13th January 2023 Newsletter

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.

Welcome Back

May we take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy New Year.  Both children and staff have made a swift and positive start to the new term. We hope that you had an enjoyable Christmas break.

New Nursery Children

We would like to welcome our new Nursery Children to Blanford Mere, they are all settling in well.  We wish them a fabulous learning experience here!

Year 2

Year 2, have launched their new Topic; 'Significant Explorers'. They have started off by looking at 'what makes someone significant?' After some whole class, and group discussion, the children decided that their top three criteria for someone being significant is...

1. Improving the lives of others
2. Making a change in the world for good
3. Inventing something that makes lives better

Year 2 then discussed the importance of scientific discovery, and being the first to discover or find something. This led to the discussion of explorers; they will study in more detail over the next term. If you would like to research any of them at home with your children, they will be studying Ibn Battuta, Matthew Henson, Felicity Aston and Neil Armstrong. They are also using the story of Ernie Shackleton in our English lessons.

Happy exploring!

In Year 2, they have been using their English lessons to write about Ernie Shackleton and his adventures. On Monday and Tuesday, they will be writing his diary for the 27th October 1915; the day the Endurance sank. They were able to find some footage taken of that day by Frank Hurley, the ship's photographer. The children were amazed at the video, and were even more amazed that the ship wreck was only found last year!

Their English lessons have been focused on Ernie Shackleton, and they have studied Ibn Battuta in their Topic lesson, to contrast two explorers from different times who explored different regions of the world. Next week, they will consolidate their work on both explorers, before moving on to Matthew Henson, the first African American Polar Explorer.

Year 3-4

Year 3/4 are very excited to have started their new topic of Africa and are reading The Boy Who Biked the World (On the Road to Africa) as part of their English lessons. They have written some fantastic setting descriptions of Cairo and are now writing texts explaining how to survive in the desert.  Watch out Bear Grylls!  We have also been busy practising for our class assemblies and look forward to welcoming parents to watch the results of our hard work over the course of the next few weeks or so.

Yr 5-6 Lights, Camera, Action

On Friday 6th January, Year 5-6 had a fantastic start to their new topic - Lights, Camera, Action! Children dressed up as film stars for the day and had the opportunity to create their own Hollywood walk of fame handprint and have their photo taken on the red carpet. They all had time to research the film star that they had come as and then create a fact file. 

Tommy: "I came dressed as Sylvester Stallone.  I enjoyed researching him and finding out about him and how many children he has. It was good day. I made my own handprint on the walk of fame."

Grace: " I came as Elona Holmes (Billy Bobby Brown). I liked dressing up and finding out about her.  I found out that she is the 3rd of 4 kids."

Jack S: "My favourite part was researching the actor and making a fact file.  I found out lots of things I didn't know."

Rayarn: "I liked dressing up because I felt more like myself and more confident."

Archie: "I liked the dress up day because we got to research and dress up as our characters. I was dressed up as Harry Potter and researched Daniel Radcliffe."

Harrison G: "I enjoyed the dress up day because we got to come in our own clothes and research our characters."

Thank you to everyone who helped with providing costumes and ensuring the children had a great day.

Girls Year 5/6 Football Team!

Thursday 12th January

Yesterday, 10 girls from year 5/6 attended Summerhill Secondary School to participate in two football matches against other local schools. The weather was not on our side, as the wind was extremely bitter! However, this did not deter our girls from putting on a strong team performance in both games. 

Our first game was against The Ridge Primary School. The girls worked together to pass the ball and run at their defenders to create lots of chances. Finally, it paid off with Freya striking and scoring our first goal! The first game ended as a 1-0 win to Blanford Mere! What a way to start!

Our second game was against St James' where lots of goals were scored. We were drawing 2-2 until a bit of misfortune occurred, where the ball bounced off one of our players into our goal. However, the girls did not drop their heads and continued to battle until the final whistle, with the game ending as a 4-2 win to St James's.

I am extremely proud of the girls for the way in which they conducted themselves and represented Blanford Mere as a school. We received some lovely comments from the parents who couldn't believe how well they played considering it was their first ever match. Thank you to the parents for their support and encouragement!

We now look forward to our next game on Thursday 26th January. Let's go girls!

Miss Postings

Thank you – Miss Postings!

We would also like to thank and congratulate Miss Postings for her coaching of the team and for giving up her own time to run the club and organise the matches.  Keep up the fantastic work Miss Postings and the Girls Football Team!

Sports House Competition

This term, Blanford Mere will be creating exciting new competitive opportunities within PE and Sport through introducing a sports house system. Inter house competitions within school are proven to build moral, team spirit and encourage active participation in sport and physical activity. House competitions give all students the opportunity to participate in competitive sport with the aim of raising self-esteem, developing self-confidence and giving opportunities for leadership and teamwork beyond those already available within school. 

The sports house system will run as follows: 

• There are four houses.
• Every child from reception to year 6 will be in a Sports House. 
• Brothers and sisters will be in the same house. 
• The children will score points for their house by taking part in competitive sport and physical activity. 
• House points can only be awarded for sporting success and participation.
• The Sports House with the most points at the end of the year will be the winners and have their team’s colours on the trophy and earn a reward. 

