Article 2
All children have these rights, no matter who they are, where they live, what their parents do, what language they speak, what their religion is, whether they are a boy or a girl, what their culture is, whether they have a disability, whether they are rich or poor. No child should be treated unfairly on any basis.
Attendance Winners December
December winners were Year Rec LK with 97.38%. Year 2 had the best attendance for the Autumn Term, with an impressive 97.21%. They can wear their own clothes to school on Monday 8th January 2024. Fantastic – well done!
Good bye Mr Wade
We say goodbye to Mr Wade, who has accepted a well-deserved promotion as Assistant Headteacher for St Bartholomew's Multi Academy Trust. Whilst we are sad to see Mr Wade leave our school family, we a thrilled for him and know that Mr Wade will bring the same dedication and passion to his new role. We would like to wish Mr Wade every success for the future – he will be truly missed by children, parents and staff.
NSPCC - Speak out, stay safe
Speak out Stay safe is a safeguarding programme for children aged 5- to 11-years-old.
It helps children understand:
abuse in all its forms and how to recognise the signs of abuse
that abuse is never a child’s fault and they have the right to be safe
where to get help and the sources of help available to them, including our Childline service.
On Thursday 15th December, Year 2 had the opportunity to work with volunteers from the NSPCC to receive these messages in a fun and interactive way, ensuring a safe environment for everybody.
Here is what some of the children had to say:
Willow - I enjoyed completing the activity booklet.
Alistair - I liked looking after Buddy the speech bubble.
Joseph - We got to high five Buddy!
Scarlet - We thought about safe adults and being happy.
Thank you for your support.
A big thank you for all your support for your children and the school in recent weeks. Families have supported a variety of fund-raising projects as well as our recent Christmas Film Night, Christmas Breakfast, Christmas Jumper Day, and Santa’s Grotto!
Well Done!
Many of you will have joined us at St. Mary’s Church for our Christmas Celebration. We do hope that you enjoyed the children’s singing just as much as we did! I would like to congratulate the children on their performances—they were great! The donations that you made were greatly appreciated.
Save The Children – Christmas Jumper Day
Thank you for joining in with this worthy cause, we raised an amazing £347. Your generosity is truly appreciated.
Christmas letters
Nursery and Reception, walked to the local post box to deliver letters to Santa! They discussed road safety and stranger danger on our way there. Once they arrived at the post box, they sprinkled some magic glitter and made a special wish before posting our letters.
Reception and Nursery Christmas Craft.
Last week the Nursery and Reception Children enjoyed dressing up in their wonderful Christmas costumes for their Christmas Craft activity session – there was a wonderful atmosphere and the children and Parents, really enjoyed the activities.
Arise Church Grotto
On Monday 11th December, Nursery and Reception visited the Grotto at Arise Church. They were warmly welcomed by the wonderful staff. The children had the opportunity to visit Santa and receive a gift, they also made reindeer food and participated in Christmas crafts and activities, afterwards they walked through the Grotto trail.
Music Club
Music Club children have been extremely busy over the past few weeks. They have sung at Church, Oaklands Nursing Home, the Christmas Breakfast, Arise Church Christmas Grotto and Morrison’s. Mr Baker said the children were superb! We would like to thank the children and Mr Baker for their commitment and dedication. You were all superb, here is a comment from Helen at Morrison’s.
Hi Mr Baker,
Thank you once again for coming into store & bringing your fantastic choir, I am so pleased to let you know that you raised £112.31 for Together For Short Lives in partnership with Acorns.
Wishing you & the Blanford Mere School a very Happy Christmas & Happy New Year. From the management team & staff at Morrisons.
Helen
Another lovely comment from Oaklands Nursing Home:
Good afternoon,
Just to say a huge thank you for Monday. Our residents thoroughly enjoyed hearing the children sing and having a chat afterwards. The Christmas cards the children made for us are absolutely beautiful and have been a real talking point with the residents. Thank you and have a very Merry Christmas! We hope to see you again in the new year.
Thanks, Hannah
HSA – Polar Express
A huge thank you to our wonderful HSA. The children had to a fun afternoon watching The Polar Express and they treated to a hot chocolate and cookie, courtesy of the HSA. We would like to say a huge thank you for their hard work, dedication and commitment this past few months. Have a wonderful Christmas and we look forward to many more events in 2024!
Fantastic Staff
Thank you to our wonderful office team, Mrs Hunter, Mrs Needle and Mrs Alexander, for all their hard work with the Christmas activities. We would also like to thank Ruth, Joe and the kitchen team for their support with the Christmas Breakfast!
A big thank you to Mr Brierley and our cleaning team for keeping the school clean.
PE Competition
As part of our PE curriculum, all classes take part in a half termly competition based on the topic they have been focusing on. This challenges them to use their newly acquired knowledge and skills in a competitive situation, which contributes to their physical, cognitive, emotional, and social learning. The children showed enthusiasm and competed to the best of their ability. The lucky winners are as follows:
Year 1
Joint 1st Wordsley Warriors and Stourbridge stars
Joint 2nd Kingswinford Kickers and Dudley Gladiators
Competition: Gymnastics using small and big body parts to create a sequence.
