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Published on: 2nd May, 2025

Summer #1

Contents:

Scroll down to read all, or skip to an article.

Head of School Message Skip to article
Parent Survey Feedback Skip to article
Shropshire’s Best Kept Village! Skip to article
News from the Severn Loop – May Skip to article
Churches Trail Skip to article
VE Day 80th Anniversary – Thursday 8th May 3pm Skip to article
Award winners Skip to article

Head of School Message

Dear parents/carers,

What a lovely first week back it has been! The children have come back to school well-rested and ready to learn and have all settled back into their school routines quickly. They have thoroughly enjoyed breaktimes and lunchtimes in the sunshine on the field and have been making full use of all of the new playtime equipment! Please ensure your child brings a sun hat to school and that sun cream is applied before coming to school. Children may bring their own sun cream to re-apply during the day in warm weather and we will remind them to do so. Water bottles should also be brought in daily.

We are delighted to share that the FOBs Easter Fair raised almost £350 for school! This will go directly towards teaching resources for the children.

We are really hoping to see lots of you at our VE day party on Thursday! VE Day Snack bags are available to purchase on School Gateway (for adults and children) to enjoy during the party for £3 per person. We are hoping to enjoy some wartime games so if you have anything suitable at home, please bring it along!

The parent survey feedback will be shared in this newsletter but I would just like to say a huge thank you for the overwhelmingly positive responses. There have been significant changes in leadership and management as well as in the teaching and support staff team and your positive feedback really does mean the world to us. I am very proud of our dedicated team here at Bicton and we thank you for all you do to work with us to support the best outcomes for our pupils.

Have a lovely bank holiday and we will see you on Tuesday.

Mrs Mavin

Parent Survey Feedback

A huge thank you to all of the parents who completed our parent feedback survey. We hope that the QR system made it easier and we were delighted with the number of responses. We appreciate and value all of your feedback and comments and use these to help us make key operational and strategic decisions. A few of the key responses are shared below. Our staff and Children’s Safeguarding Board will be exploring some of the suggestions made in the responses including petitioning for Shropshire Council to install a zebra crossing by the pedestrian gate.

Please follow the link to see the results Spring 2025

Shropshire’s Best Kept Village!

SHROPSHIRE’S BEST KEPT VILLAGE COMPETITION – IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT FLOWERS AND PRETTY GARDENS!

Bicton Parish Council has decided to enter the competition this year. The competition has evolved from how a place looks to how a place functions and how much the community values it’s facilities and is involved in community life. The judging panel visit in early June to assess the entry and the panel like to see the area that most of the community involvement takes place in, hence the focus of the entry will be around the Village Hall & Club, Church, Bicton Pool, Little Wood and Four Crosses areas. It is not the whole parish that is being judged.

Parish Councillors Sally Maddox & Elliott Blackmore are submitting the entry for Bicton.

We are looking for keen artists among the children of the village to draw a poster to promote Bicton’s entry so if your child likes to draw or paint etc ask them if they’d like to provide a poster. The picture/poster would need to be A4 size and show Bicton as somewhere to be proud to live and say “Bicton is proud to enter The Best Kept Village Competition”. Post in an envelope to “BKVC, c/o Sally Maddox, Bicton Village Hall & Club” ASAP.

Thank you

Sally Maddox

Parish Councillor

News from the Severn Loop – May

Priest in Charge:	Revd Hannah Lins	revhannahlins@gmail.com, 07736 012011
Assistant Priest:	Revd Peter Allan	pallan412@gmail.com, 01939 290048
Pastoral Minister:	Mrs Joyce Jagger	pearhill1@outlook.com, 07802 695954
Safeguarding Officer:	Mrs Philippa Herbert	07871 865253
Administrator:	Miss Rosie Dixon	severn.loopparishes@gmail.com
Daily Hope (the national phoneline service)		0800 8048044
Weekly Collects, readings and reflections are on the website- www.severnloopparishes.org.uk

MAY LOOP 2025

The Festival of Hope is underway!

Our Festival of Hope began last Sunday and continues until 11^th May. Please do download a pilgrim pass (or pick one up from one of our churches) and set off round the Loop to see our displays and reflections on stories of the risen Jesus- all open every day. Our community has worked really hard on this, and things all look amazing! Go to www.severnloopparishes.org.uk to get all the information you need.

Our concert at Leaton is this coming Sunday, 3pm- The Ronnies will be entertaining us with music from the 1940s. It’s free, but do email revhannahlins@gmail.com if you’re intending to come.

Then on 11^th May, 5pm we have our VE Day themed Songs of Praise at Bicton, with hymns chosen by people from around the Loop, and refreshments to follow- we’d love to see loads of you there!

The Lychgate at Battlefield- save the date

Work is underway to restore the lychgate- do take a look! It’s now thought that some of the timbers date to the early 17^th century, so there is more to the story than was originally thought. We are going to have a Grand Opening on 20^th July, 2pm. Please do save the date. Anyone present who was baptised or married at Battlefield will be first to walk under the gate!

Morning Prayer at Fitz

The PCC at Fitz have decided that they’d like to try a service of Morning Prayer on the first Sunday of the month- that will be effective from May onwards. The third Sunday will still be a Eucharist.

