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.