Ripon Cathedral School Update

On Tuesday, the children in Year 3 signed up for 25 years' service in the Roman Army at Murton Park. They were provided with military uniform and learned all about life for auxiliary soldiers in the Roman Army. They made their own Roman oil lamps, wrote in the Roman script and in the afternoon, it was time for weapons training! The children were a credit to the school and thoroughly enjoyed their day, even getting a Roman coin in payment!

"We fought 1,000 Celts and defeated them (it was only actually 1 Celt but we scared her away because we shouted and worked as a team)." Amelia

"Our trip to Murton Park was extraordinary. I loved being a Roman soldier, we got to use weapons for training and it was really fun!" Natasza

"Being a Roman soldier was awesome, although it looked very hard and the toilets were disgusting in those times." Ella

"I loved being in the Roman Army, but I wouldn't have wanted to go to the hospital because they chop your arm off." Elliott

Yesterday, we celebrated St Cuthbert’s Day with a special worship led by the Spiritual Council. Katherine and Millie played the roles of St Cuthbert as a young man called to become a monk and then as an adult called to establish a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne. The narrators – Ivy-Rose, Thomas and Ella – told the story of Cuthbert’s life of service to others, including here in Ripon. Boaz, Felix and Primrose took on the roles of northern kings and the crow who guided Cuthbert across the sea to Lindisfarne. The scenes finished with the line, “May we follow the example of St. Cuthbert and live with love and faith in our hearts,” spoken by all eight actors. The children encouraged the rest of the school to share in that message and try to be a servant to others like St Cuthbert. Key Stage 2 then accompanied the Spiritual Council outside to our special St Cuthbert cross in the grounds to say some prayers. Beth from the Cathedral joined us to finish the service with a final prayer and blessing.

This week, we’re excited to celebrate the first group of children who have completed the Reading Monster challenges and earned their brag tags! They’ve shown amazing dedication to reading, exploring a variety of books with enthusiasm and commitment. Well done to all of them! We can’t wait to see even more children earning their Reading Monster awards in the coming weeks. Keep up the great work!

Year 1: Nienna and Lula

Year 2: Henry and Ivy

Year 3: Isla-Grey, Elliott, Sophia and Natasza

Year 4: Jacob, Phoebe, Tobias, Lottie and Hugo

Our thanks as usual to the wonderful 'Open the Book' team who really make Bible stories come to life when they visit us. This week they enacted the story which Jesus told to make people think about God's unconditional love and forgiveness. The father in the story welcomed back his younger son, who spent all his money and ended up eating the food for the pigs, with a huge feast. God loves us all in the same way as this father. Our great Year 3 actors helped tell the story, well done!

Congratulations to this week's stars:

Nursery - Isaac, for great contributions and ideas in group story times.

Reception - Jensen for working hard in the painting area and producing some beautiful Mother's Day inspired artwork.

Year 1 - Adith for showing amazing focus during our independent writing. He has shown lots of creative ideas and edited his writing for capital letters and full stops.

Year 2 - Phoebe for her fantastic effort and attitude to learning. Phoebe is so resilient and she's always giving 100% effort in everything she does. She's particularly impressed us all with infectious curiosity in history this week.

Year 3 - Elliot J for his enthusiasm and participation on our trip to Murton Park. He would have made an excellent Roman soldier!

Year 4 - Skye for working hard to increase quantity of work completed whilst maintaining a high standard.

Year 5 - Vinnie for a fantastic attitude towards his learning, particularly in maths. Vinnie keeps challenging himself and persevering when solving multiplication and division problems.

Year 6 - Pradyun for a fantastic attitude to all his learning and for listening to and seeking feedback in English.

Well done to our fabulous team at the KS2 swimming gala last Friday afternoon: Scarlett, Evelyn, Ollie, Olive, Thomas, Felix, Mercedes, Isabelle, Isabella, George, James, Hugo. All swam with determination and competitive spirit. We were pleased with our fifth place overall as schools from all over the local area were represented, and were delighted to present the children with their certificates at Celebration Worship this morning. The main thing was that everyone enjoyed themselves, with several saying, 'That was so much fun!' Huge thanks also to all the staff at Ripon's Leisure Centre for running such a great event, especially our 'buddy' Victoria!

All parents have been sent an email detailing our current governor vacancy. Please contact Mrs Rich if you need further information or have missed the email. Mrs Rich can also provide you with the nomination and self-declaration form if you are interested in filling the vacancy or you can find them by following this link to the school website https://riponcathedralschool.org.uk/Governors/

The governing board, with the head teacher, has overall responsibility for the running of the school. The three core functions for all boards are:

• to ensure that the school has a clear vision, ethos and strategic direction;
• to hold the head teacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils;
• to oversee the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.

You do not need any specific qualifications to be a governor. The most important thing is that you are interested in the success of the school and are prepared to play an active part in the work of the governing board. Parent governors are valued members of the team. An effective board will have a range of skills, and we would welcome nominations from parents with knowledge and experience of:

• Safeguarding;
• Early Years’ Education;
• Primary Curriculum.

Monday 24th March - Closing date for Parent Governor nominations

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.*

All children and young people across North Yorkshire can get involved in a range of holiday activities, with free places and a free meal for children and young people receiving benefits-related free school meals. The latter will be receiving an email with further information and vouchers for the Easter holidays next week.

All families are welcome to use the play schemes and clubs (space permitting). For a link to the website, please click on the image below.

Email: admin@riponcathedral.n-yorks.sch.uk
Website: www.riponcathedralschool.org.uk
Location: HG41LT, United Kingdom
Phone: 01765 602355
Facebook: facebook.com/riponcathschool