Where can I go to get support to help keep my child safe online?

There is a lot of support available to keep your child safe online. Below are some useful links to help parents and carers:

– Thinkyouknow (advice from the National Crime Agency to stay safe online)

–  Internet matters (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online)

– Parent info (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online)

– LGfL (support for parents and carers to keep their children safe online)

– Net-aware (support for parents and careers from the NSPCC)

Support for families using payment meters for their electricity

Those at home self isolating may be worried about going out and being able to top up their meters and could be using more power than normal because they are home. If people can, they should ask friends and family to help, but some may not be able to.

Here is a summary from the main providers. If you contact the numbers below, the supplier will send 2 weeks of power to you or similar.

– BRITISH GAS  If you’re unable to do this, and you haven’t got anyone to help you, please call 0330 100 0303 Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm and we’ll help you.

– EDF  Call 0330 200 5110 We also operate a friendly, non-disconnection policy on most meters. So if you run out of credit after 6pm your electricity will not go off until 9am the next day. This operates from 6pm to 9am Monday to Friday, 6pm on Saturday and any time on a Sunday or Bank Holiday, until 9am the next day

– EON If your meter falls below 50p of emergency credit for electricity, or if you’re off supply for gas, you need to contact us and we will send an engineer to your home. It’s important to remember that any credit we issue will need to be repaid in order to reinstate customers’ energy supply.  0345 052 000

  1. For electricity customers, where the meter is outside your property, we’ll put enough credit on the meter to ensure you remain on-supply throughout your self-isolation period.
  2. Where the meter is inside, we’ll leave a meter key at your doorstep, make contact with you, and check the key works before leaving the property.
  3. For gas customers, where the meter is outside, we’ll supply a maximum of £5 credit (this an industry restriction) and will also send a card in the post containing extra credit.
  4. Where the meter is inside, we’ll still attend the property and supply a maximum of £5 credit and send a card in the post with additional credit

– N POWER  Call 0800 073 3000. 

– SCOTTISH POWER  Please call us on 0800 027 0072.

– SSE  call us on 0345 600 2006 (Monday to Friday: 8am-8pm; Saturday: 9am-6pm; Sunday: 9am-5pm) so we can work out how to help. Our call centre might be busier than usual, but bear with us. Once you’re through we’ll review your individual situation and talk you through the options.

NOTE – If your provider is not on this list, they should have something similar in place as Ofgen have said they should.

World Book Day 2020

We had a wonderful World Book Day on Thursday 5th March!

To further celebrate our love of ‘words’ and the fact that books contain a whole range of vocabulary, we decided, this year, to dress up as interesting words. The children and their parents really got into the idea (as did the staff!) and we were delighted with the huge range of brilliant words the children came as and the creative ways they thought of to represent their words! The school parliament came around to judge the outfits and decided on a winner from each class. Everyone was a winner, though, for joining in with this aspect of the day! Please check out our photos to see these fantastic outfits.

The children were also invited to bring in a favourite book, which they had opportunities to read and share throughout the day. We held DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) sessions several times during the day where, as soon as the DEAR bell went, the children literally dropped whatever they were doing, picked up their books and enjoyed reading them for a few minutes. The staff also joined in with this, of course, and everyone enjoyed the experience of just having a moment to get into a book.

In class, children were taking part in some World Book Day related activities during the day and we also held our ‘buddy reading’ sessions (usually on a Friday) during the afternoon, where children from different classes pair up to share books. This gave both the younger and older pupils another opportunity to share their favourite books with each other.

One of our highlights of the day was our ‘Bedtime Story’ event, which we held in the early evening. Children and their parents (as well as siblings who were both pre-school and secondary school aged), were invited to come into school with a cuddly toy, and in their pyjamas if they wished, to listen to various members of staff reading stories by different authors. Each member of staff involved chose a favourite author and read stories or poems by that person. Children could listen to just one author or move around and listen to a whole variety of different people. There was even hot chocolate on offer in the hall! We had a great turn out and everyone involved – staff, children and parents – really enjoyed the experience of simply celebrating books and enjoying listening to great stories and poems!

We would like to thank everyone – parents, children and staff – for all of their effort, involvement, enthusiasm and support during this special day. We, at Bussage, know books are really special and it was wonderful to be able to share that and see the whole school community being inspired by books and reading too!

Audio Test…

New edition of The F@B Mag…

The latest issue of The F@B mag (Issue 14 – Feb 2020) is out now and in bookbags (so if you haven’t seen your copy, have a rummage around).

We are lucky to have such a fantastic magazine, which highlights all the great work carried out by the PTA and that is down to a lot of hard work by Matt Field and John Wordsworth, for which we are very grateful.

Naturally thanks also goes to everyone who contributed to this edition.

If you would rather read the issue online, please click on the image below.

The F@B Mag - Issue 14

Eco Ministry – Bat and Bird Box building

On Monday 20th January Eco Ministry invited members of the Chalford Climate Action Biodiversity team in to school to help make bat and bird boxes for the school grounds. A willing team of volunteers arrived at school armed with tools to help members of Forest School Club and Eco Ministry to get building. I think you’ll agree it was a very successful community event and we produced some super bat and bird boxes to encourage more wildlife into our school grounds. A big thank you to Chalford Building Supplies for very kindly donating the timber and screws needed and to the Chalford Biodiversity team for supporting our school in this project.

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Young Voices 2020

What an amazing day we had at Young Voices on Friday 17th January! We travelled up to the  Resorts World Arena in Birmingham and joined 5000 other children in a massive choir for the Young Voices concert. We rehearsed in the afternoon and were joined by “Ruti” the winner of the Voice 2018, The Shires, Urban Strides and Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet. We sang songs such as a Disney mash up, a Queen medley, Pop medley and a wonderful African song called Kusimama. The children had a fantastic day and were so well behaved, they were a credit to the school. Thankyou so much to all the children’s parents, we couldn’t do this without your continued support. Enjoy looking at our gallery of photos from the day. 

 

One Planet Week

In October the whole school took part in a “One Planet” week to think more deeply about how wonderful and diverse Planet Earth is. Each phase learnt about a different habitat area including British woodlands in Rainbows, The Rainforest in Year 1 and 2, The Oceans in Year 3 and 4 and The African Savannah in Year 5 and 6. 

During the course of the week the children had visits from Gloucestershire wildlife trust, Ecocide and The Green shop where they learnt about topics such as recycling, plastic pollution and climate change. One of the highlights of the week was when we were treated to a fantastic visit from “Walks with Hawks.” The children loved learning about different birds of prey and were also able to hold some of the birds. 

Each class went on a trip related to the week’s theme to either Lea Woods, The Living Rainforest, Birmingham Sea life Centre or Cotswold Wildlife Park. The children thoroughly enjoyed seeing the different animals and learning more about their habitats.

By the end of the week it was clear the children were very passionate about looking after our planet and were particularly keen to learn about climate change and the work of influential people such as David Attenborough and Greta Thunburg. 

Our week culminated in an open afternoon where we invited parents and governors into school to see the range of work the children had completed and to sing a song about looking after our World.