Yesterday we had an external audit of our school safeguarding procedures, completed by Telford & Wrekin Safeguarding Team. The findings were overwhelmingly positive, as we expected them to be, but the feedback was simply outstanding. I am so proud of us all!

A few of the key findings said by the team at the feedback session:

• ‘Safeguarding at Hodnet is exemplary.’
• ‘The culture of safeguarding, compliance, care and compassion for children at Hodnet is powerful’.
• ‘The quality of provision is exceptional’.
• ‘The ethos, values, culture of safeguarding are clearly evident – leaders and staff care at Hodnet’.
• Early Years provision for safeguarding is outstanding. The audit team were very pleased with our EYFS team led by Mrs Noden. Stating that her knowledge and diligence for the changes to the EYFS framework this year were very impressive – she blew them away!
• The team were delighted with our grounds and the health and safety of our school site. They saw calm purposeful classrooms with a strong culture of keeping children safe running throughout everything we do. Huge thanks to Jemma and the team at KSPlantscapes for maintaining our grounds, ensuring our children have a safe place to play and learn.
• Our children simply shone, what fantastic ambassadors for our school. All the children spoken to were overwhelmingly positive about our school and knew how to be safe, who could help them with a problem, they knew about Childline and the NSPCC and had a good knowledge of online safety. Thanks to Miss Darmanin for her early work with the school council for 25/26, who were only formed last Friday!
• The team were impressed with all other areas, including but not limited to; our safeguarding curriculum, our support for all pupils especially those in need of early help, our record keeping and our website.
• Our provision for children with additional needs also received high praise, thanks to Mrs Williams for all the hard work she put into ensuring the needs of our learners with SEND are valued, supported and recognised.

We are delighted with this recognition for our strong safeguarding culture in school. I’m sure you will join with me in congratulating our whole school community team for their hard work and determination in this crucial area of education.

Thank you for your continued support,

Mrs Lyall.

The last week of this half term is our careers and aspirations enrichment week. 13th – 17th October. We aim to inspire our pupils about life beyond school and the world of further education and work.

During this week the children will learn and out different jobs and the journey people have taken to get to their chosen career path. We would appreciate some support from the wider school community, to showcase our differing strengths and talents and ultimately aim to inspire the next generation!

How can you help?

If you free to come in and talk to the children about your job, your career pathway, the qualifications you needed (or didn’t need!) to get there, please contact Mrs O’Connor on admin@hod.318education.co.uk. We will be hosting a carousel of workshops on Monday 13th and Fri 17th between 1-3pm, which we have done several times before and found to be very successful. If you can spare an afternoon session to talk to multiple groups of children, we would be grateful.

So far, coming in that week are:

• An illustrator, an author
• A firefighter, a Ryanair pilot
• A secondary school teacher,
• A nurse, a scientist, a food inspector, a radiographer
• An RAF pilot and air traffic controller
• An RAF careers officer, an engineer (tanks)
• A veterinary nurse, an archaeologist
• A royal baker

We thank you in advance for your support and hope that you will be able to come in to share your career journey with our children.

Please can parents ensure that home addresses and phone numbers are up to date. If you have changed address over the summer or recently or got a new phone or email address, please ensure that the details are updated by emailing Mrs O’Connor or Mrs Rhoden in the school office on admin@hod.318education.co.uk. Thank you. It is essential that we can contact you in an emergency and have the correct home address/es for our pupils.

Thank you for your continued support.

Children can wear earrings for school in the form of a small stud. Hoops or dangling earrings are not permitted, studs only, thank you. These rules must be adhered to for health and safety reasons.

Earrings must be removed for PE. The only exception for this is if ears are newly pierced, when tape can be used to cover them and additional care is needed during activities. Tape is not permitted for general use, again for health and safety reasons, as this can actually make it easier for earrings to be ripped out of ears during sport or when removing tape, it can also encourage infection.

On PE days, pupils either need to come to school without their earrings in, or bring a small box to put their earrings in for the duration of the PE lesson. Please note that staff are not able to take earrings out or put back in, pupils must be able to do this themselves. They can use the mirrors in the toilets if this helps them.

This term the PE days are as follows:

• YR – Friday
• Y1 – Thursday
• Y2 – Monday and Thursday
• Y3 – Wednesday and Friday
• Y4 – Wednesday and Friday
• Y5 – Wednesday and Friday
• Y6 – Wednesday and Friday

The procedures for earrings apply to all sporting activities including PE, swimming, after school or lunchtime sporting clubs and school team fixtures.

Thank you for your continued support with this matter.

Mrs Lyall, Headteacher.

On Tuesday 9th September, our Early Help drop in, coffee and chat will be held in our library 9.30-11.30, no need to book. Please pop in if you would like to chat to Jo Ruff who can offer friendly help and support with parenting and family needs. Jo’s sessions will be on the first Tuesday of every month going forwards 9.30-11.30 in school.

After almost 30 years we said goodbye to Jackie today.

Jackie has been a key part of life at Hodnet school, supporting children int heir play at lunchtime, organising events in our wraparound provision and being a member of our cleaning and catering staff for a number of years.

We all wish Jackie the very best of luck and many happy times as she embarks on the joys of retirement.