Dear Howley families,

Happy New Year to you all.  I do hope 2024 has got off to a positive (if a little chilly!) start for everyone. Our children quickly settled back in on Monday morning and enjoyed catching up with their friends and teachers. I have already seen some super work and I have no doubt this will continue throughout half term.

As Easter is early this year, our spring term is very short, but will be as action packed as ever. Mrs Trueman-Brown has been busy sorting out dates for parents’ evenings, Easter celebrations etc and they will be with you shortly.

Alongside our core curricular work, we will also be focusing on well-being and self-esteem over the next few weeks. These are always high priority for us here at Howley as we know the happier and more confident our children are, the more they learn, but we really wanted to spotlight these areas as they are so very important.

It is children’s mental health week from the 5^th-11^th February and the focus for the week is ‘My Voice Matters’. As a prelude to the week on Friday 2^nd February, we will be turning our school hall into a rock venue and Rock Kidz will be here to help our children learn important life lessons through their high energy rock star workshops. There will be singing, dancing, exercise, I have even heard rumour of head to head dance battles between staff and children. (I am already practicing my moves just in case!) Essentially, it will be a day of fun and joy, but will also have a very important well-being message for our children. We are inviting children to wear their own clothes on this day, the more rock star like the better, but please do not go to any expense-jeans, t-shirts etc are totally fine, it is the experience and message that is important.

We have so much to look forward to this term and I thank you all for your continued support in everything we do for our children.

I do hope everyone manages to have a relaxing, cosy and warm weekend.

Best wishes,

Miss Lewis

As we move forward into the Spring Term, we would like to remind parents and carers how important good attendance is for your child. Not only because of the importance of learning, but because of the wider holistic benefits for children’s wellbeing and happiness.

With this in mind, we will continue to focus on supporting our children and families with good attendance, and work alongside these families throughout the Spring Term.

Well Done to the following classes who had the highest attendance for the Autumn Term.

4TA - 97.28%

6SG - 97.15%

The Year Group that had the highest attendance for the Autumn Term were:

Year 4 - 96.9%

Well done Year 4!

Please remember to contact the school if you have any concerns about your child’s attendance or would like any further support.

Wellbeing Warriors

On Thursday 11^th January, our Wellbeing Warriors took part in training to learn about conflict resolution and the importance of listening skills and body language. They will be out in the playground supporting all of our children and helping to keep Howley safe and happy.

Reception September 2024

The closing date for applications for Reception September 2024 is approaching (15^th January 24) and Dudley School Admissions tell us there are still a significant number of parents who have not yet applied for a primary school.  If this is you or someone you know, the application needs to be made by 15^th January 2024, any received after this date will be treated as a late application.  Please contact your home local authority's school admissions department if you need any help with your application.

Hello,

I just wanted to reach out to you and introduce ourselves as your new school dinner provider. We are really happy to be working in partnership with the school and look forward to meeting you in the future.

We are committed to providing fresh, cooked nutritious food daily sourced from local produce.

We aim to deliver high standards of customer service while promoting a healthy lifestyle.

All our menus adhere to and follow the School Nutritional Plan set out by the government.

All of our meals are produced using farm-assured meats and fish which meet the Marine Stewardship Council standards (MSC), Food contains no hydrogenated fats or undesirable additives.

Regards

Darren

If you have any feedback please feel free to contact me using my email address below:-

Darren.swadling@sodexo.com

Snow

The weather forecasters keep mentioning the word 'snow' and although at the moment, there is no immediate forecast for snow, here is a reminder of how we will communicate about school being open or closed in the event of snow falling.

We will send a message via the School Life app and an email but as all schools will be doing this at the same time, there may be a delay in you receiving the message.  We will also update the front page of the website and our Twitter/X account (@HowleyGrange) and local radio stations will announce lists of schools affected.

Calm Brain

Our school was selected to take part in government-funded research on how we can improve children’s mental health. As part of this, starting next week, our Y4, 5 and 6 children will have access to a fantastic resource to help manage mental health and wellbeing in children. We look forward to seeing the positive impacts soon. 

Online Safety

As January is the perfect time for fresh starts and renewed efforts I thought it was timely to send you the document below on how to manage your family's screen time.

Please also visit https://nationalcollege.com/parents  for further guides, hints and tips or take a look at our school online safety webpage at http://www.howleygrange.co.uk/page/detail/online-safety. 

The Big Ambition

I hope everyone at Howley Grange Primary School has enjoyed the much-needed Christmas break. I just wanted to offer my thanks again for your support with my national campaign ‘The Big Ambition’ which will be closing on Friday 19^th January.

I have been overwhelmed by the response the survey has received so far. More than 300,000 children, young people, parents and carers have participated, making it one of the largest surveys of its kind, but I want to give even more people the chance to have their say.

This is the final push before the survey closes so please do share it as widely as possible to help make sure that every child in England has an opportunity to share their views with policy makers ahead of the General Election.

By sharing my survey with your pupils and parents or carers, you can make sure that the children and young people of West Midlands are fairly represented in the results.

Children and parents or carers can complete the survey here:  www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/thebigambition

I am so very grateful for your support, and I am beyond excited to share the findings.

Very best,

Dame Rachel De Souza

Children’s Commissioner for England