Nature Hunt – Mr Smith’s Garden

Last Thursday morning, Grasshoppers went on a Nature Walk through the village to Mr Smith’s beautiful garden.

The children had two sheets with photographs of a variety of different plants, flowers and trees. The children had to find each one and tick them off their sheet. They then had some time sketching their favourite ones.

Thank you very much to Mr Smith for inviting us to spend time enjoying his garden.

Last Forest School Session

On Monday afternoon, Grasshoppers had their last Forest School session together.

They had a lovely time playing in the mud kitchen, making dens and pushing each other on the tractor. They also used elder to make beads by hollowing out the middle. They then threaded the pieces onto string to make bracelets and necklaces.

Mrs Rollings and Trish got the campfire going and the children toasted marshmallows to make S’mores.

Grasshoppers would like to thank Mrs Rollings and Trish for the wonderful sessions they have provided for them, throughout the year.

 

Leavers’ Service

Just a reminder that Brown Clee Benefice will be holding a Leavers’ Service at St. John the Baptist Church on Monday at 2:00pm.

 

All parents, grandparents etc. of our Year 6 pupils are also invited (along with the Year 6s themselves!) to refreshments after the service itself.

Uniform – Update and Sizing Event

Just to update you on the requested tweaks to the uniform.

 

We will be remaining with previous supply (Lads and Lasses) – who have informed us of some improvements they are making (e.g. a heat press being installed at the Bridgnorth site to allow on-site printing).

 

There will be some minor tweaks to the uniform – which will be phased in as existing stock is used up.

  • The 1/4 zip option will no longer be in place. This is because the there a stocking issues with the top itself – as well as printing concerns. We did explore alternative options; however, these were either of poor quality or significantly more expensive.
  • The black hoodie with green vinyl option will still remain.
  • A green hoodie with black vinyl will be introduced.
  • A black full-zip hoodie with green vinyl will also be introduced.
  • We are currently in discussion of changing the t-shirt material used for the t-shirts to a “smoother”-type fabric – and hopefully can find a suitable solution with this.

As previously mentioned, previous versions of uniforms will still be allowed to be used for as long as you wish.

 

Please also remember that FOBCS do have a second-hand uniform stock that can be purchased for a small donation. Please get in touch if you have any unifrom of your own that you would like to donate to this or if you wish to purchase some of your own.

 

Lads and Lasses will be holding a sizing event after school on Tuesday 15th July – where sizing can be checked in person.

 

KS2 Performance (Reminder)

A reminder that tickets are available from the school office for the KS2 performance.

We will be opening this up to more than 4 tickets and to KS1 from Friday.

Sports Day: Packed Lunches

We are looking forward to welcoming everyone to this year’s sports day.

 

See our post from last week (https://browncleeschool.org.uk/sports-day-7/) for information on the day.

 

As the event will be outside all day, children will either need to have a packed lunch via ParentPay ordered or bring one from home. As per the recent update (https://browncleeschool.org.uk/parent-pay-clubs-and-meals/), these can be done up to 09:00am on the day itself.

Celebration Assembly – Cancelled

Unfortunately, this week’s celebration assembly will be cancelled.

We will double up certificates in the following celebration assembly (11th July). This will be our last “normal” celebration assembly this academic year.

 

Our final celebration assembly (July 18th) will be led by our Year 6s (who don’t actually know that they will be doing it yet).

 

Shropshire Parenting Team – Information

The parenting team at Shropshire have aked for the following to be shared with parents:

Shropshire Parenting Help and Support Line

NEW – Shropshire Parenting Help & Support Line

Please see below for information on Shropshire’s new parenting help and support line:

 

Free Sleep Tight Groups

Sleep Tight Poster Autumn 2025

Please see below for information on the parenting team’s sleep workshops for those children experiencing issues around sleep.

 

Understanding your Child: From Toddler to Teen

Understanding Your Child Poster ALL Autumn 2025

Please see below for information on group sessions on helping and supporting with your child’s development.

 

Further information on Shropshire’s parenting team – and the support they can offer can be found here: https://next.shropshire.gov.uk/early-help/family-help-services/the-parenting-team/

 

Sports Day

As mentioned in previous diary date updates, Sports Day will be on 8th July.

This will follow the same format as last year – beginning at 10:00am and finishing at around 15:00

The children will be split into three different teams for the day – and will be competing together with points collected throughout and the winners announced at the end of the day.

 

In the morning (beginning at 10:00), children will rotate around a series of different stations in smaller groups.

Everybody will be having a lunch break together at around 12:00.

 

In the afternoon (beginning at 13:00), they will take part in races in their year groups.

 

We will then present the winners for the day with their trophy – as well as presenting medals and certificates for our KS2 athletics competition that has been taking place over the last couple of weeks in school.

