Weekly Newsletter

Headteacher - Mrs K Adams

Assistant Headteacher - Miss H Howard

Associate Assistant Headteacher - Miss L Whale

Dear Parents/Carers,

This week has felt like we are moving rapidly towards Easter. The days are starting to get longer and it is always uplifting to see the springtime flowers starting to bloom.

I was bowled over on Thursday with the singing from our choir club. As I walked by the classroom, it stopped me in my tracks. Choir are learning some beautiful songs. If your child would like to become a member of the choir, please contact the school office.

Jude in Year One spent time each morning before school last term doing laps around the playground to challenge himself to get his Blue Peter Award in sports. I am so pleased and proud to say that he has now achieved the award and has the badge to prove it! Well done Jude!

Today, we were privileged to have a visit in school from Mr Julian Appleyard, CEO of the Pontefract Academies Trust. Mr Appleyard spent some time in classrooms speaking with the children. He was extremely proud and impressed with the hard work that the children are doing in all classes, but especially in Year Six where they displayed high levels of maturity. He also spoke with two brothers, Dan and Sam Varley. Sam was able to articulate his learning in ICT where he was creating a 3D model of a boat and Dan was able to talk in depth about our school value of respect. I am so proud of both these boys and all of our pupils who welcomed Mr Appleyard displaying manners and kindness. Well done Larks Hill!

On Wednesday, we held a workshop for parents to support with children who struggle to sleep. The workshop was a great success and further workshops will be held in the future. Thank you to those who attended.

On Thursday, we held World Book Day in school. This year, we believe that the children’s costumes and the book related potatoes were the best we have seen. There were some truly magnificent creations – thank you for making huge effort with this. We had such an exciting day. The children spent most of the day reading poetry and completing poetry related activities. In the afternoon, we had an assembly where each class recited a performance poem for the rest of the school.

To add an element of fun and creativity to our World Book Day, we held a competition to decorate a potato in the theme of a favourite book or character. We had an abundance of potatoes in from all year groups across school. Well done to all who took part! Our Junior Leaders selected these very worthy winners and presented them with a book token to spend at WH Smith.

Today we launched our Easter Egg and EYFS Easter Bonnet Competitions. This is another exciting opportunity for our children to excel imaginatively. We look forward to seeing their creations in the last week of term.

The ECO Team is well underway promoting many initiatives around school such as turning lights out, limiting the use of paper towels and water. The Team promoted some of this awareness in our whole school assembly this morning.

Gabriel in Year 5 was tasked with creating a water awareness poster for pupils and families. I am sure that you will agree, he has done a great job to raise awareness of water use. Well done Gabriel!

Next week, is National Science week. The children will focus on many aspects of Science within this week but a large focus of the week will be about plastic. Communication regarding this has already been sent out to parents where we launched the initiative, "The big plastic count: its time form change." We are very much looking forward to a very exciting week with a very important message.

Following previous communication, I would like to remind you of the dates for our open- door afternoons where you will have the opportunity to see some of the learning your

children have been doing in class. You will also have the opportunity to look through the pupil books to see some of the work completed.

The sessions will be held in the school hall from 2.20PM - 3.00PM on the following dates:

• Monday 11th March - EYFS

• Tuesday 12th March - Year 1

• Wednesday 13th March - Year 2

• Thursday 14th March - Year 3

• Friday 15th March - Year 4

• Monday 18th March - Year 5

• Tuesday 19th March - Year 6

We look forward to seeing you there!

Next Friday sees the return of Comic Relief. We are asking where possible, that the pupils wear red/non-uniform along with their noses and donate £1 to the charity using the link provided. We are also holding a bun and cake sale titled, ‘Bake Something Funny for Money’. The bakes will be on sale on Friday.

Each week, my Head Teacher Awards are given to pupils who have given outstanding contributions towards our Larks Hill school values of: Independence, Collaboration, Resilience, Respect and for Super Learning.

Please see our worthy Award Winners for this week.

March is Women's History Month and to celebrate this we are asking children to create a video of themselves talking about a woman who inspires them. This may be someone historical or someone from their lives currently. We would love to hear about the impact this person has had on your child's life and the world.

Videos can be any length and need to be sent to admin@larkshill.patrust.org.uk by the Tuesday 18th March 2024. We will then have an assembly showcasing our achievements.

Overall 97.7%

Reception 100%

Year 1 96.4%

Year 2 95.8%

Year 3 96.9%

Year 4 99.4%

Year 5 97.5%

Year 6 97.7%

Thank you so much for your continued support. As you can see, there is much going on in our school and we could not do this without your help of which is very much appreciated. Please join us for the open doors where you will get the opportunity to see some of the great things we are doing for yourselves.

I hope that you have a lovely weekend with your families,

Yours Sincerely,

Mrs Adams