Year 2 BW
Joint 1st - Dudley Gladiators and Wordsley Warriors
Joint 2nd - Stourbridge Stars and Kingswinford Kickers
Competition: Gymnastics
Year 3/4DD
1st - SJ (Kingswinford Kickers) & AW (Kingswinford Kickers)
2nd - GP (Wordsley Warriors) & FW (Stourbridge Stars)
3rd - LH(Wordsley Warriors) & ERC (Kingswinford Kickers)
Year 3/4MC
1st Wordsley Warriors
2nd Kingswinford Kickers
3rd Stourbridge Stars
4th Dudley Gladiators
Year 3/4JC
1st Wordsley Warriors
2nd Kingswinford Kickers
3rd Stourbridge Stars
4th Dudley Gladiators
Competition: Gymnastics
Class 5/6AR
1st - Stourbridge Stars (Rayarn & Layla)
2nd - Kingswinford Kickers (Jessica & Zara)
3rd - Dudley Gladiators (Myla & Ruby)
4th - Dudley Gladiators (Siyanna & Maisie)
Class 5/6MB
1st = Wordsley (Enqi, Aurora, Louis)
1st = Stourbridge (Benny, Jonty, Archie)
2nd = Kingswinford (Jack, Ariell, Liam)
2nd = Dudley (Heather, Annabelle)
Class 5/6HO
1st - Dudley Gladiators (Maisie, Joseph & Joshua)
2nd - Stourbridge Stars (Ava & Evie-Rose
3rd - Kingswinford Kickers (Amber & Dylan)
4th - Wordsley Warriors (Isabella, Fred, Jaxon)
Competition: Dance competition
Mike Wood – Christmas Card competition.
Mike Wood, our local MP, organised a Christmas Card competition for schools to take part in. Lots of children participated and all produced fantastic designs - Well done to everyone who submitted their card; Zydan, Luca M, Tilly- Mai, Frankie R, Violet, Lucas, Sam, Amelia D, Aiden, Scarlet L, Rocco M, Amelia H, Zara F.
Well done to Harley W, who was one of the finalists.
We hope to see even more fantastic designs again next year!
Safeguarding – Online Safety
As a parent, it’s important you know that all social media platforms and messaging apps have age restrictions. Some social networks use technologies that may not be right for some ages or engage with communities made up of people much older than your child.
- For example, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are for children 13 and above. Whatsapp is for users 16 years and above.
The risks and dangers with these sites might include:-
- Many sites include an instant message function that allows private conversations between site members.
- Most social networking sites have an app version available, meaning your child will have access to the social network from their smartphone or tablet. Some app versions of social networks use the location of the phone.
- Information shared between friends can be easily copied and may spread.
- It isn’t easy to take back information that has been posted – and can be impossible if it’s already been shared.
- Not everyone your child meets online will be who they say they are. Chatrooms and forums can connect people who are complete strangers and can be unmoderated.
- Chatrooms and forums are some of the places online groomers go to connect with children. They can also be places where people use a lot of sexual language and engage in online flirting. This is sometimes done through video chat programs.
There are age-appropriate social media apps for younger children that you may find useful.
Spotlite
Spotlite focuses on the importance of creating a safer, social experience for children, tweens and teens. They can share videos, pictures, react to and comment on posts by friends and join groups for sharing with others with similar interests.
The main aim of the app is to teach preteens, tweens and teens the etiquette of interacting online. It has constant reminders to keep things positive like the comment box that directs users to ‘ leave a nice comment’.
Safety features
- All accounts require a parent or carer to provide email authentication and approval. No friends can be added until a parent approves the account.
- Spotlite does not track or sell any of your child’s personal information such as location.
- Parents have to approve the use of Spotlite if for children below the age of 13.
- Shared video/pictures are only available to be seen by the friends you have accepted.
- There are 24/7 Content Moderators. Any inappropriate content/users will be banned
Age: 8+
Cost: Free
Blanford Babies Christmas Party
A wonderful morning was had by all at the Blanford Babies Christmas Party. The children enjoyed festive treats, carols and Christmas craft with Mrs Barlow. This was a huge success and we hope to continue the tradition next year.
Reminder: Blanford Babies meet on the last Tuesday of every month in the hub at 9am.
School Council - Book Sale
Thank you for supporting our School Council book Sale - we raised £108 with your support. Thank you to the children for organising and your extremely generous book donations - it is very much appreciated.
Angel Competition
Congratulations to Destiny and Enzo, who were prize winners –entering the Wall Heath Church of the Ascension Angel competition. Thank you to all of those children who entered.
Dates for the diary
Monday 8th January 2024 – Children return to school at the usual time.
Friday 19th January – Year 34JC Class Assembly 9am. Kingswinford Library visiting Reception class
Tuesday 30th January – Blanford Babies – 9-10am – The Hub
Friday 26th January - Kingswinford Library visiting Nursery
Friday 2nd February NSPCC Number Day – see email sent in December. Year 3/4 MC Library visit
W/C 5th February Children’s Mental Health Week and Schools Football Week – more details to follow
Tuesday 6th February pm – Year 3/4 Maths Competition – more details to follow
Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th February – Parents evening – more details to follow. Mrs Cameron's Parents evening will be Monday 5th and Thursday 8th February.
Friday 9th February – INSET Day – school closed to children
Friday 9th February – Half term
Monday 19th February - School reopens at the usual time
Wednesday 21st February pm – Yr 5/6 Maths Competition – more details to follow
Friday 23rd February – Year 5/6 Black Country Museum visit
Tuesday 27th February - Blanford Babies – 9-10am – The Hub
Thursday 7th March – World Book Day – more details to follow
Wednesday 13th – Friday 15th March – Yr 6 Condover Hall
Friday 15th March – Red Nose Day – more details to follow
Tuesday 19th March - Blanford Babies – 9-10am – The Hub
Friday 22nd March – Break up Easter holidays
Monday 8th April – Children return to school at the usual time
Finally, wishing you all a wonderful holiday and a very happy new year.
We look forward to seeing you all in 2024!
Mrs Crook and Miss Stanton
Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher
