designer(s) of the room design and mood board will get a £50 Waterstones voucher – and their bedroom design will be recreated in one of the show homes at the nearby developments.

After School Clubs – places still available

The following clubs still have availability

Tuesday – Netball (KS2)

Tuesday – Construction club (ALL)

Wednesday – Art Club (KS2)

Thursday – Create Club – Arts and crafts (ALL)

Thursday – Dance (KS2)

Please adjust payment to reflect number of weeks remaining – contact me if you would like more information on any activity

Kerry

Celebration Assembly – Open to all

From next week (Friday 26th September), our celebration assemblies are open to all (parents, carers, grandparents etc.).

 

The door will be open when the gates have closed for children at 08:45. Assembly begins around 08:55 and will finish around 09:30.

 

During this assembly, we give out any certificates gained from home learning activities (Times Tables Rockstars, Spelling Shed and Numbots) – as well certificates for any children who have demonstrated any of our school values (Respect, Thankfulness, Perseverance, Forgiveness, Compassion, Courage) throughout the week.

 

Children also share their favourite things that have learnt from the week, including celebrating any sporting successes – finishing with our maths/times tables competition and drawing our winning reading tickets for the week.

After-school Care Club – “Grab bag” option

Having brought our kitchen in-house, we are now in a position to utilise the kitchen beyond school meals.

 

From next week, we are looking at trialling a “grab bag” option that can be added to those staying after school for care club.

 

The bag would include…

  • A choice of sandwich: cheese, ham, tuna, egg or jam
  • A piece of fruit
  • A salad “bag” – e.g. carrot sticks, cucumber
  • Yogurt
  • A cake (or similar)

Any children attending after school care club can have the “grab bag” option added – and would be just an additional £1.50. If you do wish for your child to have one for any of the sessions, please indicate this (and the choice of sandwich) to Mrs. Godfrey when booking for care club.

 

Please note that snacks (e.g. fruit, biscuit, piece of toast) will still be available to all pupils attending care club, but we will be trialling the “grab bag” as more substantive option for those that may want it.

 

As noted, this is a trial – and we will be seeing whether it works and any potential tweaks we can make.

Spellings – Grasshoppers

Please click on the link below to access a letter with information regarding weekly spelling tests, for children in Grasshoppers.

Just for this week, the children will bring home a blue spelling on Monday (15.9.25), with their first list of spellings.

They will be tested on these words on Thursday (18.9.25) as we focused on these words in class last week so the children have already had lots of opportunity to learn them.

Grasshoppers Spellings Information

Many thanks

 

Welcome Back – September 2025

Welcome Back Letter – Sept ’25

We hope everyone has had a good summer. We have enjoyed welcoming everyone back to school – and for our new reception pupils who have just started.

Here is just some information that we thought would be useful ahead of the new year.

School transport

At the start of the year, we are given a list of children who have been allocated a place on school transport. It is important that you let us know any regular routines where you child will not be going on the bus – as well as any last-minute changes.

Class Information

This academic year, we have the following class structure:

Fireflies (Reception)
Mrs. Nicky Fox (M-Th) & Mrs. Jennie Lister (F)
fireflies@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk
https://browncleeschool.org.uk/classroom/fireflies-class/

Grasshoppers (Year 1/2)
Mrs. Nicky Morris (M-Th) & Mrs. Kerri-Ann Sherry (F)
grasshoppers@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk
https://browncleeschool.org.uk/classroom/grasshoppers-class/

Dragonflies (Year 3/4)
Mrs. Ally Heath
dragonflies@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk
https://browncleeschool.org.uk/classroom/dragonflies-class/

Bees(Year 3/4)
Mrs. Amy Norman (M-Th) & Mr. Danny Harley (F)
bees@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk
https://browncleeschool.org.uk/classroom/bees-class/

Scorpions (Year 5/6)
Mrs. Mandy Cains
scorpions@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk
https://browncleeschool.org.uk/classroom/scorpions-class/

 

Communication

Regular email updates are sent out from our website. If you were previously subscribed, you should have received an email asking you to update these settings. If you missed this, you can update your information by clicking on “update your preferences” on the bottom of any “NEWS BULLETIN” email received. If you have not registered previously and would like to, you can sign using the following link (https://browncleeschool.org.uk/home/parents-area/updates/news-subscription/).

We do also share regular updates on our Facebook Page “Brown Clee C.E. Primary School”. This year, we have introduced a Facebook page for our kitchen – which will share various information about school meals. We are also planning on introducing a pupil-led termly newsletter – which will include updates on what our school council and various other aspects of school.

If you have any questions or queries, you can contact your child’s class teach on the email address above. Mrs. Lloyd will be able to help with any general enquiries – and she can be contacted on admin@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk. You can always catch a member of staff or myself at the starts or end of the day too. Please do share any concerns, as it is the best way for us to deal with any potential issues.