The children took ownership of creating the sports house names by giving suggestions to their school council class representatives and then they were discussed within a school council meeting to reach a final decision. The names are linked to the local area, to which they belong, just as most professional sports team names are based upon. 

The names they chose were:

• Kingswinford Kickers
• Stourbridge Stars 
• Dudley Gladiators 
• Wordsley Warriors

Sports Ambassadors

This week, year 5/6 children have taken the opportunity to apply to become a Sports Ambassador. The Sports Ambassadors scheme is designed to build leadership and give children the voice for PE and school sport in their school and community. They are required to Promote the positive values of sport; be a role model and champion for PE and school sport; Increase participation opportunities and healthy lifestyles for everyone. 

Prospective candidates had to complete an application form to show their passion for sport and explain why they would be an outstanding candidate for the role. They then had to plan and organise a sporting activity/game to 8 younger children to show their potential of leading sport on the playground.

The successful candidates were: 

• Zara F
• Liam T
• Autumn S
• Frankie F 
• Lewis D
• Clay W
• Archie H
• Harry J
• Chloe P

They will now undertake a training programme to ensure they are fully prepared for their new roles. Well done!

Well done – Blue Peter Badges!

A huge congratulations to Deedee (Yr3/4) who earned two Blue Peter badges; her first was for helping the environment through litter picking and her second for writing a story about kittens.

A big well done to Merryn (Yr 5/6) as she has earned a Blue Peter badge. She has shown super-sustainability and has been litter picking in her local area and areas that are further afield. She has now decided that she would like to continue this good working in school by supporting younger children to litter pick and keep our environment safe, clean and tidy. 

If your child has achieved any rewards out of school, please let us know, so that we can share their achievements with everyone!

Blanford Mere Book Swap

Blanford Mere Book Swap is here!

Give a book!

Take a book!

Let’s Swap!

Do you have any appropriate books that you have read and are in good condition?

Come and swap them at our book swap shelf in the foyer. The book swap is for both parents and children to use. We need to build up our collection of children’s books, so if you have any books that you would like to donate please add them to our book swap shelf. We really want to promote a love of reading for all here at Blanford, including parents so, pop to the book swap before or after school and let’s get swapping.

‘A book is a gift that you can open again and again’

High expectations

We want to thank you for sending your child to school daily, ready to learn and we want to maintain our high expectations of behaviour and standards across the school.  We would appreciate your full support with this, as this forms part of our behaviour system and permeates across the school in all areas of learning. 

Here are a few reminders we are asking for your support with when sending children to school:

Hairstyles: it is not suitable to attend school with shaven heads, tramlines or extreme colours.  Please remind your children of the rules. Children who have long hair must tie it up.

Nail varnish: many children are wearing nail varnish or gel nails for school.  This is not appropriate for school – please save this for the holidays or special occasions.

PE Kit: Could you please make sure that your child has all of their PE kit available in school every day from the first day of term as our timetable starts immediately. Although staff will let you know when the planned PE sessions are, there are often times when we have PE for classes or when teachers take advantage of good weather to do PE. Children are not allowed to take part in PE unless all jewellery/earrings have been removed. If you wish your child to have their ears pierced, can I suggest that you have this done at the very beginning of the of the summer holiday so that their ears have the full six weeks to heal.

Dogs: Dogs are not allowed on the school premises at any time, and if you have a dog please do not obstruct the pathway/gate as a number of children, who are frightened of dogs, find this intimidating.

Uniform: Children from Yr 1- Yr 6 should be wearing winter uniform to include a shirt, tie, jumper or cardigan. Many children are now wearing ‘very short’ skirts and feel embarrassed when asked to sit in the hall – please support us and your child by ensuring that skirts are of an appropriate length.  They should also wear black ‘leather style’ shoes not trainers.  This forms part of our behaviour chart.

Money: Children should not bring any money to school – there is nothing to buy.

School lunches: Dinners should be pre-paid, where applicable, online using School Grid. All lunches should be pre-ordered by parents on School Grid, regardless of year group.

Fruit: All children in Reception Class and KS1 receive free fruit each day for tuck and therefore do not need to bring any food from home. A reminder that all children in Year R, 1 and 2 will be entitled to a free school meal, we would like all children in these year groups (Universal Free School Meals) to take this option.  Children entitled to Free School Meals through benefits should also take this option. Please remember to apply for free school meals if you are eligible as some of school funding depends on it.

Children in KS2 should also bring a piece of fruit for break – there will be no tuck on sale. (No crisps or chocolate please.) KS2 children: May we remind you that we operate a ‘healthy tuck’ policy.  Since schools are now subject to strict guidelines about the type of food that is allowed/ available during the school day, we hope that parents will support our efforts to encourage children to make healthy choices. We also encourage children to bring in healthy lunchboxes.

