Issue 3 - Autumn 2024
Dear families,
Welcome to our new Newsletter format! We have started to post these as blogs on the website which we hope will make them easier to read, particularly if you are accessing them via mobile phone.
We have had a busy couple of weeks with many school events having taken place! After school clubs are up and running and we've allocated 387 places for 322 children in a wide variety of clubs. These are an important part of our provision for personal development and we love to see children enjoying themselves and learning new skills. There are still some places available - please contact the school office if your child would like to join a club. Please note - clubs will not take place next week due to parent consultations.
Staff have begun using Arbor to award behaviour points - I hope that you've been able to sport these! Unfortunately, Arbor does not send notifications so please check regularly to see if your child has been spotted for showing one of our ELSTON values or our school rules: ready, respectful, safe.
Thank you to families for your support with book fair last week. We sold around £2400 worth of books which will generate around £1400 commission for us to spend on books for pupils to read within school.
Parents evening consultation appointments are available to book via Arbor. These will be an excellent opportunity to meet your child's new teacher(s) to discuss how well your child has settled into class so far. If you cannot make the times provided, please contact school and we will do our best to accommodate you. During parents evening, a range of services will be available in the hall including school nurses, Reflexions, our PCSO, Strengthening Families and Miquills.
Thank you to parents who attended our Year 4 MTC/residential and Year 6 SATs/residential meetings this week. We appreciate your support and hope that these meetings have given you a better idea of how we will prepare pupils for these important statutory assessments as well as the exciting opportunities offered at Conwy and Laches Wood!
We have had the usual Autumn weather over the past couple of weeks with many rainy days! We try to get children outside as much as possible unless the rain is torrential, so please make sure children come to school wearing coats and appropriate footwear.
There are two weeks left until half term and they promise to be busy ones!
Thank you for your continued support,
Miss E Foster
Headteacher
Attendance
We track attendance weekly and monitor any pupils falling below 96%. School attendance remained at 95.6% - we'd love to see this increase above 96%. Well done to Year 1 and Year 4 who have the highest attendance so far! Year 2 and Year 6 saw increased attendance this week - well done.
Families can now email attendance@elston.org.uk to report any absences.
Year group | Up to 3.10.24 |
Whole School (Without Reception) | 95.6% |
Reception | 96.1% |
Year 1 | 97.3% |
Year 2 | 95.9% |
Year 3 | 94.6% |
Year 4 | 97.0% |
Year 5 | 94.4% |
Year 6 | 94.4% |
Hello Yellow
On Thursday, we took part in Hello Yellow for World Mental Health Day. Thank you for providing pupils with a yellow accessory for the day and for all your donations to Young Minds.
Our website contains lot of information about Mental Health. Take a look here: Emotional Health and Wellbeing | Elston Hall
Music Mark
In association with Wolverhampton Music School, we have been awarded Music Mark membership to for 2024-2025. This recognises our school’s commitment to music education and participation in events associated with the Black Country Music Hub and their partners.
Year 1 trip to Wonderland
Year 1 had a wonderful time at Wonderland last week! The visit really enhanced their learning about Traditional Tales and the thematic unit 'Happily Ever After'. Children loved meeting various characters and enjoyed visiting their homes! A highlight was helping The Mad Hatter and Alice tell a story. Please see the blog with more pictures here: Year 1 Visit to Wonderland (elstonhall.org.uk)
Cross Country - Tuesday 1st October
We are so proud of our children who ran in the Wolverhampton Schools cross country competition. We entered two teams, with one finishing in 1st place and the other team within the top 10! Fantastic team effort!
Football tournament
Today, we attended a football tournament at the Wolves training ground and got through to the final! Unfortunately we lost in the penalty shoot out but are very proud of the pupils who took part. Well done!
afPE Quality Mark for Physical Education, School Sport and Physical Activity
In July, we were delighted to be recognised with the afPE Quality Mark for ‘demonstrating outstanding commitment to improvement in Physical Education, School Sport and Physical Activity’. The validator highlighted the following reasons for the award:
Good Subject Leader knowledge and up to date understanding of PE and School Sport with good local network connections
The school is committed to employing staff with a sports or/and PE background and sees the subject as an important part of children’s education
Planning is good and assessment is developing to provide an accurate understanding of pupil’s progress.
