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.
