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Weekly Newsletter
Friday 18th November 2022
This week in school
Christmas Fair Our Christmas Fair is next week! Come along and enjoy browsing the stalls for gifts, refreshments, tombola etc. There will also be a pre-loved uniform stall, and the School Council will be running a second-hand book stall. 5-7pm on Thursday 24 November in the main school hall.
Parents' evenings Following on from your feedback earlier in the term, for our parents' evenings we will be offering either virtual appointments (Tuesday 29 November) OR in person appointments (Wednesday 30 November). If all the slots for your preference have been taken, you can choose the other evening or contact the class teacher directly to see if you can arrange an alternative. The booking link will be sent out as soon as a technical hitch (at the booking system end!) has been sorted out.
Term dates 2023-24 The term dates for the next school year are now on the school website at https://brayton-cofe-primary-school.secure-primarysite.net/term-dates/
Brayton Christmas Lights Switch On will be on Saturday 26th November at 3:45pm on Brayton Village Green. There will also be refreshments supplied by the Swan.
Jewellery No necklaces, bracelets, rings or other jewellery should be worn to school. If your child has earrings, these must be removed for PE sessions, or earrings can be left at home on PE days. Earrings for school should be small stud types so they don't get caught and cause any injuries.
Leave of absence during term time & attendance Please can we gently remind you that, unless the circumstances are genuinely exceptional, holidays in term time will not be authorised. Lower prices are not an exceptional circumstance, and the guidance is very clear that Headteachers would not be expected to class any term time holiday as exceptional.
Where our replies to requests for holidays have included reference to Fixed Penalty Notices, the paperwork for these can only be sent through when you have returned from the holiday and after a certain number of weeks have passed. We send through summaries to North Yorkshire County Council who then make the decision around proceeding with fines.
The government is currently consulting on approaches to improving school attendance with updated guidance and new legislation coming with effect from September 2023. This is likely to lead to much quicker involvement from the Local Authority where a child's attendance is showing their education to be at risk. Currently if a child's attendance is below 90% we send an initial warning letter, which can be followed by more formal processes if attendance does not improve.
Under this consultation, as many of you will have seen, 1 single session of unauthorised absence will generate a Fixed Penalty Notice, and this shows how seriously the Government is taking attendance as a key part of education recovery.
If your child's attendance is below 90% they will have missed at least 20 days over the year: this is like missing a whole month of school.
Final shout out for wreath making...
Free School Meals
Free school meals: save up to £450 a year With so much in the news about the cost of living and now energy prices going up, you can check whether your child could be eligible for a free school meal, whatever school year they are in. All the information is on the NYCC website at https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/free-school-meals Some of this information may be out of date, especially around eligibility, so please get in touch if you are unsure.
If you would like any advice or support with this, please contact the school office. We treat these matters with complete confidentiality and are always happy to help if needed.
Thank you for your continued support.
Allyson Buckton (Headteacher) & Mel Walmsley (Deputy Headteacher)
Whole School Attendance
DIARY DATES
Tuesday 22 November - Open session for September 2023 admissions 1:30-2:30pm
Thursday 24 November - Christmas Fair (5-7pm)
Tuesday 29 November - Parents' evening 3:30-5:30pm (virtual)
Wednesday 30 November - Parents' evening 3:30-6:30pm (in person)
Thursday 1 December - Christmas wreath making workshop (6-8.30pm)
Monday 5 December - Reception Nativity pm (TBC)
Tuesday 6 December - Reception Nativity pm (TBC)
Wednesday 7 December - Nursery Christmas sing-along pm
Thursday 8 December - Christmas Jumper Day & Christmas Lunch
Tuesday 13 December - Christmas Services at St Wilf's
Friday 16 December - School closes for Christmas
Tuesday 3 January - Staff training day
Wednesday 4 January - School opens for spring term
Sunday 15 January - Deadline for primary school applications for September 2023
From St Wilf's...
Hello all
Our annual Christingle service for families at St Wilf’s takes place on Sunday 4th December at 3pm.
This is a lovely, atmospheric service that really helps us begin to get into the spirit of Christmas!
