Over 40 pupils from Caslon joined hundreds of schoolchildren from 18 Primary and Secondary Schools across the County attended day two of the LV=Insurance County Championship match with Surrey at New Road.
We had a fantastic day, the weather was lovely and the children not only got to watch some England cricket stars such as Dan Lawrence, they also got to practice their cricket skills with the Chance To Shine coaches.
Caslon School Council
School Councils are democracy in action, a student council is an official group of students elected to represent their classmates in discussions about school issues with the headteacher and staff.
School councils play a crucial role in providing students with a platform to express their opinions and ensure that their voices are heard in decisions that affect them. By participating in the council, students can develop leadership skills, advocate for the student body, problem-solve, and positively impact their school community.
The Caslon School Council is dedicated to identifying areas for improvement within the school and collaboratively finding solutions. Through open discussions and voting on ideas, the council works towards implementing positive changes to enhance the school environment. Key qualities of a successful School Councillor include effective communication, active listening, trustworthiness, and reliability. At Caslon, Class Councillors are elected through a democratic process where students present their reasons for candidacy, followed by a class vote to determine the representatives. School councillors play a vital role in supporting students, teachers, and school leaders in creating a more positive and inclusive school environment.
Members of the Council from years two to six got a feel for democracy when they visited the Council Chamber on Tuesday 10th.
The pupils were given a tour of the Civic Suite and chambers and met with the Mayor of Dudley, Cllr Andrea Goddard. The experience helped give the children a better understanding of how local democracy and decision-making works.
The Mayor of Dudley called into our school last week our new inclusion hub facility.
The Mayor saw the school in action and stopped by each classroom in turn to meet the children and learn about what they were doing.
She also visited Beech Tree base, which hosts 14 children from across the borough who all have SEMH needs and dropped into see the new Early Years Inclusion hub which offer specialist provision for children with additional needs. There are currently 4 children within the school’s main nursery using this service, whilst work on a new building is underway.
The Mayor of Dudley, Councillor Andrea Goddard, said:
“It was wonderful to meet the children and staff of Caslon Primary Community School. They were incredibly welcoming and really enthusiastic about their learning.
“It was also great to see the work of the Beech Tree service and the new Early Years Inclusion hubs which both help to support children with additional needs.”
Lynnette Holden-Gough, Headteacher at Caslon Primary Community School said:
“It was an honour to welcome the Mayor of Dudley to Caslon Primary Community School. The children loved meeting her and showing her their work. It was a memorable morning for all involved.”
The project has been awarded £199,500 from the Severn Trent Community Fund, which provides grant money to improve the three elements of community wellbeing – people, places and environment. Match funding of £55,000 will come from the Department for Education’s SuDS in Schools fund. This means work can begin on an education and physical infrastructure programme to help local young people from urban areas in the Black Country discover their rivers and take action to protect them. Four schools will be taking part in assemblies, classroom-based workshops, riverside visits, and community celebrations. Children will not only gain skills, they will boost their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing too.
The Severn Rivers Trust is a charity made up of local river experts, which covers the whole of the UK’s longest river from source to sea. The Trust’s vision is: ‘A healthy, resilient river Severn for everyone.’ They are an active team, working hard to make things happen on the ground to bring about a real and positive difference for the river and its communities.
Becky Titchard, River Engagement Officer at Severn Rivers Trust is running the activities in schools. She said:
The children were so enthusiastic, and every pupil took part. We planted a mix of native tree saplings including hazel, crab apple and beech. These will provide food sources and habitat for a range of birds insects and mammals. The school can also use the branches leaves and berries for craft and play activities as part of their Forest School. Not only this, the roots of the hedgerow trees will help soak up water as it runs down the slope of the field, helping protect the school buildings and playground from surface water flooding. With more features planned like rain gardens, water butts, attenuation ponds, green-roof structures, and mini-woodlands, the selected schools – and their pupils – will be river-friendly in more ways than one.
Alice Fallon, Head of Community Engagement at Severn Rivers Trust said:
We are so excited to be bringing our learning programme to schools in the Black Country. We’re transforming buildings and playgrounds into river-friendly spaces that are also great places for children and teachers to spend time. Pupils will build confidence and skills by taking part in our assemblies and workshops. They will also be a part of the change – through things like planting trees, helping design gardens and painting murals they will be taking action to make their schools greener and more sustainable, and ultimately improve the health of their rivers. We are hoping to expand and grow this programme, so if you have a contact for a local school that wants to get involved then please contact us! For more information or questions about this project email: admin@severnriverstrust.com
Natalie Cunningham, Community Fund Officer at Severn Trent, said:
Encouraging children to learn about the environment by getting outside and playing an active role in conservation and improvement of their school is a great way to get them interested and we’re really thrilled to have been able to fund this fantastic project.