 

Pupil Premium / Free School Meals

Pupil premium is funding that schools receive for children that qualify for free school meals (note: this is not the same thing as Universal Infant Free School Meals – therefore, parents of pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 should consider applying). This funding is used to help towards various financial costs to parents in their schooling (not just free school meals).

This year, parents/carers can receive the following:

  • A reduction in cost for…
    • After-school clubs
    • Wraparound club (before and after school)
    • Residential Trips
  • Upon request, a reduction in cost for…
    • Individual/group music lessons
    • School uniform

 

Further information on this (such as eligibility) can be found on the school website (https://browncleeschool.org.uk/home/joining/meals/), by applying directly with Shropshire Council (https://next.shropshire.gov.uk/free-school-meals/apply-for-free-school-meals/) or by contacting school.

 

Wraparound Care and After-school Clubs

After-school clubs can be book online via ParentPay. Information on clubs can be found on the school website. Wraparound care can be arranged by contacting Mrs. Kerry Godfrey by emailing careclub@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk – and paid via ParentPay.

 

Celebration Assemblies

All parents, carers, grandparents etc. are invited to attend our weekly celebration assembly (Friday mornings at 08:55-09:30). Here, we give out any certificates for children for activities on TTRS, Numbots and Spelling Shed – as well as present our weekly trophy to the highest class on TTRS. This year, we are introducing values awards certificates – where pupils from each class will be awarded certificates for showing any of our school values.

We also share some of our favourite things from the week and any other significant events (e.g. sports competitions) and also draw our winning reading raffle tickets.

 

Friends of Brown Clee School (FOBCS)

FOBCS is our PTA – who run various events and fundraisers across the school year. The main source of information on this can be found on their Facebook page (Friends Of Brown Clee School | Facebook). We always welcome additional support and involvement from all parents/carers – whether directly joining the committee meetings or just helping out on the event days.

Pioneer Centre – Year 3/4 Visit – FOBCS

Just a very quick update to let you know that FOBCS have very kindly offered to pay for part of all children’s visit to the Pioneer Centre in December.

 

This will mean that the total cost for the visit will be £134 per pupil.

 

If you have already paid this in full, £10 will be returned in due course.

 

Mrs. Heath will be sending out further information regarding the visit itself in the upcoming weeks.

Create Club

Create Club with Kath Banks, is now open to the whole school (KS1 and KS2)

The date has been moved from Wednesday to Thursday

The first date will be Thursday 9th September.

This is a fun craft club with a different activity each week.

 

Nasal Flu Immunisation – Wednesday 24th September

The Immunisation Team from Shropshire Community Health will be visiting the school on Wednesday 24th September to administer the Nasal Flu Immunisation to all of our pupils.
Please find attached a letter giving further details and  which includes the link for you to provide or deny your consent for your child to have the Nasal Flu Immunisation. This link closes at 9.00am on Wednesday 17th September.  If you miss this deadline there is also a form for you to complete and return to the school office.

Reminder: After-school Clubs – Aut (1)

Just a quick reminder that after-school clubs start next week.

If you would like to book your child onto any clubs, this can be done on ParentPay. If you are having any issues with this, please get in touch.

Afterschool Clubs – Aut 25

 

Just as a note: Create Club is not £50 for the 7 weeks – but is £42. This has now been changed. If you have already paid, Mrs. Godfrey will be in touch.

 

Currently, there are still places in all of our clubs.

Year 6 – applying for a place in Secondary School September 2026

The Year 6 children should have brought a letter home regarding applying for a place at Secondary School in September 2026. The Admissions Team at Shropshire Council have asked us to share the following message with the parents of Year 6 children –

Dear Parent

Your child is due to transfer to secondary school in September 2026.  The online application process opens on the 1 September 2025 and closes on 31 October 2025.  A letter will be sent home with your child, outlining the process.  Alternatively, please follow this link – Apply to start or transfer school | Shropshire Council  which takes you to the Shropshire Council Admissions website.  Details about secondary school open evenings can be found in the Parents’ Guide to Education in Shropshire booklet, on the same website

 Applications received by Shropshire Council after the closing date will be classed as late, which may result in your child being disadvantaged, so please ensure you make your application on-time. Late applications will not be processed until all on-time applications have been offered.

 Please note your child’s cohort is larger than in previous years.  You can name up to four schools on your application – we encourage parents to make full use of these preferences.  If only one preference is named, and we cannot offer this, we will have no choice on National Offer Day but to offer a place at the next nearest school with a vacancy, which could be a considerable distance from your home address.

 Kind Regards

 The School Admissions Team

After-School Clubs: Autumn (1) ’25

Please see the clubs for next half term.

Afterschool Clubs – Aut (1) ’25

 

As usual, these can be booked via ParentPay. After-school clubs for this half term will begin in the 2nd week back (i.e. week commencing 8th September).

