Ripon Cathedral School Update

Welcome back to school and Happy New Year to you all. I hope you have all had an enjoyable Christmas period and a good start to 2025. A huge thank you to pupils, parents and carers for your co-operation and understanding with the changes to our routines this week due to the snow and ice. Hearing stories from other local areas of schools being unable to open to pupils all week, I am grateful that we have been in a position to start the new term as planned and that we have managed to provide a full week of learning. Thank you to parents who offered to help with gritting and clearing the snow, and we have been in regular contact with the school’s facilities management company around bad weather processes. I thanked the children in worship this morning for being sensible and coping well with being unable to have their usual time on the playground. We do hope to be back to normal next week!

Please can I remind parents and carers to drive and park sensibly around the school site. The zigzag lines outside school are there for a reason and we all have a role to play in keeping the children safe. There is plenty of bicycle and scooter parking at school and even in the cold weather, a walk to school is a healthy and active start to the day.

We are looking forward to another busy and enjoyable term ahead, with events such as Young Voices, Year 4’s trip to Jorvik and the Christingle to look forward to. You can find details of all this term’s notable dates below.

I shared with the children on Monday a poem for Epiphany, which talked about gifts ‘fit for a king’ that the wise men brought to Jesus. We talked about what type of king Jesus was and concluded with a prayer: “Thank you Jesus for being the King of Love and for living a life of simplicity and service.” As we aspire, flourish and love throughout this term, both inside and outside of school, we can think about how we can use our own gifts to love and serve others, just as Jesus did. Thank you to my four helpers who represented the wise men and the star in worship on Monday!

God bless,

Mrs S Walsh

Congratulations to this week's stars:

Nursery - George for being imaginative and creative, showing perseverance in his model making.

Reception - Poppy for working really hard on her letter formation. Poppy has been really focussed during phonics to improve her handwriting and has applied this independently to her writing in provision.

Year 1 - Eryn for putting lots of care and attention into her learning this week. She has made lots of fabulous predictions in her English learning and has worked hard on letter formation.

Year 2 - Leo for being an absolute superstar this week! Leo has settled back into his school routines really quickly and has been so eager to show everyone how respectful and kind he can be.

Year 3 - George Gr for settling straight back into the spring term with his mature and sensitive attitude to his learning.

Year 4 -Noah for starting the spring term with a fabulous work attitude! He has tried so hard this week.

Year 5 - Madison for her positive can do attitude during our learning on equivalent fractions.

Year 6 - Olivia T for challenging herself in English and maths. Her attitude to learning has been fantastic.

Universal Free School Meals

Information for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes - lunch on Thursday 16th January

You probably recall that the funding we receive for Reception and KS1 free lunches is based on a headcount day each term. For the spring, this is on the coming Thursday. We will not be serving a different lunch to that on the menu. However, if your child does not eat a school meal on Thursday, we will offer them some pudding to try (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children only). Please don't hesitate to let us know if this is an issue, thank you.

Wednesday 22nd January - 9am Year 4 Class Worship

Tuesday 28th January - Young Voices Concert at Sheffield Arena

Wednesday 29th January - KS2 Sporting Influence Dance Festival

Monday 3rd February - 5pm Christingle service at the Cathedral

Wednesday 5th February - 9am Year 3 Class Worship

Thursday 6th February - Year 4 trip to Jorvik and DIG

Tuesday 11th February - Safer Internet Day and Year 5 Class Worship at 9am

Friday 14th February - School closes for half term

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