Water bottles: Children should only bring a filled water bottle (not squash please– see healthy tuck policy on the website). This needs to be named please so that children can easily recognise their own bottle and do not touch or drink out of bottles belonging to other children.

Attendance/Absence and Holidays in Term Time:

Attendance in school is compulsory.

Don’t forget that our policy on attendance, reporting children’s absences and holidays in term time is on the school website. If children are too ill to attend school then parents must phone the school office by 9.00a.m. to let us know the reason why children are not in school—unexplained absences are recorded as “unauthorised”. It is then your responsibility to ring school before 9.05am on any future days of illness, so our registers are kept up to date.  Our policy reflects the government’s stance on holidays in term time.

We have been informed by Dudley Investigation Service that they are issuing Fixed Penalty Notices (fines) for a leave of absence in term time.

Please can parents be aware of this information when booking any holidays, trips etc.

Snow

As the temperatures are extremely changeable, we are aware that we may have snow.  In snowy weather we will remain open as long as we have the ability to open safely (whilst most of our children are local and can walk to school, many of our staff live further away and have difficult journeys to get to school). Please make sure that you are logged in to the School Life App so that you receive all updates from us.

A reminder of our procedures.

If a decision is made to close the school, it will be announced on local radio

Free Radio BC - 97.2

Free Radio—B’ham – 96.4

Black Country Radio

We will also update the school website and send out a group text. To keep the school open we have to have enough staff in school to care for the children as well as premises that are safe enough to enter (gritted pathways etc.)

Please do not ring the school. We are unlikely to be able to make an early decision as many staff live a distance away and will be experiencing difficulty getting to school. As soon as a decision is made to close the radio stations will be informed.

As you know, where possible we do our best to stay open. However, if conditions are unsafe for either children or staff then we have no option but to close. We will do our best!

Dates for the diary

Friday 13^th January – Reception Vision screening

Friday 13^th January – Yr1JB Library visit

Friday 20^th January – Library are visiting Reception/Nursery children

Friday 20th January Yr 3/4JC Class assembly 9.00am

Tuesday 24th January.  School Nurse 'Drop in' -Emily Callaghan at 9am. Parents and carers of children aged 5-11 are invited to attend the drop in session, where you can speak to our school nurse about your child's health. This is an open access, confidential service that provides parents with the opportunity to “drop-in” without an appointment to discuss any aspects of your child’s health or wellbeing . If you want to attend please come along to the main office.

Friday 27^th January Yr 1 Burns Night Dress up Celebration

Tuesday 31^st January 2023 BLANFORD BABY GROUP

From January 2023, we would like to invite all parents with children aged 0 – 3 years (pre-school age) to come along to our baby group. This group will be held on the last Tuesday of every month at 9am – 10am in our newly built community room.

There will be a small charge of £2 to attend, as well as refreshments to purchase such as tea, coffee and toast.

It is our hope that this group will enable parents to connect with other families in our local school community and enables little ones to engage with our school and staff from a young age.

So please come along and have a cup of tea.

Friday 3^rd February – Yr 3/4MC Class assembly 9.00am

Friday 3^rd February NSPCC Number Day – Dress up! Nursery to Yr 6

Dear parent/carer,

February 3rd is NSPCC Number Day! As part of our commitment to make maths exciting and high profile in our school, we've decided to take part in a friendly competition involving schools in the United Kingdom. It's a 1-day competition which starts on Friday 3rd February 2023 at 07:30 GMT and ends at 19:30 GMT. It's all done online via play.ttrockstars.com.

Children can play in any game mode with every correct answer to a multiplication or division question, earning themselves, their class and the school a point. The Times Tables Rock Stars platform will calculate the class average (the number of correct answers per pupil in the class who play during the competition hours, subject to a 60-minute limit (see below)). Winning classes in the school and in the competition as a whole will be the ones with the highest average.

To support player wellbeing, there is a time limit of 60-minutes per player. In other words, each player can earn competition points for up to 60-minutes between 07:30 GMT and 19:30 GMT on Friday 3rd February. Once the player goes beyond 60-minutes of play on that day, they will still earn coins but will no longer earn points towards the competition.

In the spirit of the competition, please don't play on their behalf but by all means, encourage and support them to the extent that it doesn't cause high-stress levels or impact on family plans.

To raise funds for the NSPCC, we ask students to donate £1 to wear their own clothes or their rock star clothes to school for the day. The £1 donation can be made via School Money.

Many thanks,

Mr Baker

W/C Monday 6^th February – Children’s Mental Health Week – more details to follow

Wednesday 8^th and Thursday 9^th February – Parents Evening– more details to follow

Thursday 16th February – school closes for half term

Friday 17^th February - School closed to pupils – INSET day

Monday 27^th February- School reopens at the usual time

Thursday 2^nd March – World Book Day – more details to follow

Wednesday 15^th March – Yr 6 Condover Hall

Friday 17^th March – Red Nose Day – more details to follow

Friday 31^st March – Break up Easter holidays

Finally, we look forward to another exciting term ahead.  The children have come back to school refreshed and ready to learn! 

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Crook and Miss Stanton

Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher