We have really enjoyed all the lovely weather, this week and lots of opportunities to be outside.

Hopefully, you will all have received a letter from our Chief Education Officer, Vickey Shelley regarding the consultation with parents of a potential merge of our trust, Elements, with another Diocese Multi – Academy Trust, DOWMAT.  We look forward to meeting with Vickey on Wednesday 20th May at 5pm, where she will give an over view of the potential merge and answer any questions that you may have.  Please do let the school office know, if you are able to attend.

We are very proud to be able to work closely with Wall Heath in Bloom and are very grateful for all of their hard work and commitment to keeping our community looking so vibrant and colourful.  They will be holding a plant sale on Saturday 2nd May, at 11am on the Co-op car park.  This morning, we spoke in assembly about how lucky we are to have such a lovely environment to live in and asked that the children do not walk along the raised, walled garden area, that runs alongside Wordsley Carpets.  Unfortunately, some of the plants have been trampled and had to be removed – your support with not allowing children to walk along the areas that plants and flowers are growing, is very much appreciated.  Many thanks.

I hope that you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend and look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 5th May.

It has been an incredibly busy week for us in school and a week of demonstrating the variety of skills and talents that our children have.

Well done to all of the children who participated in the Dudley Gymnastics Competition.  We had teams representing all of our year groups.  Mrs Clarke was incredibly proud of how brilliantly all of the children represented our school.  The teams returned to school with lots of medals to celebrate in today’s Celebration Assembly.

Huge thanks to 3N, who started our morning today with a brass concert.  The children played with great skill and confidence and it was a pleasure to see the progress that they have made, over the term. Thank you also to some of our older children who demonstrated their skill and talent in singing, violin, trumpet and euphonium.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sunshine.

This week, we thought again about the core value of honesty and how this also links to our core value of forgiveness.  We  considered how Peter felt when he had betrayed Jesus and how the relationship between Peter and Jesus was restored through forgiveness.

In Thursday’s assembly we revisited our behaviour rules and the importance of using kind and respectful words. We learnt the acronym, THINK to remind us of the importance and power of the words that we use.  As a school, we have agreed to consider whether  what we are saying is:

True

Helpful

Inspiring

Necessary

Kind

I hope that you all had a wonderful Easter holiday and it has been lovely to welcome the children back to school, this week.

You may have noticed that we had some work done on the school site, over the holidays and the peace garden has been resurfaced to make it accessible in all weathers.  Thank you very much to Greenscape for carrying out the work at a discounted cost and to the HSA for their fundraising that has allowed us to have the work carried out. It really has made a difference to our outside area and the children have very much enjoyed using the outdoor space.

Please could I remind families that communication with school should be sent to the info@chur-ascen.dudley.sch.uk rather than emailing teachers directly. This then allows us to ensure that any queries are passed on to the appropriate person and responded to as soon as possible.

As a reminder regarding PE Kits, children will continue to need pumps appropriate for indoor PE, this term. Our uniform policy is available in the parents’ area of the website.

Hopefully you will have all received a letter today regarding key dates for this term.  We endeavour to keep the calendar on the website up to date, too.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Honesty is our core value, this half term and this week we have been considering the saying, “honesty is the best policy”.  Our children gave some very thoughtful responses about why people sometimes lie.  We then thought about how Peter lied and denied knowing Jesus, 3 times.  We also considered that Peter lied because he was afraid and that Jesus understood this and showed compassion.

In Thursday’s assembly, we had a behaviour reset.  We reminded ourselves of the school’s 3 rules: use kind and respectful hands and feet; use kind and respectful words; be ready and responsible to learn.  We all reflected on how our behaviour impacts on others.

We have had a very busy last week of term!

Reception pupils had a great time at the farm, looking at all of the signs of spring and new life.  They behaved and listened brilliantly and we are very proud of our youngest children.

Thank you to years 1 and 2 for their wonderful telling of the Easter story.  The singing was delightful and I particularly enjoyed the fabulous Easter bonnet parade.  There were some wonderful, imaginative creations!

