Dear Parents and Carers

Thank you to all the parents who were able to attend this week’s Open classrooms in Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4. Once again it was so impressive to see the children’s confidence in speaking, the quality of their work and the obvious enjoyment they have had whilst sharing their learning. Well done everyone!

Today you will have received your child’s annual school report. For children in Years 1, 2 and 6 this will include the results of statutory testing in phonics for Year 1 and end of Key stage assessments for Years 2 and 6.

On Tuesday we received our externally marked Year 6 SATs results, the first since 2019. We are delighted to say the hard work and effort that the children have put in has been richly rewarded. In Reading 89% achieved Expected with 53%  further achieving Greater Depth. In Maths 74% achieved Expected with 58% further achieving Greater Depth, Writing 95% Expected with 37% Greater Depth and in Spelling Punctuation and Grammar(SPaG) 95% achieved Expected with 47% at Greater Depth. 74% of the class achieved Expected in Reading, Writing and Maths with 21% of these achieving Greater Depth in all three subjects combined.  Looking at every child's results be they Below Expected, Expected, or Greater depth everyone of them has made excellent personal progress and should be very proud of themselves,  Well done Year 6 what a fabulous way to leave St Wulstan's and a strong  start to high school. I would like to acknowledge the support and hard work of the Year 6 team, Mrs Freitas, Mrs Mound and Mrs Checketts who have supported the class both academically and emotionally through this year. Thank you .

Year 2 also undertook statutory testing and we are delighted with their results with over 80% achieving Expected in Reading , Writing and Maths with 30% achieving Greater Depth in Reading, 25%i in Writing and 255 in Maths . Again 80% achieved Expected in all tree areas combined with 20% Greater Depth, fabulous results and greatly deserved Year 2. Thank you for all your hard work children !

Year 4 undertook their Times Tables statutory testing. Although there is no 'pass mark' as such they were out of 25 and 90% of the children who undertook the test scored over 20 out of 25, with 32% achieving full marks. Excellent results , well done Year 4 that will give you such an advantaged moving into Year 5!

Our Year 1 also undertook their phonics screening. As phonics is a daily lesson the children were totally unaware this was a screening so were under no pressure. We are delighted that they did so well with 77% achieving the pass mark but everyone making superb progress over the year. We are so proud of them and their enthusiasm for learning.

Taking into account the disruption since March 2020 these results are outstanding and we are so pleased and proud for our children as we know you are too. Well done everyone, a credit to your families and our school.

This morning the whole school attended the dress rehearsal for our KS2 end of year production of 'Beauty and the Beast' . Our Year 6 children are the main cast with Year 3, 4 and 5 in supporting roles. They were all fabulous and are looking forward to performing to their families on Tuesday and Wednesday evening.  If you have not yet returned your ticket requests please do so on Monday as we will be unable to admit anyone without a ticket due to fire safety. The play starts are 6.00pm on both evenings. The Year 6, Year 4 and Year 5  children need to arrive at 5.30pm to get changed. The Year 3 children will need to arrive at 5.15pm as they will need face paint. The children will enter school through the main entrance which will open at these times. It promises to be a lovely evening and we are all looking forward to it.

On Friday 16 July we will be holding our annual Sports Day. For those of you who are planning to come along we hope to start around 9.30am up on the field.  Please wait in the playground until staff have completed setting up on the field and follow the path around the back of Lickhill school. If it is very sunny we will use the gazebos to provide shade for the children but please ensure that they come to school with sun cream having been applied and sunhats ready, and as always their water bottles. Can I ask parents  not to come across the track to the children during the activities. Mr Tasker has asked me to request some helpers to give out race position cards. Could you please make yourselves known to him  before Sports Day morning if you would like help. Thank you , we look forward to an exciting morning, competing as the houses of St Teresa, St Bernadette, St Francis and St Joseph.

A massive thank you to everyone who attended School led Mass last Sunday. The children sang beautifully and were so reverent and prayful. It was lovely to return to these termly Masses after such a long time. We were approached by so many parishioners who wished to congratulate the children and acknowledge the impact their presence and singing had brought to them. Thank you,all it was a lovely morning.

