February 2024

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.  

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. 

Positive Feedback

We host visitors from other school weekly to showcase excellence. This week, Mr White received the following email from one of our visitors: “I just wanted to thank you for such a wonderful day. I have come back to Sheffield with a thousand ideas on ways we can improve our practice. You were so thorough and patient with us all today and I can say I've learned so much from you and Lea Forest. I have now got an inferiority complex though and feel like we have so much work to do to get anywhere close to the standards you and the team set.  I just wish we were geographically closer as I would love to work more with you and the school.  Could you please pass on our thanks to all the teachers for being so hospitable and open about their practice and also to your phenomenal children, who are full of love, care and kindness. I have never visited a school like Lea Forest - it is truly amazing and is clearly down to such hard work, love and dedication.”

Reception Trip to The Play Village

Reception have had so much fun visiting the Play Village in Warwick this week. They had the opportunity to explore being teachers, baker’s, fire officers and trainee vets. The children were so well behaved and fully engaged in all the learning opportunities available to them. Every member of staff commented on how respectful and kind ALL of the children were. 

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.

World Book Day

Lea Forest will be celebrating World Book Day on Monday 4th March. We are inviting children to dress up for World Book Day as their favorite literary character - it's a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the joy of reading and spark their imagination. Dressing up not only adds fun to the event but also promotes a deeper connection with books and encourages a lifelong love for literature. Children will engage in activities centered around a book and characters. There will also be visits to The Portal and a whole school scavenger hunt challenge throughout the day. We will be adding challenges to also complete at home over the coming week… keep your eyes peeled. The book fair will be returning on Friday 8th March and children will be able to spend their £1 book tokens. 

I hope to see a huge  improvement in attendance next week as this week has been very disappointing with families taking holidays which have not be authorised.   

Have a lovely weekend! 

Mr. Clarke-Castello

Welcome back to all our pupils and families after the break. We hope everyone is refreshed and healthy with the aim of attending school every day for the upcoming half term. Being in school every day that it is open, is important to your child’s achievement, wellbeing, and their wider development. We firmly believe in an evidence based approach and data shows that pupils with higher attainment at KS2 had lower levels of absence over the key stage compared to those with lower attainment. Good attendance habits last a lifetime and will equip your child well for their future.

It’s great to see everyone working so hard to achieve our 97% target.  

We can only do this if we all work together!

Our attendance for 

the week is

94.8%

Our attendance for 

the year to date

96.8%

Keep up the great work!

With news of a disposable vaping ban making the headlines in recent weeks, it seems that attitudes may once again be set to shift. In Key Stage 2 voters have considered whether they will be part of the generation that kicks the habit once and for all, having their say on: “Will you be the first smokefree generation?” Key Stage 1 voters considered how everyday items can be misleading, and the difficulties that come with spotting this. They voted on: “Is it easy to tell when objects are dangerous?” 

Please see term dates for the remainder of the school year listed below. Ensure any holidays are booked during the period of times highlighted in red:

Spring 2

19/02/24

22/03/24

Easter Holiday

23/03/24

07/04/24

Summer 1

08/04/24

24/05/24

Summer Half Term

27/05/24

31/05/24

Summer 2

03/06/24

19/07/24

INSET Days - 

School will be closed to pupils on 17/06/2024 for a teacher training day.

02/05/2024 - Election Day: 

School open to Year 6 pupils (am) only

It has been amazing to see so many of you practising your fluency of your number facts and times tables in school and at home. 

Here are this week’s Numbots stars:

Year 1 - Theo Thompson Pink

Year 2 - Hurairah Siddiq 

Gruffalos - Bokoli Kalaki

This week’s Rock Legends are:

Year 3 - Maryam Nadeem

Year 4 - Rebecca Bishop

Year 5 - Amelia White 

Year 6 - Mohammed Ibrahim Ahmed

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 ‘Youtube’. YouTube is an online platform, where users can upload and watch video content. Although you are required to create an account to upload material, you do not need an account to watch videos on the platform, meaning anyone  can watch videos that your child uploads. All different types of information, advice and entertainment are uploaded and billions of people tune in to watch, rate and comment on it, so it is really important that you monitor what content your children might be seeing.

