Dear Howley families,
I hope you are all keeping well.
It has been a busy start to our summer term and experience has taught me that things always get even busier as we approach the end of the academic year!
I mentioned in our last newsletter that Mr Davis will sadly be leaving us in July as he heads off for his Australian adventures. I am very pleased to tell you that we have appointed a new teacher, Mr Lane, who will be joining our team in September. When the time comes, I know you will wish Mr Davis happy travels and also give Mr Lane a warm welcome to Howley.
I would just like to take a moment to say thank you for the many kind responses to Mrs Wolstencroft’s ‘gardening plea’ earlier this week. Like many, many schools, we are facing incredibly challenging times with regards to funding. Every penny of the funding we have at our disposal is needed to cover the basic day to day costs of running our school. We simply do not have any money for those important little extras that make such a difference for our children. We absolutely know it is the same for many of you at home with the cost of living increase. Thank you for understanding that funding pressures mean that we cannot do all of the things we really would love to do. As ever and ably supported by yourselves, our brilliant PTA and other agencies such as The Rivers Trust, we will continue to strive to provide the very best we can for our children - they deserve nothing less.
I would like to wish our children, their families and staff a lovely bank holiday weekend. Fingers crossed for some sunshine, although I suspect we would all just settle for it to stop raining!
Sending you all my best wishes,
Miss Lewis
As we move forward into the Summer Term, we would like to remind parents and carers how important good attendance is for your child. Not only because of the importance of learning, but because of the wider holistic benefits for children’s wellbeing and happiness.
For advice on Attendance, Term Time Holidays and Lateness we have attached the following link for you to take a look at: School attendance advice | Dudley Council
Howley Grange join the My School Fund initiative
to help boost our budget
We’re pleased to announce that Howley Grange is part of the My School Fund initiative. This innovative scheme allows for us to be able to boost our school’s budget with your help.
How does it work?
Parents, guardians and carers can sign up to the scheme for free and start earning cashback on the things they buy in participating retail stores, including Sainsbury’s and Argos. As you spend you’ll receive 2% cashback in the form of eGift vouchers that can be redeemed in participating stores. By linking your spend to our school on the My School Fund website we’ll also earn 1% cashback on your spend.
Add that all up across our school’s network of families and together we can all make a big difference!
How to get involved
Visit myschoolfund.org to register for free and link to Howley Grange Primary School. From there, everything you spend in participating stores will go towards helping boost our budget, plus your own!
Sign up today at myschoolfund.org
We need your help please!
Development of the school's garden
Last Summer we worked on the development of our two Forest School areas, planted a small orchard parallel to the school garden, planted a number of small saplings at the front of the school and planted hedging whips around the school fence boundaries.
This Summer we would like to develop the school garden and work is already under way. We have laid weed suppressant and bark chip around the raised beds, introduced compost bins and planted a willow border to mark its boundary. We have joined 'The friends of the honeybee' (run by The British beekeeper's association) and would like to develop our garden raised beds to encourage insects by planting a range of pollinators but unfortunately, due to a deficit in school funding, we cannot purchase the resources we need to bring this project to fruition.
If you are able to, we are asking for donations of both part full and complete bags of multipurpose compost to build up our raised beds and any spare seeds you may have. Please find attached a link of the sort of seeds we are hoping to plant to attract the insects. Planting for Pollinators | British Beekeepers Association (bbka.org.uk)
If you do have spare seeds or full/part full multipurpose compost bags, please can you leave them outside the school office?
Thank you for anticipated support.
NEW Healthy Dudley website
The new website for Dudley Public Health & Wellbeing has launched! It replaces the previous Let's Get website and makes it easier to find health and wellbeing information using the new search function. You can find information to support healthy pregnancy, infancy, childhood and adolescent health in the Starting Well pages. There is lots of information on living and ageing well, as well as how to protect your health, support services and guidance for coping with bereavement.
Dates for the Diary
Year 6 SATS - w/c 13th May
Half term 27th - 31st May
PTA Summer Fete - Saturday 8th June
Outdoor Learning Week - w/c 24th June
INSET (school closed for children) - Friday 28th June
Sports Day - Thursday 4th July (Years 3, 4, 5 & 6 in the morning, Reception & Years 1 & 2 in afternoon)
Parents open evening - Wednesday 10th July
Reserve Sports Day - Thursday 11th July
Term ends Friday 19th July
Road Safety Action Plan
West Midlands Combined Authority have launched a consultation on the regional Road Safety Plan, which will set out the actions they and their partners will take to help halve the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads by 2030.
They have asked us to share their consultation survey with you to help maximise the range of perspectives shaping the future of road safety:
Have Your Say Today - West Midlands Road Safety - Commonplace
