Monthly Archives: December 2022

Head’s Blog – 16th December 2022

After the snowfall at the beginning of the week and the freezing temperatures experienced all week it is a surprise that we have managed to get into school! A huge Thank you to Mrs Peters who came into school on Monday and cleared safe passage ways into and around school. As she said, she certainly earned a mince pie or two!

Mrs Peters and Mrs Ridgway, along with all of the pupils in Oak class have worked really hard to put together a fabulous Nativity performance. I was really overwhelmed how the children knew all of their words to the songs and their lines. Our vision of creating children who can communicate confidentially is certainly working as the performance was spectacular. Four year olds knowing what to say on a stage to a full audience is just amazing. Thank you to all of them and to our families who came to watch.

After the Nativity, we all made our way to the church for refreshments, to “buy” the children’s Christmas crafts and for the carol service and Christingle. The hot drinks and cake, all organised my Jane and Domme Geloso (thank you so much) were most welcomed as the church was as cold inside as the minus temperatures outside! Years 3 and 4 children went onto perform ‘Twas the Night before Christmas, Norah played her Tenor Horn and years 5 and 6 told us all about Christmas traditions from around the world. This culminated in them leading our Christingle service. As is tradition at Clearwell we sing Away in a Manger, accapella, in candlelight. It is always a magnificent site and sounds fabulous. Lots of children have been awarded a “Developing who we are badge”

Thank you so much to everyone who came, the feedback has been lovely. We also managed to raise over £700 (Including raffle tickets sales) which all goes into school funds to provide a range of things for our children, including iPads and adventures.

A huge thank you to everyone who donated food for our reverse advent calendar. All of this food has gone to the Forest Food bank to support members of our community who need it.

Our Celebrations

Today we celebrated more ‘Developing who we are’ badge winners and a number of children read out some poetry in Worship. We have so many confident communicators in our school.

Head’s Blog – 9th December 2022

Christmas has well and truly arrived at Clearwell. Our first adventure was to the castle for our annual singing to members of the community as well as have a party and meet Father Christmas. This year, Coleford Fire Brigade provided the transport for Father Christmas in their Billy Float. Thank you so much. As you can see from the photographs, the children were so excited, especially with the “snow”. I wonder if we will get the real thing this weekend?!

Thank you Father Christmas, Matt and Kat

We have started making the items for our Christmas Bazaar that will be taking place on Wednesday 14th December. The itinerary is as follows:

1:15 Oak class perform the Nativity in the Memorial Hall, all parents welcome

1:45 Refreshments and children’s craft sale at the church. Raffle tickets for sale.

2:15 KS2 Christmas performance and carols, leading straight onto our candle-lit Christingle, all welcome including members of our community. We will draw the raffle and give out the prizes. Children will be free to go home after this is all completed.

Here are a selection of images from the week of being creative, parents will be able to make a donation in exchange for the items. They will all be labelled so you know which item belongs to which child!

It was our Christmas dinner and annual visit to Clearwell Caves today. Mrs Thomas, Mrs Knight and Mrs Edey have done a fabulous job preparing, cooking and serving us. We absolutely loved our food and are all really grateful for the work that they put in today and everyday. Children never go home hungry from Clearwell!

We will be singing carols at Clearwell’s Christmas Fayre in the village hall on Saturday at 2:00 pm if you would like to come along.

Years 3 and 4 have been out and about having an adventure in Clearwell conducting their Geography field work where they were look at physical and man-made features within our local community. Being out and about brings everything to life, more so than a book, that is why we like having adventures!

Our Celebrations

We have lots of celebrations this week as we did our end of term awards and rewards. Children were able to spend their dojos which they have earned for reading and other good learning behaviours. In addition to this, all children who have over 97% attendance went into a prize draw for cinema tickets and the lucky winner was Reggie; his brother was happy!

Head’s Award – Macey, Christi Angel – Freya, Top Learner (English) – Macey

These children have all received Developing who we are badges this week. They are truly being inspired to take responsibility for their own learning and character development. One girl played her tenor horn to us in Worship, she will get her badge next week!

Head’s Blog – 2nd December 2022

Despite the weather outside being freezing and foggy, we have been having a wonderful time in school. Reception children have been reading the Gingerbread man and have completed a host of activities surrounding this. It culminated in them baking Gingerbread men to take home. Mrs Ridgway was too engrossed to take photographs during the process but she took some of the finished products, thank you. There is also a sample of their writing where they have been using Fred talk to write CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. I am so impressed with the outcomes.

I love Fridays at Clearwell and not because it is nearly the weekend! It is the day that we celebrate the successes from the week with just a couple of children from each class highlighted (to be honest we struggle to pick one as there are always so many to choose from!); also because children get to share things that they are proud of. A bit like a whole school show and tell. Today, Amelia shared her trophies from Baton Twirling and a number of other children shared things that they created having been inspired by their learning in school. Oak class have been learning about poetry this week and two of the children performed their poems that they have written at home. I will translate them as they have been written by a Y2, completely independent. I wish I had recorded them performing them.

Matilda: I put my hand on the sky, feel the rhythm of the cloud. I put my hand on the bridge, feel the rhythm of the train. I put my hand on the window, feel the rhythm of the rain. I put my hand on the petal feel the rhythm of the plant.

Francesco: Yesterday I saw a dark, dark figure. A dark, dark figure it was. It turned out it wasn’t there.

We also had a few children showing off other creative things, including a home for a penguin. This project was a collaboration!

We use our iPads a lot in school for a whole range of activities, one being Stop Frame Animation. One of our Y6 children asked his dad to help him make some stands for them after I said that they would be useful. We love the outcomes. A huge thank you to our Y6 and his dad, Richard.