Dear Parents and Carers,
We have had such a busy few weeks at Mousehold and we can’t quite believe we are in the middle of June already. Last week’s Reception Sports day was just such a special moment for us all. The first event we have held with parents since pre- Covid. We have really missed inviting parents to events and it felt like a real community occasion. Today’s KS1 Sports Day was also really special, and we managed it with such warm weather. We appreciate the time families have given in coming to support your children. We have the EYFS Open Evening next Wednesday evening. It is always exciting when new children join as start their educational journey at Mousehold.
Partnership News
We’ve had a great week with partnership activity:
Y3 children visited Mousehold on Monday for a Maths afternoon. The children from MIANS and GWJS loved doing this and it was a great atmosphere. We saw some Y3 children who have grown in confidence in Y3, supporting Nursery children, we saw Y2 children asking Y3s about life at GWJS, we saw children of all ages at MIANS interacting well with Y3s. It was good to hear the comments from the Y3 children about how excited they were to be back at their old school. It was a really special moment.
We enjoyed a teacher staff meeting together on Monday. We talked about the impact of the Maths afternoon as well as how we gather evidence to show the impact of our curriculum. Subject leaders then had time to meet together.
GoGo Dinosaur Trail
It is just 2 weeks until the GoGo Dinosaur Trail ‘goes live’ and from today we will start to see the GoGo Dinosaurs around the city! We can now announce that the Mousehold Dinosaur, ‘Crunch Munch’, will be displayed in: Norwich City Centre: Chantry Place – Inside T-Wrecks Box! This is very exciting as our school dinosaur will be in the city centre for all to see! To celebrate the launch of the GoGo Discover Dinosaur Trail, Friday 1st July will be non-school-uniform day. Children can come to school in non-uniform and could even dress up dinosaur themed if they want to!
We are also setting you a Dinosaur Challenge – can you find out a fascinating fact about a dinosaur and share it with us on Friday 1st July? It could be a fact about a well-known dinosaur or some information about a rare dinosaur – we’d love to hear what you can find out. If you would like to bring in any dinosaur related books, pictures you’ve drawn or stories you’ve written about dinosaurs, that would be wonderful too.
We would also love to see any photos of you visiting ‘Crunch Munch’ and any of the dinosaurs so we can share them on our social media please do email us any pictures of you on the Dinosaur Trail. We hope you have a roarsome time!
Support for clothes and shoes – Info provided by Liz Fredericks our Community Focus Officer
Here is a list of places that clothes and shoes can be accessed free of charge during term time, and a few clothing grants available:
Growkids – drop in sessions every Wednesday between 10.30am and 12.30pm for free clothing, school uniforms and shoes for children ages 0-12
Silver Rooms – free uniforms Saturdays 10.30 – 12.30pm
New-U (in Castle Mall shopping Centre) – offer free clothing for adults and children (although children’s clothes are kept in the store room and not on show in store) so you’ll need to call or email ahead of your visit, outlining what you need and they can get a free bag of things ready for you to collect. Call: 01603 927936 or email: hello@new-ultd.co.uk
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am-4pm
Norfolk Polonia run a drop-in session for Ukranian families and their supporters at West Earlham Community Centre every Friday from 10am – 2pm and most weeks there is free clothing available to take away.
Dawn’s New Horizon – If DVA is involved, DNH can sometimes help with uniforms, shoes etc. Probably best to go via myself or Tanya for this.
Joanna Scott Foundation – For help with grants to cover school uniforms, music, nursery fees to degrees, trips, dance and gym tuition: http://www.foundationofjoannascott.org.uk/
Thomas Anguish Foundation – for help with education, school clothing, footwear, special glasses, personal tuition etc
http://www.anguishseducationalfoundation.org.uk/about-our-grants/
Norwich Town Close Charity – makes grants to individuals as a contribution towards the cost of:
School clothing and footwear, university and school fees, residentials, vocational training, educational equipment, tuition etc.
TV licence fee for people under 75, regular monthly “pension” for those in need and of pension age
http://www.norwichtowncloseestatecharity.org.uk/about-our-grants/
Talisman Charitable Trust – assists individuals who may be described as “going short”, accepting applications from registered authorities, organisations and schools.
http://www.talismancharity.org/
Buttle/Chances for Children grant – https://buttleuk.org/apply-for-a-grant/chances-for-children-grants/
Smallwood Trust – Provide grants and support for women on low incomes who have specific needs and are struggling to make ends meet or trying to overcome financial problems. https://www.smallwoodtrust.org.uk/grants-individuals
Can you help us please – with shoes?
We would like to start a shoe bank at Mousehold. If you have any school shoes with plenty of wear left please bring them to school. We will set it up in the dinner hall and will let you know when it’s up and running. This will help families in need.
