Here are this year’s year sixes sharing their memories of their time at Brown Clee.
An extra thank you to the year 5s (Hugo and Ruby) who shared George’s and Aggie’s memories (who both unfortunately were not in school for the last few days).
School News
ParentPay Activation
Can we please remind parents of the importance of activating their ParentPay account ahead of the Autumn Term. Without this you will be unable to order a school meal as we need to have pre-orders in before the start of term.
The menus are all up and running now, so you can sign in and order your September meals at any point from now – why not get ahead of the game and book your meals so it is one less job to do before September?
Thank You!
We would like to say a massive thank you to all our families for their support throughout this strangest of years! We really appreciate and value the partnership, working together to ensure we can do our very best for the children.
Wishing you a wonderful summer and we look forwards to welcoming everyone back to school on Thursday 2nd September.
Update to Changes with Track and Trace in Education
Please find attached a letter with information on the upcoming changes with Track and Trace in education:-
Power Cut
Due to our power being off all morning, we are unable to provide a hot school meal today for the children – so instead they will be having a packed lunch, which we are all going to eat in a 4 bubble whole school picnic on the field.
Reflection Time and Prayer of the Day
Good morning Brown Clee!
Here we are at the end of a strange and challenging, but also busy, positive and successful school year! It is the last day at Brown Clee School for our year 6s and we are all nearly at the beginning of a well-deserved summer break!
There has still been lots of good learning taking place, along with some fun activities such as Class 1’s Africa Day (the African drumming was particularly entertaining for Mrs Lloyd and myself!), we held our year 6 Leavers Assembly and it was lovely to be able to welcome parents to the occasion – even if they were socially distancing and outside!
I hope everyone enjoys this day and that we can all celebrate the final Well Done certificates of this academic year…
Class 1: Madison Solomon-Doughty
Class 2: 
Class 2: 
Class 3: Tamsyn Webster
Class 3: Class 3
Class 4:
Class 4:
Other:
I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone – all the children, parents and staff – who have worked together so well to ensure that we can continue to provide the best learning experiences for our children – despite the best efforts of the virus! Your commitment and support is very much appreciated – have a restful and relaxing summer break and I look forwards to welcoming us all back together in September!
It is now Worship Time where we reflect and think about how we can push ourselves, to be brave and bold, to always do our best, to keep on trying even when things get tough, so that we can shine and reach for the stars!
Prayer of the Day
If we could now have a quiet moment of reflection and join in with the School prayer…
Dear God
Thank you for our wonderful school.
Help us to be good learners.
Help us to look after each other.
Help us be respectful and kind and to make everyone welcome.
May our school be a happy, safe place where learning is fun.
Where we all work together to be the best we can be.
Amen
Reading Books – Year 6
Could all Year 6s please try and bring any reading books back tomorrow that they have borrowed from school?
September 2021
Please find attached a letter with information relevant to September 2021 and the new academic year.
Year 6 Leavers Service from the Diocese of Hereford
The Year 6 pupils have been sent the following Year 6 Leavers Service video from the Diocese of Hereford – and as we are holding our own Leavers Assembly this afternoon we thought it the perfect time to share!
Coronavirus
We have been so lucky over the past 18 months to be able to keep our class ‘bubbles’ open – and with 3 days left to go to the end of this academic year we kindly ask parents to maintain the 2m social distancing, and to also ensure that young children stay with their parents at collection time.
The virus is in the village and we currently have some staff/pupils isolating at the moment and with the summer holidays approaching, we really want all our families to look forwards to starting the summer break without any risk of having to isolate.
Please note there have been press reports that the Delta variant can feel “more like a bad cold” – particularly for young people with reports of symptoms like a headache, runny nose and sore throat being commonly linked to this new variant. Remember if you are at all unsure please take a test.
ParentPay: School Meals
In September we will be using ParentPay to pre-order and pre-pay for School Meals.
We are pleased to let you know that our ParentPay site will shortly be active and all parents have got their own account with an individual Username and Password. You will find details on the attached letter, along with instructions on how to activate your account. In order to activate your account you need to do the following:-
- Visit http://www.parentpay.com and enter your Activation username and password in the Account Login section of the homepage. (NB. These are for one-time use only, please choose your own username and password for future access during the activation process).
- Provide all the necessary information and choose your new username and password for your account – registering your email address will enable us to send you receipts and reminders.
