News

FOBS have already been busy this term, raising money for our school, by holding a school disco and a doughnut sale. There are plenty more events planned throughout the year for you to enjoy and get involved in.  The money that is raised directly benefits your children. Every class has already received resources funded by FOBS this year, including dictionaries, thesauruses, maths equipment and reading books. We are very lucky that we have such an active FOBS committee and supportive school community and we appreciate how much pupils benefit from the additional funds that are raised. Thank you.

On Tuesday, Bowmansgreen said goodbye to Mrs Doyle who will be starting a new job at another local school. I am sure you will join me in thanking her for all of her hard work and wishing her luck in her new job.

This term, we have welcomed Miss Bliss to the Bowmansgreen school community. She will be working with pupils across the school as part of our PE team.

This afternoon, our Y6 returned from their residential at PGL. They had lots of fun taking part in a range of activities, including raft building and a ride on a zip wire! They had a great time and did themselves proud with their enthusiasm and behaviour. I think they all might sleep very well this weekend! Thank you to Miss Allen, Miss Chilton, Miss Rawlings, Mr Gowler and Mr Sanders for making the trip such a great experience for the pupils.

Next Thursday, 17th October, our first Curriculum Evening of the year takes place. Come along and see some of the work that your children have been busy working on this half term. Pupils love sharing their work with you and are always proud of their efforts and achievements. It is always a popular school event and I would encourage you to come along, say hello to the teachers and see how busy your children have been.

Keeping our children safe on-line is an ongoing battle and responsibility that home and school share. At Bowmansgreen, we are constantly reminding pupils and setting clear expectations of their on-line behaviours. All pupils will again attend on-line safety workshops next half-term, to reinforce key messages and raise awareness of some of the dangers that they and their peers face in the on-line world. Last year, we also held a parent workshop that was, unfortunately, very poorly attended. We had decided to hold this workshop, as many parents were contacting school about issues that their children were facing on-line, either through gaming, messaging apps, or on social media. We are holding another parent workshop, led by an external company, to inform and empower parents to support their children in keeping safe on-line. Parents who attended last year’s workshop found it to be a bit of an eye-opener in terms of the apps that their children were using and I would encourage any parent, whose child uses a mobile device and accesses the internet or apps, to attend. The parent workshop takes place on November 7th, 6-7pm.

On Saturday October 19th, we are holding our open morning from 9 – 11.30am. This event is not just for new and prospective parents – all are welcome.

Enjoy your weekend.

It was great to see so many parents at our first celebration assembly of the year. Thank you for your continued support. Our Friday assembly is always a lovely whole school occasion, made even more special when the singing sounds as fantastic as it did last week. I am already looking forward to tomorrow’s celebrations! Well done to 3RW and 2H for their excellent attendance last week. We will continue to aim for a whole school attendance target of 96% this year. It would be great if even more pupils than last year enjoyed the recognition for achieving 100% attendance and the special treat that comes with it. Please read our attendance policy so that you are familiar with our expectations and the legislation around requests for time-off during term time.

Attendance statistics

Please be reminded that pupils are not allowed on the play equipment before and after the school day. Pupils know these rules and we would really appreciate your support in reinforcing this expectation.

We will be launching our new behaviour policy this half-term. We have moved away from the behaviour ‘ladder’ and the ‘blue sky behaviours’ so you will no longer hear pupils saying that they have ‘reached cockerel’ to earn their cockerel card. Each class now has a recognition board where the names of pupils who demonstrate excellence in their behaviour and learning are placed. These pupils are the role models who set the standard for others to follow. In the interim, pupils will continue to receive cockerel card as recognition for their outstanding behaviours and attitude and their names will be placed on the class recognition boards.  The full policy will follow over the next couple of weeks.

Breakfast club is already in full swing this term with many of our pupils and their families accessing this fantastic provision throughout the week.  Mrs Stanley is delighted by how many of our new reception pupils are regularly attending and how well our older pupils are making them feel welcome. If you haven’t already visited, we would love you to come and experience breakfast club for yourselves. Open from 7.30am every morning, it is a great way for your child to start their day. Please contact Mrs Stanley or the school office for more information. Next Friday, Mrs Stanley is hosting a very special coffee morning during breakfast club, to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. We would love to see you there!

Hopefully, your children are busy reading even more books than usual and collecting sponsors for their Readathon. Please take the time to share some books with your child and hear them read as often as possible to encourage them to complete as many books as they can. This is a great way for your children to practise their reading as well as to raise money for a good cause. There are also some great prizes to be won!

Please be reminded that our monthly book swap and uniform sale takes place tomorrow afternoon in the mobile classroom. Send your children in with any books that they no longer read so that they can choose some new titles to take home and enjoy. Book donations are always welcome! Nearly new uniform will also be available for you to stock up on spare trousers, skirts and jumpers.

Many of you and your children will have noticed that Mr Cropper has not been seen around school this term.  He had been deliberating about relocating for some time and confirmed his decision to move back to Somerset at the beginning of the summer holidays. I am sure you will join me in wishing Mr Cropper the best of luck for the future and to thank him for his hard work and commitment to Bowmansgreen.

Don’t forget to visit our school website and download our school app to keep up to date with key information, news and events involving our school community. This half term’s Home Learning grids are now available.

Welcome back!

I hope that you all enjoyed a restful and happy summer holiday. Your children have returned to school ready and excited to learn in their new classes and have settled back into school with positive attitudes.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our new reception pupils to Bowmansgreen. They spent their first full morning in their new classes, having great fun exploring and enjoying their new classrooms and learning environment. The reception staff team were impressed by how well they all settled in and look forward to welcoming them again tomorrow.

During this morning’s assembly, pupils were reminded of our school rules and values.

School Rules: Be kind, be safe, be respectful

School Values:

All staff will be looking out for pupils going over and above – demonstrating excellent behaviour and conduct and consistently displaying our school rules. These expectations will be reflected and reinforced in our new behaviour policy which will be introduced to parents this half term.

Please can we remind parents to ensure that all items of their child’s school uniform are named. Pupils looked really smart and ready to learn today. To ensure that this continues throughout the year, we need to help pupils take responsibility for their appearance and equipment and they can only do this if all of their belongings are named so that they can find them easily if they misplace them.  Each class has a fabric marker which they will ask pupils to use to label any unnamed items next week.

Don’t forget to take a look at the calendar on the school website to keep up to date with the activities and events taking place this half term. These include our monthly book swap event, a Macmillan Coffee Morning, our first curriculum evening of the year, a FOBS disco and our Harvest Festival celebration. There is lots to look forward to and get involved in.

It really is a pleasure to be back to school with our fantastic pupils who are already working hard and doing themselves proud. I am sure that this year will be another successful one at Bowmansgreen and look forward to working closely with you all to ensure that our school continues to go from strength to strength.