Pupils show a good understanding of language and knowledge in PE.
WOW Walk to school challenge
250 badges have been awarded to children for travelling actively to school in September - well done! Thank you to families for your support with this.
Oxford Owl
Supporting your child’s learning at home
At Elston Hall we have been looking at how we can help you to support your child’s learning at home.
We use Oxford Owl in school and think you would find the dedicated parent/carer pages useful. Oxford Owl for Home includes expert advice, top tips, activity ideas and eBooks – all for free.
If you would like to take a look, simply go to
www.oxfordowl.co.uk and click on ‘For Home’.
Young Artists
Last term, pupils attending Mrs Dell and Miss Burns' Reception Drawing Club submitted some entries for a competition entitled, 'Me and My Family'. We were delighted to hear that all children were successful and their work was chosen for publication! Well done to all our budding artists. We look forward to seeing their work in print when it is published later in the Autumn term!
Harvest
On Friday 25th October, Year 2 will be leading our Harvest celebration. We would appreciate any donations for The Good Shepherd. To help run their food services, they appreciate donations of the following:
Long Life Milk
Tea, coffee, sugar & hot chocolate
Curry sauce and pasta sauce
Tinned Sweetcorn
Tinned meats
Pot noodles
Tinned fruit, custard and desserts
Toiletries
Please could any donations be bought into school from Monday 21st October. Thank you in advance for your support.
Bonfire Menu
Board games
We would like to request any donations of board games/activities suitable for wet lunchtime boxes. If you have any games that your children no longer play with, please send them into school. Thank you!
Parking
Although Shelley Road carpark is not school property, it is used by families at pick up and drop off times. We have received concerns from parents and we'd like to request that all families are considerate while using the carpark and parking near the school.
Please do not park on the zig zag yellow lines by the car park entrance and avoid blocking the entrance. Please also drive slowly and carefully in order to keep all children and adults safe as they make their journey to and from school. Thank you.
Key Dates
Autumn Term 2024
WC 14th October—No Clubs due to Parents Evenings
Wednesday 16th / Thursday 17th October—Parents’ Evening Consultations (no clubs this week)
Wednesday 23rd October—Flu immunisations
Friday 25th October—Y2 Harvest
Monday 28th October—Friday 1st November—Half term break
Wednesday 13th / Thursday 14th November—Y3 Trip to Tanglewood
Tuesday 19th November—Y2 Circus visit (in school)
Monday 25th November—Flu immunisation catch up session
Thursday 12th December - Nursery Christmas Performances 9:15 & 13:30, Reception 10:15 & 14:30
Friday 13th December - Reception trip. Year 5 Christmas Performances 9:15 & 13:30, Year 6 10:15 & 14:30
Monday 16th December - Year 1 Christmas Performances 9:15 & 13:30, Year 2 10:15 & 14:30
Tuesday 17th December - Year 3 Christmas Performances 9:15 & 13:30, Year 4 10:15 & 14:30
Monday 23rd December—Friday 3rd January—Christmas break
Spring term 2025
Monday 6th January —Pupils return to school
Monday 17th February—Friday 21st February—Half term
Monday 24th February—INSET DAY—School closed to pupils
Monday 14th April—Friday 25th April—Easter break
Summer term 2025
Monday 28th April —Pupils return to school
Monday 12th May—Thursday 15th May—Year 6 SATs
Monday 26th May—Friday 30th May—Half term
Monday 2nd June—Friday 6th June - Year 4 Multiplication Checks
Monday 9th June—Friday 13th June - Year 1 Phonics screening and Year 4 Multiplication Checks
Friday 20th June—INSET day—School closed to pupils
Friday 18th July—Last day of summer term
Yo! Wolves
The Yo! Wolves October half term programme is open for booking from Monday 14 October, offering hundreds of activities, events and food for the city’s children and young people and their families during the half term week.
Running from Monday 28 October to Friday 1 November, all activities are fully funded by City of Wolverhampton Council and will include a meal.
The holiday activities during half terms are free for any school age child resident in the City of Wolverhampton. The activities include arts, crafts, fun days out, dance and drama workshops, photography and much more. Booking places is easy at www.yowolves.co.uk
Community Links
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