In order to give our children plenty to do during their one-hour lunchbreak (as well as eating lunch!) our teachers are starting a range of clubs. We will let children know about these on Monday, but if you want to have a look ahead, there are details on our website here.

Values of The Week 

Today, teachers have awarded certificates to the following children for demonstrating Respect.

Fresh seasonal salad bar with fresh bread available daily as well as a daily selection of fresh fruit.

Dinners in arrears 

This term we have had a few parents calling the office to say they have been charged for a dinner on a day when their child was sent to school with a packed lunch. We just want to make parents aware that each pupil from KS2 fills in their own mark on the dinner register. So, please could you remind your child/ren that if they have been given a lunch from home, they should not be marking themselves as a dinner,  as mum or dad will be charged for this. 

Thank you again to all the parents who have let us know if their child can take part in in the Town Hall concert on 10^th December. Mrs Vaughan met with the conductor James Jones this week, and all is organised for what will be an amazing experience for the children. Details of how to book tickets will be emailed out next week and flyers sent home after choir. We will also post details in next week’s newsletter.

We need to let you know that there aren't any brass lessons on Wednesday 11^th October, as Mr Ali is on a course. This lesson will be refunded.

You can check out our music timetable here. 

Bethany in 4O took part in a readathon over the summer for Bham Hospices'. 

Bethany read ten books, raised £302 and received a medal and certificate. Well done Bethany, we are so proud of your achievement! 

Being in school and having the best attendance possible underpins all the many benefits of school for your child, such as their learning, wellbeing and wider development and it the legal duty of parents/carers to ensure that their child has access to education every single day. For some children, there are issues that make it harder for them to attend school. We call these barriers. These can include pupils who suffer from long term medical conditions or who have special educational needs and disabilities. Their right to an education is the same as any other pupil and therefore the attendance ambitions for these pupils is the same as they are for any other pupil.

We are mindful of the barriers these pupils face and understand it may be necessary to put additional support in place, to help them access their full-time education. The barriers to accessing education are wide and complex, both within and beyond the school gates, and are often specific to individual pupils and families. The foundation of securing good attendance is that school is a calm, orderly, safe and supportive environment where all pupils want to be and are keen and ready to learn. Improving attendance is everyone’s business. Therefore, we work with parents/carers and pupils to identify any barriers and take action to remove them, where possible.

Through open and honest discussion, parents/carers, school and the child, share information and work together to improve the child’s accessibility and willingness to attend school. Together, we may identify issues that can be supported by outside services, and we may invite a representative to meet with us and discuss ways that support can be provided. The DfE guidance, ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance – September 2022’ can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance

This week, Year 5 have been looking at a rather brilliant problem-solving question that they would like to share with everyone.

See if you can crack it...

Can you fill in the missing numbers?

Why are some circles a whole circle, and why are some cut into halves, thirds, quarters and more parts?

Why are some circles a single colour, and why do some have more than one colour?

Look down the columns from top to bottom. Do you notice any patterns?

KS2 - if you want to print this out and write on it, you can bring it to Mr Hall in 5H to share what you have found. KS1 - give it to your teacher and Mr Hall will come and collect them.

Happy maths investigating!

You may or may not know that our school is a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ school. This simply means being able to read a book without the need to answer questions, explain the plot or produce writing related to it. All of this is great, but its also brilliant just get lost in a book!

Reading for pleasure isn’t only about books either; its can be magazines, newspapers, comics, encyclopaedias, online articles…the list goes on!

Reading can give so many benefits including improving wellbeing, strengthening vocabulary, and building empathy.

In this section of the newsletter each week, we aim to share a mixture of recommended reads, book reviews and much more.

We were delighted to welcome author Frank Cottrell Boyce in KS2 this week. He entertained and inspired the children with his brilliant storytelling, reading from his latest book, "The Wonder Brothers." 

The children then had the opportunity to ask him questions about his writing and his life as an author - inspiring them even further - and he even stayed to sign some of the books! The children can find copies of Frank Cottrell Boyce’s other books in our school library. 

What an amazing start to another fabulous year of reading at BVPS. 

Staff at BVP love to read. Can you guess who this week’s staff member is behind the book?

