Monthly Archives: December 2018

Head’s Blog – 21st December 2018

Here we are at the end of 2018 after what can only be described as a week of highs and lows with our farewells. We know how to celebrate Christmas at Clearwell with our visit to the Caves last week and then our annual Christmas party at the Castle. The venue and the food were incredible, the children had the most fabulous time laughing and dancing, some mesmerised by the lighting on the floor. Thank you to the castle for inviting and hosting us.

After our Celebrations the children sang to the older members of Clearwell to an array of praise. This came on the day, via email and Facebook.

  • Tickled pink readers
  • 12 pink pips
  • Bronze Award winners
  • Bronze Award winners
  • Gymnastics success
  • Kung Fu success
  • Minotaur maze

Our nativity play performed by Oak class today was superb. Mrs Griffiths, Mrs Stirrup and Mrs Lawrence have worked tirelessly with the children to get them ready to perform and they certainly did! The reading by all of Year 2 individually and the acting by Year 1 and Reception children was lovely and lots of memories were made.

Heads Award

The Christingle part of our celebration is so magical. Thank you to Mrs Baulcome and her team who make the Christingles for us and Miss Young for telling us what each element of the Christingle represents.


Thank you to Mrs Frith who has been the welcoming face of Clearwell primary school for her last 3 years. I don’t think anyone can appreciate the vast range of skills that you need to have as a School Administrator and Mrs Frith has mastered it! She is always smiling, supportive and simply wonderful in every way. OFSTED commented on the meticulous nature of the safeguarding documentation that she keeps. We wish her well in her new adventure and we know that we will keep in touch.

There were many tears flowing as Mrs Lawrence said her goodbyes today. She has been part and parcel of Clearwell for the last 17 years and I for one cannot thank her enough. She has been honest with me at all times and supportive beyond imagination. She has a way or letting me know that I have forgotten something without being critical. We will miss her massively and I know that I will be contacting her to find out where something is, she is the font of knowledge! We wish her every success in her future and am sure that she will be back to volunteer on school trips if she is available.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year. The children have told us (and Father Christmas at the Caves) how important it is for them to spend time with their family and friends at this time of the year, not the gifts that they receive. Make some memories and we will see you in 2019.

Head’s Blog – 14th December 2018

I really don’t know where to start with my gratitude this week.  Starting off with the lead up to the incredible Christmas Fayre on Saturday where so many of you supported us whether it was selling raffle tickets, attending or helping.  Hopefully, I won’t miss anyone out but special thanks go to Jo Harrison, Andrea and Jamie Baker, Claire Pritchard, Kat Nelson-Brown, Kate Graham and Claire Hughes who worked tirelessly to help raise over £1200 profit.  Pupils, Asha and Mckenzie were the winners for selling the most raffle tickets with the support of their parents.


Carol singing 

Just as we start to relax at school, getting ready for Christmas, having paediatric first aid training the phone call comes – OFSTED are coming in the next morning! We don’t do what we do at Clearwell for OFSTED, we do it so the children at our school receive the best education available. However, we still need to ensure that we are doing everything that OFSTED expect to see in a school and that isn’t just on the day that they visit! Once the email was sent out to parents about the questionnaire that is required to be filled in, we were inundated with support from parents.  It was all hands on deck with the Nelson-Browns drilling and sweeping, Kate, Charlie and Teri tidying and generally helping out around the site.  Rachel Prout made us a delicious cake and everyone was beyond supportive.  I am not entirely sure who else was helping out so thank you all so much.  

The inspection was surprisingly enjoyable as the inspector was challenging yet supportive.  Lots learnt and the report will be published after Christmas.  We are looking forward to reading the report and sharing it with you in the new year. I am grateful to the staff who have worked so hard to make our school as successful as it is and I am looking forward to it growing.

Christmas at the Caves

As most of you know, the children of Clearwell get invited to Clearwell caves as part of their Christmas experience.   The children had a wonderful time. Thank you to Jonathan Wright for inviting us to visit each year.

Christmas Dinner

As ever, Mrs Thomas, Mrs Knight and Mrs Edey have surpassed themselves.  I cannot believe how amazing our Christmas dinner at Clearwell is.  Just look at the array of food available for all.  The children and staff had a fabulous time.

Our Celebrations 

  • Attendance – Joce
  • Housepoints – Dunraven
  • Our Stars
  • 12 pink pips

Head’s Blog – 7th December 2018

As the rest of the audience, I was absolutely blown away by the KS2 production ‘It’s All Greek To Me’.  The children, with Mrs Griffiths, put together a fabulous performance whereby they had them opportunity to show off their knowledge of the Greeks, their singing, acting and performing skills.  I was impressed that so many pupils have been able to learn their lines off by heart especially in such a short time frame.  We definitely have one or two children destined for life on the stage!  There are also some budding producers and directors, as I found out when I didn’t know what I supposed to do.  In my defence I have never seen the production before and was planning in staying in the audience!  I am proud of all of the children, especially those who overcame fears before and during the production to perform in front of the audience.

Our new curriculum is certainly inspiring the children as evidenced by the sheer volume and quality of the independent learning tasks created by the children with support from home.  I have visited some schools where children do not know their topic, that is certainly not the case at Clearwell.

The sale of the biscuits that the children made yesterday raised over £110. We will probably use this to buy some glaze for our hands (please see below). Thank you for your generous donations.

Becky, Mrs Frith’s sister, came in today to work with the children to create our art installation for Taurus Crafts. You can vote for our school to win a prize when they are displayed there.  Becky commented on how cooperative and polite the children were and here is the finished product. The circle in the middle has an acrostic poem which the children have described a Clearwell Christmas. It is really touching. I will try and get a close up photograph of this next week.

Whilst work was taking place on the wreath, everyone was taking it in turns making an impression of their hand with clay.  These are going to be fired at Dene Magna and then glazed to make a Rainbow of Hope for our corridor.  It will show how we all belong to our small community.