Weekly Newsletter
Friday 8th December 2023
This week in school
Christmas Dinner Will be next Wednesday (13th) when children can wear Christmas jumpers, dresses or tops along with their usual school uniform. This is not part of the national charity and no-one needs to bring donations: it is just for fun!
It will be full non-uniform/party clothes the following week for the Christmas parties and class teachers will be in contact about these.
Christmas Service at St Wilf's You are welcome to join us at church next week for our Christmas Services at the following times:
9:30am: Galaxy, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Meteor, Pluto, & Constellation
10:45am: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Neptune, Asteroid and Nebular
Please meet us at church instead of on the Green this time.
Parents' evenings this week It was so good to see families around this week for the Nativity performances and for the parents' evenings. If you haven't managed to speak to your child's class teacher, please contact them through Dojo to arrange an appointment.
Starting school in September 2024 Applications are now open. If your child is due to start school in September 2024 (if they will have their 5th birthday btween 1.9.2024 and 31.8.2025) then you need to apply for a primary school place for September 2024. Applications should be made online at https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/education-and-learning/school-admissions and the deadline is 15 January. You can still apply after this, but your application will be dealt with after all the others and you may not get your first choice school.
PLEASE CHECK: we know there are children who are in our nursery who have not applied yet!
Term dates 2023-24 The term dates for this school year are on the school website at https://brayton-cofe-primary-school.secure-primarysite.net/term-dates/
We have had to make a slight change to the training days in 2024: children are now expected back in school on Monday 8 January 2024 after the Christmas break, and there will be a training day on Friday 24 May 2024 instead of this.
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.
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
Attendance fell but has recovered again up to the end of last week! The lowest attendance in the school is in Reception and we would ask families in that year group to be especially aware of the amount of absence your child has had, especially if you have had a holiday in term time. We will be contacting families directly to follow up concerns.
Please remember, we will always contact you if your child is unwell during the day, so please make sure they are here as much as possible. With your help we made massive improvements in attendance over last year and this is now better across school than it has been in a very long time!
We would also remind you that, according to the new guidance for schools, ANY leave for holidays should be unauthorised: there is no longer the 'up to 5 days/10 sessions' which can be authorised at the Headteacher's discretion. Last year we put forward 38 requests for Fixed Penalty Notices to be issued, which the Local Authority have advised us that they have actioned.
DIARY DATES
Tuesday 12 December - Christmas services at church (am, classes and timings above)
Wednesday 13 December - Chrismas lunch and jumper day
Friday 22 December - School closes for Christmas
Monday 8 January - School opens
Friday 9 February - School closes for half term
Thursday 21 March - School closes for Easter
Friday 22 March - STAR MAT training day (school closed to children)
Monday 8 April - School opens
Monday 6 May - May Day Bank Holiday
Thursday 23 May - School closes for half term
Friday 24 May - Training day (school closed to children)
Monday 3 June - School opens
Friday 19 July - School closes for summer
Monday 22 July - Training day (school closed to children)
Happy Birthdays!
Many many many many happy returns over the next week to.....
Freddie Wilson
Mason Corbally
Elkie Ferguson
Kyran Smith
Charlie Penistone
Holly Hawker
This week in classrooms
Nursery - Stars
This week has been all about transport and especially trains. We have enjoyed reading ‘Oi, Get off our Train’ and ‘Little Red Train to the Rescue’, especially the repeated refrains and sounds. The children have enthusiastically thrown themselves into our new ‘Drawing Club’ which uses our books of the week to extend their vocabulary and encourage their mark making; we were amazed at their attempts to draw a boy in spotty pyjamas and a train on a train track. We have used the small world train track to make a track round Stars and to retell the story of the Little red Train’s journey. We have tried to draw train tracks and roads in the outside area. We even made our own trains from box craft and outdoor equipment.
In maths, we have been comparing sets of objects with a transport theme using the language ‘more, fewer and the same’. We have also focused on number recognition. In phonics, we have been revising the instruments in our music box and the sounds that they make. We have also looked at the instruments in an orchestra and even explored a real guitar, violin and trumpet.
Star of the week: Hope Carter
Reception - Moon and Mercury
It’s been a very busy week!
On Monday and Thursday, the children took on speaking, acting and singing roles. The traditional nativity story was told through our performance of ‘A Wriggly Nativity’. The children were very excited to have the opportunity to perform on stage to their families and the wider school. We are very proud of them all!
In phonics we have been reviewing the sounds that we have learnt so far this half term. The children have really impressed us with their phonic knowledge and have been writing words and sentences.
In maths we have prompted the children to look for squares and rectangles in buildings around our locality. There were lots on the images of Selby Leisure and The Wishing Well. We also discussed Time and encouraged the children to talk about what they do in the day and at night.
Thank you so much to everyone that attended parents evening. It was wonderful to celebrate the progress that the children have made so far this year.
Star of the week
Moon: Charlotte Broadbent
Mercury: Ralph Hudson
Year 1 - Galaxy and Venus
The cold weather has come but we are still hard at work in year 1. This week we have explored the significant figure Bessie Coleman, the first black, female pilot. We learned how she ignored all of those who discouraged her and how she followed her dreams to become a pilot. In maths, the children have blown us away with their understanding of numbers to 20. Even when working with one more or one less the children have demonstrated their understanding of these greater numbers. In History on Tuesday, the children were able to show off all of their hard work that they have put into their phonics this term. The writing that the children produced really shows just how much progress they have all made. Neat handwriting and efforts to apply their phonics skills really produced some fabulous work. Keep up all of the great work year one!
