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Newsletters

September 2024

Archive

  • Newsletter ~ September Week Four

    Published 27/09/24

    Dear Families,

     

    Free School Meals
    Did you know that if your child is entitled to free school meals, the school receives funding from the Government.  This funding is spent on support for your child. Even if your child has packed lunches, you can still apply and the school will still receive this extra funding.  See below for more information.  You can find out more by clicking Staffordshire County Council


    Who can get free school meals?

    The general low income entitlement criteria is -

    • Income Support

    • Income Based Job Seekers Allowance. Please note the ‘new style’ job seekers allowance is not a qualifying benefit, as this is based upon payment of National Insurance contributions and not the household income

    • Income Related Employment and Support Allowance. Please note the ‘new style’ employment and support allowance is not a qualifying benefit, as this is based upon payment of National Insurance contributions and not the household income

    • eligible for Child Tax Credit but not Working Tax Credit and the household income (as used by HMRC to assess tax credits) is not more that £16,190. Please note: anyone eligible for Working Tax Credit, or if you have a partner and they receive it, regardless of Income, you will not qualify

    • The Guarantee element of State Pension Credit

    • Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

    • In receipt of the 4 week run on of working tax credit (this is where someone becomes unemployed or reduces their hours and so is no longer entitled to working tax credit but will continue to receive it for a further 4 weeks and is entitled to free meals during that time)

    • Universal credit (provided you have an annual net earned household income of no more than £7,400 as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods). Your net earned income is your household income after taxes and deductions and does not include income from Universal Credit or any other benefits you may receive.

    To make an application under any of these criteria please use our online application form

     

    National Teaching Assistant Day
    Today we celebrated all of our wonderful teaching assistants.  Without their invaluable support in the classroom, the children wouldn’t have another adult to support them with their learning.  As a way of saying thank you, we treated our TAs to a special breakfast. 

     

    Learning in the classrooms
    This week I have been around to all of the classrooms and seen some amazing learning going on.  Year 6 has been learning about personification and produced some very thoughtful sentences. Year 5 were very knowledgeable about the dangers of electricity.  Year 4 has amazed me with their spelling results.  So many of the children are getting full marks and remembering spellings from previous weeks, which is great!  Years 3, 2 and 1 have been working their socks off with their maths work.  And early years children have been amazing with their activities especially Reception children who weren’t too sure about having a spider or a shark for a pet!

    I showed some new families around yesterday who were very impressed with what they saw. 


     

    Small & Tall
    On Friday 25th October, Small & Tall is closed after school due to staff training.  We are open in the morning.

     

    Water Beads and young children
    If you have young children, please take a moment to read this safety alert regarding water beads. 

     

    Attendance
    At Friarswood we are very lucky to have super overall attendance.  As you will be aware, the Government is raising awareness about attendance in schools across the country and has put new guidelines in place.  Here are the links to our Attendance policy and the DfE information.  One of the updates refers to penalty notices to families who have been on holiday but haven’t informed the school of this.  Due to this, please can we ask that you do let us know if you’re on holiday as we now have to do home visits if a child is off school for more than 2 days. If your child or someone talks to us about you being on holiday (and we‘re not aware of this)  we still have to refer this to the authority.  Again, I would just like to say that Friarswood has the best attendance across all of the Co-op Academies Trust.  Thank you for your support with this.

     

    Have a lovely weekend

    Take care and stay safe.

    Mrs Wilmer

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  • Newsletter ~ September Week 3

    Published 20/09/24

    Dear Families,

    We’ve had a busy week in school.  We’ve had the Glow counsellor in to work with children in Years 4, 5 and 6 focusing on relationships.  The workshops are all based on the theme ‘relationships without fear’.  Over the last three years, Glow has come into school to talk to the children.  The children have always given such positive feedback about these sessions which is great to hear.

     

    Early Years
    We have some spaces available in the Early years classes and we’re also holding open mornings for new parents to come and look around.  If you know of anyone who would be interested, please pass on our details.  They can book onto an open morning by going to the website.  Thank you.

