Weekly Newsletter
Friday 24th June 2022
This week in school
A very tired day today for all of us who were involved with the Y6 camp out on the field last night. We can't exactly call it a sleepover as not a lot of sleep was happening! Seriously, huge thanks to Mr Close, Mr Fash-Hill and Mr Pooley for giving up their time to make sure the Y6 children had the opportunity, and to the Scouts for letting us borrow their tents. We have seen and tasted Mr Close's cooking skills, and danced to Mr Pooley's unique DJ-ing.
Football updates On Friday 17th we hosted our first football tournament in years, with 6 teams taking part. It was a great evening in the sunshine, with lots of support and cold drinks & snacks on sale (thankyou PTA!) Best of all, we had the winning team and are the proud owners of a very shiny trophy! Thanks to Mr Pooley for organising and for his time coaching alongside Mr Fash-Hill; and to Mr Osborne & Callum L for refereeing.
On Monday we had another league fixture, with the toughest match yet against Tadcaster Riverside, but came away with a solid 1-0 win. Good luck to the team for next week's fixture against Barkston Ash.
Book look session The book look session before Easter was so well attended, with so much positive feedback, that we will be running it regularly. The one for this term will be on Monday 11 July from 2:45-4:15pm. The same arrangements as last time: come along either just before the end of the day or when you collect your child(ren) and have an informal look at the work they have been doing this term. We know that some of the feedback suggested a choice of dates and times but the diary is so busy up to the end of term that it hasn't been possible this time round.
STAR MAT parent survey Following on from the STAR MAT parents survey (carried out in January), we have taken the areas which came across as the most important to address, and reviewed these. There is a summary of what has been happening in response to your feedback at this link https://www.smore.com/931uk
Leave of absence during term time & attendance We are getting more and more requests for leave of absence during term time due to families having booked holidays. Please can we gently remind you that, unless the circumstances are genuinely exceptional, these 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.
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.
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. On the annual reports we will be adding how many days of school your child has missed, as well as their % attendance.
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
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
The graph below shows our school attendance since the start of the school year up to the end of last week (we are the pink line).
An amazing 333 children have had 100% attendance this week: well done!
DIARY DATES
Saturday 25 June 2022: PTA Summer Fair 12pm-3pm
Tuesday 28 June 2022: Year 2/3 trip to Bridlington
Wednesday 29 June 2022: Y6 Leavers Service at Selby Abbey
Thursday 30 June 2022: Y5/6 football vs Barkston Ash
Wednesday 6 July 2022: Nursery sports day 2-3pm
Wednesday 6 July 2022: Open the Book visit
Thursday 7 July 2022: Sports day
Monday 11 July 2022: Book look session 2:45-4:15pm
Wednesday 13 & Thursday 14 July 2022: Transition visits for new Reception children 10-12
Wednesday 13 July 2022: Y6 Bradford Media Museum visit
Thursday 14 July 2022: Asteroid class at Song For Selby day at Selby Abbey
Thursday 14 July 2022: STAR MAT athletics competition (Y5), Tadcaster Grammar
Friday 15 July 2022: Transition day for Y1-Y6
Monday 18 July 2022: EYFS balance bike day
Friday 22 July 2022: School closes for summer holiday
Happy Birthdays!
Many many many many happy returns this week to.....
Isabel Harris
Imogen Herring
Kobi Irving
Edward Horgan
This week in classrooms
Our school values
Nursery - Stars
This week we have been talking about the planet Earth. The children have enjoyed looking at globes and simple maps. We have talked about how special our planet is and how we must look after it. The children have enjoyed creating their own globes with different media – paint, playdough . They have had fun talking about where different animals live in the world and placing them in the green or blue shaving foam! On Tuesday, we had a special music day and we listened to the piece Earth by Hans Zimmer. The children loved watching the orchestra and choir perform the piece on the CBeebies Prom and we created our own music. We took turns being the conductor too. On Thursday we had our special termly art afternoon. We looked at the work of Robert Fuller who uses oil paints to create animal paintings. The children enjoyed choosing an animal to draw with oil pastels and acrylic pens. We will post their masterpieces on Tapestry. In maths we have been comparing groups of objects using the language ‘more’, ‘less’ and ‘the same’. In phonics we have continued working on initial sounds.
Star of the Week: Beatrix Horgan
FS - Moon and Mercury
This week in Reception we have taken a step back in time to explore what going to the seaside was like in the past. We discussed what was the same as today and what has changed over time. We always watched a clip of a Punch & Judy show which of course is a famous British seaside tourism.
We found out who Mary Anning was and we were fascinated to find out how much time her and brother spent trying to find fossils and recreated our own using salt dough.
In maths we investigated odd and even numbers. We arranged objects and identified if the number of objects were even or odd and looked at different representations of odd numbers and then created a picture with an odd number of objects.
