A huge thanks to all Thurlbear families as we head into this 2-week break. This term has been filled with many highlights and from right across our school. Our Friday Celebration Worships have brought out the passion to share our learning around our school Values, and I really do feel that the pupils – from Chestnuts to oaks – understand the importance of school pride in so many things that we do.
We have shown a desire to keep a broad and balanced Curriculum throughout this year, to Thrive in ’25 in many different ways. This is reflected in the creativity in Year 6. Even with SATs around the corner, Miss Warrington has been rightly committed to providing enriching learning opportunities outside of the core subjects – and outside the school environment. Their very recent Easter Gardens were a powerful reflection of their spiritual focus, this week. We fully appreciate the need to keep our learning wide and appealing to all.
Well done, also, to our Years 3 and 4 on their fantastic Easter Performance: “Here Comes Jesus!”. They gave a powerhouse performance that captured some of those emotional moments around Jesus, his trial, death and resurrection. Our Open The Book team have been so impressed with the questions from our pupils, this term.
THURLBEAR IN THE NEWS:
Some families may have seen our school included in an online list of establishments, liaising with the Local Authority, creating ‘SEND units’ across Somerset!
This report failed to mention that it was a feasibility study, and we concluded that such a step forward wouldn’t be in the best interests of our current pupils at Thurlbear. I am still actively investigating how to secure funds to renovate our former swimming pool into a building that directly enhances the lives of the Thurlbear pupils for years to come; if anyone has a rich benefactor or knows how to access funding, please let me know!
Online Safety and the Online World:
Every year, this topic becomes an area impacting on our pupils in younger and younger age groups and many parents feel they are not equipped with the very latest in thinking and advice. As a school, we will tackle this proactively in the Summer term and I will be surveying families as to what might help in terms of face to face workshops / online seminars etc.
In the meantime, I have secured some links from South West Grid for Learning, which I can add here:
– Online Safety Guidance for Parents | SWGfL this is an excellent one-stop shop for good advice and links for families, from parent-view reviews of games your children might be playing https://www.commonsensemedia.org/reviews to child exploitation and online protection CEOP Safety Centre which goes into malicious communications and the legal consequences of this.
– This is a brilliant link to a range of age-specific online guides Online safety leaflets & resources – Internet Matters such as digital resilience toolkits and online safety tips for parents of primary aged children aged 6 – 10.
– We are doing much more on this as a school, and into in the final term, as it should never just be a ‘safer internet day’ one-off.
Our clubs list should have come home and has been posted on Dojo for Years 1 to 6. As mentioned previously, this is not yet online, so please don’t try and pay. The hard-copies will be used to collate our groups when we return after Easter.
Thanks to Holly from our Seven Sowers Benefice for all of her hard work to keep us fully involved in the lives of the local churches. It is obviously a very busy time for the church workers, and they will be in our prayers over the next 2 weeks. Ed Gregory – Director of Education for the Diocese of Bath and Wells – has written it brilliantly in his latest newsletter:
“Whether we have any faith or none, this time of year is all about new beginnings, fresh growth, the anticipation of warmth and abundance. Take some time to reflect on all that will bring you a sense of genuine hope, deep joy and great assurance this Easter for your body, your mind and your spiritual self.”
May we all know Peace and Hope this Easter
