Friday 13th October
Good evening,
This week, throughout school, we have been thinking about our e-safety strand of ‘Privacy and Security’. Our assembly leaders led an interesting session based on how to set a strong password and the whole school came up with some top tips:
- Try to use a mixture of upper case and lower case letters.
- Try to mix letters with symbols and numbers.
- Try not to use something predictable.
- Keep your passwords private.
As a result, the older children have been designing their own passwords in class.
Setting stronger passwords
We hope that all children are able to share their learning with you at home and are knowledgeable in how to create safe passwords. Please continue talking about online safety and passwords at home. If we can support in any way, please let us know.
Have a lovely and safe weekend. All the best.
Mrs L. Edgerton
Parents’ evening
A suggestion from the parent survey was to have a second formal parents’ evening in the year. Therefore, we would like to offer a first parents’ evening this half term: Monday 23rd and Wednesday the 25th October. We are waiting for Kiskadoo (the host of our website) to set up the appointment booking system. We hope to have this set up on Monday.
Please put these dates in your diary for the first parents’ evening of the year.
We are also introducing a short report card to be handed out each term that will update you as to progress and attainment in subjects. This will be prepared for the end of the autumn term following our assessment weeks.
Many thanks to all that have taken time to fill out the parent survey.
Parent Survey 2023
We really appreciate your thoughts and opinions and always respond to your suggestions from the parent questionnaire. If you could spare five minutes to provide us with some feedback, we would really appreciate it. Please use this Google Form:
https://forms.gle/wXhiNKTuUACgtYrC8
British Values
What Is Democracy?
This week we have been looking at the value of ‘Democracy’ in more detail. We had a think about the meaning of the word and how it originates from Ancient Greece. We explored who rules Great Britain. Many children thought that the King ruled the country; however, we then discussed that democracy means that the country is ruled by the people.
For the older children, we looked at some of the large political parties and tried to recognise the colours and leaders of these parties. At home, if you are able to find the time, it would be great if key stage two could continue to ask you questions about the leaders of the parties and explore democracy in more detail.
Assemblies
This week we have continued to look at respect and related this important value to religious symbols and objects. We have been really impressed with the respect that has been demonstrated around school and how all children demonstrate maturity when thinking about worldwide religion and beliefs. 
50 Things to do at Longnor
Staff have been busy thinking about what is important for our students to experience before they leave Longnor. We would like to launch the ’50 things to do at Longnor’. We will plan for all children to experience these whilst they journey from reception to year six.
50 things to do at Longnor
Craft Club
After half term, Mrs Cooper will be starting a craft club between 3.15 and 4.30pm on a Friday for all children from Reception to Year 6. In these sessions, children will be creating some beautiful wooden decorations and objects.
The dates of these sessions will be:
- Friday 17th November
- Friday 24th November
- Friday 1st December
- Friday 8th December
The cost of the sessions will be £7.50 per week, £30.00 for all four sessions, and you will need to sign up for all four sessions via ParentPay.
There are only 15 places available and these will be allocated on a ‘first come first served’ basis. Quiet games club will be running as usual at the same time at a cost of £5 per session.
If your child would like to attend, please give consent and make payment via ParentPay by Monday 13th November 2022.
Pupil Premium
Pupil Premium funding is designed to provide schools with additional resources to support potentially vulnerable children, such as those who are Looked After or those on Free School Meals. The funding for 2023-2024 is £1345 per child.
Current spending is based on the idea of providing additional class support to each eligible child using a simple formula. At the moment, this is equivalent to 2 hours teaching assistant support per week for each child. The children will be supported through targeted intervention either in small groups or within the class lessons. Funding is also used towards class trips and music lessons.
In line with DfE performance tables the data for disadvantaged children is supressed, as individuals could be identified. The progress of all groups of pupils is carefully monitored through internal tracking, so that the impact of Pupil Premium funding can be evaluated and targeted as necessary.
Registering for Pupil Premium
If your child does not have Free School Meals but may be eligible due to your family’s income level, please contact the office (in confidence) to register them, or you can register online at:
https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/free-school-meals/are-you-eligible-for-free-school-meals
Children in Key Stage One who receive the Universal Free School Meals still need to be registered for Pupil Premium if they are to receive the extra funding. Even if you do not wish them to have the meals, registering them would mean we could still claim Pupil Premium funding that may be used to help your child.
For general information about Pupil Premium click on the link below:
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/pupil-premium
Dragon Spotting Walk
Recorder Lessons
Dear Parents,
Recorder Lessons
We are now able to offer recorder lessons on Tuesday afternoons during school hours to children in Year 2 onwards. Mrs Lewis will be teaching the lessons in groups and they will be free of charge.
The lessons will start on Tuesday 17th October. Places are not limited for recorder lessons as they will be taught in small groups based on your child’s ability. In order for your child to participate in the recorder lessons they will need to bring in their own recorder and also a copy of the following book:
This book is called “Recorder Playing in Colour – Book 1 for Descant Recorders” by Brian Davey. It can be found on Amazon at the following address: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Recorder-Playing-Colour-Bk-Descant/dp/1898378002
Here is a link to a suggestion for a recorder you could buy for the lessons: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aulos-205A-Descant-Recorder-Brown/dp/B000NCEQCS
We are really looking forward to promoting music across the school and think this is a fantastic opportunity for the children to learn music and develop new skills. If you would like your child to attend these lessons, please email the school office at admin@longnorschool.co.uk by no later than Monday 16th October.
Emma Lewis and Lisa Edgerton
Parenting helpline
BEAM sessions
Attendance
To help the ladies in the office, please make sure you phone the office as early as possible on each day that your child is absent – ideally before 8:30am. Many thanks for your help.
Attendance policy 2023
Forest School
Good evening,
I wanted to take some time this evening to explain our fantastic forest school provision in school. We are delighted to offer all children forest school every week.
This year, we have really taken time to think about our forest school offer, making it as exciting, varied and interesting for all children. Merlin class have been making their own charcoal to design stone age art at Beedles Wood and Eagle class are to be Tudor Explorers ensuring they have set up camp with thought to location and to build gadgets from natural resources. It sounds brilliant!
For our younger children, staying on site to do forest school offers plenty of options; however, the older children need the larger wood to explore, develop and investigate. This comes at a cost. With the cost of the bus now doubled to £160 per trip to Beedles wood, we have had to be creative in how we can offer this experience whilst ensuring that we can sustain an offer.
Therefore, Little Owls and Kestrels have their provision on site for two hours a week (an afternoon); for Merlins and Eagles we have an hour on site every week and then boost this with two trips to Beedles wood every half term – this is approximately 13 hours of forest school over a 7 week half term (averaging at 1hr 50m per week the same as an afternoon a week).
I wanted to take the time to explain as this is more forest school than our offer last academic year. Without compromising our broad and balanced curriculum offer and keeping costings sustainable, we believe this structure is a good balance, ensuring that all children receive forest school. I am very happy to explain our thoughts further – please get in touch or pop in for a conversation.
We all appreciate our fantastic curriculum offer at Longnor. We look forward to inviting you into school more often this year so that you can see school in action. Thank you so much to those that attended our open day – we are very proud of the hard work pupils have completed and enjoyed sharing it with you.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Mrs Edgerton