Please can parents ensure parking is respectful and lawful. We’ve received a concern today from residents who had their driveways blocked at pick up time this afternoon. As our school grows the parking becomes increasingly difficult at pinch point times, parents are encouraged to park on the WMC car park and not in front of residential properties on The Grove which can cause problems for our local community.

We thank you and encourage you to show respect and consideration for local residents.

New online art gallery showcases creativity of our schools

A new online art gallery is now live on SharePoint which showcases artwork and creativity from all schools in our Trust. This term, all schools have been invited to participate in a landscape art project inspired by the magnificent Shropshire landscape around us. Huge thanks to Louise Rhodes, Head of Creative Arts and PE at Bridgnorth Endowed School, for organising the project and online gallery.

Our school contributed to the gallery and Louise visited our school this week, she was particularly impressed with our art curriculum and thoroughly enjoyed the morning with Mrs Chaplin, our Art and Technology lead.

Visit the Trust’s online art gallery

This year we applied for a grant through the Armed Forces Covenant to create a specific space in our school.  We were really hopeful that due to our increase in service pupils and based on both individual and collective needs, we might have been successful in our mission to create a purpose built space for our pupils to learn and thrive. But unfortunately we were unsuccessful with the bid. The reasons for being turned down were:

• Due to our project being a capital bid, meaning it was for an extension to our building, which I am particularly disappointed with as I did investigate this prior to submitting my initial request as was told funding could be for this purpose.
• Due to the stipulation that the project could only be used by service pupils and that this would be difficult to adhere to once a building was in place. Again I am disappointed with this outcome. We run an inclusive school, pupils mix together and all use the same spaces. I agree it would be difficult to keep the room solely for service pupils.

Thank you to the service families who contributed and supported this bid. The project received overwhelming support from all involved, just wasn’t meant to be this time!

So what’s next..

We are determined to provide an additional space on our school site to cater for children’s additional needs, as we desperately need this due to our increasing numbers and the increasing needs of some of our pupils. Perhaps this unsuccessful bid was actually a blessing as ultimately we don’t wish for any pupils to be isolated into demographic groups, so the space that we hope to achieve will be inclusive for all our pupils, but used predominantly by those with the greatest need. I am working with our Trust Inclusion Director on a refined version of the project in a new bid to provide a space to meet the changing needs of our school population. A space for specific interventions or groups to take place and a calming sensory space to meet the needs of our current and future pupils.

I will keep you posted on the future developments.

Mrs Lyall