Reminder – What’s App Issues

We would like to draw your attention to some ongoing concerns regarding children’s use of digital devices outside of school. Recently, we have become aware of large WhatsApp groups involving our pupils. This has unfortunately led to issues such as inappropriate language being used and a high number of disagreements.

As you may know, WhatsApp has a minimum age requirement of 13. Children in primary school are often not yet ready to use such apps responsibly, which is why these restrictions are in place. Despite our Year 6 teams speaking with pupils about online safety and the age limits for apps like WhatsApp, the problem continues.

We kindly ask that you regularly review your child’s online activity and talk with them about how they are using digital platforms. Your support in reinforcing these messages at home is invaluable.

When issues arise outside of school, they can take up significant time during the school day, time that should be focused on learning. By working together, we can help ensure that children remain safe online and fully engaged whilst in school.

Thank you for your continued support.

Miss Cook

Year 6’s Water Battle

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Children can bring their water pistols from home for tomorrow afternoon’s water battle. If your child is attending after-school club, they will need a change of clothes.

Thank you,

The Year 6 Team

After School Clubs this week

At present, we will be making adjustments to suit the warm weather this week to ensure after school clubs can go ahead as planned.

Badminton – will take place indoors

KS2 Girl’s Football – will be foot golf under the oak tree and classroom activities

KS2 Football (Thursday) – will take place indoors

Dodgeball (Friday) – indoors as normal

KS2 Football (Friday) adapted to foot golf and football team building games under the oak tree

 

Y6 Crucial Crew Cancelled

The Crucial Crew Senior Management Team have considered health and safety advice and guidelines carefully and have made the decision that Crucial Crew on Wednesday will NOT be running, due to the extreme temperatures.

These circumstances are beyond our control.

All money will be refunded.

 

Reminder – Art Day – Wednesday 24th June

Our annual Art Day will be held on Wednesday 24th June. The theme is ‘landscapes and portraits’ and children are invited to come to school in non-uniform to celebrate creativity for a suggested donation of £1 towards art supplies and materials. Please ensure clothing warn is suitable for the day, children may get messy! Any donations should be made via ParentPay.

Please note – Y6 pupils should wear PE kit tomorrow for their trip. 

Thank you for your support.

Government evaluation: Share your experience of walking, wheeling, and cycling to school 

Our school has agreed to take part in an important government evaluation of interventions that enable walking, wheeling and cycling to school. The findings will help Active Travel England make walking, wheeling and cycling to school easier and safer for children.

All parents and carers of pupils in Reception, Year 1, Year 5 and Year 6 in our school are eligible to participate in an online survey. This will take around 10 minutes to complete and will ask questions about:

  • How your child travels to school.
  • What helps or makes it hard to walk, wheel or cycle to school.
  • What you think about changes to help children travel actively to school.

If 50 parents and carers of pupils in our school take part, then our school will receive a £75 Love2Shop voucher.

(https://survey.natcen.ac.uk/mrIWeb/mrIWeb.dll?I.Project=P2042601_MAI_V1&i.user1=145434)

Thank you for your support!

Crucial Crew – Further information

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We have been notified that there will be a child with a serious nut and sesame allergy present at Crucial Crew on Wednesday. Therefore have been kindly asked to ensure that our pupils do not have anything in their lunch which may contain nuts or sesame.

Due to the hot weather, children will be able to wear their PE kits (preferably with their Newdale top if they have one). Please ensure that this is school PE kit so that they are easily identifiable. We kindly ask you to ensure that the children have sun cream, a sun hat and plenty of water. There are marquees on-site and we will find shaded areas whenever possible during our time there.

Kind regards,

Year 6 Team

Curriculum governors involvement

The Curriculum Governors met on 18th June and began by focusing on Science. They spoke with pupils from a range of year groups about their experiences and enjoyed looking through the children’s science books to see the learning that has taken place this year. This was followed by an update from Mr Banfield, our Science Leader. Governors were very impressed by both the pupils’ enthusiasm and Mr Banfield’s leadership, and they have requested the opportunity to observe a practical science session next term.

A Year 6 teacher then shared an overview of the complex processes involved in supporting pupils with their transition to secondary school. Governors were surprised to learn that this year our pupils will be moving on to 14 different secondary schools. They were particularly impressed by the time, care and attention given to ensuring a smooth transition for all pupils, especially those who are more vulnerable.

Governors also reviewed a selection of Early Years and Key Stage 1 home–school communication books. They felt these books play an invaluable role in keeping families and school well‑informed and strengthening communication about day‑to‑day matters.

Year 6 transition days/end of year events

Dear Year 6 Parents and Carers,

As we move into the final few weeks of the school year, we wanted to share some important information regarding transition arrangements and end‑of‑year events for our Year 6 pupils.

This year, our children are moving on to 14 different secondary schools. This number is higher than normal.  Of these, only 9 follow the standard Telford & Wrekin transition dates of 7th and 8th July. The remaining 5 schools set their own individual transition days, and we often receive these dates much later.

As you can imagine, this makes it extremely challenging for the Year 6 team to plan the usual packed timetable of activities without any clashes or overlaps. We always prioritise avoiding conflicts with the leavers’ assembly and leavers’ festival, as these are the key celebrations for all pupils. However, with such a wide range of transition dates, it is unfortunately not possible to guarantee that every other event will avoid every school’s schedule.

Please be assured that the team works incredibly hard to create a memorable and meaningful end to the children’s time at Newdale. Alongside the celebrations, we also have important curriculum content and transition work to complete before the pupils move on to their new schools. Balancing all of this within the limited time available is no small task, but we remain committed to giving the children the best possible experience.

We hope that families can appreciate the complexity of coordinating so many different secondary school arrangements, and we thank you for your understanding and support. Our aim, as always, is to ensure that the final weeks at Newdale are filled with positive experiences, lasting memories, and a strong sense of pride in all that the children have achieved.

Kind regards,

Miss Cook

Headteacher