Bushfield Court
December 18, 2019
Choir have been down to Bushfield Court today for our last Christmas outing. We spent the morning with the residents creating Christmas crafts, including decorating wreaths and sewing Christmas tree decorations. We finished off by singing all of the residents some Christmas songs and carols. Every child in Choir was given a Christmas present as well as chocolates and biscuits. It was a fantastic morning and as usual Choir were an absolute credit to us!
I just wanted to thank all of Choir for all of their hard work this term and I look forward to seeing you all in the Spring Term!
Merry Christmas!
Mrs Rushton
Online Safety Update
December 16, 2019
As many parents will be purchasing a new device for their children over the Christmas period, we thought the following 'Online Safety' information would prove very useful!
Family Agreement
The holidays are a great time to sit down with children and manage expectations. Some children will spend as much time online and playing games as they possibly can, but this isn't practical, there has to be a balance between family and socialisation. Here's a link to a family agreement template from Childnet
https://www.childnet.com/resources/family-agreement
Parental Controls
There are so many connected devices on the market now, each with their own unique way of setting up parental controls and restrictions. Equally the functionality of these devices can be daunting with chat, game downloads, in-app purchases, third party apps on the devices (such as social media, Netflix) etc.
Parents are always advised two things. Firstly look up the device on YouTube using a simple 'how to' query, e.g. 'how to restrict in-app purchases on Playstation 4'. Secondly, the wonderful people at Internet Matters have a one-stop shop for setting up devices which can be found here:
https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/
Advice by age
As well as devices, lots of parents also need advice according to the age of their children. Again, Internet Matters has this covered for children 0-5, 6-10, 11-13 and 14+.
https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/
Gaming
Gaming is likely to be high on the agenda for many children this holiday period. CEOP have a nice, simple guide for parents.
https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/gaming/
Internet Matters also has a gaming hub which is really useful for parents; it was updated a couple of months ago and has invaluable information
https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/online-gaming-advice/
YouTube
If you haven't seen the new YouTube app or site for children under the age of 13, it's worth a look. This is only a few weeks old and it's quite good for the younger children
App: https://youtube.com/kids/
Web: https://www.youtubekids.com/
Social Media
Back to Internet Matters for this one; they have a really useful hub for parents which explains the risks and the benefits, along with some resources that parents can use
https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/social-media-advice-hub/
Competition Winners
December 17, 2019
These were our 4 lucky winners from our F.O.L renaming and logo competition. Together their 4 ideas have now been combined and have come up with the fabulous name of P.A.W.S = Parents Active Within School, and a brand new logo. Congratulations to all four of you and have fun spending your Argos vouchers.
Please click here to view the winning logo.
Christmas Choir Competition 2019
December 16, 2019
Unfortunately, Choir were not successful in the Christmas Competition yesterday at Merry Hill, however I thought that they were ALL SUPERSTARS! We wanted to share with you one of the songs that they sang. This was the Choir's favourite song 'Love Shone Down'.
The video can be seen here: https://youtu.be/yTvaFDxTW64
Christmas Carol Concert
December 06, 2019
Today, Choir went to St Martins Church to join in with the annual Bilston Schools Christmas Carol Concert. They sang beautifully and were an absolute credit to us - as usual! I am looking forward to Choir sharing their festive cheer at various venues over the upcoming weeks and hope to see lots of you there to support us at Merry Hill!
Well done Choir
Mrs Rushton
Children in Need
November 22, 2019
A massive thank you to everybody who contributed towards Children in Need. We raised £413 altogether!
Children in Need
November 18, 2019
On Friday we celebrated Children in Need day, when we all dressed up and donated money to help those in need.
School was filled with beautiful cakes for our 'Bake Off' competition and we raised even more money by selling of these lovely cakes at the end of the day.
Thank you to everyone who supported us and helped make our day a great success. We will keep you posted on how much we raised when all our money is counted.
Please click here to view the gallery.
Great Loxdale Bake Off
November 07, 2019
School Councillors met once again this week, they were discussing themes for our ‘Great Loxdale Bake off’. Also we talked about our forth-coming non-uniform days and when we are having them and what the children and staff would be asked to wear and what to donate for our Christmas fair!
In addition to this, we discussed when we are releasing the winners for the naming and logo of the old Friends of Loxdale Competition.
Keep your eyes peeled for the winners!
Year 6 Elder Councillors.
School Council: Logo Judging
October 24, 2019
Excitedly, this week, the School Council judged the ‘Friends of Loxdale’ logo entries and name competition. The School Council thought that the entries were all beautiful designs; some were chosen to be short-listed by School Council.
Mrs Scott and Mr Hill; Chair of Governors, will complete the final judging on Friday. School Council have really enjoyed judging the designs and name ideas, we still have more coming soon like the Loxdale’s Great Bake-off!
Yours Sincerely,
Year 4 Spruce Councillors.
Harvest Festival
October 15, 2019
A massive thank you to everyone for their Harvest donations and for coming to our Harvest Festival. The food donated went to two charities the Good Shepherd and Outreach 4 Wolverhampton.