This week we had our half termly music and art afternoons. On Tuesday it was World Music Day. We listened to Earth by Hans Zimmer which is part of the BBC Ten Pieces project then completed some musical activities around this piece of music.
On Thursday we had our art afternoon and we studied the artist Robert E Fuller who is a leading British wildlife artist who paints in acrylic and oil. The children looked carefully at various pieces of his art and recreated their own in their own unique style.
Moon - Jaxson Acaster
Mercury - Isabella Rampling
Y1 - Galaxy and Venus
This week we have been reading Class 3 All at Sea. We have made a wanted poster, sequenced the events in the story and written a biography. We have also been focussing on the suffixes ing, ed and er and recognising their use within sentences. On Tuesday we had a special music day and listened to the piece Earth by Hans Zimmer. In science we have been describing materials according to their properties, and in geography we have been learning about the seas around the UK. In maths we have been looking at the place value of numbers and comparing and ordering them to 100 and beyond. This term’s artist is Robert Fuller. Robert E Fuller is a leading British wildlife artist who paints in acrylic and oil. His art work is very detailed. We all had fun doing our own paintings in the style of Robert Fuller.
Star of the week:
Venus- Michael Knight
Galaxy- Reuben Shooter-Slack
Year 2 / 3 Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune
Another busy week in Year 2 and 3! This week we have been estimating and measuring in maths using metres, centimetres and millimetres.
In English, we have been finishing our sentence stacking and making a plan for using the method to write our own stories. Guided Reading has focused on the reading Vipers and the book The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark.
Our Art afternoon focused on the Yorkshire artist Robert Fuller and as he paints wildlife and has a live webcam on owls, this fits in with our topic perfectly!
We all enjoyed the Music afternoon listening to Hans Zimmer’s ‘Earth’ and drawing what it made us think of or how we felt. In RE, we discussed ‘The Ten Commandments’ before writing our own rules for living.
Finally, in PSHCE, we began thinking about transition to our new classes and how we were feeling.
Stars of the week -
Jupiter- Mason Snedker
Saturn - Evie McKenzie
Neptune- Aurora Anderson
Year 4 Mars and Earth
What a creative, artistic and musical week we’ve enjoyed in Year 4. We have thoroughly enjoyed researching the North Yorkshire artist Robert Fuller and being amazed by the detail in his paintings of wildlife, they look so realistic, they could be photographs. This inspired us to draw some fantastic barn owls. We continued to be inspired by nature as we went into our music sessions this week, learning about the composer Hans Zimmer. We created some moving expressions of rhythm and layering of sounds while sitting under the trees on the field to accompany his piece of music entitled ‘Earth’. In English we have been writing our own Greek myth, just what we need to get us in the mood for our Greek day. In Maths, we have been investigating angles and 2D shapes on a geoboard and discussing their properties.
Stars
Mars -
Earth - George Walker
Year 5 Asteroid and Pluto
What an utterly creative and fantastic week we have had in year 5! We have enjoyed viewing the work of wildlife artist, Robert Fuller-our children were amazed that his paintings weren’t photographs! We have also enjoyed listening to ‘Earth’ by the composer, Hans Zimmer. These creative individuals have inspired our learning this week. In art, we used two media (paint and pastel) to create artwork in the style of our focus artist. The children have created artwork of an array of birds. Using Hans Zimmer’s composition, we wrote and performed a poem over this musical piece. We had to make sure our performance was fluent, controlled and full of expression. Our poem was a big thanks to Earth. Our teachers have been so impressed with our creativity and outcomes this week. On Friday, Year 5 enjoyed their taster session at Selby High. The children got a flavour of high school and were full of excitement from the activities the high school had prepared for us.
Stars
Asteroid - Joshua Cole
Pluto- Jack Pearce
Year 6 Nebular and Constellation
This week in year 6, we have had one of the most fun and tiring weeks this year. We have completed more writing in English, with the post-apocalyptic narrative being completed. We then enjoyed our first activity day - a trip to Scarborough beach. To see the children letting loose and enjoying the beautiful weather, was a sight to behold. With ice-cream and amusement games, the children had a wonderful day. On Thursday, the children then had their 2nd fun day, with bowling and laser tag. They then had a sleepover on the school field in tents and food cooked by Mr Close. Who would have thought that he was actually a good cook? The year 6 would like to thank the 6th Selby (Brayton) Scout Group for their generosity in allowing us to borrow their tents for our experience. It would not have been possible without their help.
Stars:
Constellation: Benjamin Mustapha
Nebular: Charlie Adams
This week's bee point winners
Blue & Yellow Hives: well done!
Who has the most hive points so far?
Zephyrus Hay (Galaxy Class & Green Hive) is the top scorer this week: well done!