Here are some Spring Term highlights from our schools for you to enjoy....
Joint PHMAT Residential Trip
In January, children from schools from across the Trust attended a joint residential trip to Laches Wood. A really memorable time was had by all and children enjoyed a wide range of activities during their stay. Activities included campfire evenings, a 13km walk around Cannock Chase - where children supported one another to complete the walk (without slipping on the ice), climbing, caving, BMXing, search and rescue, bush craft, fire lighting, archery and high ropes. The children also fully embraced duties (like sweeping/ tidying certain areas at the centre), made their beds and kept their dormitories tidy.
All children represented their schools beautifully, demonstrating excellent behaviour and attitudes by embracing new experiences and supporting each-other. Here are some highlights....
Children's Mental Health Week 6-12 February
This year, the theme for Children's Mental Health Week 2023 was to encourage people to go out of their comfort zone and make meaningful connections for all. The event is run and organised by the children's mental health charity Place2Be.
Perry Hall Primary children discussed strategies to keep their mental health positive and how it’s normal to not always be ok. Perry Hall's Healthy Schools Ambassadors created posters to celebrate this and promote their ‘Inside Out Day’; to represent how someone looks on the outside doesn’t necessarily reflect how they are truly feeling on the inside. Children in all year groups attended school on Friday 10th February wearing one item of their uniform inside out and used this to talk about how they feel inside and how this is sometimes different to what they show.
Bird's Bush Primary School kicked off Children's Mental Health Week with an assembly visit from their Educational Mental Health Support Team. The team explained their roles and talked to the children about recognising emotions and how having good 'connections' with people is good for their mental health. Each year group continued to work on this throughout the week, connecting with each other, with their families and people in the wider community. Children have carried out visits to an old people's home to read stories and enjoyed walks in the local area. They all enjoyed 'CONNECTING' with people they wouldn't normally connect with.
Sledmere Primary School launched Children’s Mental Health Week with whole school assemblies celebrating this year’s theme of 'Let’s Connect'. Throughout the week all children took part in activities and listened to stories that looked at the different ways we are connected to each other and those around us. In Year 5 and 6, our children explored ways of making new connections with their peers.
World Book Day
World book day is celebrated in over 100 countries across the globe and aims to promote reading for pleasure. Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income.
Across the Trust, a variety of World Book Day activities took place and some really creative costumes were worn by children (and staff) of their favourite book characters. There were book fairs, celebrations with parents and beautifully decorated displays throughout the schools.
Mesty Croft Primary children whetted their appetite for poetry during a poetry taster and created a poem to display on a washing line in the hall. Throughout the week, pupils further explored, created and performed all sorts of poetry which was then showcased in a ‘Poetry Slam’ on Friday 3rd March. His Worshipful the Mayor of Sandwell, and his Consort and Sergeant at Arms, attended the poetry slam where they also handed out World Book Day certificates and proceeded on a tour of the school, to not only walk down memory lane but to also view the amazing doors created by children.
Berrybrook Primary School Nursery children listened to and learned about the story of The Three Little Pigs and took part in related activities including planning and building their own homes that the Big Bad Wolf was unable to blow down. When they had finished, the children used their plans as part of imaginative play as they re-enacted the story, taking on roles of the main characters.
At Woodthorne Primary School, 14 lucky Year 5 and 6 pupils had the opportunity to visit the legendary author, Cressida Cowell at Grand Station in Wolverhampton. This was a fabulous experience which left children and staff feeling extremely inspired. The whole school also took part in a ‘Twisted Fairytales’ themed week where all English learning and writing was centred around a traditional tale, but not as they knew it! Lots of activities took place to raise the profile of reading and staff got stuck in too by recording themselves for our whole school Masked Reader competition!
Children at Dunstall Hill and Sledmere Primary were surprised with a teacher swap where each class were read a story from a teacher from a different key stage.
Children at Perry Hall Primary enjoyed their first writing relay. Their challenge was to create a story using 5 props which was then passed on to the next class to read and enjoy.
Comic Relief
At Bird's Bush Primary, Comic Relief joined forces with Lego to continue with their 'connecting' theme as part of Science week, children took part in a 'Big Build' in groups in classes where an overall winner was selected.
'Green' was the theme for this years Red Nose Day for Comic Relief at Mesty Croft Primary School, recognising the day fell on St. Patrick's Day. Children sported everything from green hair to green shoes in return for donations which totalled £235.70. Well done Mesty Croft!
Non-uniform days took place at Stanley Road, Berrybrook, Sledmere and Forest Hills Primary to raise money for this incredible charity.
Science Week
A number of our schools celebrated British Science Week which tool place from 12th - 17th March.
Mesty Croft Primary School held a special “Super Science” day on Thursday 23rd March, where each year carried out a series of special experiments linked to their learning. Exhibits were then created on what had been discovered. In the afternoon, the entire school was turned into a pop-up museum for all children to enjoy. Great fun was had by all with topics including: Light, The Circulatory System, Friction, Pulleys and Levers, Sound, Geology, Properties of Materials and even the Water Cycle.
Bird's Bush Primary School children put forward a wide range of entries for home projects showing scientific connections. The judges were blown away by the children's enthusiasm, knowledge and confidence in sharing their home projects at the school STEM fair, and were astounded by the creativity of the children.
