Crestwood Park - Newsletter 08/12/2023

Welcome to our Newsletter

This week began and ended with Christmas festivities!

Monday afternoon saw House teams being creative and making decorations for their Christmas tree- please see photos below- a great effort from all- Rhinos tree was the overall winner!

Today children have worn Christmas jumpers, competed a Reindeer Run and received a visit from Santa! It is certainly feeling like Christmas in school!

We are continuing the festivities tonight with our Christmas market- hope lots of you make it there!

Happy Birthday to you...

We would like to say a very big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to...Ashleigh, Rhys, Zach, Mihail, Rosie and Ty who have celebrated his birthday this week or will be celebrating over the weekend.

Amazing Attendance

Reception Jamie, Alfie A-H, William, Daisy, Romeo, Joey, Leo, Mikel, Eshaal, Maya, Boris, Alfie H, Mia, Ivie, Charlie, Archie, Eleanor, Jack, Ivar-Jack, Nancy-Mae, Oakley, Saharsh, Sohansh

Year One Ella, Aaron, Alexander, Jak, William, Stanley, Jack, Evelyn, Alexander, Bailey, Jacob, Travis, Ezmae, Archie, Ella, Tyler, Jackson, Rudy, Sophie, Roman, Henry, Harry, Layna, Beatrice, Paisley, Kayden, Riley, Alisha

Year Two Theo, Harlen, Zachary, Emma, Eva, Archie, Billie, Arthur, Melissa, Joey, Conor, Riley, Amelia, Thomas, Lainey, Darcie, William, Mia-Louise, Jaylen, Lewis, Harmonee, Jessica, Kayden, Violet-Rose, Sienna-Rose

Year Three Betsy, Mason, Eve, Zach, Ava, Mason, Isabella, Fearne, Nathan, Rosie, Heidi, Tanatswa, Delilah, Tanatswa, Nahla, Ashley, Joshua, Rose, Hassan, Cailen, Evan, Chloe, Mya, Benjamin, Millie, Joshua, Frankie

Year Four Isacc, Dollie-Lou, Jayden, Lucas, Xavier, Oceanna, Angel-Leigh, Jenson, Elsie, Isabella, Harper-Rose, Jake, Benjamin, Faith, Baani, Rosie, Evie – May, Haidar-Ali, Jasmine, Leila-Rae, Lilly Mai, Evelyn-Mae, Caelan, Nathaniel, Amber, Renesmai

Year Five Lily, Molly, Esmè, Rhys, Daisy, Kaiden, Harry, Harrison, Ty, George, Annalise, Amber, Harvey, Daniel, Kyle, Nicholas, Rosie, Danielle, Faye, Teddy, Jack-James, Logan, Amelia, Isabella, Thomas, Eden, Samuel, Darius, Ameliya, Leah

Year Six Harry, Savannah, Sienna, Joseph, James, Nate, Brogan, Tiana, Rosie, Oliver, Max, Dannii, Jakob, Mabel, Ian, Reece, Taylor, Jack, Ava, Alina, Sara, Jamie, Alana, Elliot, Rhylee, Shannon, Jacob, Lola, Callum, Sofiana, Ethan, Dylan

Attendance Update

Why is being on time so important to us here at Crestwood Park?

Children arriving to school with time to spare have the luxury of settling in, greeting their teachers and classmates, selecting preferred classwork, and focusing their minds on the lessons to come. Children arriving late miss out on this natural transition period, and persistent lateness may cause children to struggle with academic focus and relationships with peers. Showing up on time to school every day can help students develop the habit of being punctual, illustrates to them your commitment to their learning and friendships, and helps reduce classroom interruptions and distractions for all students. Missing just 15 minutes of school twice a week equates to 3 missed school days per year!

Thank you to everyone who strives each day to get into school on time, it goes without saying we appreciate sometimes things a just out of your control and we will treat individual circumstances accordingly.

Our on-time reward still happens at random on a weekly basis so watch out! It could be you soon!

Upcoming events this term!

Monday 11th Dec - Breakfast with Santa sessions running Monday - Thursday from 8.00am

Wednesday 13th Dec - KS1 Performance at 2pm

Thursday 14th Dec - KS1 Performance at 9.30am

Friday 15th Dec - Food Bank Friday

- Achievers Assembly 9.00am

Wednesday 20th Dec - Christmas Dinner Day

Friday 22nd Dec - KS2 Carol Service 9.00am

- Last day of term

School Calendar

Xmas Jumper Day & Reindeer Run - Friday 8th December

You all looked very festive in your Christmas jumpers today!

Thank you for all of your donations. We will be splitting the money between Mary Stevens Hospice and Save The Children.

We will update you on the amount raised in next weeks newsletter.

Looking After Our Wellbeing

It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas... We have had an amazing week celebrating our children's achievements in their buddy groups. We provide support termly, so it is now time to assess the needs of all of our children. We will of course be in touch to keep you updated and if your child needs to continue with support we will let you know in the new year.

If you feel your child would benefit from being supported by our Pastoral Team please contact us via the office or you can email spriest@crestwood-p.dudley.sch.uk. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Christmas is such a lovely time but our lives can be busy and throw challenges our way. This is a reminder to look after yourselves. Take a look at the self-care planner to give you some ideas.

