Class structure 2022-23 We have been working hard behind the scenes around planning for next school year and are very pleased to be able to share with you that from September we will be adding and extra class. This means that we will have 14 classes (instead of the current 13) alongside the school Nursery, and that there will be no mixed-age classes. As we are in the recruitment process for new staff, we will not be able to confirm class teachers until after half term.

We will also be looking at the mix of children across year groups & classes and making some changes to ensure that each class has an even spread of boys/girls and children working at different levels. We will make sure that all children are within groups where they can work to their best and have the social support they need too.

Y6 tests week Next week is the Y6 tests week across England and we wish our Y6 children the very best as they reach this milestone. It's been a long time since we last had the statutory tests (2019!) and Mr Close, Mrs Fash-Hill, Mrs Clark & Mrs Brown have been doing a fantastic job helping the children get ready.

Nursery places We will have some places available in Nursery for children aged 3+ from September. Please get in touch with the school office for further details.

Short survey Many thanks to all the parents who have completed the short Google survey about the parent consultations and book look session, and for the really positive feedback which we will share with staff.

So far there have been 2 main themes to the comments: about the length of the appointments, and about the book look happening again. Some people have commented that 10 minutes per appointment was too short, but this is the same length as a face to face appointment would be. If any families feel they would need extra time then we would always support making an additional appointment as a follow up; and for families where children have additional support they are accessing meetings to review IPMs and EHCPs.

If you ever have any concerns, please contact your child's class teacher either directly at the end of the day, or via the school office.

Regarding the book look session, it was great to hear that so many people appreciated it and would like it to happen regularly. As the staff we would agree: it was lovely for the children to be able to share their work in books and around the classroom, and to show off some of the things that wouldn't be covered in a meeting (like sick insects!) We will definitely plan in another session towards the end of this term and share the date(s).

The survey is still open at https://forms.gle/ft6Hr43MYHNSbrGG9.

Morning snacks If you are sending your child with a small snack for morning break, please make sure this is a piece of fruit (nothing in a packet) We have had some complaints from neighbours about rubbish being pushed into their gardens and we want to try and keep our grounds tidy!

Wraparound care We know that the situation over the very short notice closure of Phazers has caused difficulties for families and we are working on whether we can provide after school care through school from June. Please bear with us on this as it is not a straightforward process and is taking a lot of admin work. As soon as we can confirm anything we will let you know.

Nail varnish Nail varnish, gel nails, false nails etc should not be worn to school so please make sure these are removed if your child has had them on at the weekend. False or acrylic nails & tips are not safe for children when they are working and playing with others, and during PE & sport.

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.

Whole school attendance in the week after the Easter holiday was a strong 95.2%, just above the national figure. Please keep supporting us in improving school attendance by making sure your child is at school on time and ready to learn with everything they need, and that they miss as little school as possible.

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 322 children have had 100% attendance this week: a great start to this term!

Monday 9th May 2022: Y6 tests week

Thursday 26th May 2022: Jubilee Celebration Picnic

Thursday 26th May 2022: School closes for half term break (3:15pm)

Friday 27th May 2022: Training day (school closed to children)

Monday 6th June 2022: School opens

Monday 6th June & Friday 10th June 2022: Open evenings for Reception September 2022 (info to follow)

Saturday 25th June 2022: PTA Summer Fair (TBC)

Wednesday 13th & Thursday 14th July 2022: Whole school transition days

St Wilf’s Spring Fair is on its Way!

Hello folks!

We've had to wait a long time but at last we can hold our first BIG fundraising event at St Wilfrid's for over two years!

Our very first SPRING FAIR will be held on Saturday 14th May from 2.00pm to 4.00pm.

The St Wilfrid's Spring Fair will be held in the church, the Parish Hall and outside in the church grounds and rectory garden.

There will be lots of stalls and activities held inside and out including crafts, tombola, cakes, jewellery, hand made cards and refreshments, games and activities for children and much more.

We hope it is an amazing success and that you will all come along to support our Fair.

But first of all CAN YOU HELP by providing any of the following?

Prizes and bottles for the Tombola

Chocolate for a children's tombola

Raffle prize

Children's toys and games

Pieces of nearly new jewellery and toiletries

Baking for the cafe........(list in back of church coming soon)

After Easter we will leave boxes at the back of church for any non-perishable items you wish to donate or contact Lis Middup, Simeon Pearce-Storm, Ruth Breeze, Cathy Rodgers or Pat Jarvis

Please drop cakes off early on the Saturday morning of the fair. Church will be open from 9.30/10am on Saturday 14th May. If this is not possible please contact Cathy or Lis.

You can help in other ways too....

Help to run a stall.

Tell all your friends, bring your family.

Any new ideas for fundraising or interesting stalls? Let us know.

If you know of anyone who would like to set up a stall, please let us know. PLI needed. (For more information please contact Lis Middup)

If you'd like to offer your help or need more information please contact

Lis Middup

07770440214 lismiddup@aol.com

Pat Jarvis

01757708881 churchwarden@stwilfridsparish.com

Ava Norrie

Roma Tate

Charlie Corbally

Natasha Varey

Emilie Knight

These are Compassion, Thankfulness, Fellowship, Hope, Humility, Justice and Service. We don't just believe in these values, we live by them every day in school. This week's class work is positively brimming with examples of all our school values - well done everyone!

