Monthly Archives: October 2021

Head’s Blog – 22nd October

Well we have survived another half term where COVID has become more and more prevalent in our local community but thankfully we have managed to avoid it having a drastic effect at our school. New guidance has been issued by the Local Authority today because of the high rate of cases locally. The main recommendation that impacts on our school is for children to take regular lateral flow tests as this can help to identify cases at an early stage. This could be twice weekly or daily if that person has been a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID. We need to help each other to stay safe as we approach the winter months and pray that there is not another lockdown going to happen. I don’t think anyone is keen to return to home learning! As far as attendance is concerned here is some further guidance which should help families know what to do:

Symptoms: Should anyone have symptoms (one or more of the main three – new continuous cough, loss/change in taste or smell or a temperature) with a negative LFT, you should call the school for advice before coming in. Students who are advised to remain at home should continue to do LFT tests and book a PCR test. Please advise the school as soon as possible of any positive result. Work will be available for students to continue with on Doodle and we can share additional learning.
Positive LFT: Students who test positive on a LFT should book a PCR test and remain at home until the PCR test result has been returned. Please let the school know of both LFT and PCR test results as soon as possible. Work will be available for students to continue with on Doodle and other additional learning.
Positive PCR: Students should remain at home for the isolation period NHS Track and Trace have advised, plus any additional time should the symptoms still be present and are considered to still be contagious. Please advise the school of the result and any additional absence needed. Work will be available for students to continue with on Doodle and other additional learning, if they are well enough to work.
Positive LFT/PCR in the household: Students should continue to do LFTs daily and if negative should come into school.

The intention for our science at Clearwell is one that is practically based, this has been happening a lot over this term when pupils have been learning about light and sound at KS2. Here are a few images of the years 3 and 4 investigating the best material to create headphones.

As part of our encouraging creativity the children have also been making Roman shields, they had lots of fun and created some fabulous designs, as you can see.

Our Celebrations

Head’s Blog – 15th October

We have finally been able to return to competitive sport outside of school this week where 12 of the children from Clearwell participated in a Cross Country competition at Five Acres School as part of the School Games initiative. All of the children completed the course with minimal amount of training. Michaela Bowen, a parent and governor, came in the last couple of weeks and did some preparation with the children but nothing long term. This makes their achievement of completing the course even more admiral. The event was aimed at Year 5 and 6 children but we entered lots of year 4 and even a year 3 girl. The year 3, Tabitha, came an impressive 9th out of over 120 children. I find this simply phenomenal. We have signed up for lots of other sporting events which will be led by Mr Pete Tomley who is joining us to teach PE after half term. We are looking forward to him joining our team.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to our fashion show by attending, modelling, buying raffle tickets or simply donating. We raised over £600 which will all go to the library fund. We have ordered the bookcases as we are keen to get this set up as soon as possible and will continue to raise money during this academic year.

Our next fundraiser will take place on Thursday 21st October. It will start at 3:00 so we have time to fit a film in and will end at 4:30. The cost will be £2 per child and will include popcorn. All children are invited and dependent on how many children there are and their ages will determine whether we play one or two films and what they will be. Full details will come out on PA Connect.

Our Celebrations

Head’s Blog – 8th October 2021

We have been celebrating this week as it was National Poetry Day. All of our children have been learning poems to recite and perform. This is in keeping with our curriculum driver of “Communicating Confidently” . Some even went home and wrote their own poem, which I find incredible as another one of our drivers is to be life long learners – I have no doubt that some of our children will have their writing published in the future.

Willow class have had a mini adventure and visited St. Peter’s church, with Chris Young, to learn about Baptism and what it means within Christianity. We find that experiencing adventures really helps children to learn as they are able to build on these when trying to accommodate new learning.

There has been lots of creativity in school this week, whether it has been in class writing and performing poetry, at art club becoming a super hero or at home being inspired by our Roman topic. Yet more evidence of how our Curriculum is designed to meet our vision.

Our Celebrations

Head’s Blog – 1st October 2021

This week we have welcomed a time traveller from circa 43AD, a Roman Legionary Soldier. He taught us about life in the Roman Legion, the clothing they wore (including the Latin names), the weapons and the different roles within the Roman Army.

The weather prevented us going out and about this week but it didn’t stop the children learning about Autumn, cooperating, building and colouring.

Thank you to all of those people that have bought tickets for our fashion show or made a donation if they are unable to attend. This just shows what a fabulous community we have. Plenty of tickets are left so please come along, it is our first major fundraising event since before COVID hit in March 2020! We are also selling raffle tickets at £1 each if anyone would like to purchase them.