Acts of Kindness

It is often commented upon by visitors how kind and polite our pupils are. We agree and started the new term by focusing on our 'Kind Communicator' Cog. We were delighted to crown Harry P (Y1), Mia (Y4), and Ethan (Y6) as our cog champions of the week. In a bumper Friday celebration we also crowned Tomas (YR) and Sidney (Y3) as our Courageous champions from last term. Well done to you all, you all help to make Bardwell the fantastically caring school that it is.

We are in for another busy term that will end (Can you believe it's that time again already!?) with the now infamous Bardwell Nativity. The hay is on order, scripts will be coming home very soon, and if anyone knows someone with a donkey, please let me know!

We look forward to seeing you all at our Parent Teacher meetings over the next 2 weeks. Please see your child's teacher for an appointment if you haven't received one yet.

All you need to do is wear odd socks! It's a great way to celebrate what makes us all unique in Anti-Bullying Week! Odd Socks Day is being held on Monday 14th November this year. Odd Socks Day is delivered in partnership with CBeebies and CBBC star Andy Day and his band, Andy and the Odd Socks.

Many thanks to Mr Gooderham, Mr and Mrs Cook, Mrs Box and Grandma and Grandad Roberts who all came to help prepare the forest and forest store for the winter. The children were very pleased to be back. We have more dates planned to raise up 2 large canopies so please do help if you are able.

Our whole school attendance is at 96.2% for the year-to-date, which is above the usual England/Wales primary school average. This is excellent news and we encourage you all to keep it up!

We monitor pupils' attendance at all times and will be in contact with you individually if we have any concerns about your child's attendance.

As a reminder, the Tilian Attendance Policy can be found here.

Our lovely cook at Ixworth, Heidi, has already made menu changes so please see the amended version on our webpage under Parents & Carers > School Meals. These will start from Monday 7th November.

You can also download this document and print at home, or ask the office staff for a copy.

Older pupils will be going around the school at breaktimes with the village Poppy Appeal collection this week until Friday 11th November, in time for Remembrance Sunday. Items include the traditional poppy, wristbands, reflective fobs and zip pulls. There will also be opportunities for you to donate at drop-off and pick-up times.

This year the Royal British Legion has not suggested minimum donation amounts, but we would suggest that you provide change to allow your child to donate 50p to £2.

Odd Sock Day - Anti Bullying Week Monday 14th Nov - come in odd socks!

Church every Thursday 1.10 - 1.30 pm. Please join us if you are able.

Tuesday 8th November - selected Y5/Y6 pupils representing Bardwell in U11 Football Competition at Stowupland High School.

Thursday 10th November - taster session for pre-school children.

Thursday 24th November - 'mop up' session for any children that missed their flu vaccination (those with permission only).

Nativity Weds 14th, Thurs 15th Dec, 14.00

Suffolk County Council has asked us to share with families their updated 'Cost Of Living Support' information.

If you are experiencing financial difficulties, please do investigate what support might be available to you.

Help for households includes the Local Welfare Assistance Scheme.

To receive help from LWAS you must:

• Be able to demonstrate you are in financial hardship
• Live in Suffolk
• Be 16-years old or over
• Not be subject to immigration control or have no recourse to public funds
• Have a combined household income of £25,000 a year or less?
• Have less than £500 available in any current and/or savings accounts across the household
• Have not made an application in the previous 6 months

For those families in the West Suffolk Council area, their advice is here.

Ash Class pupils have been delighted to welcome back Tim Parsons, the Director of Music at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, for more singing lessons.

The PTA are pleased to announce that after a delicious afternoon tea and a visit from Matt Hancock - we welcomed a few new members! Thank you for joining us! It's really nice to have some new ideas and help and support and we look forward to the Great Bardwell Toy Sale (see poster), Christmas Disco and Film nights in the coming months. All parents are automatically part of the PTA when your child joins the school, but we encourage parents to take a more active role (please see PTA invitation letter)

Bardwell PTA organised a fun evening of ghost hunting on the evening of 31st October. Thank you to all those that attended and we must say a huge thank you to Irene (Jacob and Lottie's grandma) as without her help we would not have been able to run this event. Thank you also to those who have supported this event by purchasing maps, providing and setting up decorations and the time taken to arrange, organise and provide the treats - it was a great team effort - all funds raised go into the PTA pot. One parent said, “That was a really good little trail, Harry really enjoyed it!” The PTA are so glad you enjoyed it!

The glowing ghosts were a great hit. Did you follow all the ghosts and guess the word to get your treat?

The PTA is registered with easyfundraising, which means you can help us for FREE. Over 7,000 brands will donate to us when you use easyfundraising to shop with them – at no extra cost to yourself! All you need to do is sign up and remember to use easyfundraising whenever you shop online. It’s easy and completely FREE! These donations really mount up, so please sign up to support us at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/bardwellsch/?utm_campaign=raise-more&utm_medium=email&utm_content=rm-en-n1

Don't forget us while you are Christmas shopping!

Here's a sneak preview of the £1 books for World Book Day 2023, which takes place on Thursday 2nd March 2023.

I'm really excited to see a version of Nick Sharratt's 'You Choose' on the list and can't wait to get my hands on a copy!

Miss Mansfield

Here are this week’s recommended reads from me - all highly recommended fiction titles.

I'd still like to hear from anyone interested in becoming one of our Bardwell Reading Champions and would like to thank those who have come forward. This would involve hearing readers across the school and enhancing our 'Reading for Pleasure' culture.