Parent Survey feedback
Many thanks again for completing the parent/carer survey. The link to find this is:
https://www.mouseholdinfants.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Annual-Parent-Survey-May-2022.pdf
Some responses to how we can improve our school:
Ideally, smaller class sizes and greater adult to child ratio, however I understand this isn’t easy to implement.
We have to work within the budget we have as a school, and that is determined by the number of children in school. The bulk of our budget at Mousehold goes on staffing and we prioritise extra support in every class with extra Teaching Assistant support. Our adult:child ratio is higher than many other schools. We too would love smaller class sizes, but we have to work with the money we have.
With additional funding the school could include group therapy for children with additional needs, e.g, theraplay, sensory integration therapy etc.
We fund what we can to support children and termly we apply for additional funding to support individual children. Currently we fund The Benjamin Foundation to come in weekly to support children who might need some 1:1 time for various reasons. We also work closely with Children’s Services and we have had play therapists visit the school to work with children. Our Nurture Space is in its early days and we have done really well this year resourcing it. That is a sensory space that all children benefit from. We would of course always welcome more funding and are always on the look-out for more funding streams.
Summer Fayre – FRIDAY 24th JUNE
Our school summer fayre is on Friday 24th June after school. All are welcome. The Friends of School are working hard preparing for the event. It is great that we are able to run this again, after a break of 2 years. Lots of money is raised for your children and it is always a lovely atmosphere.
Please see the end of the newsletter for more information about the Friends of Mousehold Infant and Nursery School Association
Open Classrooms
This is after school, every Friday, and is a chance for you to look at your children’s books and to see their classrooms. All are welcome, every Friday.
Safeguarding
Please continue to talk to a member of staff on the playground before or after school if you are worried about something. If you feel you would like a more private conversation, then an appointment can always be made and we will arrange it for as soon as we can with the right person who can help you.
Please see our website for all of our policies and more information about safeguarding
https://www.mouseholdinfants.com/safeguarding/
Designated Safeguarding Leads Mrs Westall, Mr Tolson, and Miss Wood. These members of staff monitor and manage all safeguarding practices and ensure staff are supported and have the training they need. Please ask to see one of these adults if you are worried about the safety of a child at school. |
If you have a safeguarding concern about a child out of school hours then the number to ring is: CADS – Children’s Advice and Duty Service – 0344 800 8020. |
Dates for your Diary
Monday 20th June – non-uniform day for Summer Fayre raffle prize donations
Thursday 23rd June – Reception Gressenhall trip
Friday 24th June – Summer Fayre after school
Friday 1st July – non-uniform day for GoGo Dinosaur launch
Monday 4th July – Year 1 ukulele performance for parents
Thursday 7th July – Year 1 and 2 Bewilderwood trip
Friday 8th July – Annual reports go home to parents and carers
Monday 11th July AM – Year 2 Samba Drumming performance for parents
Friday 22nd July – last day of term
Thank you for your continued support.
Yours faithfully
Mrs Rebecca Westall
Headteacher
Friends of Mousehold Infant and Nursery School Association
We are really excited about the School Summer Fayre fair on Friday 24th June (3-5pm).
We have variety of stalls planned for the day including BBQ, games, a raffle, tombola, cakes, ice cream, face painting, temporary tattoos, bric a brac and more!
We are going to have a cake stall at our summer fayre, we would be so grateful for donations to the stall and someone to run it! Please get in touch if you can help, admin@thefriendsofmousehold.org. As we have children in school with various allergies and some with religious dietary requirements please would you label your bakes with a list of the ingredients.
We are asking for donations of unwanted toys, books, clothes, school uniform, housewares, unused wrapping paper, carrier bags. If you would like to donate there will be a Friends of Mousehold Infant and Nursery School cardboard box in reception where you can drop off items.
Equally if there any small business wanting a stall at the fayre please get in touch, admin@thefriendsofmousehold.org
If you know anyone who would like to provide music, perform and busk at our fair we would be very interested to hear more!
We are also asking for volunteers to help run stalls on the day, if you can help we would be so grateful please contact us: admin@thefriendsofmousehold.org
Non- uniform day for raffle prizes
There will be a non-uniform day on Monday 20th June when we are asking families to donate a prize for the Summer Fayre Raffle. This worked so well at the Christmas raffle so we thought we would do it again!
Friends of Mousehold 50/50 LOTTO
If you would like the chance of winning up to £125*why not try your luck by picking a lucky number on our blackboard, with £2 entry per number (£1 donation goes to the school and the other £1 goes towards the cash prize). The Friends of Mousehold representatives will be stationed near the exit gate of the playground after school most days otherwise alternatively you can purchase at reception.
The lucky numbers will be drawn on Friday 24th June– Good luck!
The Friends of Mousehold Infant and Nursery School Association are a small group of mums from the school who help raise money to fund school trips, equipment and book bags amongst other things!
We are always looking for help so please get in touch if you would like to get involved.