     

    Jewellery in school
    Please can I remind you that apart from a pair of small stud earrings and a watch, no other jewellery is allowed in school.  Children will be asked to take off necklaces, bracelets and rings.

    During any PE session, all jewellery must be removed.  This includes when children go swimming.

     

    Maths
    Yesterday, we had a Maths Lead from the Trust in school.  Miss Thornton was really impressed with what she saw in every class.  The children were amazing while taking part in their maths activities.  Every class, everyday will be completing a core skills maths session as well as their usual maths lesson.  This is to try and ensure every child is competent with basic maths skills.  Yesterday, Year 5 really impressed Miss Thornton so much so that she sang their praises on X (Twitter).

     

    Medical Information
    If your child has a medical condition, please ensure the school knows about this.  We can then create a care plan.  If we do not know about it, we can’t ensure that all staff know what the issue is and how you would like us to respond to it apart from using the basic knowledge which we have.

     

    Grass banks around school
    Please can you ask your children not to go on the grass banks in the mornings.  They are very wet and slippery.  The teachers do ask the children not to go on them but a reminder from yourselves would be really helpful.

     

    Online Safety
    For Parents - Video Games and Children

    Unicef have shared an article with some nice, clear and simple advice for parents/carers about online gaming. The article covers how to create a positive and safe gaming environment, how parents can engage with their children, what the benefits or gaming are and more.

    You can view the article on the Unicef website HERE.

     

    Safeguarding in school

    Ms Hartley is the Designated Safeguarding Lead.  I am the Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead.

    If you have concerns about the safety and wellbeing of a child, you can always come and chat to one of us.  You could go on to the website and use the ‘Report a Concern’ button (top right of the screen)  or you could call Staffordshire Children’s Safeguarding team on 0300 111 8007.  Out of hours number is 0345 6042886.  In an emergency, please don’t wait.  Contact the police on 999.

    Our Child Protection and Safeguarding policy is on the website should you wish to know more.

     

    Have a lovely weekend everyone.

    Take care and stay safe.

    Mrs Wilmer

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  • Creating vibrant green spaces for our pupils and community

    Published 20/09/24

    Over the summer, Friarswood was delighted to welcome volunteers from DHL who came to help with maintenance of our Environmental Garden in the quad. The school’s Eco Warriors have been working hard to keep on top of the weeds that have inevitably been trying to make a comeback in the holidays.

    Read More

  • Newsletter ~ September Week Two

    Published 13/09/24

    Dear Families,

     

    Our uniform swap shop has had a bit of a revamp.  We now have several clothes rails so that you can find the clothes more easily.  

    We have got a plea - if you have any trouser/skirt hangers that you could donate, we would appreciate it.  

    Thank you to everyone who has donated and made use of this scheme.

     

    Emergency drills 

    We practise emergency drills and talk about these several times a year to ensure the children and staff are safe at Friarswood.  

    Each term we have a fire drill to ensure that all children and visitors know exactly where to go and what to do should there be a fire.

    Twice a year we practise a lockdown procedure.  This is if a dangerous situation is happening outside or a dangerous person has managed to get into the building.  In both situations, we would contact the police and wait for further instructions. We would only contact yourselves once advised to do so.  We will not be able to answer the phone or open the gates to you should either of these incidents happen until the police have confirmed it is safe to do so. 

    We also talk to the children about what would happen if we had to evacuate the school.  (We would walk to The Coppice)  If The Coppice had to evacuate, they would walk to Friarswood.  Once all of the children and staff are safely at The Coppice, we would then make contact with yourselves.

     

    Are you engine idling?

    (from RAC)

    Idling means leaving a vehicle’s engine running while it is stationary.  While this is often because of everyday traffic, there are some instances – such as waiting for children outside of schools when idling is not necessary.

    Idling increases the amount of exhaust fumes in the air.  These fumes contain harmful gases including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons which are linked to asthma and other lung diseases.

    Please can I ask that if you’re waiting in your car you turn off your engine.  This will help with the air quality near school.  Did you know that 1 minute of ‘idling’ can fill approximately 150 balloons with pollution.

