Published on: 28th October, 2024

Newsletter – End of Autumn 1 (’24)

Contents:

Scroll down to read all, or skip to an article.

Life at Brown Clee Video

Here’s a short video showing a snapshot of life at Brown Clee:

 

If any potential future (or current) parents/carers would like to look around school, we will always happily arrange a date and time for you to visit.

After-school Clubs – Update

Following on from last week’s update, we are opening up spaces in the following clubs to additional classes.

Please see information below:

Noticeboard poster Autumn term2 2024

 

Club Description Day / Time Available to Limit
Board Games Play a variety of different boards games Mondays
3:15pm – 4:15pm
Whole School 18
Cookery Prepare and cook a variety of different foods Mondays
3:15pm – 4:15pm
Dragonflies, Bees and Scorpions 12
Football Football activities and games (Crossbar Coaching) Tuesdays
3:15pm – 4:15pm
Fireflies, Grasshoppers, Dragonflies and Bees 20
Textiles Make different items using a range of different materials Tuesdays
3:15pm – 4:15pm
Dragonflies, Bees and Scorpions 14
Parachute Games Play a variety of different games with a large parachute Wednesdays
3:15pm – 4:15pm
WHOLE SCHOOL 15
Tennis Tennis coaching and games Wednesdays
3:15pm – 4:15pm
Dragonflies, Bees and Scorpions 18
Create Club (Art) Wide range of different art projects Thursdays
3:15pm – 4:15pm
Year 1-6 12
FULL
Lego Creating Lego around a weekly theme Thursdays
3:15pm – 4:15pm
WHOLE SCHOOL 20
Multi-Sports Range of different sports activities/games Fridays
3:15pm – 4:15pm
Year 1-6 25

(additional classes in RED).

 

Places will be confirmed once payments have been received by Mrs. Godfrey.

FOBCS News – Brown Clee Bakes and Asda Cashpot for schools

FOBCS would like to let you know about their latest fundraising events to help raise funds for the many exciting things they have planned this academic year.  There are producing a cookery book and would love all the children to send their favourite recipe into the school office by 4th November.  The attached gives further information.

FOBCS have also registered the school for the Asda Cashpot for Schools scheme where FOBCS will receive a donation of a percentage of the spend plus £1 every time you shop there using the Rewards App and you nominate FOBCS.  This scheme ends on 30th November 2024.

What is Cashpot for Schools? 

We’re working with Asda, who are making millions of pounds available to every state primary school’s PTA in the UK.

Between 2nd September and 30th November 2024, every time customers shop with Asda using their Rewards app, they can choose a primary school to receive a percentage of their spend. And that’s not all — every time a customer chooses your primary school, Asda will donate £1 to your school’s Cashpot, plus a further £50 when your first customer shops.

Cashpot-for-Schools_A5-Leaflet

 

Arthog ’24 – Update

Just a quick update ahead of our trip to Arthog next half-term.

 

Here is the suggested Athog kit list again. As an addition, Arthog do not allow aerosols – including pressurised deoderants, sun block and bug spray. However, liquid sprays in plastic containers are fine.

If your child requires any medication during Arthog, please fill in the following form: Medical Letter.

 

As we will be leaving school at 09:00 on Monday 25th November, it would make things a lot easier if all children can arrive at school for 08:30 as this give us time to fully ensure we are ready to leave.

 

As a head’s up, we will likely be returning to school on Friday 29th November after the school day, so arrangements for picking up will be need to be made.

 

More specific details, such as pick-up timings on the Friday, will be sent out nearer the actual date. In the mean time, if anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate in getting in touch.

Wraparound Care Provision

We are looking at expanding the offer of our Wraparound Care Provision (which includes before and after-school “care club” and after-school clubs).

We have a number of key changes that will be coming into effect to help with this.

 

As of next week, “Careclub” will…

  • …no longer have a limit of 12 children (as this will operated by two adults).
  • …begin at 7:30am until school begins (in the before-school session).
  • …end at 6:00pm after school ends (in the after-school session).

 

As a reminder, children can attend an after-school club and go into care club when they are finished (if required). Earlier this year, we also started to take bookings for care club up to a half-term in advance.

 

If our expansion of wraparound provision proves successful, then we will be exploring how we can further expand the range of clubs available and the resources that we can invest into further improving improving these clubs. Successful ongoing uptake will also hopefully allow us to reduce the cost to attend after-school clubs in the future. Currently, the cost to attend clubs is…

  • Care Club: £1.50 / 15mins
  • After-school club: £5 per session (£6 for Create Club)

Parent Governor Election – Autumn ’24

Following our most recent nominations for the role of Parent Governor (https://browncleeschool.org.uk/parent-governor-election-3/) , we would like to confirm that Chris Snow will be beginning as a Parent Governor.

