Updates

Tuesday 15th July, 2025

Staff leaving

We are having quite a lot of changes with staffing this year, but rest assured, we have worked very hard to ensure we have experienced staff who will fit in brilliantly into the Newdale team.

Sadly, Mrs Wilmot, Teaching Assistant in Year 1, will now be leaving at the end of the week. I know you will all join me in wishing Mrs Wilmot best wishes in her new role. She has worked tirelessly in Year 1 and been a fantastic phonics group lead too.

I am hoping that at some point in the future that Mrs Wilmot will return!

 

Friday 11th July, 2025

Week 6 Achievement Assembly

Friday 11th July 

This week, years 3 and 4 held an art exhibition in the school hall. It was lovely to see their fantastic pieces of art and we hope you did too! Year 6 enjoyed a trip to Telford Town Park where they went bowling, enjoyed a three-course meal at Pizza Express and finished the day with time in the park. With the warm weather set to continue into next week, please ensure your child comes to school with sun cream on and suitable outdoor clothing.  

BeSMART Cup winners who will have a special treat next week:

Year 1 both classes for their impeccable behaviour at Dudley Zoo. They made all the grown ups proud and represented Newdale so well.  

House Points 

This week was the final chance for the children to gather their house points before the last house celebration of the year. It was very close, but Severn House have won with an impressive 1990 points. Well done Severn and enjoy your treat next week! 

Achievers of the week: 

Year 6 achievers: Owen for his fantastic effort when performing our leavers song. Mrs Stack’s achiever for being such a responsible and sensible line leader on our trip to the Town Park; he represented Newdale brilliantly. 

Year 5 achievers:  Mrs Arthur’s achiever for amazing creativity and perseverance. Charlie for an excellently designed and created moving toy including independent work at home prior to the lesson in preparation. 

Year 4 achievers: Benjamin for superbly expressive and engaging writing in his dog care leaflet. Paisley-Violet for outstanding effort in all subjects all the time, but especially her Chance to Shine and Music composition this week.   

Year 3 achievers: Rocio for always trying her hardest and persevering when she finds task a little tricky. Kira for always setting a great example for others, by working hard and behaving exceptionally.  

Year 2 achievers: Miss Lowe’s achiever for just being absolutely amazing in every way. You are a true Newdaler! Mayra for always working exceptionally hard and challenging herself in all aspects of learning.  

Year 1 achievers: Caden for being a brilliant helper to the grown ups and for incredible writing with lots of amazing adjectives and even using commas and exclamation marks- in Year 1! Mariyam for being a fantastic role model, a kind and helpful friend to both pupils and adults in the class and for always giving 100% in everything she does.  

Year R achievers: Oscar for always trying his best everyday. He has produced excellent work in phonics and made massive improvements. Kobie for a fantastic week; lots of different adults around school have been super impressed with Kobie’s sensible nature and have seen him following the BeSMART Code. 

 

Readers of the week – these children were entered into our weekly reading raffle: 

Year 6 readers: Eshaal – super reading over the weekend and this week. Jasper for continuing to read 5 times despite coming to the end of the year. 

Year 5 readers: Mr Jackson’s reader for achieving the most Platinum awards during her time in Year 5. Reading every week with her detailed comments. Well done 😊 Layla for showing that she is Yr6 ready as she is beginning to read more regularly and complete her reading diary. 

Year 4 readers: Rosie-Anne for outstanding reading throughout Year 4! Super comments every week and fantastic questions in response to what she has read. Hilal for reading fluently and moving onto pink books.  

Year 3 readers: Ezra for super reading 5 times this week! Jessica for achieving a gold reading reward for 5 weeks in a row.  

Year 2 readers: Kyresse for reading every single day and even writing amazing sentences in his book!  

Year 1 readers: May for amazing reading over the last two weeks and reading a fantastic range of books at home. Hayden for getting a platinum award for reading and writing loads in his diary every single day.   

 

Friday 11th July, 2025

Last week for Year 6!

Can you believe that it is only one week to go until Year 6 leave Newdale?!

Please see below some key information for next week:

Water Fight! 

On Monday, the children will be having a water fight just before the end of the school day. Your child is welcome to bring a change of clothes (which they will change into prior), a towel and a water gun with them to school. They may come home very wet!

Wednesday

On Wednesday, the children will be taking all of their school books home. Please ensure they bring additional bags with them to school to allow for this. Children who walk home from school may need help from their parents on this afternoon.

The Final Day

On the last day, children are invited to dress down and come to school party ready. Face paint/jewels, hair glitter and festival accessories are all welcome! In fact, the more colourful and sparkly, the better! Should children wish to, they can bring a shirt/t-shirt that they wish other children to sign during the day.

