Ripon Cathedral School Update

On Thursday, Year 4 had a ‘science of sound’ day where they learnt all about sound. Over the course of the morning, the children watched and were involved in lots of experiments. They learnt how sounds and echoes travel through vibrations and explored which materials sound can pass through.

The fun didn't stop there! They then listened to and played different musical instruments to explore how sounds were made and how the pitch and volume of the sounds change. They made predictions, tested their theories and identified patterns from their results including that longer objects make a lower pitched sound and shorter objects a higher pitched sound,

Using all this knowledge, children were then given the opportunity to make their own musical instruments. They made drums, flutes, windchimes, xylophones and many more. What a fantastic day exploring sound!

Year 5 were delighted to receive letters this week from their pen pals at St Peter’s Primary School in Leeds. The children from St Peter’s introduced themselves to their pen pal telling them a little about themselves including who they live with, if they have pets, what their favourite subjects are at school and what their hobbies are. Some even shared a joke or two! The children have spent time this week working on their replies and we will hopefully get them in the post next week! The children are very excited about meeting their pen pal in the summer term when we go to their school and soon after we will welcome them to our school!

Christmas Jumper Day is Save the Children's annual event which raises money for the children who need it most.

Every December, millions of people across the United Kingdom (and beyond!) put on a festive knit at their workplace, school or with friends and make a donation to help give children the magical future they deserve.

Children are welcome to come in a Christmas Jumper on 7th December - if you would like to make a donation to Save the Children this can be done through Parent Pay.

On December 12th Riding Lights Theatre Group will be visiting us to present their production of 'Give it Back Mak!' This show is suitable for Reception to Year 3 and is part of our enrichment programme. As I am sure you will appreciate the cost of a visiting theatre group is significantly cheaper than going on a visit and equates to only £3 per child. We would welcome any contributions towards the cost of this event. Parents of children in Reception to Year 3 are able to make a contribution through Parent Pay. We are sure the children will thoroughly enjoy seeing live theatre

This week we explored a question posed by our Spiritual Council - 'What do you imagine God might look like?' We had some incredibly thoughtful answers.

'I imagine God surrounded by doves and wearing a long white robe.' Y4

'God comes in three forms – most remember him as a father.' Y4

'God looks loving and caring.' Y4

'God is a mystery no one knows what he looks like but he is with us wherever we go.' Y5

'God is a light – because he is also Jesus who is the light of the world.' Y5

'I think God is all the nice people because God is always there around us.' Y5

'God looks like a man with a long beard and he has an angel ring on his head.' Y2

'I imagine that God would look like a wizard.' Y1

'God looks like a shadow.' Y1

'God would look like a shepherd.' Y1

'He is bright like a sun.' Reception

'He looks different in everyone’s mind.' Y6

'God can take any forms. He is never one thing.' Y6

This week the Open the Book team came into school to tell us all about the the story of Naaman. Ably supported by Year 5 pupils they acted out the story and told the children all about the way Naaman showed his faith.

We always enjoy celebrating children's achievements in our celebration worship on a Friday. Well done to all our stars of the week.

Nursery

Clara for improved confidence.

Reception

Alexa for the kindness shown to others this week.

Year 1

Amelia for showing lots of perseverance in phonics and maths. Well done.

Year 2

George for working so hard on his non-chronological report about fire engines.

Year 4

Nastiya for fabulous work on our science of sound day creating her own instrument.

Year 5

Martha for her excellent story writing. Martha used a range of vocabulary to create an excellent atmosphere. Well done Martha.

Year 6

Eugene for always being ready to learn and for challenging himself in lessons.

Thank you for all the donations collected by Bag2School on Wednesday. You raised £57 which is not bad for unwanted items!

On Thursday 7th December, we have our Christmas Fair. As well as some lovely stalls, this year one of parents is providing a photo booth and it's always worth buying a raffle ticket to try to win one of our themed hampers! Hopefully you read the email sent out during the week about donations for the hampers. Thank you for everything sent in so far. If you need the weekend to make a purchase, we would be delighted for items to come in on Monday as well. The theme for each class is on the poster above.

We look forward to seeing you all at our events, thank you for your support.

We are currently organising a range of events for the term. Below are dates that we currently have planned. We will add more dates over the term so please do check each week for new events.

Thursday 7th December - Christmas Fair

Thursday 7th December - Christmas Jumper Day

Tuesday 12th December - Riding Lights Theatre visiting school

Wednesday 13th December - School Christmas Dinner

Tuesday 19th December - EY and KS1 Christmas Party

Wednesday 20th December - EY and KS1 Celebration worship at 9am

Thursday 21st December - Celebration worship KS2 at 9am

Thursday 21st December - Key Stage 2 Christmas Party

Friday 22nd December 2023 (at 1.30pm) - Key Stage 1 Nativity in the Cathedral

Friday 22nd December 2023 - School closes for Christmas break at 2.30pm

Monday 8th January - Oscar's Holiday Club (advance notice - booking, times and cost TBC)

Tuesday 9th January 2024 - School reopens for the Spring Term

We are delighted with how busy Oscar's has become this term, thank you for everyone's support. We are unable to run any holiday club dates during the Christmas break itself, but will offer full day care on the training day on Monday 8th January 2024. Booking can now be made online. Contact Mrs Rich if you need further details, thank you.

Email: admin@riponcathedral.n-yorks.sch.uk
Website: www.riponcathedralschool.org.uk
Location: HG41LT, United Kingdom
Phone: 01765 602355
Facebook: facebook.com/riponcathschool
Twitter: @riponcathschool