Year 1 Trip to Theatre Severn to see “The Smartest Giant in Town”

We have arranged for Year 1 to visit Theatre Severn on Thursday 17th October  to see an afternoon performance of “The Smartest Giant in Town”, based on the book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

They will be setting off around 12.15pm, following an early lunch, and will return to school around 3.00pm, in time for usual end of day collection.

The cost of the trip is £14.70, including transport costs and tickets.  Payment for this trip should be made via your child’s Arbor account prior to the date of the trip. We hope that everyone can contribute to the trip in some way.

Please note that this visit is covered by the Annual Consent Form for Trips/visits & Medical Information. Please notify the school immediately if there are any changes to your contact/emergency contact details or medical information.

Early Language Support for Every Child pathfinder programme (ELSEC)

Dear Parent/Carer

Re: Early Language Support for Every Child pathfinder programme (ELSEC)
We are writing to let you know that your school has been selected to work in partnership with
a local pathfinder programme developing early language support for every child (ELSEC).

There are 9 pathfinder sites across England with the aim of looking at different ways of
promoting speech, language and communication in the Early Years and Key Stage 1. The
programme will build on what your school is already doing to promote Speech, Language and
communication (SLC), and provide additional interventions for children with SLC needs
(SLCN). It is complementary to the existing Speech and Language Therapy support already
provided within the setting.

The ELSEC team will work closely with selected staff and parents to increase confidence and
skills in relation to SLC. The team will also work directly with selected children to develop their
communication. Primarily this will be through small group interventions, support in class, whole
class approaches and training where needed. It will also include parent sessions and support.

Each child in the preschool class, reception, and year 1 cohorts will be screened using a short
screening tool from the Talk Boost programme. Children will then be selected for further
intervention. You will be contacted if your child moves into an intervention programme and as
parents/carers you will be invited to work in partnership with members of the team.

Your child will automatically be enrolled in the ELSEC programme. If you choose to opt-out of
this programme then please contact your school stating that you would like to remove your
child from the ELSEC programme by the end of the day on Monday 16th September 2024.
We are very much looking forward to supporting the children, parents and staff team at your
school and working closely with you all to make a real difference to the children’s futures.

Yours faithfully,

The ELSEC team (NHS Trust – Telford & Wrekin Council)

Yr 1 head to Gelatistry

We love to support our local businesses that make our town great!  Year 1 headed over to Gelatistry to order their own ice-creams and enjoy the sunshine.

 

Year 1 Families Lunch

Thanks to all our Year 1 families for joining us for lunch, the children were so pleased to share their lunch time with you and show you where to put your trays!  Thanks to the Kitchen team for a lovely roast dinner.

 

Athlete Adrian Patrick leads Coleham Circuit Training

As a finale to our Olympics Week we were visited by a third medal winner!  Sprinter Adrian Patrick, a Commonwealth Games Gold winner for 4 x 400m relay led the whole school in circuit training.  These intensive 8 minute sessions saw the children do sit ups, press ups, squats and jumps which we all loved.  The perfect Friday morning work out! He talked to us in assembly about always remembering our vision and dream and not being distracted by behaviours that won’t lead us to our end goal.

What a week of incredible experiences.  Thank you to Miss Lewis for all her hard work and meticulous organisation.

 

Olympics Showcase Song

Our Olympics Festival Day was fantastic and we finished with a showcase song to parents.  Mrs Porrett led the children with ‘We are Shropshire’ and ‘Wavin Flag’.  There is nothing more powerful than when we come together to sing on mass.  Our Coleham Community all together! A lovely end to the day.

Olympics Festival

What a day!  Miss Lewis organised a day off curriculum for our own Olympics Festival.  It started with a whole school run to Paris, the equivalent of 435 miles.  For 20 minutes all the children and staff ran around the schools grounds and it was such fun!  500 happy faces walking, jogging, running to Paris with the music motivating us.

Out Festival contained sports stations entirely run by our year 6 cohort of Sports Leaders who were fantastic at explaining, demonstrating and encouraging the children.  The younger classes were buddied up with older classes working together which was really lovely to see. The children participated in long jump, high jump, relay hurdles, triple jump, an Olympics quiz, shot put before stopping for an outdoor picnic lunch.  In the afternoon the children played badminton, handball, discus, javelin, relay and we finally finished with a  showcase song to parents.  Phew!! What an action-packed day!  Now we are all ready to watch the Olympics starting on 26th July.

Year 1 Parents Lunch Invite

We would like to invite you to join your child for a school lunch at 11.30am on Wednesday 17th July so that you can participate in the whole dining hall experience and sample our school meals for yourselves. Maximum of two visitors per child please.

If you are able to join us for lunch, please let us know by completing the attached link by Monday 15th July so the kitchen can ensure sufficient meals are prepared.

