A message from the Headteacher
Dear Parents and Carers,
It has been a fabulous week in school despite the weather disrupting the Key Stage 2 Sports again. We hope that it will be ‘third time lucky’ on Tuesday 4th July! Thank you to everyone who came to our summer fayre on Saturday and special thanks to the team from the Ridge Friends who worked so hard over the past few weeks to make the event such a success. We are delighted to have raised a magnificent total of £1,388 so far, with the Grand Raffle still to draw! Thank you so much for your support. This money will really make a difference to our children.
On Monday afternoon, I attended an on-line meeting with colleague headteachers from Stourbridge with Schools Minister, the Rt. Hon Nick Gibb. We met with him to share our concerns about a number of issues impacting on our schools including school budgets, funding for Special Needs and I asked him specifically about how the Department for Education planned to support recruitment and retention of teachers. We have fabulous staff here at The Ridge and want to make sure it remains that way! It was an interesting discussion and although the minister had no answers it was good to know that we had shared the concerns on behalf of our school communities.
The end of the year is quickly approaching. Next week you will be receiving your child’s end of year school report and with this, we will let you know which staff will be teaching which year group in September. On Thursday 6th July we have our Open Evening between 3.30 and 6.00 p.m. This is an opportunity for you to come into school to see your child’s work and to visit the class say hello to their new teacher for next year. The children will have transition sessions with their teachers in their new classrooms on the morning of Tuesday 11th July and the afternoon of Wednesday 19th July.
What with our Key Stage Two Performance of ‘What A Knight’, our annual ‘Shorts and Shades’ family picnic, Ridge Has Got Talent, Discos, Clarinet Recital, the Leavers Fun Day and Assembly, the next few weeks promise to be hectic but great fun!
Kind regards
Mrs D Hudson
Headteacher
Key Stage 2 Music Festival
Yesterday our choir made up of Year 5 children went to Oldswinford Hospital School where they took part in the Stourbridge Learning Partnership Music Festival.
They were amazing as they sang ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’ and ‘Celebrate’. Their enthusiasm was infectious and everyone in the audience had a broad smile on their face and couldn’t help but join in with the clapping. Thank you to Miss Wesson and Miss Ashman from Dudley Performing Arts for helping the children learn the songs and thanks too, to Mrs Warren who arranged transport to the event.
News From Our Amazing Tag Rugby Team
You may remember that our Tag Rugby Team enjoyed success in the Dudley Schools Championship and got through to the Black Country Games Finals in Walsall. This event took place yesterday and the winning teams from schools in Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Walsall fought it out to be crowned Black County School Games winners.
We are delighted to announce that the team from The Ridge only went and won! This represents an amazing achievement for our small school and we are incredibly proud of the team.
Huge thanks go to Mr Lamb for training the team and giving them this opportunity to shine. Thanks also to the staff who have accompanied them through the various rounds and special thanks to the parents and carers who transported the children to the venue in Walsall.
Class Photos - Reminder for Years 5 and 6
On Monday, the photographer is in school to take the Year 5 and 6 class photos. Please send your child into school in their winter uniform (shirt, tie and sweatshirt/cardigan). Obviously if it is hot, the children will only need to wear their sweatshirt for the photo! They can bring their polo shirt to change into if you wish.
Year 5 Taster Day at Ridgewood
Attendance and Punctuality
This Weeks attendance
Whole School - 92.65%
Reception - 92.33%
Year 1 – 88.93%
Year 2 – 89.00%
Year 3 – 93.57%
Year 4 – 89.33%
Year 5 – 96.67%
Year 6 – 98.97%
Well done Year 6!
Safeguarding - Keeping Children Safe On-Line at School
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 Miss Beddoes. Where child protection concerns are raised, the school has a statutory duty to refer these concerns to children’s social care.
We have been reviewing our systems that help keep children safe online when using the schools ICT systems and thought it would be good to share with you the steps we take to reduce the risks of children accessing undesirable content in school. Our IT systems are provided and managed through RM who service most Dudley schools through a borough wide contact.
- Filtering – RM Safety Net is a firewall which blocks sites identified as unsuitable. We can monitor the sites that are blocked and the system allows us to add sites which we don’t want anyone to access. Our iPads are managed through Apple School Manager which gives us control to prevent the user accessing features such as Facetime & messaging or the App store.
- Monitoring – The ‘Smoothwall’ system monitors the key strokes on any individual machine and will alert the Designated Safeguarding Lead to any text that is offensive or maybe related to bullying, violence or a range of safeguarding concerns. From this the user ID, date and time can be established and any necessary steps taken to ensure that wellbeing and safety are supported.
Whist no filtering and monitoring is absolutely guaranteed, these two systems go a very long way to reassuring us all that our children are protected as much as possible from on-line risks at school.
For support in how to review your own filtering and monitoring at home, please see https://www.internetmatters.org/ For further information about our school systems, please speak to Mrs Brown.
What's Happening Next Week
| Monday | • Photographer in for class photos (Years 5 and 6) |
| Tuesday | • 9.30 a.m. Key Stage 2 Sports |
| • Year 4 Whole Class Clarinet Lesson | |
| Wednesday | • Reports to be sent home |
| • 3:20 After School Tag Rugby Club | |
| Thursday | • 3:20 After School Girls Football Club |
| • Open Evening 3.30 - 6.00 p.m. | |
| Friday | • Year 3 Swimming |
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