Issue 5 - Autumn 2024
Proud to be ELSTON! Empowered, Listeners, Successful, Together, Open-Minded, Nurturing
Dear families,
We have had a very busy two weeks since returning from our half-term break!
We've been on trips, welcomed visitors and done lots and lots of learning!
This week we took part in anti-bullying week. To celebrate that we are all unique, children came to school wearing odd socks on Tuesday 12th November. We've focused on the key message of 'Choose Respect' in assemblies and in PSHE lessons.
Children enjoyed celebrating Children in Need today. Thank you for all your donations including cakes for our bake sale -we've never seen so many! Over £500 has been donated on Arbor with some cash donations taken after school when more cakes were sold. We will share the total amount raised in our next newsletter!
I've started to hear the odd Christmas song escaping from classrooms towards the end of the day...we look forward to welcoming you to our Christmas performances later in the term! We also have an exciting Christmas week planned which we will share with you soon.
We unfortunately said goodbye to Miss Thornton who began her career with us two years ago. She has decided to pursue other ventures and we wish her every success for the future. We are delighted to have welcomed Mr Humphries to Elston Hall! He is teaching in Class 5 and is settling in brilliantly to the Year 1 team.
The temperature has certainly dropped over the last few days. Please make sure children always bring a coat to school and are wearing suitable footwear. Hats, scarves and gloves may also be needed!
Thank you for your ongoing support,
Miss E Foster
Headteacher
Attendance
We track attendance weekly and monitor any pupils falling below 96%. School attendance decreased slightly to 95.5%. This is slightly above the most recent national average published which was 95.4%. We'd love to see our attendance increase above 96%. Well done to Year 4 who have the highest attendance so far! Years 5 and 6 attendance improved - well done!
Please could we remind families to inform school of any absences before 9am. Please call 01902 558866. If you are calling before 8am, please leave a voicemail and this will be picked up and reasons for absence recorded on Arbor. Families can now also email attendance@elston.org.uk to report any absences. Families may now also report absences on the Arbor app! Please look out for an email containing instructions for how to do this.
If your child has a medical appointment, please bring them to school before and after wherever possible.
Year group | Up to 7.11.24 |
Whole School (Without Reception) | 95.5% |
Reception | 94.8% |
Year 1 | 96.1% |
Year 2 | 96.1% |
Year 3 | 94.4% |
Year 4 | 96.8% |
Year 5 | 94.7% |
Year 6 | 95.4% |
Diversity Celebration
On Monday, we were delighted to take part in the city's Diversity celebration. This year’s celebration, titled Our City, Together Again, created a lively showcase of Wolverhampton’s multicultural landscape. Audience members were treated to a collection of performances, each one reflecting the diversity and unity that define the community. The children from Elston Hall performed a choreographed dance to the song 'Bastille - If you Close your Eyes' accompanied by the choir at Pheasey Park. The children were extremely excited to perform to their audience after many weeks of rehearsals. We are very proud of all of the children that have participated.
See more photos on https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBRt5Y
Year 4 Electricity Workshop
On our first day back after half term, Year 4 took part in an exciting lego workshop, combining skills learned across many subjects! Pupils discussed settlements and which Human and Physical features we would find in them. Using Geography sticky knowledge, they then we created our own town, using their creative skills. Once complete, they used our Science skills to devise circuits using batteries, wires, switches and bulbs to create lights in our buildings. What a brilliant day! Please read our blog for more information including pictures and videos.
Nursery Rhyme Week
This week, our Early Years pupils took part in Nursery Rhyme Week! Pupils and staff dressed up as their favourite nursery rhyme character, took part in a Trust-wide assembly and paraded around school!
Our efforts have been published in the Express and Star! Well done to all in Early Years.
Reception admissions September 2025
The online portal for applications opened on November 12th. All applications are to be made online using the online application system www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/admissions
All applications must be made by the deadline of 15th January 2025.
Support for parents/carers who are making applications is available through the Admissions and Appeals Section. Parents should contact the team on 01902 551122 or by email at School.Admissions@wolverhampton.gov.uk
National offer day is 16 April 2025 when the parents will be notified of their allocation via e-mail if they applied online, letters will also be sent second class posted on 16 April 2025.
The View from my Window
As part of our work towards our reaccreditation of the International School Award, we are delighted to be taking part in International Education Week (International Education Week | British Council). We are inviting families to take part in a project called 'The View From My Window'.
To take part, children need to:
Take a photo of a view from near to your house or around our school or local area
Describe what they can see in the picture, explain how it makes them feel and why it is important. Describe anything that is special or unusual in the photo. (Families can discuss this with children and support the writing to go with the photo where necessary).
Send in the project to your teacher with name and class clearly labelled by Friday 22nd November. Entries can also be emailed to office@elston.org.uk
There will be prizes for the winning projects.
Winning projects will be included on our website and shared with our partner schools.
