| Head’s Blog 30th June 2023 |
| This week has been all about community – our school and village. |
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Category Archives: Collective Worship
Head’s Blog June 9th 2023
| Head’s Blog 9th June 2023 |
| Welcome back everyone. As always, it’s been a busy week! It has been lovely to see all classes beginning new topics and settle back into school life. We have so much to look forward to this… |
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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?!
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 – 25th November 2022
We have been showing our courageous advocacy this week with with children bringing in a number of shoe boxes for Teams4u. Keith and Sandy Jones collect them from us every year and arrange them to be send to different countries according to need. We have also had children starting to bring in food items for families in our community that need a bit of support at this expensive time of year. If you are able to donate then please do bring them into our reception. Children also brought in a range of different bottles for our school raffle. Tickets have been sent home with children and if members of our community would like to buy them then please contact admin@clearwell.gloucs.sch.uk and we can arrange payment. Thank you.
As part of our vision, we encourage children to be creative. Our year 3 and 4 children have been making their own paint using spices as part of their Stone Age art.
We need to say a huge thank you to Mr and Mrs Davies (they have children in Reception and Year 4) who after finding out that our CD player had broken bought us a sound system to use. This was as a thank you for supporting their children to settle into school life. We cannot thank them enough for their generosity and cannot wait to use it.
Our Celebrations
Head’s Blog – 11th November 2022
From Reception to Year 6, we have spent time this week reflecting on what it means to serve your country and gave thanks to those who have fought and fight in wars both past and present. Many of which losing their lives in the process so that we can live in freedom. As always, we go into the village at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month to remember these people and animals. This year, we were joined by members of our community at St. Peter’s Church. Eevee, read out her beautiful poem that she wrote.
Young soldier strolls through the poppies, leaving his children behind. Dark clouds roaming around the sky making spirits whisper in his ears. But hope and love save him from the clouds above. Poppies shine and rain falls whilst a rainbow shine and rain falls whilst a rainbow of positivity grows. A big smiles appears on his face and he’s filled with peace.
Eevee, year 5
After our two minutes silence and the Last Post, Mrs McBean read “Flanders Field” and Richard Henson lay a wreath at the memorial. It was very emotional and our children were extremely respectful. Then we went into the church and Mrs McBean talked to us all about Private Miles VC, who lived in Clearwell and actually attended our school. We also talked about the other men from our parish who lost their lives during the first and second world wars. Thank you for helping the children to understand the importance of Remembrance day Mrs McBean.
Years 3 and 4 have experienced their STEM afternoon with Mr Ridgway making bridges. They had a fabulous time learning about how to strengthen one piece of paper enough to hold a car!
Meanwhile, most of the children from year 5 and 6 attended an athletics event at Dene Magna. They had lots of fun and did their best. They were very supportive of each other and tried events out of their comfort zone. Well done.
Our Celebrations
Florence was top learner for History.
Head’s Blog – 21st October 2022
Lots of awe and wonder in our garden this week as the sycamore tree and the wind treated us to a spectacular sight as the ”helicopters” flew from the sky. The Year 5 and 6 have been learning about living things, which has obviously stuck in their minds as they wanted to see what happened if they try and propagate the seeds!
Oak class have been learning about mechanisms in Design technology and have made their own windmills. They had a fabulous time making these beauties!
In Science years 3 and 4 have been learning about soil types and investigating the type of soil we have in our school grounds.
In RE, as part of the ”What do Christians learn about the Creation Story?”, the children were creative and made items that are in Genesis as God created the world in 7 days.
Our Celebrations
Head’s Blog – 9th September 2022
Head’s Blog – 9th September 2022
Welcome back to our new academic year. I hope that you have all had a wonderful summer making memories with your friends and families. It has been a rather strange week back at school, especially today spending time celebrating the life of Queen Elizabeth II. We have talked about the inspirational woman that she was and all of the different things that she achieved in her long life serving our country and the Commonwealth. As the Head of the Church of England, we have also discussed her role within the church and how her faith has supported her through challenging times that she has experienced. Finally, we watched her performance with Paddington from the Platinum Jubilee Celebration and talked about her mischievous side and how whilst she was not allowed to speak about her political beliefs she often found a way to make people know what she thought. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this difficult time.
We have shared a detailed letter with all family members regarding the day to day organisation of school. If anyone has questions then please do not hesitate to contact us. This week we celebrated all of the children who completed the Summer Reading Challenge, I didn’t manage to get a photograph but will get one and add it at a later date!
Science at Clearwell is delivered in a practical manner in-keeping with our vision. This week Years 5 and 6 were learning about the structure of a flower – they love hands-on learning!
Head’s Blog – 17th June 2022
Head’s Blog – 17th June 2022
We have have had a fabulous week this week with lots of adventures. The Year 6s got to attend a Leavers’ service for all of the Church of England schools in Gloucestershire. This was at Gloucester cathedral and is truly a spectacular building and lovely service. All of the children were given wooden crosses made from Olive trees that grew in Bethlehem. They are beautiful and unique, just like our children.
On Wednesday, a small group of children accompanied by Mrs McKelvey went on a 5 km walk through the woods which culminated in a ride of the steam train. Although it was hot and tiring, they had a lovely time.
Then on Thursday, a group of year 3 and 4 girls attended a cricket tournament in Newent. They had a fabulous time and did really well against year 5 and 6 girls. Thank you to Mrs Stirrup for taking and coaching them.
Mrs Thomas always works really hard to provide us with lovely meals. Once again, her kitchen has been awarded a Five Star rating for hygiene. Thank you!
Our Celebrations
Head’s Blog – 29th April
Head’s Blog – 29th April
What a week we have had this week! we have welcomed Mr Rob Hulse into our school as our permanent year 5/6 teacher. He has said he loves it already! Unfortunately, Mrs Stirrup has had to have emergency surgery which means that she will not be in school this term. We all send her our very best wishes. Mrs Stirrup has planned all of the year 3 and 4 learning and Ms Rix will be covering all of the teaching with Mrs Williams. We are again very lucky to have secured a high quality supply teacher who invests in our school as well as an amazing TA!
As a church school, we have a Bishop’s visitor come into visit us. She came on Tuesday and has written a lovely letter about our school. This will be shared with our families via Parent Apps. One of my favourite quotations from it is:
“It was so good to see the positive interactions between children, adults and children with adults – there is a very warm, caring, family atmosphere throughout the school.”
Mrs Anne Davies, 28th April 2022
Oak class have been learning about Judaism and spent some of their learning time creating a sukkah. This is a temporary hut constructed for use during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot. It is topped with branches and often well decorated with autumnal, harvest or Judaic themes.
I am writing this blog sat on the floor of the World Resorts Arena with some of our children who are participating in Young Voices. We are about to spend the afternoon rehearsing ready to perform this evening to a huge audience. I will share more photographs next week!
