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.

Mrs Peters and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Summerhill with the girls’ football team.  The team have been participating in a tournament and this week was round 2.  Both games played were very exciting and there was some great skill demonstrated. The end results were a loss and a win meaning that we are through to the finals!  The girls finished the afternoon with an impressive 8 goals! Well done to our girls’ football team.,

Our school council representatives have been helping me to establish the pupils’ views on behaviour in our school.  I am very grateful to the representatives and how sensibly and thoughtfully they have carried out this task. A particular thank you to the year 6 representatives who have supported our younger children to express their views.

This week I met with Wall Heath in Bloom.  Their plans for the village are very exciting and we are happy to be getting involved. Our Eco Committee will be getting actively involved in both school and the local area.

Huge thanks to our HSA who have held our annual sale for Mother’s Day, this afternoon.

One of our favourite visitors to Church of the Ascension, Lindsey Brown, led our assembly, on Monday.  Her clever and skilful use of art, helped us to understand the value of forgiveness.  Lindsey told us the story of creation and temptation.  She then reminded us of the significance of Easter,  and how for Christians it is a time of forgiveness, new beginnings and moving forwards.  Lindsey left us with a wonderful painting to display and remind us of how Christians believe that Jesus came to mend relationships.  Thank you for a thought provoking assembly, Lindsey.

This week, we held our termly Eucharist Service.  It was lovely to welcome visitors from the church and school communities to join us for the service and share communion, together, for those that wished to. Father Chris led us through a service that made us consider The Lord’s Prayer.  This is a prayer that we say regularly in school, and refer to as our Family Prayer.  Father Chris explained that it is called the Family Prayer as it brings all those of Christian faith together, in the unity of one prayer.  We considered what each part of the prayer means and what we are asking for when we say this prayer.  The children listened and engaged very well and as with all of Father Chris’s assemblies, very much enjoyed the musical responses and joining in with familiar and new hymns.

We have had a lovely week, enjoying the sunshine of Spring and celebrating World Book Day. We have all had a great time talking about our favourite books and book characters. The activities were a huge success and there was lots of healthy competition in the literary orienteering.  Thank you for all of the donations to the Book Swap – it was great to see so many children going home with a different book to read.  Football books were particularly popular, this year! We had some brilliant costumes – please do visit the year group pages for their photographs and updates.

I am very much looking forward to meeting with school council representatives, next week, to talk about behaviour in school and our behaviour policy.  This will complement the work that we have been doing with parents and staff to help inform our new behaviour policy, that we hope to launch before the start of next school year.  Thank you to all of those who contributed their thoughts and observations via the parent survey.