Remembering Nico

Many of you will have heard by now the sad news that Mr Nicholas Stephens died on Holy Saturday. Nico was our Patron at Fitz, and served as Treasurer for many years. He will be deeply missed. A Thanksgiving Service to celebrate his life will be held at All Saints, Baschurch, 3pm on Thursday, 29^th May. All are most welcome, but the family have asked that you let them know your intention to attend by emailing rorrington.office@gmail.com. Please keep Avril and the family in your prayers.

Royal British Legion Service with the Porthywaen Band

6pm, 1^st June, Bicton Church

Before the service, the band will march from the village hall to the church. There will be refreshments at the club afterwards.

Forest Church

We had a lovely time walking from Shrawardine to Montford, to begin our Festival of Hope. Our next Forest Church will be on 13^th July, the venue will be confirmed nearer the time.

Please check your spam!

It’s a bit of a paradox to mention it, because if this email is in spam you’ve probably not seen it! Anyway, I’ve discovered that quite a few of my emails have been going straight to spam, and sometimes it seems to be linked to the content (particularly the subject)- so that means some emails from me may arrive, and others not. It’s a good idea to check your spam each week, just in case things have been wrongly filed! Thanks so much.

Diary Dates

CAMEO Coffee Morning at Bicton Church- 8^th May, 10.30am-11.30am.

The Stepping Out Café in Bomere Heath- 28^th May, 2.30pm-4pm

Friends Coffee morning in Shrawardine- 13^th May, 10.30am in church

Filling Station– Knockin Village Hall is on 20^th May, 7.10pm for a 7.30pm start. The next one at Rodington Village Hall (SY4 4QS) is on 26^th May 2025, 7.15pm for a 7.30pm start.

REVS- Saturday, 17^th May, 10am-noon, Holy Trinity, Leaton.

For Your Prayers

For our Festival of Hope, including the concert and Songs of Praise.
For peace.
For the recently bereaved, especially the family and friends of Nicholas Stephens.
For our local schools.
For those in hospital, and for our NHS.
For the repair works on the Battlefield lychgate.
For Rebecca and Zak, getting married on 17^th
For Annie, being baptised on 25^th

Readings for May

Date	Psalm	First Reading	Second Reading/ Gospel
4^th May Easter 3, white	Psalm 30	Acts 9. 1-6	John 21. 1-19
11^th May Easter 4, white	Psalm 23	Acts 9. 36-43	John 10. 22-30
18^th May Easter 5, white	Psalm 148	Acts 11. 1-18	John 13. 31-35
25^th May Easter 6, white	Psalm 67	Acts 16. 9-15	John 14. 23-29
1^st June Easter 7, white	Psalm 97	Acts 16. 16-34	John 17. 20-26

SUNDAY SERVICES FOR MAY 2025

Albrighton

Bicton

Bomere

Heath

Fitz

Leaton

Montford

Shrawardine

4^th May

9.15 am

11 am

9.30 am

10.45 am

9.30 am

11^th May

5pm

Songs of Praise

9 am

10.45 am

9.30 am

11 am

18^th May

9.15 am

11 am

9.30 am

10.45 am

9.30 am

25^th May

11 am

9 am

10.45 am

11 am

9.30 am

1^st June

9.15am

6pm

RBL Service

9.30am

10.45am

9.30am

Please note there will be NO Ascension Day service this year.

HC- Holy Communion; MP- Morning Prayer

OTHER WAYS TO WORSHIP ON SUNDAYS- SUNDAY AT SIX 6 pm via Zoom – email Peter or Hannah to receive the link. DAILY HOPE – national phone line, see number above. LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL- www.lichfield-cathedral.org 10.30 am Eucharist

Churches Trail

Churches Trail

Looking for something to do on the Bank Holiday weekend? Why not complete our Churches Trail- it’s completely free of charge, and takes in some beautiful countryside! We’ve got displays in each church/ churchyard depicting one of the stories of the risen Jesus- they’ve been put together by members of the community, and are all brilliant. We’re particularly grateful to the children, who made a stunning and colourful contribution to the display in the porch at Bicton Church. This is all part of our Festival of Hope, and you can download/ pick up a Pilgrim Pass to mark off the places you visit (www.severnloopparishes.org.uk). The churches included are all steeped in history, surrounded by wildlife and have been special places of peace for generations. Here they are (along with where you’ll find the display):

Battlefield (church)

Preston Gubbals (church)

Albrighton (church porch)

Leaton (churchyard)

Fitz (church porch)

Bicton (church porch)

Montford (church)

Shrawardine (church)

VE Day 80th Anniversary – Thursday 8th May 3pm

We are really looking forward to our VE celebrations in school on Thursday 8th May.
We are inviting children to come to school dressed in red, white and blue or 1940s fancy dress as we celebrate together. We are hosting a ‘street party’ on the KS1 playground from 3 -4.30pm. Parents/carers/grandparents/siblings are all warmly invited to join us for food, music and celebrations. We have ‘VE Day Party Bags’ available to purchase on the School Gateway app for £3 per person.