- Once activation is complete you can go straight to Items for payment, select which item(s) you want to add to your basket and proceed to complete your payment.
As from September all School Meals will need to be pre-ordered and pre-paid using ParentPay; with the cost of a school meal remaining £2.30. If you are the parent of a child entitled to a Free School Meal, you will still need to pre-order but no payment is required.
A letter is being sent home today with further information and also your Username and Password – so please let us know if you don’t receive this.
At this stage we are only using ParentPay for School Meals, but we will be looking to expand it in the future to cover payments for Breakfast Club, Care Club and School Trips.
There is more information on ParentPay on this video:-
ParentPay – Parents Overview from ParentPay on Vimeo.
Tomorrow’s trip – picking up
To help ensure social distancing can be maintained, please come on to, and wait on, the playground before picking up at 16:30.
Reflection Time and Prayer of the Day
Good Morning Brown Clee!
I hope you had a good weekend – and at the time of writing this I have no idea what the outcome of the Euros Final is – so I don’t know whether we are celebrating a win, as well as celebrating the exceptional team-spirit, commitment and pride that the England football team have demonstrated throughout the tournament. Whatever happened I am sure that the team will be just as dignified whether they win or lose!
Last week in our live assembly we talked about HOPE – and of course we were all being very hopeful that there would be a win in the football – but we also had lots of other hopes. Some of us hoped that we could improve our handwriting, some hoped for more time to play with friends, and I am definitely very hopeful that in September the Brown Clee Team can be fully back together again – with assemblies in the hall, welcoming parents to join us for Well Done assembles, a normal school meals menu that we can eat in the hall together, and playtimes where all classes can mix and play together!
We discussed that HOPE is where we feel positive about the future – where we have dreams and wishes and believe that things will work out right! Let’s see if things work out right for a little paper boat…have a watch of this video about a little paper boat with big ambitions and dreams of sailing around the world like a giant cruise ship…..
That little paper boat had so many challenges along his journey – he was all on his own at the beginning in a world that he didn’t understand, and then there was the scary rat, the rain, the wind, traffic and the drains – so many scary experiences! But along the way, he was always hopeful – and he made friends (the dog!) and at the end – his adventures had only just begun!
It made me think about our Year 6 pupils – who are coming to the end of their time at Brown Clee – but who, just like the paper boat, their adventures have really only just begun! As we go through this week – let’s reflect more on the value of HOPE, and how important it is – particularly for our Year 6 pupils as they are about to leave the Brown Clee Team and step out into secondary education. I am very hopeful that they will take the Brown Clee spirit of ‘being the best that they can be’ with them and am sure that they will have many exciting adventures ahead of them!
Prayer of the Day
Dear God,
When things go wrong, help us to keep hoping.
When we are sad, help us to remember that happiness will come.
When we are lonely, help us to remember that people care for us.
When we are worried, help us to trust that you will never leave us.
Please help us to live in hope.
Amen.
Summer Reading Challenge 2021
Join the Wild World Heroes for the Summer Reading Challenge and discover how you can make a difference to the environment too.
They are teaming up with WWF (World Wildlife Fund) for a very special nature-themed challenge.
You can sign up for it online or at your local library. Find out more below and have fun reading this summer!
https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/
School Dinners Next Week
Good News everyone! Chartwells have called this afternoon to advise that School Meals will be back to normal from Monday. The menu next week is Week 3.
Thank you very much for your patience and understanding this week and providing your children with sandwiches.
Care Club Bookings and payments
Please can any care club booking requests for September be e-mailed to me by next Thursday 15th July at the latest. As the first week back is just two days bookings for the week commencing 6th September can also be made.
Can I also ask that all outstanding invoices for care club are also settled by Thursday 15th July.
After School Clubs
As we will not be getting the next Government guidelines until schools have broken up for the summer holidays we will not be able to offer any after school clubs for the first half term when we return in September. We hope to be able to offer clubs again after the half term break.
UPDATE: School Meals
We are really sorry but we will be unable to provide a school meal tomorrow (Friday 8th July), so all children will need to bring a packed lunch from home again. Chartwells are doing their very best to get a cook to us for Monday – we will keep you informed.
Please share, and also please ensure you monitor the website, emails or school social media so that you receive the information.
Apologies for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.
Thank You!
Thank you to parents for spreading the message about no school meals – every child has a packed lunch today which is brilliant! We will let you know later today what the situation is for tomorrow – so please keep an eye out on the website, the school’s social media and your emails.
