Crestwood Park Primary School

Today marks the end of home-school learning for most parents across England! We hope that you are all feeling ready and prepared for the weeks ahead- please remember that if you have any worries about children returning to school, it's not too late to give us a call.

Below are details of our exciting first week back beginning with Science Day- don't forget we are asking children to bring in an old plain white (or pale) shirt to wear over their uniform on which they will write all of the scientific vocabulary they learn throughout the day. 

As the various phases of the 'unlocking' happen across the country, we hope to be able to reintroduce some of the activities and events that we would normally be holding; look out for details of sports clubs, Lapwood Lambs and Mothers' Day celebrations in the next week or so. 

World Book Day 2021 

We should be celebrating World Book Day 2021 on Thursday 4^th March. However, we have decided to postpone it, so that we can all celebrate it when we are back together. Crestwood Park's Book Day will be held on Friday 12^th March. We will be dedicating this day to a variety of activities associated with books and you are invited to dress up as something or someone associated with a book. 

Each year, children receive a £1 World Book Day token.  This year you will receive a digital book token; hese tokens can be printed at home or shown to a bookseller on a phone or a tablet. Please check whether your local bookseller is able to accept this option beforehand. 

To view the voucher, please follow the link: 

https://www.worldbookday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/booktoken_PrimaryUK.pdf

Please only use the voucher once per child. 

We look forward to celebrating World Book Day with you all on the 12^th March!  

Normal school uniform will need to be worn from now on, unless it is your child's P.E day.

Please see your child's class P.E day listed below.

Reception - Friday

Year 1 - Monday & Thursday

Year 2 - Thursday & Friday

Year 3 - Tuesday & Wednesday

Year 4 - Tuesday & Wednesday

Year 5 - Monday & Tuesday

Year 6 - Tuesday & Wednesday

Week commencing 8th March is slightly different due to the activities taking place so make sure that you read the information above regarding next week's activities.

The very best of birthday wishes are sent to all these children who have had their birthday this week or will be celebrating this weekend. Happy Birthday to you all! 

Today's ABC Assembly is available to view on our website in the usual place or you can watch it via the link here.

Baguettes are available to order again next week (except Fridays as before) and don't forget to check out the updated lunch menu!

You can find this via Our School > Menu. This menu will start week commencing 8th March and run until the end of this academic year.

A huge and warm welcome to all from the pastoral team. We hope you are all well and are looking forward to a little spring sunshine.

Just to keep you updated, all children who were part of 'Little buddy groups' will continue with their group from our 2nd week back, as will children who received 1:1 support. 

This will allow the team to be free in the first week back so that support can be given to any child who needs it. Please ring school or email to speak to The Pastoral Team should you have any worries or concerns. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Mrs Priest - spriest@crestwood-p.dudley.sch.uk

Mrs Redfern - sredfern@crestwood-p.dudley.sch.uk

Many of you will be aware that a very important aspect of school leadership is our Board of Governors. Our School Governors regularly meet with school staff to provide challenge, support and encouragement on aspects of school life such as pupil standards, staffing, finance and Health & Safety. We currently have vacancies on our board and we'd like to know if there are any parents who might be interested in finding out more about the role, or who might know someone in their community that could fit the bill. 

You don't necessarily need any prior experience to be a school Governor. However what we would say is you need to be passionate about our school, dedicated to doing your best, willing to learn and happy (and available!) to meet other Governors and school staff around three times per term. 

We usually hold meetings in the evenings and currently, they are all being held via 'Teams'. 

If you are interested, or know someone who might be, then please get in touch with Mrs Cooper or Mrs Kennedy who will be able to tell you more about the role. Alternatively, if you'd like to speak to one of our current Governors, let us know and we'll put you in touch with someone from the Board who will happily tell you more about this incredibly important strand of school leadership.

Thank you to those parents who have already responded.

Accessing symptom-free tests

Parents and carers and anyone else living with a school age child or young person are among the priority groups being given access to free home lateral flow testing kits to test themselves.

Information on how to access these can be found at www.gov.uk/guidance/rapid-lateral-flow-testing-for-households-and-bubbles-of-school-pupils-and-staff

All are strongly encouraged to have a lateral flow test at a local testing site prior to starting home testing, to know how a test is undertaken. 

Twice weekly testing will help detect hidden asymptomatic cases and help keep pupils and staff safer in school.

Anyone unable to do home testing can go to one of the Dudley lateral flow testing centres. These are at Dudley Leisure Centre, Saltwells Education Centre, with pop-up sessions at Holy Trinity Church Community Centre in Wordsley, Lifecentral Church in Halesowen, St Andrews Church in Sedgley, St James Church in Wollaston and the Salvation Army Church in Lye.

There is also testing at more than 30 pharmacies across the borough. For details on where you can get a lateral flow test and to book visit www.dudley.gov.uk/symptom-free-testing

Parents and carers can also visit www.dudley.gov.uk/coronavirusparents for more information on both symptom and symptom-free testing and the other symptoms residents are now being encouraged to take a precautionary test if they display.

Thankyou to those who have sent kind messages during this latest phase of school life- as we've said before, we all love our jobs here at Crestwood Park, but your kind gestures make it all the more worthwhile.

Well done to you all for getting through these times- we know it's been a struggle for many of you, but the light at the end of the tunnel is certainly getting bigger and brighter. 

We can't wait to see you all nice and early on Monday - remember drop off times are 8:40-9am- please don't be late!

Have a safe weekend everyone. Love and best wishes from us all here at Crestwood Park.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is the responsibility of everyone in our school and at all times we consider what is in our children’s best interests. We work to ensure our children our safe and cared for and by doing this we are protecting their health and development and preventing them from harm.  If we are worried, we will raise concerns, share information and take prompt action with the aim of ensuring families receive the right help at the right time.