Dear Families,

 

Some sad news ….
After 12 years of teaching at Friarswood, Mrs Hartley has made the huge decision to retire from teaching.   She has accepted another job that will allow her more time with her family.  Mrs Hartley will be leaving at the end of this term.   Year 5 families will have received Mrs Hartley’s letter today.  It brought a tear to my eyes reading it as I’m sure it will with many of you. We wish her well on this new and exciting change in role and will miss her a great deal. 

We will keep you up to date with the new teacher and will do our best to ensure a smooth transition for the children.

 

Eco-conference
On Tuesday,  Mrs Bebbington and Mr Linley-Simon (our Co-op Community Pioneer) took some of eco-warriers to Co-op Live to attend this year’s eco conference. They were joined by many other academies in our trust to take part in different activities all aimed at increasing awareness on how we can help to look after our planet.  To top this off they had a tour around the arena to find out just how eco friendly Co-op Live is, the children were very impressed! They are now going to plan and run a school assembly to share their findings to all of our children. #SucceedTogether 

 

Sports 4 All
On Wednesday, Miss Cooper and myself took some children to Newcastle college to take part in a varied range of unusual sports such as boccia, new age curling and archery.  The children had such a good time developing skills and competing against the other schools as well as themselves.  They all came back to school with a sense of achievement and the biggest smiles.  Well done to the group sof Year 4 and Year 5 children who went.

 

Hall 
You may have heard, the hall is now back in action.  We will be looking at rearranging any events after Easter.

 

Arbor Parent portal
Thankyou to everyone who has signed up to the parent portal. If you have still yet to do this please go to https://login.arbor.sc and click Forgot your password? to finish setting up your account. 

 

Parents’ Evenings
Thank you to everyone who came along to discuss their child’s learning and progress.  If you missed this, please contact your teacher to arrange a suitable time.

 

Easter celebrations
On Friday the 27th March, we will be holding our Easter celebrations.  There will be the annual Easter bonnet parade (bonnets to be made at home) for KS1 and Early Years.  For KS2, it’s egg decorating time.  Every year we have some incredible designs that all of the children and staff love to see.

If you’d like to come and watch, we will be starting at 1:30pm.  

 

Online Safety
The Department for Education has launched a new website to support families and encourage regular conversations about what children and young people are seeing online, asking simple questions like “Who shared this?” and “Why?”

The website has been designed based on the main concerns and needs raised by parents and carers and includes:

Tips for parents’/carers’ conversations with their children

Actions to support each stage of their child’s life

Parental control information

Signposting to other trusted resources from charities and third parties, where parents/carers can access other forms of support, like speaking to an expert.

As part of the government consultation to prepare children for the future in an age of rapid technological change, they want to hear from parents and carers. The consultation will consider how children use digital technology as well as potential age restrictions on social media and other services such as gaming sites and AI chatbots, restrictions on addictive design features and risky functionalities, and better support for parents and families.

Here is the link for you to have a look at the website.

 

I wish all the Mums, Grandmothers and Mother figures out there a very happy Mother’s Day.   I hope the sun shines for you and you are looked after for the day.

 

Thank you as always for your continued support.

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Take care and stay safe.

Mrs Wilmer