Updates

Friday 21st October, 2022

Halloween Theme Menu

Our school menu will change on Monday 31st October for a Halloween themed lunch.

Thursday 20th October, 2022

Flu Nasal Spray Clinic

The School Nurses will be visiting the school on Wednesday 9th November to administer the yearly flu vaccinations for all children in school.

Please see attached letters from the NHS, your child will receive a paper consent form over the next couple of days. Please return it to the class teacher ASAP.

2022 10 20 Flu Letter NHS

2022 10 20 Flu Consent

Thank you

Thursday 20th October, 2022

Lost Property

Dependent on the weather we will be placing all the lost property from this term on tables outside at home time today and Friday.

Thank you

Wednesday 19th October, 2022

Hindu Workshop for EYFS, Year 3 and Year 5

Instead of going on a trip to a place of worship, we have arranged for EYFS, Year 3 and Year 5 pupils to take part in a Hindu workshop at school on Thursday 3rd November. The one-day workshop will be provided by Hinduism Education Services. During the day, children will take part in various activities to learn more about the Hindu faith, with a focus on Diwali. The sessions will include storytelling, dressing up in traditional Indian costume, and other topics and activities related to Hindu worship, culture, values and lifestyle.

As we have no other way of funding the workshop we would be grateful if parents can contribute £2.50 per child towards the cost of the workshop. Payment is to be made via your child’s ParentPay account prior to the date of the workshop please. Many thanks.

Jess Melville

RE Leader/EYFS Teacher

Tuesday 18th October, 2022

Free Training Courses for Adults

Attention ALL Families – This a fantastic opportunity!

 

We have been contacted by The AIM Group who deliver Free Online Level 2 Accredited Courses, along with a range of other qualifications that may help with developing your own careers.  Some of our staff and parents have previously taken up these courses and would recommend them.

Here’s some of the most popular subjects available:

  • Children and Young Peoples Mental Health
  • Understanding Autism
  • Specific Learning Difficulties
  • Behaviour That Challenges in Children
  • Bullying in Children and Young People
  • Adverse Childhood Experiences
  • Nutrition and Health
  • Allergy Awareness

These are just the popular qualifications, but they have over 40 available!

The qualifications are completed within a 6–12 week period in your own leisure. They are equivalent to a GCSE Grade C. You can do as many as you like, however you can only do one at a time.

 

The only criteria you must meet to be eligible, is: 

 

Aged 19 or over on or before 31st August 2022

Have lived in the UK/EU for 3+ years

Not already on a Government funded course

 

If you or anyone in your family are interested in undertaking one of these free online courses or would like further information, then please complete the following link ASAP. This will then allow The AIM Group to contact you to discuss and get you started on your chosen course: https://theaimgroup.co.uk/booking-form/0014J00000qDbko

 

If you have any questions prior to expressing interest, call Shane Cooke on 0203 900 3091 extension 249 or drop him an email at shane.cooke@theaimgroup.co.uk

Friday 14th October, 2022

Headteacher Letter

 

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

House Competitions!

This week the children have enjoyed coming together in their school houses for our first House Competition of the year.  The KS1 children sang ‘The lighthouse’ beautifully with Quarry narrowly pipping Darwin to the House Trophy.  The KS2 children welcomed guest judge, Dr Sarah Browne from Shropshire Music Service, with Greyfriars being victorious and winning the KS2 House Trophy.

 

In other competition news, Mr Venn has been running a ‘Daily Dash’ competition, and the class with the most runners participating will be receiving an extra PE lesson from him.  Please do join in with your children, if you can, at 8:30 am!  Please remember that the big corner gate is open at 8:30 am and is only for Daily Dash participants.  Please wait until 8:40 am to enter the school site if your child is not taking part, as there will be no staff supervising until 8:40 am.

 

New School Website

We hope you are using the new school website, all events, trips, dates and letters are uploaded here and then forwarded onto you, meaning that it is up to date at all times and can be your first port of call for any query.

 

Please remember to book in your parents evening appointments as these will take place after half term.  The link can be found in the ‘Parents Area’ on the school website.

 

Upcoming Events

  • Relationships and Health Education Parents Information Evening

When: Wednesday 19th October at 3:45pm to 4:30pm

Where: Owl’s Classroom with Mrs Field

Find out how Relationships and Health Education is taught in school.

