Weekly Newsletter
Friday 19th January 2024
This week in school
Wraparound bookings Please can we remind you that any changes to wraparound bookings must be made in writing via email or the booking form. This term we have also had a number of families where children have been attending but no new booking form has been sent in. Forms are sent out by school before the end of term for the following term, and the invoices for payment are generated through these so that people can secure their booking by paying in advance. Thank you.
PE sessions We seem to have a lot of children missing PE due to not having kit, or for reasons that are not clear. PE is part of the statutory National Curriculum and all children are required to take part by law. It also supports children's health (medically and emotionally) and their social development. Please make sure your child has their PE kit in school at all times:we do have spare kit available and will be using this where children seem to keep 'forgetting'!
If there is a medical reason why children should not take part, we will need written evidence of this (a Dojo message or email is fine) and, for long-term medical concerns, we will need evidence from a medical professional. We will be monitoring participation closely and contacting you directly where we are worried.
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/
The dates for 2024-25 will be confirmed by the end of this month as we are looking at the alignment of some training days in our next Headteacher meeting.
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information is on the NYCC website at https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/free-school-meals Some of this information may be out of date, especially around eligibility, so please get in touch if you are unsure.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 recovered again last week to get back up in line with the national level. Thankyou for your support in making sure your child attends regularly. We can keep building on this now as we gradually leave the winter bugs behind!
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
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 for all the birthdays this week...
Donnie J
Martha-Mae B
Alex B
This week in classrooms
Nursery - Stars
This week in Nursery has been all about pigs; we have read the story of The Three Little Pigs. Through sensory play, we have built a brick house for the third little pig with bricks and shaving foam. We have explored the materials the other pigs used to build their houses too. Through role play, we have retold the traditional stories we have looked at so far. We have loved singing songs linked to the stories too.
In Maths, we have made arrangements with shapes, particularly focussing on the circle shape. We have also looked at different ways of making number 1. In Phonics we have been looking at body percussion and remembering patterns of sound.
We have continued to sing a variety of different nursery rhymes adding a new one to our repertoire each week. This week’s nursery rhyme is ‘This Little Piggy’.
Star of the week: Ignacy S
Reception - Moon and Mercury
This week we have continued to learn about the Antarctic and shared the story ‘Blue Penguin by Petr Horacek’. We have also been writing information about penguins in sentences and we have painted penguin portraits. In Drawing Club, we watched a short animation of Pingu. Pingu's mother trusted him to look after the egg while she helped Father to hang up the laundry. At first, Pingu was happy to help, but he soon became bored and started dancing to music. Whilst he was dancing, the egg grew legs and started walking around the room. Pingu noticed this and tried to get a hold of the egg before his parents found out, trashing the igloo in the process. Surprisingly, both Reception classes also became very proud parents and welcomed an emperor penguin egg into our classrooms. Let’s hope we can nurture the egg a little better than Pingu! In phonics, we introduced the new sounds ar, ur, oo and or. We have continued to form the letters correctly using the mnemonics, sit them on the line and tried to remember those finger spaces. We have been blending and segmenting words containing these sounds and please check your child’s book bag for this week’s flashcards. In Maths, we have represented numbers 0 to 5 and shown this using a five frame. We then explored one more and one less through stories and number rhymes.
We will of course, let you know as soon as our beautiful new chicks arrive!
Star of the week:
Moon - Logan F
Mercury - Ivy-Grace
Year 1 - Galaxy and Venus
Another busy week in Year 1. Winter has certainly taken hold of the children’s imagination. Last week’s nature walk developed plenty of comparisons between what we saw in Autumn and Winter. This week we decided that we will track the weather for next week and compare our results. The children had lots of interesting predictions about what our results might be and how these compare to our Autumn weather investigation. In Maths, the children have moved onto greater numbers now looking beyond 20! We have been using manipulatives to help apply our previous number knowledge to count all the way to 50. In R.E, we spent time considering leaders that we meet in our lives, these role models of a good person, the children shared some lovely answers such as Jesus or their parents. This then tied into our exploration of Islam and the messages we can learn about the profit Muhammad and the cat.
Let's keep up the hard work Year 1!
Star of the week
Galaxy: Kyran S
Venus: Penny F
Year 2 - Earth and Mars
We have had a fantastic week! In English we have continued with our sentence stacking lessons, developing our effective and persuasive sentences to convince the felt pens to return to our classroom! We will be ready to write our persuasive apology letter to them next week. In Maths we have continued with our multiplication and started some division - understanding the importance of sharing equally! In Science we have been undertaking some research into different habitats and the animals that live in the Polar and Desert habitats on our planet. In Music we have enjoyed playing the tune from the Firebird Finale by Igor Stravinsky in an ensemble using xylophones. Geography saw us fly off to Australia to explore and compare their seasons. In art we have explored the work of Henry Moore a famous sculptor whose work we will see on our trip next half term. In PE we have enjoyed practising our Dance to ‘Thriller’ and developing our dance moves in character. Well done Year 2 - keep up your hard work next week!
