The Invincibles

The Year 5/6 girls football team were unbeatable in many ways this week. They played in the 'small schools' tournament at Rawlett and didn't let a single goal in so remained unbeaten through the whole tournament. Goals were at something of a premium at the other end too with Manor's star striker, Evie, scoring two in one game for a decisive victory. 

The defensive wall the girls built relied on some excellent covering across the back by Amelia and sound goalkeeping by Bailey and Arrietty. The nearest another team came to scoring was when the best player at the tournament (a strong girl who clearly played regular football) put everything behind a long range shot which was rising towards the top corner of our goal before Lucy managed to get her face in the way! A blow that would have flattened the best of us but not our Lucy. She was made from sterner stuff. A brief pause to wipe the tears away and she was determined to carry on without any fuss or faff. "I just want to play football", she said.

... and play they all did. Alice and Erin tackling hard and showing skill on the ball. At one point we weren't sure who our goalkeeper was as Lucy made a great save, only for us to discover at the end of the game that it was actually Bailey! No one seemed to notice thanks to the lovely sporting atmosphere around the whole event.

Having drawn two and won one, we came up against Thomas Barnes who were top of the table so far. A good quality game from both teams was a fitting climax to the event. Manor had improved as each game went on and this was the best game they played all night. On at least 7 occasions Evie, Alice or Lucy were clean through but each time the Thomas Barnes goalkeeper pulled off amazing blocks and saves to keep the scores at 0-0. 

So, we finished in third place but unbeaten in matches and certainly in spirit. The girls were amazing in the positivity, resilience, grit and determination they showed. With 6 of the 7 being Year 5's, maybe next year? 

Children in Need

Great to see so many Pudsey ears, t-shirts and even pyjamas in school today. Thank you for all the donations on the gate. We raised £63.40 in cash as well as several card donations through the QR code that went directly to Children in Need in addition. Thank you!

PTA Christmas Fair

The poster advertising the Christmas Fair with further detail is at the end of the Newsletter. If you have a bit of time you could offer, either in advance of the Fair or on the evening of the Fair, please do use the QR code to volunteer on the PTA website. Even 30 minutes or an hour of help at some point can help share the load and allow someone else time to take their children round. Thank you.

E-Safety - Social Media stops learning at Manor

Increasingly over the years we have had issues caused by children falling out on social media spilling over into school. Mrs Armstrong has reported recent issues that she has needed to sort out from arguments on WhatsApp in particular. To sort out these issues takes time in lessons when the children should be learning. The current rules for WhatsApp in Europe and the UK is a minimum age of 16 years old.

With children accessing the internet on a range of devices, the job of protecting them from things they may not be ready for online can be a challenge.

In recent years, a wide variety of monitoring software solutions have appeared to allow you to see what children are doing online and set digital boundaries.

The link below gives tips on how best to use them and reviews the top apps available.

Guide to monitoring apps for parents | Internet Matters

Attendance

You may have noticed our Little Heroes campaign supported by Staffordshire Local Authority. We have been given lots of stickers and certificates to hand out to celebrate good attendance across the school.

The other side of the campaign is called 'Helpful Heroes'. This is to support any children who may have anxieties about coming in to school. Very often, this is something they display at home and can be tough for parents to deal with, but once in school they settle quickly and are happy. If this sounds familiar to you, we have been given a set of booklets full of activities, stickers and advice for children that can be done at home. Please do ask your child's teacher or the office if you wish to have one of these. 

We also have Helpful Heroes posters up in school with advice for children on techniques for reducing anxiety.

As always, please do speak to a member of staff if you are struggling to get your child to school on time, and we will see what we can do together to help.

Plea from Mrs Everett - Names in Clothes!

Poor Mrs Everett seems to end up as the last resting place of lost property in school, and she shortly won't be able to escape from her office as she will be buried under the growing mountain of clothing, all of which has no name. 

Please, for the sake of Mrs Everett's sanity and ability to clamber out of her office, could parents check ALL clothing that children wear to school, and re-write names that have washed out in permanent marker or add new labels. Thank you!

School Council

School council decided that they wanted to run a campaign to save energy. They saw the benefits in reducing the burning of fossil fuels and reducing the effects of the Greenhouse effect on climates around the world as well as saving the school money that could be spent elsewhere. They chose Energy Saving Day to be the 6th November and they talked to the rest of the school to explain their idea in assembly. 

Children were asked to encourage staff to turn off any lights or devices that were not essential. Despite it being a cloudy day, they found that many areas of school didn't need lights such as the hall and corridors and lights were only usually needed in class when they were writing or reading. Blinds were rolled up to let as much natural light in as possible. 

Teachers were also encouraged to teach lessons without the use of interactive whiteboards or computers. Back to the days of writing on whiteboards and flip charts (not as far back as chalk that some of us taught with though!). 

Children reported enjoying the change in teaching style and teachers enjoyed the challenge of teaching differently and rediscovered some forgotten techniques and strategies that worked well.

Some of the habits, such as turning lights off as they leave a room may hopefully continue and transfer to other environments such as home. Do let us know if they are any better at turning off their bedroom lights!