I am very sorry to report that I have had to re-schedule the inflatable assault course again, to later next week.  With strong winds predicted for the beginning of the week, we felt that it was safest to delay.  I have never known the weather to be so unsettled at the beginning of the school year and it is typical that this unpredictable weather coincides with when we are trying to organise an outdoor event!  Many thanks for your support and patience with this.

AIP, our school food provider, will be on the main playground from 3pm on Tuesday 16th September.  They are looking forward to meeting our families and answering any questions that you  may have about our school lunches.  I  believe that they may also be bringing some sweet treats.

The children have done some fantastic responses to our focus book, The Dot.  I am so impressed by how inspired and creative the children have been.  We shared some examples of poetry in Praise Assembly, this morning.

Many thanks to all of you who attended our phonics and early reading evening, this week. We have never had such a positive turn out before. For those who did attend, please could you take a couple of minutes to complete our feedback form?  https://forms.office.com/e/ZfteS15WYJ

A quick reminder that our HSA meeting will take place on Monday 15th September, at school, at 630pm.  I look forward to seeing many of you, then.

Despite the rain, we have had a wonderful first week back at school.  After two staff INSET days of lots of thinking about and preparation for the year ahead, it was lovely to welcome the children back to school on Wednesday.  We have been so impressed by the confidence that the children have returned to school with.  Our youngest, new reception children have also been super confident and we are amazed by how quickly they are settling in to school life.  Thank you for all of your support, in what has been a very positive start to the school year. 

Your child will be coming home with a Data Collection sheet, next week.  Please could we request that these are checked and any amendments made and returned to school, as quickly as possible please.  We are hoping to move all of our school communications and payments over to Arbor and a quick return of this information will really help with a smooth transition.

I will be sending out a separate letter regarding provisional dates for the school year.  Just a quick reminder that we have a couple of parent events coming up over the next few weeks to provide information about our new phonics scheme + supporting reading at home and another evening regarding supporting your child with times tables:

Phonics and reading evening – Tuesday 9th September at 630pm (Reception, Year 1 & Year 2)

Multiplication evening – Tuesday 23rd September at 630pm (Year 3 & Year 4)

Another important date for your diary is our first HSA meeting of the year on Monday 15th September at 630pm. Our sincere thanks to the HSA who are funding our Inflatables Days, at the end of next week.  Hopefully you have all received the letter regarding all pupils having the opportunity to complete an assault course as part of our Aspire for Higher initiative.  If you have any questions or concerns, please do get in touch.

Our thanks go to Father Chris who led a very thought provoking act of worship this week.  Our assembly was all about transitions and about the feelings we may be experiencing at the end of one academic year and before the start of another.  Father Chris encouraged us to be mindful of our feelings and to acknowledge that we might have a whole mixture of emotions.  Father Chris reminded us of how we can spend some time with our own thoughts and feelings, and if we so choose can share how we are feeling with Jesus.

Thank you for a fabulous year that has been full of great memories.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year as head teacher at Church of the Ascension and am very grateful for the welcome and support that I have received. Looking back through the events that are posted on this website, remind us of all that we have enjoyed and achieved, over the year. Year 6 have done us proud with a fabulous production, brilliant behaviour on their trip to Baggeridge and a very touching Leaver’s Service, today.  Wishing our Year 6 pupils all the very best in their next steps – we look forward to hearing all about your future successes.

I hope that you all have a very lovely summer holidays and look forward to seeing you all when the children return on Wednesday 3rd September.  All holiday and INSET dates are now on the calendar. Other dates will be confirmed on our return, in the Autumn term.

What a week, this has been!  A very well done to our year 5 and 6 pupils who performed so well.  Going for Gold was truly brilliant and I was blown away by the talent of the children taking part.  We were treated to singing, dancing, acting and even a rapping Greek God.  Thank you, year 5 and 6 for all of your hard work and for the excellent performances that you treated us to.

Our reception children have had a lot of fun during Pirate week and have thoroughly enjoyed all of the themed activities that they have been taking part in.  Please do visit the reception class page, where you can see what they have been up to!

Year 1 and 2 have had a great day today, celebrating India day.  It has been a great day of singing, dancing and food tasting.

The Bishop of Dudley visited us yesterday to present the Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award.  11 of our pupils are amongst the first in the country to receive this award.  We are immensely proud of the work that your worship committee do and this award is recognition for some of our pupils of their hard work and dedication to school life.  Please see the attached article for further details.

Young People achieve Archbishops’ Award – Diocese of Worcester

This week has been all about transitions and our first assembly focus was on the importance of creating good first impressions.  We used the wonderful picture book, The Most Magnificent thing, to think about the importance of resilience and not giving up.  We thought about how much we can learn from the mistakes that we make.

On Thursday, our Young Worship Leaders took over our assembly and acted out a modern version of the Good Samaritan.  Reflection involved us wondering about what it means to be a good neighbour and friend.  Some of our Young Worship Leaders were then presented with their well earned awards, that were presented by Bishop Martin, Bishop of Dudley. Bishop Martin confirmed that our children are the first from across the Diocese to achieve this award – of which we are immensely proud!