We have a list of children who are confirmed booked onto school transport.  It is really important that parents let us know if their child is not going home on the bus – either as a one off or on regular days.  We need this information to ensure that the children get home safely – either by being collected or going home on school transport – we are unable to take your child’s voice – we need you to let us know.

Our new school meal system where you pre order meals is now up and running.  Can we please remind parents that you need to book in advance – so book your child’s meals by Thursday for the week ahead.  This includes Free School Meals as well – you just don’t make any payment but you still need to book your choice of meal. You can also book for a whole half term to make your life easier!  This system means that every child is guaranteed a meal of their choice.

If you need a reminder of your activation access details or any assistance with booking then please do contact us.

Good Morning Brown Clee! (It’s been a long time since I could say that!)

I hope you have all had a restful and enjoyable summer – and that you are as excited as I am to be back in school – I have been so looking forwards to meeting everyone arrive back this morning – I have missed your bright cheery smiles and greetings!

I’d like to wish everyone a massive welcome back – and a super big welcome to our new Reception children – all 21 of you – who have just joined the Fireflies.  I would also like to offer a big welcome to 2 new members of staff – Miss Burton and Mrs Morris (a new Mrs Morris!) who will be working with the Fireflies and I would also like to welcome Mrs Heath back to school – we have all missed her and are delighted she is back teaching the Dragonflies!

Next week we will be holding our assemblies ‘live’ in the hall – where we will be all together – which will be the first time for over a year and a half – something which I am very much looking forwards to as assemblies are such special times and I have missed being able to be with everyone!

Today is the start of our new academic year – and the word NEW has particular relevance this September – as lots of things will seem very new to all of us due to the disruption we have had.  I wonder if you can think of what these NEW things might be?….

Well I have already mentioned that we will be able to hold assemblies in the hall next week – and these are very special times – as these are the times that we ALL get together every day to share thoughts, reflections and praise to God – and being all together is so important to us – as we are the Brown Clee Team!

Another NEW thing is that we will be back to eating our lunch together in the school hall – and we will be able to have proper hot meals, with choices and eat at tables with our friends from other classes as well as our own.  Another new aspect of school meals is that you now have the chance to pre-order your menu choice to ensure that you can get the meal that you want – so please make sure you remind your parents to make your bookings!  We will also be holding lunch in 2 sittings – Infants and Juniors – to allow for a more calm, quiet and sociable lunch experience – plus we will be welcoming Pre-School back to join us for lunch!

The class ‘bubbles’ have now gone and you will be able to mingle and play together as well as eat together!  And the 1-way systems have also gone!

There are still school rules – and I will be talking about the importance of those next week – and I am sure your class teachers will be sharing and reteaching the rules and expectations as you start today – as these rules are what help keep the school a happy, safe and harmonious place for everyone.

I am sure you, like me, are looking forwards to this new school year – being with your friends, learning lots of new skills and knowledge and having the chance to take part in lots of new experiences such as sports, drama, music and trips – YES! – trips will be back and we have a very exciting one for the Dragonflies later on this term – watch this space!!!

Which reminds me of something else that is new – the class names!  Here they are:-

The Fireflies are taught by Mrs Fox and Mrs Morris.

The Grasshoppers are taught by Mrs Morris and Mrs Cains.

The Dragonflies are taught by Mrs Heath.

The Scorpions are taught by Mr Harley.

The names are going to take a bit of getting used to – and I will need your help to correct me if I revert back to calling them Class numbers!

I know there will be lots of other NEW things – like making new friends, new learning, new experiences – but for now I just want everyone to enjoy the newness of starting or being back in school – a more normal school. NEW can be exciting – but it can also sometimes make us feel worried or nervous – so it is so important that we look out for each other and help each other and work together to ensure that we really can provide a safe, happy place where we can all learn and grow together.

Let’s just take a moment to think and reflect on our feelings of being back together in school – have a think about what you are looking forwards to, and what you can do to help make sure we all can be the best that we can be.  Let’s remind ourselves of the greatest rule of all according to God…

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

One week to go before we all return to school and so far we have had 39% of parents activate their Parent Pay account.  If you are going to want your child to have a school meal you need to activate your Parent Pay account and place your orders online on the Parent Pay APP or website.  You should have received your activation letter by paper at the end of term, or via email during the summer holidays (new Reception parents). If you have any questions regarding activating your account please do contact us on admin@brownclee.shropshire.sch.uk.

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?

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.

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.

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!

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.

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:-

1. 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).
2. 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.
3. 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.