Dear Families,

 

Welcome back!  
Thank you all for your support with anything to do with the office.  Just a reminder that if your child is absent, please send me an email or phone the school.  You may have to leave a message but we will pick it up.

 

Children in Need
Next Friday is Children in Need.  Throughout the day, the children will be learning about what this charity event does and how it helps children who desperately need support.  Donations can be made by using this link  https://app.parentpay.com/ParentPayShop/Foc/Default.aspx?shopid=15166  

It will be a non-uniform day.

 

New Vic Theatre
Just a reminder for KS2 parents that payments for this trip can be made on Parentpay.  Although we asked for this to be paid before half term, we’ve managed to extend the payment date to Wednesday 13th November. 

If your child is not coming on the trip, please can you inform your teacher as soon as possible so we can make alternative arrangements.  Thank you.

 

Grandparent’s Christmas Lunch
Letters will be sent next week for this special day. (17th & 18th December)

 

Parents’ Evenings
You should have received a form to complete for the parents’ evenings on the 26th or 27th November.  If you are unable to make either of these days, please contact your teacher to arrange a more suitable time.

 

Yr 3 swimming
The last day for swimming is Friday 6th December.  We will start again on Friday 17th January.

 

Police visit
Yesterday morning Year One had a surprise visit from two firearms officers. The children learnt about becoming a police officer, they learnt about the different roles within the police force, they looked at all of the equipment and they got to see an unmarked police car - with the lights and sirens.  They also got a special visit from the dog handler and the police dog.

 

Holiday survey
Thank you to everyone who has replied so far.  The results are 50/50 at the moment.  Lots of positive comments about holidays being cheaper.  Just to clarify, if this does go ahead and you choose to go on holiday, it will not be unauthorised as it will be within a school holiday period. A few parents have mentioned childcare issues.  If we do go ahead with this, we will try our best to find childcare opportunities for the extra week.  Once we have collected your responses, they will then be passed to our Local Community Council (Governors) to make a final decision.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Take care and stay safe.

Mrs Wilmer

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming events

INSET - school and S&T closed	04.11.24
School immunisations - flu (Rec-Year 6)	6.11.24	All morning/day
Children in Need	15.11.24	All day
Learning with your child - parents get the chance to take part in a learning activity with their child. This will be organised by the class teacher.	Week beginning 18.11.24	TBC by class teacher
World of Work Week for Yr 6	25.11.24	All week
Parents’ evenings	26.11.24 27.11.24	3:30 - 6:30pm 3:30 - 6:30pm
Non-uniform for chocolate bingo	29.11.24	All day
Early Years Christmas Play	10.12.24	9:15
Chocolate Bingo	4.12.24	6pm
Church visit - Christmas	9.12.24	9:30am
KS2 New Vic Theatre trip	11.12.24	am
Grandparents’ Christmas Dinner	17.12.24 18.12.24	11:45am onwards
KS1 Christmas Play	17.12.24 - Yr 1 18.12.24 - Yr 2	9:15 9:15
Christmas holidays	23.12.24 - 3.01.25	Back to school 7.01.25
INSET - school and S&T closed	6.1.25

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Families,

 

Homework
Many of you will have seen the digital survey that was sent out.  Thank you for completing this survey.  I know some of the homework is online homework.  If you wish for your child to have a paper copy, please let your teacher know in advance so that they can get this ready for you.

 

Year 3 Basketball competition
On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of taking some of our Year 3 children to Co-op Academy Stoke to play in a basketball competition against some of the other Co-op Academy primary schools.  Our team played brilliantly.  Their teamwork and enthusiasm were praised by other staff.  They came overall 2nd and all came home with their silver medals.  Well done to Olivia, Liv, Charley, Elliot, Finley and Tallulah.

 

Dougie Mac Cake & Coffee morning, Thu 17th October, 9am - 10am
Please can we ask for cake donations for this event.  And if you’re baking at home, please send some photos in so we can share them.  Cakes can be brought in the day before or on the Thursday morning so we can get the hall set up.  Thank you in advance of your support with this special charity.

 

Harvest Festival
We are holding our Harvest Festival on Wednesday 23rd October at 2:15pm.  We are inviting parents in for this event, so please come and join us (and bring your singing voices with you!)

