4 December 2020

Dear Parents

It has been a lovely week in school as the children finalize their Christmas Nativity display and record their class carol to share with you on the website at the end of term. The sound of carol singing, Christmas lights and the children’s excitement is very uplifting. We are sure you will enjoy their small but lovely Christmas celebration. The children have been wonderful in their enthusiasm and effort.

Today, as a finale to their Space topic, Year 5 have had a wonderful opportunity to talk  virtually with an eminent scientist. The children thought of questions they would like to find the answers to and fired them over to physicist Isabel Palmer. Isabel was very impressed with the thought that had gone into their questions and really enjoyed answering them.

Year 3 have also had a fun end to their topic by creating a shadow puppet show re telling the story of their text ’The Minpins’ . As well as wonderful science and writing, the children showed  their excellent team work by working collaboratively to produce the shadow show. It was lovely to have an audience of Reception class who showed great understanding of the shadows through their own recent topic on light and darkness. Well done Year 3 and Reception !

We have this week had a couple of mischievous elves who have escaped from home and come into school in children’s bags. We would ask that mums and dads keep an eye on these little elves and ensure they stay at home as they cause considerable mischief in the classroom! We have several school elves in the younger classes who create havoc every night!

Next Friday 11 December, we have ‘Christmas Jumper Day’. We don’t wish anyone to go to the expense of buying a special jumper and if your child doesn’t already have one any jumper can be customized with a bit of imagination and a bit of tinsel. The children will still need to wear their school skirts or trousers with the jumper just replacing their school jumper. We would like this to be a charitable event to support those less fortunate than ourselves especially in these times when many families are struggling financially. We would like to support our local Food Bank and we ask for a dried food or tinned donation. We hope this will allow all of us to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. Apparently the foods in short supply are: tinned goods, for example, rice puddings, custard, fruit, corned beef, ham, spam, spaghetti, macaroni cheese, potatoes, peas, carrots, sweetcorn. Other items: long grain rice, jam, squash (dilute), small jars of coffee, curry and pasta sauces, milk, shampoo, deodorant, razors, shaving soap, washing powder, toilet rolls. Many thanks for your support.

Sadly, we have had to pause our traditional children’s Christmas card post box this year. To limit risk of cross Bubble and contact we feel it would be lovely this year if the children just send in one card to the whole class which will be read out and pinned up around their class Christmas tree. Hopefully, our normal St Wulstan's postal service will resume next year. Thank you for your understanding, we want to do everything we can to keep all families as protected as we can do for the Christmas holidays. The children will soon be busy making their cards, calendars and little Christmas gifts to bring home and we will keep these in labelled pouches before sending home.

Thursday 17 December is our Christmas Party Day- a major highlight in the life of St Wulstan’s children (and staff!) Children come in their party clothes and an exciting day of festivities ends with a gift from a very special person! Please remember lunch is sausage and chips all provided by school so your child will not require a packed lunch or hot meal order on that day.

Friday 18  December will be our customary Toy Day when the children can bring a toy from home to play with their friends.  Again, in order to maintain cleanliness we ask that your child brings their game or toy into school on Tuesday 15 in a labelled carrier bag. These can be kept safely isolated in school for 48 hours so the children can enjoy playing together on the Friday. We are unable to have fabric or cuddly toys but dolls, games and any plastic or metal toys are fine. The children will bring their toy home on the Friday evening so you can clean and isolate it at home as well.

We are pleased to say that from Monday 7 December our caterers will be able to supply hot lunches for the children. A copy of the menu is available on the school website and meals can be ordered and paid for in the usual way via ParentPay. If your child is in KS1 and receives a Universal Free School meal you still need to order on line though you will not be charged. If you have any queries please contact Mrs Brown in the school office by email or phone.

If at any point any child or family member in your home is tested positive for COVID-19 please ensure you email us at secretary@wulsev.worcs.sch.uk so we can put procedures into place to ensure everyone in our school community is protected. We check emails throughout the weekend. This will also be the case over the Christmas holidays.

We hope you have a lovely weekend

KE Savage