March2023

It’s been a wonderful end to the term.  I was amazed with the Easter bonnets in Early Years and Key Stage 1 and the egg-cellent egg designs in Key Stage 2 - they seem to get better and better every year, making my job as the judge impossible!  It was lovely to see our musicians perform in the Rocksteady Concert this week too. Thank you to everyone that came into school to support these events.  We also had lots of leaders visiting from other schools this week, all of which were blown away by firstly, how we have ambition for all - not putting a ceiling on learning, and secondly, the relentless rigour - sweating the small stuff. One visitor commented: “What a wonderful school you have! The calm, purposeful learning environment was a pleasure to walk around. The pupils are a delight and their behaviour for learning (no matter what class or age) was an absolute credit to the teachers. Consistency is key to all that happens in the school and you can see the leaders are so passionate about working there.” Comments like this remind me of what a special place we have created.

Deputy Headteachers

I am delighted to share with you all that two of our existing Assistant Headteachers have been promoted this week to the position of Deputy Headteachers, starting their new roles in September. I’m sure you will join me in congratulating both Mr White and Miss Francois.  Lea Forest never stands still: we are committed to excellence being the standard - day in, day out, in everything we do. Through the appointment of two Deputy Headteachers, I truly believe that this will continue to enhance excellence here at Lea Forest.  

Key Stage 1 Playground Development

Work has commenced on our Key Stage 1 playground this week.  I am so excited to see the finished product. This should be finished and ready to use in 4 weeks.   

Attendance

Congratulations to everyone this week! You may have noticed that attendance has been a whole school focus with daily messages and reminders from leaders and class teachers. I am so pleased with the effort you’ve all made and what a difference - we’ve managed to achieve 96.7% for the whole week, just short of our 97% attendance target. I truly believe that with these continued efforts, we can improve on this further in the summer term.

Wishing you all a happy Easter and Ramadan! See you all again on Monday 17 April.

Mr Clarke-Castello

Our 97% target is still achievable this year if we all work together on ensuring children are in school EVERY day and not missing any learning. 

Our attendance for 

the week is

96.7%

Our attendance for 

the year to date is

95.2%

The winners of our Spring Term Easter Attendance Eggstravaganza are…

Nursery - Darcie Day

Reception - Ameliah Nawaz

Year 1 - Ibrahim Khan

Year 2 - Kezia Cessay

Year 3 - Corey Hards

Year 4 - Makai Richards

Year 5 - Carimo Lopes Camara

Year 6 - Maisey Bryan

Gruffalos - Connor Hopkins

Summer Term 1

Starts: Monday 17th April 2023

Finishes: Friday 26th May 2023

Half Term holiday: 27/05/23 - 04/06/23

Summer Term 2:

Starts: Monday 5th June 2023

Finishes: Friday 21st July 2023

Summer Holiday: starts on 22nd July 2023

All parents and carers are invited to a FREE baby and child sleep workshop which we have arranged to support families. So add this date to your diaries and don’t miss out!  

This workshop will provide parents and carers with a deeper understanding of a wide range of common sleep difficulties for babies to children up to the age of 7. 

Those that attend will receive up to date, gentle and responsive strategies that you can add to your toolkit when supporting your child's sleep routine.

The workshop will cover:

• Safe sleep

• Newborn sleep cycles and how they will change

• Creating healthy sleep habits

• The importance of bonding and attachment but also how to encourage more independent sleep when they’re older

Toddlers and beyond- common sleep struggles 

• General Q&A

There will be an opportunity to ask questions and I will be available to have individual chats with parents at the end of the session.

Mr Tims joined Lea Forest as our Artist in Residence in September. This year he will have worked with all pupils from Y1-Y6 building upon their previous learning and developing their knowledge and skills. The children have produced a range of high quality, curriculum linked pieces of work which they have completed both individually and collaboratively with their classmates. Mr Tims has displayed the wonderful pieces of art around school and the children are very proud of the outcomes. We are aiming to put an exhibition together by the end of the summer term and will be eager to invite parents into school to share the amazing work with you. We are delighted that Mr Tims will return next academic year to work with our pupils again and develop their skills further.

