Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2025. I hope that it is not too late to say ‘Happy New Year’ to you all. Although Christmas may seem like a distant memory now, I hope that you enjoyed the break with your families. On behalf of everyone, I want to thank you for the good wishes, cards and gift that were given to staff at school: your kindness is very much appreciated.

Last week we took Years 3 and 4 to see The Snowman at The Birmingham Rep. It was a wonderful occasion and the children were a pleasure to take out on the visit. Staff at the theatre even remarked on their fabulous behaviour. Well done everybody; we are all very proud of you.

Kind regards

Mrs D Hudson

Headteacher

At the start of term it is worth issuing a few reminders.

Uniform

Please remind yourselves of our uniform expectations for both regular days and PE days - https://theridge.sch.life/page/detail/uniform-1  Please also check with your child, that the pumps in their school PE bag still fit them.

Please also remember that hair adornments should be plain and unadorned.

Earrings must be a simple gold or silver coloured stud.  

Snacks and Drinks 

Every child should have a water bottle in school every day. Please note that only plain water is allowed in drinks bottles. Reception and Key Stage 1 pupils are given fresh fruit as a snack at break time. Key Stage 2 pupils may bring a snack but only fruit (either fresh or dried) is allowed. 

Toys in School 

Children must not bring toys into school unless this is part of agreed support for transition which has been arranged with your child’s class teacher or Mrs McGivney, the SENco.

Thank you for your support.

We are progressing with work on the bungalow garden, which we want to turn into a space where the children can grow fruit and vegetables, but is also an outdoor space to promote wellbeing. We are beginning to think about how we get the area prepared for the work to be done. We are aware that some corporate organisation offer opportunities for their employees to volunteer on community projects and wondered if any of you worked for companies who may be able to practically support this? Please contact Mrs Hudson is you can help or have any leads that we can follow up. Thank you

We are excited to welcome Dave Lowe to The Ridge next week.

Dave is the writer of a number of books including My Hamster is a Genius, as well as cowriting an episode of the famous cartoon Bluey. Dave was also Mrs Melia’s next door neighbour growing up and she would play football and cricket in his back garden with him and their brothers.

Dave is currently visiting England with his family from his home in Australia, and will be coming into school on Thursday 23rd January. Mrs Melia will be sending further details out about his visit next week. Dave has very kindly offered to spend some time on his visit doing a book signing. If you already own one of his books or would like to buy one, then you will be able to bring it into school.

His books are available at a number of shops and online, we have seen some in The Works and there are also currently some available on Vinted. There is absolutely no pressure at all to go out and buy a book, so please don't feel obliged to.

Please see the website for more information.

https://www.daveloweauthor.com/

Thank you for your on-going support with attendance. We continue to monitor the attendance of individual pupils and in January will be arranging meetings with parents of pupils where there are concerns about persistent absence (i.e. have attendance of less than 90%).

This Weeks attendance 

Whole School - 96.57%

Reception - 96.31%

Year 1 – 95.33%

Year 2 – 100.00%

Year 3 – 96.77%

Year 4 – 99.33%

Year 5 – 90.37%

Year 6 – 97.42%

Well done Year 2!

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Mrs Hudson is the Designated Safeguarding Lead and any concerns should be shared with her or the Deputy Safeguarding Leads – Mrs Hadley and Ms Gledhill.  Where child protection concerns are raised, the school has a statutory duty to refer these concerns to children’s social care.

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