It’s been a very sporty week in school with all of our children taking part in lots of PE and competitions. It’s been great to see and hear that the children have been putting their skills to the test with the competitions.
The Year 5 swimmers had a great session on Tuesday with many of the children practising their diving techniques.
The children in Year 1 have been learning about instructions – reading and writing them.
Today they have read and followed the instructions from a recipe to make ‘Puffins’ (a combination of a pancake and a muffin) This is from their class book that they have been reading ‘Polly and the Puffin’.
They had an amazing time in our school cookery classroom!
Last week a sparkly, silver mystery egg appeared in the Reception classroom.
We learned about different types of animals that come from eggs and how they hatch.
We spent the week guessing who could possibly be inside and caring for the egg, giving it a special shelter, keeping it warm and comfortable and even singing it songs to keep it entertained.
Imagine our surprise when we came back to school after the weekend to find our very own baby dragon had hatched.
Now we just need to work out how to care for a dragon as a class pet!
On Friday 10th February, some of our year 5 children represented Co-op Academy Friarswood at the Sports 4 All competition at Keele University.
They competed against other local schools in archery, boccia and new-age curling. They were amazing! Well done!
Dear Parents / Carers,
Our older children have had a very sporty week this week.
Some of our Year 6 girls took part in a netball competition with other schools from Newcastle. They performed very well and showed excellent team work. The next part of this tournament is after half term. We won’t know how well they have done until after this. What was lovely about the tournament was that the girls were so excited and pleased with themselves. Well done girls.
Some of our Year 5 children have taken part in a gymnastics competition with other Co-op Trust schools.
Three Co-op academies – Clarice Cliff, Glebe and ourselves – took part in a vault and floor competition at Crewe and Nantwich Gymnastics Club.
All events were individual and scores were collated for the schools.
Friarswood had many winners!
Well done Mila for gold in her floor routine and the highest points total; Wiktoria achieved silver in her floor routine and second highest points score; Ayva-Lilly achieved silver in her floor routine and Imogen achieved gold in the vault.
Friarswood came first overall for the highest points of the three schools. We are so very proud of you!
‘Well done girls, you made me feel so proud to be part of the Friarswood team. Each and every one of you was amazing. Your sportsmanship and encouragement for each other was outstanding.’
MRS. SHAW
Well done to…
Dear Parents / Carers,
Next week is Children’s Mental Health week. All week the children will be learning about important aspects of being safe, being healthy, knowing it’s ok to talk and learning about how to deal with various emotions. The Anna Freud support link below is really useful for you as parents and for children too.
On Friday (10th Feb) we will have a non-uniform day – Be yourself!
Anna Freud support
Self-care top-tips for young parents and carers booklet offers some simple self-care advice for young parents and carers about the importance of self-care and looking after their own mental health and wellbeing whilst raising children. Please click here to find out more.
Next Tuesday is Safer Internet Day. The theme is ‘Want to talk about it?’ It’s about making time to talk about life online. Here’s a Youtube video which you may find useful to help to start these types of conversations with your child. We also have some useful links on our Online Safety page
On Monday 6th February we are having a ‘drop in’ coffee & cake morning from 9am to 10:30am. We have a range of charities and organisations coming into school who can chat to you and give you advice regarding health and finances along with your wellbeing. It’s also a chance to have a coffee and a chat – which always does people the world of good. If you are free, please come and join us. If you know of a relative or friend please bring them along too.
Some of our younger children have had a visit from the police today. The children learnt about the role of the police officer and had fun learning about police cars too. Photos will be on the website soon.
Dear Parents/Carers,
Although I still don’t know which, if any, teachers are striking, I’ve made arrangements so that we have cover for any potential classes affected. I won’t be able to confirm this until Wednesday morning, but just to reassure you we are not envisioning any classes being closed.
A plan will be put in place for each of the further strike days closer to each day of strike action. I will of course keep you updated with these.
Next Friday, (3rd Feb), Windmills charity are setting up a table of toys and games for sale and a tombola to help them to raise much needed funds for their charity. Please support as much as you can. The charity support children who are in crisis due to a close relative about to die or a close relative has just died. There is no other charity in the country who support children at such a time.
Unfortunately the team is extremely busy working with young children in our area. The funds raised pay for the therapy activities for these children.
We have had the Early Years Director for the Trust visit us last week and this week. She was over the moon with our children and our early years team. The children impressed her with their thoughtfulness, their hard work , their phonics and their enthusiasm. Well done everyone.
Dear Parents / Carers,
The children have had so much fun in the snow this week. They have played so well together and have certainly been busy building snowmen. There are still a few bodies left on the field!
You may be aware that the trade unions who represent teachers in our academy, have been balloting for strike action. This is a national action, in relation to a dispute with the Government about pay, which you will also have seen in other sectors. To be clear, this is not a dispute about the operation of our academy.
The results of the ballot from the National Education Union (NEU) supported strike action. Some of our teachers are members of this trade union, and may be taking strike action on the following dates:
Wednesday 1st February
Tuesday 28th February / Wednesday 1st March
Wednesday 15th March
Thursday 16th March
We are currently working on plans to keep our academy open for as many children as possible, but it may mean that some children will need to learn from home on these days. We will communicate again with more details when we know which children will be affected.
We’re aware that this is a cause for concern for everyone, but we will do everything we can to ensure that learning continues when these strikes take place.
Our Year 6 pupils’ were visited by local artist Kate Windsor this week – as part of their ongoing Art studies.
Kate is well known for her painting and collage of local iconic bottle ovens, sacred hearts, and Bobcats.
Our pupils’ learnt about her use of colour, shape and how art should be free, fun and imaginative – there are no rules!
Year 6 took part in four fun activities and had the opportunity to ask Kate about her career, her work and her inspirations.
What an amazing afternoon!
Year 6 have had a fantastic week at Standon Bowers, They’ve shown confidence and enthusiasm in all of the activities. We have seen the children really develop with some of their personal skills. From the beginning of the week where some children struggled with independence, throughout the week they have shown a growing strength and have amazed us at how resilient and independent they’ve become. By the end of the week, they’ve been problem solving and making informed decisions along with independently completing tasks. They’ve dealt with the wind and the rain and kept smiling throughout it all. There will definitely be some extremely muddy washing for you later!
A massive thank you to Mrs Sharman, Ms Shaw, Mrs Hughes, Mrs Bebbington and Mr Golds who have all taken it in turns to stay with the children overnight.
It’s been brought to my attention about some of our children are seeing scary images on Roblox and Youtube which they are discussing in school.
Along with this, there’s an online message going around Staffordshire about self harm within the context of a DARE game.
Please can I ask that you do keep an eye on what your child accesses online. Whilst we constantly teach children about being safe online it’s very difficult to monitor this outside of school. We can only hope that with your support, the children use what they’ve learnt and apply it to all contexts.
This week our Reception and Year 1 children have amazed us all. The trainers have been super impressed with Year 1 and at how quickly they’ve managed to ride bikes with no stabilisers. The children’s confidence has grown so much and their focus on riding certainly helped them to power around the playground – with no crashes!
We were very lucky to have the opportunity to take part in this year’s Bikeability course using the balance bikes and then progressing onto the pedal bikes. Our Reception class and some of Year One joined the two biking coaches for this four day course. They were so impressed with our children who did amazingly well. So many of the children who took part can now ride a bike independently and those that were not quite there were very close! We are so proud of all the children, they were fantastic throughout and showed real resilience to gain a new skill. #DoWhatMattersMost