 

  • Diwali Festival Day

When: On Friday 21st October we will be celebrating the festival of Diwali across the school.

During the day, each class will explore the festival of Diwali through taking part in a range of activities and there will also be a special menu that day for lunch.  Please see below:

 

Diwali Lunch Menu

  • Chicken Tikka Masala
  • Chickpea Masala
  • Poppadoms & Naan bread
  • Pilau rice
  • Peas & sweetcorn
  • Indian Honey Cake
  • Jelly & fruit

 

We will be moving the usual Friday menu of Fish, chips and pizza to Wednesday instead next week.

The Diwali Festival Day will be a non-uniform day.  As Diwali is a festival of light, we would like the children to come into school dressed in white, yellow (or gold!) to symbolise light.  Please don’t go out to buy anything new – a normal white polo shirt would be fine.  We hope that it will be a wonderful day to end the half-term on.

 

We are really excited to celebrate this festival with the children, and will share our celebrations and learning with you via ClassDojo and Tapestry.

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

 

Claire Jones

Friday 14th October, 2022

Clubs for Autumn 2

The Club Schedule for Autumn 2 is now available to look at on our website.  Clubs will be released on Tuesday 18th October near the end of the school day.

Friday 14th October, 2022

Theme Menu

On Friday 21st October we will be having a special Diwali Lunch to celebrate our Diwali Festival Day.

Diwali Menu

We will have our usual Friday Menu of Fish & Chips and Pizza next Wednesday instead.

 

Friday 14th October, 2022

School Choir Young Voices Trip

Dear Parents/Carers,

Coleham Choir Trip

Following the success of Year 4 trip Shropshire Sings in June, we have formed a school choir to take part in the amazing ‘Young Voices’ event on Wednesday 11th Jan 2023.  This is a very exciting concert held at Resorts World, Birmingham where children from many schools come together in the concert venue to sing (please see attached flyer).

As a member of the Coleham Choir after school club your child has been selected to go on this special trip.  The children have already started learning the songs they will be performing on the night. It will be an experience not to be missed!

We expect full commitment from everyone taking part: both in attending the Coleham Choir club leading up to the event for their rehearsals; and in learning the words – both at school and at home (if you have SPOTIFY, search for Young Voices 2023 and you’ll find the playlist).

11th January will be a long day and a late night for the children: they will be leaving around 12.30pm, following an early lunch, and will return to school around 10.30pm/11.00pm.  Parents/Carers will be able to park in the school car park to await the collection of their child.

The cost of the trip is £22.25 including ticket and coach travel, payable via your child’s ParentPay account.

We really hope that you can support us with payment for your child. Although costs for trips are voluntary, in reality the school has no other means of funding these trips.  We hope everyone will contribute in some way towards the cost.

School will fund a ’Young Voices’  T-shirt pack costing £15 for every child.

Families are also able to purchase tickets for this event if they wish to attend, but please be aware that you will need to make your own way to and from the venue. Adult tickets cost £23 each and must be ordered via the school.  We realise it is a long way to travel in the evening and an expense for families so there is no obligation for families to attend.  If you would like to order any tickets please make payment on Parentpay and we will order these on your behalf. Please note that the tickets will be issued on a first come first served basis so if you are wanting to go we recommend you place your ticket order quickly. Please order by no later than 4th November.

If you are attending the concert, please note that you will not be able to collect your child from the venue: all participating children will travel to and from the venue on the coach with school staff.

 

 

Please note that this visit is covered by the Annual Consent Form for Trips/Visits and Medical Information. Please notify the school immediately if there are any changes to your contact/emergency contact details or medical information, or if you do not wish your son/daughter to participate in this trip so we can plan accordingly.

Young Voices is a terrific day out and one that the children will never forget.

We will, of course, remind you of all the details closer to the event.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Hilbert

Administration Manager

Thursday 13th October, 2022

KS2 Pantomime

Dear Parent/Carer,

KS2 Pantomime Trip

This year the children are in for an extra special treat as we have arranged for the whole school to go and watch Beauty and the Beast Pantomime at the Theatre Severn.

The trip will take place on Wednesday 30th November. The children will walk to the theatre after lunch to watch the 2:00pm showing and will return to school by coach for 5:00pm.

