December2022

After a hugely successful term we have finally made it to the Christmas holidays. The children have had a wonderful time preparing for Christmas and taking part in Christmas activities over the last few weeks. The Christmas productions have been absolutely amazing this week and we were delighted with the amount of parents, carers and friends of Lea Forest joining us each day. The daily raffles have been a huge success and we’ve taken lots of pleasure in awarding three bulging hampers every day.

The money raised from our Christmas Fayre and raffles has exceeded £1,700. Thank you so much for your support.

I would also like to take this opportunity to reflect on the last term and celebrate all of the academic achievements. We are so proud of the academic excellence and opportunities we offer at Lea Forest. The children receive an exceptional education. As you are all aware, Ofsted visited last week and we are waiting for the official report to be published which should be early January.

In true tradition, the staff team have created a Christmas video to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. This year, we have done a lip sync to Leona Lewis’ famous Christmas song, One more Sleep. Click on the link to view: https://tinyurl.com/LFPChristmasVideo22

Over the Christmas period, the Christmas edition of The Epic Game Show (Child’s Play) presented by Alan Carr will be showing on ITV1 at 7pm on Sunday 18^th December. Look out for some familiar faces as this episode will feature some superstars from Lea Forest. We are also really proud of our children who have starred in the latest series of ‘Playground Politics’ on The Russell Howard Hour:

George and Ezra: Ukraine, America, Survival Skills and Internet Trolls

Khalif and Isaaq: Meaning of Life, Education and the upcoming Christmas Episode

Olivia and Khadijah: Television

We would like to wish each and every one of you a truly special Christmas. With so much concern and worry around finances and health and with the most recent local tragedy, it is so very important that the children have a special time with their families and loved ones over the Christmas period. They have been a credit to you and we look forward to seeing you all safe and well on Tuesday 3 January 2023.

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year

Mr Clarke-Castello

MESSAGES FROM MR CLARKE-CASTELLO

As we approach Christmas, it is full steam ahead here at Lea Forest. It’s been a bumper-packed week with so many visitors, trips, workshops, awards and celebrations - our feet haven’t touched the ground!

Modeshift Star Award

Being the first school in the whole of the Midlands to be awarded the Modeshift Stars PLATINUM Award, we were invited along to Birmingham Council House this week to collect our framed certificate. Modeshift STARS is the Centre of Excellence for the delivery of Effective Travel Plans in Education, Business and Community settings.

The scheme recognises schools, businesses and other organisations that have shown excellence in supporting cycling, walking and other forms of sustainable and active travel. Mia and Abdur-Rahmen were our pupil representatives who both spoke with confidence to Councillor Liz Clements (Cabinet Minister for Transport). Following the awards ceremony, we were lucky enough to have a tour around the Council House, visiting the Lord Mayor’s Office and the Chambers.

Attendance

Unfortunately, our attendance has fallen well below our expectations this week. Please make every effort to ensure children are in school every day! I am aware that it is that time of year with lots of bugs lingering around, but if your child is well enough to come to school, please send them in. If they are too poorly during the school day, we will contact you. The challenge for next week is to see how many classes can achieve 100% - allowing children to learn more, supporting them to reach their full potential.

Crafternoons

Thank you to the children, parents, carers and family members that joined our Early Years and Key Stage 1 Crafternoons this week. We were so impressed by attendance and were delighted that everyone had such a wonderful time. More of these to come in the Spring term.

Bring it On Brum

There are still places available at free holiday clubs over Christmas - many of these provide lunch for your children too. Please do take a look and contact venues

for more details: https://bringitonbrum.coordinate.cloud/

Mr Clarke-Castello

At Lea Forest we aim to develop our pupils’ character through the growth of relationships that define us as humans Through our curriculum, we develop a set of competencies (behaviours) which enable each and every one of our pupils to lead a remarkable life. In addition to the tasks provided by individual class teachers, a ‘Character Curriculum Challenge’ will be set fortnightly on the newsletter.

On this occasion, we would like you to watch a film and review it. Examples of film reviews (for / by children) can be found on the Common Sense Media website and can even be published on Amazon and beyond. So what’s your favourite film? Remember to send your film reviews to Mr Croxon or your class teachers (either on Class Dojo or Twitter) and the best ones will be evidenced in the Character Curriculum (evidence) Book for your class!

Roblox is a popular video game that allows users to create and build their own levels and games for other people to play them. They can play each other’s creations by themselves or with other people online.

Top tips for parents:

There may be some content that is unsuitable for certain age groups. Take note of the ratings system - it will rank content by age appropriateness.

Online games can be a great way to connect with friends but there are some dangers to this. It is advised that you disable messages or tweak the settings to only allow messages from specific groups.

Block and report players in the game using the flag symbol if you have any concerns.

Set parental controls. Add your email address to your child’s account through the settings menu and create a secure pin to stop the settings being changed.