Sharing The Love
Headteacher Newsletter - Friday 19th November 2021

Heartfelt Week
It's been a heartfelt week with Anti-bullying featuring strongly; anti-bullying is so much more than a week's worth of learning - it is about the everyday culture and ethos shared amongst us all. I have to say, I am immensely proud of the children who show week-on-week that we are 'Kind Communicators' and a community of learners. Today I saw Zara playing snakes and ladders with Harry and Harry. It was joyous to see the care, consideration, and mentoring; a great end to the week and a warm feeling in my heart!
For your reference, I have added the current Anti-bullying Policy as a link - for your ease, I have also copied and pasted the 'Parents' Guide for Dealing with Bullying' as per Appendix 2 of the policy.
Have a great weekend!
Mr. Francksen
Appendix 2: Parents’ Guide for Dealing with Bullying
The first recommended step is to try to get your child to open up about what's happening in their life by showing them that you understand, and won’t judge them.
Listen
Encourage your child to tell you the whole story. Listen calmly and without interrupting, and reassure them that they've done the right thing by speaking up. Your child may need to tell the story more than once.
Talk
Have a conversation about what happened. Try not to let your ‘very understandable’ emotions (anger, distress...) show. Your feelings can intensify the child's or make it worse for them and might even deter your child from talking to you another time. Remind your child that bullying is never OK and that whatever they are feeling – e.g. hurt, scared, sad, angry – is understandable and normal.
Ask your child what they would like to happen. Often all they want to know is how to stop the bullying. Children may feel that if the perpetrator is punished, it will be worse for them in the long run.
Find out what is happening
Note what, when, and where the bullying occurred, who was involved, how often, and if anybody else witnessed it. Don't offer to confront the young person or their parents yourself. This might make things worse for your child.
Contact the school
Bullying arises from social situations - family, school, clubs, and work - and if possible, cases of bullying are best dealt with where they occur. In children's lives, school is the most common location for bullying.
Don't assume the school will know about the situation, because your child may not have told them. The majority of children do not disclose to teachers or parents. The school is keen to prevent and stop bullying behaviour.
- Make an appointment to speak to your child's teacher
- Check your school's anti-bullying policy
- It's often difficult to remember specific details so take along your notes about the situation so you can inform the school of the specific incidents and when they happened
- If the incident involved cyberbullying and you have copies of texts or screenshots offer these to the Headteacher explaining what they show before sharing these (please do not share any inappropriate images with school staff)
- Find out if the school is aware of the bullying
- Ask what the school will do to ensure your child's safety and support your child with their concerns
- If your child asks to stay home from school, explain it won't help - and may make things worse
Positive feedback from School Nurse
Mr F
Covid Schools' Plan for Suffolk & updated guidance for households with a positive test result
The guidance now helps us as school leaders decide which Level our school is at - Bardwell is at Level 1. It also gives control measures advised for each setting type at each level.
The main change that is important for parents/carers to be aware of is the control measure when there is a positive case in a Level 1 school:
“daily LFD testing of vaccinated staff and primary aged pupils (at parental discretion) who are household and close contact of cases - ask staff and pupils to continue to attend the setting, undertake a daily LFD test, and take a PCR test on day 5 from first contact with the symptomatic positive case. Settings are encouraged to ask for evidence of test results.”
Suffolk Public Health have further clarified to us this week that, "Where daily testing is required for close contacts, there is no expectation or requirement for schools to provide pupils with LFD tests. Please encourage parents/carers or older pupils to obtain these from their local pharmacy or order them online through the NHS website. More information can be found Latest guidance COVID-19 | Suffolk County Council."
Curtain maker?
If you can help, please contact the office staff in the first instance.
Thank you.

Snacks

Our support for charities
Whilst we absolutely love the national fundraising programmes of, for example, Children in Need and Comic Relief these events are often just an 'add on' to the school day and are not meaningfully linked to our pupils' learning progress. We also have concerns about the financial and environmental impact of continually asking families to provide costumes or dress-up items which are only used once.
Already this year, we have made a wonderful donation of food items to the Gatehouse Food Bank in Bury St Edmunds and our older pupils have run our Poppy Appeal for the local Royal British Legion collection. We have linked these with our curriculum via the 'Food Glorious Food' topic and our Remembrance Day Collective Worship and related activities.
We will be asking our School Council pupils to look at what other events we should run over the rest of the year and which three charities to support - first a local charity, then a regional one, finally a global one. Each charity we support will be linked to our humanities topics.
We would also like to take this opportunity to reassure you that there is no pressure for families to contribute money every time we fundraise.
Thank you for your support!
Final call for PTA raffle tickets

Christmas Lunch & Christmas Jumper Day
Christmas Jumper Day is back! We will hold ours on Thursday 16th December so please wear a festive top with your usual school uniform. Please do not feel that you should buy a new Christmas jumper - we encourage you to make your own festive top, buy second hand or swap with a friend.
So, if you pay for meals, you will be charged for a lunch that day.
The menu is a traditional turkey roast dinner, with a vegetable roulade for vegetarians. Pudding is an ice cream tub - either chocolate & vanilla, or strawberry & vanilla.
Please contact Miss Egmore or Mrs Allman in the office (bardwell@tilian.org.uk) by Monday 29th November if you would like to opt out and will provide a home packed lunch for your child.
Thank you in advance.

