Crestwood Park Primary School

Next week (Friday 23rd) is Foodbank Friday! Our donations will be collected by our Local Foodbank to be distributed to those in need. Please be generous - all donations will be gratefully received. Please drop off donations any day next week but by 9am on Friday 23rd at the latest. Thank you in advance.

There are lots of fun activities planned at the toddler group this week. There will be chance to make an Easter bonnet if you haven't already managed to do so at home. If you have already made one, bring it in for the grand Easter Bonnet Parade at the end of this week's session. An Easter hunt and other celebrations are going to happen, so bring your best Easter smiles in with you, ready to have fun and laughs.

Please join us on Thursday 29th March for our Easter Service which will take place at 9:15am and will be led by our Year 6 children. This will be followed by the draw of our Grand Easter Egg Raffle. Tickets for the raffle will be on sale from Monday 26th and cost just 20p per ticket/£1 per strip. Donations of Easter Eggs for this will be gratefully received!

At 2:15pm on the 29th we have our Achievement Assembly. This will be immediately followed by Crestwood Park's Easter Bonnet Parade, every child who models their bonnet will be rewarded with a Cadbury's Cream Egg (if Mrs Orme hasn't eaten them all!). As younger siblings are not allowed at this assembly, under fives can model their bonnet at Lapwood Lambs on Monday 19th March. As this is such a popular event, tickets for this Assembly (two per family) will be sent home on Monday 26th March.

Places are going fast for this exciting day during the Easter Holidays. Mr Barnett has some fun activities planned so to have a chance to take part make sure you return your slip and money as soon as possible, and avoid the disappointment of missing out.

We are receiving a growing number of requests for staff to act as referees for passport applications, as teachers are seen as "a person of good standing in their community and work in a recognised profession" . You will know that other professionals generally charge for this service.While none of our staff would refuse to be a referee for a passport, unless the applicant does not meet the criteria ( well known by the referee for at lease two years) and would never consider charging for this service, a small contribution into our school fund would be gratefully received.

Thank you to all the parents who completed the survey asking for your thoughts about Mental Health and Well-being. As mentioned on previous newsletters, we are working towards an award that recognises the support we give to children, families and members of staff. All members of staff and all KS2 pupils completed the survey and after some 'reminding' we had 40 completed 'parent' versions. Special thanks to the parents who took the time to write additional, detailed comments. These insights have given us a real flavour of what is going well and where we need to improve. Please see below for some of our strengths and areas for development that parents, staff and pupils talked about.

It isn't too late for you to complete a survey if you missed out. Just get in touch with Mrs Cooper and she will send you the link. Your views are incredibly important to us- we rely on you to let us know how we are doing from a parent's perspective and we can't improve unless you tell us. If you have a particular issue relating to you or your child's Mental Health and Well-being and you would like to talk to someone about it, please pop in to school - we are always here to listen and if we can't help you ourselves, we can often point you in the direction of someone who can. Similarly, as the surveys were anonymous, we can't address personal grievances. Unless we know you have a particular problem, we can't put it right so please come in and talk to us!

As you will remember at parent's evening last month, teachers asked you what types of workshop you would be interested in coming along to. The results of the questionnaire have been collected and discussed and we are now in the process of planning a range of drop-ins, workshops and demonstrations that will help you support your child's education. If you were't able to come to parents' evening and would like to complete a questionniare or talk to us about a particular request, please let us know.

Huge congratulations to our Cross Country teams who competed at the Dudley Schools Cross Country Event on Saturday at Baggeridge Country Park. The course was incredibly challenging and muddy but all children completed the course. We are delighted to report that out of 130 runners, 3 of our boys team finished in the top 20 and have qualified to represent Dudley at a future County Event. Well done to you all, but especially to Luke Bailey, Rhys Lees and Cian Wood. Thank you for the wonderful parental support- it makes all the difference! A huge thankyou also to Mrs Kennedy and Mrs Cooper who gave up their Saturday morning for the event.