Dear Families,

In the next few weeks, you’ll see us advertising our school and early years places in the local community and just outside the local area.  Birth rates are low in the area which means that we have low numbers for our early years classes in September.  

If you can help with advertising our school in any way, please get in touch as we really would like more people to know about what a great place it is.

Mrs Rafferty
As you will know, Mrs Rafferty is back from her maternity leave and is busy supporting writing and phonics across the school.  She will be with us for just this term as she will be back on maternity leave from the summer.  Miss Smith will continue to cover her maternity leave in Year 4 for this year and next year.

Parent / Child survey
We’ve had the results of the surveys through and they are overwhelmingly positive.  Thank you so much for this.  The leadership team will be going through the comments section over the next few weeks.  From this, we will put an action plan together and let you know what we’ll be doing to continue to keep Friarswood the brilliant school it is.

Safeguarding

We are sent a lot of communication from Staffordshire Safeguarding Board regarding County Lines due to our local area being close to the M6 junction.  Below you can find out more about this.  All children can be at risk of this, so please do take a moment to read.

For Parents - What is County Lines?

Grooming is often associated with sexual grooming, but as we all know the process of grooming can be used for a multitude of crimes where children and young people can be exploited.

Internet Matters have put together a really useful guide for parents explaining county lines, how children are targeted, how children may be vulnerable and some resources/support.

 You can find the guide HERE.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Take care and stay safe.

Mrs Wilmer

Dear Parents and Carers

Happy Holidays! We have had a lovely day celebrating Easter and Spring today. The weather has been very kind to us and we were even joined by Anna and Barbie during our egg hunt this morning!

Young Musician of the Year
On Monday Gini in Year 6 represented our school in the semifinals of the Young Musician of the Year competition. Although she did not progress to the finals she did an amazing job playing a very difficult instrument (the clarinet) we are all very proud of you Gini and look forward to hearing more news of your musical successes in the future! 

Chocolate Bingo
Wednesday night was another packed house for our Easter bingo. Thank you to everyone who donated chocolate and to those who came along and helped us to raise over £600. Thank you to the PTA who put the work into making it a successful evening and to the staff who helped on the night.

Easter Celebration
Thank you to all of the families who helped their children with entries to the Easter celebration. It was such a lovely and colourful afternoon. If you’d like to see some of the entries and parts of the egg hunt I will be posting pictures on dojo shortly

Reports
This afternoon children in Years 1 to 6 will receive their Spring progress reports. The reports show marks from recent assessments and a teacher assessment of their work across the term. I am very happy with the progress made by children across the school and I hope you are too. If you have any questions you will be able to contact the class teachers after the holidays.

Thank you
Finally a big thank you from me to all of the children, families and staff who have supported me whilst Mrs Wilmer has been recovering from her operation. I have enjoyed working with everyone in this wider capacity but I’m very much looking forward to getting back to working with my lovely Year 2s!

Happy Easter and enjoy any time you have off to spend with your families

Ms Hartley

New menus for after Easter.  

https://www.friarswood.coopacademies.co.uk/page/?title=Lunches&pid=187&action=saved

Upcoming dates
 

Dear Parents and Carers

What a lovely week we have had in school this week. We have welcomed various visitors and of course our lovely mums came for lunch on Wednesday. Then ending the week in pyjamas surely has to be the best end to any week?!

Mrs Wilmer
My first piece of news for this week is that Mrs Wilmer will be returning to school after Easter. We're so glad that her recovery has gone well and Mrs Wilmer and I have already started a handover process to try to ensure a seamless transition. Welcome back Mrs Wilmer!

Co-op Academies Trust Board Trustee
On Monday we welcomed Sarah Findlay - Cobb who is one of the trustees of our Trust. Mrs Findlay-Cobb is the CEO of another Trust and it was lovely to hear such positive feedback about our school from her. She was very impressed with the learning environment in our classrooms and blown away by our polite, articulate children and the friendly staff. Well done Team Friarswood!