The cost of the trip, including theatre tickets (discounted for school pupils) and the transport cost for returning from the theatre, is £14.10 per child. Although costs for trips are voluntary, in reality the school has no other means of funding these trips.  We hope everyone will contribute in some way towards the costs: the trip is set up on ParentPay to enable you to select the amount you are able to contribute. We really hope that you can support us with payment for your child, however small.

School will provide a half time interval treat for the children.

Please note that this visit is covered by the Annual Consent Form for Trips/Visits and Medical Information. Please notify the school immediately if there are any changes to your contact/emergency contact details or medical information. If you do not wish your son/daughter to participate in this trip please let your child’s teacher know as soon as possible so we can make alternative arrangements for them.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Hilbert

Administration Manager

Thursday 13th October, 2022

EYFS/KS1 Pantomime

Dear Parent/Carer,

EYFS/KS1 Pantomime Trip

This year the children are in for an extra special treat as we have arranged for the whole school to go and watch the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ pantomime at the Theatre Severn.

The trip will take place on Tuesday 13th December. The children will travel to the theatre after lunch to watch the 2:00pm performance and return to school around 5:00pm.

The cost of the trip, including theatre tickets (discounted for school pupils) and transport costs to and from the theatre, is £15.80 per child. Although costs for trips are voluntary, in reality the school has no other means of funding these trips.  We hope everyone will contribute in some way towards the costs: the trip is set up on ParentPay to enable you to select the amount you are able to contribute. We really hope that you can support us with payment for your child, however small.

School will provide a half time interval treat for the children.

Please note that this visit is covered by the Annual Consent Form for Trips/Visits and Medical Information. Please notify the school immediately if there are any changes to your contact/emergency contact details or medical information. If you do not wish your son/daughter to participate in this trip please let your child’s teacher know as soon as possible so we can make alternative arrangements for them.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Hilbert

Administration Manager

Wednesday 12th October, 2022

Yr 3 Stone Age Workshop

We are excited to share with you that on Wednesday 2nd November, we will be welcoming Widget Workshops in to share a ‘Stone Age’ day with Year 3.  As we have no other way of funding the workshop we would be grateful if parents can contribute £6.50 per child towards the cost of the workshop. Payment is to be made via your child’s ParentPay account prior to the date of the workshop please.

 

During the day, children will take part in various activities to learn more about Stone Age life including time spent in our woodland area looking at housing and using Virtual Reality headsets to experience famous Stone Age locations.  The children really loved this interactive element last year.  Please let us know if you do not want your child to take part in the VR headset experience.

 

As we will be going outside, please send your children into school in non-uniform with suitable outdoor shoes and waterproofs to change into when needed.

 

We are really looking forward to sharing this experience with the year group and will be sure to upload photos of the day on Dojo after the event!

 

Yours sincerely,

Sadie Howson

Teacher-Starfish

On behalf of The Year 3 Team

Wednesday 12th October, 2022

Parent’s Evenings

AUTUMN TERM PARENT CONSULTATIONS

Dear Parents and Carers,

You are now able to book you Autumn Term Parent Consultation meeting.  Parent Consultations will be held in your child’s classroom, and the dates for all parent consultations are:

  • Wednesday 2nd November: 4:00 pm – 7:20 pm
  • Thursday 3rd November: 4:00 pm – 7:20 pm

To arrange your appointment, please follow the link below (which can also be found in the Parents’ Area section of our website).  Each consultation will last for 10 mins.  If you arrive a little early, you will have the opportunity to look through your children’s books while you wait for your meeting.  You are welcome to stay after the meeting to carry on looking through books if you wish.

Book an appointment here:

Click HERE to book your appointment

Where possible, we ask that you book one meeting per child.  For separated parents, we will be able to accommodate separate meetings if they are required.

Please do get in touch with the school office if you have any questions.

Kind regards,

Claire Jones

Headteacher

Monday 10th October, 2022

Parent Governor Voting

Dear Parents/Carers,

Parent Local Governor Election

We wrote to you on 28th October to invite nominations for the vacancy for a parent local Governor. I am delighted to say that there has been a great response and there are four candidates for the vacancy. This means we must now hold an election and would like to ask you to vote for a candidate.

