We've ended the week and the term with the Carillon playing us out of school- it was a super way for the children to leave school after such a long term. Thank you to all of you who have attended one of our festive services; the Year 1 Nativity, Reception and Year 1's Carol Service and yesterday's KS2 Carol Service were all really wonderful and it was great to see the Church and The George Hall filled with children, families and singing!

Today marks the end of Miss Abraham's journey at Bournville Village Primary. She has worked with countless children and seen many families come and go across sixteen years. Although Miss Abrahams will be greatly missed by children, staff and families alike, we are thrilled and excited for her as she begins her new adventure as a social worker. The farewell is bittersweet but we know you will want to join us in wishing Louise all the success in the world and we are sure our paths will cross before too long. 

Christmas Fact of the week:

It's a favourite song for many people, but did you know that in 1965 Jingle Bells became the first song to be played in space. Not even just the first Christmas song - the first song EVER! During the Gemini 6A space flight, it was played as a prank from the astronauts to those down below. 

Also, because it is the last newsletter before Christmas, we have a bonus fact for you. Jingle Bells was originally a song written for Thanksgiving and not Christmas! Its original title was 'The One Horse Open Sleigh'.

Thank you to everyone who attended our Christmas Carol services. We hope you enjoyed them as much as we did! Our pupils sang beautifully and, it is safe to say, they got us in the Christmas spirit. We are already looking forward to next year’s performances.

After Christmas, the attendance team will be increasing incentives around whole school attendance. To kick this off, we are striving to have 100% attendance on the first Friday back (12th January) and we would love you all to get on board and help make this happen!

Also, as part of our whole school attendance drive, we are introducing, brand new for 2024… (drumroll please) ...The Attendance Armadillo!

On Thursday our Year 5s went back in time and had a fun-filled Tudor-themed day to celebrate the end of their history topic. They made Tudor houses in D&T and used them to create an entire Tudor village. This was followed by a royal Tudor banquet which included a feast, dancing, arts and crafts. The children had a great time – not to mention they looked the part in their amazing costumes – plus, it was a brilliant way to bring the Tudors to life!

Presenting... His Royal Highness and his Jester (Mr Sherwin and Mr Hall)!

What an amazing final week of term we've had. The school has been filled with singing and music making. Congratulations to all the children for some amazing carol services and our Year 1 Nativity. We are super proud of you all. We really are a ’singing school’!

What an amazing final week of term we've had. The school has been filled with singing and music making. Congratulations to all the children for some amazing carol services and our Year 1 Nativity. We are super proud of you all. We really are a ’singing school’!

Our Year 6 choir members/hand bell ringers have been spreading our love of singing into our community. With visits to St Francis Memory Cafe, The Quadrangle and for the first time Lucton House. Reports from our music ambassadors follow:

On the 13th December Year 6 choir went to St Francis Memory Cafe and sang lots of songs, like Rudolph and Herod. It was great fun and the people were very happy and joined in with our singing. I really enjoyed it.

On Monday, the Year 6 choir went over to The Quadrangle to sing and play the hand bells. For me it was an awesome experience, as it was so nice to go and sing for the elderly. It really made my day seeing them smile. The best part was when we sang Rudolph because when we did the actions all you could hear was laughter. At the end of our concert, Santa came! He gave us all a present (chocolate). He said he heard us sing and it was amazing.

On Tuesday, we were invited to sing at Lucton House, Retirement Home. We really enjoyed singing to our community and seeing them enjoy our range of Christmas carols. By the time we had finished most of the audience was joining in (or asleep!) but it was a really nice opportunity to make them smile. At the end, we were gifted chocolate which helped to power us for the rest of the day. Overall, I really enjoyed it and would be very keen to do a similar event again. C.6S

Some thoughts…

On Sunday 10th December the choir performed at the Town Hall. We were conducted by James Jones and Mrs Vaughan. Year 6 also played the hand bells and sang with the adult choirs. It was an amazing experience and really inspired us to keep on singing! We hope that more people will have this opportunity, just like us.

Thank you to A. R. and L in Year 5 for sending us into the holidays with a wonderful rendition of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer on their keyboards.

Choir will start back on Monday 15th January. If your child is going to Young Voices, please click on the link below to learn the words and dance moves. We have very little time to teach everything in school.

Young Voices Tickets.
These have now arrived and will be distributed at choir on 15th January. We are still awaiting the T Shirts.

These will start back on Tuesday 9th January and continue until the ned of term. Please note that the music service have an inset day on Wednesday 10th January, so there will be no brass or violin lessons that day.

Guitar/ukulele spaces
We will be starting a new ukulele or guitar group in January. If your child would like to start lessons , please email Mrs Vaughan. Cost is £7.60 per week to include the loan of an instrument

We are seeking 2 parents to help take the school orchestra to the hear the KS2 CBSO Schools concert on Tuesday 6^th February. We will be travelling by train, leaving school at 11.30pm and returning approximately 4pm. If any orchestra parents are free to help, please let Mrs Vaughan know. More details will follow in the Spring Term.

Finally a huge thank you to all our peripatetic music teachers, for all they do for the children at BVPS and to the children themselves for an amazing autumn term. We can’t wait to see what you achieve in 2024.

Wishing all our families a wonderful Christmas break 🎄

Christmas is often a busy and excitable time for many, so if you are looking to bring a little chill and calm in throughout the break, why not try one of our recommended regulation activities 🙂 

Flower/candle breathing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3is_-FVZC8

7-Minute Emotion Regulating Activity To Help Kids Calm Down! [with mindful breathing techniques]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORRdf_nLc_I

Christmas Cosmic kids' yoga: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMeKIAEpWxw

Hello everyone! A final festive maths item for the newsletter for this term. To start with, a celebration of some fantastic fraction work from L and S in Year 5. The girls used their knowledge of equivalent fractions to complete this mind-boggling jigsaw puzzle where each touching edge is an equivalent fraction!

