Merry Christmas!

This final newsletter of 2023 is a chance to reflect on all that has happened over the past 15 weeks.

Our new children have settled well into school and adapted to the school routine amazingly well. All of the children, from Nursery to Year 6, have had a fabulous term of learning supported by their teachers and yourselves. Thank you for the support that you give to us in helping your child’s learning.

I hope that you are as pleased as I am with the progress they are making - a well deserved (and much needed) rest over the holidays is certainly in order!

The PTA have run a number of events to raise money for the school and provide much enjoyed social events at the same time. I will be tallying up all of the money over the next couple of days and let you know how much your generosity has raised. A huge thank you to the PTA team for running these events so smoothly.

Yesterday and today we topped off the festive season with the KS1 Christmas Show - they brought the house down with their singing and dancing! Congratulations KS1, we were all very proud of you. Everyone has worked very hard and overcome nerves - you were fabulous.

A final thank you to the Friarswood team who make everything happen - the teaching staff, office staff, lunchtime team, premises staff and leadership team. All are important parts of the jigsaw that make Friarswood a great place to be.

In other news …

Attendance - despite many coughs and colds going around this last term thankyou for supporting the school with your child's attendance. Our overall attendance so far this year is 96.7% and even today’s attendance is 96.4% - Friarswood is made of tough stuff! 

Finally we will return to school on Monday 8th January. A reminder that the doors open at 8:40 each morning (8:45 Nursery and Reception) and close at 8:50 after which you will need to sign your child in at the front office.

However you choose to spend these holidays I wish you peace and happiness with your families and friends.

Merry Christmas

Ms Hartley

Dear Parents and Carers,

After a very pretty and snowy weekend we settled in for a rather more dull and damp week in school! The week was however cheered considerably by seeing so many of you in school this week.

Christmas Lunches

It was fantastic to see so many happy grandparents and children at our Grandparent Christmas lunches on Wednesday and Thursday. Thank you for the wonderful feedback about the lunches which wouldn't have been possible without the outstanding organisational skills and team work of the staff - Thank you to everyone involved.

Celebration of Learning

The celebration of learning was another lovely opportunity to bring our community together and see what we get up to during the school day. We hope that those of you able to come enjoyed revisiting school life and comparing it to your school days!

Mrs Wilmer

I’m pleased to report that Mrs Wilmer is now at home recovering from her successful operation. She has asked me to pass on her thanks for your good wishes.

Icy mornings

We have started to experience some rather slippery conditions on the paths. I have asked the caretaker to grit the main path and the path around from the main entrance to reception on frosty mornings but please be mindful that he may not have caught all of the patches.

Upcoming December Dates 

Early Years Nativity Monday 11th

Chocolate Bingo Tuesday 12th (6pm)

Chester Zoo Trip Thursday 14th

Church visit for carols Monday 18th December

Early Years / KS1 Theatre Trip Tuesday 19th

KS1 Christmas Production Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st

Thank you to the staff, PTA and parents who work hard and volunteer their time to allow these exciting events to take place.

Ms Hartley

Dear Parents and Carers,

There’s a lot of excitement about the Christmas market later.  We hope to see as many of you here as possible.

INSET day

Friday February 9th is an INSET day due to staff training.  Small & Tall will be closed too.

Online safety advice

Parents - Xmas devices

As Xmas is approaching many children and young people will be asking for new devices. It's important that parents think carefully about these devices and the parental features that are available. It's equally important parents think about what the device will be used for, e.g. an all-singing-all-dancing smartphone when it will only be used for messaging and the odd phone call, would a lesser phone be better?

Internet Matters has put together a couple of really good guides for parents:

How to choose the right phone for your child - HERE and

Children's tech guide 2023 - which has guides on a huge range of tech from laptops to gaming consoles, smart TV's and much more. The guides can be found HERE.

Safeguarding Audit

On Wednesday, we had a Trust safeguarding audit.  The team was very thorough and asked the children and staff lots of questions.  I believe that some parents met some of the team too.  I’m thrilled to tell you that the day was a success.  It is very evident in school that safeguarding is important to everyone.  Every child they spoke to, knew what to do if something happened.  They knew that any adult in school was a trusted adult.  Many knew the childline number and all of them knew that it was better to talk to a trusted adult than keep something bottled up inside of them.

On a personal note, I’m so pleased that the information I send about online safety helps at home along with the various other updates that I send you.

Don’t forget that from Monday, I’ll be ‘out of action’.  For any problems please contact your class teacher.  For more urgent issues please contact Mrs Dean or Mrs Hartley.  As I won’t be in school, if you have any safeguarding worries about a child, please contact Mrs Hartley or the Staffordshire Safeguarding Board on 0300 111 8007.

Thank you for your continued support and especially your kind words this week.

Take care and stay safe.

Mrs Wilmer

Dear Parents / Carers,

World Mental Health Day

Thank you to everyone who wore some yellow on Tuesday.  We had an assembly about mental health and why it’s so important to look after the inside of your body as well as the outside.  We spoke about all the ways we deal with our emotions.  The children came up with some super ways to help with their emotions and wellbeing.

For anyone struggling with their wellbeing, here are some websites that may help.

Mind

NHS 

Young Minds

Internet support for parents

As many of you are aware, we regularly receive internet safety advice.  I always send out articles that are linked to parenting and to children.  Lots of children play the games below, so this article may be very useful.  As we have had several issues with children using WhatsApp, I thought the article below may be of support to you as well.