Mothers’ Day Lunch
It was lovely to see so many of our mums in school on Wednesday being treated to lunch with the children. We wish all of our mums and those who take on the role of mums a very happy Mothers’ Day and I hope that you are all treated like a queen for the day!

World Book Day
Of course we have finished this week celebrating the power of books - and in particular bedtime stories. Bedtime stories are one of the most precious ways of sharing reading with children in a safe and loving environment. I’m sure that most of us can still recall bedtime story time as children! Look out for photos on dojo of the children enjoying reading today and for photos of their junk modelled story characters - thank you to the Year 6 librarians for organising this.

Spring Walk

Hello Spring

Join your PTA and school Community Pioneer on the first ever Seasonal Walk!

Tues 12th March

3.20pm

Small and Tall students welcome

Activities:

Create your own piece of Natural Artwork

Write a report on the differences between the seasons

Use parents phones for photography

Create your own piece of spring poetry

Or just enjoy the walk!

Younger/Older siblings and wider family members welcome!

Non-uniform for chocolate bingo/ RedNose Day
Next Friday is Red Nose Day and also a non uniform day for the chocolate bingo - another busy day! As we are already asking for chocolate donations we have set up a parentpay link for any families who feel that they are able to contribute to the RedNose Day appeal too https://app.parentpay.com/ParentPayShop/Foc/Default.aspx?shopid=11798

Upcoming Dates

Ms Hartley

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome back to our second Spring term. I had a meeting with the teachers on Wednesday and there are lots of exciting things planned between now and Easter - keep an eye on ClassDojo and your emails for the most up to date messages to help you keep on top of what’s going on!

Mothers’ Day Lunch
We will be celebrating those special ladies in our lives who care for us next Wednesday 6th March with a Mothers’ Day Lunch. The booking form is now live - please contact Mrs Dean if you have any questions.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfPSNrB1m1vGifxlDwquKfbsFU569ik7HLDSswAWINPnfySQg/viewform

Mothers' Day Gift
The PTA will be sending order forms out on Monday 26th Feb if you would like to order a Mothers' Day gift. There will be 2 options - Option 1) Afternoon Tea for 1 box priced at £4.50. Option 2) Plant and plant pot £2.50. If you would like to order please send the order form back before Thursday 29th February.

World Book Day
We will be celebrating World Book Day on Friday 8th March and this year’s theme is Bedtime Stories. Everyone can come to school in their PJs and bring their favourite bedtime storybook - either from now or when they were younger, I’m going to have a look for my Enid Blyton bedtime stories!

Easter Celebration
We will be celebrating the end of the Spring Term with some Easter related activities in school. We will be holding our traditional decorated egg competition for the children in KS2 and an Easter Bonnet competition for the children in KS1 and Early Years. If your child would like to bring in an egg or bonnet please send them into school on Friday 22nd March

Bags to School
The Bags to School are being collected next week - if you require any more bags please let your child’s teacher know or you can collect one from the school office. You can also use ordinary bin bags. They can be brought in any day and we will store them until the collection day.

Chickenpox
We have had some cases of chickenpox so please keep an eye out for symptoms. If your child has chickenpox, keep them off school until all the spots have crusted over. This is usually about 5 days after the spots first appeared. Once they have crusted over they can come into school and we can administer calpol if needed. Please contact Mrs Dean to arrange a medicines permission form.

Attendance
Our attendance this week has been 94.4%, let’s hope the various bugs making the rounds at the moment clear up soon and we can get back above 96%!

Upcoming Dates

Ms Hartley

Dear Parents and Carers

A much calmer week (weather-wise) in school this week - the storm damage has been cleared and we are back to using all of our wonderful grounds again. Thank you to Mr Gidman and Mrs Bithell’s husband for working hard to get everything safe again.

GoIT
Four of our Year 6 children went to the Co-op head office in Manchester on Tuesday to make a presentation in the finals of a competition to design an app to help the environment. Although they didn’t win the final they did an amazing job pitching their product which earned them a special mention from the Trust’s Director of Primary Curriculum on X. If any parents follow the school on X you may have seen this.

