11 November 2022

Dear Parents and Carers

It has been a very varied and busy time this week. As we observe Remembrance day today the children have created a St Wulstan's field of poppies outside the main entrance. This has enabled the children to have a greater understanding of our individual liberty, our freedom to make our own choices. Working with their Faith partners, every child has created a poppy using recyclable plastic. This afternoon we came together for a short service and then all went outside to 'plant' our garden of remembrance. Although a time of reflection the children have also thoroughly enjoyed working together with their Faith Friends in other classes and were excited to plant their poppies. 

Reception class have been doing some wonderful writing this week with the help of a spinning wheel and their brand new post box!’

As Mathematicians, Year 1 have been subtracting within 10. There has been some super Maths so far this half term. Well done, and keep it up Year 1!

Last Friday, our children took part in the Wyre Forest School Sport Partnership KS2 Cross Country over the Memorial Park. 580 pupils took part in the four races and our children rose to the challenge of competing against others and showed excellent resilience and support for each other. Overall combined results saw us finish in 5th position out of 10 schools. A great effort by all and a big thank you to all those who came to support the children.

Year 6 pupils have had a very busy week! The week started off with the children being trained by Mrs Repton to become Sports Crew and Wellbeing Ambassadors. They are looking forward to introducing themselves in this new role to the whole school and carrying out their responsibilities. Then on Tuesday, they gathered with their Year 3 faith fiends and decorated a poppy for our whole school Remembrance display.

We were delighted to welcome back a previous parent to the school, Karen Blanchfield, yesterday morning as she shared her ‘Little Litter Warriors’ programme with the children. Karen shared her passion and motivation for educating children about litter in the local area and the impact it can have on wildlife on land and in our water ways. Year 2 and Year 4 were tasked with collecting as much litter as possible in an hour to become litter superheroes. Both the children and adults were shocked by the amount collected (3 full bin bags!) in such a small amount of time. A huge thank you to Karen, who we hope to support further this year, and our parents for providing our children with such an important opportunity to help our community.

Yesterday, Year 2 had a lovely morning litter picking. They learnt all about how plastics are not biodegradable and even found some rubbish that had a best before date of 2009! Thankfully this has now been collected and will no longer pose a risk to animal or the environment. 

In Year 5 this week, they have been learning about dance through the ages and starting to put together a dance to show this. It was hard work and very tiring, but they had fun! They also enjoyed joining their Faith Friends this week to create their poppies.

Year 3 have been looking at a selection of poems this week and have now begun to write their own about canals. They have been working hard to include topic related vocabulary, rhyming words and metaphors. On Tuesday, Year 3 worked with their Faith Friends (Year 6), to paint their poppies for the memorial display. This was a lovely activity and the children really appreciated having this opportunity with the older children. We have continued to work on column addition and subtraction this week and the children are making fantastic progress. Well done Year 3!

Thank you to all those parents and friends who supported our Year 4 Mass this morning. We were so impressed by the children’s reverence as well as their fluent, confident reading. Well done Year 4, Please make a note of your child’s Class Mass and we look forward to seeing you there and please stay for a cup of tea afterwards.

A reminder that next Sunday 20 November is our school Mass at church at 10.00am.It would be lovely to see as many children as possible at this Mass as our children lead the singing. We look forward to seeing many families, Catholic and non Catholic, as we celebrate our faith together.

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our St Wulstan’s ‘trolley’ float which will lead our school in the ‘Three King’s Parade’ on the evening of 24 November. With evergreen, lights, candles and vast amounts of imagination and enthusiasm it will be transformed into a glorious work of art representing the Christmas season. Please come and join us to walk through Stourport and watch as the town’s Christmas lights are turned on. . We will be meeting at 5.30pm outside the Civic Hall carpark . The parade starts at 6.00pm and ends by 7.00pm. All the staff will be there but children must be accompanied by an adult. This is a lovely traditional community event for all ages and we would love to see you there. 

Christmas preparations are now under way and the sound of carol singing will soon resound through the school!  Just so you can put dates and times in your diaries, the Reception and KS1 Nativity play will be performed on Monday 12 December at 2.15 pm and again that evening at 6.30pm. The performances will last approximately 35 minutes. Costumes need to be in school by Friday 9 December at the latest. Could the children please return to school at 6.00pm on the evening of the 12 December for the performance to start at 6.30pm. 

The KS2 Christmas Carol Service will take place on Tuesday 6 December at 6.30pm at St Wulstan’s Church. The children will need to wear full winter uniform and be dropped off at the church between 6.10 and 6.20 pm. The staff will then take responsibility for the children so that you can take your place in the church. On Friday 2 December Years 3,4,5 and 6 will walk down to church to practice. 

We all know there are times when everyone can feel overwhelmed emotionally and a quiet, safe place can help to rebalance, children especially. Mindful of this we have recently created a beautiful, small, calm and restful space to support our children's social and emotional needs. We are extremely grateful to Mrs Mound, Mrs Johnson and Mrs Freeman who have created this safe place, researching ideas, planning, painting and decorating and designing the room.

The majority of the resources and furnishings have been bought by Mrs Mound in memory of her Auntie Joan (Mrs Joan Farley) who died recently. Auntie Joan, as we all knew her, was passionate about children's mental health and well being and she would be delighted that her legacy has been spent on our children and their emotional well being.Thank you Mrs Mound, it means a great deal to us all.

We hope everyone has a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.

KE Savage

Principal