Ripon Cathedral School Update

Week ending Friday 28th February 2025

Year 6 Campaign Against Discrimination

Year 6 led a powerful and thought-provoking worship on Wednesday focusing on prejudice and discrimination. As part of their courageous advocacy work, the class have been exploring attitudes to race, gender and disability throughout history and in the present day, and how we can challenge those attitudes. Year 6 told part of the story of The Sheep-Pig, featured in the film 'Babe', which starts with the line "This is a tale about an unprejudiced heart". In the story, there is lots of prejudice between the sheepdogs, sheep and Babe. The pig does not discriminate against the sheep, and by treating them well, successfully does the job of the sheepdog. Babe taught the other animals to tolerate and respect everybody's individuality to create a peaceful world. The class had previously looked at how inclusive our school was, and they shared in the worship that they had found a good range of diverse books in classrooms and in the library, and that there was no gender discrimination in the job roles that Early Years had been learning about earlier in the year. They also spoke about famous people who were advocates against discrimination, such as Malala Yousafzai and Rosa Parks. The Year 6 children led the school in singing 'Power in Me' and 'One Love', which helped to reinforce the strong message that they had presented. All of the children spoke, sang and acted with confidence, and were great role models for the rest of the school - well done to them all.

World Book Day

We are excited to inform you that we will be celebrating World Book Day on Thursday, 6th March. This is a wonderful opportunity to encourage a love of reading and appreciation for books.

To make the day special, we are inviting all children to dress up as their favourite book character and bring along their favourite book to share with their classmates. We can’t wait to see all the creative costumes and hear about the books that inspire them! Please note that costumes do not need to be expensive – a simple homemade outfit is perfect. For example, children could dress up as Harry Potter with a school uniform and glasses, Matilda with a dress and a book, or The Cat in the Hat with black clothing and a paper hat. You can find more simple costume ideas here: https://www.theschoolrun.com/cheap-and-easy-ideas-last-minute-world-book-day-costumes

As part of our celebrations, the older classes will be sharing stories with the younger classes, creating a wonderful opportunity for children to engage with books in a fun and interactive way.

Additionally, Year 2 will be leading a special World Book Day worship, which we are sure will be a lovely highlight of the day.

We look forward to a fantastic celebration of books and reading. Thank you for your support in helping make this day a memorable one for the children.

Parents Evening

Parent teacher consultations are taking place on Tuesday 11th and Thursday 13th March for all classes including Nursery. You will be able to book your meeting using our online system on this link riponcathedral.schoolcloud.co.uk

Booking for parent teacher appointments will be open from 5pm today (Friday 28th February). You should have received an invitation link by text/app message. However, please note that you should also be able to log on using the link above. A guide has been sent out along with the link to help you through the process.

Year 3: Tuesday appointments are with Mrs Spencer or Mrs McIlmurray - please book with one teacher only. There are a limited number of appointments on Thursday with Mrs McIlmurray.

Year 5: Tuesday appointments are with Mrs Beckett and Thursday appointments are with Mrs Babington.

We hope that the booking process is relatively straightforward but do get in touch with the school office if you experience any difficulties.

Uniform

We are proud of our distinctive, smart school uniform and love to see the children wearing it with pride! We reminded the children this morning in worship about how to make sure their uniform is looking its best by wearing:

A school tie (these are only optional in Reception)
White shirts, not polo shirts or T-shirts
Smart, black school shoes, not trainers
Green school jumpers/cardigans, not hoodies or sweatshirts

You can see this modelled below by a group of super smart Year 4 children!

On PE days, please remember that only green jumpers or hoodies should be worn (with or without the school logo) and grey jogging bottoms or black shorts.

We do have some items of second-hand uniform so please speak to the school office in confidence if you would like to make use of these.

Next Week's events

Year 5 and 6 will be visiting Bethel Church to take part in a workshop called 'The Amazing Journey' on Monday. They will walk to the church after lunch and will return before the end of the school day.

Year 3 have been invited to attend a special Collective Worship at the Cathedral for Shrove Tuesday alongside pupils from other schools in Ripon. Straight after this worship, they will then take part in the famous pancake races on Kirkgate! Parents are welcome to come along to watch the races, which start at 11am.

For both events, children should wear full smart uniform and bring a coat in case of cold or wet weather.

As mentioned above, Year 2 will be leading worship on Thursday at 9am for World Book Day. Parents and carers are welcome to attend.

Stars of the Week

Congratulations to this week's stars:

Nursery - Clementine for speaking with confidence to the whole class about her weekend adventures.

Reception - Layla B for always having a fantastic attitude to learning, being ready on the carpet and challenging herself during provision. This week she also worked really hard to use the blocks to practise doubling!

Year 1 - Fergus for showing excellent behaviour for learning during carpet sessions, engaging in discussions and being a great role model to others.

Year 2 - Cleo for her fantastic attitude to learning, particularly in Maths. Cleo always enjoys a challenge and has tackled the multiplication and division unit with a big smile on her face. She is even starting to apply these skills to problem-solving.

Year 3 - Zelda for a fantastic all round effort this week! Her attitude to her learning and presentation has been excellent.

Year 4 - Isabella for challenging herself during Maths work on multiplication and division.

Year 5 - Jacob for his excellent work on long multiplication. He has shown resilience and perseverance. Well done!

Year 6 - Elsie for listening to all advice and feedback in English.

Dates for Diaries

Monday 3rd March – Year 5 and 6 workshop at Bethel Church

Tuesday 4th March – Year 3 Pancake Races and Collective Worship at the Cathedral

Thursday 6th March – World Book Day and Year 2 Worship at 9am

Tuesday 11th and Thursday 13th March – Parents’ Evenings

Wednesday 12th March – 9am Year 1 Class Worship

Wed 12th March - Bag2School collection (any bag accepted, leave near bike rack by 9am)

w/b Monday 17th March – British Science Week

Tuesday 18th March – Year 3 trip to Murton Park

Thursday 20th March – St Cuthbert’s Day and Spiritual Council Worship at 9am

Thursday 27th March – 9am EYFS Worship for Mother’s Day

Friday 28th March – Tempest Class Photos

Monday 31st March – 9am EYFS and KS1 Superstars Worship

Thursday 3rd April – 2pm School Music Concert

*Please note - KS2 Superstars Worship will not now take place on Friday 4th April. Superstars certificates for KS2 will be presented at the end of the school music concert on Thursday 3rd April.*