Although Covid cases in school have risen slightly, we haven't been able to see any patterns or clusters, which means that at the moment we do not need to go back to any restrictions. We do watch the situation closely, and report daily to the STAR MAT team too. Fingers crossed it stays like this!

Our catering providers have been badly hit by staff absence and supply issues since the start of term and we can only apologise on their behalf for changes to the menus. We are working hard with them to make sure that they are providing a hot meal, especially at this time of year.

Finally, in our Superstar Worship this week I have told the children that if they are given an award, trophy or certificate from an out of school club (such as a football trophy, dancing medal, gymnastics badge etc) they can bring it in to show the whole school in Friday worship if they like. Since clubs and activities have started again it will be fantastic to celebrate what the children achieve out of school too.

Whole school attendance is lower this week at 91.6%, but higher than the national level (90.6%). 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 310 children have had 100% attendance this week: very well done!

Scarlett Scott

Martha-Mae Barker

Alex Beaumont

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 has been all about bears and pigs; we have explored Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs. Through sensory play, we have filled, poured, mixed, tasted and measured porridge oats, whilst through role play we have retold the traditional stories. We have loved singing songs linked to the stories too.

In Maths, we have made arrangements with shapes, particularly focussing on the square shape. In Phonics we have been looking at body percussion and remembering patterns of sound. We are becoming increasingly interested in mark making; with the children having a go at writing their names- this is wonderful!

This week we have been reading the book ‘The Emperor's egg’ written by Martin Jenkins. The children have really enjoyed learning about how Emperor Penguins live and how they keep their babies safe in the harsh cold winters which occur in the South Pole. They have shown off their writing skills by writing some fascinating facts about the Emperor Penguins.

In Maths we have been learning the rhyme ‘Five Currant Buns In A Baker's Shop’ which has helped the children to understand one less than a given number as well as exploring zero and discovering even and uneven groups. The children have been also thinking about numbers using frames of 5 which can be a helpful way to learn basic number facts.

On Thursday we shared the story of ‘How Do You Feel?’ by Anthony Browne and the children shared their own experiences about how they were feeling and how they showed this. We shared a range of vocabulary to help the children understand how they are feeling at a given time and why.

Star of the week:

Moon – Jamison Morgan

Mercury - Ryder Varley

This week in Year 1, the children have really impressed us with their story writing; we have written about fantasy stories, using a range of story and descriptive language. We have studied ‘Robin’s Winter Song’ by Suzanne Barton, focusing on vocabulary, information retrieval, and inference. Whilst in maths we have been adding by making 10 and recapping subtraction. In Geography, we have introduced our topic BIG CITY, BRIGHT LIGHTS, and have investigated the United Kingdom, its four countries and capital cities and in Science we have explored signs of winter.

Galaxy- Maisie Webster

Venus- Jemma Richmond

This week in Year 2/3 we have been learning about what life was like before the Romans invaded. We have researched Celtic jewellery and had a tutorial on how to draw a Celtic knot. We have also imagined ourselves as people living in the Iron Age - ask your children about the different jobs they did and how they lived. This has culminated in the children writing job adverts, highlighting the reasons for applying in order to persuade potential candidates.

In maths we have been applying our knowledge of multiplication facts and using them to solve word problems. Please keep up with the times tables practice - it really does make a difference.

In French we are learning numbers to ten and have been trying to drip feed these across the week. We have been exploring different types of families in PSHCE and our RE continued to focus on the importance of prayer.

Jupiter - Agnes Heslop

Saturn - Logan Gibbard

Neptune - Ella Cooper

It’s been a very busy week getting into our new topic work in Year 4. Everyone has been working hard and been settled into our first full week of the new year. We have spent time investigating who the Anglo Saxons were and where they came from and discovering in the process that Britain is made up of many different people especially from around Europe. We have dived straight into our new book too and begun to read the first part of the story of Beowulf by predicting that there may be many battles ahead which will disturb the calm and comfortable village life and may even disrupt the building of the new mead-hall, only time will tell. We have also, as always, had a main focus on times tables and applied our knowledge to column multiplication in maths.

Stars

Earth - Finlay Donaldson

Mars - Charlie Corbally

This week in Year 5, we have shared our completed winter poetry, featuring an effective range of description and figurative language. We have appreciated each other’s efforts with engaging metaphors, personification and alliteration, painting vivid wintery images in words. In maths, we have been getting to grips with long multiplication, using both the grid and column method. Working methodically, we are becoming more confident with our calculations and deciding which method we find more efficient. We have enjoyed the humour in the first few chapters of our guided reading novel, Cosmic, and have begun some vibrant , space-themed art inspired by the artist, Peter Thorpe. When finished, our classrooms will feature dazzling displays of colour.

Stars of the week:

Asteroid- Ethan Lyons

Pluto - Jayden Colman

The first full week of the new year has seen lots of hard work completed by the children. In topic, we have delved into the history of Egyptian writing; what they used, what they wrote, and how we understood what was written. The children then created their own example of hieroglyphics. We also looked at the periods in history when the great civilisations were in existence. Who would have thought that so many would have existed at the same time, to shape the world we now live in. In maths, we have covered the area of triangles and composite shapes, and used our multiplication and division skills to investigate volume. In Guided Reading we have been working on our retrieval and inference skills to further unpick the story and characters of our class text - Secrets of a Sun King. Is the curse real?! We used the text to help us to write a setting description of Lil’s grandad’s antique shop. The detail included in the childrens’ writing was wonderful and really captured the atmosphere of the text. Well done everybody!

Stars:

Constellation: Preston Brook

Nebular: Amber Lloyd-Cave

If your child was born between 1 September 2017 and 31 August 2018, applications are open for primary school places in the Reception year for September 2022. Applications should be made online at https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/apply-place-primary-or-secondary-school and the deadline is 15 January 2022.

TBC

TBC

TBC

Millie Rowan from the green hive is still the child with the most hive points so far.