This week in Nursery, we have explored the theme of ‘Pirates and Treasure’. We have had pirate stories, small world pirates’ role play, made our own treasure chests, counted and weighed treasure, and made Jolly Roger flags. The children have been very excited by the arrival of a small boat in our outside area, which has helped us have some very exciting pirate adventures.

In Phonics, we have listened to sounds at the beginning of words. We have played Musical Corners, moving to the corner with the same initial sound as the object, and we have collected objects in our sound bag with the same initial sound.

In maths we have been subitising small numbers and beginning to recognise and select the correct numeral to represent 1-5.

Star of the Week: Elinor Watson

This week Mrs Clayton and Mr Osborne haven’t been able to keep up with the new jobs the children have started. From train drivers to taxi drivers, from pilots to bus drivers.

We shared the story My Big Book of Transport by Moira Butterfield and the children identified all the different types of transport and read words consistent with their phonic knowledge by sound-blending. We labelled parts of a car, plane and a bus with a continued focus on writing recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed.

Outside, we had a wide variety of cross-themed activities which developed knowledge and skills of building vehicles and exploring materials. The children had lots of fun creating bus stops and thinking about prices for different journeys.

In Maths we have looked at identifying missing numbers up to 20 as well as ordering numbers. We created large bingo boards with chalk outside and hid picture cards around the outdoor area. The children went on a number hunt to find the picture cards. They then crossed off the matching numeral if they had it on their grid.

Stars:

Moon - Thea Platts

Mercury - Isla Harris

We have had a very exciting time this week, exploring the continent of Africa through safari and discovery, film and literature. We travelled to Kilimanjaro and explored animal riddles, becoming riddlers, whilst becoming familiar with our whole school application, NumBots, in order to develop mental maths skills. Please ‘Guess my Animal!’ with your children’s amazing clues. In English, we have studied ‘You’re Called What!?’ by Kes Grey.

We have also studied African art work and techniques, and African mammals in science, whilst in R.E. we have continued to explore the creation story.

Stars of the week:

Galaxy - Ashleigh Bramhald

Venus - Fearne Colley

We have continued learning about the Stone Age through our class text ‘The Stone Age Boy’ and have compared the three Stone Age eras, palaeolithic, mesolithic and neolithic using a variety of paper and online sources. In English, the children have written diary entries in the first person as the Stone Age Boy. In Maths, we learnt/recapped the time to five minute intervals and revisited addition and subtraction methods. In Science, the children learnt how to measure forces using a Newton meter to help identify the surfaces that created the most and least amount of friction. In PE, the children played dodgeball, ran the Friday Mile with ease and then built their stamina even further by completing the Fitness Friday (circuit training) activities. Well done, Year 2/3!

Stars:

Saturn - Logan Gibbard

Jupiter - Melody Wildon

Neptune - Alfie Yesil

Wow! What a week for Year 4. We have had many light bulb moments this week, quite literally at times, as we have started our new science topic - electricity. We have particularly enjoyed building a simple circuit and watching the bulb light up or flash. We will develop this further by introducing switches and buzzers into the circuits in the coming weeks. We have also been delving deeper into our theme of glorious Greece and we all now fancy going on holiday there having spent time looking at how the holiday companies use persuasive writing in their adverts. Our Greek theme has continued by starting the story of Hercules, known in Greek as Heracles, one of the best known heroes of Greek and Roman mythology. In our maths we have continued problem solving with money calculations and have thoroughly enjoyed using TTRockstars.

Stars of the Week:

Mars - Freddie Simmonds

Earth - Alex Robinson

What another brilliant week Year 5 has had! In English, we have finished writing our biographies on the life of Sir David Attenborough. We have impressed our teachers by including a range of year 5 writing skills and over the week, we have looked back at our work to edit and proofread, meaning we have a really polished and fantastic final piece. We are hoping to send some off to the man himself! In Geography this week, we explored what is meant by physical and human geography. We’ve stayed pretty local this week, thinking about what features of geography Selby and Brayton have. Maybe when you are out and about this weekend, you could spot some of these features of geography? Next week, we will travel to North America and compare the geographical features of Mexico. We will use this learning to create some stunning landscape artwork using oil pastels. Stay posted for those! Our Mexican themed learning continued into DT, where we have planned out our taco recipe. We can’t wait to make and taste those next week! Why not help out an adult at home this weekend in the kitchen to get in some practice for next week?

Stars of the Week:

Pluto: Ava O’Brien

Asteroid: Arthur O’Driscoll

Year 6 have continued to throw their all into their learning this week. Maths revision has seen many different elements being covered: Algebra, line graphs, ratio, co-ordinates! The children again showed their skills in tackling whatever was thrown at them (not literally!). In English, we have again covered many areas of grammar revision as part of our English work. The teachers have been so impressed by the knowledge. Our new topic is to bring the Journey of an ancient Egyptian to an end in their narrative. What will the 42nd challenge of Maat be?

With all the disruption to their learning over the past 3 years, it has been wonderful to see how much the children in year 6 have grown. Throughout this year, each and every child has given their all, vying to be the Dwayne Johnson of their class (the hardest worker in the room!) and next week is just another opportunity to show off their skills, in addition to the multitudes we have already seen as unique and brilliant individuals

Stars of the Week:

Constellation: Preston Brook

Nebular: Charlie Adams

Best attendance this week: Red with a fantastic 96.73%!

Yellow Hive: well done!

Blue Hive: keep it up!

Millie Rowan from Constellation and Green Hive is the child with the most hive points so far this year.

Charlie Coltman from Mars and Blue Hive is the top Bee Points scorer this week.