This week our focus is on vaping. Vaping isn't harmless. Despite fruity flavours and sleek designs, vaping devices deliver addictive nicotine and potentially harmful chemicals. Even "nicotine-free" vapes expose children to other unknown risks. Young brains are vulnerable and nicotine can harm brain development, impact memory and learning, and affect attention span. Evidence shows that children who vape are more likely to try cigarettes later. Talk to your child openly about vaping. Explain the risks and address any misconceptions spread by their peers or marketing. For more information visit the NHS website.https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/vaping-to-quit-smoking/young-people-and-vaping/

At Lea Forest we aim to develop our pupils’ character through the growth of relationships that define us as human. 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 at in the ‘Character Curriculum’ section of our 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 attempt to complete the fourth task in the ‘National Trust '50 things to do before you're 11¾' by building a den either at home, in your garden or at the park (using the National Trust website or some of the pictures below to help you). Remember to send pictures of your den 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! 

This half term has been extremely busy and I continue to be proud of the children and all we achieve at Lea Forest. The staff are so committed to providing an excellent education for each and every child, in every classroom, every day and everyone is ready to recharge their batteries..   

Parents Evenings

It was great to welcome parents and carers to our second parents evening of the year. This gave us the opportunity to share children's books and demonstrate the excellent progress that they are making. It was great to see so many in attendance over the two evenings where teachers, children and parents spoke enthusiastically about the excellent education we provide at Lea Forest. 

Year 6 Booster Club

This half term we're excited to offer a free Maths and Reading Booster Club exclusively for our Year 6 students! This intensive program, running from Tuesday 13 February to Thursday 15 February, is designed to support and empower Year 6 pupils in key areas before their SATs assessments.  Each session will run for 5 hours (between 9am and 2pm), providing ample time for focused learning and engagement. Our experienced educators will guide pupils through a variety of tailored activities and exercises, addressing any individual gaps in understanding and boosting confidence in both maths and reading skills.

Mental Health  

This week, we joined millions around the world to celebrate Children's Mental Health Week! This year's theme, "My Voice Matters", reminds us that everyone has the right to speak up and be heard, especially when it comes to our feelings. Mrs Cunningham started the week with an inspirational whole-school assembly about children who have used their voices to fight for change. In lessons, KS1,pupils have been learning about the positive feeling ‘proud’ and in KS2, pupils have been writing letters of gratitude.       On Thursday, pupils (and staff) took part in an ‘express yourself day’ to explore our feelings, celebrate who we are and connect with others. So let your voices ring out loud and proud this Children's Mental Health Week! Together, we can build a school community where everyone feels heard and supported.

Internet Safety Day

To celebrate and raise awareness for internet safety day, this year we joined forces with Be Internet Legends from Google. Pupils from Lea Forest took part in a nationwide assembly around this year's theme is "Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence and navigating change online. Pupils learnt some awesome tips and tricks to be safe and responsible online, from spotting cyberbullies to protecting their passwords. 

As we break-up for half term, I’m sure you will join me in wishing Miss Dowling good luck as she starts her maternity leave - I will keep you all posted on any baby news.  Miss Begum, who the children are all familiar with, will continue to teach 1ED for the remainder of this academic year.  Mrs Newbold will also be absent from school for a little while after half term as she has recently been diagnosed with cancer and is required to undergo immediate and intensive medical treatment.  Our thoughts and well wishes are with Mrs Newbold during this challenging time, and we appreciate your understanding and support as we navigate through this together.  Ms Wale will be teaching 4NN until Mrs Newbold returns fit and well.  

I am really looking forward to seeing you all back after the half term break where we have so much more planned.  Don’t forget that World Book Day is on Monday 4 March 2024, this gives you time to sort out costumes and outfits for this special day. 

Children are expected to return to school on Monday 19 February 2024.   

Wishing you all a very happy half term break - Enjoy!

Mr. Clarke-Castello

This week has been another fabulous week in terms of attendance. We are pleased that overall attendance is closer than ever to our 97% target. With your continuing support we believe that this remains achievable and we will continue to provide your children with outstanding educational opportunities every day. Some children are missing out on part of their education by arriving late to school. The gates are open from 8:45am. Please make sure your child arrives before 9am when the gates close. We are monitoring punctuality very closely and may contact you if we have a concern.

It’s great to see everyone working so hard to achieve our 97% target.  

We can only do this if we all work together!

Our attendance for 

the week is

96.22%

Our attendance for 

the year to date

96.85%

Keep up the great work!

Please see term dates for the remainder of the school year listed below. Ensure any holidays are booked during the period of times highlighted in red:

Spring 1

09/01/24

08/02/24

Spring Half Term

12/02/24

16/02/24

Spring 2

19/02/24

22/03/24

Easter Holiday

23/03/24

07/04/24

Summer 1

08/04/24

24/05/24

Summer Half Term

27/05/24

31/05/24

Summer 2

03/06/24

19/07/24

INSET Days - 

School will be closed to pupils on the following dates for teacher training:

09/02/2024

17/06/2024

02/05/2024 - Election Day: 

School open to Year 6 pupils (am) only

Term dates for 2024 - 2025 can be found here:

This week’s VoteTopic was in celebration of Safer Internet Day. We asked voters to consider the “digital divide” between them and the adults in their lives, and reflect on what we can 

learn from each other when it comes to the internet. 

