Headteacher’s Blog

You might be aware of a number of cases of Scarlet fever, both locally and nationally, including at Bowmansgreen. We are directing parents to advice from NHS Direct regarding how long children should be away from school if they to fall ill. Please use the link below for more information (https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/scarlet-fever/).
FOBS have been busy raising money for the school throughout the year and I am very excited to announce that they have enabled us to purchase some fantastic new play equipment for the KS1 playground. Pupils will be very excited when they return after Easter and see how fantastic it is and they will make very good use of the equipment. Thank you to the parents, children and staff who have continued to support the FOBS events – your children directly benefit from the money that is raised.
On behalf of all staff, parents and pupils, I would like to thank Sam Gentleman for all of her hard work and enthusiasm as the Chair of the FOBS committee. She has worked tirelessly to increase parental involvement and support for FOBS over the last few years.  She is now handing over the baton to Annabel Zatko who will take over as Chair next term. Please see the calendar dates for upcoming events in the summer term.
There are several staff goodbyes to say this term. Mrs Ingham will not be returning to Bowmansgreen after her maternity leave. Miss May, Mrs Andiyapan and Mr Spooner have also left us this term. I know you will join me in wishing them all well and the very best of luck for the future. They will all be missed and we hope that they will keep in touch and visit us soon.
Enjoy a lovely Easter. See you in April!

It was great to see you all at this week’s parent consultation meetings. We hope that you found the meetings useful and an important part of home and school working together to best support your children. If you were unable to attend your appointment, please ensure that you rearrange a time with your child’s class teacher next week.
The changing of reading books is a theme that often crops up during the year including during this week’s meetings. We know that you look forward to seeing the new books that your children bring home, especially when they “move up” a colour band. Please don’t be disheartened if that process takes a while as the teachers will make that decision based upon how well a pupil understands texts rather than how fluently they can read them. We are always looking to challenge and push on a child’s learning but we also like to be sure that we have the evidence to support our judgements so that we do not hinder the progress.
On Tuesday morning, the parent workshop will be led by an external visitor called Digital Jen, focusing on e-safety. The session has been designed to make parents aware of the benefits and dangers for primary age pupils (and older) who use apps, social media and mobile technology. It will include evidence and a discussion about the impact that the internet has on the mental and physical health and wellbeing of children. The session promises to be an insightful, informative “reality check” for any adults whose children use technology and mobile devices. I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.
The school choir performed at the Alban Arena on Wednesday as part of the Primary Schools Music Festival. Every single one of our pupils who took part sang their hearts out and helped to make it a very special performance. It was a joy to see and the choir was fantastic! Thank you children, for doing Bowmansgreen proud.
As the weather is beginning to show signs of spring, please could you send pupils in with a water bottle, especially on the day that they have PE.
Don’t forget that the clocks spring forward this weekend!

On Tuesday, Captain Emma Henderson, an Easyjet pilot, led the parent workshop and whole school assembly based around the theme of ‘inspiring girls.’ Emma is an inspirational woman in a male-dominated industry and she was full of encouragement and advice for our pupils.
Last night’s curriculum evening featured, amongst other things, collages based on work by Picasso, a ‘replica’ of the Sagrada Família, tapas, flamenco dancing and quizzes! Thank you to everyone who turned out to support this event and a special thank you to Mrs Manly for organising the evening and Mrs Pitcher for her culinary talents! We hope that you had a great time finding out what your children have been busy learning this half term.
Today we held our first Book Swap event. It was great to see so many children going home with new titles to interest and motivate them to read for pleasure. This will be a regular date for our diaries, with the next Book Swap taking place next half term.
It is always great to hear about pupils’ achievements and hard work outside of school and I am very proud to hear that some Bowmansgreen pupils have been busy helping to look after their local community. Some attended the litter pick with the scouts on Saturday and helped to collect 50 bags of rubbish from the local area. Thank you children for being so helpful and responsible.
Mrs Stanley continued the Spanish theme into breakfast club this morning, with a delicious Spanish breakfast. I thoroughly enjoyed my cheese, Spanish omelette and fresh fruit which gave me a super start to my day! If you missed out today, please come and try breakfast with us any morning from 7.30am – you won’t be disappointed!
Senior leaders and governors have recently reviewed the security of the school site and have agreed that we need to amend the times that the back gate is open to parents. A letter will follow on Monday, to further explain what measures are being taken and why.
A letter has gone home today with details of our after school clubs that will be running after Easter, including a few new ones. Please tick your preferences and return your form to school by Tuesday. You will be notified which clubs you have secured places in before the holidays.
Enjoy your weekend – hats and gloves at the ready!