This year, we are collecting donations for Alice.  Alice is a charity that supports families who are in need of food and basic essentials such as hygiene and sanitary products along with baby products.  If you can help in any way, please bring your donations to school on the Wednesday.  We will be taking these to Alice after school on the same day.

 

Small & Tall closed
Just a reminder that Small & Tall will be closed on Friday 25th October, after school, due to staff training. It will be open in the morning.

 

Online Safety
For Parents - My Family's Digital Toolkit

There are so many really good resources out there for parents/carers about how to help keeping children safe online, but it can quickly become really overwhelming. 

Internet Matters has a really great resource for parents called My Family's Digital Toolkit. This is a personalised resource which gives age-specific advice, advice to deal with specific concerns, recommendations for digital tools to support children's interests and more.

The toolkit is free and you can find more details HERE.

 

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Take care and stay safe.

Mrs Wilmer

 

Upcoming events

Dougie Mac - coffee & cake morning	17.10.24	9am - 10am
Harvest Festival - items for Alice charity (tinned good, nappies, wipes, sanitary products, hygiene - toothbrush / paste, shower gel etc)	23.10.24	2:15pm
Hallowe’en Disco	24.10.24	4:30 - KS1 & early years 5:30 - KS2
October half term	28.10.24 - 01.11.24
INSET - school and S&T closed	04.11.24
School immunisations - flu (Rec-Year 6)	6.11.24	All morning/day
Children in Need	15.11.24	All day
Learning with your child - parents get the chance to take part in a learning activity with their child.  This will be organised by the class teacher.	Week beginning 18.11.24	TBC by class teacher
World of Work Week for Yr 6	25.11.24	All week
Parents’ evenings	26.11.24 27.11.24	3:30 - 6:30pm 3:30 - 6:30pm
Non-uniform for chocolate bingo	29.11.24	All day
Early Years Christmas Play	10.12.24	9:15
Chocolate Bingo	4.12.24	6pm
Church visit - Christmas	9.12.24	9:30am
KS2 New Vic Theatre trip	11.12.24	am
Grandparents’ Christmas Dinner	17.12.24 18.12.24	11:45am onwards
KS1 Christmas Play	17.12.24 - Yr 1 18.12.24 - Yr 2	9:15 9:15
Christmas holidays	23.12.24 - 3.01.25	Back to school 7.01.25
INSET - school and S&T closed	6.1.25

 

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

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.

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

Dear Families,

 

What a busy week we’ve had.  Our winning team , Northern Ireland, won the term treat.  They had a great time taking part in Forest Schools activities along with having a BBQ.  KS2 had their sports competitions on Monday afternoon.  You could hear the cheering in every part of the school. We’ve said goodbye or good luck to some of our team.  Mrs Rafferty is going on her maternity leave.  We wish her all the best for a safe delivery of baby number 3.  Miss Coleman is getting married in August.  We wish her lots of love and happiness in her marriage.  She will be Mrs McConvey when she comes back.  Mrs Fender has retired from being a lunchtime assistant. And we’ve said goodbye and thank you to Bee Active  for all of their support with PE this year.

 

A huge thank you for the many lovely cards and gifts.  The staff are overwhelmed with your generosity and the words have brought lots of tears.

 

Most importantly, we have said goodbye to our wonderful Year 6 children as well as goodbye to some of our families who have been with us for many years.  It’s always a bittersweet day.  We’re so excited for the children and their new adventures at high school but we’re always sorry to see them leave.

Our Year 6 children have brought their own unique spark to Friarswood.  Their enthusiasm has been evident throughout their time here.  They have many wonderful memories which they will be able to cherish forever.  Every single child has achieved in big ways as well as small but equally significant ways.  Their growth, both academically and personally, has been a pleasure to watch over the years.

I wish them all the very best for high school and beyond.  It’s been a privilege to be part of their life and yours.

 

To the rest of our children and families, I wish you all a wonderful summer break.  I hope you manage to spend some quality time with your family and friends.  I look forward to seeing you back at school on Tuesday 3rd September.

 

Take care and stay safe

Mrs Wilmer and the Friarswood team.