Children in Years 1 and 2 will have had their say on: 

“Can adults and children learn from each other about the online world?”.

Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 voters have decided on: 

“Do adults have the tools to teach you about the online world?” 

We've been busy recording our trips to school this week and have recorded 2272 active journeys to school so far this month.  Our most active classes this week are: 

Gruffalo's, 4NN and 5SJ.

Year 1 had a fantastic time this week during their Creaturama workshops on prehistoric creatures! It was wonderful for them to have a hands-on and interactive experience in a subject that is so fascinating for them. Their day consisted of designing their own model, creating it usingrecycling and finally painting it, all whilst learning interesting facts. What a wonderful few days for Year 1 pupils and staff! 

It has been amazing to see so many of you practising your fluency of your number facts and times tables in school and at home. 

Here are this week’s Numbots stars:

Year 1 - Ronan Gardner

Year 2 - Anas Muhammad

Gruffalos - Bokoli Kalaki

This week’s Rock Legends are:

Year 3 - Harper Gayle

Year 4 - Adam Balic

Year 5 - Chloe Olden

Year 6 - Kelsea Semahoro

This week’s free online safety guide, provided by the National Online Safety (NOS) website, focuses on ‘Discord’. Discord is a voice, video and text chat app that's used by tens of millions of people ages 13+ to talk and hang out with their communities and friends.The majority of servers are private, invite-only spaces for groups of friends and communities to stay in touch, however, there are also larger, more open communities, generally centered around specific topics such as popular games like Minecraft and Fortnite. Users have control over whom they interact with and what their experience on Discord is.

Substance Misuse

This week, our focus is on parental substance use. Parents who have a substance use problem can have chaotic, unpredictable lifestyles and may struggle to meet their children’s needs. This may result in their children being at risk of harm. Parents who have a substance use problem may have difficulty: staying organised and giving their children effective and consistent support, keeping their home and family clean or recognising and responding appropriately to their own and their children’s physical needs. Parents who drink excessively or have a drug use problem can also become emotionally unavailable to their children. Another effect may be that a child may have to take on the role of carer for their family. This could include doing the housework and looking after younger siblings. Visit the NSPCC website or call their helpline on 0808 800 5000 for more information.

Replace Your Shower Head

Showering accounts for nearly 17% of residential indoor water use. Switching to one could save the average family 2,700 gallons of water per year.

At Lea Forest we aim to develop our pupils’ character through the growth of relationships that define us as human. 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 at in the ‘Character Curriculum’ section of our 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 part in the ‘Lea Forest Bake Off’ and cook a pancake using one of the recipe ideas from the ‘BBC Good Food’ website’. This could be a Plain Pancake, Dora Pancake, Lacey Vanilla Pancake or Chocolate Pancake… Remember to send your pancake pictures 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! Happy Pancake Day! 

What an incredibly busy week it has been! As well as delivering excellent lessons, we have had trips, visits and competitions galore.  

Debate Mate - Our Victorious debating teams

On Thursday evening this week, Miss Evans and Mrs Cowley accompanied our Debate Mate team for our very first competition of the academic year at Nelson Primary School.  The children were absolute ambassadors for our school and did us proud. They were so professional and articulate when competing in the debates against other schools. We took along two teams who both took part in 2 debates each and won both, ensuring Lea Forest a top spot in the league with 4 out of 4 wins! 

Number Day - what a success!

We celebrated Number Day this week.  Number Day is a maths-inspired fundraising day and children dressed up in digits, making a donation to wear an item of clothing with a number on it.  Funds raised from Number Day will help support vital NSPCC services such as ‘Speak out Stay Safe’ which visits primary schools across the UK to teach children about the dangers of abuse and what they can do if they need help. The children have enjoyed completing number based activities today, including: maths art, games and the TTRS challenges.

Reminder: Morning snacks

I would like to remind you that we are a nut free school.  Children who suffer from nut allergies can develop a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.  If someone has a nut allergy it is not just eating nuts that can cause a severe reaction, just being touched on the skin or smelling the breath of someone who has had nuts or a product containing nuts can trigger anaphylactic shock (which can cause breathing and swallowing difficulties).  First aid staff in the school are trained to use the Epi-pens (an injection of adrenalin) which is required immediately if this happens.  We cannot have nuts in school in any form, so please do not send nut products in for snacks or lunchtimes. I’d also like to remind you that we are a ‘Healthy School’ and only encourage healthy snacks to be sent in for morning breaks. Children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 are provided with fruit (free of charge).