Careers week has been amazing! Thank you to all of the parents who have helped to make this week so special. Pupils have learnt about a range of careers and professions and have been inspired by the visitors who have led workshops and discussions. Today, pupils came to school dressed as, amongst other things, an MP, paramedics, surgeons, financial advisers and vets. It has been a fantastic end to a great week which has motivated and enthused our pupils. Thank you to Mrs Clark in the school office for organising this fantastic event.
To support British Science Week, all pupils will be taking part in a House event on Friday which will involve making model reptiles.
Next Thursday we will be welcoming you all to our Spanish Fiesta! Our curriculum evening will have a Spanish theme and will provide an opportunity for you to see, hear and taste what your children have been busy learning in their Spanish lessons. Please come along for some tapas!
On Tuesday, there will be an assembly and parent workshop with the theme of ‘inspiring girls.’ They will be led by two female pilots who have achieved success in male-dominated professions and who will share their stories and hopefully inspire your daughters (and sons!) to have high aspirations and follow their dreams. Parents are invited to both the assembly (8.50am) and workshop (9.15am). Please meet in the main reception entrance at 8.45am if you wish to attend. Dads are also very welcome!
Year 6 is currently egg-sitting! Over the next couple of weeks we hope to welcome some new chicks to the Bowmansgreen school family. Photos to follow.
On Friday we will be holding our first book swap event. Please send your child into school on Friday with any books that they would like to swap. Older pupils will be supervised in the mobile classroom from 2.45pm where they can choose books to swap. The mobile will be available until 3.30pm for parents to accompany their children if they want to support them choosing books.
I am very happy to announce that Mrs Murphy O’Connor gave birth to baby Jude on Wednesday. Mother and baby are both doing well and I know that you will join me in sending our congratulations and best wishes to the family.
Enjoy a lovely weekend.

Thank you for bearing with us this week, through what has been a very unpredictable and bitterly cold few days. It is always difficult to pre-empt and react efficiently to ever-changing weather forecasts and we appreciate that we won’t have been able to fully accommodate everybody’s family, work and childcare arrangements but we hope that we have not caused too much uncertainty or inconvenience.
Despite yesterday’s freezing temperatures, lots of children and staff came to school dressed as their favourite book characters to celebrate World Book day. Thank you parents for your support in ensuring that your children looked fantastic! Photos will follow in next week’s newsletter.
On Wednesday, the NSPCC led assemblies with all pupils and staff as part of their ‘Speak out. Stay safe’ programme. Pupils were introduced to the NSPCC mascot Buddy and learnt about their rights as children: to speak out and be heard, to be safe and to get help when they need it. They were also reminded about the trusted adults they can turn to when worried and were taught the childline number: 08001111.
Next week, we are supporting National Careers week with a range of visitors and demonstrations across the school, focused on informing pupils about a range of jobs and careers and raising their aspirations. Many of you have volunteered your time to help inspire our pupils which is much appreciated and we hope that you enjoy your time with us. Follow this link to find out more about this national event. http://nationalcareersweek.com/ We look forward to seeing what your children will be dressed-up in as their future selves in their chosen careers on Friday.
DSPL is a partnership approach where parents, carers, staff and external professionals work together to ensure that there is a range of provision and support services available in their local community. Bowmansgreen is part of DSPL7. The DSPL7 website provides valuable information and signposts parents to a range of resources, particularly around supporting children and young people with their social, mental, emotional health and SEND. I would encourage you to take a look, by following the link below: http://www.dspl7.org.uk/

Welcome back!
This morning’s celebration assembly saw the first Author and Reader of the week trophies handed to Amelia, Ruby, Ava and Harry. These will be presented on a weekly basis and pupils are able to take their hard-earned trophies home for the weekend, returning them to school by the following Tuesday. From next week, there will also be a mathematician from each Key Stage recognised for their effort, achievement or success in maths.
Please be reminded that pupils are not allowed to bring mobile phones into school. We appreciate that an increasing number of pupils in Key Stage 2 have phones but they can present additional challenges for staff in terms of safeguarding, monitoring their usage and keeping them secure. If your child is an independent traveller in Y5 or Y6, and you would like them to walk to and from school with their phone, please notify the school of this, in writing. Your child will then be expected to present their phone to the school office each morning and it will be locked away safely. It is then your child’s responsibility to collect their phone from the office, at the end of the school day. We hope that you understand and appreciate the need to be very firm about this rule.
This year, World Book Day takes place on Thursday 1st March. All pupils are invited to dress up as a book character to help promote and celebrate books and reading for this national event. On Monday, the author Paul Strickland is visiting Bowmansgreen as part of the world Book Day celebrations. He will lead an assembly workshop for all pupils before working with pupils in KS1 throughout the morning.
Our first ‘book swap’ event will take place on Friday 16th March, in the school hall. Pupils will have the opportunity to swap books with each other from 2.45pm, supervised by staff. If you would like to accompany your child and browse the books available to be swapped, please collect them at the end of the day, as usual, from their classroom door and walk them round to the main entrance where you will be met and directed into the hall. The hall will remain available for this event until 3.30pm.
Thank you to all parents who have offered their time and expertise during next month’s Careers Week. We are very excited at the range of jobs and professions that the children will be learning about and all classes will have workshops and special visitors. If you would like to be involved and can spare any time (Mon 5th – Fri 9th March), it’s not too late to sign up! Please let the office know if you are able to help support and be involved.
Enjoy your weekend.