We look forward to receiving your projects and thank you for your continued support.
Year 5 VR Workshop
In Year 5, the children used the technology of Virtual Reality headsets to explore the Solar System, the Sun, the Moon, a space station and the depths of the ocean. They were able to draw on their knowledge of space from their Science lessons and then use the VR experience to further embed their understanding. The children loved the experience and gained an up-close view of these scenes, accompanied with squeals of delight and surprise as they physically reached out to touch the planets and sea creatures!
Year 3 visits to Tanglewood
This week, Year 3 visited Cannock Chase as part of their Stone Age topic! Look our for a blog on our website which will be published next week. Our pupils demonstrated excellent behaviour throughout the 2 days and we were delighted to receive positive comments from staff at Tanglewood who emailed to say, 'We hope you enjoyed your Stone Age programme - we certainly did - the children were a delight and so polite and the adult helpers too - we are very impressed!' Well done Year 3!
Arbor access - trips, consents and communication
As you know, we use Arbor to manage key information about your children including attendance, emergency contacts, consents and health information. It is also the key method for communication. 99% of our families are using our Parent Portal!
Please could we reiterate the importance of ensuring that all parents can access the app in order to receive in-app messages, sigh pupils up for trips/visits and ensure information stored is up to date.
A valid email address is needed for any parent wishing to use the app. If you need any help or experience any technical difficulties, please contact school and we will do our best to help.
Sporting News
Our girls football team have been busy recently, competing in the Blakemore Cup and battling against our Trust rivals Palmers Cross!
We also took part in a Dodgeball competition, winning 9 games and narrowly missing out on a win in the final throw of the game! Well done to all who took part.
New menu for Autumn 2
Our new menu can be found here: Lunches | Elston Hall
Children's Grief Awareness Week
Unfortunately, we have several families who have recently experienced bereavement. Children are offered support within school when they need it. Advice and guidance for dealing with bereavement can be found here: If you need help around a death
Community Governors
We are looking for Community Governors to join our Local Governing Board. If you know of anyone from the community who may be interested in this role, please ask them to contact Dawn Cooper at dcooper@ehlt.org.uk in the first instance. Thank you.
Requests for letters.
Our office regularly receives requests for letters for the Home Office which we are happy to provide. However, please could we request 7 days notice for letters to enable office staff to manage requests in time. Could we also request that parents bring in paperwork from the organisation making the request so that we can include all the information needed.
Key Dates
Autumn Term 2024
Tuesday 19th November—Y2 Circus visit (in school)
Thursday 21st November - Year 4/5 trip to cinema
Monday 25th November—Flu immunisation catch up session
Tuesday 26th November - Behaviour parent meeting 2:30pm
Wednesday 11th December - Christmas lunch and Christmas jumper day
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
Community Links
School Uniform Savers Account
The account was launched in partnership with the Credit Union at the start of July and has seen over 160 children benefit from having match funding to purchase school uniform.
The account will be running throughout the year, so now might be the ideal time to open an account to purchase that winter coat or any items that parents haven’t been able to afford for the start of the school year. www.wccul.co.uk
Wolverhampton Safeguarding Community Events
Water safety at home
The Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK) is a leading charity in water safety, and following recent findings, is urging healthcare professionals and others working with families to help raise awareness of the risks associated with water in the home, with an initial focus on bath time. |
The charity’s warning comes as its latest Child Drowning Update reports that a total of 125 children have drowned in the last four years, including 51 at home.
The report also highlights that 2 out of 3 drownings that occurred at home did so in the bath, and that most of the children affected were aged under five years.
Analysis of the drowning cases identified several factors as contributing to these deaths. The most common was a lack of adult supervision, where in 86% of cases, the child was unsupervised at the time of the incident. The charity has also undertaken some research amongst parents of children aged under five, to understand more about the behaviours typically seen around water at home.
Always keep young children within arm’s reach in the bath.
Always keep children under constant adult supervision in the bath.
If you need to leave the bathroom, take the child with you.
Never leave your child under the supervision of child siblings in the bath.
In our survey, 59% of parents of children under five admitted to leaving the child unattended in the bath at least once in the past month – and for most, this was down to them forgetting something, such as a towel. We found that 2 in 5 parents (41%) think it's safe to leave a baby in the bath with an older sibling, as long as it's not for too long.
Drowning can happen quickly and silently – in a matter of minutes. You won’t hear that something is wrong.Parents often don’t realise that drowning happens quickly and silently. In our survey, 55% of parents believe they would hear thrashing and a lot of noise if their child was struggling in the bath.
Where can parents seek advice?
In response to the report findings, we’ve launched a brand-new fun and engaging water safety awareness campaign named Splash Safety at your Pad.
The campaign offers free hints, tips and advice for families, to help parents and carers alike learn more about the risks posed by bath time and how to stay safe.
Families can access the bath time safety resources here: Splash Safety at your Pad
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