30 Year 6 pupils from Woodthorne Primary School were lucky enough to visit RAF Cosford Museum just last week where they took part in several challenges to develop their skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. The children represented the school perfectly and were shining examples of the Woodthorne core values.
Sporting Achievements
Woodthorne Primary School girls football team represented Wolverhampton by taking part in a regional tournament at West Bromwich Albion on the 8th of March. Woodthorne successfully made the final by beating Walsall, Birmingham and Shrewsbury. The girls are delighted to now have a place in the National Finals in June, which will be held at Leeds FC stadium, Elland Rd! Well done and good luck for the next stage!
The Bird's Bush Primary girl’s netball team did an amazing job in the final, which took place on Thursday 26th March. They truly showed what Bird’s Bush Champions can do by working together as a team, communicating well and showing a 'never give up' attitude. Competing in the competitions were eight other primary schools, and Bird’s Bush managed to win against all the schools competing in Tamworth. The team will now go on to represent Tamworth in the county netball competition later this year.
On Monday 20th March Stanley Road Primary's year 5/6 football team travelled to St Barnabas Primary School to play their 3rd league fixture. Despite the rainy conditions, the team began in positive fashion and had all of the early efforts on goal. When the opposition did attack, our defence confidently cleared the danger. The team played out an entertaining 0-0 draw and can consider themselves unlucky not to have scored a winning goal.
A huge 'well done' to Stanley Primary's year 5/6 Swimming team, who have competed in the Droitwich and Worcester City Schools Swimming Gala on Friday 24th March. 15 schools in total attended the gala which included freestyle relays, medley relays and individual races, it really was a great experience for the whole team. They should all be really proud of their efforts and support for each other!
New Library for Perry Hall Primary
Tuesday 21st March was truly a special and memorable day at Perry Hall Primary School as the new school library was officially opened. Children (and staff) were incredibly excited! It has been a long process designing and preparing the school library and Perry Hall are very grateful to all involved who have supported them with the purchasing of resources and setting it up.
Reading Buddies from Year 6 met with Serena Patel, the award-winning author from Walsall and the Express and Star attended to capture this special event. Serena then lead an assembly, talking children through her own of journey of how she became an author, and what life is truly like as an author. The children had the opportunity to ask questions and some children also took part in their own mystery writing workshop with Serena.
Welcome to Train Passengers by Forest Hills Children
Children from Forest Hills Primary took part in a project with Trent Rivers Trust to produce designs for a sign welcoming train passengers to Rugeley train station. The sign provides interesting information on how the Trent Valley is a long distance footpath of the valley of the River Trent and how it connects cities, towns, villages, wildlife and history.
Festival of Song for Sledmere Children
On Thursday March 23rd, Sledmere’s Key Stage 2 choir took part in the Dudley Performing Arts ‘Festival of Song’. Children performed to a full audience at Dudley Town Hall along with children from other schools in the borough. They sang beautifully to songs which included, 'Sing', 'I just can't wait to be King', and 'Proud'. The concert was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who attended and Sledmere children made their families and staff extremely proud of their amazing performance.
“The festival of song was amazing! We practised a lot and were conducted by a really kind lady called Mrs Watson. I really enjoyed it.” Lucy, Year 6
“I enjoyed listening to the other people singing.” Isobelle, Year 5
“The trip was nice. I had lots of fun. I liked it when we sang to our parents.” Amuldeep, Year 3
“I really enjoyed singing ‘One and a Million’. It was my favourite song.” Amelia, Year 3
Congratulations....
Well done to Dunstall Hill Primary who have been awarded the school of sanctuary award for the second time around. Dunstall Hill are proud to be a welcoming place for pupils and their families, where every child feels safe and where they are fully accepted and cultural diversity is valued and celebrated.
Dunstall Hill were also successful in gaining Quality Mark for Early Years. The Quality Mark for Early Years is a national accreditation which promotes and supports the development of young children in their communication, language and early mathematical skills. Such a positive start in their early years gives every child the ‘bedrock’ of a good education and sets them up with the skills they need for their future school and adult lives. Well done to everyone at Dunstall for this fantastic achievement!
Congratulations to Bird's Bush Primary who have been sent an award from the Fisher Family Trust for their Autumn term attendance. FFT collects daily attendance data from over 10,500 schools. "Whilst all schools do an amazing job to improve pupil attendance, we’d like to say a special ‘thank-you’ to Bird's Bush Primary by presenting you with an FFT National School Attendance Award."
The awards have been given to schools with attendance in the Top 10% and Top 25% of all FFT schools nationally for the 2022 Autumn term. Well done to Bird's Bush!
Ofsted Success
Congratulations to Woodthorne and Mesty Croft Primary who are both remain to be 'Good' schools following inspections from Ofsted during the Spring term.
Woodthorne were described by Ofsted as being ' A happy and caring school', where 'Leaders and staff have high expectations for pupils’
Ofsted wrote about Mesty Croft Primary School, "Mesty Croft is full of happy pupils and cheerful staff. Everyone is made to feel welcome at this friendly school".
Well done everyone!
Happy Easter!
What a busy term this has been, jam-packed with lots of wonderful activities in all of our schools!
I would like to say a heartfelt 'thank you' to all of our staff and children for their hard work in school during this term. It has been wonderful to read about all of the fun children have been having with their learning and also the successes of our schools. This would not be possible without the support of our parents and families.
I would like to wish you all a very 'happy Easter' and I hope you enjoy the holiday period.
Mrs A Cheema
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