Thank you for your hard work Albert, Ayva-Lilly, Isla and Jack you did a great job!

Valentine Disco
Next Wednesday is our Valentine disco. If you would prefer to stay in from the wet and cold but your disco days are behind you, the PTA will be setting up a parents cafe in The Hub. A child free area to sit and relax with a drink while the children enjoy their dancing! The EYs and KS1 disco starts at 5:30 and the KS2 disco starts at 6:30 

Card or cash payment for the entrance fee and parent cafe, cash for the children’s refreshment stand.

Time to Talk Day
On Wednesday we held a drop in before the end of school for parents to grab a hot drink, a biscuit and have a chat. We hope that you enjoyed the opportunity to catch up in the warmth and remember your chat might have been just the thing somebody needed to help them through that day, it’s always good to talk. Thank you to Mrs Hughes, Mr Linley-Simon and Mrs Bebbington for helping to run the session. An extra thank you to Mrs Hughes for organising something for the staff today too - in a busy school it’s often surprisingly lonely and we don’t always make the time to talk to each other.

Places for September
Our places for new children in September are filling up and although the applications have been submitted it’s not too late for prospective families to come and have a look around. If you know anyone who has a child due to start nursery or reception in September please let them know that they are always welcome to come and see our school. They just need to contact Mrs Dean to make an appointment and either myself, Mrs Wilmer or Mrs Williams will be happy to meet them.

PTA
Dates for your diary:

 If you haven’t done so already please could you fill in the PTA Feedback questionnaire. This gives the PTA an overall idea of what events you would like to see and events that are going well.

Attendance
Our attendance this week has been 95.7%. We are still doing well but coughs and upset tummies have taken their toll this week. Remember that we are happy to give medicine during the day for coughs, colds and sore throats. Just contact Mrs Dean beforehand who will get the appropriate permissions from you.

Upcoming Dates

Dear Parents and Carers

We may have only had a dusting of snow this week but my goodness the children have made best use of what they had! It has been wonderful to watch their determination and imagination to make something and use the snow creatively. Almost everyone has been well dressed for the weather - even if the temperatures rise slightly next week please ensure everyone is still wrapped up warm so that we can stay outside safely at playtimes.

Year 6 Standon Bowers
A class certainly making use of the great outdoors this week has been Year 6 who have spent the week at Standon Bowers. They have had a fabulous time learning new skills and developing their teamwork. When I visited on Wednesday I was very impressed with their have a go attitude, resilience and kindness. They have represented Friarswood to the highest standard possible - thank you and well done Year 6.

Of course the week has only been possible because of the staff who have volunteered their time in the evenings and overnight. A huge thank you to Mrs Sharman and Mrs Hughes for taking the children and to Miss Coleman for being part of the midweek relief squad who stopped over on Wednesday evening to allow the other staff to have a night off!

KS2 Children
In the absence of Year 6 the other children in KS2 have done a marvellous job stepping into the caring and leadership roles they usually take on the playground. It was lovely to see them proactively helping the KS1 and Early Years children - a real Friarswood Family moment.

Attendance
Despite the cold snap and the associated illnesses that will come with it our attendance is still 94.6% this week. Thank you to everyone for still making the best effort to get the children into school as much as possible. Every moment really does count.

Academy Community Pioneer
This week we have welcomed Matt Linley-Simon to Friarswood as our Community Pioneer. This is a part time Central Trust role to strengthen links between academies and the communities we serve. Watch out for projects and initiatives that Matt will be developing with us soon.

Small and Tall Dojo
A dojo group has been set up for Small and Tall parents. This is to allow parents to communicate any last minute messages directly to the Small and Tall staff rather than via teachers. Teachers are frequently unable to check Dojo during the school day due to teaching commitments so occasionally messages are missed. Using this group will ensure that messages go directly to the people who need to know! If you use Small and Tall, please check that you have been added to the group and if not let Mrs Dean know.

Upcoming Dates

Ms Hartley