I will leave you with a Christmas-themed maths puzzle all of your own to solve. I’m sure you all know the song ‘The 12 days of Christmas’ – but have you ever wondered how many gifts would be sent in total across all twelve days? It starts out easy enough:

On the first day of Christmas, one partridge in a pear tree (1 gift)

On the second day, two turtle doves and one partridge in a pear tree (3 gifts + 1 = 4 total)

On the third day, three French hens, two turtle doves and one partridge in a pear tree (6 gifts + 4 = 10 total)

… and so on! I think it’s going to end up being a very large number. If you manage to solve my Christmas puzzle, bring your answer (and any working out) to Mr Hall in 5H in the first week back after the holidays. You never know, maybe you’ll be opening this many presents on Christmas morning too!

Reading Bingo!

Over the Christmas break, why not take part in Christmas reading bingo. Can you get three in a row? Can you get a full house?

Looking for something with a Christmas or winter theme? See the recommendations below:

Age 5+

The Polar Express

Dasher can’t wait for Christmas by Matt Tavares

How does Santa go down the chimney? By Jon Klassen

Age 7+

The Robin and the Reindeer by Rosa Bailey

The Christmas Carrolls: The Christmas club by Mel Taylor-Bessent

A Christmasaurus Carol by Tom Fletcher

Age 9+

The Snow Girl by Sophie Anderson

A Poem for every winter day

Juniper’s Christmas by Eoin Colfer

Why was the Turkey the only part of the meal in a pop group?

Because he was the only one with drumsticks!

Standby to Get Creative

The Explorify Art Competition invites children to create their own Start With Art artwork. They could draw or paint a picture, make a model or a sculpture, create a collage, design a print, take a photograph… whatever they choose. They might seek inspiration from one of our featured Start With Art artists (but note that children’s entries do need to be original, rather than copies of existing works of art). Or perhaps they’ve learned about the style and work of a particular artist, or have explored new skills in art such as water-colour or hand building with clay. Here’s a purposeful opportunity for them to put those skills into practice.

Can they find a way to show their science learning through their art? Can they create something that will spark a conversation about science among other children that look at it?

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from Miss Stone and her science elves.

Sometimes parents/ families see things online that they are not comfortable with but struggle knowing what to do when reporting this. The link below offers some useful information and a guide on reporting inappropriate content online .

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/Get-help/Reporting-an-incident/ 

Introducing the new menu for the Spring term 

Fresh seasonal salad bar and fresh bread available daily as well as a daily selection of fresh fruit and fruit yoghurts.

Booking School Dinners Update 

As of January, you can book all dinners (including Halal) on the same booking form. We apologise for the multiple changes regarding Halal meals recently, but we have been trying to find the most effective way of collecting orders and we have come to the conclusion, this is the way forward. Thank you for your patience.

Also, please remember if you want to book your child a school dinner, make sure your ParentPay account is in credit before doing so.

Dinners in arrears 

This term we have had a few parents calling the office to say they have been charged for a dinner on a day when their child was sent to school with a packed lunch. We would like to make parents aware that each pupil from KS2 fills in their own mark on the dinner register. So, please could you remind your child/ren that if they have been given a lunch from home, they should not be marking themselves as a dinner,  as mum or dad will be charged for this.

Well, that's a wrap! 

We have organised the Christmas Cards, Mugs, Coaster and Tags designs, Christmas Fair, Discos for Year 1, 2/3, 4/5/6, Carols in the Playground, Christmas Raffle, Christmas Cake Raffle, School Shop, Parties in the Playground, New Reception Induction sessions, Duck Race, extended Present Room and funded the Christmas Parties today ... all in one Term.

If you volunteered for any of these - you are amazing! We could not have done it (safely) without you all!

We popped into the final Assembly for KS2 this morning to say thank you to the children for getting involved in all of our fun things around school, to ask the children to thank their parent/guardians for all their support, and pass on special thanks to the teachers and the TAs for all their support - and allowing us to occasionally trash their classrooms. All of your contributions and enthusiasm is greatly appreciated!

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2024!

Much love,

David, Veronica and the amazing PTA Organising Team.

Message from Bring it on Brum!

To book Bring It On Brum! holiday clubs you will need your Bring It On Brum! code (BIOB code), sometimes called a Free School Meal Code (FSM code) or Holiday Activity and Food Code (HAF code). Our code is 3303353. 

If you haven't received your Bring It On Brum! code, but believe you are eligible for the programme, please speak to your school office. Alternatively, you can contact the Bring It On Brum! team via the contact form on the Bring It On Brum! website. 

In preparation for holiday clubs opening, we suggest you familiarise yourself with the booking process by checking out our 'How to Book' guide. 

https://www.bringitonbrum.co.uk/content/uploads/2023/03/How-to-Book-.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Bring%20it%20on%20Brum%20News&utm_content=Bring%20it%20on%20Brum%20News+CID_76e227aa0d0060d31ac45468a282ffd3&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=View%20How%20to%20Book%20Guide 

We hope your children have enjoyed today; the class Christmas parties were 'lively' and we hope they all enjoyed the food provided by our fabulous PTA- we are extremely grateful for their continuous support and enthusiasm which means our children get so much more out of their BVP experience!

We hope you have a peaceful Christmas and happy and healthy New Year.

Sending love to all from everyone in your BVP family. 

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is the responsibility of everyone in our school and at all times we consider what is in our children’s best interests. We work to ensure our children our safe and cared for and by doing this we are protecting their health and development and preventing them from harm. If we are worried, we will raise concerns, share information, and take prompt action with the aim of ensuring families receive the right help at the right time.