The candidates are:
David Jones
Daniel Konn
Francesco Paradiso
Richard Turner

Each candidate has submitted a supporting statement which you can read prior to voting. You may vote for one candidate. Each parent can only vote once, regardless of the number of pupils you have attending the school.

The supporting statements are attached and link to submit your vote is:

https://forms.office.com/r/SSmBVAJ3ex

The election will be decided by a simple majority of votes cast. In the event of a tie, the Chair of the Local Governing Body (LGB) and Headteacher will request a Knowledge and Skills Assessment from the tied candidates and recommend appointment by the Trustees based the candidate skills.

You have until Monday 17 October at 10:00am to cast your votes. When the election has been completed, the successful candidate will have to complete certain compliance documentation including a DBS check. We will let you know the outcome as soon as we can, but the process can take up to 4 weeks.

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to support this election.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Geoff Hulme Ms Claire Jones
Chair of LGB Headteacher

Coleham Primary School Local Parent Governor Nominations October 2022
Personal Statements

Nomination 1
David Jones

An enthusiast, motivated and passionate parent with experience in commercial sector and secondary and higher education seeking to help Coleham School achieve ‘outstanding’ quality of education. My name is David Jones father to 2 children who are in years 1 and 3 respectively. I would be delighted to support the school to help the pupils realise the potential of their children and develop well-rounded, sociable, confident and resilient young people. I have a BSc in physiology, a post graduate certificate in education and an MSc in Health economics. I will bring experience as a teacher of secondary and higher science including leadership from a position as director of personalised learning for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics at Bridgnorth Endowed School and experience from the private sector from the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. I am used to working cross functionally with roles that bring diverse skills to achieve common objectives and am looking forward to learning more about the schools, ambitions and challenges and working together to achieve these goals. I am also used to bringing insights whether this be from quantitative analysis of data or qualitative sources such as advisory panels and turn these insights into actions. Although I have no experience of school governance specifically, I have served on many boards and as a devotee of life long learning would appreciate your consideration for the position of parent local governor.

Nomination 2
Daniel Konn

Coleham Primary School is a great asset to our community. I care passionately about the school helping children not only achieve their best possible academic outcomes, but also in nurturing a zest for life, in a happy and fun environment. My daughter is in year 1 at Coleham, and my son will hopefully start at Coleham in a couple of years.
I am a doctor, and gave a talk at the school career’s week last year. This rewarding experience made me want to become more involved in the school, and I am fortunate enough to have the spare time to do so.
I have skills and experience that I believe would make me an effective Local Parent Governor. I served for 4 years on the national council of my medical speciality, whose aim is to continuously improve the service provided by my speciality in Britain, within the imposed financial constraints. I am also an assessor for the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, which gives accreditation to hospital departments. In this role, I have to develop a thorough understanding of how departments function, so that I can challenge their processes, to ensure that the highest standards are met.
I was also on the Parent Forum of my daughter’s nursery, helping the management team improve standards.
I would be able to pick out the important points from information gathered by governors, and would be willing to ask the difficult questions necessary to help our children flourish at Coleham.
Thank you for considering voting for me.

Nomination 3

Francesco Paradiso

My family and I live in Shrewsbury since 2016 and we love it. My daughter has just started reception at Coleham School, and I am fully committed to ensure that she and her fellow pupils get the best education.
I work as Research and Impact Development Manager at the University of Wolverhampton. I joined the university in 2015. I am responsible for the research development activities in the Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Sciences. I have worked in education most of my life. I hold a PhD in Philosophy from the University of New South Wales (Australia) and I have experience of teaching, project management and evaluation, policy and strategy development, and governance in education providers.
I am standing for the role of parent local governor because, as parent, I want to bring my expertise, viewpoint and perspective to the Local Governing Body to ensure that the school nurtures a clear vision, ethos and strategic direction; governance is delivered effectively and efficiently; and financial performance is sound. I am prepared to challenge executive leaders and hold them to account for their decisions if necessary. I am fully committed to promote a safe and inclusive school environment for pupils, staff and parents and I want to support the school in achieving the status of “Outstanding” at the next Ofsted inspection.
I am confident that my knowledge, skills and expertise will be highly beneficial to the school community. Thank you very much for your support.