We hope to see you all for the event. Same as last year, the day has been designed so that you can attend part or the whole day, depending on preference.

Brown Clee School Choir Performance – 11th July

Please see below information on a summer choir performances involving a choir from school, Brown Clee Community Choir and Of One Accord Choir at Ditton Priors VIllage Hall on Firday 11th July at 7:30pm.

Summer concert 2025

 

Children performing in this have already had letters – which have been returned. If your child is in KS2 and would like to take part, please let Mrs. Heath (dragonflies@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk) know as soon as possible. It would be great to have as many as possible performing.

FOBCS – Summer Fete

Raffle
We couldn’t have a raffle without the generous prize donations from our friends, family and connections, and we are so grateful for the prizes we have for our Summer Fete. They include:
🎁A signed copy of her latest recipe book by Sunday Times Bestselling Author Poppy O’Toole
🎁A voucher from Steele’s Family Bakery
🎁A printed slate from Mollabells Creations
🎁A flower bouquet from The Petal Bar
🎁Tickets for Jungleland, Telford
🎁A voucher for Reg May Butchers
🎁Tickets for Spirited Adventure
🎁TWO hampers from Shropshire Homes
🎁Tickets for Monkey Mania, Ludlow
🎁A voucher for Apley Farm Shop
🎁Two adult passes for Burwarton Show
🎁A voucher for Natasha’s Tearoom, Bridgnorth
🎁A pass for 4, for Hawkstone Park and Follies
🎁Two family portrait vouchers for Bill Leighton photography studio
🎁A candle from Lavender Moon, Ludlow
There’s just 4 days left to buy/sell raffle tickets.
Please can all money, stubs and spare tickets be returned to school or pre-school by Friday.
🎊Thank you @everyone🎊
Water or Wine?
We have lots of water thanks to the donations of empty bottles, but of course now we need some wine to finish the game!
We would be very grateful for bottles of wine from our lovely Friends Of Brown Clee School and Little Explorers Preschool – Ditton Priors community.
Please drop them off at Brown Clee C.E. Primary School or Pre-School this week.
Thank you @everyone

Calling all Bakers!

Parents, carers, family and Friends Of Brown Clee School, we would be VERY grateful for contributions to our cake stall at the Summer Fete on Saturday 28th June.
Pre-portioned cakes for the refreshment stall, or whole cakes/bakes (or both 😉) will be very gratefully received.
If you can find the time to help, please let us or the ladies at Little Explorers Preschool – Ditton Priors know 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 😘😘😘😘
Thank you everyone for your support😬😬😬

Menu Changes

Laura and Carla have made two changes to the menu up until the end of term.

Tuesday 1st July they will be serving mac ‘n’ cheese instead of fish cakes.  All other choices will be the same as the menu in ParentPay.

Wednesday 16th July instead of roast they will be serving pulled pork baps, gravy, stuffing, apple sauce with roast potatoes and salad bar.  The vegetarian option will be a veg goujons bap.  If your child would like the pulled pork baps please choose the meat option and if they would like the veg goujons option please choose the vegetarian option. There will still be the option to book jacket potatoes and sandwiches.

Staying Safe Online – Update Post – 28.05.25

Here is this week’s Staying Safe Online post: Ofcom Media Report 2025.

 

This is a summary of the key data from Ofcom’s Media report for 2025. The report looks at media use, attitudes and understanding among children and young people aged 3-17 – and gives a bigger picture of media use across the country.

The report itself can be found in its full detail here: Children and parents: media use and attitudes report 2025 – interactive data – Ofcom.

 

Alongside this, there are some free short courses available for any parent/carer regarding online safety that can be found below:

Online Safety for Parents of Children aged 3-7 | National Online Safety

Online Safety Training Course for Parents of Children Aged 7-11

Online Safety for Parents of Children aged 14-18 | National Online Safety

 

Here are the previous posts:

Impromptu FOBCS non-uniform day: Friday 27th June

We are holding a non-uniform day this Friday in an attempt to gain some last-minute raffle prizes and/or bottles of wine for the “Water or Wine?” stall for FOBCS Summer Fete.

 

All children can come to school in non-uniform for the day – and, if possible, any donations of raffle prizes or bottles of wine would be very much appreciated for FOBCS’s Summer Fete.

Stained glass windows

In RE, the children have made stained glass windows, using coloured tissue paper. They were exploring how the images on stained glass windows are used to tell stories or give a message, in places of worship.

 

Science – Trees, Plants & Flowers

Grasshoppers have finished their science work for this year. We very much enjoyed learning about trees, plants and flowers.

They are also doing some lovely printing work, in art, of plants and flowers inspired by the textile designers, Orla Kiely and Mary White.

The children have planted bean seeds and made cress seed heads of the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk, which we explored in our English work.