At this service we collect money for The Children’s Society charity, which does amazing work supporting children and young people across England and Wales who are struggling in all sorts of ways.
Along with this we invite those who come to the service to bring a wrapped Christmas present to be distributed to children and young people in the Selby area whose families are struggling financially at this time.
Please would you label the gift: girl or boy or both, and the age range the gift is suitable for.
It’s great to have the whole age range covered, but often we don’t have enough gifts for teenagers donated, so if you are able to donate a present for a teen that would be good!
Thanks very much, and we really look forward to welcoming you to St Wilf’s on the 4th December at 3pm!
It’s Alive@5 this Sunday 5pm!
You’d all be very welcome at this very chill, café style family service.
Bye for now
Rev Pete
Happy Birthdays!
This week in classrooms
Nursery - Stars
We have had such a busy week celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week.
The children have learnt a different rhyme each day, as well as singing lots of other nursery rhymes too. Our provision has been all about nursery rhymes and we hope that you enjoyed the photographs we posted on Class Dojo. We have decorated fish using celery and played with the pirate ship in the small world. We have practised recognising numbers using our magnetic fishing game and enjoyed acting out the rhyme ‘Five Little Speckled Frogs’.
In our phonics sessions we have revisited instrumental sounds and have enjoyed playing the instruments as we sang the nursery rhymes. In maths we have been singing lots of number rhymes including ‘5 currant buns’ which we acted out with real buns and pennies at snack time.
Star of the week- Isobel Holmes
Reception - Moon and Mercury
In Reception we have focussed our learning on the traditional story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. Again, we have enjoyed learning the repeated refrains, such as ‘Who’s been sitting in my chair?’ We have some very convincing bears! The children created some excellent speech bubbles, pretending to be one of the characters and writing what they thought they might say.
In maths, our focus has been on the numbers 4 and 5. As well as recognising the numerals, we have also been thinking about the composition of each number. We also had a very exciting birthday party for baby bear! He turned 5 so it really helped us with our understanding of 5.
In phonics we introduced the new digraphs sh, th, ng and nk. We have practised how to form the letters correctly for each of these digraphs, using the mnemonics and we have been blending and segmenting words containing these sounds.
In our RE work we have continued to consider the question - ‘Why do Christians perform nativity plays at Christmas?’ We looked through a treasure box of objects, to see what Christmas means to Christians and we listened to some traditional Christmas carols.
Although the weather has been a challenge, we have still managed to spend lots of time outdoors. We practise many of our physical skills outside, it is wonderful to see children learning new skills through perseverance.
Stars of the Week
Mercury - Penny Fenton
Moon - Elliott Tweddle
Year 1 - Galaxy and Venus
What a busy week we have had in Year 1 celebrating the life and work of Coco Chanel. We have described her clothes and written a persuasive advertisement to buy her creations. In maths we have continued our topic of addition/subtraction, focussing on finding a part and beginning to subtract.
We have created our handkerchiefs following last week’s designs in DT. In computing, we have continued work completing digital art and we have been very impressed with the children’s mouse control and ability to follow instructions to create art. In science, we have been investigating the senses of sight and smell, investigating smells we like and definitely do not like! Finally in PE we have completed our gymnastic unit and it was lovely to see the children performing their balances in sequence with a partner.
Friday welcomed Children in Need, the children looked fab-u-lous and lots of fun was had by all.
Stars of the Week:
Galaxy - Riordan Hawe
Venus - Oscar Johnston
Year 2 - Earth and Mars
We have been so busy this week! We finished off our RE topic on Islam and what Muslims believe with a review of all we have talked about. We were really impressed with how much everyone has remembered. Well done everyone! In history we learnt more about Ernest Shackleton and his first expeditions to the Antarctic.We compared what he would have taken with him with what a modern day explorer might take and planned our own kit lists. We have worked super hard in maths this week, learning how to add two two-digit numbers. Our English has been on writing more amazing sentences based on our class book and in phonics we have written some very long complicated words! In music, we created a performance with everyone playing a pitched instrument as an accompaniment to a song. It involved following a score and keeping the pulse. Our PSHE lessons involved us thinking very carefully about what we need in a good friend. Well done Year 2, you have worked super hard this week!
