Yesterday (10th October) was World Mental Health Day. At Greenfield we have a strong commitment to supporting all our pupils to achieve positive mental health and well being. As such, we are planning to hold our own Mental Health Day later on this term, where we will, amongst other things, give our children the opportunity to reflect on and celebrate all of the fantastic things about being a child in 2019.

Our current class attendance figures are as follows:

Julia Donaldson: 96.68%

AA Milne: 98.84%

David McKee: 96.98%

Enid Blyton: 97.41%

Allan Ahlberg: 97.56%

Anne Fine: 98.04%

Jacqueline Wilson: 98.28%

David Almond: 98.28%

Katherine Rundell: 97.11%

William Shakespeare: 97.41%

In terms of individual attendance it is important to remember that:

For some parents, 90% may seem like an acceptable level of attendance but the reality is that 90% attendance means that your child will miss half a school day each week or 19 days of school during the school year—that’s nearly 4 school weeks.

Your child’s individual attendance will be shared with you at our upcoming Parents’ Evenings as part of their Initial Report.

We enjoyed two lovely Harvest Festival assemblies yesterday. As well as some Harvest songs, we were treated to some musical performances too. Olivia in Year 3, and Poppy, Alex and Martin in Year 2 played confidently to a large audience. Caleb and Connie in Key Stage 2 were very impressive too. Music at Greenfield continues to go from strength to strength.

Huge thanks to Dave Morris from Hope Baptist Church who shared some interesting information about The Black Country Food Bank. In our afternoon assembly, Dave was joined by Mary who volunteers for the food bank. What a fascinating organisation! We are going to accept the invitation to visit with pupils in the next few weeks.

Our Harvest donations have been collected today. There were toiletries and toilet rolls aplenty. These particular items are always in short supply at the food bank.

Thank you everyone for your support with our Harvest collection.

Last Friday saw our first Gold Book assembly of the Autumn Term. The Gold Book dates back to 2001, and when I flick back through it, it reminds me of how many children I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with at Greenfield.

Teachers each chose a child who has stood out to them since we came back after the summer holidays. Reasons included: learning, behaviour, manners, kindness, effort, attitude, independence, positivity and determination.

One of my favourite entries was… “For starting the year with an excellent attitude towards her learning. She applies herself in all lessons with a smile on her face! She is a pleasure to teach!” What more can we ask?

Congratulations to Bree (Reception), Ralph (Reception), Darcie (McKee), Joe (Blyton), Ammal (Milne), Daniel (Ahlberg), Matilda (Fine), Mia (Wilson), Lauren (Shakespeare), Harriet (Almond), William (Almond), Caleb (Almond) and Millie (Rundell).

It has been great to see the children all having a go at running a mile around our playground today to raise money for the NSPCC. A mile is approximately 11 laps of our playground, and whilst we didn’t have any Dina Asher-Smiths, we did have lots and lots of children who showed great determination to complete their mile!

Running helps young people to sleep better, improves their mood, and boosts their ability to focus. We already have some talented athletes who run regularly for clubs or with other family members. What a great way to have fun, stay fit and, of course, reduce the amount of ‘screen time’.

Well done to everyone who took part today, and thank you for your donations. The work that the NSPCC do is invaluable – the assemblies and workshops we have had this term are free, so the charity needs as much financial support as schools can give them to be able to continue to send their volunteers into schools and local communities.

Please look out for the letter coming home today about all of the different ways that you can help out FroG. Because FroG are a charity, there are certain roles that have to be filled – perhaps you could become involved that way?

Or, on the back of the letter, there is a long list of how you could help in the run up to, or during, our Christmas Fayre. We really do appreciate any contribution – big or small, and the preparations need to start now as it’s only nine weeks away!

Please get in touch with Emma Kilbride on 07775 196651 or emmakilbride@me.com if you can help in any way. Thank you.

We hope to see lots of you at our Harvest assemblies next week.  I’m sure our children will be in great voice, and,  just to prepare you, Dave from Hope Church usually likes adults to join in!

Other than ‘knowing things’ and for sheer enjoyment, there are many other benefits to reading. These include: mental stimulation, stress reduction, vocabulary expansion, memory improvement, stronger analytical thinking skills, improved focus and concentration and, of course, better writing skills.

Parents often ask how they can support their child’s reading development, and it’s no wonder that you are interested in this essential skill. Reading plays an important role in later school success. One study even demonstrates that how well a 7-year-old reads predicts their income 35 years later!

In early years, reading to your child is one of the most important things you can do to support their early reading skills. The expression in your voice as you read as the different characters, and the way you pause at simple sentence punctuation, really shows our 4 and 5 year olds what it means to be a good reader.

As children start to read independently, dedicating time at home to listening to them read regularly, or taking turns with them is how best to support them. Our fluent readers still need to read aloud, and whilst they get lots of opportunities to do this in school, we rely on them reading to someone at home to get even more practice.

Please be sure to write in your child’s reading record when you hear them read. It’s another ‘job’ for you to do, but our teachers really value the time you spend reading with your child. And, it’s a great way to monitor how much reading our pupils are doing. Thank you for your continued help with this.

Reception parents….look out for the dates for the upcoming phonics open sessions where you will be able to see the teaching of early reading skills in action. 

To make life a little easier, we will leave our main doors open between 8.45 and 9am and 3.15 and 3.30pm each day. These are the busiest times for our office, so this should really help.

Our foyer security doors are closed for the majority of the day, only being opened for the short period at 3.30pm when two Key Stage 1 classes leave via the main entrance. If you or your child need to re-enter school for any reason, then please speak to Fran or Clare in the office and they will help you.

As we end Week 4 of our Autumn Term, I would like to thank those parents of children in Key Stage 1 who are allowing their children to go into school independently. We have a lovely team of prefects in the Key Stage 1 cloakroom to help the children if they need it. Please give your little ones a kiss and a wave on the corner, but let them go in by themselves.

Parents of Key Stage 2 children who may need to enter the main school at drop-off time, please do so via the school office rather than by going through the classrooms. Thank you again for your help in maintaining a calm and orderly start to our learners’ day.

At Greenfield, we have a highly effective house point reward system. Children can earn house points for putting in lots of effort with their learning, producing beautiful work, having lovely behaviour and manners and for just being a super member of our school community. Sports events and house competitions also give a well-earned injection of house points throughout the year.

The children are organised into four houses: Foley, Lyttleton, Stevens and Webb, the surnames of important historical figures who had links with Stourbridge. You can see our newly-voted house captains and vice captains on the back page of this week’s newsletter.

House points are collected each week, and in our whole school celebration assembly each month, totals are announced. The house with the most points for that month will be presented with the house cup and their house colour rosette will be attached to it. I wonder which house will be first to win the house trophy?

In addition, individual children come to see me when they have completed their Bronze, Silver and Gold house point charts. We aim for one chart per term, but I have already seen a pupil who has completed their Bronze! We will be sure to announce house and individual winners in forthcoming newsletters.

‘Treat others how you would like to be treated’ is our golden rule, and an excellent message for people of all ages and stages! Our children are clearly versed in what this rule means, but this week we have experienced a few children being hurt through ‘rough’ play. Please support us in promoting the importance of having kind hands and feet, playing fun, but safe, games on the playground and allowing everyone to join in. Playtimes should be good fun; a chance for the children to release some energy, see their friends and get some oxygen into their system ready for learning. Our Year 6 Playleaders are always on hand to help the younger children during playtimes. They are easily recognisable in their red caps, and have some lovely ideas for playground games. We have put a great photo of them on the back page of our newsletter this week……please remind your children of the great work that the Playleaders do!