Star of the week
Galaxy: Jack Priest
Venus: Leon Szafranski
Year 2 - Earth and Mars
We have had another great week in Year 2 and we’re starting to get into the Christmas spirit! We have been learning about why Christmas matters to Christians in RE. We started to make our Christmas Cards with a moving part in DT and in our Reading Response lessons, we have started looking at our new book - ‘Winter’s Child’ by Angela McAllister and Graham Baker-Smith. In English we have continued to look at the advert “My Christmas Star” to develop effective sentences in readiness for our own narrative. In Science we have been using our knowledge of the properties of metal, to group metal objects in different ways. We have started our next unit on ‘Money’ in maths and the children have really enjoyed counting the money! In Geography we have been creating a map of school using symbols and a key. Another fun filled, busy week, well done Year 2 - keep up the good work!
Star of the Week
Earth: Rio Helstrip
Mars: Cooper Glover
Year 3 - Jupiter and Saturn
After successfully completing our independent writing last week, we have now moved onto our next unit ‘The Boy Who Cannot See’ which is a poem about a person without sight, but who cleverly uses powerful imagery, similes and metaphors to describe and compare the colours in his mind. So far, the children are really enjoying reading and analysing the poem, alongside crafting their own figurative sentences during our sentence stacking lessons. In Maths, we began our next unit ‘Multiplication and Division’, this week consolidating prior learning by focusing on multiples of 2, 3, 5 and 10, and using sharing and grouping as a method for division. In Art, the children embarked on a Christmas themed printmaking project, initially drawing wintery themed landscapes on paper, which they will transfer onto Styrofoam next week. During the next couple of weeks in Science, we are conducting an investigation to find out which soil type is the most permeable; this week, the children made predictions and recorded the key elements of the experiment in their science books in preparation for our practical work and observations next week. Fantastic effort and a high standard of work again, Year 3s! Well done. :)
Star of the Week:
Jupiter: Riley Cooke
Saturn: Nancy Mattinson
Year 4 - Neptune and Meteor
It may nearly be Christmas but that doesn’t mean the children haven’t stopped pushing themselves and continuing to work hard. We are nearly at the end of our multiplication and division unit in maths and the children have been working incredibly hard! This week we have learnt to multiply and divide by 11,12, 1 and 0.
The children have shown so much enthusiasm towards our new focus in Writing, ‘The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse.’ We are looking forward to starting our independent writing next week. Things got a bit messy in Science this week as the children practically explored the human digestive system. Following last week's Science lesson, the children developed their learning and understanding of how the different parts of the digestive system work to allow us to digest food. In Geography, we continued to learn about settlements and discussed reasons why people might settle in different locations. We mainly focused on York and why early settlers chose to settle there and why people choose to live there now. On Monday afternoon we were busy preparing for the Christmas service at Church next week. We also practised some songs for the service and the children sang beautifully! Well done Year 4, another brilliant week!
Meteor: Aurora Anderson
Neptune: Everly Dos Santos
Year 5 - Asteroid and Pluto
What a busy week we have had! After weeks of researching, using objectives and drafting our non-chronological reports about Victorian punishments, the children wrote up their work neatly in their books. It has been one of the hardest texts for them, as it was probably the most independent piece of writing they have done so far in Year 5. Not only that, we have finally finished fractions…for now. This has been quite a struggle for most of the children and it definitely gets revisited later in the year, but most of the children have been quite resilient and have started to gain more confidence in their ability of converting fractions. The next book will be based on multiplication and division, so their knowledge on their times tables will need to be up to speed, so let’s keep practising them at home. We have started our first Design Technology project of the year. This week the children have been put in small groups and have designed an Afternoon Tea for children. Next week they get to make it and eat it - if they want to. Well done Year 5, only two more weeks till the holidays!
Star of the week
Asteroid: Demi-Leigh Wyrill
Pluto: Amber Kilmartin
Year 6 - Nebular and Constellation
Of course, another busy week in year 6! In Maths, children have finished their unit of learning on fractions. We started the week problem solving and working through mixed questions, having to apply all our new learning on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions. There has been so much new learning and children have been resilient and adaptable, shifting between methods to answer questions. While we may have finished our fraction learning in the White Rose sequence, we are going to continue into our next unit of metric measures and revisit fractions after the break. In English, children have been working on the grammar skills of varied conjunctions and active and passive voice, which will feature in their balanced argument that discusses the question of who was most to blame for the loss of life on Titanic. In RE, children continued their inquiry into the Kingdom of God, this week, using songs to infer ideas about the Kingdom and the King. The children also spent time preparing for our Christmas service at church next week. They have created some thoughtful reflections on our school values of compassion and thankfulness. In Art, children have worked with both dry and wet media to create tonal scales. Children understand how increasing the pressure with pencil, and less water with water colours, creates a darker tone. Yet again, a busy but brilliant week in both Constellation and Nebular, well done to all!
Star of the week
Nebular: Theo Hutchinson
Constellation: Oliver Manning