As we come to the end of the second full week of this new academic year, I feel an enormous sense of hope and optimism. The children have been simply fantastic this week; their joy and their excitement at seeing their friends, school staff and simply being back in school has been incredibly humbling for staff and myself. For the last 18 months, many of the activities and routines of school life have been severely curtailed by COVID-19.These include; how we teach and deliver learning, our programmes of curriculum enrichment, competitive sport, relationships between staff and with you - to name just a few. This academic year will be a period of rebuilding, a period of real growth. We will not do this alone, but in partnership with you; in the words of our school mission statement - 'We do our best by following Jesus.' 

From next week Mrs Brocklesby will be rewarding children's achievements and hard work. They will receive a special sticker, pencil and rubber. The first person to get their reward, on Monday morning, is Zuzanna in Year 3 who really stepped up to the summer reading challenge and read nearly 100 books! 

Well done Zuzanna, we are extremely proud of you.

Thank you for your feedback outlining your disappointment at not being able to attend Sports Days. We recognise that it will have been two years since families have been able to attend a Sports Day event so for this reason Miss Ballard (Key Stage Two Leader) and I will be organising sports day. We thought that this would be an enjoyable and fun experience for both pupils and parents. The sports day will be on Tuesday 28th September at ST GEORGE'S SCHOOL. 

On Tuesday all children will receive a letter with further details.

This week I was so pleased that Year 6 were able to attend Mass in Church. You are most welcome to join us in church now that Covid restrictions have been lifted. Alternatively you can join using the livestreaming facility. Please note if cases rise in the area we may make the decision to not attend Church and access Mass via the livestream-parents will be informed asap.

We are delighted to inform you that we are planning to hold an assembly for every class in the Spring and Summer term. Dates will be shared with you next week.

Applications for school places in Worcestershire for September 2022 are now open. 

If you have a child due to start in September or know of someone who may wish to apply to St. Ambrose please tell them to contact me for a visit and tour of our lovely school. Please help us to spread the word about our Open Day on Saturday 16th October 2pm-4pm. Please remember we receive applications from families of all faiths.

Parents' evenings are one of the most important appointments in the school calendar, allowing  teachers and parents to work together to increase pupils results. Last year parents' appointments were all virtual and feedback has identified that some parents prefer a virtual appointment. For this reason form Monday you will be able to book either an in person or virtual appointment. Dates are as follows:

On Monday, we celebrated Roald Dahl's birthday and focused on his wonderful book 'Matilda' across the school. 

In Year 1 we drew our own role models after learning about Matilda.

Year 2 have had a very exciting week. We launched our new topic, ‘The Great Fire of London’. When the children came in from lunch they found some clues on the tables and on the whiteboard. The children had fun predicting what might have happened in 1666. We are all looking forward to learning more about The Great Fire of London.

Thank you to everyone for remembering the car park is not available for use at the start or the end of the day. If you have a car park pass for health reasons please drop off at 9.10 am and collect from the car park after 3.20 pm. Mrs Downs will contact families who currently have a pass and if you would like to apply for one please contact the school office.

Letters have been sent home with your child regarding their High School application for September 2022. Please ensure that you read the letter carefully and if you require any help then please speak to the school office.

Please see the flyer below detailing Hagley's upcoming open day.

The Parish have asked if families can bring in donations for their Christmas Bazaar. They can be brought to the school office or Rectory. 

The Parish would be most grateful of your support.

If items can be brought in as follows:

The parish will be holding a Macmillan Coffee Morning on Friday 24th September 9-12, which we are all invited to. If you are able to, please do pop along to support this worthy cause.

Yesterday, we all joined in with a national assembly for Harvest to explore how we can help to protect the Amazon rainforest and support communities who live there. Please do discuss this with your children at home, it is more important than ever that we all think about how we can protect God's world.

At St Ambrose, we are passionate about teaching our pupils to become fluent and confident readers who love reading. This year, we will be focussing on reading and will continue to provide lots of opportunities for our children to develop their reading skills.

This year, we are delighted to be working with Sooper Books, who have kindly donated award-winning fairy tables, bedtime stories, fables and poems for kids for you to read and share at home. Please see our reading for pleasure resource under our school tab on our website. More stories will be added throughout the year so please keep checking what's new!

This week we are launched 'Go Read' at St Ambrose, a digital reading diary to record pupils' reading journeys. Thank you to everyone who trialled the app last term, the feedback from parents, pupils and staff were very positive and we have taken onboard all the feedback provided. This will now replace the paper reading diaries we have used in previous years.

If you already have 'Go Read' then all you need to do is carry on using it. If you are new, then you will find all the details as to how you can download the app on the letter below. Your child should have come home with your log in details and their personal code for you to use, please see a member of staff if you did not receive this. Once accessed, you can then log what pages your child has read and pupils also have the option to log what they have read by themselves (particularly KS2 pupils).

In addition to any books your child is reading from school, Go Read' has the option to add on their own personal books they are reading from home. We would love to see what books your child is interested in reading. Please note that when your child has finished a book, do not click the tab where it says complete book as this is just for teaching staff.

'Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things.'

As a reminder, our reading expectations are for all children to read at least 5 times a week at home. How regularly and how much pupils are reading will continued to be monitored by staff each week on the 'Go Read' app. It is recommended that: children read for at least twenty minutes a day; that they are listened to by an adult and that time is dedicated to discussing what has been read and any new vocabulary discovered. Pupils will also continue to be listened to read each week by members of staff and this will be logged on the app as well.

If your child took part in the summer reading challenge then please let us know so that they can be recognised in school. Please can you also email us a photo of your child reading for pleasure in a location of their choice.

The Emmaus Directors have agreed that for the Autumn Term that children can wear P.E. Kit on their P.E. days. 

Please ensure that your child comes to school in their correct P.E. kit. The P.E. uniform is as follows:

• Black shorts, black leggings, black track suit bottoms (unbranded if possible)
• Maroon round neck T-shirt with embroidered badge
• P.E pumps or black trainers
• Bag to hold pumps, T-shirt and shorts.

PLEASE NOTE: P.E. HOODIES CAN ONLY BE WORN ON P.E. DAYS.

Swimming got off to a great start on Tuesday and the children really enjoyed it.

We are excited to announce that Miss Crumpler will be running a gardening club for children in Reception class, Year 1 and Year 2. 

The club will start on Tuesday the 21^st September.  

We will have fun learning how to weed, water and grow plants. 

This club is free and it will be every Tuesday lunchtime. 

The consent letter has been handed out to children today in YR, Y1 and Y2.

Can we kindly ask that parents do not smoke or vape on school premises. This includes the car park area. Thank you for your continued support.

Father Lamb extends a warm welcome to all families to continue to attend Mass over the summer. Please click on the link below which will take you to the Parish website where you can view newsletters and get information on Mass times.

Please follow the link below to access this week's Wednesday Word.

Kind Regards,

Mrs Brocklesby