Stars of the Week
Earth: Georgia L
Mars: Albie O
Year 3 - Jupiter and Saturn
You’ve shown enthusiasm and determination again this week Year 3s in yet another jam packed timetable of learning! In Maths this week, we have made connections between multiplication and division (inverse) and how learning related number facts supports mental maths and efficiency when calculating. We have also learnt different ways of multiplying and dividing two digit numbers by a one digit number, firstly partitioning the number into tens and ones, then multiplying or dividing the place value parts, and finally recombining the answers to find the total. In Writing, we have crafted sentences for the next four plots of ‘The True Story of the Three Little Pigs’. The children learnt when to use the determiners ‘a’ and ‘an’ to precede a noun, the purpose of a causal conjunction, and how superlatives (big, bigger, biggest) add clarity, imagery and entertainment for the reader. The children are really enjoying the quirkiness of this story and are seeing that an alternative version can be even more enjoyable than the traditional. In History, we sorted a bank of information cards into two categories - reasons ‘in favour’ and ‘against’ invading Britain. This helped the children to answer the key question ‘Why did Claudius invade Britain?’ Can your child give you two reasons why the Romans wanted to invade? In Science, the children encountered Newton metres for the first time and learnt how to use the metre to measure the force required to move an object across a range of smooth, rough and bumpy surfaces.
Well done to Saturn Class for planning and leading the whole school worship on Tuesday. Mrs Fell was incredibly proud to see her class lead such an important part of the school day with so much honour. :)
Keep up the good work Year 3s! :)
Star of the Week:
Jupiter: Sienna B
Saturn: Benjamin T
Year 4 - Neptune and Meteor
It has been another fantastic week for the children. We have been looking at division in Maths and have focussed on dividing by 10 and 100, which the children have met with ease, whilst going above and beyond with challenges. In English, we have continued with our sentence stacking lessons and have used lots of key writing skills which they have previously struggled with e.g. personification, metaphors, repetition. They have been fantastic at identifying what each of the skills are and applying these within their sentence stacking writing. In Science, the children have completed an experiment, looking at what material is the best at stopping sound. They have had to make their own hypothesis and have concluded which material is best, using the results of their experiment. PE has seen the children build on their dance which they started learning last week. They have now been put into groups to perform sections of the dance in canon and have been brilliant at remembering the different moves and sequencing them correctly in the dance.
We are really impressed with how well the children have settled back into the swing of things. Keep up the fantastic work Year 4!
Stars of the Week:
Meteor: Ella M
Neptune: Oscar O
Year 5 - Asteroid and Pluto
This week in Maths, the children have been recapping short division, and then moving onto more complex calculations, where there is a remainder at the end. We have noticed that some children have been practising their times tables at home, which is great because their fluency is improving and the speed that they are able to answer the questions is improving. In English, we have been writing sentences using different Year 5 objectives. The children have learnt these before, so this is recapping and trying to use the objectives in a different context. Some children have even started using more than one objective in a sentence, so let’s hope that continues as well. Next week, they will be writing up their biographies about Katherine Johnson, and we are excited to see how they will include the important information about her life. In PE, we have continued our dance and orienteering lessons. It has been great to see the children work well as a group and create their own ideas. Data Handling in Computing has been a new challenge for the Year 5s. They enjoyed creating Art in Excel last week, but this week, they have created data about one of the Tour de France routes. While this has been more challenging, the children worked hard to get it completed. Well done Year 5!
Star of the week
Asteroid: Ben I
Pluto: Valentina S
Year 6 - Nebular and Constellation
Without a doubt, this week has seen a huge shift in the mentality of the children with regards presentation and willingness to shine. Way to go year 6!
In English we have completed our ‘missing’ chapter of our Explorer text. Why an author would leave out such a tense and dramatic section of a text did make us think, but it certainly gave us the opportunity to show our writing skills.
In maths we have completed our ratio unit. Overall, the children have had so many successes with what can often be a stumbling block for the children. They have taken this new learning, and run with it. Another well done!
In Art, we have started our composition unit, with exploratory mixing of primary and secondary colours to identify those which contrast or complement.
In Geography, we have begun our look at the different forests of the world, their locations, the cities that fall close to them, and identified what makes them unique, compared with each other.
PE has seen us take to the dance floor, and the children have really shown their teamwork and communication skills in replicating a quite complicated routine.
The problem with all this hardwork and progress, is that your teachers become greedy, and just want more and more! 🙂
Star of the week
Nebular: George W
Constellation: Frankie P