This would require an enhanced DBS check and training would be provided. If you are interested, please get in touch with an indication of availability.

Many thanks,

Miss Mansfield, Literacy Co-ordinator

We have been contacted by a local resident who has said that cars parked on the left-hand side of zigzag at the school gate are creating an access issue to their property. There is a resident in this area who requires fairly frequent ambulance visits and oxygen deliveries, so this is causing them some distress.

Can we respectfully request that you don't park on the zig zags (see image) at any time, for even a short period?

Thank you.

We have been informed by the school photographer that photo products should be with us by the end of the week.

FAO all income-related Free School Meals pupils' families.

We have been sent the following from Suffolk County Council:

With the Christmas holidays approaching, to aid the administration of the Christmas HAF programme and help eligible families gain access to the activity provision on offer, we have once again partnered with Evouchers (part of Wonde) to support our provision across Suffolk.

The Evouchers team will be in touch shortly to give further instructions and guidance on the issuing of HAF codes.

How it works

● Order HAF codes through the Evouchers platform.

● Send codes to eligible families and any additional families using your MIS data (or upload a .csv file)

● The link within the code email will take recipients to The HAF page on Suffolk InfoLink to see what activities are happening

● Parents make contact to book their children directly with the provider onto a HAF activity using their code

The Suffolk School Nursing team are pleased to share with you, a new video explaining the service and how to contact us.

This video is aimed at Primary School pupils and we are asking for your help in sharing this far and wide with your school community.

The video can be promoted in many ways such as assemblies, social media platforms and websites.

Suffolk School Nursing Service | Supporting primary school aged children in Suffolk.

Suffolk School Nursing Service | Supporting primary school aged children in Suffolk.

www.youtube.com

As a reminder the School Nursing website and how to contact us can be found at School nursing | Suffolk County Council

Many thanks in advance for your support to the School Nursing Service and we do hope that this video will be well received and helpful for your school community.

Kind regards

Health Business Centre

Children & Young People’s Services

Suffolk County Council

Allington Clinic

427 Woodbridge Road

Ipswich IP4 4ER

Tel. 0345 607 8866 (option2–School Nursing)

Every Thursday families are invited to join us for the School's Collective Worship in Church, 1.10-1.30pm.

• Wednesday 9th - Coffee Morning, Bring & Buy, Raffle,10.30am
• Sunday 13th - Remembrance Service, 10.50am. Please arrive by 10.40am if laying a wreath.
• Sunday 20th - Morning Worship, 10am

Bardwell Church is open every day from 9am to dusk.

Save the Date!

Saturday 10th December - Christmas Coffee Morning

The Tithe Barn, 10.00am

At Messy Church last month, we thought about being peacemakers and building bridges.

We are an allergy aware school and would like to remind all families that there may be pupils in school with a peanut allergy. If a child with a peanut allergy comes into contact with peanuts, or with a pupil who has eaten peanuts, then this could lead to an anaphylactic reaction. Anaphylaxis is a severe and potentially life-threatening reaction to a trigger such as an allergy.

Because of this the school cannot accept products containing peanuts to be provided in lunch boxes or for eating at other times.

Your child may be eligible for free school meals throughout primary school. This could save you approximately £437 per year.

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To check or apply online, visit: https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/children-families-and-learning/schools/school-meals-uniforms-and-trips/apply-for-free-school-meals/

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Check if you're eligible

Your child will get free school meals if you receive any of the following:

• Income Support

• Income-based Job Seeker’s Allowance

• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance

• Guarantee element of State Pension Credit

• Child Tax Credit but no element of Working Tax Credit and have an annual income (as assessed by HM Revenues & Customs) that does not exceed £16,190

• If you are supported under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

• Working Tax Credit during the four-week period immediately after your employment finishes or after you start to work fewer hours per week

• Universal Credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400 (£616.67 per month), as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods).
  

To check if your child is eligible, apply online for an immediate response or call 01473 260989.

We encourage you to apply, because the school receives additional funding (Pupil Premium) for all children on income-related Free School Meals.

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If your child is absent from school please ring into the school office giving the reason for the absence ('unwell' is not sufficient), please do not email for absence. If you need to, leave a voicemail.

The School must be notified by the parent/carer of the absent pupil on the first day of absence AND on every day of absence thereafter, before the register is closed. If a telephone call is not received, the school will contact parents/carers directly.

Please see the Attendance Policy for more information.

If you suspect or know that your child has COVID, the NHS guidance for children now states:

"If a child or young person aged 18 or under tests positive for COVID-19, they should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 3 days. This starts from the day after they did the test.

Children and young people tend to be infectious to others for less time than adults. If they’re well and do not have a temperature after 3 days, there’s a much lower risk that they’ll pass on COVID-19 to others."

The Psychology in Schools Team have finalised the next set of parent workshops for the November/December 2022. The workshops are designed for parents of children/adolescents up to the age of 18. We would very much appreciate it if you could share the attached poster with your parent network, starting to give parents notice and an opportunity to sign up and take part.

Kind regards

Jackie Stuart

Senior Administrator

Psychology in Schools Team

Email: bardwell@tilian.org.uk
Website: https://www.bardwell.org.uk/
Location: School Lane, Bardwell, Bury Saint Edmunds IP31 1AD, UK
Phone: 01359 250854
Twitter: @BardwellPrimary