    It’s never nice for parents with their little people to have to walk through car fumes.  Please can you pass this message to anyone who does drop off / collect your children.

     

    Internet Safety
    For Parents - Gaming Tips for Parents of Neurodivergent Children.

    Internet Matters have released another really useful guide, this time it's all about online gaming safety tips for parents and carers of neurodivergent children. It's a simple 5-page guide covering the research, example games, some of the challenges which parents face and the all-important benefits.

    It's a great little guide which you can download HERE.

     

    For Parents - The ABC Online safety Checklist.
    Internet Matters have created a really simple safety checklist for parents - ABC

    The ABC's are broken down by age to make this as simple as possible for parents: all ages, under 5's, 6-10, 11-13 and 14+.  You can download the guide HERE.

     

    Forms that need to be filled in:

    Just a reminder that we will need the following forms filled in for school :

    Acceptable user agreement for IT in school

    Use of Digital images in school

    Consent for Learning outside the classroom

     

    Have a lovely weekend everyone.

    Take and stay safe

    Mrs Wilmer

    Read More

  • Newsletter ~ September Week One

    Published 06/09/24

    Welcome back to school everyone,

     

    It’s been lovely to chat with so many of you this week.  The children have settled so well.  They’ve picked up the new routines easily and have made a super start to their learning.

    Over the summer, we’ve had new flooring on the ground floor which looks great.  We’ve had new broadband cabling around the school which should help with the speed we can access our lessons.  Teachers have also had new computers as the old ones were over 12 years old and ran very slowly.  Too slow for our children’s needs.

    I thought I’d put a few reminders on this letter, mainly linked to safeguarding and health & safety.  If you would like any further information just pop in and ask.

     

    Jewellery
    Only a watch and a pair of small stud earrings are allowed.  No jewellery at all is allowed for PE / swimming.  Your child must be able to remove the earrings by themselves for PE as staff can’t do this.

     

    Grass Banks
    Please be aware that these are really slippy in the mornings.  We’ve had some children slide down and hurt themselves before school has started.

     

    Beginning / end of day

    Doors are open from 8:40 - 8:50am.  Gates close at 8:50am.

    Early Years (Nursery and Reception classes) starts at 8:45am and finishes at 3:15pm.

    We will open the gate at 3:10pm for collection at the end of the day.

    (If you’re collecting from Nursery, please ring the buzzer on the gate at your chosen time)

     

    Coming into school
    If you’re coming into school throughout the day, please do not let any strangers through the gate.  Everyone needs to speak to a member of staff through the intercom before being let into the school grounds.

     

    CCTV
    We have CCTV cameras around the school for safety reasons.  

     

    Visitors in school
    Every visitor coming to Friarswood is asked to sign in and wear a lanyard.  Children are taught that our visitors wear lanyards, which shows we know who they are.  We teach children to speak to a member of staff if a visitor isn’t wearing a lanyard.

    When we have family events (shows, open afternoons etc), we will not be asking you to sign in and wear lanyards.

     

    Community Herb Garden
    Over the summer, volunteers from DHL as well as our Academy Community Pioneer have been working on this garden.  You may have seen it; it’s next to the playground, by the side road.  We have had a gate donated to us from Wickes which will go on the outside of the fence.  The school grounds are fenced off so when this garden is up and running, nobody will be able to get into the school grounds.

    We will have open times for the garden and hopefully many if not all of our families will use this area.  I’ll keep you posted.

     

    Parking on Abbots Way
    My regular plea for those of you who park along Abbots Way …. please park safely.  Please do not park in front of neighbours driveways or on the yellow lines.

     

    Staffordshire County Council Hero Campaign

    Staffordshire County Council have launched a new initiative that focuses on School attendance. The new scheme HERO helps to break down barriers that children may face when coming to school. If you have any concerns or struggling to get your child to school please come and speak to Mrs Dean. 

     

    As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any worries or concerns.

     

    Everyone at Friarswood hopes that this is the start to another fantastic year.

     

    Have a lovely weekend.

    Take care and stay safe.

    Mrs Wilmer

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September 2024

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