Find Your Brave!
It has been a particularly challenging start to the new school term at Elmhurst. Alongside the inspection, we have also been on the receiving end of a spate of thefts. Laptops, Chromebooks and various other bits and pieces of technology have been stolen from the school. The investigation is ongoing but we would ask all members of the school community to be extra vigilant. We are increasing security around the school site – a sensible but sad move. You may find that access at the end of the school day is limited and security much tighter. If you do hear of anyone who is trying to sell off equipment, please let the police know. These people are taking things from your children.
The children will be aware of these thefts – whilst we try to protect them from the adult business of the school, they often pick up and overhear things they shouldn’t or don’t need to.
They are safe during the school day – the thefts have occurred overnight or early in the evening when the school is quiet and no one is around. Access during the school day is secure and everyone who is on site must enter via the school reception. The safeguarding of the children continues to be something we do well at Elmhurst.
With all this in mind, next week is Children’s Mental Health Awareness week. We will be doing lots across the school and in assembly to raise the profile of mental health. Children will be asked to join the well-being group (a group of people across the school community charged with promoting health and well being), they will take a health and well-being survey and together we will consider ways to continue to support children in times of need. Our PFSA, Andy Leafe, and our ELSAs, Emma Bartlett and Jo Lopez, are already doing much outstanding work in this area. We will also be part of a “Trailblazers” DfE project which focuses on providing mental health support for children, families and staff. As a school, we are very proud of the fact that we had started down this road long before it became a key focus of the new school inspection framework.
We will keep you posted regarding all the activities. Please let Mrs Edwards know if you are able to get involved, happy to help out in any way you can or have any expertise in this area. We all need to work together on this one.
Tracy and Mike
- Year 3 – 95.2%
- Year 4 – 98.1%
- Year 5 – 94.2%
- Year 6 – 98.4% – Well done, Year 6 – you just pipped year 4 to the post!
Don’t forget: The NSPCC danceathon and Family Maths afternoon tomorrow. If you are coming to the maths afternoon, bring your dancing shoes! Remember that the maths workshop starts at 1.30pm.
Also: non uniform for everyone tomorrow in exchange for a donation to the ESA Valentine Bingo. Thank you!
What’s happening next week? w/b 3rd February: Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week
Monday: Somerset Wildlife Trust working with Year 6 classes
Tuesday: Happy Shoesday Tuesday. Netball Club with Flossie starts – please return slips asap
First Aiders at Elmhurst
We are incredibly proud of the children who took part in the first aid training on Monday. For the second year running, Sue, the St John’s trainer, met with me afterwards to say what an “outstanding” group of children she had had the pleasure of working with. Well -behaved, hard working, focused, determined, supporting and helpful – were just some of the words used to describe the children. I am sure that you will agree – this is always lovely to hear! Thank you to them all for being a real credit to Elmhurst.
NSPCC workshops
Years 5 and 6 enjoyed follow up in class workshops from the NSPCC on Monday, leading on from the NSPCC assembly last week. Each class received an hour workshop that involved the children discussing in more detail the NSPCC’s message that all children have the right to be listened to, to be safe, not be hurt and how to get help when they need it. The children were incredibly sensible, mature and thoughtful in their discussions and learnt a great deal about speaking out and staying safe.
Hestercombe overnight wild camping: 21st-22nd May
Thank you to Gemma, from 1066, for joining us on Tuesday for the Hestercombe meeting. We appreciate that the timing of the meeting didn’t work for everyone so here is the key information for those of you were unable to attend. A letter will also be sent home today:
The cost of the trip is £60.00 per pupil. Families in receipt of pupil premium will be charged £30. This will cover all the activities, food and accommodation. The school will cover the cost of the coach, sleeping bags and mats. A kit list can be found here:
Wonderful Physical Geography competition – Mrs Carpenter
Over the past few weeks, children have been submitting entries for the Geography competition. I have been amazed at the thought, effort and technical ability that has shone through in the photographs. Children have considered the orientation, the lighting and weather conditions to name just a few. It was really hard to choose the winners. Mr Lawrence decided to choose four photographs: two based from a geographical perspective and two from a photographic perspective. The four winners are:
Poppy Lyons ( Tor View)
Oakley Hall (Glastonbury Tor)
Felix Norton ( The flight of the floods)
Lily Butler (Man v Nature)
These photographs will be framed and one copy will be displayed in school, the other children can take home. Many thanks for your continued support enabling the children to participate in such activities.