On Thursday 30th March Miss Ward and Mr Wills accompanied 11 children from Y5 and Y6 to compete in the Debate Mate Cup.  The competition took place at Birmingham University where the children took part in 2 debates. Throughout the competition the children showed resilience, respect and participated fully in all aspects of the competition. Mr Wills and Miss Ward were so impressed with how the children applied their knowledge and skills and presented their arguments with clarity and confidence. Our debate team have been developing their debating skills with their mentor during their after school club and it was clear to see that they put this in practise during the competition as they successfully participated in two debates. 

Grow your own!

Even if you don’t have a garden, you can still grow some food for yourself. A window cill can be a tiny garden for some herbs, you can even grow them in an old cup or bowl. If you’ve got a small outdoor space, try growing a few vegetables in a large pot or planter.  Look around for a community garden or join a local Allotments Association and grow on a bigger scale. Allotments can be a great place to meet like-minded people too.  Gardening is not only good for the environment, (reducing food miles) but it is great for your mental health as well.

If you grow too much produce for your own use, why not barter with someone who has grown a different crop rather than food going to waste.

Young Carers

This week our safeguarding focus is on young carers. The term young carer is used to describe someone aged under 18, who helps look after a relative who has a disability, illness, mental health condition or a drug or alcohol problem. Most young carers look after one of their parents or care for a brother or sister. They do extra jobs around the house such as cooking, cleaning or helping someone to get dressed or move around. The pressure of looking after a family member can affect the young carer academically and socially, as they know they have extra responsibilities. If you feel that your child is a young carer or you know of another child who may be one, please make us aware so that we can help and support.  There are many organisations locally and nationally that can also provide support, for example Spurgeons in Birmingham.        https://spurgeonsyc.org/birmingham/

Welcome to our ‘Online Safety Tip of The Week’. On each newsletter, we will provide you with some useful hints, tips, guides and fact sheets from the National Online Safety (NOS) website that you as parents and carers will be able to use to help keep your child safe whilst online. This week's free online safety guide focuses on gaming-focussed, live-streaming service, Twitch. Owned by Amazon, the Twitch platform enables you to watch others play games live and listen to commentary as they play. It has 15 million daily active users and more than 3 million people live broadcasting video game streams and other content, with channels dedicated to just about every popular video game imaginable - both retro and modern. Parents should be aware that Twitch also features gaming competitions, professional tournaments, game-related chat and news

We have just one week left before we break-up for the Easter holidays! It’s been really busy around school with a number of trips and visitors, litter picking as part of ‘The Great School Clean’ and sports competitions. In addition to this, we’ve had a real focus on attendance which has risen this week. We all need to work together to ensure children are not missing any learning opportunities, so thank you for those of you that have gone the extra mile this week.  I’ve also been delighted to see the progress of our Year 1 children who have had phonics assessments this week. We have 85% of Year 1 children already passing the phonics screening and we are on track to achieve (or even exceed) or target of 93%, showing our commitment to ensuring every child is a confident reader here at Lea Forest.

Year 6 SATS

At the end of Year 6, children sit national tests in Reading, Maths and Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG). In readiness for the upcoming SATs tests, which will take place between Tuesday 9th May 2023 and Friday 12th May 2023, we would like to invite all Year 6 parents into school on Thursday 30th March at 3:30pm to share our plans. At this meeting, we will outline the testing schedule (as all children will sit 6 different tests during this period), discuss revision plans (using in-house materials and the newly purchased ‘Century Tech’) and provide each child with a device (so that they can access online resources and share these with their teacher during the Easter break). Further information about the KS2 SATs can be found in the ‘KS2 SATs Parents’ Guide’.

Year 6 Boosters

As part of our exceptional educational offering at Lea Forest, we have arranged a Maths and Reading focused Booster Club, for targeted Year 6 children over the Easter holiday (Tuesday 11th April to Thursday 13th April). This Booster Club will be a great opportunity for the children to work through a range of maths and reading activities tailored to help support them, addressing any gaps they still have, as well as build their confidence before their SATs tests. We acknowledge that this is a big commitment to make, so as well as working hard, we intend for the sessions to be fun and will be providing drinks and snacks for all children who attend. In addition to this, the children who attend all three days (100%) will be given the opportunity to go bowling at Acocks Green Bowl on Thursday. 

