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
Attendance winners for February were Year 1B with a huge 97.72% - well done!
Share a Million Stories Campaign
Well done on a fantastic first week of story sharing. Last week, we accumulated 6217 story shares! Well done to everyone who remembered their Share a Million Stories Reading Record, make sure they are in school every Friday or your shares won't count for that week.
World Book Day
Thank you everyone for a brilliant World Book Day, you all looked comfy and cosy in your pyjamas! A massive thank you to the parents who were able to come in and read with children during the afternoon, they were so excited to read with you. . Every child was given a £1 book token which either can be exchanged for a £1 book or go towards buying a book.
Children’s comments:
Pupil Voice - 3/4O
Demi - I think World Book Day is a nice time to read and get more knowledge. I enjoy sharing stories with my little brother.
Todd - I liked World Book Day because we have shared lots of stories and can learn more by listening to them.
1c
Benny said "I really enjoyed my Dad coming into school to read a superhero story to me and my friends."
Abdul B said "I like sharing stories. We are trying to be the winning class!"
5/6C
"For World Book day, we read extracts from lots of different books and completed lots of fun activities. My favourite was 'Book Bingo' when we had to find people in our class who had read certain books. It was a good opportunity to introduce us to different books." Lily C Y5
"On World Book Day, we did lots of exciting activities which helped us learn more about why we should read and how it is good for your brain. Then, we played a game called 'Book Bingo' which was where you had to tell your friends about types of books you had read and was a good way of sharing our thoughts and opinions about books." Ben C Y6
"I really enjoyed World Book Day, especially when the parents came in to share a story with us." Issy G Y6
Black Country Living Museum
On a wet, windy Wednesday, Year 5-6 had a great time visiting the Black Country Living Museum. They saw a mining show with experiments that replicated the effects of fire-damp and choke-damp, steel chains being made and even experienced a narrow boat ride through the Dudley Tunnels. It was a brilliant trip which brought to life our classroom learning, demonstrating to the children what a rich and fantastic heritage we have in our local area.
Lexi: "Today was a really nice day because we went on a narrow boat and went through the Dudley tunnel."
Miley: "I enjoyed going into the old school because the teacher acted like he would in the olden days."
Caitlin: "We had a fantastic day and the best bits were the school and the mine experiment, where one of the men set his hand on fire to show how water protected him!"
Would you like to learn a musical instrument?
You are invited to the Dudley Performing Arts open evening on Thursday 12th March for students interested in learning a musical instrument, you are welcome to drop in any time between 18:30 – 20:00.
By going along you can try a range of instruments, find out about singing lessons, meet the teachers and ask any questions you have.
Learning a musical instrument is a great thing to do and will open up all sorts of opportunities for children. Our school is committed to providing opportunities for children to get involved in music and we hope that you are able to go along. The evening will take place at Netherton Arts Centre, Northfield Road, Netherton DY2 9ER.
School Council Uniform Sale
When: Friday 20th March 2020
Where: Blanford Mere School Hall
Time: 3.00-3.30pm
Please enter the school via the Main Entrance.
Every item will be sold for £1 and all proceeds will go to the School Council funds.
Water Fountains
During the half term break, new water fountains were installed for KS1 and KS2. These were the result of the school making a successful application to the Healthy Pupils Capital Fund. We are particularly pleased to have been successful as these new, more expensive models have an additional feature that enables children to refill their water bottles with fresh water during the day – we do encourage children to keep hydrated. This is great timing as we hope that warmer weather is on its way!
Healthy Break Policy
A reminder that Blanford Mere Primary School recognises the importance of a healthy, nutritious diet for all children. Therefore in line with guidance from Dudley Healthy Schools, we have adopted their recommended policy on break time snacks.
The policy covers foods and drinks brought in from home for break and aims to support all pupils to consume a healthy, nutritious snack.
The policy can be found on the school website and states that pupils can only bring in the following food and drink items for consumption at break-time.
Food and drinks that do not comply with the policy will be taken from pupils and returned to them at the end of the day.
The free fruit and vegetable scheme is available to KS2 pupils, where parents can pay on a half termly basis. Reception and Years 1 and 2 receive a free piece of fruit or vegetable every break-time. If you have any queries please contact your child’s class teacher. We hope parents will support us with this.
Many thanks for those parents who do.
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/
Corona Virus
Please see the latest advice from the Department of Health regarding the Corona Virus.
Forthcoming dates:
Friday 13th March. Sport Relief 2020 Blanford Mere has decided to get involved and help raise money for this incredible cause. The children can wear sporting clothes for the day. We are asking that children bring £1 to donate to Sports Relief to wear their sporting clothes for the day.
We will also be raising additional funds for Sport Relief by selling special wristbands for the children to wear at £1 each. The best bit is, the money raised by the public is spent by Comic Relief to help people living incredibly tough lives, both at home in the UK and across the world's poorest countries. To learn more about how Comic Relief spends the money raised for Sport Relief please look at the pamphlet below or visit sportrelief.com/schools. We will also be using Sport Relief as a teaching opportunity so that our students can learn about the issues children across the world face, and how the money we raise can help them.
Mrs Miller
Headteacher
