It has been a very busy week here at Clearwell! A group of children chose to attend a gymnastics competition at the Forest of Dean Gymnastics Centre organised by Lynn Hammersley. We competed against Ellwood Primary school and the children were an absolute credit to themselves and our school. All of the children received a participation certificate and some chocolate. The highest scoring gymnasts (male and female, KS1 and KS2) were also given an Easter Egg. Clearwell did really well with this, Teddy, Victoria & Lily (joint first) and Harry all received an Easter Egg. Lynn generously had a “lucky dip” gift for three of the entrants, Bea and Zara won two of these. I am so very proud of all of these children as they were living out our vision of being “Life-long learners”. A parent also sent in these words which I wanted to share:

I just wanted to send an email to say how impressed I was with the children who took part in the gymnastics competition! It’s one thing to try something completely new, and another to then take that new activity and perform in front of a crowd of people! It takes a lot of guts to perform in front of other people, and even when nerves seemed to get the better of some of the gymnasts, they continued to perform to the best of their abilities and behaved in a very professional and sportsmanlike manner! 

We also had our Easter Service which was fully organised by the teaching staff. As always, the service was a delight, with our children performing with varying amounts of confidence. We feel it is important that every child has the opportunity to speak in our celebrations as it is part of our vision for them to be confident communicators. We have seen so many children develop their confidence through our learning provision and ethos. Thank you to all of the families and members of the community that came to join us in this celebration – you are always welcome.

Sewing club have created a large range of items this term, practising different stitches. Thank you to Mrs Peters and Mrs McKelvey for running this club and filling the children’s sewing with Easter goodies!

The school council requested that Key Stage Two children get to participate in Welly Walk – this is an activity for all of our EYFS and KS1 children as elements of their curriculum are delivered in this way. As usual, we do our best to fulfill their requests; on Thursday the whole school went on Welly Walk. They had a fabulous time.

The children have also been part of the process in the selection of new play equipment for the rec. KS2 children were shown the different designs and Mrs McBean and Charlie Rose came in today to discuss their thoughts and gather their opinions. It is great opportunity for them to influence the area where they get to play. The children have chosen the company which has an ethos and reputation for their materials being sustainable. They have requested for play equipment that enables access for all, including a hard service for wheel chair users. The next step will be to raise over £100,000 – watch this space!

The dojo shop was open today with children exchanging their dojo points (positive rewards given in school). They love this shop! Thank you to Mrs Williams for sorting this out for the children.

Mrs Tarry has been extremely busy over the last couple of weeks with us having a number of audits before I leave. These have been in Finance, Health and Safety and Safeguarding. I am extremely grateful for the amount of work she put in to prepare for and be part of these audits. I am pleased to say that all three audits confirmed that best practice is in place at Clearwell. The Safeguarding audit was particularly pleasing as the quick feedback was that we are “Sound as a pound” as Clearwell has an ethos conducive to excellent safeguarding.

The week has been a very strange one for me as it is my last one the Headteacher at Clearwell Primary school and the last one as a teacher. I have been working with and at Clearwell for six years as I was appointed in March 2017 and have been teaching for 25 years. I am going to work at the Local Authority and will be the Inclusion Lead for the Forest of Dean and Gloucester. Inclusion is something that I am passionate about as I believe that every child deserves the chance to be the best version of themselves possible – sometimes needed an extra helping hand to make this possible.

My time at Clearwell has been brilliant! There have been some challenging times alongside the joyous occasions but I have always done my very best to put the children in our school at the centre of decision making. I am going to miss the staff; the children; the families and the community of Clearwell so much. It has been a huge part of my life for the last 6 years. Thank you to those who have welcomed me into this community and supported me in my journey as Headteacher of our village school. There are way too many people to thank individually, but I hope that you know who you are – I do try to make sure people know when I am grateful. As I tell the children, “treat others as you like to be treated!” I also want to say thank you to those people who have contributed to the gifts that I received during the Easter service. Just in case you do not know what your kind donations went to I had some Lego flowers (I LOVE Lego!), a spa day for two and afternoon tea for two. There were also some fabulous gifts made by the children, a book of memories (these will make me shed some tears!) and some bunting where they had all drawn me. Absolutely perfect.

I usually like to write personalised thank you letters to anyone that gives a gift to me but I have been bombarded with flowers, wine and other gifts this morning and I am not 100% sure who has given me what, so please forgive me for this generic thank you! The cards with your thanks on definitely need a mascara warning!

I am confident that the team at Clearwell will continue to put children at the centre of decision making as they are absolutely superb. The school is in an excellent place, with a dedicated team of people who all share the same values and ethos. These will be ably led by Rachel Griffiths until September. The recruitment process is on-going for the substantial Headteacher and the Vice Chair of Governors – Dr Laura Price – will keep you informed of this.

Our Celebrations