Also, if you have a preferred email, ie work rather than personal, please let us know, as it is impossible to ring everyone and the above communication channels are how we share information/news/stop press items.
IMPORTANT: No School Meals Tomorrow
I am really sorry, but we are unable to provide a school meal tomorrow, so all children will need to bring a packed lunch from home. I am really sorry for the inconvenience, and for the short notice. Can you please let friends and family know. I will keep you updated regards meals on Friday.
Reflection Time and Prayer of the Day
Good Morning Brown Clee!
Today I’d like to continue with our theme focused on feelings, and how important it is that we can both show empathy when other people are feeling sad or upset, but also that we can manage our own feelings. Yesterday we learnt about anger and how we can regulate our angry feelings so that we can return to feeling calm.
Today I have a Pace Trust assembly focused on the feeling of fear; of feeling scared and how we can manage these feelings in a responsible way.
Have a think about a time when maybe you’ve been scared? How did you feel? What signs of fear did you show? When I’m scared my heart beats faster, I breathe faster, I might feel hot and sweaty, I might even tremble. It’s not a nice feeling and I don’t like that feeling – do you? I have learnt that if I am starting to feel scared that I can help myself by doing a few things:-
- I make myself breathe slowly and deeply
- I try to think about the reason I am scared – is it rational or not? Do I really need to be scared of a spider? Look how small they are – they can’t hurt me!
- I tell someone so that they can reassure me – sometimes I might be feeling scared of something that isn’t that big a problem and by telling someone it makes the problem go away.
Prayer of the Day
Dear God,
Thank you that you are always with us, watching over us, right by our side,
No matter what may be happening in our lives.
Thank you that we can always trust you.
Thank you that there are always people we can talk to.
Thank you that you always listen.
Amen.
STOP PRESS: On-line Payments
We are pleased to let you know that as of September 1st we will be able to offer a more convenient way to pay for school meals, trips and after school clubs online, using a secure service called ParentPay. Further information is in this Introduction Letter:-
There will be further information coming out in the coming weeks – so please keep your eye out on the website and school social media and spread the word – as our aim is to be a cashless school by the end of the Autumn Term – so we really ask if you can support us with this!
We will be sending you your account activation details before the end of term, once you receive these:
- Visit parentpay.com
- Enter your Activation username and password in the Account Login section of the homepage. These are for one-time use only, please choose your own username and password for future access during the activation process
- Provide all the necessary information and choose your new username and password for your account – registering your email address will enable us to send you receipts and reminders
- Once activation is complete you can go to straight to Items for payment, select which item(s) you want to add to your basket and proceed to complete your payment
If you have any questions, please contact the School Office.
For more information, visit www.parentpay.com/parents/what-parentpay-does
Reflection Time and Prayer of the Day
Good Morning Brown Clee!
These past couple of weeks we have been learning a lot about feelings – what they are, how we identify them and how we can show empathy to other people by understanding how they are feeling and showing compassion. Yesterday we considered the emotion of sadness – and how we could show compassion to our friends if we noticed they were feeling sad
Today I want us to think about how we manage and respond to our own feelings so that we can learn to regulate our responses to feelings…especially those feelings that can put us in the RED zone! Can you think which emotions these might be?
Today I want us to think about the feeling of anger – we all feel angry at times – and that’s ok because it is a human emotion. I know when I get angry I feel hot and bothered, my heart rate rises and I’d feel stressed – it’s not a nice feeling. So I would want to know how to manage my anger so that I can deal with it in a sensible, safe way.
There are times when it is right to feel cross, such as if we see someone being picked on or treated unfairly. Anger is a natural emotion, but we need to be able to control it. Sometimes, our anger can spill over and make us say and do things that are hurtful and wrong.
Have a think about a time that you were angry – what had you got angry about and what did you do? Did you manage your angry feelings in a sensible, responsible manner?
We all need to learn to control our anger and respond to situations in a calm, sensible manner. A verse in the Bible, Proverbs 29:11 says, ‘A fool lets out his anger, but a wise person keeps himself under control.’ So before we lose control, it is good to stop and think….and we need to learn how we can do that. Here’s a helpful video with some simple suggestions of how you can calm your anger down…
So if we remember ABCDE
Awareness
Breathing
Counting
Distance
Expression
then hopefully we can manage our angry feelings and help get ourselves back into the Green Zone! And we know that the Green Zone is the best zone for learning! So remember to stop, slow it down and step on the brakes if you start to feel angry!
