Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope that you had a good half term break and were able to make the most of the time with your children and away from the usual school routine. Staff had a useful day on Monday, developing and organising the resources we need to teach the new elements of the CUSP Curriculum.

Congratulations to the Gymnastics teams who took part in a competition this week. It has been a busy time with various tournaments and competitions and once we have finished the current run of events, Mr. Lamb will be updating us all. However it is not too early to say how proud we are of the way that the children represent the school on these occasions and to thank all the parents and carers whose help with transport means that we can take part. Thank you all.

Kind regards

Mrs D Hudson

Headteacher

We are all very proud of Lewis, in Year 6, who has fantastically played the part of 'Gus' in the Cinderella Panto. The Mary Stevens Hospice annual event was held in Stourbridge Town Hall during February and Lewis was one of the only child actors in the hilarious retelling of the traditional tale.

We know how hard you worked Lewis and we are extremely proud of you!

We are looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday between 3.30 p.m. and 5.00 p.m. when school will be open for you to pop in and see your child’s work. Once the children have been handed over to parents at the end of the school day, you will be invited to enter by the front door and make your way to the classroom.

On Wednesday we have our Open Afternoon and Evening, which will run in the hall. Please make sure that you arrive at school 5 minutes before your appointment time and wait outside the school office until you are invited into the hall where staff will be waiting for you.  At the end of the appointment time, please leave promptly by the OSCAR door, so as to avoid delaying other parents who are waiting for their appointment.  If there is a matter which needs more detailed discussion, please arrange a separate meeting directly with the class teacher. This can be done via ClassDojo after the Open Evening.

Due to the tight timescale of the afternoon, whilst we will make every effort to accommodate late arrivals, appointments may be curtailed and end at the scheduled time. Thank you for your support with this.

Towards the end of the Spring Term, we will be holding a number of Easter Events including our traditional Easter Assemblies. To comply with Fire Regulations entrance will be by ticket only. 

• Thursday 21st March  2.00 p.m. – Key Stage 2 Easter Assembly in hall.
• Friday 22nd March 9.00 a.m. – Reception and Key Stage 1 Easter Bonnet Parade on the playground – we look forward to seeing your creations!

To comply with Fire regulations, for both events one ticket per child will be issued in the first instance. Further details regarding tickets will be issued shortly.

In addition Key Stage 2 children can enter our competition to decorate a hard boiled egg.  Please bring the eggs to the school on Wednesday 20^th March and take them to the classroom. The eggs will then be taken to the Bungalow where they will be on display after school for children, parents and carers to see.

More information can be found about Easter bonnets and egg competition on our Easter leaflet below...  

As you may know our school catering is provided by Dudley Catering Services, who prepare our food at Ridgewood High School, who they also serve.

After Easter we will no longer have the option of using Dudley Catering, as the council have taken the decision to close down this service. We have been working with the Stour Valley Trust who run Ridgewood as they have undertaken a tendering exercise. As a result, a new contractor, AIP, has been appointed to provide catering services to both schools. Mrs Jones has been working hard behind the scenes to ensure a smooth transition.

We hope to see some positive changes to the lunch service but also to retain the aspects that are important to us, including the friendly and hardworking staff who serve our lunches. However, as with any change, there will be some new systems to get used to and potentially some teething troubles! Further information will be sent out as we have it but in the meantime we thank Mrs Jones, the admin and catering team for all that they are doing to prepare for the changeover.

To ensure the records we hold are transferred correctly, please ensure any allergies and dietary needs in the Evolve app are up to date for your child(ren). Thank you.

This Weeks attendance 

Whole School - 97.56%

Reception - 100.00%

Year 1 – 96.98%

Year 2 – 95.83%

Year 3 – 97.50%

Year 4 – 96.76%

Year 5 – 97.41%

Year 6 – 98.33%

Well done Year Reception!

The RFA have arranged a Bags2School collection on Wednesday 13th March to help raise funds for our school. Your child should have brought home a letter and a bag which explains what items can be accepted.

You can also follow the link below to the website which gives more information:

https://bag2school.com/what-wecollect

Bags can be brought into school on either Tuesday 12^th March or first thing on Wednesday 13^th.

Please DO NOT send bags in before this date as we are unable to store them.

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, Miss Beddoes and Mrs Gledhill.  Where child protection concerns are raised, the school has a statutory duty to refer these concerns to children’s social care.

Full calendar dates for the academic year can be found here........  https://theridge.sch.life/page/detail/parent-dates-2023-2024

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