Stan’s bean plant is in the lead at the moment!

 

 

FOBCS

Summer Fete and Table Top Sale
We are once again joining forces with Little Explorers Pre-School to hold a Summer Fete and Table Top Sale, on Saturday 28th June at school.
Raffle tickets will shortly be circulated and we would be very grateful if you could buy or sell them to help raise funds. We would also really appreciate the following:
-Donations of full or empty bottles of wine for the Water or Wine? stall
-Raffle prizes
-Tombola prizes
-Cakes for the cake stall
-Volunteers to man stalls
Please can you let us know in advance if you are able to help.
We are also welcoming table top stall bookings. Please email fundraising.littleexplorers@gmail.comto book.

Fobcs summer fete

Summer Fete and Table Top Sale
We are once again joining forces with Little Explorers Pre-School to hold a Summer Fete and Table Top Sale, on Saturday 28th June at school.
Raffle tickets have been circulated and we would be very grateful if you could buy or sell them to help raise funds. We would also really appreciate the following:
-Donations of full or empty bottles of wine for the Water or Wine? stall
-Raffle prizes
-Tombola prizes
-Cakes for the cake stall
-Volunteers to man stalls
Please can you let us know in advance if you are able to help.
We are also welcoming table top stall bookings. Please email fundraising.littleexplorers@gmail.com to book.

Competitions: Burwarton Show / Shropshire Homes

We have two upcoming competitions being held in school.

 

Burwarton Show Competition (in school)

The first is by Burwarton Show – which will be completed in school by all pupils. Children will design a poster for the show around the theme of “Society and Agriculture”. These may be completed invidually or in groups. School will then choose up to 6 entries to go forward to the competition itself. Mrs. Parker will be introducing this to the children in an assembly this week.

 

Shropshire Homes Competition (out of school)

The second is being run 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 will be after the summer holidays (entries can be sumbitted before the summer).

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.

Uniform Update

Just an update that our uniform tweaks/additions are still under review.

 

Please note, as mentioned previously, that these will be very minor improvements to existing uniform (e.g. changes to material of tops or vinyl used for printing) and/or additional uniform options based on feedback from parents.

IMPORTANT: All existing uniform options will still be useable for as long as you wish.

 

We are potentially looking at changing suppliers due to issues raised by a number of parents. However, we are in discussion with our existing suppliers to ensure the raised issues can be resolved. If a change in supplier is the decision made, this again will be a phased process – and is very unlikely take place before September. Lads and Lasses will continue to be our uniform supplier in the meantime regardless of the ultimate decision.

 

We are hoping to have more information very soon once this has been discussed at our full governing body meeting (24th June) and decisions have been confirmed.

Canopic Jars

Over the last few weeks we have been finding out about Canopic Jars and this week we began to make our own using clay. We started by making the body of the pot using coils of clay. We had to carefully cross-hatch each coil as we built the layers up and use just the right amount of water to make sure that the coils stuck to each other, but weren’t too slippy!

Forest School – Planting, Printing & Playing

Grasshoppers had a lovely afternoon at Forest School yesterday. The children planted bean seeds and had a go at printing, using ferns and other leaves and plants.

They also enjoyed playing on the mini tractor, making dens and building nests for mini-beasts.

 

 

Pentecost Art

The children in Bees have been learning about Pentecost. We read the story from the bible and then created a picture story board and wrote about Pentecost, retelling the story in our own words. We then looked at some pieces of art that showed Jesus returning to earth as the Holy Spirit after his ascension to heaven. From this, we produced our own piece of art using oil pastels.

Well done Bees, your pictures are beautiful. They are going on display at St John The Baptist Church Ditton Priors if your family would like a closer look.

After School Clubs

Please could you make your bookings for after school clubs via parent pa

Also if you have not already, could you email me your requirements for wrap around care for this last half term.

 

Kind regards

 

Kerry

Summer (2) ’25 Dates

Following on from the dates shared last term, here are some confirmed dates for your diaries regarding next half term:

Event Date
Class Photographs 5th June
Phonics Screening Week (Year 1) 9th  – 13th June
Crucial Crew (Year 6s) W/C 16th June
Exact date TBC
FOBCS and Little Explorers’ Summer Fete and Table-top Sale 28th June (12pm-3pm)
New Starters Meeting 30th June
Transition Morning (children to go to their classes for next year) 30th June
Recommended dates for Y6-Y7 Transition (this will depend on the child’s secondary school) 30th June – 1st July
Parent Feedback Sessions (Y1-6) 1st July
Sports Day 8th July
Y6 Theatre Visit Date 10th July
Year 6 Leavers’ Service 14th July
KS2 Performance dates 16th July (afternoon)
17th July (evening)
PD Day 21st July
Summer Holidays 22nd July – 31 August
PD Days 1st & 2nd September