Monthly Archives: March 2020

Head’s Blog – 20th March 2020

This is all rather surreal as this will be my last blog post for a while. It is a challenging time for every single one of us. When we heard that schools were closing and social distancing is taking place we made the conscious decision to make the last few days of our children’s education (for now) as one to make memories. We have had all of the children that we had in together. They have made cards, coloured, painted, watched a film and played inside and out. We have taken the time to talk to the children to find out if anything is worrying them and relay any fears. For most they are going to miss their friends. We have reassured them that they can contact them in other ways, please support them with this. Take care and see you on the other side of COVID-19.

Our Rainbow of Hope – Clearwell Children’s handprints from a couple of years ago

We also said goodbye for now to Mrs Stirrup, who is now in self-isolation until her baby is born. We wish her and her family well and we look forward to seeing the new arrival when they have been born and when it is safe to do so.

Gym Competition

I am extremely proud of our gymnasts that competed at the competition last weekend. All of them had personal bests. We didn’t get the chance to celebrate in Worship but for those that were in class earlier this week, we shared individual successes whether it was the achievement of remembering your entire routine in front of an audience to achieving a gold medal. Here are some photographs of all of our gymnasts.

If Clearwell children would like to their home learning with us then I will be able to share it with everyone else to inspire them. Thank you and most importantly take care.

Head’s Blog – 13th March

Amid a week of uncertainty for many we have kept calm and carried on at Clearwell. As usual, children are washing their hands after using the toilet and before eating. This is normal practice. We have issued guidance to all stakeholders of our plan which has been shared on Parent Apps. If you have any questions then please ask, we are following government advice and rest assured that we get a daily update from the Department for Education if any updates.

Emotional well being is always a high priority at Clearwell and all of our teaching assistants have continued with their training to be ELSAs (Emotional Literacy Support Assistants), we have been singing and painting. Our singing is quite spectacular and brings a tear to my eye. You are all in for a treat at our Easter service.

If you are a regular reader of my blog then you will know that we have been investigating the impact of war on Clearwell. This week the focus was on rationing, something that continued long after the war ended. Willow followed a war time recipe for carrot cake, so minimal sugar! The children had a fabulous time making it but I think that they enjoyed the eating more!

We have recently relaunched our advice and guidance for parents to support their child(ren) with their reading. We make use of core texts in school so that children can base their writing on this too. We have been using Flotsam in Willow and as Inference Iggy was the dog (skill) we were focusing on, children have been looking at what has been left at a beach and inferring what person had visited. The inference skills are improving no end!

Our Celebrations

Head’s Blog – 6th March

Communicating confidently is one aspect of our Vision at Clearwell so we love it when children ask to present to their class or the whole school. This week, a year 2 child has taught us about the anatomy of a chicken and shared how, together with his mum, have nursed battery hens back to good health. Here he is with his visual aid. The children loved stroking and holding the chicken. Mrs Tarry did too!

One of our Reception children went to march with Greta Thunberg in Bristol last week and shared her thoughts and experiences with the school.

World Book Day 2020

We had a wonderful day celebrating our love of books on Thursday. Lots of the children chose to dress up even though it was optional. All of the children had a t-shirt which KS1 children all drew characters from their favourite book and KS2 children wrote a quotation from a book on. We all took it in turns sharing our character or quotation to the whole school. It is fabulous seeing 4 year olds talking to the whole school!

Teachers planned a range of activities including a treasure hunt which tested their knowledge of books, decorating a book mark, creating a character, shared reading and designing their t-shirts. We hope that their love of reading has grown. We have bought lots of new books to add to our Ripping Reads collection and have set up an Amazon wish list of books if anyone would like contribute to our collection.
We took our first delivery today from “A Well Wisher” – thank you.

http://amzn.eu/1rNjHk

The impact of war on Clearwell

We have carried out different activities this afternoon as part of our Heritage Lottery Fund research. Neil, one of our parents, came in and answered some challenging questions about his time serving in the British Armed Forces. We could have quizzes him for hours! Meanwhile, another group of children went with Dr Griffiths to Clearwell Caves and the cemetery to find out more about Francis Miles.