Friday 15th March

Happy Friday!

The penultimate week of the spring term has been another very busy one! Today many of our children arrived wearing red in support of Comic Relief 2024. Mrs Carpenter is busy counting the donations, and we will let you know the total next week. Judging by the amount of red football kits in school today, it must be a very popular colour for a kit. Thank you to all our families who supported this event.

For some of our families this week has seen the start of Ramadan. Many of our older children are participating in the fast and it has been lovely to hear about what happens in their family home - including waking up very early to break the fast. To support the children who are fasting, they have been spending the inside part of their lunchtime participating in a range of activities - they are very competitive when playing Uno! We have also had a special assembly to support our children to understand why some of their friends are fasting.

On a Monday we always have a celebration assembly, where we celebrate the children’s achievements both within in school and outside. This Monday we were able to celebrate a very special occasion for one of our year three children - he had participated in a fashion show for Birmingham Children’s Hospital and even appeared on the news in a very snazzy shirt!

Both year one and year three have shared their learning with their parents (and grandparents this week). The short exhibitions give the children the opportunity to speak to an audience, and give our families an opportunity to see a small part of the learning that has taken place throughout the term. Year three parents you must have been wowed by the drumming, as the rest of the school certainly were when they performed in assembly.

Year five have visited the Gurdwara this week as part of their learning in RE. The children enjoyed the experience of their learning in the classroom coming to life in the real world.

Not only have the children been sharing their learning, or out on visits, the staff have been also. The year two teachers have been sharing writing outcomes across all Stour Vale primary schools, and the year six teachers have been sharing writing outcomes with a local school. Mrs Higgins has been out to support some teachers in another school; Mrs Waters and Mrs Jenkins have been to another nursery setting in Dudley; Mrs Shinner, Mrs Parker and Miss Clarke visited a local specialist provision; and Miss Walters and Miss Grasby went to learn about leadership in a Sandwell school. It is really important that we continually look to develop our own professional learning so that we are able to continually get better at what we do - supporting our children to be happy, confident, responsible and successful.

Each of our phases have now held the first round of their parent’s evenings, it has been great to see so many proud parents and we are looking forward to seeing even more next week.

We have a number of building projects taking place, and the replacement of the fencing has already started. Over the coming weeks we are going to experience some disruption as the nursery outside area is built and our roof is replaced. This will mean some changes to our entrances and exits - further information will be provided next week.

Right, it is time to sign off. Our professional learning never ends and tomorrow (yes, on a Saturday) we have quite a few staff attending a conference in Birmingham with lots of exciting speakers from the world of teaching and learning.

Wishing everyone a fantatsic weekend.