Please remember that school will be closed to all children for the half term holiday Monday 15th - Friday 19th February.    

This week, we took part in Safer Internet Day.  The theme for this year is 'An internet we trust: exploring reliability in the online world.' It focuses on Fake News and how children can identify it.

Here is a guide to support parents and carers in understanding Fake News.

We would like to say thank you to all those who got involved in our Internet Safety song.  To see the video follow the link or go to our Twitter page@UplandsManor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaLHpcZ7g0k

Thank you so much for all the positive feedback we received about Well Being Wednesday''. It was lovely to hear about all of the fantastic things that everyone had done and to see pictures and photos on our Twitter feed: @UplandsManor

So, after half term, on Wednesday 24th February, we will be running another 'no screen day' with a wide range of interesting and exciting activities and challenges for families to enjoy together. More details will follow after half term.

Don't forget the weekly class Google Meet session with your teacher.  Here's a reminder of how to take part.

The session is a chance for teachers to check how children are, what they have been doing during the week, check how learning has gone and to try and talk about the learning that is coming up next week.  It is also an opportunity for the children to be with their friends as part of their class community during lockdown.

We would love your children to take part, so here are links to a letter explaining more about the sessions, a 'How to' guide for joining a Google Meet and the protocols so everyone knows how to keep themselves safe online and behave in an appropriate way.

Letter: https://bit.ly/2XXie9R 

How to: https://bit.ly/39LD8hO 

Protocols: https://bit.ly/3p606Xd 

Each week, we will be posting a new story to our school sites. A different member of staff will be reading a variety of stories and setting you a challenge at the end of the story. This is a fun challenge for you to do as a family. If you have a go at the task, please tweet us pictures/videos or send them to your child(ren)'s teacher over Google Classroom - we'd love to see them! 

This week's story is 'Look Up' by Nathan Byron and is read by Mrs Walsh. 

Go and have a look to see what the weekly family challenge is. Enjoy! 

We believe that it is important to celebrate achievements.  Each week, children may be given a gold letter from a member of staff or a certificate from Mr Dickinson, Miss Copestake or Miss James.

If your child has done something special outside school - maybe they have helped someone or done something special.  Tell us so that the Uplands community can share in their celebration. Email headteacher@uplandsmanor.sandwell.sch.uk 

Some children are sent to the Headteacher or Deputy Headteacher for a special award.  Congratulations to:

Each week, the Year 4, 5 and 6 teachers will be choosing one pupil that has impressed them on Reading Plus. This could be because of the amount of time they've spent on Reading Plus, the amount of combos they have earnt, achieving 80% or more or gaining a new level. Each week a certificate will be posted to those children. 

This week the awards have been given to: 

These pupils have worked extremely hard this week to improve their reading skills. Well done! 

Could it be you next week? 

The first Remote Learning Raffle will be drawn soon.  Here's a reminder of how your child can be included.

Teachers are keeping a record of how much work is being sent to them by the children in their class. Children who submit two or more pieces of work every day for a whole week will receive a ‘virtual’ raffle ticket. This will then be put into a draw for their class at the end of each week with a £5 voucher as a prize. Names will be dawn out at random. Vouchers will be emailed to the winners to spend and their names will be put on the weekly newsletter.

We are doing this to try and motivate and engage the children in their learning and to encourage them to send their work to their teachers on Google Classroom.

If you are not able to submit the work, please inform your child’s teacher about what has been done so that your child can also be included.

Please could you take 5 minutes to complete our short and simple online survey to give us your views about remote learning – even if you only have positive things to say, we would still appreciate you completing it by clicking on the link below:

Here is the link that is in the letter:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=iQoSDgE01Eqa5xfuDAcqDTbSYSyvAX5LjJf5FYPalzlUMFg3NzZXR0dSTzJNQ0ZSSEpXSDE0SVFRWi4u

We have several factsheets on the school website to help you understand Google Classrooms.  Click on this link to find them http://bit.ly/39rFrHJ 

Click below to see what's happening at Sandwell Libraries during the half term holiday.

Caudwell Children has created 'The Get Sensory Pack' to provide affordable sensory equipment to support disabled children during this especially difficult time. These packs are available to children who have a confirmed disability or chronic illness.

Any family with a child aged between 0 and 18 and with a household income of less than £45,000 is eligible to apply for a sensory pack 80% funded by a charity organisation. 

https://getsensorypacks.com/

CBBC have asked us to tell you that they are now on YouTube.  Here is what they said:

We upload videos to it daily that are suitable for 5-11 year olds. We have all the top CBBC brands on here, with a wide range of genres from factual shows, news, dramas, comedy to entertainment. Programmes like Horrible Histories, Blue Peter, Newsround, The Next Step, Saturday Mash-Up, Operation Ouch, the Playlist, the Dumping Ground, Heirs of the Night and Jamie Johnson. We are also welcoming back Dani Harmer in the brilliant new programme My Mum Tracy Beaker.  

If you are interested in this, subscribe to www.youtube.com/cbbc - (it's completely free to subscribe!) and don't forget to watch the CBBC live daily and on the BBC iPlayer.

We are based at Dorothy Parkes Centre and St Albans Community Centre.

 Our role is to support and help you to manage any problems or concerns you may have about benefits, the need for food parcel’s, reducing utility bills, general household issues to helping with money/debt problems, volunteering opportunities and much more.

For more informations, contact Pam at school on 0121 558 1602, Fionnuala on 07503 504064 or pop in to the Dorothy Parkes Centre.