Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to the Summer Term. It is a short half term punctuated with May Day and two closure days for voting but nevertheless, there is lots going on. A special mention needs to be made of our children in Year 6 who have had their SATs tests this week. They were an absolute credit to everyone, approaching the tests in a calm and mature way. Thanks go to all the staff who have worked hard to prepare the children and to parents who have supported them. Next week a large group of children from Years 5 and 6 will be heading off to The Pioneer Centre for lots of adventurous activities. We hope that they all have a great time and look forward to hearing all about it!

Please remember that school is closed for the children on the following days.

We always set our provisional dates for the year in September. One downside of this is that we may need to alter them in response to new information or opportunities. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes.

We need to change the date of our Open Evening in July because Ridgewood have booked their Induction Evening for Year 6 on the night we had set. Therefore, our Open Evening will now be on Wednesday 3^rd July rather than Thursday 4^th July. (Same times 3.30 – 7.00 p.m.)

In addition we also need to swap our reserve Sports Days over so that Year 4 can attend a Clarinet Festival.

Sports Days will be as follows

Reserve Dates

Congratulations to Harry Herrington and Maisie Spink in Year 4, who have been selected by the Cubs to attend a ‘Cuboree’ in Gibraltar in Summer 2020. They are busy fundraising for the trip and are organising a cake sale on Friday 17^th May. For further details please see the flyer. They are also taking part in a sponsored climb to scale the height of the Rock of Gibraltar. Please speak to Harry, Maisy or their parents if you would like to sponsor them. Good luck both of you!

The children are able to wear summer uniform (yellow polo shirt/dresses/grey shorts) from Easter until October half term. Please can we remind you that shoes need to be sensible sandals (not flip-flops or jelly/beach shoes) and socks (white or grey) must be worn. We are also seeing some very large headbands and ‘Jo-Jo Bows’. Please ensure that headbands are simple and unadorned, ideally in school colours.

In this hot weather, the children need to bring a hat and water bottle to school. They are also able to bring sun cream to apply themselves. Sun cream wipes are easy to use and some brands of sun cream are long lasting and can be applied before school.

As members of the Stourbridge Learning Partnership, a number of local schools, including The Ridge, have a shared Attendance Policy. This has recently been reviewed and readopted by our school governors. Please make yourself aware of the policy, especially in relation to requests for leave of absence. The policy can be found in the policy section of the website.