Please can you also pay for your Lunch on School Shop in Arbor- £3.15.

https://forms.office.com/e/TsaGZRY4iE

Thank you

 

Paralympian Mickey Bushell

We were honoured to have Paralympic athlete Mickey Bushell visiting us in school this morning.  He joined our whole school assembly where we watched his gold medal win at the London 2012 Paralympic Games for wheelchair track racing and learnt a little more about his journey to get there.

Children in our year 1 and 2 classes were lucky enough to take part in a Q&A session, where they found out all about him, how he trains, all the different places he has raced and his favourite foods.  The children even got to hold his gold medal!  Thank you so much for coming to join us Mickey!

Year 1 Quarry and Dingle trip

Last week year 1 visited the Quarry and the Dingle. They looked at the trees to see how many evergreeen or deciduous trees there were. The children also sketched the flowers and trees in the Dingle. They had a super time.

Tree spotting

Yr 1 have been learning about Trees and so visited The Quarry to find some real examples to compare.

BVAF Barnabas Gallery

It’s been brilliant to see lots and lots of classes popping out this week and heading over to the Barnabas Centre Art Exhibition for the Belle Vue Arts Festival.  Every child has produced a  piece of art for the exhibition and Badgers and Foxes Art has been hung by the Greyfriars Bridge.  Not only do the children get to see their own work displayed but also work from other local artists.  Such a variety to see!  The Exhibition is open Saturday 10-4pm if you would like to see your child’s work.

 

Year 1 Phonics Screening Check

Next week all Year 1 children across England will take part in the phonics screening check. Within the screening check the children will be asked to read 40 words, some of which will be real words and some will be pseudo words. The children may also refer to pseudo words as ‘alien’ words. This screening check will take place on a 1:1 basis with either myself or Miss Cox. There is no time limit to the phonics screening check but it should take no longer than 10 minutes. The children are taught phonics daily and so preparation for this is already in place so please don’t worry about this. Here is a link to phonics play PhonicsPlay – Resources (www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources) where you can play Dragons Den, Buried treasure and Picnic on Pluto without subscribing. These games focus on real and pseudo words and will be a good way to practise at home in the run up to next week.

Please do get in contact with us if you have any questions as we will be happy to help.

Kind regards

Mrs Young

KS1 and Reading Leader

Art Exhibition

Our latest gallery exhibition is being displayed. Can you believe that this is art work from our Year 1 pupils?These garden abstracts are inspired by Mondrian.  We particularly love the grey swirly one which depicts a dog spinning round in the garden 🐕😀

Ukulele Parent Showcase

Year 1 have been learning to play the Ukulele this year with Music Teacher Mrs Porrett and today they performed a mini showcase to their parents.  It’s great that our youngest children can all learn to play an instrument, it improves their dexterity which helps little hands with writing, co-ordination and the lovely singing that goes with it brightens up the day.  Well done Year 1 for persevering and perfecting their Ukulele skills.

Yr 1 Balanceability

VYear 1 have all been practising their bike riding skills and balance with Balanceability this week! Thank you to our trainers.

Science Week 2024

Thank you to Miss Harris for organising the best Science Week!  This year we explored the theme of ‘time’ in outer space with a visiting Planetarium and through a dinosaur and fossil workshop.  We kicked the week off with a fun assembly from Supersonic Sue who runs Science Cub.  Year 3 learnt all about bees and honey with Shrewsbury School Beekeeping Society students, Year 5 delved into colour experiments with Priory School Science Teacher Tamara and Year 6 had Rory and Dr Nichola visit from Lascell’s Science Manufacturing.

Lascells showcased sound waves using a Rubens Tube, looked at radioactivity with a cloud chamber, demonstrated how stars form using a gravity well and the whoosh bottle was perhaps the most exciting of all.

It is great for Year 6 to dip into some KS3 Science and hear from people in the industry ready for their next steps to Secondary School and future careers.

Overall, we’ve had a brilliant TIME!  See the highlights in our showcase video.

 

Yr 1 @ Blists Hill

Year 1 have been learning about life in the Victorian times and comparing it to how we live today. They had a brilliant day out at Blists Hill Victorian village, they washed clothes in the laundry, saw the candle dipping, visited all of the shops and school and learnt about printmaking.

Storyteller Visit

For World Book Week local Storyteller Sal Tongue visited all our EYFS, Yr 1 and Yr 2 classes. With a medley of stories, drawing and singing the children followed the key to unlock the story.  There was even a Goldilocks and the three bears rap song.  Thank you Sal for your imagination and energy! A lovely way to end our special week dedicated to reading.

Victorian Museum

Year 1 are comparing the lives of Victorian children to their own lives and looking at Victorian schools, homes and toys. What better place to learn than our own Victorian Museum in our listed Coach House! This is located in the Coachmasters old living quarters and is set up around his kitchen and living area.  It displays real artefacts from the era including class photographs and registers from Coleham School archives.