For Parents - Fortnite Guidance

Epic Games (which includes Fortnite, Fall Guys and Rocket League) provide some really useful features for parents to manage their child's gaming experience. This includes 'cabined accounts'  which are accounts where the child is under 13 and certain restrictions are applied by default, e.g. talking to other players. Given the popularity of these games it's possible some parents aren't aware of this feature so it may be worth sharing. You can find further details and instructions from Internet Matters HERE.

For Parents - WhatsApp Guide

Even though WhatsApp has an age restriction of 16+ I find it is the most popular messaging app from Y4/5 upwards. Over the last year or so WhatsApp have introduced new features so it may be worth sharing this updated guide with parents so that they can ensure the most appropriate settings are applied for their child. You can find the article/guide HERE.

Lunchtime Assistant Vacancy

We have a vacancy for a lunchtime assistant.  If you or someone you know would like to apply for this role, please get in touch with Mrs Dean.

Sports Stars

Yesterday, myself and some of our Year 6 children took part in sports activities at Co-op Academy Stoke.  We joined children from Co-op Academy Clarice Cliff and Co-op Academy Glebe.   The children had so much fun together and many of them won medals.  Well done to all of the children who took part. 

Small & Tall 

On Monday 6th November, the school is closed to all children including Small & Tall.  This is due to staff training.

Parents’ Evenings

Next week (Wed 18th and Thu 19th) we have our parents’ evenings.  If you haven’t had your appointment, please do get in touch with your teacher.  It’s a chance to find out how your child has settled into their new class.  

Please can we ask that you keep to your time of ten minutes for the benefit of everyone.  Thank you.

Parent Surveys

Last year, we had 3 main areas to develop to address your comments from the parent survey.

1.Support you in knowing who the Governors are. 

All of the Governors are on the website.  In the next few months, there will be a short extract about who they are and why they chose to be a Governor at Friarswood.

2.Develop your child’s understanding of different careers.

The whole school has taken part in Careers Related Learning (CRL).  We achieved the Quality mark for CRL in June 2023, which shows that we are going above and beyond in supporting your children about careers, aspirations and developing skills they will need for the future.

3.Opportunities for students to develop leadership skills

At Friarswood, we have an active school council.  We have a variety of leadership roles such as librarians, prefects, team captains and playground leaders.  As part of our CRL curriculum, we learn about leadership skills and how to develop these.  Throughout the year, we have chosen children to be leaders for the Eco-club, Fairtrade Fortnight and spellings as well as Year 6 children who led their own enterprises in the summer term.  Within each class, the children have their own leadership roles such as leading the line, helping to organise, having specific classroom jobs.

We will continue to try our best in improving these areas which you said needed to be developed.  We hope that with the activities which have already taken place, you can see that we have made great strides with these actions.

Thank you as always for your continued support.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Take care and stay safe.

Mrs Wilmer

• The PTA team are grateful for the support they have received during this first half term and look forward to hosting more events for the rest of the year to enable to children to have access to treats, trips and resources they otherwise wouldn’t. The PTA are always looking for new, creative, enthusiastic members. Please contact through Mrs Hartley or your class teacher if you’d like to come and join the fun.

Dear Parents / Carers,

Dougie Mac Coffee & Cake morning

We are so pleased to be hosting a coffee and cake morning to raise funds for our much loved local hospice, The Dougie Mac. This will be taking place on Friday 6th October, 9 am to 10 am in our school hall. To make this a great fundraiser, we will be after your fabulous baked goods (or bought if you would rather not chance it!) Anything will be massively appreciated. Please come along if you can and enjoy a coffee and cake with us and let's raise lots of money for the Dougie Mac!  If you’re unable to come along, please send your child in with some money so that they can buy a cake.

All cake donations to be sent on either Thursday or first thing on Friday morning . We look forward to seeing you there.

Forest Schools

Next week on Wednesday and Thursday, your child will need to have their wellies and waterproofs with them.  All of the children will be having some time in the woodland area regardless of the weather.  A Forest School Teacher will be coming in to teach the children a variety of skills.

School Council

On Tuesday, we had our first meeting of the year.  We spoke about their roles in the school and we spoke about having a special focus to support friends too. 

The children decided that they will focus on the following:

Wellbeing, safety and caring for staff.

The children came up with many ideas of how they can support other children in the school, from being trained (at an age appropriate level) to actions they can do everyday or when needed.  

We will share more with you as these roles develop.  But in the meantime, well done to Ayva, Isla, Francesca, Georgia, Skyla, Freddie, Sienna, Oscar, Libby, Roman, Teddy and Lani for being voted in for this year’s school council members.

Team Points

All of our children are put into a team from when they start school.  They can earn team points by a variety of different ways including following our STAR values (safe, trust & teamwork, achieve, resilience) and the Co-op Ways of Being (do what matters most, succeed together, be yourself always, show you care).  

Each Friday, the team captains collect the team points and then we share these in celebration assembly.  The winning team, by the end of the term (not half term), get a team treat.

On Monday, all of the children met in their teams to discuss how they can be the best and win this term’s team treat.  Lots of healthy competitive discussions and ideas were discussed, which was great. 

Yr 6 orienteering

Yesterday, some of Year 6 went to Co-op Academy Stoke to take part in an orienteering activity along with some Year 6 children from Co-op Academy Clarice Cliff and Co-op Academy Glebe. The children had a fabulous time and came back with lots of medals! Well done year 6.

School Photographs

School Photographs are Monday 9th October. If you would like your child's photograph taken with younger siblings who do not attend Friarswood please come along at 8.20am.  

Menu for 5th October
Midshires are having an Italian style themed menu next week on Thursday 5th October. The menu is attached below.

I wish you all a lovely weekend.  

Take care and stay safe.

Mrs Wilmer