The Briar Hill Bulletin Our weekly newsletTER: 25.11.24

A Message from Miss Cooksley

Welcome back to our weekly Briar Hill Bulletin. We hope that you continue to find the bulletin useful. If you have any queries or questions please don't hesitate to get in touch with us. This week we have our non-uniform day on Friday 29th November and politely request donations for the Winter Wonderland Fayre tombola. A letter has been shared via MCAS last week. Here is an overview of what we have requested from each year group, however, please don't feel restricted by this - we will be grateful for any donations.

• Nursery: toiletries - perfume, gift sets, bubble bath, hand cream etc
• Reception: bottles - wine, beer, spirits, liquor, squash, non-alcoholic drinks etc
• Year 1: festive snacks – crisps, biscuits, cakes etc
• Year 2: small children’s toys – teddies, dolls, balls etc
• Year 3: baking/arts and crafts – cake making kits, pens, pencil, colouring books etc.
• Year 4: toys - note pads, stickers, toys, games, etc
• Year 5: sweet treats - sweets, large variety bag of crisps, packs of chocolate bars/ boxes of chocolates etc
• Year 6: chocolate – multipacks, selection boxes, boxes of chocolates etc

We also have our amazing raffle again this year with some incredible prizes to win. Each family we be given 3 books of raffle tickets (£15.00 worth in total) which the school would like you to try and sell to family, friends, neighbours or work colleagues. Please note that the raffle book will be given to youngest sibling in each family.

Each ticket costs £1.00, we have more tickets available from the school office if you need any. The raffle will be drawn on December 18th at 4pm at the Winter Fayre. We will publish the full list of the raffle prizes in due course.

If you work for a company or know of anyone who can donate tickets/ vouchers/ items for our raffle, then we would be extremely grateful for your help and support. Please hand any items to the school office by 4th December 2024.

Please find below the overview of winter festivities for this term. We hope that having these dates in advance will be useful. Please note that you will receive letters about these events via MCAS.

Pupil Premium Eligibility Check and Application

There are many circumstances that can mean that your child’s school is entitled to receive additional funding for their education. The education sector is under much financial strain. For that reason, we are keen to ensure that we have explored every funding possibility. The Pupil Premium is additional school funding, and it is paid directly to your child's school to improve the quality of their education. As a school we use evidence of ‘what works’, evaluated by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), to use this funding effectively.

If you are on low income and in receipt of one of the benefits listed below, a student completing a college or university course, or a member of the armed forces your child may be eligible to Pupil Premium and/or free school meals to help support their education and gain vouchers for your child each full term. Please note that if know that you have already had an application accepted for your child then this means you cannot reapply.

You may be entitled to free school meals for your child(ren) if you receive one of the following benefits:

1. Income Support
2. Income Based Job Seekers Allowance
3. Child Tax Credit Only (with income up to £16,190) with no element of Working Tax Credit
4. National Asylum Seekers Support
5. Guarantee Element of the State Pension Credit
6. Employment and Support Allowance
7. Universal Credit (Income Related)

Also, if you would have previously fallen into the listed entitled groups but are no longer, your child may still be entitled. You may also be interested to know that if your circumstances change at a later date and you find you are no longer entitled to free school meals, your child’s Pupil Premium funding allocated to the school will continue for 6 years after. To see whether you are eligible for the pupil premium, please click the button below and complete your online application for each child.

The education that we aim to offer at Briar Hill Primary School and Nursery is world-class and the funding we receive ensures this is the case; please help us to ensure that this can continue.

Home Learning at Briar Hill

Reminder: Our home learning has been reviewed and improved. For more information about your child's home learning, please read the information sheet below (this is also available in your child's home learning book). If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to speak to your child's class teacher.

Friendly Reminders

Reminder: We are a non-smoking and non-vaping site, we will take further action if we see smoking or vaping whilst on the school groups. We also expect all children and adults to treat others with kindness, tolerance and respect. If you see, hear or concerned anything you experience on the school grounds please do raise to school staff immediately so it can be dealt with swiftly. Thank you.

Please may we remind all parents and carers that pick-up and drop-off times are busy. This can cause an increased safety risk to both children and parents. Parking restrictions outside schools are there to keep you and your children safe. Parking inconsiderately can put people in danger and you also risk being fined. It’s important that motorists follow the Highway Code.

Safety tips for parking outside schools

When picking up or dropping off children at schools, you should do the following:

• Allow yourself plenty of time as the area is likely to be busy.
• Do not park on yellow zigzag lines and avoid parking opposite them.
• If you decide to park further away, please be considerate of local residents and avoid blocking driveways/accessways or pedestrian crossings.

For further advice, from the Police, please click the link below.

A friendly reminder that we expect children to read at home at least 5 times per week, 20 minutes a day. This must be recorded in their reading record and signed by an adult.

Our Book and Biscuit event will continue to run on the first Friday of every half term. Due to its popularity, and to make it accessible for as many families as possible, we will run both a morning session from 8:45am - 9:00am and an afternoon session from 3:00 - 3:15pm. We look forward to seeing as many families on our next Book and Biscuit event which will be Friday 10th January.

It's important to think about your child's safety in the dark, particularly road safety. This is why we have asked that all parents/carers collect children from after school clubs.

We also have an exciting upcoming end of Autumn Term raffle draw for all children who have 100% attendance over the term and also arrive at school punctually every day. All eligible children will be entered into the prize draw for the chance for one lucky winner to win their family a food hamper at the of term.

We always enjoy seeing and speaking to parents and carers, if you have any questions do just ask the teachers on the door at the end of the day, via Class Dojo or chat to a member of the pastoral team or leadership team if you need to. We are always here to listen and happy to help.

Friendly Reminders

We know lots of you also like to send children with a packed lunch, so below you'll find some information about how to plan for healthy packed lunches.

A reminder school starts at 8.45 a.m. - every minute counts so please ensure your child is on time for school. Thank you all.

A reminder, if you send children to school with earrings they must only be a small stud. This is for health and safety reasons. Children may wear a watch. Thanks.

Votes for Schools

Each week, our children (Year 1 - 6) participate in topical talk. To find out more about Votes for Schools, please read below.

Votes for Schools at Home

This week, voters will be thinking about the increase of extreme weather across the globe and whether we will need to learn how to cope with it as part of our new normal. Younger voters will be focusing on how to look after themselves and learn skills that help them to prepare for day-to-day weather. Meanwhile, the assembly is about COP29 and covers some of the key terms that they will hear discussed in the news.

Voters will explore the questions:

• Should we learn more about coping with extreme weather? (KS1)
• Should you know how to prepare for the weather? (KS2)

If you would like to continue the conversation and discussion around each week's topical talk, please refer to the information provided below.

Here's the results of the previous topic.