Pupils at Bowmansgreen love maths! Pupils have worked so hard this half-term and have thoroughly enjoyed the fun and challenge of their maths and home learning activities focusing on pattern. It was great to see so many of you at yesterday’s curriculum evening, celebrating your children’s learning in maths. It is always lovely to see pupils proudly sharing work with parents and we appreciate the turn-out and support for these events.
I am aware that there were significant problems with parking and traffic during last Friday’s school disco. The school and FOBS are thinking together to see how we can help alleviate these pressures on drivers, local residents and pedestrians. I have previously sought legal advice as to how far the school can or should be involved in parking and traffic issues and the advice is very clear – these are not school staff responsibilities and situations can actually become more inflamed if we try to intervene or ‘police’ such situations. We have to trust that parents will park and drive sensibly. We can, of course, help alleviate the pressure in other ways such as looking at opening the rear gate or not holding two discos on the same evening. Any changes will be in place for the next disco.
In recent months, schools have been asked to put into place procedures to quickly move pupils and staff away from an identified risk or unsafe situation. Such practice is sometimes referred to as ‘lockdown’ although this is not a term that we have yet introduced to pupils. A lockdown procedure is a standard health and safety procedure, similar to a fire drill. Although the need for such action is very unlikely, we want to ensure that should it arise, we have a whole school, sensible and proportionate response that all pupils and staff are familiar and confident with. This week, we practised this procedure, leaving the playground quickly and sensibly and returning to our classrooms. We will continue to formulate our whole school plan and present parents with our final policy next half term.
Our next parent workshop is the first Tuesday back (Feb 20th) and will be led by the NSPCC. This session is part of a wider programme called ‘Speak out. Stay safe.’ and is linked to the assembly and pupil workshops that the NSPCC will be delivering at Bowmansgreen. I would encourage all parents to attend this workshop which is aimed at helping our children to keep themselves and each other safe.
Enjoy a lovely half-term.

Friday mornings are always such a fantastic start to  the end of the week!
This morning’s breakfast club was extra special with some of our furry friends joining us in the hall. Cotton and Socks have clearly settled in very well to their new Bowmansgreen family because of all of the love and care they have received since they joined us.
Celebration assembly is such a positive and uplifting time and I am always immensely proud of the pupils who are recognised each week for their hard work, positive behaviour and growth mind-set attitude to learning. After half-term, we will be making some slight changes to celebration assembly and maybe a few new achievements to celebrate…
Next Tuesday 6^th Feb is Safer Internet Day which is celebrated globally each year to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology for children. During the day, pupils will be involved in activities to reinforce e-safety. Next week, we will also be launching our new e-Safeguarding policy which incorporates a new IT Acceptable Use Agreement which every pupil in KS1 and KS2 must know, understand and sign.
If you would like to find out more about Safer Internet Day, please follow the link:    https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/2018
Please be reminded that next Thursday we are holding our next curriculum evening which will focus on the subject of maths and the theme of pattern. It will be a great opportunity to see some of what your children have been learning in maths this term and we look forward to seeing you there.
Next week’s parent workshop focuses on grammar and punctuation. The expectations of writing for pupils in KS1 and KS2 have changed significantly over the last few years and this workshop will hopefully inform parents of the standards as well as the terminology involved. If you want to know your embedded clause from your fronted adverbial, come along at 9am next Tuesday! We will, as always, make the slides available for you after the workshop.
 
 

What a busy week we have had!
On Monday, we hosted a Setpoint maths workshop for pupils from Bowmansgreen and local schools, with a focus on problem solving. Throughout the day, pupils from years 3 and 4 (Haroon, Jason, Harry & Jed) had fun working together, in the hall, to solve some very tricky maths challenges.
Meanwhile, in the gym something spectacular took place! Bowmansgreen was the launch school for the new ‘View From Space To Earth’ challenge run by AlohaTri and the Triathlon Trust. Throughout the day, pupils and staff ran and cycled their way to travelling 1097km! Pupils thoroughly enjoyed the day and rose to the challenge. Thank you to Rav Dighe and Miss Brennan for making this happen – it was a fantastic day!
This week, Mrs Stanley and the breakfast club staff have been working in overdrive to prepare a range of breakfasts to support national Farmhouse Breakfast Week, including this morning’s special hot breakfast of bacon, sausage, egg, beans, tomatoes and mushrooms – which was delicious! The breakfast club at Bowmansgreen is very popular and provides a fantastic start to the day for our pupils, parents and staff.
Tuesday’s parent workshop focused on Relationships and Sex Education. Thank you to all parents who attended and – as always – we value your support and feedback. We appreciate that many of you cannot attend the Tuesday morning sessions due to work commitments and we encourage you to access the slides and notes so that you don’t miss out. The slides from the last two workshops are attached to this newsletter and will be available on the school website (via the ‘Parents’ tab) from Monday.
To support National Careers Week (March 5th – 9th) we will be running a number of activities and events to inform, inspire and motivate pupils about the vast range of jobs and careers they have to choose from. We welcome support and involvement from parents and would like to hear from anyone who would be able to spare some time during this week, to run a workshop or Q&A session about their career, especially if you have a particularly unusual or exciting job. Please contact the school office if you would be able to spare some time.
Have a lovely weekend.