23 September 2023

Dear Parents and Carers

As we now complete our third week back we are delighted to say that the children have all settled so well into school, This week I have shown several visitors around school as they prepare to apply for September 2023 school places. Without exception every class has shown happy and engaged children, smiling and welcoming the visitors. Their excellent behaviour and good manners are always commented on, they are a credit to you and to their school. 

We will be holding our ‘Open Morning’ on Friday 14 October from 9.15-11.30am and prospective parents are invited to visit, have a guided tour of the school in action, chat to staff and look around the school. Please feel free to come along and take advantage of this opportunity and encourage any friends or neighbours with school age children to come along too. As I have said before there can be a misconception that only Catholic children can apply to our school. We welcome applications from all families of all or no faith. If you know of any families who are presently preparing to apply for a school place please encourage them to attend the Open morning or contact me to arrange a visit and tour of the school. Applications for Reception Class 2023 must be completed online by 15 January 2023.

Hagley Catholic High School will be holding their annual Open Morning on Saturday 8 October from 9.00am to 12.00pm. If you have a child in Key Stage 2, it is never too early to start thinking about High Schools. The vast majority of our children transfer to Hagley at the end of Year 6, so do take this opportunity to take a look at the school. Our Year 6 children have now received their High School transfer forms.  If you have any queries regarding transfer please do not hesitate to speak to us. Please see the Hagley Open Day flyer below

Year 6 have confidently risen to the challenge and responsibility of being at the top of the school. Next week we will hold our House meetings when the whole school will exercise their democratic right to vote for their House Captains, Vice Captains and Sports Captains. This is always an exciting morning and a valuable learning opportunity for everyone. If you are a Year 6 parent please encourage your child to prepare and practise their speech over the next few days. We look forward to announcing our new team of leaders next week.

We would like your feedback on how Parents Evening should run in the light of a return to more normal times. In the last academic year, we offered a blend of virtual and face to face meetings and would like to receive parent feedback on how you would like them to run this year. We would be extremely grateful if as many parents as possible could respond to this survey so that we have an accurate gauge of parental opinion on this matter. Please use the link below to access the form. The form will close next Thursday 29 September and we will publish the results in the weekly newsletter the following day.

Thank you.

https://surveys.sch.life/survey/runtimex/2f565516-f4f2-47f2-b142-6999776dcc09?k=6d84e197-a599-41bd-b7cd-e6b82cce94d7

A reminder that we’ve chosen Arbor to help us manage our school and the information that we collect and use. Arbor is a simple, smart and cloud-based MIS (Management Information System), which helps us work faster, smarter and more collaboratively as a school. The Arbor App and Parent Portal mean we can keep
you informed about your child’s life at school in a much more accessible way. Once you have signed up, you will be able to log into Arbor to see and update your child’s information and get live updates on attendance. The Parent Portal works on Google Chrome (computer or laptop) and you can download the Arbor App
from the App Store or Google Play Store on your phone (Android 5.0; iOS 10.0 and upwards).

How to get started
1. Wait for your welcome email from us telling you Arbor is ready - you won’t be able to log in before you receive this. Please do check your junk mail box as it may go there first.
2. Click the link in your welcome email to set up your password.
3. Go to the App or Google Play Store on your phone and search ‘Arbor’.
4. Click ‘Install’ on Android or ‘Get’ on iPhone then open the App.
5. Enter your email, select the school, then enter your password.
6. Accept the Terms & Conditions and enter your child’s birthday.

7. Once logged in, please check that all information for your child is up to date including contact telephone numbers, addresses, allergies/medical conditions etc. 

Contact the school office if you have questions about Arbor, the App or Parent Portal. It is essential that we have an up to date email address for you as without this you will not receive a log in/password. Telephone: 01299 877808, email: enquiry_wul@emmausmac.com

The NHS will soon be visiting school to offer the flu vaccine to all eligible children in year Reception to Year 6. The nasal flu vaccine is painless, quick, and side effects are uncommon and generally mild. Please note this is not the Covid vaccination. Attached below is the letter from the NHS and some frequently asked questions (FAQs) about this vaccine. You can now complete consent for your child online. Please click on the link below to complete consent, or to decline consent.

Vaccination UK Immunisation (schoolvaccination.uk)

On Friday, 30 September we will be holding a ‘Tea and cake’ afternoon in the school hall at 2.45pm. Staff will be providing all the cakes and all monies donated will go to Macmillan’s. Please come and join us in the school hall and enjoy being waited on by our Mini Vinnies pupils! We especially welcome our new Reception Class parents as it is a lovely opportunity to sit and chat in a relaxed atmosphere. We also hope to see many of our parishioners. Please support us in this worthy cause.

Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond our control the Year 6 Information Evening on Monday 26 September has had to be postponed until Monday 3 October at 3.40 pm. We do apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and look forward to seeing our Year 6 parents at the meeting. Thank you

This week Reception and Year 1 have been exploring the sense of smell in Science and using adjectives to describe each scent. The favourite smell was hot chocolate and the least favourite was marmite! 

Year 5 have been taking part in OAA activities during their PE sessions. This involved us having to trust our partners to guide us safely and communicate effectively!

Year 2 had an exciting start to this week. They explored our local area and picked blackberries before heading back to school and baking blackberry and apple crumble. Thank you to our families who accompanied them on their walk.

In Year 3 this week we have continued our maths unit on place value and are now using numbers up to 1000. During English, we have started our book, ‘The Stone Age Boy’, and the children have been working on uplevelling their sentences. We have begun finding out about how people lived during the Stone Age period and how their homes and settlements were very different to those today. In PE, the children have enjoyed team buildings games, where they’ve had to work together to cross the playground using hoops, without leaving anyone in their team behind.

On Tuesday 11 October Tempest will visit school to take individual and sibling photographs. The children will need to wear winter uniform for the photographs. If you have a pre school child you are welcome to come into school hall from 8.40am to have a photograph with their sibling. Please be aware this is only for younger siblings, we cannot facilitate older children at High school. 

We are all aware of the financial challenges on families and never more so than at the moment. Please do not hesitate to contact the school office if you wish to enquire about free school meals. It is a very straightforward process that Mrs Brown will readily support you with. As well as supporting families it also benefits school finances as we receive extra funding for every child who receives FSM which we use to support learning. Please speak to me or Mrs Brown if you would like more information.

We hope everyone has a relaxing weekend 

KE Savage

Principal