News and Events

World Book Day  Thursday 4th March, 2010

Bringing History to Life - Year 5 Tudor Day 2010

Year 5 had a full day of activities to bring Tudor history to life.  Pupils and staff created fantastic outfits to wear on the day and took part in Tudor Dancing, portrait drawing and shared traditional Tudor music. 

Outfits included both typical rich and poor Tudors together with a very jolly Henry VIII.   This cross curricular activity allowed the children to experience and enjoy a wide range of Tudor topics that will help them relate to their studies.

Hats for Haiti - Total Raised £524

Pupils and staff have joined together to raise money for Haiti after it was hit by the devastating earthquake on January 12th.  The theme for the fundraising day was “Hats for Haiti” and children from Nursery up to Year 6 wore a wide variety of hats, many of them homemade to show their support for the country. 

Many children felt so strongly about wanting to help that they emptied their money boxes and brought in bags full of coins to put towards the fund.

Mrs Val Weddell Hall, Head teacher said “we wanted to do something special to raise money for the people of Haiti and the children came up with the idea of making hats to wear.  Both children and staff have been really imaginative and creative, and we are delighted that their efforts will raise money to help such a deserving cause”

School joins forces with the Rotary Club of Kidderminster to supply clean water to areas of natural disaster

We have been learning about the need for clean water when a natural disaster occurs and with the help of the Rotary Club of Kidderminster are putting together Aquaboxes that can be sent to such areas as soon as natural disasters happen.

When disasters such as cyclones, floods and earthquakes occur around the world the most urgent single problem facing relief agencies is the supply of clean water.  The Aquabox is a robust plastic box that contains water purification tablets, survival bags to keep up to four people dry and a wide range of essential items.  The children are collecting items such as tools, cooking equipment, cleaning materials, washing products and things that a family would most need when they had lost everything.  In addition to these essential items families that receive the Aquabox can use it to purify up to 1100 litres of polluted water, making it safe to drink, that is enough for a family of four people for about four months.

Cynthia Johnstone, Head of Early Years at Franche Community Primary School said “the children have really learned a lot about the need for safe water and the fact that there are many communities around the world who face natural disasters leaving families without homes and water for long periods of time.  The children are delighted to help and put together the Aquaboxes.  Working with the Rotary Club has been very informative for the children and they are going to follow the boxes and find out where they went and what communities they helped.”

Jazz and Rock and Roll

Children and staff from Year 6 have had an exciting launch to their Jazz and Rock and Roll topic.  On Wednesday 4th Nov the whole of Year 6 dressed up in fashions ranging from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.

Val Weddell-Hall, Head Teacher, said “This is a fantastic and fun way to launch a topic engaging both children and parents at the start.  The children all look fantastic and have made such an effort to come in fashions from these decades, some making their outfits themselves.”

There were many activities going on throughout the day for Year 6 including tie dye workshops, adding percussion to songs from the decades, and work around England winning the 1966 World Cup.  They also used their ICT Skills to do Pop Art, Andy Warhol style.

At the end of the school day there was an extravaganza of music in the hall with musicians from Baxter College entertaining the pupils.

Ray is pupils' champion

We are celebrating this week with Ray Porter after he was highly commended at an award ceremony at the House of Lords.

Ray Porter has run the Imagineering Club at Franche Community Primary School for 18 months and works with the Year 6 group of children on a variety of engineering projects.  He was nominated by our Deputy Head David Shakeshaft and beat 5000 other hopefuls to be short listed for the National Science and Engineering Ambassador Awards organised by STEMNET (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network).

He gives his time every Wednesday after school to join the group of budding engineers who work on a variety of engineering projects that include working with kits to create and use items such as moisture detectors, fuse testers and a working telescope.  They worked with circuit boards and where necessary use soldering equipment.  Ray also arranges for the group to visit a local engineering company to see for themselves how science and technology is applied in the workplace and what sort of products are produced.

Recently the group visited XTA in Stourport who provide state of the art Digital Signal Processing.  They were shown each area of the business and then had demonstrations of graphic equalisers and were delighted to hear about some of the artists that use XTA equipment such as the popular Dizzee Rascal.  The visit was an enjoyable and inspiring way for the children to see the relevance of technology, science and maths in a local business environment.

David Shakeshaft, Deputy Head at Franche Community Primary School said “Ray is a true inspiration to the children in the Imagineering Club.  His expertise and very patient tutelage really helps the children get the most from the kits and the club and we’re delighted that he has been recognised in this way.”

Radio One's Newsbeat ask Franche Primary why they are so successful at bucking the trend and recruiting good male teachers

Radio One’s Newsbeat Team visited Franche Community Primary School in Kidderminster today to see how they manage to attract so many male teachers and how this impacts the school.

Recent figures released due to the Freedom of Information Act have shown that more than a quarter of primary schools in England do not have a single male teacher.  The Radio One Newsbeat Show, due to be on the BBC Radio One website by Monday and aired at 12.45 on Monday is looking at why young men may not be attracted to a teaching career in a Primary School and why it is so important for a school to have male teachers  .

