Latest News
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Claim your free school meal
Wed 27 Jul 2022If you receive benefits and financial support, then your child may be entitled to Free School Meals.
Are you eligible for Free School Meals?
If you get any of the following support payments your child may be entitled to receive free school meals:
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
- Support under part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act, 1999
- Child Tax Credit and your annual income is less than £16,190
- Guaranteed Pension Credit
- Income-based Employment and Support Allowance
- Working Tax Credit run-on
- Universal Credit and your annual household income is £7,400 per annum (£616 per month) or less after-tax, and not including any benefits.
If you think you are entitled to claim a Free School Meal, it is essential you apply.
Apply through your local authority website:
Alternatively, contact your school directly.
Your school will benefit from your free school meal application.
Schools receive Pupil Premium funding, for each child eligible for free school meals.
This extra money is used in a variety of creative and innovative ways to help support individual pupils and the whole school community.
For each eligible child, the school receives funding for the next six years, even if their parents/carers’ situation changes.
Please apply for free school meals if you are eligible, so your child’s school can access extra funding to enrich learning and improve progress and outcomes for children.
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Great Witley graded ‘Good’ in church school inspection
Thu 21 Jul 2022On 30th June, Great Witley CE Primary School had a Church School Inspection, and we are delighted to announce the outcome was ‘Good’ in all areas.
The Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) is to see how effective the school’s distinctive Christian vision is established and promoted by leadership at all levels, in enabling pupils and adults to flourish.
“Great Witley is rooted in its vision of loving, learning and living. It is a community where all ages grow and where flourishing is secured.” SIAMS report June 2022
The inspector spent the day in school, observing lessons and collective worship and speaking to staff, pupils and parents about the Christian ethos of the school and how this has impacted on school development.
The inspector was particularly impressed with;
- ‘Excellent curriculum provision excites and inspires staff and pupils alike’
- ‘Support for those who have additional needs and for positive mental health and wellbeing is exemplary. Staff, including support staff, are unstinting in their determination that all are understood, all feel valued and so all are able to learn’
- Pupils flourish and are delightful young citizens with a mature desire to make a difference in the world.
- Staff are highly motivated and benefit from the partnerships with other schools in the trust.
- The curriculum is rich, creatively crafted, and gives appropriate focus on global sustainability. This innovative approach means pupils think widely about their place in our world.
- Relationships across all the ages are founded on acceptance and love. There is a palpable sense of harmony and mutual respect.
“I want to say thank you and well done to all the children, staff, school improvement board members and parents/families who supported us with this.” Kate Ramsey, Head of School.
Great Witley SIAMS report 2022
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Children invited to try visual impaired cricket
Tue 19 Jul 2022North Worcester Primary Academy pupils were invited to the annual cricket match between Marylebone Cricket Club and Worcestershire Elizabethans Visually Impaired cricket team to raise awareness of the inclusivity of sport.
The event is one of many opportunities in which the wider community take an active role in helping the school embed their curriculum and create a sustainable and equitable future.
Read more in the Worcester News
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Summerhill awarded an Eco-Schools Green Flag
Thu 14 Jul 2022We are very pleased to announce that Summerhill Primary Academy have been awarded an Eco-Schools Green Flag.
In order to achieve an Eco-Schools Green Flag schools have to work on three of the Eco-Schools Ten Topics. These topics have been chosen to combat a variety of global issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and plastic pollution.
Eco-Schools is designed to place children in control of environmental actions in their school, local community and beyond.
The first step for Summerhill Primary Academy was to appoint and enthusiastic eco-committee, a group of committed pupils responsible for planning and running the eco-schools programme.
The Eco-Committee undertook an Environmental Review to recognise the great work the school was already doing to be eco-friendly and to spot gaps in existing eco-actions. The areas for improvement provided the basis of an action plan.
Eco-school commented on Summerhill's Environmental Review stating "The review demonstrates a reflective and considered approach to Eco-Schools work "
Eco-schools also commented on the school's sustainability focussed curriculum “We’re really impressed at how you’ve linked environmental issues to a variety of curriculum areas".
Eco-schools recognised how engaged the entire school and the wider community had been, stating "We have loved hearing about how involved you have been with Tipton Litter Watch, The VCOP conference and The Big Battery Hunt. We love that your pupils have taken their great work beyond the school gates and into their homes and local community. This is a very challenging aspect of the Eco-Schools programme, so your Eco-Committee should be very proud of their successes in this area!”
Pupils have enjoyed being Eco-warriors and are taking their Eco-Schools work home with them and getting their families on board
Eco-schools commented “everyone involved should be incredibly proud of the changes they have made!"
Congratulations to everyone for the great work you have managed to do, earning your Green Flag with Distinction.
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Boxcar Rally 2022
Wed 13 Jul 2022The Rivers Boxcar Rally, at the legendary Shelsley Walsh hill climb was one of the most spectacular events of the school calendar.
On Tuesday 12th July 2022, Year 6 children from 12 schools in The Rivers CofE Academy Trust joined together to showcase their engineering, design and driving skills and compete to see whose boxcar was the best.
Watch a 60 second round up of the 2022 Boxcar Rally.
As the schools set up in the pit stations, there was a buzz of excitement across the Shelsley Walsh paddock. One child from Cranham Primary School commenting “This is going to be fun. I’m looking forward to this”. Children could be seen eyeing up the competition, trying to guess which car was going to perform the best and which team had the best theme.