Super Speedy William!

On the 3rd December William completed the Santa Jog at Mary Stevens park and ran/walked 5km. The conditions were really tough - rain, freezing temperatures and lots of mud! - but William was very determined and he and his family managed to complete the course.

William raised £400 for Mary Stevens Hospice by getting his family and friends to sponsor him. The Hospice is very special to them as it’s where William’s great-granny spent her final days.

We’re really proud of him for raising so much money and completing a very difficult challenge.

Amazing work William - we hope to see you at Running Club next year!

Historic England

As you know, in the summer term each class participates in our local area study. To make this study the success that it is, we have worked closely with Historic England. Last summer, we were asked to be a case study school to evidence the work Historic England do in schools.

We were happy to oblige and children and staff provided lots of evidence. Our case study has now been published and provides an extensive write up of what our local area study looks like. Follow the link below to have a read!

https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/heritage-schools/teacher-survey/

Celebrating our children's work

Year 3 were given a question: can you create a fossil that tells us something about the past?

They created ammonites and discovered they were related to squids and octopuses. They found that most ammonites died out 66 million years ago.

All of the children made the fossils out of salt dough and baked in the oven .

Here are some of their examples of a fossil.

Festive Reading Challenge!

Thank you to all the parents who sent photos in for our Reading Gallery - please take a look at all of these here: https://crestwoodpark.sch.life/page/detail/reading-gallery

Our next challenge is A Festive Challenge! Remember each photo which gets sent in - your child will receive a raffle ticket for our reading prize draw.

Let's get reading!!!

Festive House Challenge 2023!

Times Table Rockstars - Competition Update

There is only one week left of the times tables competition, so get practising if you want to earn your house some extra playtime. The current leaderboard looks like this:

Polar Bears
Pandas
Tigers
Rhinos

And Remember to keep practising your target times-tables. We will have prizes for the first children to achieve their bronze award so get practising!

Message from Vaccination UK

As we are nearing the end of our 2023/24 flu season, we would just like to take this time to thank you for your co-operation and assistance this year.

We have our final catch-up clinics which will be taking place on 09 December 2023 in both DUDLEY 9:00-12:30 and WALSALL 9:00-13:00 for those parents that have missed the opportunity to consent for the vaccination. This is to be offered to Reception - Year 11 (ALL SPECIAL SCHOOL STUDENTS).  We have booked catch-up sessions for some schools where the uptake was slightly lower than others, however, with the hard stop on 15^th December, this has made it extremely difficult for us to offer catchups to all schools that require one. If you have not been contacted for a catch-up to be arranged, we would appreciate if you could make parents aware of these final clinics which will be booked by APPOINTMENT ONLY.

The flu nasal spray will NOT be accessible after the 15^th December from any provider/service, so this will be the final opportunity to administer the flu nasal sprays/IM this year.

We will disclose the location of this clinic when parent's contact our office.

If you have any feedback with regards to our services provided for this years flu season, we would appreciate it if you could complete the below survey so we can continue to provide our schools with the highest standard of service we can.

Primary School Survey:

Vaccination UK Satisfaction Survey 2023 - Primary Schools (surveymonkey.co.uk)

Thank you for your co-operation.

Important information from NHS England

We write to advise you that unfortunately Measles cases are on the rise in England, with over 120,000 children starting school or early years provision being at risk of catching the disease. It is a viral infection that is highly infectious and if left unvaccinated nine out of ten children in an early year’s setting can catch the disease if just one child is infectious. It causes cold-like symptoms including a high temperature, runny nose, and red, watery eyes, followed by a rash a few days later. Measles can make children seriously unwell with one in 5 needing a hospital visit, and one in 15 developing serious complications from a measles infection, which can include meningitis and blindness. Two doses of the MMR vaccine can help stop children becoming seriously unwell with measles. See below for more information about measles infection:

Public Health also wish to advise that it is not only young children whose parents/carers should ensure they have their vaccinations to prevent Measles. Measles can also affect staff in your setting and more especially those staff who may have missed out on these vaccinations when they were young, as they can also receive the vaccination, it is important that as many children and staff are protected, measles is on the rise locally, nationally and worldwide and is highly infectious and can in a small number of cases prove fatal.

NHS Conditions-Measles

Children learn, play, and socialise with more children when they start at a new nursery, school, or college. Make sure your child is up to date with their MMR vaccine for the best protection against becoming unwell. If your child has missed their first or second dose of MMR vaccine contact your GP surgery to book an appointment. If you are unsure if your child is due a vaccination, check their red book or contact your GP surgery. It’s also never too late for adults to catch up on their MMR vaccinations which are free on the NHS.

Please see the following for further information about measles, the MMR vaccine, and other vaccinations:

NHS Vaccinations

NHS MMR Vaccine

Dudley Let’s Get-Protect Your Health-Vaccinations

Thank you to all of our families who read this newsletter, attend our events and support our requests for donations. As Christmas is rapidly approaching I realise that it is an expensive time for all- so your support when we are asking for contributions is so appreciated. There are always families who really struggle so next Friday we are asking for donations for the local foodbank- our final gift to our community during this season of giving.

Enjoy your weekend everyone- just two more weeks left!

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 are 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.