Article 29

Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full. It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures, and the environment.

Year 1 Burns Night Celebration

Girls football Summerhill

11 girls represented Blanford Mere in two football tournaments which took place at Summerhill Secondary School in January and February. The top two teams in each league would qualify to the finals. We have now received the table of results, where we came…THIRD, missing out on second place by just one point! Although the girls will be disappointed to not make it through, we just wanted to say how proud we are of their achievements, with this result being the best Blanford Mere girls football has achieved since I began coaching different groups of girls over the years. We would also like to thank the support from parents, it is really appreciated. A big thank you to Mr Raybould also for giving up his time to support me during this tournament. There will hopefully be more opportunities soon for the girls to represent our school. A huge well done to Rose, Maddison, Isla, Sienna-Rose, Celina, Siyanna, Eleanor, Ruby, Maisie, Kaci and Lily! You are a wonderful team, and I hope you continue to develop your passion for football and support for each other. Never stop believing in yourselves! 

Miss Postings. 

NSPCC Number Day

Thank you to everyone who helped make our Number Day a great success again this week. The children wore mathematical clothes, took part in the TTRS competition and had extra maths activities as part of the day. Thank you for donating to a great cause: we raised a superb £336!

All of the money raised will go towards supporting the NSPCC charity.  Below is what the children had to say about the day:

RecNP - Emilia: “We raised money for charity and played maths games.”

RecLK - Mya: "I loved playing connect four with my friends!"

1MC - Louis-James: "We did a scavenger hunt and made tally charts of what we found"

1DJ - Jake: "We gave a pound to help others." 

2TD - Azariah: "I enjoyed doing lots of maths and working with numbers."

2BH - Kallie: "It was fun because we got to wear clothes with some maths links on."

Y3-4CW - Elliot F: “In the picture I can see Maths. I can see a man's face with lots of 7s to make hair spikes, 8 for glasses, 5 for a mouth and 3 for an ear.”

Y3-4JC - Sierra P: "I enjoyed Number Day because we did some maths quizzes and they were really fun."

Y3-4MC - Zara: “I liked how I did the shapes in maths and doing number activities as well.”

Y5-6HO - Sophie: "I enjoyed doing lots of maths quizzes and we got to dress up. It is important to raise money for the NSPCC - £4.00 will help one child who has called Childline."

Y5-6MB – Aoife: "I liked doing awesome maths. We did a quiz online together. I also challenged myself to improve my TT Rockstars score."

Y5-6AR – Enzo: "What I liked about number day is that we got to write numbers on our clothes and we got to play fun games and wear football shirts."

Many thanks for your support,

Mr Baker

5/6 Sports Hall Athletics

On Friday, 12 children from year 5/6 took part in a Sports Hall Athletics Competition. They competed in a range of athletics events: sprints and long-distance races, standing long jump, standing triple jump and javelin. The event was attended by 15 schools in the area and the competition was very high. In every race the boys and girls competed in, they finished in 1^st or 2^nd place which meant after all the field and track event results were calculated they finished in 3^rd place overall. What a huge achievement! I would like to congratulate them on their brilliant performances and their excellent behaviour in representing Blanford Mere in the best way possible. Well done!

Mr Raybould

Inter- Schools Maths Competition

The highly successful Inter-School Maths Championship took place in February for Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 competed against schools across the West Midlands at Woodside School, Dudley.  The competition encompasses an exciting range of mathematical challenges, puzzles and problem-solving tasks which pupils work through, in their school groups, to accumulate points. We are pleased to announce that both Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 children won their heat and are through the final in June.   

The finals will be at Woodside Primary on:  10th June

Years 3 and 4 9:15am – 12:00pmYears 5 and 6 1:00pm – 3:45pm

Welcome Miss Hoult

We welcome Miss Hoult to Blanford Mere – she will be supporting children in Early Years and KS1. Miss Hoult  is an experienced practitioner .  We know that the transition will be smooth.   We are sure that you will make her feel extremely welcome.

Parent advice about school attendance

Simple things you can do today to help your child to attend school:

• Ensure that your children arrive at school on time, properly dressed and ready to learn  
• Instil in your children an appreciation of the importance of attending school regularly  
• Impress upon children the need to observe the school’s code of conduct.  
• Take an active interest in your children’s school career, praising and encouraging good work and behaviour and attending parents’ evenings and other relevant meetings  
• Work in partnership with your child’s school to resolve issues which may lead to non‐attendance  
• Ensure that you are aware of the attendance policy of your children’s school  
• Notify the school if your child is absent. This should be done as soon as possible ‐on the first day of absence before 9.05am. You should also provide an explanation for the absence. This explanation should be confirmed ‐ preferably in writing ‐ when the child returns to school  
• Keep them in a routine
• Avoid arranging medical/dental appointments during school hours  
• Avoid booking holidays during term time
• If you are having difficulty with your child attending school ask the school for help today   Parental advice about school attendance.

Late arrival at school

When your child arrives late at school, they miss important events like assembly, teacher instructions and introductions. Children also feel embarrassed at having to enter the classroom late.

Frequent lateness can add up to a considerable amount of learning being lost. This can seriously disadvantage your child and disrupt the learning of others. Please help your child to be punctual.

It can be extremely hard for a pupil to catch up on missed work, regular absence can really disadvantage your child in life.  Children who miss one day each week from school, are missing out on 20% of their education.

Safeguarding

We all have a responsibility for the welfare of our children. If something concerns you about the welfare of a child within school then please contact the class teacher in the first instance who will refer to the Schools Designated Safeguarding Leads within school. If you have concerns which are not school based you can: Call the children's services referral and advice service on 0300 555 0050 during office hours (9am - 5pm). Out of office hours contact the Emergency Duty Team on 0300 555 8574 or in an emergency call 999. Alternatively, you can call ChildLine on 0800 1111 or email them by visiting https://www.childline.org.uk/

Dates for the diary

Friday 14^th February – INSET Day – school closed to children

Monday 24^th February - School reopens at the usual time

Tuesday 25^th February - Blanford Babies – 9-10am – The Hub

Thursday 6^th March – World Book Day – see email that was sent 12.02.2025

Tuesday 11^th March 1-2pm – New Nursery children stay and play

Thursday 13^th March – Year 1 Forest School Visit - see letter sent

Wednesday 19^th – Friday 21^st March – Yr 6 Condover Hall

Friday 21^st March – Red Nose Day – children to wear their own clothes or wear Something Funny for Money! We ask that children donate £1 to this fantastic cause. If you do not want your child to take part in this event, please send your child in their own clothes.

Tuesday 25^th March - Blanford Babies – 9-10am – The Hub

Friday 4^th April – Year 6 Parents – Condover Hall assembly at 2pm

Thursday 10^th April – VIP Day

Friday 11^th April – INSET Day – school closed to children

Monday 28^th April – Children return to school at the usual time

Have a great half term.

Mrs Crook and Miss Stanton

Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher