Message from Mrs Brocklesby

Book Fair at Saint Wulstan's

We’re excited to invite you to come into school to visit our Book Fair at the start and end of the school day next week on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Reading is a vital part of every child’s learning journey as it builds vocabulary, imagination, and confidence across all areas of the curriculum.

We encourage parents to take this opportunity to browse the selection of books with their children and talk about the kinds of stories or topics they enjoy. Spending just 10 minutes a day reading together can make a huge difference to children’s progress and help nurture a lifelong love of books.

On Monday we are delighted to invite parents to join us in school at 8:50 am for a special Oracy Event led by Mrs Tasker. Oracy is the ability to express ideas clearly, listen actively, and engage in discussion. It is a key skill that supports learning across all subjects and helps children develop confidence, critical thinking, and effective communication.

This event will give you the opportunity to see how we support oracy in the classroom and to take part in activities alongside your child. We look forward to welcoming you and celebrating the power of spoken communication!

Message from Mrs Warnett

Reception 

Reception class have worked incredibly hard this week and have been busy exploring lots of exciting learning opportunities! In Understanding the World, the children have been learning about our local area. They loved using Google Street Maps to spot familiar places and landmarks. Continuing their learning about the past and present, the children looked at photographs of people in our school when they were babies and discussed the many changes that happen as we grow older. In Music, the children had lots of fun experimenting with different instruments to create and perform their very own songs. In RE, their focus has been on gifts and talents. The children reflected on the special ways that God made each one of us unique, celebrating what makes them and their friends special

KS1

Year 1 and 2 have been enjoying reading the fable, 'The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg'. They have been learning about morals and messages and have discussed what it means to be greedy. In their writing, they have been working on time openers and exciting openers that use an exclamation mark at the end of the sentence. In maths, the children have really impressed us with their number understanding, writing addition calculations in different ways and recognising number bonds and doubles. In science, the children have learnt how the length of days changes through the year and enjoyed using a globe and torch to explore this! They have continued to investigate their science, 'Big Question' and have enjoyed getting out and about around the school to complete weekly scientific observations. Some children have changed their initial predictions about the trees, based on their careful observations. Well done! The children experienced a moment of silence (very rare in the school day!) in the chapel in their RE lesson this week and enjoyed feeling peaceful and relaxed.

Year 3 / Year 4

This week, Year 3 and Year 4 completed a retell for 'The Invisible' in their writing sessions. The children were tasked with using speech and possessive apostrophes in their sentence to make their writing more interesting. They have worked really hard to include these and ensure the presentation of their work is very good. In science, the children researched different types of switches and had to describe their functions and where they might be used. They were then tasked to create their own toggle and slide switches, checking if they worked by adding them into a circuit. The children were thrilled to see their light bulb light up and go off as this showed their switch worked. In art, the children used their collages from last week to inspire their scratch art. The children used the hatch and cross-hatch techniques to make marks and their wax-resistant paper. Finally, the children celebrated their first class Mass of the year with the them being 'Pray Always'. The children read beautifully and we thank Father Richard and the parents who joined us in the celebration. 

Year 5 

This week, Year 5 have been working incredibly hard across all areas of their learning. In English, the children have been exploring diary writing through the captivating Mayan story Rain Player. They have focused on developing the skill of ‘show, don’t tell’—using descriptive language, powerful verbs, and inner thoughts to reveal how a character feels rather than simply stating it. The children have really impressed us with their creativity and expression, producing some fantastic Star Writes to showcase their progress. In Maths, Year 5 have continued to build on their understanding of addition and subtraction. They have been exploring inverse operations and fact families, as well as applying these skills to solve more challenging multi-step word problems. The children have demonstrated great resilience when tackling trickier problems and are becoming increasingly confident in explaining their reasoning. In RE, the children have been learning about the Eight Beatitudes of Jesus and reflecting on what these important teachings mean for them today. They have taken part in thoughtful discussions about how they can be modern-day disciples of Jesus by showing kindness, compassion, and humility in their daily lives.

Science has been particularly exciting this week as Year 5 began their new topic on Electricity. The children enjoyed building simple circuits and investigating which materials act as good electrical conductors and which are insulators. They tested materials such as copper, aluminium, rubber, and plastic, making careful observations and drawing conclusions from their experiments.

It has been a busy and successful week for Year 5, full of curiosity, creativity, and teamwork. Well done, everyone—you should all be very proud of your efforts!

Year 6 

This week Year 6 have been very clever writers and have produced a wonderful retell based on ‘The King who Banned the Dark’. Over the past couple of weeks, the children have really focused on punctuating speech within their writing and adding detail. In art, the children completed their artwork using the chiaroscuro technique with some impressive results! As historians, they have been building on their knowledge from Year 4 and have been considering why canals were so important during the Industrial Revolution. In maths, long multiplication has been the focus and practising how to use this strategy as well as set it our clearly and accurately. The children were then applying their knowledge of multiplication and factors to solve problems. This week the children have started a new Coding unit in computing and have already demonstrated great knowledge and skills. In RE, the children have come to the end of their first unit of work and really enjoyed finding out about Moses and the Israelites being guided to safety by God and about the story of Queen Esther and her bravery. To end the week, Year 6 joined Dan and Emily for a One Life live stream. It was lovely for the children to sing and sign so beautifully. Well done for a super week Year 6, remember that next week you have an exciting morning playing basketball to look forward to!

Christmas Orders - your child brought home a sample of their Christmas card, with their own design on it, this week.   If you would like to order packs of Christmas cards, gift tags, mugs or coasters with your child's Christmas card design on, please place your order on your Arbor account.  To meet the printing deadline, the closing date for returning the order form (along with payment on Arbor) is by next Wednesday.  Unfortunately, orders received after this date cannot be processed.   You don't have to return the sample Christmas card to school, but can keep it.

On Monday 13 October, the Reception class will be hosting a cake sale to raise money for an exciting opportunity, for their class later this term.  All cakes sold will be 50p each.  If you would like to donate some cup cakes or cookies for this event, we would be very grateful.  Thank you

We warmly invite all families with children starting school this September to come and explore Saint Wulstan's.

Join us to:

• Meet our friendly teachers and staff

• Tour our classrooms

• Learn about our welcoming community and enriching curriculum

Come and see why Saint Wulstan's is a place where every child can grow, learn, and thrive!

Open Days - If you know of anyone who is looking for a school place for their child, please let them know we have three Open Days this year:

- Friday 24 October 2025 from 10:00am to 12:00pm

- Thursday 4 December 2025 from 9.30am to 11:30am

- Wednesday 7 January 2026 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm

Open Day flyers -  We have a stock of these.  If your workplace could take some of these, to advertise the events, please contact Mrs Brown in the school office to obtain some.  Thank you

Parents’ Evening are now open on Arbor. This is a valuable opportunity to meet with your child’s class teacher to discuss their progress, celebrate achievements, and talk about how we can work together to support their learning.

Appointments will take place in the school hall on Thursday 23 October and Monday 3 November, between 3:50pm and 6:00pm. If you are unable to attend in person and would prefer an online meeting via Teams, please contact Mrs Brown in the school office who will be happy to help arrange this. The email address is enquiry_wul@emmausmac.com. 

On Friday 17 October, we will be supporting Dwarfism Awareness Month. Children are invited to come to school wearing green clothing to show their support. We kindly ask for a £1 donation, which will go directly to Little People UK, a charity that provides support, advice, and information to people with dwarfism and their families.  Moving forward, any payment items for school will now be on Arbor and not Parentpay (excluding current payment items eg Kidderminster Harriers this term and the Year 5 residential trip next year).  Any kind donations of £1 towards the Dwarfism Awareness Month can be made via your Arbor account - this is the new way for paying for school related items instead of Parentpay.

To raise money for an exciting opportunity for the Reception class, later in the year, the Reception children have come up with an idea of having a scarecrow competition.  To raise as much money as possible, the competition is open to all the children at St Wulstan’s with an entry fee of £1.

The scarecrows can be any size and made from any material.  The entries will be displayed on the grassy bank by the school’s main foyer, for everyone to enjoy.

The closing date for entries will be Monday 20 October.  The winning entry will be announced in school that week, with a prize for the winner.

If you make a scarecrow, bring it to school and hand it in to Mrs Brown.

We look forward to seeing your imaginative creations!

On Thursday 9th October, the school book fair will be arriving and will be in the hall for a week. Books and stationery may be purchased using cash or cards. The fair will be open before and after school each day and children will also have the opportunity to visit during the school day. Every purchase helps us buy books for school, so we thank you for your support.

If your child is in their final year at primary school, you need to apply for their secondary school place.  The closing date is 31 October 2025.  Visit www.worcestershire.gov.uk/schooladmissions

If your child is due to start school in September 2026 (and was born between 1 September 2021-31 August 2022) the closing date for applying for a place is 15 January 2026. Visit www.worcestershire.gov.uk/schooladmissions

All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive universal free school meals.  However, based on your income, you may be eligible to a different free school meal type. This can be applied for even when your child is still in Reception, Years 1 & 2.  This entitles you to a free school meal voucher during the holidays and also continued free school meals until the end of Year 6. If you think you may qualify for these,  visit www.worcestershire.gov.uk