Next week’s VoteTopic is in celebration of Safer Internet Day, which is coming up on Tuesday 6th February. We are asking voters to consider the “digital divide” between them and the adults in their lives, and to reflect on what we can learn from each other when it comes to the internet. Children in Years 1 and 2 will have their say on: “Can adults and children learn from each other about the online world?”, while Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 voters will decide: “Do adults have the tools to teach you about 

the online world?”

Have a great weekend!

Mr. Clarke-Castello

This week has been another fabulous week in terms of attendance. We are pleased that overall attendance is closer than ever to our 97% target. With your continuing support we believe that this remains achievable and we will continue to provide your children with outstanding educational opportunities every day. Some children are missing out on part of their education by arriving late to school. The gates are open from 8:45am. Please make sure your child arrives before 9am when the gates close. We are monitoring punctuality very closely and may contact you if we have a concern.

It’s great to see everyone working so hard to achieve our 97% target.  

We can only do this if we all work together!

Our attendance for 

the week is

97.15%

Our attendance for 

the year to date

96.91%

Keep up the great work!

We've been busy recording our trips to school this week and have recorded 8750 active journeys to school so far this month.  Our most active classes this week are: 

Gruffalo's,  4NN and 6SR.

Please see term dates for the remainder of the school year listed below. Ensure any holidays are booked during the period of times highlighted in red:

Spring 1

09/01/24

08/02/24

Spring Half Term

12/02/24

16/02/24

Spring 2

19/02/24

22/03/24

Easter Holiday

23/03/24

07/04/24

Summer 1

08/04/24

24/05/24

Summer Half Term

27/05/24

31/05/24

Summer 2

03/06/24

19/07/24

INSET Days - 

School will be closed to pupils on the following dates for teacher training:

09/02/2024

17/06/2024

02/05/2024 - Election Day: 

School open to Year 6 pupils (am) only

Term dates for 2024 - 2025 can be found here:

We have been given funding from Birmingham City Council to enable us to purchase a £20 food  voucher for every child in Reception - Year 6. 

In order for us to distribute the vouchers quickly and effectively we are asking parents to complete this online form: https://forms.gle/BFwtR6B9Ze9EFzRV9 

Vouchers will be issued from 8th February via our FSM@leaforestacademy.org email address.

Mrs Cunningham will kick start Children’s Mental Health week with a whole school assembly centred around this year’s theme “Your Voice Matters.” Follow up work will be completed in classes. An Express Yourself day will take place on Thursday 8 February. We want to empower our children to celebrate what makes you…you! 

It has been amazing to see so many of you practising your fluency of your number facts and times tables in school and at home. 

Here are this week’s Numbots stars:

Year 1 - Isa Muhammad 

Year 2 - Anas Muhammad

Gruffalos - Bokoli Kalaki

This week’s Rock Legends are:

Year 3 - Harper Gayle

Year 4 - Chrissania Smith

Year 5 - Kyle Whitbread

Year 6 - Avram Mazarache

This week’s free online safety guide, provided by the National Online Safety (NOS) website, focuses on 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...

Talking to children about difficult topics

It's important that every child has someone they trust that they can ask for help. There'll be times when children need advice or support.There’ll also be times when you need to explain something that might upset them.You might need to start a difficult conversation because you have to break some bad news or ask them about something you're worried about. The NSPCC has lots of good advice for helping you decide how to talk to your child in an age-appropriate and supportive way. But remember that you know your child best, so trust your judgement about what’s going to work for them. For more information and support use the link below to view the NSPCC resources. 

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/talking-about-difficult-topics/ 

 Busy brains and growing bodies need the right fuel to power through a packed school day! Just like a superhero's energy source, what we eat matters. That's why we wanted to send a friendly reminder about choosing healthy snacks for our remarkable pupils at Lea Forest Primary Academy.

A healthy snack should be:

Packed with power: Choose foods rich in protein, fibre, and good fats – like cheese slices with whole-wheat crackers, hummus and vegetable sticks, or yoghurt with berries.

Rainbow bright: Fill your child's snack box with colourful fruits and vegetables – think crunchy carrot sticks, juicy grapes (need to be sliced), chopped peppers or cherry tomatoes!

Let's work together to fuel our pupils with the nutritious snacks they need to shine bright!                       

Sustainable Food Systems

Support sustainable food systems and learn what foods are sustainable. If giving up meat is a no-go for you, you can still make that steak more sustainable by sourcing it locally from organic, grass-fed farms.