Nomination 4
Richard Turner

My name is Richard Turner and I am a massive fan of Coleham Primary School. It has become a big part of our lives with both our children currently attending, in both years 3 and year 6. I have watched how the supporting and caring environment has helped both of my children grow and develop and I would really value the opportunity to be able to contribute to the future of this awesome place.
I have worked in commercial companies now for over 25 years and held roles focused on sales, and marketing and now in strategic leadership. I am fortunate now to find myself working for a company that is active in its support of its people and they actively encourage us to take on roles outside to help contribute to things that are special to us. I am an inquisitive individual who is always seeking to understand how things can be improved and am not afraid to ask difficult or challenging questions. I am comfortable working with people and data, to allow me to help to understand the facts and then make and communicate confident decisions. I passionately believe that collaboration is the key to success, and I have spent many years in leadership teams with a strong focus on working to help people strongly connect and support the goals that have been set and encouraging them to make active contributions. I believe these would be good skills to bring to a role as a Parent Governor and I am confident that I can commit the time required to play an active role. As I said, I am a huge fan of Coleham Primary School and I would welcome the opportunity to help contribute to its future success, so it can continue to build and develop and help more children to get the best possible start in their education, whatever their backgrounds or needs.
I hope you would consider voting for me.

Friday 7th October, 2022

Headteacher Letter

It’s been another busy week here in school.  On Monday, we had a visit from our new Trust CEO, David O’Toole, who spent the day with us and chatted to staff and children.  He was extremely impressed with the children who were engaged in their learning and were demonstrating our school values and Coleham School rules of kindness, respect and good working.   Classes have also been busy with their various activities including: swimming; woodland work lessons; and Year 3 had a safety visit from Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service which was great fun!

 

New Website

You may have noticed that we have a new school website which we were delighted to launch this week.  It is really important to us for families to be able to easily access up-to-date school information.  We have worked hard to ensure that it is easy to navigate for you all.  Please use this to find ALL SCHOOL INFORMATION including school letters that you may have missed by email; to see calendar dates which will include trips and the trip information and news items of what we’ve been up to in school.  You will also notice that there are Classroom Pages: here you can see all of the staff that work with your children, class trip dates, the curriculum bulletins and PE days.  Teachers will continue to update you with weekly classroom news and ad-hoc classroom messages via ClassDojo

 

You can access the website by clicking on the following link:  www.colehamprimary.co.uk

We recommend you bookmark the Update page for quick access to parent information:  https://colehamprimary.co.uk/home/parents-area/updates/

 

2023-24 Term Dates

The term dates for 2023-24 have now been set and the school holidays have been input to the website Calendar.

 

Parents’ Evenings

We have also set this term’s parent consultation evenings.  These will be 10 minute appointments, in school, where you will be able to discuss anything about your child’s time at school.  They wil take place on:

 

  • Wednesday 2nd November: 4:00 pm – 7:20 pm
  • Thursday 3rd November: 4:00 pm – 7:20 pm

 

A letter will be sent out next week giving details of how you will be able to book your 10 minute slot online.

 

Careers Week

We have our Careers Week taking place after half term which we wrote to you about yesterday.  This is a fantastic opportunity for our children to experience stories of all those interesting and exciting careers many of you have.  Many of you have jobs that the children will never have considered before, and you may be the insipiration a child needs!  We’d love to see as many families getting involved as possible, so please do contact the school office if you would like to share your stories of working life with the children.

 

Relationships & Health Education 

In a few weeks time, there will be a Relationships and Health Education Information Evening (previously known as Relationship & Sex Education) with our PSHE Leader, Mrs Field.  The presentation will give you information about how we teach the children this subject and will also provide support for parents to talk about these topics with your children at home.

Relationships and Health Education Curriculum Evening for Parents on

Wednesday 19th October between 3:45 – 4:30pm in Year 2 Owl’s classroom

It is highly recommended that all interested parents from across the school attend this meeting, but it would not be appropriate for children to attend.

 

House Competition

Next week, we are looking forward to our first House Competition of the year, which will be a singing competition organised by Mrs Porrett.  We even have a special guest from Shropshire Music Service judging the KS2 competition!  Watch out for the results on ClassDojo.

 

It only remains for me to wish you all a relaxing and restful weekend!

Friday 7th October, 2022

Belvidere Visit Year 6

The Head of Belvidere is visiting our Year 6 today to talk about transition to year 7.