Schools from across the area came together in Dudley to compete in the prestigious West Midlands Maths Championship. Some of our Year 5 and 6 pupils took part and did us proud. The pupils turned their hand to an exciting range of mathematical challenges, puzzles and problem-solving tasks.
It was organised and hosted by maths teacher Helen Owens.
Caslon didn’t get through to the final in the end but Helen, who has been hosting and organising the competition for nine years, said all the pupils were winners.
She said: “There was such enthusiasm and hard work went into the competition which is designed to explore a range of mathematical challenges and problems in a fun way.”
Just a few reminders please:
– Nails must not have nail varnish or fake nails on at all.
– Jewellery must be removed by adults at home if the child cannot remove this themselves when in school.
– Hair past the shoulders must be tied up.
– Chromebook agreements have been sent out again via schools buddy which need signing and agreeing before Chromebooks are allowed home. As part of this we ask parents to help us in taking responsibilities to ensure that the Chromebooks are charged, not damaged and you help us in ensuring that these support the children’s learning. This is opportunities that not all children within primary schools get offered.
– Please can you provide your child with a set of headphones, they need to have a jack lead to connect to the Chromebook.
We would like to say a big round of applause to some children within school who nominated themselves and gave staff lots to think about whilst deciding who got which role.
Head Boy – Archie Deputy Head Boy – Isa
Deputy Head Girl – Elly Head Girl – Scarlett
House Captains:
Earth – Kylie
Fire – Grace
Water – Tommy
Air – Eden
Vice Captains:
Earth – Ibrahim
Fire – Opeyemi
Water – Isla
Air – Ava
School Council Representatives:
Year 6 – Lilly/Riley
Year 5 – Kayarn/Ronnie-Rae
Year 4 – Jaxon/Sienna
Year 3 – Layal/Leo
Year 2 – Ethan/Layla
Year 1 – Lily/Kholi
Wellbeing warriors:
Year 6 – Khizr/Leah
Year 5 – Freddie/Amelia
Year 4 – Roxanne/Alfie
Year 3 – Raymond/Olivia
Year 2 – Arthur/Lemya
Year 1 – Lexi/Harrison
The Mayor of Dudley called into our school last week our new inclusion hub facility.
The Mayor saw the school in action and all the hard work of the staff and children which make it a true community school. The Mayor stopped by each classroom in turn to meet the children and learn about what they were doing.
She also visited their Beech Tree base attached to the school which hosts 14 children from across the borough who all have SEMH needs.
She also dropped into see one of the borough’s five new Early Years Inclusion hubs which offer specialist provision for children with additional needs. There are currently 4 children within the school’s main nursery using this service, whilst work on a new building is underway.
The hubs offer personalised, targeted and specialist interventions for children and families. The network of five hubs is designed to have a staffing capacity that meets the needs of children with special educational needs in localities across the borough.
The Mayor of Dudley, Councillor Andrea Goddard, said:
“It was wonderful to meet the children and staff of Caslon Primary Community School. They were incredibly welcoming and really enthusiastic about their learning.
“It was also great to see the work of the Beech Tree service and the new Early Years Inclusion hubs which both help to support children with additional needs.”
Lynnette Holden-Gough, Headteacher at Caslon Primary Community School said:
“It was an honour to welcome the Mayor of Dudley to Caslon Primary Community School. The children loved meeting her and showing her their work. It was a memorable morning for all involved.”
For further information about the hubs, contact the early years team on 01384 814364 for advice or support.
A group of pupils from year 5 and 6 made themselves heard at the Genting Arena, Birmingham In January when they took part in the Young Voices concert along with around 5000 children from other primary schools.
It was a very long day with rehearsals all afternoon, ahead of a 7pm performance. It was incredibly exciting to be part of such a special event with professional singers, dancers and musicians.
The children sang with energy and enthusiasm throughout the rehearsals and the performance and their behaviour was perfect. We were so proud!
Huge congratulations to our wonderful pupils and here’s to Young Voices 2025!
Approximately 450 pupils from 35 schools across the Black Country came together on last week at the University of Wolverhampton, Walsall campus, to showcase the energy and passion young people have for being active and participate in new sports.
A group of pupils from Year 3 and 4 took part in a variety of sports and had a fantastic day.