 

 

Judaism Visitor

The lovely Sue, a member of Shropshire Inter-faith group visited Year 1 to talk about being Jewish.  The children learnt that inside a synagogue, men wear a special hat called a kippah and a prayer shawl called a tallit where the tassels represent all the different rules in the Torah. Sue even spoke some Hebrew!

Year 1 Trip – Blists Hill Victorian Town Museum

Dear Parent/Guardians,

Year 1 Trip – Blists Hill Victorian Town Museum

As part of this term’s cross-curriculum work we have arranged for Year 1 to visit Blists Hill Victorian Town Museum, Coalbrookdale on Wednesday 13th March. We will be leaving school at 9.15am and returning approximately 3.00pm, in time for normal home time.

The cost for this trip is £13.00, which includes transport costs, entrance fees, workshops and insurance. Payment should be made via your child’s Arbor account prior to the date of the trip please.

As Year 1 pupils are provided with free school meals as part of the Universal Infant Free School Meals scheme, a packed lunch will be provided for all pupils. Please click on the link below to select from the various menu options available. All packed lunches come with a piece of fruit, biscuit, packet of crisps.  Your child should bring their own water bottle.  If we haven’t received a completed packed lunch form for your child by close of play, Monday 11th March, we will assume they will be bringing one from home.

https://forms.office.com/e/cHPte7wus7

Children should wear their school uniform and sensible walking shoes for this trip and, as Blists Hill is an open air museum and the majority of our time will be spent outdoors, bring along a waterproof coat for possible cold/inclement weather.  No spending money is required.

Please note that this visit is covered by the Consent Form for Trips/visits & Medical Information. Please notify the school immediately if there are any changes to your contact/emergency contact details or medical information.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Hilbert

Administration Manager

Chinese New Year Celebration Day

 

 

The children have been learning about the upcoming celebration of Chinese New Year.    Years 1, 4 and 6 were involved in the Chinese New Year workshop, where they learnt about the story of Chinese New Year, experienced listening to traditional instruments and took part in a dragon dance!  2024 is the year of the Dragon!

The rest of the school have been busy celebrating too, through activities and lessons planned by teachers and for lunch we had a special menu.

Fact:  Did you know many people now use the term ‘Lunar New Year’?  This is because festivals in other countries take place at the same time and with many of the same traditions as in China.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese New Year workshop for Years 1, 4 and 6

On Thursday 1st February, we will be celebrating Chinese New Year in school. We have arranged for Years 1, 4 and 6 to take part in a Chinese New Year workshop in school on this day. During the day, the children will take part in a number of activities to learn more about this celebration. The workshop involves 15 metre dragons and a range of Chinese instruments and will allow children to experience some of the traditions associated with Chinese New Year.

We would be very grateful if parents could contribute £3.70 per child towards the cost of the workshop. Payment is to be made via your child’s Arbor account prior to the date of the workshop.

Many thanks,

Miss Melville

EYFS Teacher/ R.E. Leader

International Food Market

We like to try new events and we were so pleased to see the turn out for our International Food Market with tasters from Spain, Greece, Germany, China, India, Italy and Poland.  It was lovely to see so many children excited about trying new foods with their families.  Thank you to everybody for coming along and donating items and especially those families who spent time preparing home-made dishes.  Sharing food with the people we love is one of life’s greatest joys and we would love to hear your feedback so we can do more food based events together.

Christmas Panto!

It was with great organisation that we took the whole school (450 adults and children) to watch Jack and the Beanstalk.  Just the office ladies left back at school manning the fort and eating all the Christmas chocolates!

It was an incredible performance from Brad Fitt and the cast, fabulous scenery and spectacular costumes! The children were all dancing in the rows for finale song.  A real treat for the children to visit the theatre!

Merry Christmas to you all

Christmas wouldn’t be complete for us without our Staff Christmas Video!  This started during Covid so we could connect with our families and children at home but has become a much loved Coleham tradition for us all.  It’s our special gift to the children and a way to say Merry Christmas to the many people in our community that help us make our school what it is, to our parents, volunteers, local shop keepers, club leaders, pre-schools, resident artists and musicians and all the organisations we partner with.

Watching the children’s reaction on Monday was priceless.  We are always teaching our children to be creative, try something new and give it a go, so it’s great for them to see our staff be a little silly and push themselves outside of their comfort zone (of course some of us love the limelight, mentioning no names!)

This year’s video backing scenes have been created using the children’s art work.  The children thought they were entering into a Christmas card competition.

We really hope you enjoy this year’s production and it goes without saying that this film would not be possible without the incredibly talented, legendary Mr Williams who directs and edits us all to perfection.  Always smiling, keeping us calm and on a very tight filming schedule!  Bravo Mr Williams!