26 January 2018

Dear Parents

On Thursday 15 February our Year 5 children will be performing at Birmingham Town Hall along with children from Hagley Catholic High School and its feeder schools. This will be the 6th annual concert at the Town Hall and they have been absolutely fantastic in previous years and this year's concert I am sure will be equally good as the children have worked so hard. Tickets for this concert have now been sent to parents, if you have not yet ordered your tickets please contact the office as soon as possible. Details regarding travel by coach for parents have been sent out. Please return your requests slips as soon as possible so arrangements for travel can be confirmed. I am sure the evening will be a great success and we look forward to sharing photographs and comments from the Year 5 children.

As I said in a previous newsletter we will be accepting payments online for school meals, trips, and much more, using a secure service called ParentPay. Many of you with children at high school will already be familiar with this system. We believe that this will give parents a more flexible and convenient way to pay for school meals and in time school trips. This will eradicate the need to send in weekly menu forms and cash as everything will be done online. Today you will receive a letter containing your unique ParentPay Account activation code details and information so please check your child's bag.

This week I received information from Stourport Civic Society who are running a 'Stourport History Writing' competition for young people aged 7 to 16 years. The focus of the writing can be factual eg a local industry, the canal basins, a famous local person, family history research OR fictional eg an account of living on a barge. You do not have to live in Stourport to enter but the entry has to be about Stourport. We will be entering all of the KS2 children and will support them in the actual writing process in school. I know there are many families who have strong family history in Stourport. As Year 5 teacher I remember a great grandparent who came in to speak of their experiences as an evacuee in WW2. Evacuated from Birmingham to Stourport they had great tales to tell of their escapades which captivated the children's imagination. It would be lovely if any of the children have older family members or friends who can share memories of life in Stourport when they were young which the children can make notes on or actually write about at home. History can be as recent as the 1960s - I know my childhood in a small Welsh village bears absolutely no resemblance to the life our children are now living!

It would be lovely if the children engage fully in this competition. If any research could completed by our return after half term. Even if we do not win the competition, the stories would make a lovely book for us to celebrate at school.

We heard this week of several children who, after school, worked with Andrew Chadwick famous from the West End and Musical Theatre. Senara , Henry , Daisy , Harrison and Darcy performed two pieces with him, a Monster Workshop and also Tarzan which is the current musical he is in playing the part as Tarzan.I am told the children were very professional, concentrated well and worked hard making their dance teacher very proud. Well done children!

Parents' evening dates have been set for Wednesday 7 March 4.00pm -7.00pm and Thursday 8 March 5.30-7.30pm. Signup sheets will be displayed in the school foyer from Monday 12 February. Dates for this term have been updated. Please see the calendar tab on our website for further important dates this term.

If at any time you have a concern or need to speak to me or your class teacher please do not hesitate to contact us. Wishing you a lovely weekend.

K E Savage