Crestwood Park Primary School

It's been a busy first week of the Summer term! Filming on Wednesday went well (although we didn't have the best weather for the drone!) however, the school looked amazing and your children were exceptionally smart and conducted themselves perfectly. Thank you for the extra efforts you went to for this- it's very much appreciated. We will let you know as soon as the 'virtual tour' goes live!

Attendance this week has been good (and we know that for some children this has been a struggle after the two weeks break!) Can we please remind you that we need children to be in school, ready to learn at 9am. Our gates open at 8:30am and our classroom doors are open at 8:40am. When children arrive late, it means their day doesn't get off to a smooth start and they then miss out on valuable learning time. Being 'on time' is important to us and we all need to act as role models so that our children develop punctuality as a skill for life.

If you are having any difficulties with this, or if you are struggling with the one-way system, please talk to us- thank you for your support.

You will have seen the sch.life message we sent out during the Easter holidays explaining that the council now want to use our school as a polling station. Despite our strong objections, it looks like this may go ahead and as a result, children will need to be at home on that day. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this may cause.

Please look out for details next week about the home learning we will be asking children to do on that day.

We would like to introduce and welcome Kelsey Davies and Judy Kasper to our team of Governors. It is great to have them both on board and we are looking forward to their valued contributions to the continuing development of our school. 

'I am an ex parent, current grandparent, and have been a teacher for many years... and am a huge fan of Crestwood Park. My association with the school goes back 30 years when I was a supply teacher there and moved my children there so they could have the Crestwood Park family  experience!'- Judy Kasper

'I am a parent of 2 daughters, one of whom one attends Crestwood Park. At present I am a full time mom as well as working within the community as a volunteer. My aim is to help build and strengthen relationships between the school and the wider community.' - Kelsey Davie

Kelsey has shared a photo below of herself and family - so if you see her on the playground don't forget to say Hi!

Health & Safety guidelines mean we still need to keep children in year group 'bubbles' even if taking part in a club outdoors, however we are keen to give children opportunities to take part in extra curricular activities as soon as possible, as long as they can be run safely.

The Fitness Running Clubs for KS2 and ACE Multi-Skills Club for Years 1 and 2 have started again this week and it's been great to see so many children joining in.

As a reminder, if your child is taking part in either club, please can they come to school in their sports kit please (even if they don't have a PE lesson on that day), thank you.

As part of our well-being day, On Friday May 7^th, we are having a visit from a famous athlete. Sam Oldham, a GB gymnast, will be visiting school on this day!

The link below explains a little more about the event he will be organising for us!

https://sportsforschools.org/athletes/sam-oldham/

Every child will get to take part in a fun fitness circuit alongside this top GB athlete and we hope that you are able to sponsor them to do so. Proceeds will help us to buy sports equipment for our school! 

Please look out for the sponsorship form- every child has been given one to bring home.

On the day, the children will all need to come wearing their PE kits.

Sponsorship money can be collected and brought into school the week after.

Thanks in advance for your support.

If you have any further questions, please contact Mrs Kennedy.

More than ever, we are working with secondary schools to make sure we do everything possible to ensure our children move up to Year 7 as confidently as possible- and to do that we need your opinions and ideas!

Please take 5 minutes to look at the survey on the website/ app (go to Our School- Surveys and Questionnaires) and answer the quick questions.

Please share this with children, parents of Yr7 students (ex CPPS) & ex-pupils. Thankyou for your support. 

Reading

Summer challenge.

Now the weather is getting brighter, please send me a photo of you reading a book outside.  It can be in your garden, or outside on a walk!

Keep sending me your recommendations!  Rosie in Year 3 loves reading the Mr Penguin books by Alex T Smith.

Also – take a look at the website to see who has been reading at home!  There are some new videos!

Keep reading and sharing stories with your families.

Writing

I would love to hear your poems! Try to write me a poem. 

Here’s a funny one for you to read by James Carter.

How to Turn Your Teacher Purple

Heebie Geebie, Hurple Burple

Time to turn my teacher…PURPLE!

Simply chant this magic spell

Soon your teacher looks unwell:

Purple cheeks and purple nose

Purpleness from head to toes

Feed her beetroot every hour

See her fill with purple power

Bloomin’ like a purple flower

How she’ll scream

When in the shower!!!

A belated Happy Birthday for Leah, Autumn, Frankie, Rosie, Amelia, Thomas, Georgie, Emilie and Ethan who all celebrated their birthdays during the Easter break. 

We would also like to wish Dannii and Isabelle Happy Birthday for this week! 

Remember all our assemblies are recorded and available on the website. 

Follow the link here to watch this week's and today's A,B,C Assembly.

Please see below letter receieved from Wester Power Distribution

Western Power Distribution, is the Electricity Distribution Network Operator for your area. Our Main responsibility is to maintain and repair the electricity network to ensure the safety of the public and staff but to also ensure a reliable electricity supply for our customers.

We will be carry out essential works on the electricity cables in your area. The works are required to replace existing equipment which is coming to the end of its life and this will help improve the reliability of supply to the area.

The work at the rear of the school will start next week and will last approximately 8 weeks. The roads that will be affected by the work will be Tunstall Rd and Allenby Cl.

This will be a major undertaking and will inevitably cause some disruption locally, we will do our best to keep this to a minimum.

I hope the above information is useful and provides some reassurance of our commitment to keeping our customers informed whilst we carry out work to the network.

However, in the meantime, if you have any further questions or require assistance, please contact me on 07989701649.

Yours sincerely

Martin Birch

Technician

We have been informed of worrying news that there is some publicity on Tik Tok about tomorrow (24th April) being a 'national day' for an extreme type of assault. If your child accesses this platform, please be extra vigilant about the content they may be accessing. Thank you.

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.

We hope the sun shines for you all over the weekend- look after each other and stay safe...we really want our Crestwood Park family to get through the next stage of the 'road map' out of lockdown safely so we can enjoy the summer months together!

See you all on Monday. 

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.