 

Thank you to Chris, and all the governors, for their vital role they play in school.

Uniform Update – Oct ’24

Following the update in September, we have since met with Lads and Lasses to discuss the previous issues with uniform stock.

 

There have been ongoing issues with the printing quality on the 1/4-zip top option. This, along with the high-cost of the top itself, has led to us exploring a cheaper, more print-friendly version of this style.

 

Following on from feedback from parents, we are also exploring a full-zip hooded top to go alongside the 1/4 zip and the normal hoody – as well as potentially exploring a green colour option for all of the black tops.

 

We will keep you updated on the progress with these.

 

FOBCS will be soon starting to share the small amount of donated second-uniform available for a small donation or swap. If anyone has uniform that they wish to donate to the FOBCS uniform stock, please send it into school.

Free Online Safety Courses

West Mercia Police offer a free one hour course on Exploitation and Online Safety to help you protect your child when they are online including practical tips for protecting them.  These courses are online and can be booked by clicking on this link Exploitation and vulnerability training | West Mercia Police.  There is also a poster below giving more information.

Protect our children A5 flyer PARENT-GUARDIAN

Universal Infant Free School Meals

Universal Free School Meals is an initiative which is to help all children in “infants” (reception, Year 1 and Year 2) with access to school dinners. The contribution from the DfE (Department for Education) is £2.53 per child. Our school dinners are under the control of an external company (Edwards and Ward) and the dinner price is £2.83. Therefore, a very small charge of £0.30 per meal was having to be paid by parents for any pupils in infants having meals.

 

More recently, this was something as a school that we felt needing reviewing as we felt school meals for infants should be entirely “free”. Therefore, it was proposed to the FPGP (Finance, Personnel & General Purposes) Committee of the school’s governing body that the additional £0.30 per meal would be covered by the school budget. The committee have fully approved this decision – and we have been in touch today with ParentPay to change this amount for all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Once they have made their changes, this should be reflected when making a booking – and no additional 30p charge should be added to infant pupils’ bookings.

 

This does not affect pupils in KS2.

Celebration Assembly – Parents Welcome After Half Term

The first Celebration Assembly where we will be welcoming parents, carers and other family will now be on the first Friday after half term, Friday 8th November, not from next week as advised previously.

Water Bottles

A reminder that children should only be bringing in water in their water bottles to school.

 

All schools in UK are expected to encourage healthy eating habits. Due to the sugar/acid content (inc. phosphoric acid – or equivalent – in sugar-free) squash or juice, drinking it regularly throughout the day can have significantly negative impact on oral hygiene, particularly tooth decay (the number one reason for child hospital admissions for children aged 6-10).

 

Fruit juice alongside a packed lunch at lunch time is not an issue.

 

If, for a particular medical reason, adjustments to this are needed for your child, please let us know so that we can discuss this.

Dates – Autumn (2) – ’24

Following the dates shared for parents last week, we have an update on the two church services – as well as a few other events:

Harvest Church Service: Monday 18th November – 9:15am to 10:00am

Live Music Band in School: Monday 4th November 

Arthog: Monday 25th November – Friday 29th November. Please note: there is no swimming this week for KS2.

Parent Feedback Sessions: Wednesday 4th December – 1:00pm to 6:00pm.

Evening Nativity Performance: Tuesday 10th December – 6:00pm to 6:45pm 

Afternoon Nativity Performance: Wednesday 10th December – 2:15pm to 3:00pm

[PLEASE NOTE THAT EVENING/AFTERNOON PERFORMANCES FOR THE NATIVITY HAVE CHANGED OVER DAYS]

Last Swimming Week for KS2: Thursday 5th December

Christmas Dinner / Non-uniform day: Wednesday 18th December

Christmas Church Service: Wednesday 18th December – 2:30pm to 3:10pm

Reception and Year 6 National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP)

The School Nursing Team will be visiting the school to measure the Reception and Year 6 children as part of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) on Tuesday 5th November, please find a letter attached giving more information.
This programme is an OPT OUT programme.  If you are happy for your child to take part you do not need to do anything.  However, if you do not wish your child to take part you MUST complete the form at the end of the letter and return this to the school by  Friday 1st November.  There is also a poster attached giving more information.

School Nursing Team

Please see the poster below with the services which the School Nursing Team are able to offer parents along with their contact details.

Health 4 Kids Parents Flyer