Ramadan Kareem

This week, some of our Lea Forest community members have started Ramadan. During Ramadan, our Muslim community members will be observing a daily fast which will mean that they do not eat or drink from sunrise until sunset. Community members will fast to remind them of the less fortunate and to reinforce the need to be thankful for what they have. We wish all those observing Ramadan a period of peace and reflection. 

Have a great weekend! 

Mr Clarke-Castello

Reception had a wonderful time at Ash End Farm this week.

We started our day with exploring our new environment and testing out the outdoor equipment. 

After a lovely picnic in the Spring sunshine it was time to be farmers. We met Farmer Jen and Farmer Kerry who showed us how to feed and care for the animals and their babies.  We also showed them our fantastic knowledge of farmyard nursery rhymes.

At the end of the tour we got to pick our own eggs to take home. 

Everybody we met commented on how polite and well behaved the children were. 

Mrs Gonzales, Mrs Hartwell & Mrs Hicklin

Year one had Anthony from Creaturama visit them this week. This supported their Science learning all about animals. The children learnt about the different features that dinosaurs have and how they had particular features to suit their needs. For example, carnivore dinosaurs had sharp teeth to tear through meat easily. Year one thoroughly enjoyed this experience. The children then had the opportunity to explore their Design and Technology skills by making dinosaurs out of cardboard!

Visit his Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com

This week came and went… I can’t believe at how fast the weeks pass us by and how quickly the year is progressing. Today marks the 10 day countdown to the Easter holidays. Whilst this term has been a short one, a huge amount has been achieved; we have continued to deliver an excellent education to all of our children each and every day. 

Yet again, we have had visitors in school this week who have come to witness excellence at its best. Here are some comments from this week’s visitors:

“I’ve spent time experiencing habitual excellence today.”

“Lea Forest has s fully embedded curriculum that is visible as you walk around the school.”

“A passion for reading with high quality texts woven through.”

“Exceptional resourcing of IT and computing.”

“Dynamic staff who are committed to their area of subject development and talk passionately about it.”

“The outcomes looked inspiring and the consistency across classes was also very visual”. 

British Science Week has been celebrated this week and we’ve had trips and visits taking place - check out pages 5, 6, 7 and 8. We have ended the week by celebrating Comic Relief. Thank you for your donations towards this very worthy charity. 

Mother’s Day Workshops

Thank you to everyone that attended our Mother’s Day workshops on Monday evening. There was a good turn out and fun was had by all. It was great to receive such wonderful feedback from those who attended. We look forward to hosting more events like this in classrooms rather than the large halls.   

Debate Mate

On Tuesday we welcomed schools from across the Midlands to take part in a debating competition. Our children demonstrated fantastic debating skills discussing the motion ‘ Should tablet time be limited during week days?’ and ‘Should schools stop teaching sports?’ Our teams did fantastically well scoring lots of points which add to the overall debating league scoreboard. If your child is in Years 5 or 6 and would be interested in joining the debating team, please let a member of staff know. 

Attendance

Unapologetically, our attendance focus remains. We have appreciated all your support with ensuring your children come into school every day. Please note that any term time leave will be denied. If term time leave is taken this may result in a fine. Please remember missing days means missing out.

Finally, I’d like to close this week’s message by saying a huge Thank You and Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums, grandmas, aunts, sisters and carers - I hope that you are all spoilt on Sunday. 

Have a great weekend! 

Mr Clarke-Castello

Each year, the British Science Association runs a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) called British Science Week. During this celebration of Science, people from all over the UK take part in events and activities to develop their skills in all three scientific disciplines (Chemistry, Biology, Physics). This week at Lea Forest, we have celebrated British Science Week, using the theme of ‘CONNECTIONS’ and have taken part in a series of activities and events to help promote the benefits of scientific involvement.