 

Bookings for Careclub can be made by contacting Mrs. Godfrey (careclub@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk).

 

If making payments for an after-school club or careclub via tax-free payments, please also contact Mrs. Godfrey.

Uniform Update – September ’25

We have recently received an update from Lads and Lasses that, following the tweaks to the uniform, the tweaked uniform options have gone into production and should be available to order very soon. There had been an error with the printing, causing the delay – which had meant that our uniform was printing with a white misprint. This has now been rectified.

Although already shared several times, the uniform tweaks are very minor (following feedback from parents) and will be as follows:

  • Green mositure-wicking t-shirt (w/BC logo on front and “Brown Clee” on back). This has changed from the previous “pitted” material to a smoother fabric.
  • An option of…
    • Black hoodie (w/ green BC logo on front and “Brown Clee” on back). This remains unchanged.
    • Green hoodie (w/ black BC logo on front and “Brown Clee” on back).
    • Black full-zip hoodie (w/ green BC logo on front and “Brown Clee” on back).
  • An option of…
    • Black/navy shorts (these can be purchased from anywhere)
    • Black/navy leggings (these can be purchased from anywhere)
    • Black/navy jogging/tracksuit bottoms (these can be purchased from anywhere)
    • Black/navy “skorts” (these can be purchased from anywhere)
  • Trainers (any colour)

 

All previous versions of the active uniform can be worn as long as you wish.

 

These tweaks should hopefully help remove some issues raised (such as the snagging and pulling on the t-shirts) – and, whilst we would like all children in “Brown Clee” uniform, we appreciate this is not always possible. The addition of a full-zip hoodie is not only a preferred option for some pupils, but means an unbranded alternative is easily purchasable and pupil doing so will not stand out as much as previously. Please remember that pupils in receipt of “Pupil Premium” funding (free-school meals) can received help with purchasing uniform and parents/carers should contact the school office (admin@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk) to arrange this. Please also rememebr that FOBCS have a second-hand uniform shop – where uniform can be donated and “purchased” for a small donation.

 

Please note that pupil premium funding (free-school meals) is different to “Universal Infant Free-School Meals”. All pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are eligible for UIFSM – meaning they can receive a school meal for free. “Free-School Meals” is funding that is given to the school that is spent in a variety of ways to help those that need it (e.g. help with uniform costs, discounts with the cost of wraparound or after-school clubs and residential trips).

 

All parents/carers of all pupils (includuing those in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) can apply for this at any age. For more information on eligibility and on how to apply, please see the following: https://next.shropshire.gov.uk/free-school-meals/apply-for-free-school-meals/ – and we would recommend any parents/carers that feel they could be eligible to apply as early on in their child’s schooling as possible.

Summer Choir Concert – ’25

Several children in KS2 took part in a mixed choir concert at the Village Hall this term. They joined “Of One Accord” and “Brown Clee Community Choir” to perform a series of different songs. We even had two brillaint performances by Sam R on the cornet – alongside Zac accompanying him on the piano for one of these.

The singing on show was spectacular, and we are hoping for another joint choir performance around Christmas time – where we would love to take an even bigger contingent of pupils for the next performance.

Rounders – School Games Final ’25

Our rounders team took part in the School Games County Finals – representing East Shropshire – last term.

 

After some very close games, missing out on winning by half a rounder, the team did incredibly well in finishing 2nd overall.

Summer Term in Fireflies

This term, our topic has been Africa. The children have thoroughly enjpyed learning all about the continent of Africa and what it would be like to live there.

As part of our Geography, we have been comparing life in Ditton Priors to life in an African village. We went on a bus trip, using our map skills to find the important features of Ditton Priors. We then compared our village to an African Village. The children used their knowledge to create a 3D map of a Kenyan village and Ditton Priors.

The children have also thoroughly enjoyed learning the skill of weaving to create a loom fish. In DT the children chose an African animal to re-create using clay. I think you will agree the results are fantastic.

As an end of term treat, we had a African themed day where the children made binoculars to use on a safari hunt for African Animals, had their faces painted as an African animal, listened to Mrs Robinson who spoke to them about her time in Africa. In Forest School, they made African jewellery and African flatbread which we cooked on the fire. Despite the weather, we all had a great day!

Finally, to end the year on a high, we found out that the Y1s in Fireflies had won the poster competition organised by Burwarton Show! The school will now recieve money to spend on art equipment. Well done Y1s!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Summer break!

Mrs Fox

 

 

HAF (Holiday Activities and Food) brochure

Shropshire Council is again running the HAF programme over the Summer holidays.  Children in receipt of Free School Meals can access these free of charge using the code which has been sent home.  Many of these activities are also open to other children for a small fee, please see the brochure below.

HAF Summer What’s On 2025-WEB