This week celebrates World Book Day and to kick start our week off and to continue our love of reading, the children were lucky enough to participate in a story-telling dance class run by an outside dance company. The children in nursery and reception danced to ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, the children in year 1 and 2 danced to ‘The Gruffalo’ and the children in year 3, 4, 5 and 6 danced to ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. Our children enjoyed this so much and both their performances and laughter were lovely to see and hear! 

On Thursday, we celebrated World Book Day. It was fantastic to see all the children come into school dressed as their favourite book character or in their pyjamas. Throughout the morning, each year group visited another to take part in reading buddies. The children shared how they enjoyed helping each other read.

After that, the children spent time in their classrooms completing activities themed around their class’ book. Year 3 were looking at Charlie and the Chocolate factory, Year 4 were looking at Holes and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and Year 2 were looking at Meerkat Mail. Activities included retelling the story, drama, creating bookmarks, designing new front covers and much more.

After lunch, the children were very excited to find out who the masked readers were. Chants of ‘take it off’ could be heard throughout the building. To wrap up the day, the children then headed to the hall to check out this year’s themed potatoes. They look absolutely amazing.

In memory of his older brother, during February, William in Year 5 will be taking part in a 24 hour gaming session to raise money for the charity Sands.  Sands is the leading stillbirth and neonatal death charity in the UK and exists to reduce the number of babies dying. They ensure that anyone affected by the death of a baby receives the best possible care and support for as long as they need it. You can find out more about the charity here: www.sands.org.uk

We wish William the best of luck with his fundraising! If you would like to find out more about the challenge, or wish to donate, you can contact his Mum Kelly, via email at Friendsofbloxwichacademy@outlook.com

In Nursery, we have started to focus on our new topic ‘Long Ago.’

The children have been exploring photos of events that have happened in the past. Some of the photographs the children have explored are in black and white. We have spoken about how photos have changed over time. We have been drawing pictures of our family using black charcoal and black wax crayons – the children have described their pictures brilliantly.

Last week, we all went outside to see how the weather had changed. After being outside for a few minutes the snow started to fall from the sky. The children put out their hands and caught lots of snowflakes. They felt the snowflakes fall on their face with joy.

Some children commented:

“It’s white!”

“It’s freezing now,”

“Where does the snow come from?”

In maths, we have been looking at patterns in the environment from spots to stripes. Some children have been very creative with their mark making skills and have made their own patterns. Well done everyone – keep looking for different patterns at home! In literacy, we have started to focus on a new story called ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar.’ The children have been able to join in with telling the story and have enjoyed counting the fruit the caterpillar has eaten. We have been drawing caterpillars and comparing their size too. Some caterpillars were long and thin, and others were long and fat.

A quick reminder: The weather is getting colder please wrap up warm! We advise children to bring a hat, a scarf and gloves every day.

Keep working hard everyone!

During the Christmas holiday, Bloxwich Academy Primary received the incredible news that one of our Year 6 pupils had won MP Eddie Hughes’ Christmas Card Competition! Holly’s amazing design had been chosen out of the hundreds submitted by children across the borough to be the official Christmas card of our local MP, and even the Prime Minister himself has been pictured holding the winning creation!

The news even made it into the Express & Star, and all the staff took great pleasure reading about Holly’s success over the holidays. The article is here if you would like to read more HERE.

Well done Holly, from everyone at Bloxwich Academy, and keep up the amazing work!

Hello there and a very happy Christmas to all the parents and carers of Bloxwich Academy Primary! Yesterday, we welcomed you all in to school to join us at our Festive Fayre, and we must thank you for making it a huge success! The final total raised from both Santa’s grotto and the fayre was in excess of £1219; a fantastic amount which we will put towards arranging future events and treats for the children.

A huge thank you has to go to Mr. Dick who kindly volunteered to take part in the ‘Soak the Staff’ challenge; he took every sponge on the chin, literally, and the children had so much fun! The Hook a Duck was also a huge hit, and there were some fantastic prizes won on the raffle. We really appreciate the support from the school and the community, and cannot wait to hold more events like this in the future.

On behalf of Friends of Bloxwich, we hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and an amazing New Year.

After over 18 months of COVID restrictions preventing us from singing in school, it has been fantastic to hear the sound of singing filling our corridors once again.

Children from Year 1 all the way up to Year 6 have been rehearsing their Christmas songs for our carol concert and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Each year group has already been filmed singing their song, so watch out for the concert coming soon to a smart phone, tablet or computer screen near you!

Children in Early Years have also worked incredibly hard to learn all the songs for their Christmas production ‘Away in a Manger’. Parents have been able to come into school (socially distanced and masked) to watch their children perform over four separate performances this week. We thought the children would be exhausted but they have taken it all in their stride and still seem to have plenty of energy left!

Year 2 have just completed a very Christmassy unit of Music work named ‘Ho, Ho, Ho!’ They have really enjoyed learning to sing the song and have even performed the rap sections. The rapping was very tricky to begin with as it was so fast, but they soon got the hang of it. They learned to play some notes on the glockenspiels to accompany it too.

Meanwhile, Year 4 have been getting into some pop music! They have been learning about the music of Abba in their Music unit ‘Mama Mia!’ They have learned the song ‘Mama Mia as well as accompanying it on glockenspiels.

Another music video for you to look out for is our Year 4 and Year 5 pupils performing, A Christmas Jingle. The school has invested in instruments for every child in Year 4 and 5 so they do not have to share. You can see them playing clarinets, trumpets and even trombones!

They have only recently started learning to play these instruments but already sound fantastic together. We cannot wait to see their talents develop over the year.

We hope you enjoy your children’s performances and that you find some time to belt out some festive songs too. After all, singing is great for our mental health and is something you can enjoy doing with the whole family!

Exciting news – Bloxwich Academy have purchased every child a book bag!

Your child has brought their book bag home with them and inside should be their reading book, reading diary, and their library book.

Your child’s reading bag should be brought into school every day to enable them to read with an adult in school.

As a school, we suggest that you hear your child read at home at least three times a week. After you have heard them read, please fill in their reading log and sign to say you have heard them read!

Unfortunately, if a book bag is lost an additional cost of £3.50 – will need to pay at our school’s reception for a replacement.

Children in Early Years will be taking part in World Nursery Rhyme Week this month. We will be challenging children to participate in the ‘Rhyme a Day Challenge’ by singing nursery rhymes and taking part in supporting activities. 

Nursery rhymes are excellent teaching tools and can help to develop:  

• Language and literacy skills 
• Numeracy skills 
• Social skills
• Physical skills
• Emotional skills – they are so much fun 

All children in Nursery and Reception are asked to dress up on Monday 22nd November 2021 as their favourite Nursery Rhyme character. Please do not feel obliged to spend money on a costume. Home-made outfits are often the best. To help prepare your child for this experience you could sing the official rhymes of 2021 at home:

• Incy Wincy Spider 
• Sleeping Bunnies 
• Wind the Bobbin 
• Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes 
• Down In the Jungle 

Or, use this link to watch the nursery rhyme videos. https://bit.ly/3Ezl87W 

If you would like to explore a wide range of rhymes please visit Piccolo Music by using this link https://bit.ly/2ZJJ9tI