This week 2T would like to recommend, ‘No Matter What’ written and illustrated by Debi Gliori. They loved listening to this story and hearing all about the love that Small and Large shared. The book has now been added to their class library, so that they can share it with their friends.

A warm, reassuring book about unconditional love and setting big worries to rest.

Scientists have announced that the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered some unexpected planet-like objects that "shouldn't exist"! Experts say they were spotted in the Orion Nebula - which is around 1,400 light years from Earth! What's really surprised researchers is that the observations show about 40 pairs of the objects floating freely in space, with no stars nearby to orbit. They say it's an important discovery as this goes against our understanding of how planets and stars are usually formed and behave.

To find out more:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/66997660

If you are thinking of putting a team together for the Quiz Night on Friday 20th October please do add tickets to your ParentPay accounts and have your team leader submit your form before 16th October so that we have your food order. We have space for three more teams up to 10 people on each team - so don't miss out! Doors at 19:00, Food at 19:30, Quiz starts at 20:00 with a firm stop at 23:00 to allow you to get home to baby sitters if you need to.

£10 per ticket gets you a fish/sausage/spring roll and chip supper included in the price. If you came to the last one I have it on good authority that there will be no dancing this time! It's a great night out and certainly one for new Parents to start a habit of attending as soon as possible - you won't be disappointed.

BYOB and snacks for the table, and we will be having sit down bingo and tuck shop open for business.

https://bournvillehsa.wordpress.com/quiz-night-20th-october-2023/ for details and the online form

The pupils have now all designed their own Christmas Cards in class and they have been sent off to get back some samples that we will circulate as soon as we get them back.  You will then be able to order cards, mugs, tags and labels with your child design on. Look out for this.

We are opening up the George Hall again this year for the Designer/Maker community amongst the BVPS Family. If you, or your child, is keen on making craft items to sell at the Christmas Fair then you can go ahead and request a table here https://bournvillehsa.wordpress.com/christmas-fair-2023/ and we will contact you to make arrangements. We are concentrating on designer maker craft items / physical items - rather than food or drink. However, if you are a keen baker and wish to help us stock and sell food and drink items in the cafe then please contact us on [email protected] and we can see what we can do.

We are also seeking donations from the Parent community for Raffle Prizes to be part of the Christmas Raffle. We had a hugely successful response to the previous raffle donation request that we are looking to repeat. Tickets will be on sale via ParentPay once we gather some donated prizes.

We will soon be writing to all Year 6 pupils and parents asking for their support to join the Christmas Fair Event Team and run various activities around the Fair. This is a great opportunity to get involved in running a smooth event for younger year groups, and sets the scene nicely for funds to be raised for the Year 6 Leavers Celebrations in June/July 2024. Please put aside one or both shift slots of 10:30-13:00 and/or 12:30 - 15:00 and if you can make yourself available to assist the team as well. More information to follow.

Sticking with Year 6 for a moment, for the first year ever Year 6 pupils are being supported to pick up roles and responsibilities throughout the school - which includes the roles of "PTA Ambassadors" that are being recruited to. We look forward to those in Year 6 that step forward and want to get more involved in making fun staff happen around school. If you want to have a chat about this to find out more then please do write to us at [email protected] and we will talk it through.

As our children become more confident in the digital world, it is important for them to be SMART with how they use the Internet.  Please take time to remind your children on how to stay safe and be SMART online.

You said that we needed to give you more notice for school events...so we have got the main events for the whole academic year on our website calendar here.

Our new team of Anti-Bullying Ambassadors are keen to get going with raising awareness and plenty of preventative work in and around school. The team have their own page on our website and they will let you know when they start to add articles and news!

A massive thank you to each and every one of you that supported our Macmillan cake sale and tombola. You helped us raise an incredible £378 for the charity on Friday. This would not have been possible without all of the generously donated (and delicious!) bakes as well as everyone that came to buy a cake and enter the tombola. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

If you are keen to get your child some out-of-school education, we have a great recommendation - Beaufort Tutors.

You can check out their website here. 

We hope you all have a moment to relax over the weekend and that you manage to get out in the Autumn sunshine at some point too. Take care all- see you bright and early on Monday!