Ripon Cathedral School Update

On Tuesday, Year 6 took a trip to local engineering firm Econ to see a very special gritter. Goldie the Golden Gritter was originally painted gold to celebrate 50 years of the company but has had a makeover this year to mark the 55th anniversary: it is now sporting a giant Christmas jumper and hat! Local charity Ripon Community Poppy Project spent 4,500 hours and over 1,200 balls of wool to create the jumper and Year 6 went to take a closer look. They were told about the process of knitting the jumper, as well as a little about the history of the engineering firm and the gritting process. Econ hosted a competition for the children to design next year’s Christmas jumper for Goldie. Evie and Ollie were chosen as the winners and took home a goodie bag of art supplies and edible treats. Thank you to Econ for inviting us to take part and huge congratulations to the Poppy Project for their hard work creating such an impressive sight. Goldie will now be touring the country visiting schools to teach about road safety.

Thank you to Andy Dobbs, a local professional photographer who sent us these pictures. He was also kind enough to mention how much of a credit to our school the children were. If you are interested in contacting Andy for personal or family portraits, please follow this link www.andrewdobbs.photo

Both Year 5 and Year 6 have been busy doing their DT projects this week. In Year 6, they have started and almost finished their fairground rides. They have had to design the structure, the circuit and the mechanisms to ensure their rides rotate, are suited their intended user (either Maggie, Baby Oliver or James) and are safe. They have worked safely and responsibly with each other and Mrs Shawcross cannot wait to see their finished products and evaluate how successful they are. We will look forward to seeing the finished products as well as Year 5's sewing next week.

On Wednesday, Year 4 had a ‘science of sound’ day where they learnt all about sound. Over the course of the morning, the children watched and were involved in lots of experiments. They learnt how sounds and echoes travel through vibrations and explored which materials sound can pass through.

The fun didn't stop there! They then listened to and played different musical instruments to explore how sounds were made and how the pitch and volume of the sounds change. They made predictions, tested their theories and identified patterns from their results including that longer objects make a lower pitched sound and shorter objects a higher pitched sound.

Using all this knowledge, children were then given the opportunity to make their own musical instruments. They made drums, flutes, windchimes, xylophones and many more. We can't wait to share these at the celebration worship next week. What a fantastic day exploring sound!

Year 3 are becoming courageous advocates for Ripon Library this year. They had their first class visit there this morning and were very excited to find out about all the library had to offer. After a brief introduction by the library manager, the pupils were able to browse the children’s library and choose a book to check out on their own library cards to take home. There was a great variety of books chosen, including Horrible Histories, facts about dinosaurs, fantasy adventures, animal stories, jokes and much more. Mrs McIlmurray was delighted to hear the members of the class saying that they can’t wait to get back to school and read their books, with some even asking to read them while they were having their lunch! Year 3 will be visiting the library regularly throughout the year and all now have a library card so they are able to visit with parents and carers too and borrow up to 30 books at a time.

Thank you to the volunteers from the Cathedral who have been running Cathedral Club for Year 3 and 4 pupils this half term. The children have really enjoyed the range of creative activities in the sessions. Rafi said that it was a “Really good club” and he loved making a bookmark, and Levi has enjoyed “making things like an advent wreath”. Glenda and Sophie said “It’s really fun and you can make lots of new friends!” The final session of Cathedral Club for this term will be this Thursday, with no session in the last week of term.

Congratulations to this week's stars who were celebrated in our worship time this morning.

Nursery - Dylan for speaking with confidence during show and tell.

Reception - Edie for working hard in phonics to remember her sounds and use them to read new words. Edie has also worked really hard to remember her tricky words. Well done for having such a positive attitude.

Year 1 - Mathew for making a brilliant start at Ripon Cathedral School. You have settled into your new routines and have put 100% effort into your learning. You are a brilliant role model!

Year 2 - Travis for always being a superstar! Travis has fantastic listening skills and also loves to contribute his ideas too. He's been doing super partner work this week and has been using these communication skills to solve reasoning questions.