Monday Mile - this week's full milers
Christmas Chorister experience
There is an exciting opportunity coming up for children aged 6-11 to experience the magic of a Cathedral at Christmas: The Christmas Chorister Experience on Saturday 11 December, 2-5pm. Activities will include singing workshops with some of our younger choristers, a Christmas-themed LEGO-building workshop, and performing at a special service to finish the day. It is free to attend. I would be grateful if you would be able to share this in your newsletter / bulletin: parents will need to book through me at dom@stedscathedral.org. I am also attaching a poster – please feel free to use or forward this.
Thank you!
All the best,
Tim Parsons, Director of Music, Bury St Edmunds Cathedral

Reporting illness - a reminder
As always, please phone the school before 9 am (rather than emailing) if your child is unwell; if you need to leave a message, please give an indication of the nature of the illness, and let us know if there are any Covid symptoms (new continuous cough, temperature, loss or change to a sense of smell or taste). If your child is off with a confirmed case of Covid, but has no symptoms and is feeling well, the government expects all schools to provide remote learning and we will do this via Google Classroom.
The guidance for families on how to access Google Classroom is here.
Class codes:
Rowan & Silver Birch - gf2lfnn
Hazel Class - kb2hb6s
Oak Class - akeyunl
If you need to borrow a school Chromebook in order to access this learning, please contact the office staff.
If your child is off with a confirmed case of Covid, or any other illness, there is no expectation that they complete remote learning if they are not well enough.
Free School Meals - could you be eligible?
Your child may be eligible for free school meals throughout primary school. This could save you approximately £437 per year.
To check or apply online, visit: https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/children-families-and-learning/schools/school-meals-uniforms-and-trips/apply-for-free-school-meals/
Check if you're eligible
Your child will get free school meals if you receive any of the following:
Income Support
Income-based Job Seeker’s Allowance
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Guarantee element of State Pension Credit
Child Tax Credit but no element of Working Tax Credit and have an annual income (as assessed by HM Revenues & Customs) that does not exceed £16,190
If you are supported under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
Working Tax Credit during the four-week period immediately after your employment finishes or after you start to work fewer hours per week
Universal Credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400 (£616.67 per month), as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods).
To check if your child is eligible, apply online for an immediate response or call 01473 260989.
We encourage you to apply, because the school receives additional funding (Pupil Premium) for all children on income-related Free School Meals.
Culford Christmas Holiday Activity Brochure
Google Reviews
We’d really appreciate parents and carers taking a few moments to add a favourable Google review for our school, to help raise our profile in the community. To do this, please search for Bardwell Primary School within Google Maps then select ‘Write a review’.
If you have any queries that would prevent you from posting a 5-star review, please raise these with the School first, via your child’s class teacher or the office staff

Calendar Dates:
Wednesday 24th November
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Football/Tag rugby (3.20-5pm)
Thursday 25th November
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Racquet sports (3.20-5pm)
Friday 26th November
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Multi-sports (3.20-5pm)
Monday 29th November
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Multi-sports (3.20-5pm)
Tuesday 30th November
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Dodgeball (3.20-5pm)
Wednesday 1st December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Football/Tag rugby (3.20-5pm)
Thursday 2nd December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Racquet sports (3.20-5pm)
Friday 3rd December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Multi-sports (3.20-5pm)
Monday 6th December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Multi-sports (3.20-5pm)
Tuesday 7th December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Dodgeball (3.20-5pm)
Wednesday 8th December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Dance Enrichment Day: Roald Dahl
- Football/Tag rugby (3.20-5pm)
Thursday 9th December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Racquet sports (3.20-5pm)
Friday 10th December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Multi-sports (3.20-5pm)
Monday 13th December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Multi-sports (3.20-5pm)
Tuesday 14th December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Nativity Performance
- Dodgeball (3.20-5pm)
Wednesday 15th December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Nativity Performance
- Football/Tag rugby (3.20-5pm)
Thursday 16th December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Christmas Jumper Day & Christmas Lunch
- Racquet sports (3.20-5pm)
Friday 17th December
- Breakfast Club (8.00-8.30)
- Class Christmas Parties
No After School Club