As well as this, we have spent some time trying to break the preconceived notions of what a scientist looks like, (based on popular culture's depictions of scientists). Often stereotypically thought to be Einstein lookalikes, we have celebrated the ‘Smashing Stereotypes’ campaign, which has looked at people in the STEM workforce and shares the stories of their everyday work as a scientist, using #EverydayScientist on social media (and will continue to do so) through our ‘Scientists of the Month’ assemblies.

Children from years 4, 5 and 6 had a fantastic opportunity to take part in a science day at Cockshut Hill School. All children were fantastic ambassadors for Lea Forest and demonstrated exemplary behaviour.

The day began with a tour where children were shown the brilliant facilities the school has to offer. This was a great opportunity for children to have an insight to the next stage of their education. Children were then taken to the science labs where they learnt all about chemical reactions. They were given an investigation task of exploring flame tests for various metal ions. 

During the second part of the day, children were taught the importance of CPR. Teaching CPR to is one of the most powerful tools available to reduce death rates from sudden cardiac arrest. The children were really engaged with the workshop and they were able to practise CPR on rescue training manikins. 

Working with Cockshut Hill School has provided children with an insight to different aspects of science learning as well giving them meaningful experiences and encounters. We will be working with them again in the future, providing children with a range of opportunities for their learning and career skills development.

Self-harm

This week’s focus is self harm. For many young people, self harm can be a way of releasing tension and or coping with difficult feelings. The physical pain of hurting themselves can be a distraction from the emotional pain they are struggling with. Some difficult experiences or emotions can make self-harm more likely in children: for example, having low self-esteem or feeling like they’re not good enough, or grieving or having problems with family relationships.     Signs that children are self harming can include; covering up, unexplained bruises, becoming withdrawn and spending a lot of time alone in their room. Supporting a child with that self harms includes helping a child to manage their emotions and look at the root of the self harming.             

For more information on self harm visit https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/childrens-mental-health/self-harm/ 

This week's free online safety guide focuses on the block building phenomenon, Minecraft. Arguably, the most beloved video game of all time, it has managed to maintain its popularity since its first release back in 2011. Accessible to those 7ᐩ Minecraft can be a gateway into a world of learning and exploration, which encourages players to use their imagination to build three-dimensional worlds with virtual building blocks. While Minecraft is considered relatively safe, there are some safety precautions parents may want to consider before allowing children to play the game.

Year 2 had a fantastic day at Hatton Country world on Thursday. They had the opportunity to hold and feed lots of different animals. They particularly enjoyed the workshop about animal adaptations and how their bodies change depending on their environment or audience. 

We had lots of brave children in year 2 who held a python, a bearded dragon and a chinchilla. We also learnt lots of interesting information about them. 

They also fed the goats and sheep and went on a walk around the farm. They also had the opportunity to take part in the ‘Tractor Safari’.

Messages From Mr Clarke-Castello

Well, I’m not sure where all that snow came from! A huge thank you to all of the parents who made every effort to get their children into school and were supportive in our decision in closing earlier on Thursday.  Let’s hope for better weather in the coming weeks as we approach Easter.   

New staff

We have welcomed new staff to  our team over the last 2 weeks who have all settled in perfectly. If you haven’t met them yet, look  out for:  

Year 4 residential

What an amazing few days the Year 4 children have had at Whitemoor Lakes. They were a real credit to our school and despite the cold weather conditions, they approached every activity with a smile and enthusiasm.  This is first time we have brought Year 4 away on a residential trip and it certainly won’t be the last given the positive feedback from the children and staff.  

DLP Project

As part of the Developing Local Provision (DLP) Project that has been taking place in schools within the east of Birmingham from September 2021 till March 2025, the DLP team would like to remind parents/carers about their website.The website address is: www.ecdlp.co.uk. It has a translation feature which translates the website into many different languages such as Arabic, Romanian, Somali and Urdu and is designed to support parents/carers with speech and language activities that they can complete at home with their children.  The website is broken down into two main parts for parents: 'Our Big Ideas' and 'Our Primary Big Ideas.' Within these sections, there is an 'Age Guide' that you can use to identify the correct sections to work on with your children.  There is also a 'Contact Us' section where you can email the DLP team with a speech and language query.  Here is a link to a video on their website which provides more detail on the Developing Local Provision Project in the east of Birmingham.  If there are any questions regarding this project, please contact either Mrs Humpage or Mr Ur-Rehman using the 'Contact Us' tab on their website.