The team from Radio One interviewed and filmed parents and children throughout the morning together with the school’s five male teachers, two male trainee teachers and one male teaching assistant and asked why this school in particular had been so successful in recruiting male teachers. 

Mrs Val Weddell Hall, Headteacher said “Firstly it is important to recruit the best teachers whether male or female and if they are male teachers it’s a bonus.  Having enthusiastic male teachers at primary school helps the boys to see that they can achieve and make a positive contribution.  It is particularly important to have such role models in their early education so that they have a positive attitude to study before they go to secondary school”. 

She added “Our earliest attitudes are developed whilst at primary school and male role models are extremely important to encourage boys to enjoy and achieve”.

Franche Community Primary School is a successful school in many areas, one of which is Sport.  There are both male and female Sports Co-ordinators in the school and a wide variety of sports that the children can take part in either during the day or in after school clubs, these include Rugby, Football, Netball, Basketball, Athletics and Swimming. Many of the children questioned by the Newsbeat Team felt that this was a very important reason why male teachers were a positive addition to their Primary School.

Red Nose Day 2009

Once again pupils and staff got behind the Comic Relief fund raising Red Nose Day and held a variety of events to raise money. 

The day started with an assembly when Jack Billingham from 6H agreed to let teacher Mrs Hampson cut his hair.  Deputy Mr Shakeshaft (wearing a bright pink wig for the day) offered a £20 donation if Jack allowed Mrs Hampson (shiny red pigtails) to cut his hair in assembly.  There was a drum roll and the entire Upper School cheered as Mrs Hampson snipped with the sissors.  Jack was delighted that his hair cut raised £52.07 he said "my £52 will be enough to pay for a carer for up to 40 children and maybe a mosquito net too"  Jack plans to grow his hair again so that he can have it cut off next Red Nose Day when he'll be at Baxter College.

At breaktime there were buskers playing the drums and electric guitar while pupils from year 3 found that their Franche Red Nose Joke Books were very popular raising over £51.54.  The homemade cake stall sold out in a few minutes during the break with only crumbs left on the table!

In total the school raise a fantastic £429.55 and this is how:

4W Firls - Funny Shape Game £7.70
Jack Billingham's Hair Cut - £52.07
Franche Red Nose Day Joke Book - £51.54
Year 6 Girls Cake Sale - £24.85
Guitar and Drum Buskers - £77.91
Own Clothes Donations - £215.48

World Book Day - Thursday 5th March

Children and staff throughout school from Nursery to Year 6 dressed in their favourite book character to celebrate World Book day on 5th March.  Characters included  Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, The Snow Queen, Ironman, and a teddy from Little Bear's Special Wish. 

To encourage enthusiasm about books even further pupils  held a sponsored Readathon and school hosted a book fair from Monday 2nd March through to World Book Day.  All children received a £1 voucher to use at the fair.  For every book sold school received a commission to buy more books for school and 10% of all sales went to Comic Relief.

Young Poets enjoy a morning at Kidderminster Fire Station

Class 2W from Franche Community Primary School enjoyed an exciting visit to Kidderminster Fire Station on Friday 6th March.  The trip was organised to reward the children for winning the Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service Christmas Competition to write a poem about staying safe when using candles. 

The winning poem:

Candles cause many fires in the home at Christmas
A candle is dangerous if you leave it burning by itself
Never touch the flame of a candle because it burns hot
Don’t blow out the flame, use a snuffer instead
Let Mum or Dad light the candle
Explore how dangerous fire can be at www.firekills.gov.uk
Stay safe with Christmas candles

The competition was organised by Gill Pinder, Community Safety Manager who greeted the children as they arrived at the fire station.  She said “Keeping children and their families safe from fire is our ultimate aim.  Something as simple as a candle can cause a major fire. At Christmas families love to burn candles and we wanted to ensure that all children knew how to help keep their families safe by organising the poetry competition on candle safety.” 

All Herefordshire and Worcestershire schools were invited to take part in this popular competition and class 2W won the category for ages 6 to 8.

Firefighter Jimmy Papworth spent the morning showing the children around the fire station and explaining to them the importance of the equipment and how it’s used.  All the children then took turns at spraying water from the hoses and sitting in the fire engine.

The highlight for many of the children was actually being able to hold the hose and spray the water, but when asked what he most enjoyed William Weston aged 6 summed it up in one word “everything”.

Samantha Wilding 2W Class Teacher said “We have had the most exciting morning and would really like to thank Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, and especially Firefighter Jimmy Papworth for making our visit so special”. She added “We receive regular visits from the Fire and Rescue Service at school and they always provide us with an outstanding educational service”.

Franche Primary - Red Nose Day Joke Book 2009

One of the many fund raising activities for Comic Relief to be held at Franche Community Primary School will be the sale of the first ever Franche Primary Joke Book.  The book is being put together by friends James Bendall and Felix Haynes both aged 8 and in Year 3.  They will be selling their joke book during tuck on Red Nose Day 13th March for 20p.  Every copy will be numbered and those purchasing will be put into a draw to win a Horrid Henry Joke Book.  James and Felix are hoping that their queue for the joke book will beat the queue for tuck on Red Nose Day and that everyone will come along and support their fantastic money raising idea.