Parents are invited to arrive at the office from 1pm for a 1.15pm start in the hall, where the children will sing their leaver’s song. We will then all move to the field to enjoy the leaver’s party until 3.00pm. There will be a range of activities for you and your children to participate in or you can choose to relax on the grass, catch up and celebrate for one last time! Please bring picnic blankets for relaxing in the sunshine (hopefully) and have your phone at the ready for some great photo opportunities.

See you there!

The Year 6 team

Saturday 5th July, 2025

E-Safety -Parental Controls

Please find a link below to an updated ‘Parent Online Safety’ booklet which includes an overview of key parental controls.

Saturday 5th July, 2025

E-Safety Top Tips – July Newsletter

Please find below the Online Safety Newsletter for July:

Online-Safety-Newsletter-Primary-July-2025_Newdale_30-06-2025

This month, it includes information on:  Nintendo Switch 2, Omegle and online challenges.

The Nintendo Switch 2 (released last month) introduces a new feature called ‘GameChat’ which allows up to 12 users to voice or video chat and share screens whilst gaming. This feature is part of the Nintendo Switch Online membership and includes parental controls. Parents can manage ‘GameChat’ access through the free Nintendo Switch Parental Controls app, which also tracks gameplay time and restricts messaging and game access based on PEGI age ratings. It’s important to note that PEGI ratings do not cover user-generated content or in-game chat.

Ofcom’s 2025 report shows 68% of children aged 3-17 watch funny videos, pranks, or challenges online. Although much of this content is harmless, some online challenges can be dangerous, and there have been tragic cases of children being harmed or killed while attempting them. Since children may not yet have the critical thinking skills to recognize unsafe content, it’s important for parents to have regular, open conversations about what they’re watching. Rather than naming specific harmful challenge (which could spark curiosity) parents could talk about online challenges in general, emphasising that threats tied to these challenges are not real. For guidance on how to approach these conversations, you can visit How to prevent harm from online challenges | Internet Matters.

There is also an additional resource to support transition with children that are moving to secondary school- it helps children to understand the possible risks and benefits of going online.

Moving to secondary school: Online safety guide | Internet Matters

If you need more support or guidance with online safety, please contact a staff member or send us an email.

Email: newdale.primary@taw.org.uk

Friday 4th July, 2025

Achievement Assemby

Friday 4th July 2025 

This week the children have had a fantastique day celebrating France and French culture. The children have fully immersed themselves in a range of different activities ranging from sampling delicious French treats, exploring the language, playing pétanque and participating with traditional French dancing. It has been formidable jour! We could not end the day without celebrating Mrs Lefroy, who will be retiring from Newdale next week after 16 wonderful years. She was treated to a surprise assembly, complete with mystery food tasting, a sing-along, and a poem performed by a group of Year 6 children.

Goodbye, Mrs Lefroy—we’ll all miss you dearly and wish you a long, happy, and well-deserved retirement!”

 

House Points

This week, Severn continue to take the lead with a huge 1646 points! They are closely followed by Wrekin, with 1427. Ironbridge have 1384 points, while Wenlock have 1191. With only one week left to go, who will be the next winners of the house celebration? 

 

Achievers of the week: 

Year 6 achievers: Isabella for demonstrating great skill when playing petanque and handball. She also showed a lot of enthusiasm when trying some of the French delicacies. Robert for working hard to learn a french poem and speaking with a fantastic french accent. Shiah for her impressive performance and fantastic teamwork in petanque! 

Year 5 achievers:  George for amazing crepe making skills! Cayden for fantastic crepe making and great knowledge and effort on French Day.  

Year 4 achievers: Ieesa for his love of learning languages and his brilliant French vocabulary. Ezra for her amazing confidence in overcoming the Go Ape zipline and fantastic artwork throughout the week. 

Year 3 achievers: Violet for her beautiful Impressionism drawing of The Wrekin and for being helpful and engaged when making some delicious French Sable biscuits. Alice for her best efforts to describe animals in French and for her beautiful Impressionist drawing of the Wrekin. 

Year 2 achievers: Coby for his amazing efforts to speak French by answering questions and having a simple conversation. Sofia for full embracing the French culture and being confident to speak French in front of her peers. 

Year 1 achievers: Pranathi for her continued commitment to learning especially on French day today where she created an amazing piece of artwork inspired by a French artist. I am proud of you. Theo for his enthusiasm and hard work during our ‘French Day’ today. Theo created a fantastic piece of artwork of the Eiffel Tower inspired by a French artist. Well done Theo 😊  

Year R achievers: Isla for a wonderful week and especially working hard during French day. We all loved your French coloured rainbow. James for immersing himself in all of our French Day activities. He built an impressive Eiffel Tower challenging himself to keep extending the height of it.