Prayer of the Day
Dear God,
Please help us to stop when we get angry.
Please help us to think about how we will react and what we will say.
Please help us to treat others well.
Help us to forgive those who hurt us.
Help us to remember that you want us to live in peace.
Amen.
End of Term Dates
Just a reminder that the last day of this academic year is Friday 16th July and children return to school on Thursday 2nd September (with Reception children staggered across the Thursday and Friday).
Reflection Time and Prayer of the Day
Good Morning Brown Clee!
I hope you all had a lovely weekend and managed to dodge the showers!
Today I want to continue with our theme of Compassion and Empathy – as now that we have had lots of discussion and experiencing identifying emotions it is important that we understand why showing empathy is important – as once we have seen someone feeling sad, for example, we need to know how to respond compassionately.
I am going to show you quite a grown up video about a fox, a bear and an antelope with a narrator describing empathy. In the video it says that empathy has 4 stages:
- Taking the perspective of other people (eg putting yourself in their shoes!)
- Staying out of judgement (eg not criticising or judging)
- Recognising emotions in other people (noticing how people are feeling – and you showed last week that you are all very good at this one!)
- Communicating emotion (this is the tricky bit – knowing how to respond in a helpful way).
Have a watch and listen and see what you think – Which animal is sad? Which animal shows empathy? and why? Which animal doesn’t show empathy? and why?
A very grown up video – but could you work out which animal was sad? – The Fox. Which animal was showing empathy – the bear! The bear didn’t try and fix the sadness of the fox – the bear listened and made a connection; the bear understood the feeling but didn’t simply try and ‘look on the bright side’ or reply by saying “At least….”
What about the antelope? Was the antelope really bothered about the fox feeling sad? I think the antelope didn’t like seeing fox sad, and tried to make things better by saying nice things – but the antelope didn’t show empathy – he didn’t show that he knew how the fox was feeling – he didn’t connect with the fox.
Who would you be – the bear or the antelope?
I want you to imagine that you are really, really sad….you’ve lost something that’s very special to you – and then think how you would want your friends to behave towards you. For example, if I had lost my dog I would definitely be feeling very sad. Do you think I would be happy if my friend just said “At least you had a dog” or if they said “Don’t worry, you can always get another one!”. I don’t think this would make me feel better – as that person isn’t showing that they understand why I am so sad – they just want to make me feel better. But if I had lost my dog I think it would take a bit of time before I felt better – and I think it would be ok to feel sad. I think what I would need would be someone to show me that they care about me feeling sad as they know what feeling sad is like…so they might listen to me or lend a friendly shoulder to cry on or offer a hug. Does that make sense?
Empathy is complicated and tricky – if you can try and put yourself in your friends shoes when they are feeling sad then that’s the first big step! We all need to be that person that friends can lean on in times of trouble.
Prayer of the Day
Dear God
We thank you for our friends and for the happy times we share with them.
Help us to be a good friend to them.
Teach us how to play fairly and to share.
Help us to recognise sadness in others and show friendliness towards them.
We know that you are our friend and will be with us always.
Amen.
Some Staffing Updates
We are sad to inform you that Mrs Welch is leaving us at the end of this term for a change of career direction. Mrs Welch has been a highly valued member of the team and we are going to miss her very much! We wish Mrs Welch all the very best in her new career and know that she will shine – and hopefully she will take some very happy memories of Brown Clee School with her!
We would also like to let you know that we have a new member of staff joining Class 1, alongside our new Friday teacher – Mrs Morris. As of September, Miss Burton is joining the Fireflies, to work along side the team supporting all the Reception and Year 1 children. I am sure you will join with me to make her feel very welcome and part of our Brown Clee team.
Sports Day 2021
We thought parents would like to see some of the photos and videos from our Sports Day yesterday – enjoy…..
Sports Day
We had a fantastically fun and energetic afternoon with all the school – in their socially distanced bubbles – for our Sports Day! The weather was perfect and we are just sorry that parents couldn’t attend.
The children were amazing – all demonstrated excellent grit and determination and put 100% effort in as well as showing outstanding team-spirit!
We have lots of photos and videos and are in the process of putting them together to share but in the meantime here are the class photos!
