We are now at the end of our second week after the Christmas break, so we really are back in the swing of things. It was good to see that the children were happy to come back to school last week, and that same attitude has carried through to this week. Our worship theme for this half term is 'Commitment'. We've already talked about what the word 'commitment' means in assembly - 'not backing out' and 'responsibility' being two of the key things the children said. We are currently offering double house points this week to children that have shown a commitment to the school motto: 'We care. We trust, we believe. We share, we enjoy, we achieve.' Through showing good manners or helping someone or just making an extra effort in their work, children can show their commitment to what the values of the school.

You will have noticed by now the new gate that leads in to the church yard. We do intend to use this and eventually close the route around the side of Nursery to prevent people from walking across the staff car park. However, we are currently waiting for the lighting to be installed that will light the route through the church yard; hopefully we can get this completed this term. I do appreciate your patience though - we'll get there.

'You always have two choices: your commitment versus your fear.' - Sammy Davis, Jr

We have noticed over the past week or so, since we have been back after Christmas, that there have been a lot of families arriving late to school.

If you do arrive late to school please ensure an adult comes to sign the child/ children in to school. This is so we know they are safely on site with us.

Arriving late to school can be upsetting for the children as they do not have a settled start to the day.

School meals are provided by Dudley Catering. The payment you make for meals is made directly to them. School facilitate this and support the catering staff. It is becoming an ever increasing problem that people are not paying for dinners on the day they require them. If dinner money is not sent Dudley catering may only provide a sandwich and may not provide anything at all. We have been asked by the kitchen staff to request that all meals are paid for on the morning or in advance. Please do not be offended if we telephone you to ask you to bring money in before lunchtime. It is a safeguarding issue if you are not providing a lunch for your child and will be logged on a school safeguarding system

Please do not ask the office to provide change for things such as tuck money. As you can appreciate the office is very busy in the morning and all change is counted, bagged and stored in a safe. It is not practical for a member of staff to leave the office to get change. Please ensure you have change to send in with your child.

In the month of February, as we do every year, our school will be joining the rest of the schools across the country in doing E-safety week. This is a week where we do some in depth work with children about being safe online. We do not focus on this only in this week, though, we focus on this all of the time.

We have become aware that many of our children are using a variety of social media and messaging apps. We thought it would be useful to provide you with a list of age limits from these applications.

We understand you may as a parent choose to ignore these but these rules are in place to protect children. We ask that you a vigilant and do check your child's activity on their phone/ tablet/ computer regularly to ensure any thing they are doing is appropriate and that they are safe.

Please do look at this guidance. We will be talking to children about this in more detail over the coming weeks

We sent out a text message last week listing PE days for all children. Despite this many children did not have PE kits in school. Please ensure all children have their kits in school next week. Also, all jewellery needs to be removed for PE days. We always ask that you wait until the start of the long summer holidays to have any children's ear pierced . PE is a statutory requirement as well as being essential to keep children fit, healthy and active. We hope you can support us on this. Below you can find the PE days for your child.

YEAR 1: MONDAY AND TUESDAY

YEAR 2: MONDAY AND TUESDAY

YEAR 3: MONDAY AND THURSDAY

YEAR 4: MONDAY AND THURSDAY

YEAR 5: WEDNESDAY AND SWIMMING ON THURSDAY

YEAR 6: WEDNESDAY