Next week – request to parents

Next week Reception will be learning about weddings. The children will have the opportunity to talk about their own experiences of weddings/what they know about weddings. If you have any wedding photographs (copies NOT originals) and your child would like to bring them in to share with the rest of the class, please do so by Wednesday 17th Jan.

Many Thanks

The Reception Team

Share Aware Week

Dear Parents/Carers,

A key aspect of our curriculum at Newdale is to educate children about how to stay safe. One of the many ways in which we do this is through themed weeks. Last term, we delivered our Expect Respect Week, where we worked sensitively with children, looking at the importance of healthy, non-violent relationships.

This half term, we will be delivering our Share Aware Week during the week beginning Monday 15th January 2024. Over the week, we will be looking specifically at the importance of consent, sharing our worries and other safeguarding issues around sharing information online using materials provided by the NSPCC.

Lessons will be taught in an age-appropriate way. A common theme throughout each year group is centred around ‘consent’ and the PANTs rule.  Higher up in the school, children’s basic understanding of consent will then be developed through learning about cyberbullying, modern-day slavery, peer pressure, healthy and unhealthy boundaries, child criminal exploitation and grooming.

Please see below for the theme for each year group. Please feel assured that the sessions are very much age-appropriate for your child.

Year Group Theme
Nursery Consent: personal space

Songs: Emotions e.g. If you’re happy and you know it

Reception Consent: personal space

Sharing of emotions/discussing what to do if you are feeling worried

Year 1 Consent: My body is mine

E-safety- what to do if you are worried about something you see online

Year 2 Consent: safe and unsafe secrets and surprises

E-safety –  what to do if you are worried about something you see online

Year 3 Consent: is it okay?

E-safety- information sharing

Year 4 Consent: My body, my choices

Modern Day Slavery (Mo Farah)

E-safety- online gaming safety

Year 5 Consent: Your body is your own

Peer Pressure

Grooming

Year 6 Consent: My body is mine (UNICEF’s child rights)

E-safety- Grooming

Child Criminal Exploitation including County Lines

Healthy and unhealthy boundaries

Please click on this link to see an example of just one of the areas we address during Share Aware Week and within our daily curriculum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqqnxQzz17c

We know the value of preventative work and the real importance that early conversations can have on children and young people’s lives. We are committed to keeping our children at Newdale safe and believe that our curriculum offer helps to safeguard children from the onset. This themed week is just one of the many ways we regularly teach children about keeping safe.

If you need more information, or are suffering from the effects of any of the safeguarding issues mentioned, please contact the school or visit the NSPCC website for further support and guidance.

Yours sincerely,

Miss R Cook

Y5 – Arthog information event

Dear Parents/Carers,

We would like to invite you to the Arthog information event on Tuesday 30th January. This will be an opportunity for both pupils and parents to find out more about the residential and answer any questions you may have about it.

Please arrive via the back doors of the assembly hall, where a member of staff will let you in shortly before 5:00pm.

Thank you,

Mrs Arthurs and Miss Jones 🙂 

Nursery Funding Information

There are now several funding offers available for parents, below is  a short roundup of what the new and existing funding streams look like:

There are 3 different routes for application for 2 year old funded places

 

There are 2 different routes for 3 & 4 Year old funding:

  • 15 hours universal funded places for all children which will be applied for directly through the childcare provider of your choice.
  • 30 hours funding for working families apply here Childcare Choices.

If you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

 

Site Health & Safety

Dear Parents/Carers,

Health and safety when moving around our site is extremely important. Unfortunately, our school grounds were designed in such a way that it is impossible to keep traffic and pedestrians totally separate. Since September we have had several ‘near miss’ incidents involving pedestrians and vehicles on our site, and we continue to see pedestrians walking through the car park where cars are reversing, rather than keeping to the pathways.

It is very evident that we need to alter the current arrangements in place as the risks are too high. Yesterday, the police joined me in assessing the busiest times of the day to look at ways in which we could improve safety.

We are not classified as public highways and instead are classified as private property. As such, we can decide who has access to our site at all times. This access does include blue badge holders. It is worth noting that the vast majority of schools across Telford do not allow any access to their site other than for staff and visitors.

From Monday we will be completely stopping all vehicle movement during our most busy times. The main school gates will be locked to parents each morning between 8:30 and 8:40, and again between 3:10 and 3:20. The pedestrian access will not be affected in any way.

Should you already use the school car park as you hold a blue badge and this has been agreed, you are still welcome to drive onto the site before each of these periods. As the classroom doors open at 8:35 and again at 3:10, this simply means being here five minutes early if you have need of the car park, and not moving your vehicle at all until the children are safely in the building in the morning and off site in the afternoon. In this way, we can ensure that pedestrians at those busy times can safely walk through our site.

We are trying to avoid completely preventing access as we really do want to support families as much as we can, but I hope you can see that the safety of everyone must be paramount. We will monitor how this improves the situation over the rest of this half term.

Kind regards,

Miss Cook

Headteacher

Advice and support – drop in service for parents

Telford and Wrekin are now providing a drop-in service that families can access for advice and support. They offer parents, carers and children support around a range of topics such as mental health, parenting skills, healthy lifestyles and infant feeding