Monthly Archives: November 2021

Head’s Blog – 26th November 2021

Head’s Blog – 26th November

Our school is very much about our community and I could not be prouder of one of our Parent Governors and her husband, Kate and Charlie. They ran the Gower Half marathon a few weeks ago, a gruelling course, with all of their sponsorship going towards our School Library fund. They raised an absolutely staggering £2,800! We cannot thank them and their sponsors enough as this is a phenomenal amount of money that has a huge impact on our small school.

On Wednesday, Willow class had another adventure when we all went to the Corinium Museum in Cirencester. We learned a phenomenal amount of information with our workshop focusing on Isotope analysis and walking around the museum. One mind blowing aspect for our children was how a scientist can analyse a tooth or a bone and identify which part of the world people are from. This is because of the mineral finger prints within our body which are left because of the food we eat and the soil that this has grown in. This information is used as the basis for our story as a person. Then the children got to be true history detectives and construct a narrative about some people from the past. Having adventures first hand is the best way for children to create a memory which their learning can then be assimilated to. Making memories is the essence of life and education, which is why we do it! Thank you to the Bells Foundation who donated money towards this trip to make it more affordable for our children. We had a fabulous day and I can highly recommend the education workshop at the museum, it was great!

Inspired by our visit to Cirencester, Willow class have been practising their sculpting skills using air drying class.

Books, books and more books….whether you’re Christmas Shopping, need birthday gifts, a treat to reward your child or simply books to enjoy everyday….We have something for everyone all available at this week’s Virtual Book Fair

You and your children will be pleased to know there is a huge range of brand new books to choose from including board books such as Hugless Douglas, picture books such as We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and many Julia Donaldson titles, we have early reader titles like Horrid Henry, Roald Dahl books, Diary of the Wimpy kid, Dork Diaries, Alex Rider and just in some David Walliams’ titles like Billionaire Boy…there really are too many to mention at only £2.50!

Simply visitwww.booksforbugs.co.uk/shopand choose your books

Once you get to the checkout stage please compete the billing details as normal but remember at the delivery details stage to add your child’s name and class where prompted. The link shows you how easy it is to order https://booksforbugs.co.uk/virtual-book-fair-info-for-parents/

For the delivery address please put Clearwell Primary School and the school’s postcode GL16 8LG this will remove all postage fees.

You can order up until midnight on Sunday 5^th December

All orders will then be dispatched and we will let you know when you can collect from school.

Buying through the Virtual Book Fair will help Clearwell Primary School as we will receive a free book for every 5 collectively sold that has a value of £2.50, so every book counts!

Happy Shopping!

Our Celebrations

Freya was our Christi-Angel in Oak class.

Head’s Blog – 19th November 2021

Welly walk is an institution at Clearwell Primary School and the children think that they are just having a lovely time walking with their friends and playing in the meadow or park. However, what they do not realise is that they are learning lots of other knowledge and skills at the same time. This week they watched a time lapse video about the seasons in the year which then led to a discussion about what they are likely to see on welly walk. The children in Oak class were brilliant at making predictions about the natural world. Using Explorify they looked at three different leaves and were asked to say which one was the odd one out and why. There is no wrong answer as long as the children are able to formulate sentences to justify their decision. This fits in with our vision of children becoming confident communicators and our school development focus of oracy. Our favourite odd one out statements was that one leaf was see-through and the other two aren’t.

Thank you for the donations for Children in Need, we have raised over £75 which is brilliant for such a small school. Today, the children have all participated in Joe Wick’s online quiz and work out. KS2 have been code breakers to show off their times tables and maths skills whilst Oak have been being mindful. We have all talked about what the BBC charity does for those families and people that need their support and KS2 looked at the history of this wonderful charity.

Our Celebrations

Bailey was a Top Learner for his wonderful work, including his own recorded TV show about WW2.

Head’s Blog – 12th November

For the first time since March 2020 COVID has finally decided to infect a few children at our school. Fortunately there has only been one child who has been poorly (they are on the mend) and the rest are asymptomatic. We would never have detected these cases if we had not been carrying out daily lateral flow testing, so thank you for supporting us on this matter and helping to prevent the spread of the virus. As parents will know we have also re-introduced bubbles and other measures to help reduce infection rates. We are hoping that everyone stays safe.

On Thursday, we went to the cross in Clearwell, paid our respects to those who have lost their life so that we have the life that we have today. A few villagers and workmen joined in our Remembrance service which is wonderful. I am always so proud of our children as every single one of them were able to stand for the two minute silence and pay their respects. It is so emotional to see them behave in this manner.

We have had some staffing changes at Clearwell. We would like to welcome Mrs Wendy McKelvey to our team. She is a TA working as a 1:1 and within the class room. Miss Claire Cecil has left Clearwell school and we are advertising for a new Year 5 and 6 teacher.

Our Celebrations

Head’s Blog – 5th November 2021

We have had lots of celebrations this week. It started with some children bringing in a decorated pumpkin to celebrate All Hallows’ day. They really showed off their creative side, which is something we value at Clearwell. The Winners were Asha and Matilda, Commended were Arthur and Dylan. Other entries were by Amelia, Alfie, Shannon, Mari, Florence, Paige, Theo and Max. Thank you to parents for their support with this. All monies raised by the entries is going to our library fund.

We also celebrated our Harvest service where we are fortunate enough to do at St. Peter’s church with our Foundation Governors present. Unfortunately, we were unable to invite parents due to COVID but they did get to watch their children in their full glory on the videos that have been posted onto Class Dojo – this is a secure site accessible for parents. I am able to share on here the vast quantity of food that families donated, all of which goes to Forest Food bank. We have spoken to children that it is important to give, whether that is love, happiness, kindness or at this time of year food to support those parents that may need extra help to feed their families. Thank you to everyone that are in a position to donate and did so, we know that the recipients will be grateful for this. We will be operating a Reverse Advent calendar during December which again all donations will go to the Forest Food bank.

Another celebration that took place within the Hindu Religious calendar is Divali. So as part of the RE, Cultural awareness and art lesson the children made divas out of salt dough. They had to measure out the ingredients, work together to make the dough, then shape and paint them. They had lots of fun and have created some lovely lamps which will go home next week after they have been PVA’d!

Then came Fireworks images. Art club created some fabulous chalk art work. The children are so lucky that the teachers value art and creativity. I love the fact that they work together, especially after being separated so much in the last 2 years because of COVID.