Year 3 - Isla for doing a super job typing up her non-chronological report on the Stone Age and helping others too. She was a brilliant help in class, thank you Isla.

Year 4 - Esme for challenging herself to meet all rubric criteria for our writes and striving for beautifully presented work.

Year 5 - Max for his use of vocabulary and grammatical features in his chapter writing in English.

Year 6 - Olivia M for her continued dedication. She takes every opportunity to improve and always completes extra work.

Autumn Term Superstar Celebration Worships

All parents are welcome to attend these worship events in the school hall. All classes will share some of the exciting learning they have achieved this term as well as our termly superstars being announced.

Tuesday 10th December 9am - Reception and KS1

Thursday 12th December 9am - KS2

Christmas Dinner

Our school Christmas lunch is on Wednesday. If children have a Christmas jumper, they are welcome to wear one (over uniform or PE kit as appropriate, no party clothes). Please remember to logon to ParentPay to make payment if your child is in Nursery or KS2 and you do not usually make regular meal payments. Also remember that all children have been ordered a meal unless you have notified us that your child will be bringing a packed lunch.

Christmas Parties

All classes will have a Christmas party or watch a film on Friday 13th December. They can come to school in party clothes (please remember suitable footwear and coats). The children will have a chocolatey treat (or dietary requirement equivalent), some squash to drink and possibly one or two sweets. Please let us know if this is an issue. We feel that with fruit snacks, milk and the usual school lunch, it is better not to provide a party tea as well and hope you are in agreement!

Health and Safety

Please could parents and carers dropping off and collecting pupils refrain from allowing children to use the play equipment on the playground, including the Nursery outdoor area, the area outside Year 1 and the Outdoor Gym before and after school. This is for Health and Safety reasons and to help keep our school tidy. The staff and children work hard to put away all the outdoor toys at the end of playtimes so that school can be left tidy overnight. The Outdoor Gym is specialised equipment with its own safety rules and age limits so this must not be used without staff supervision. Many thanks for your help with this matter.

Pupil Premium Message from North Yorkshire

Redeem your vouchers for free holiday activities and food this Christmas

On Monday 25th November we issued vouchers to all families whose children/young people are eligible for free places on FEAST activities this Christmas. You should have received this via email or text, from a platform called Holiday Activities. Follow the link in this email/text to redeem your voucher and book your child’s place on some of the fantastic activities on offer in our area.

Don’t worry if there’s a waiting list - it doesn’t always mean that an activity is full. To ensure that a wide range of families get to take part in FEAST, providers to wait a number of days after vouchers are issued before accepting any bookings. Please request a place and you should receive a notification from Holiday Activities if your place is confirmed.

If you believe your child is eligible and you have not yet received your voucher, or you have lost it, please contact the school office.

To learn more about FEAST, and for information on activities, eligibility and how to manage your bookings, visit the website.

The Friends of the School are kindly running a disco next Friday, 13th December. £2 entry on the door. Please note that parents/carers must stay at the Infant Disco 5.30-6.30pm. The KS2 disco is 6.45-7.45pm. Children can stay on their own but must be collected. Please notify school if whoever is collecting does not have parental responsibility. Thank you.

Tuesday 10th December - 9am Reception and KS1 Superstars Worship (parents welcome)

Wednesday 11th December - School Christmas Dinner, Christmas Jumper Day

Thursday 12th December - 9am KS2 Superstars Worship (parents welcome)

Friday 13th December - Christmas Party Day (wear party clothes)

Friday 13th December - Friends of the School Christmas Disco (5.30-6.30pm EYFS/KS1; 6.45-7.45pm KS2)

Thursday 19th December- 1.30pm Nativity in the Cathedral (parents welcome)

Friday 20th December - Break up for Christmas 3.15pm (no Oscar's after school)

Monday 6th January - Training Day (Oscar's available to book)

Tuesday 7th January - Return to school

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