Year 5 visited church for Experience Easter where they were congratulated on their thoughtful and mature responses.

Year 5 and 6 enjoyed their visit to a SafeSide where they listened carefully and learnt a lot about keeping themselves and others safe.

Well done to our year 6 football team who played against Alder Coppice Primary School, in the league. The team played brilliantly together and were very impressive, in particular as they hadn’t had the opportunity to practise on the school field, for some time.  We conceded a goal with seconds to go until the end of the game, meaning that the final score was 2-1. We look forward to more league games, next term.

Congratulations too to our year 6 cross country team who competed at Summerhill, this week.  Our girls team finished 3rd, with 2 pupils finishing in the top 10. Our boys’ team finished 11th, meaning that overall we finished 10th out of the 28 schools that competed.  Well done, runners!

We wish Miss Jones all the very best on her wedding day, this Sunday.  We hope that you have a lovely day and very much look forward to hearing all about it, when we return to school.

Following the Easter holidays, we will be arranging an information sharing evening for all the Year 6 pupils attending the PGL visit in Autumn 2026.  We will be able to share the payment schedule with you as well as further details about the activities and accommodation.

Thank you to our Worship Committee who led thought provoking and entertaining services in church today, for all of our pupils.

Sian Morgan, our Children, Youth and Family Minister, who has been a huge part of our school community, will be starting her new role within the Diocese, at the end of April.  Sian has worked closely with our Worship Committee, as well as regularly leading Collective Worship, supporting Church Club activities, teaching us songs with ISing Pop and being a big part of our school community.  We are very grateful for all that Sian has done to support our school and community and wish her all of the very best in her new role.  Thank you, Sian!

We seem to have had all weathers and seasons, this week!  As winter is moving into spring, this week we considered how spring is the time of year when we notice new beginnings.  We thought about how bare the trees have been through winter but that during this time, the trees are resting, the nutrients from the leaves are going back into the ground, and the tree is preparing the flourish again.  Easter is a time of new beginnings and flourishing for Christians and we considered the significance of Jesus’s last supper with his disciples and the new commandment that was shared – “to love one another, as I have loved you.”

Our thanks to New Life Church who visited us today and delivered their Easter assembly.  The Easter story was told through the familiar puppet characters that our children enjoy listening to and learning from.

Hasn’t it been lovely to feel some warmth and sunshine, this week? We have really enjoyed noticing the signs that spring is finally on its way.  Thank you to our Eco Committee who visited church this week, to meet with members of Wall Heath in Bloom.  We had a lovely visit and really enjoyed looking at the fabulous bug hotels, new bird boxes and all the wonderful plants and flowers that are now coming into bloom.

Well done and thank you to our year 5 pupils who behaved brilliantly on their visit to church for Experience Easter.  You listened carefully and gave some very thoughtful responses – you have made us all very proud.

We have really enjoyed the Funtime Theatre Company visit, this afternoon and their performance of Oliver Twist.  It was great to be able to watch a live performance in our own school.  Thank you to the fundraising efforts of the HSA which allowed us to be able to have such a great experience.

Neurodiversity Celebration Week has been a great success at Church of the Ascension. Children have made thoughtful observations and sensitive responses to all that we have learnt about and celebrated.  The colour and celebration in school today for non-uniform day has been great!

This week, we have been celebrating similarities and differences, in our assemblies. As it is National Neurodiversity week, we have been thinking about how our differences can bring talents, strengths and sometimes difficulties.  We thought about how we all want to feel that we belong and that we are valued.  Jesus set the example of this by ensuring that people pushed to the edges of society were made to feel included, welcomed and a sense of belonging.  We used this example to think about ways that we can be helpful at school in making sure that everyone feels happy, safe and a sense of belonging.  We talked about how sometimes we all need personal space, peace and quiet, support and friendship.  The children offered some excellent contributions and we have concluded the week with a lovely celebration assembly today, where we all wore our own clothes representing what makes us happy.  It was great to see children in different uniforms, kits and own clothes that represented where they feel that they are happy and that they belong.