1 Minute Maths Free app

1 Minute Maths

To support your child and help them build greater number confidence and fluency, a free app is available to download via the White Rose Maths Hub website. It is an excellent resource that we would encourage you to download and use with your child.

Click the link below and follow the instructions.

https://whiteroseeducation.com/1-minute-maths#download

Paella Day

As Fireflies are currently learning about Spain, yesterday Laura and Carla in the school kitchen made a Spanish themed lunch of Paella followed by Churros or Lemon Muffin.  The children and staff thoroughly enjoyed their lunch and we are so lucky having Carla and Laura as our in-house kitchen team.

Secondary School applications – Year 6 pupils

We have been asked by Schools Admissions to share the following message to remind the parents of Year 6 pupils that the closing date for applications is Friday 31st October.  If you have not yet applied, please following the link in the message.

Secondary Application deadline – 31 October 2025

The closing date for secondary applications is 31 October 2025 which falls in the half-term holidays. If you have not already done so, we encourage you to submit an application as soon as possible but before the deadline date. This will ensure that if you encounter any problems, you can be supported/helped and to submit your application on time. There is no grace period for late applications. The link for the website is – Transferring to secondary school | Shropshire Council

The School Admissions Team strongly encourage parents to make use of their four preferences.  Please see the Parents’ Guide to Education in Shropshire Booklet for further information.  The link to the document is Parents’ guide to education | Shropshire Council

If you have already made an application and wish to add additional preferences/ change the order of preference, please contact school-admissions@shropshire.gov.uk

Spy Dogs/Pups & Cats Books – Concern

Shropshire Council have asked us to share the following:

 

“We have been made aware that several titles in the Spy Dogs, Spy Pup, and Spy Cat series by Andrew Cope contain a weblink at the back of the book that no longer directs people to information about the books. Instead, the link has been compromised and now leads to inappropriate and unsafe material, containing pornographic content with no age restrictions.”

 

 

Donations Required – Plastic Bottles

If anyone has any used empty plastic bottles (transparent/coloured), could these please be sent into school.

 

These will be used as part of an eco-greenhouse and a Remembrance Day art project – so as many of these as possible would be really appreciated.

Wrap around club – grab bags

From next week (week commencing 13th October) we will be trialling booking and paying for grab bags through parent pay.

There will be a comments section where you can request which sandwich you would like (cheese, ham, jam, tuna or egg)

Grab bags are available for afterschool care club and are priced at £1.50 per bag.

Kerry

Special Spanish Menu – Thursday 16th October

Laura and Carla will be serving a Special Spanish Menu on Thursday 16th October as Fireflies are currently learning about Spain.  Please see below for details.

This can be booked and paid for in the usual way through ParentPay.  If your child would like the Chicken Paella click on the meat curry option and if they would like the Veggie Paella click on the veggie curry option.

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.