Mother’s Day Event

Parents and families of our children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are invited to attend our Mother's Day Crafternoon Session on Monday 13 March from 3:30pm - 4:00pm.

Have a great weekend! 

Mr Clarke-Castello

Our 97% target is still achievable this year if we all work together on ensuring children are in school EVERY day and not missing any learning. 

Our attendance for 

the week is

93%

Our attendance for 

the year to date is

95%

Due to the adverse weather conditions on Thursday, our Silly Science launch event for British Science Week has been postponed until the 23rd March. The Silly Science workshops will be hands-on and multi-sensory; enriching  children's interest in science by allowing them to see remarkable demonstrations and interesting experiments. Next week (between the 13th and 17th March) all children will have plenty of opportunities to celebrate British Science Week and undertake a variety of super science based activities following this years theme of ‘Connections!

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. These competencies can be found on the Character Curriculum page of the LFP Website. 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 take advantage of the improving weather and prepare your garden for summer by planting some seeds (using this YouTube clip to help you). Remember to send pictures of you enjoying the start of the good weather to Mr Croxon or your class teacher (either on Class Dojo or Twitter) and the best ones will be evidenced in the ‘Character Curriculum (evidence) Book’ for your class! 

One of the aims of Primary Careers at Lea Forest is to help support young people develop awareness and excitement about their future pathways. Children’s University clubs are currently running each week providing children with a variety of skills. This year, Early Years have visited The Play Village. This visit linked with their Careers week where they looked at lots of different job roles. Next week children from KS2 will have the opportunity to take part in a science day at Cockshut Hill Secondary school, exploring the different roles in the science labs and then learning about CPR. During the summer term we will be holding another Careers Fair and extending it out to the whole school. We are excited to provide these meaningful encounters and experiences which will empower them and prepare them for the next stage of their development. 

The theme for IWD 2023 was #EmbraceEquity. 

Equity means being fair and unbiased, and creating a fair and equal world. Embrace is when you accept something willingly. It is also another word for a hug. Therefore the theme, #EmbraceEquity means to accept fairness and equality for International Women's Day and beyond.

We have explored Women of importance through our assemblies this week, and asked the question “How can we challenge gender bias and stereotypes?” 

Physical Abuse

This week our focus is on physical abuse. Physical abuse is defined as deliberately hurting a child and causing physical harm. Physical abuse is an adverse childhood trauma and can cause physical and emotional issues as the child develops into an adult. Signs that may show that an injury has been caused non accidentally, are bruises, burns, bite marks, fractures and broken bones. If a child is frequently injured, this may also be a cause of concern. Children who are physically abused may make up excuses for their injuries to protect the people causing them. If you are concerned that a child is in immediate danger of harm, call the police on 999. For more information visit the NSPCC website https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/types-of-abuse/physical-abuse/ If you are worried about a child but are unsure of what to do contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000.

Welcome to our ‘Online Safety Tip of The Week’. On each newsletter, we will provide you with some useful hints, tips, guides and fact sheets from the National Online Safety (NOS) website that you as parents and carers will be able to use to help keep your child safe whilst online. 

This week's free online safety guide focuses on the video-sharing app: TikTok. TikTok is a free social media platform that lets users create, share and watch short videos ranging anywhere from 15 seconds to 10 minutes in duration. The app gained notoriety for its viral dances, trends and celebrity cameos and can be a creative, fun platform for anyone 13ᐩ (although some features are restricted to over-18s only). However, like all social networking platforms, TikTok can be addictive: figures show that children spend an average of 102 minutes per day on the app.

Messages From Mr Clarke-Castello

Welcome back! I hope that you all had a lovely half term break and made the best of the time spent with loved ones.  It’s been a brilliant first week back at Lea Forest and as usual, our feet haven’t touched the ground.  We have had a number of school leaders from other schools from across the country visiting our outstanding setting this week. They were all blown away by the high standards and expectations set across our whole school; the children are always a delight too! 

