Dear Howley families,
We are having such a busy time in school. I cannot quite believe it is already March! Our children are working so very hard. We are really proud of them and are looking forward to sharing their progress and successes with you at our upcoming Parents’ Evenings.
I must give a special mention to our year 5 children who sang and danced their hearts out at Young Voices last week. They had the most amazing evening and were totally brilliant. We hope our families who were in the audience enjoyed it too. My deepest thanks go to the staff who gave their time to make sure our children had the opportunity to make long lasting memories.
Next Thursday, we will be celebrating World Book Day. Don’t forget our children are invited to dress up as a word, the more obscure the better! Examples from last year include lepidopterist, botanical and onomatopoeia. Strangely, many of our staff chose fatigued-I think they may have been trying to tell me something! Thank you to those of you who were able to make the reading workshops run by Mrs Graham over the last two weeks. She did a great job and we hope you found the information valuable.
The Rivers Trust joined us this week and have talked to the children about the important work they do. Later this month, as part of their outreach work, they will be coming into school to look at how they can help improve our school pond. We are so grateful for their voluntary service in this time of financial challenge for school. Thank you to Mrs Trueman-Brown for organising both their work with our children and the pond.
I hope you are finding our newsletters useful. There is always so much information to share!
Thank you to our children, families and staff team for their hard work and support.
Wishing you all a restful and happy weekend,
Miss Lewis
In school, we are re-launching TT Rockstars and would like your support.
TTRS is a valuable tool that we are lucky to have here at Howley Grange. TTRS boosts maths confidence and increases fluency and recall in multiplication and division, delivering better maths outcomes. Our aim is for 100% of our children to be using TTRS!
We are expecting children to complete 3 minutes a day (15 minutes a week) on TTRS. Class teachers will be setting this as part of Maths homework and will be monitoring this weekly.
Also, we will be introducing 'Battle of the Bands' in the coming weeks. Each week children will go head to head with the other class in their year group- working as a team to get the most points! The results of the weekly battles will be shared with children and displayed in school, on our TTRS display. At the end of each half term, we will have a whole school 'Battle of the Bands'. The winner of this will also be displayed and will be celebrated in assembly! Please look out in future newsletters about our upcoming 'battles'.
Thank you again for your continued support.
Reading around Howley
Over the past two weeks, Mrs Graham has spoken to parents about Accelerated Reader and also how to support your child at home with their reading.
All of the information that was shared can be found on our school website by clicking on Key Information > Curriculum > English and then scrolling down to the sections headed ‘Individual Reading’ and ‘What parents can do to help with reading…’ or by clicking on the links below:
Accelerated Reader for parents
Supporting you child with reading at Howley
KS1 and KS2 VIPERS question stems for parents
Supporting readers at home poster
Parents have also asked about the 50 Recommended Reads for each year group. These can be found on the English page of our website or by clicking on the links below:
If we have the book in school, it will be identified by a gold sticker on the top of its spine. The list is constantly being updated as we find and purchase books so please keep checking the website for the most up-to-date version.
Choir, Ukuleles and Cornets
Good luck to those children from Year 4 and choir who will be performing at Symphony Hall on Sunday 10th March!
PTA Uniform Collection
The next uniform sale is coming soon (date to be announced shortly) so we are once again asking for any donations of good quality school uniform and PE kit.
Any donation, however large or small are welcome. Please place bagged items by Reception for collection by the PTA by Monday 4th March.
Can you help Year 3 please?
Year 3 are creating ocean inspired mood boards in art and are on the look out for the following items:
*wallpaper offcuts
*old fabrics or patterned textiles
*home and garden magazines
*shells or beads
If anyone can help, please hand all donations to the Year 3 Team by the end of next week.
Thank you for your continued support,
The Year 3 Team
(Miss Goodall and Mrs Wellings)
Dates for the Diary
Thursday 7th March - World Book Day (dress as a word)
Friday 8th March 2.30pm - Mother's Day celebration for Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 parents
Tuesday 12th March - Parents Evening telephone calls 4.45pm to 6.20pm - booking available soon
Thursday 14th March - Parents Evening face to face meetings 3.45pm - 6.00pm - booking available soon
Wednesday 20th March 2.45pm - Easter Bonnet Parade & singalong for Reception, Year 1 and 2 parents
Friday 22nd March - Last day of term
Monday 8th April - Summer term begins
Thursday 2nd May - INSET, school closed for children
Monday 6th May - Bank holiday
27th - 31st May - Half term
Friday 28th June - INSET, school closed for children
Friday 19th July - Last day of term
Dudley Council are looking to recruit foster carers across the Dudley Borough. Foster care plays a vital part in so many children’s and young people’s lives. In Dudley, the need for foster carers is greater than ever. Please see the leaflet below regarding taking the first steps into becoming a foster carer.