Gardening with Karen Chard
Ms Prime’s class had their last gardening session today, four of the boys worked hard on the big compost pile, turning it and we have a lovely lot of soil from it we can use on our gardens.
A lot of the beds look untidy to some people at the moment, I deliberately do not cut everything back; this is to give the insects a suitable winter habitat and to protect the ground. Soil should never be bare. Mulch protects the soil and the plants so if I cut back anything it generally gets cut and dropped and left to break down naturally.
There is so much going on in the gardens even though they may look dead, they are teaming with life and the bulbs are starting to pop up. I checked the area near the hall and veranda area today as we sowed wildflower seeds there a couple of years ago and nothing has appeared yet. Today I noticed how thick the moss was in that area, which is great. Moss has an important role to play in the gardens and I do believe some of the plants may actually be starting to come up and that we may have some wildflowers make an appearance over the next few months.
We pruned two more apple trees today. The children were very good at being able to see which branches needed pruning so we are now looking forward to watching them burst into bud over the next month or so as the sap starts rising and we head into spring. Some of the children helped to transplant some more daffodils and strawberry plants to the new wheelbarrow garden which Mrs Murray saw the squirrels taking an interest in!
The squirrels love the grounds here at Elmhurst and are very active when we are gardening. There was a lot of time spent giving wheelbarrow rides to each other today and I think everyone had a fun afternoon. Mrs Greenwell’s class will be gardening for the next three Fridays so please ensure they have suitable clothes for muddy, cold, wet activities. The weather does not stop us from going out. Thank you.
Okehampton– September 2020
Just a reminder that the funds for Okehampton September 2020, need to be paid in full by Friday 29th May. Unfortunately, if the funds have not been received by this point, your child will be removed from the list and any monies paid will be returned. Thank you to all the parents/ carers who are in track to secure a place for their child.
Year 5 Exciting news – our flag has reached Antarctica!
As you know our school flag has been winging its way to Antarctica on a Polar Expedition. This week we received an update with photographs showing the flag with Antony Jinman one of the explorers. We have been following Expedition Penguin in school and we are excited to hear that Antony himself will be hand-delivering the flag to us on his return, where we can also learn a little bit more about its journey. Thank you for those who donated towards the cost of the flag – it is still not too late to do so if you wish.
Mental health and well being at Elmhurst and in Street
Following on from the main part of the newsletter, I attended a great training session last night with Becky Buxton (one of our parent Well Being Champions) about Health Connections in Street. Becky and I are now Community Connectors.We were amazed about the amount of support available in the Mendip area for all sorts of things: budgeting, debt management, 1:1 support, self- management, fibromyalgia and life skills among many other things. We all need help at times and there is so much available.
The Health Connections Mendip website is a great place to start. The directory is kept as up to date as possible and has a wealth of information on it.
Have a look for yourself: https://healthconnectionsmendip.org/mendip-directory/ or call on 01373 468368. If you aren’t sure, just ask Becky or Mrs Edwards – we will happily “signpost” you in the right direction.
Apologies for the confusion: Team Trees day, Mr Lawrence
Sorry about the confusion over the Team Trees day. We have a group of children who really wanted to support the planting of trees to help counteract the problem of climate change which is on everyone’s agenda. As a school we would like to support this, so the children made the posters but I didn’t realise they had added a date, so it didn’t go out on the newsletter.
So, we will have the Team Trees day on Thursday 13th Feb (the last day of term). Children may wear green on that day for a small donation. If the children have already worn green and given a donation, they may wear green again but will not need to give another donation.
Another apology: Homework gallery dates
Mrs Edwards had incorrectly advertised the homework gallery as being on Friday 28th February. The actual date for the gallery is Friday 24th April. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Don’t forget about the “Discover your Community day” on Saturday 29th February – a great opportunity to find out what is going on in Street.
And finally…
A good deed for the week: Ask “How are you?” and really listen for more than “fine”.