I had the pleasure of visiting Cockshut Hill Secondary School on Thursday and had the opportunity to meet and chat to some of our former pupils. It was great to see that they are continuing to find their remarkable.  Mr Bridges took me on a tour of the school and we talked about projects where we will be able to work collaboratively in the future, benefitting both schools.  

There are lots of events, trips and activities planned in the coming weeks as we run up towards Easter. Please check out the calendar dates and keep-up-to date via ClassDojo, our website and other social media pages. Next week, we have our Year 4 residential visit taking place from Wednesday to Friday. They will be visiting Whitemoor Lakes in Lichfield and will have the opportunity to take part in lots of adventurous activities, including: canoeing, abseiling, climbing and team building to name a few. There will also be the chance for them to continue to brush up on their times tables.

World Book Day

We celebrated World Book day today and it was wonderful to see staff and children in their costumes, dressed as their favourite book characters. Each year group selected a high-quality text to be at the heart of their learning. Today, the children were immersed into stories through fun and engaging activities, which created a real buzz around school. Many year groups also had the opportunity to particulate in a Reading Scavenger Hunt today. The children were set clues to well-known book titles, which they had to find in a hurry, It was lovely to see the children taking part and recalling texts so readily. Finally, it was great to welcome parents into school today to read with their children, as reading remains a huge focus in school. We want every child to be able to read fluently and we know home reading is just as essential in creating those fluent readers.

Fundamental British Values 

Fundamental British values are an integral part of our curriculum, ensuring children become valuable and fully rounded members of society who treat others with respect and tolerance, regardless of background. Every school must promote the basic British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs. This ensures young people understand the importance of respect and leave school fully prepared for life in modern Britain. This must be extended beyond the school gates - modelled by our parents and community.

Have a great weekend! 

Mr Clarke-Castello

Our 97% target is still achievable this year if we all work together on ensuring children are in school EVERY day and not missing any learning. 

Our attendance for 

the week is

94.71%

Our attendance for 

the year to date is

95.10%

This half term our attendance competition is an 

Easter egg-stravaganza!

If your attendance is 97% or higher from Tuesday 28th February to Friday 31st March

you will be entered into a prize draw to win a giant Easter Egg.

Our weekly Times Table Rockstar competitions are taking place and it has been wonderful to see the children challenging themselves to beat their highest scores. 

It has also been wonderful to see the improving their speed and achieving their rock statuses.

Our Top 3 Rockstars this week are: 

 1st - Zain Qadir 5SC

2nd - Lucas Wallace 5SC

3rd - Yakub Chowdhury 5SC

Be water wise  - Part 1

Skip the bottled water. Bottled water companies try to give tap water a bad name, even though the water from your tap is practically free and has often come out better in quality tests and taste tests against name-brand water. Also, the extraction of water and production of all those plastic bottles is notoriously harmful to communities and wildlife.

Advice from Birmingham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership

Many myths exist around Children’s Social Services and the families they support. They provide this guidance:

Parents are responsible for their children's safety. Children's Social Services become involved once concern is shared. Decisions about abuse need careful assessment. Children are best cared for by their own families. Professionals want to work in partnership with families.Very few children are removed from home following abuse.

If you have concerns regarding a child please contact the Children's Advice and Support Service on 0121 303 1888 or via e-mail:  CASS@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk  

Welcome to our ‘Online Safety Tip of The Week’. On each newsletter, we will provide you with some useful hints, tips, guides and fact sheets from the National Online Safety (NOS) website that you as parents and carers will be able to use to help keep your child safe whilst online.

This week's free online safety guide focuses on the free-to-play multiplayer vehicle football game ‘Rocket League’. Despite being rated PEGI 3 (which means that it is considered suitable for children of any ages) due to its online features, appropriateness cannot be guaranteed. Developed by Psyonix, part of the Epic Games family (which includes Fortnite and Gears of War) Rocket League is a football game where instead of running, the players drive rocket-powered cars. The game can be accessed via Playstation, XBox, Nintendo Switch, Windows, MacOS and Linux...