Stars of the week;
Earth: Xander Ward
Mars: Finley Hoyle
Year 3 - Jupiter and Saturn
What another busy week we’ve had in Year 3! In English, the children have been independently writing the next part of our class story ‘The Wolf Escapes from Jail’. They’ve confidently included the grammar features learnt throughout this writing unit, and have thoroughly enjoyed using their imagination to fuel the creative content. In Maths, we have learnt the rules for complements to 100 and have learnt how to estimate. Estimation has been a tricky concept for the children to grasp, but they now know that if we estimate the answer first, we can check that our actual answer makes sense! In Science, the children have been exploring rocks - this time testing out the permeability, durability and density. In Geography, the children have learnt the names and locations of counties in the UK. In Computing, we’ve started to design Christmas wrapping paper using the line, shape,/ and fill tools in ‘pixilart’. In PE, the children are really getting to grips with the rules of rugby, which we’re starting to see them apply more skillfully during the end of session games. Well done Year 3 - keep on shining!
Star of the Week:
Jupiter: Oliver Pearce
Saturn: George Dunnington
Year 4 - Neptune and Meteor
It’s been a very arty week in Year 4. In English, the children have continued writing about Hiccup’s journey to the dragon nursery and have designed their own species of dragon. Everyone had very creative names for their dragons, took plenty of time designing them and a great deal of considering just how to describe their dragon. Continuing with our arty theme, in Guided reading, the children heard about how the Viking boys lost control of their dragons which started fighting. Everyone chose a key scene to draw a picture of and then label using quotes from the texts. In Science, this week we have been lucky enough to plant some bulbs which were kindly donated by Bulbs4kids. The children recapped previous learning from Year 2 before going out and planting bulbs 4 inches deep around Meteor classroom, near the hand railing and in the planters outside of Neptune. Keep your eyes peeled for daffodils, crocus, tulips and hyacinth plants for the first signs of spring! Overall it’s been a fabulous week and both classes have shown just how sensible they are for Year 4. Keep it up everyone!
Star of the week
Meteor: Ellie Cooper
Neptune: Rocco Lea
Year 5 - Asteroid and Pluto
This week in Maths, we have moved on, from multiplying and dividing, to fractions. It has been a really good start, clearly the children have remembered what they have learnt in the previous years. We will be moving on to adding and subtracting fractions, so it is going to get harder. In English, we have started to look at persuasive letters, and got ourselves into the role of Elizabeth Fry. It is time to reform the prisons in the Victorian Era, and it is our job to convince the prison wardens to improve the conditions for women and children. Guided reading has been tough this week. We have been working on our inference skills and then writing them in PEE (Point, Evidence, Explain) paragraphs. Finding the evidence has been easy, it is explaining how that evidence backs up the point they have made. Finally, in Science, we did an experiment about substances that are soluble and insoluble. Our skills of predicting, observing and documenting have really improved over the last few weeks. So, well done Year 5!
Stars of week:
Asteroid- Charlie Corbally
Pluto- Charlie Coltman
Year 6 - Nebular and Constellation
What another great week it has been in year 6, even with such terrible weather trying to put a damper on things. In English we have completed our narrative stories about the survivors arriving in New York. The tales, we must say, are harrowing! How anyone could pick themselves up and start their new lives in the US after what they witnessed, we do not know. In maths, we have completed our division tasks, and have moved onto some very in depth multistep problems using all of the different operations we have been learning. In our guided reading, a main focus was to look at the change in personality of our main character, Patrick. From a quiet working boy of Belfast, to accompanying a learned man who was protecting a much desire secret - alchemy, from the swindler, statesman, scientist, Sir Francis Bacon. Oh, and all this on a boat that is now sinking! In art we have been searching the depths of the North Atlantic to scavenge for artefacts, that we are now sketching in different styles and formats. Keep up this hard work year 6!
Stars of week:
Nebular: Alice Watson
Constellation: Summer Claydon