18 teams produced a boxcar to race on the day. Each team had been split into smaller groups to focus on mechanism, structure and costume, with one group responsible for food tech, ensuring the groups were fed. Boxcar themes ranged from Pirates and Jurassic Park to Hogwarts and Space, with all pupils from Heronswood Primary and Pre School in Kidderminster, dressing in wartime attire. They even had Winston Churchill preparing ration inspired team lunches.
The day began with Stephen Crake and Sam Sergeant, engineering representatives from Worcester Bosch checking the breaks, structure and mechanism of each car to see if it was fit to compete.
Both had experience of making karts when they were younger and explained that kart making is one of the challenges at Worcester Bosch team development days.
Stephen and Sam were impressed by the standard of the cars, stating “they were all fantastic”, with their early favourite being Northwick Manor’s ‘Back to the Future’ car due to the more complicated mechanism.
Sam and Stephen ended up staying to watch the driving challenges in the afternoon. Sam commented “We have had a cracking day. We were only supposed to stay until 12 but it has been fantastic”.
Before the pupils were let loose on the Boxcar Rally track, Rivers CEO Mrs Kate Brunt, gave the course a test run! It was hilarious and set the tone for the day, full of humour, fearlessness and gusto.
After a safety briefing, the first set of drivers took to the track for a steering challenge to see if they could complete the course without hitting any cones.
The final challenge was to control the boxcar down the hill and stop in the grid at the end.
With many of the top-heavy boxcars toppling over during the steering and accuracy challenge, event organiser and Head at North Worcester Primary Academy Mrs Calvert said “I think we have learnt a few lessons for next year - lower and wider…repeat after me... lower and wider”
The crowd of children were very supportive of each other, cheering and encouraging every driver who came down the track.
The aim of the trust-wide boxcar rally was to bring children together in a fun way and let them take responsibility for running a project.
The event gave pupils the opportunity to revisit, explore and purposefully apply what they have learnt in design and technology over the last six years.
Children have gained valuable skills such as team building, meeting deadlines and managing their own responsibilities.
The judges had the difficult task of scoring the teams based on mechanism, structure, costume, food and performance in the races.
See BBC Hereford and Worcester coverage of the event
Overall winners on the day were Heronswood team 1 with their World War 2 themed boxcar.
Great Witley CE Primary School came 2nd with their golden snitch and Hogwarts themed car.
Burlish Park Primary School team 2 came 3rd with their space theme boxcar.
As the last big event on the school calendar, the year 6 boxcar rally will be a lasting memory of their time at primary school.
Mrs Waldron, Cutnall Green CofE Primary School “Our children thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, and it was an amazing atmosphere”.
Shelley Walsh have already agreed to let us use the venue again next year.
Kerry Rochester Director of Education “It was great to see the pupils enjoying themselves. If this was the first, I can't wait to see what they will achieve next year!”
We would like to thank The Ogden Trust for helping to fund the event, Shelsley Walsh for supplying the venue and volunteers, Hayfisher Productions for filming the event and Worcester Bosch for their expertise and judging.
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Our plans to be net zero by 2030
Mon 04 Jul 2022We are committed to supporting the United Nations 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development and the DfE’s aim of cutting carbon emissions and reaching net-zero by 2030, by achieving actions outlined in our Sustainability Charter.
To support the charter the trust has developed an Environmental Sustainability Plan to outline the strategy required to promote and support sustainability across the trust.
The plan outlines how we will promote an eco-friendly attitude and ensure the Trust is as sustainable as it can be.
There are several long and short-term goals within the plan, with an annual focus on 3 areas where we can make a big impact.
Sustainability focus areas for 2022/2023 are:
- Energy Management
Project to look at the energy usage across our schools.
We have already identified that the use of timers, solar panels, improving insulation and switching to LED lights, can have a big impact on energy usage.
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Food Waste
Work with contractors to ensure less waste and educate children on food waste.
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Healthy Living
Every school participates in the daily mile and staff encouraged to walk a daily mile or journey to work in a sustainable way
As a trust, we aim to achieve a million miles walked by the end of the year.
What the trust is already doing to become net zero
- Reviewing waste management contracts to improve recycling
- Switching to LED lighting in all schools
- This project should cut electricity usage for lighting by 50%
- Refurbishing roofs to improve insulation and reduce energy usage
- Installing efficient boilers
231,549 KWh of electricity will be saved across the trust year year.
This reduces our carbon footprint by 54 tonnes of carbon a year = 1,728 trees, 7 acres of forest, 3 football pitches
Our actions to be more sustainable not only help to reduce our carbon footprint and help our planet, they also help to improve the learning environment for our children and staff.
Through combined purchasing and financial pooling we have made cost savings which are reinvested in capital projects to create and improve learning spaces. Capital projects include the North Worcester Primary Academy Pre-school extension, completed in January 2022 and the Little Cherries Pre-school classroom refurbishment at Cherry Orchard Primary School due for completion in July 2022.
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Burlish awarded School Games Platinum Award
Fri 01 Jul 2022We are delighted to announce that Burlish Park, have achieved the School Games Platinum Mark Award for the 2021/22 academic year.
The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward and recognise school’s engagement (provision and uptake) in the School Games against a national benchmark and to celebrate keeping young people active, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.
Congratulations to the pupils and staff at Burlish for their dedication to all aspects of physical activity and school sport.