Welcome to your newsletter for week ending October 4th 

Another busy week in school with preparations for Harvest Assemblies in full swing. Forest School has started for our Reception classes and this year we are thrilled to be running this on site, rather than over at the park. It means less time is spent on walking over to Wild Lives at the back of the park (it takes a surprisingly long time when you have little legs!) and more time is spent having fun with den building, climbing and from next week, enjoying the fire pit!

We finished off the week with our wonderful values Assemblies; it is always a pleasure to recognise so many children who go above and beyond to show our school values, so well done all.

Read on for more news about Poetry Day and a special visit from rock star Marlon Rockalicious to kick start Rocktober... find out more below!

What's Coming Up

Values of the Week

Today the teachers presented the Values Certificates to the following children for demonstrating Respect.

Talent Shows Fundraising Update!

Thank you for all the contributions towards the Bulls in the City Campaign and the Children's Cancer and Leukemia Group. So far we have raised just over £800 which is wonderful. The option to donate is still open on Arbor... we will keep it open for the week and then divide the donations between the two charities. 

At Year 4's Harvest Festival on Tuesday 8th October, we are asking families to consider donating to the B30 & South Birmingham Foodbank- more details here.

The website has up-to-date information about what they currently need, but just a reminder, no fresh produce please.

(If you are not a parent/ carer in Year 4 but would like to donate, children can bring produce into school on the 8th and we can take it over to the church for you.)

You will have hopefully seen an email earlier this week, inviting interested family members to join our first Diversity Working Party meeting on Monday 14th October at 10am for 1 hour. This is a chance to discuss and find the best ways to celebrate diversity and culture and raise racial awareness with staff and children. 

This week we have been busy celebrating National Poetry Day. Every year group spent some time learning about a poet and reading poetry written by them. They then created poetry and art inspired by what they had read.

Year 5 have shared some of their collaborative writing which was inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Ask your child which poet they were reading this week, and see if you can discover more poetry together! Happy reading!

It's Rocktober!

Do you know what month it is? It’s… ROCKTOBER! On Tuesday, the KS2 children had a special assembly from famous rock star Marlon Rockalicious (aka Mr Hall) to relaunch our online times table practice service, TT Rock Stars. If your child is in Y4-6, they will probably be very familiar with this, but if your child is in Y3 or has recently joined the school, here is a helpful video guide to getting started with TTRS. 

Your child should have come home with their login details (if they are in Y3-6). Why not log in over the weekend, practice some tables, challenge your friends and teachers and just maybe earn the title of Rock Hero! If you have any questions or need further support, please contact your child’s teacher or Mr Hall. Rock on, BVP!

Choir News!

Our Year 5 and 6 choir is going well with our new Choir Leader Mrs Stidwill doing a fabulous job of teaching the children plenty of new songs. There are a few spaces still available for this (Monday's after school) so if your child is interested, please email [email protected] to let us know.

We have our first 'performance booked for our 5/6 Choir on the 8th December with the Choral Society at Ladywood Arc (St. Peter and St. John’s Church).

Mrs Cooper is starting a lunchtime singing group for children in Years 3 and 4 during a lunchtime so ask your children to look out for news in school about this!

As we mentioned last week, we are already preparing for the next Young Voices event. This year we will be joining children from around the country on Friday 28th February.

To help our Year 5 and 6 Choir get as much practise in as possible, please use the link here to sign up to the YV Music Room and access all the music and further information.

Once we have sent out further details about the event and confirmed who is going, we will also sign parents up to the relevant section of the YV site, if they haven't already done so.

This week children have been exploring emotions through the story ‘The Colour Monster,’ by Anna Llenas. The children worked together to paint their our own Monster’s to be displayed in school, a great time was had by all!

With so many books out there it can be hard to know which ones to go for, each week we will share some of our recommended reads.

Recommended Reads from Mrs May and Ms Kovacs....

The Hub of Hope is the UK’s leading mental health support database.

It is provided by national mental health charity, Chasing the Stigma, and brings local, national, peer, community, charity, private and NHS mental health support and services together in one place  Click here for the link to Mental Health Support Network provided by Chasing the Stigma | Hub of hope.

Since 500 Words began, it has inspired over a million children across the UK to write their own short-stories. This year the BBC want to hear from even more children, no matter what their ability. It’s all about telling great stories with no need to worry about spelling, punctuation or grammar. We can’t wait to read what children come up with and celebrate the best homegrown storytelling from all across the UK.

School dinners

We would like to remind all parents that you can pre-book your children's dinners on the Arbor app! This will help reduce the number of incorrect meal charges. You can select whether your child has school dinner (halal option available as well) or a packed lunch from home (This really helps us in the office when children select a different option). 

Instructions:

Once you opened your Arbor App go to Menu>> School Meals>> Select Autumn Term 2024/2025>> Select the chosen day of the week and confirm your child's meal choice>>

If you tick the box to "pick for all future dates" it will apply the same meal choice until the end of term e.g if you tick the box for a Monday meal, it will add it to all Monday's till the end of term. 

If you're having any difficulty with this, please contact the school office for assistance!

And finally...

Thankyou to those who have been in touch this week to celebrate good news and also to discuss concerns. Although we obviously would love to have more of the positive conversations, it's really important to us that we properly listen to the views of our families and children when things aren't going so well. The door is always open.

Take care all, we hope the sun continues to shine a little and we look forward to seeing you all back on Monday.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is the responsibility of everyone in our school and at all times we consider what is in our children’s best interests. We work to ensure our children are safe and cared for and by doing this we are protecting their health and development and preventing them from harm. If we are worried, we will raise concerns, share information, and take prompt action with the aim of ensuring families receive the right help at the right time.

Going On In Your Area