Dear Parents and Carers

Next week is National Children's Mental Health Week following the theme of 'Growing Together''. We hope to continue our ongoing support of mental well being with several activities next week-physical, emotional and spiritual. Tonight there will be a letter in your child's bag highlighting a walk down along the river ending at the site where in 2019 every child planted a tree as part of an environmental project. We would like to invite parents and carers to join us next Thursday as an opportunity to both energise and spend time as a community together. We already have your consent for taking the children on local walks so just return the slip if you would like to accompany us.

After two years of restrictions we are delighted that this year our Year 6 residential retreat to Alton Castle will take place from Monday 13 June to Wednesday 15 June 2022. We will have a short information meeting for parents this coming Wednesday 9 February 2022 at 3:45pm in the Year 6 classroom where Mrs Freitas will outline further details. The children will also have a letter in their book bags tonight.

Spring Term Parents' Evening. Meetings will be held both virtually via School Cloud and in person at school. Face to face appointments will be available on Tuesday 8 March from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. Virtual appointments will be available on Wednesday 9 March from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. School Cloud is the website that we used to hold our Autumn parents meetings and the booking process remains the same for both virtual and face to face appointments. The booking form for appointments can be found via the following link: https://stwulstans.schoolcloud.co.uk. Appointments are available to book until Friday 4 March. Please note that we will not accept any bookings made after this date in order to give staff time to prepare. A parent guide to using School Cloud is available to view below.

Next Tuesday is 'Safer Internet Day' and every class will focus on the importance of keeping themselves safe whilst using the internet. As we are all aware our children are very confident with all forms of electronic devices, often more so than we as adults. It is apparent through recent teaching and discussions that some children are innocently accessing inappropriate sites eg adult Youtube clips and social media sites. However, even more worrying is the trusting manner in which many children across the school feel it is safe to give personal details to people with whom they play group games online. They quite innocently believe that people must always be exactly who they say they are, that is, children like themselves, with little or no understanding of the well hidden dangers. There are many websites offering guidance for parents https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/ which you may find helpful. Thank you for your support in keeping your children safe.

Thank you to all parents and carers who strive to make doctors and dentist appointments out of school hours. We do appreciate however this is not always possible in times of emergency or with hospital and clinic appointments. We would ask parents in these circumstances to bring with them a copy of the appointment letter or text message so we can add this to your child's attendance record as an authorised absence. Thank you

With half term fast approaching Wulstan's Lodge are now taking bookings for their Holiday Club. Please see the attached leaflet for further information. 

The children in Year 3 have amazed Mrs Mallinson recently with their scientific and historical research skills. They have discovered many new facts about the lives of people in Ancient Greece as well as investigating magnets and magnetic materials. Well done Year 3.

This week the Year 6 children have been focusing on their writing. They had to write a diary entry as a crew member on Endurance and they were asked to describe how they felt once the ship had become stuck in the Weddell Sea due to the solid ice. The children also worked on their editing skills in order to embellish their sentences. They are looking forward to sharing their writing with you soon.

In science Year 1 have been investigating day light. The pencil represents the axis of the Earth, where it exits the orange represents the poles, and the line in the middle of the orange the equator. The orange represents the Earth. The Earth is tilted on its axis at 23.5^o. We found out that one spin of the Earth is called  ‘a day,’ and it takes 24 hours for the Earth to make one complete revolution  and the reason why day and night are cyclical is because the Earth spins continuously.

After school STEM club resumes next Monday 7 February. Thank you for your understanding during recent staff absence. 

There is much planned for the rest of this year to enrich our children's childhoods and learning and we look forward to an exciting year. If at any time you have any concerns at all about your child, be they educational, social or emotional, please do not hesitate to contact their class teacher or myself.

We hope you enjoy a lovely weekend

K E Savage