A couple of weeks ago we published our school uniform policy on the newsletter and on our website. We understand that all children's clothing is an expense and they grow out of it often while it is still in very good condition. We would like to establish a bank of 'pre loved' school uniform that parents can access. To this end we are requesting that if you have any good quality uniform that you feel could be still be used you send it into school. One of our Governors, Mrs  Jenn Hill, has very kindly offered to sort and catalogue it for us at the end of term. If you have any jumpers, trousers, shirts, skirts, PE kit, coats please send them in on Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 July. Please ensure they are washed and ironed so readily available for other parents. If you are interested in any preloved clothing please speak to Mrs Brown in the office who can help you. Thank you in anticipation.

To bring our academic year to a close Fr Richard will be joining us to celebrate our Leavers’ Mass on Thursday 21 July at 9.15 a.m. Parents of children in Year 6 are obviously most welcome to attend and we look forward to seeing as many of you then. Please stay for refreshments afterwards.

As is our tradition, Thursday 21 July will be Toy Day when the children can bring in one toy to play with. Please do not send in expensive or electronic toys but ones your child can enjoy with their friends. Thank you.

We have had several cases of COVID lately. Please ensure that if your child is poorly that you carry out a test and notify us if it is positive. Your child will need to remain at home until negative to ensure COVID does not spread through the school. Thank you to everyone that has supported us with this request recently.

On behalf of Worcestershire Libraries please see message below regarding this year’s Summer Reading Challenge.

Organised by charity The Reading Agency (www.readingagency.org.uk) and the UK public library network since 1999, the Summer Reading Challenge is the UK’s biggest annual reading promotion for children aged 4 to 11.

The Summer Reading Challenge combines FREE access to books with fun, creative activities during the summer holidays. Throughout the Challenge, library staff and young volunteers support the children, helping them to discover new authors and illustrators and to explore a wide range of different types of books and ways of reading. This year, the theme is ‘Gadgeteers’. The Reading Agency is partnering with the Science Museum Group to inspire children across the country to feed their imagination over the summer holiday, with a reading challenge focused on science and innovation.

 How the Challenge works

Children sign up through their local library and receive a Gadgeteers collector poster.

• Children set a reading goal and borrow and read library books of their own choice during the summer, collecting special stickers to complete their poster and extra incentives along the way.
• Library staff and volunteers are on hand to advise and run family-friendly activities.
• Children who complete the Summer Reading Challenge are presented with a certificate and a medal.
• The official Challenge website hosts digital rewards, author videos, games and more for children to enjoy all summer: www.summerreadingchallenge.org.uk

For a full list of Worcestershire’s libraries visit: www.worcestershire.gov.uk/libraries

This week at Forest School,  Reception got creative and made their own nature faces. They put them in different places around the site and then created their own maps of the Forest School area so that their friends could find them. 

On Monday evening, some of our Year 4 children took part in the CTA Athletics Competition at Nunnery Wood. It was the children’s first experience of athletics in a competitive environment and they really enjoyed competing against other schools. The support from our parents was wonderful and the children really helped each other by cheering and praising the efforts made by members of their team. It was a really positive experience for all the competitors and we were able to take some medals home too. Joshua won a bronze medal for the 80m sprint and Jacob B won a silver in the throwing competition. Some of the children’s responses to the event were: “I liked supporting my friends”   “I liked seeing other people have fun”  “I was excited to compete against other children” “My race was really fun” Well done everyone!

Congratulations to all our competitors at the CTA athletics 

On Wednesday, the Year 4 children started the first of two self-rescue lessons in water-based situations. They had the great excitement of wearing pyjamas into the water for the first time. The children then had to swim a width, length, tread water,  jump in, perform a starfish float and use their clothes has floating aids as part of the session. The children were really interested in talking about the self-rescue aspect of their swimming education and were reassured by the new techniques that they had learnt.

Have a lovely weekend and  we look forward to an enjoyable last few weeks of term.

KE Savage