In conjunction with the local council, we are holding a special road safety day at school on Friday 3rd March for all children. All children should come to school on Friday wearing something on their top that is bright and/or high-vis. This is to promote the importance of being seen when out and about.

It is never too early to start learning this essential life skill, and it becomes ever more important as the children progress towards Year 6 and begin to travel more independently. Our priority is for our children to be safe and we encourage everyone - children and grown-ups - to travel actively to school by walking, cycling or scooting. We were proud to be the first school in B&NES to receive a silver award from the national Modeshift STARS scheme.

Each child will take part in a session run by the council team and assisted by their class teacher. We will hold a whole school assembly at the end of the day to review the activities.

The scooter training for Year 3 requires each child to have access to a scooter and helmet. We have asked parents to speak to the class teacher if you do not have access to these, or if you could lend us any spares for use on the day.

The pedestrian training for Year 5 requires parental permission to be given for children to go offsite via this online Microsoft Form.

All parents have been sent this letter outlining the day's activities for their child/ren and the equipment and clothing required. We are very much looking forward to this special day and we thank Mrs Book and Miss Mulready for their work in sourcing this opportunity for the children.

We will be holding our traditional pancake races on Shrove Tuesday, 21st February. Children should bring in a pan and a pancake (in a named carrier bag) and we will hold pancake events on the playground for FS/KS1 and KS2 pupils.

There will also be a special school lunch to celebrate pancake day available on this day following the usual process for school lunches. See the menu poster below.

Shrove Tuesday is the day before Lent begins. Lent is the period of six weeks 40 days (not including Sundays) leading up to Easter, the most important festival in the Christian calendar. Shrove Tuesday is also known as Pancake Day because this day was traditionally the last chance to use up the foods Christians would not be eating during Lent.

World Book Day is always a special event in the school calendar where we get to share everything we love about books and reading. This year it takes place on Thursday 2nd March.

Free Book Tokens and books

Every child in the UK and Ireland will receive a free £1 World Book Token (to be sent home in reading folders on 9^th February). These can be redeemed at all participating bookshops from Thursday 16^th February – Sunday 26^th March 2023 (Minimum redemption £2.99, one transaction per Book Token). We will also be able to accept them towards the cost of a book at the travelling Book Fair that will be at school from Thursday 9^th to Wednesday 15^th March.

The token can also be directly exchanged for any one of a variety of special £1 titles. See the letter from school here for the full list.

Dressing up day

We are excited to announce that this year we will be celebrating by having a dressing up day on Thursday 2^nd March. Get ready to show off your love of reading by coming in dressed as your favourite character. This can be as simple or as extravagant as you wish and the adults will be joining in too!

If you would like some ideas about what to dress up as, please visit https://www.worldbookday.com/dressing-up/

Inexpensive costumes: to support the dress up day, the PTA are running a pre-loved dress up sale.They have collected donations of unwanted costumes which will be on sale after school on Friday 24^th February, with a maximum price of £3 for any item!

Celebratory school dinner

There will be a special school dinner menu on Friday 3^rd March to celebrate World Book Day. Please see the menu here and book your child’s school lunch in the usual fashion.

Author visit

We are thrilled to have an author visiting our school as part of our World Book Day celebrations. On Wednesday 8^th March, we will welcome Serena Patel, author of the wonderful ‘Anisha’ series of books which won the Sainsbury's Children's Book Award for Fiction. The first book in this series, has been gifted by the PTA to every classroom so all children will have access to this title immediately.

There will be a special assembly about her life as an author, as well as a workshop with some of the children. There will also be a book signing at school, and all parents have been sent details of how to order a book. For your book to arrive in time for the book signing, orders must be emailed through by 1st March, although books can also be ordered after that date. Ordering these books in this way will mean that the school will also benefit from some free books for our library.

We are pleased that the Travelling Book Fair is returning to our school this year. We appreciate your support for this fair, as the proceeds help us to fund new books for the children.

It will take place in the school library after school from Thursday 9^th to Wednesday 15^th March from 3.15 to 4pm.

You can browse the books in advance by visiting bookfairs.scholastic.co.uk/travelling-books/the-books. We will have a fantastic range of books on offer for all ages so please do take a look. Almost a third of the books are priced at less than £5 in recognition of the current demands on many families' budgets.

The easiest way to purchase a book is to use the QR code which will be on display at the fair. It will take you through to the payments page for our fair . You will also be able to get to the payment page online near the time of the fair: https://bookfairs.scholastic.co.uk/pay/

If you would prefer, you can purchase a Book Fair voucher from bookfairs.scholastic.co.uk/travelling-books/parents#vouchers which will allow your child to purchase books without having to bring in cash. Don't forget that your child's £1 Book Day Voucher can also be used towards the cost of a book.

We can also take cash payments but would encourage you to avoid paying this way if at all possible. 

For more information go to: https://bookfairs.scholastic.co.uk/travelling-books/parents