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Weekly Newsletter
Friday 21st October 2022
School Vision and Values
Working with the Governors and the Church School group, we felt that the Bible extract still works for us as a school: "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see the good things you do and praise our Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). We have updated our motto from 'Together we Shine as One' to 'Let our Light Shine' as we feel this is clearer and closer to what we are aiming for as a school.
We have also chosen to focus on 4 key values as a school instead of seven as some of the seven were not very easy for children to relate to. These are now Compassion, Courage, Forgiveness and Thankfulness.
We will be talking about these with the children over the next week, and exploring what the values mean to us through Collective Worship and in class.
This week in school
Book look & phonics meetings It was lovely to see so many people at our events this week: the whole-school book look on Monday, then the phonics sessions on Wednesday. We hope these gave insight/info into a small part of your child's learning in school. Mrs Burnell will be sending out the phonics presentation and we will also add it to the school website.
Bake sale Thursday 20 October Thank you to everyone who supported the bake sale in aid of Guide Dogs. Final total was £420, with the remaining cakes being donated to Rev Pete's Zone club.
Sports Continuing our unbeaten run, the Y5/6 girls won their first league football match with a resounding 5-0 score against Hemingbrough.
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.
Leave of absence during term time & attendance We are getting more and more requests for leave of absence during term time due to families having booked holidays. Please can we gently remind you that, unless the circumstances are genuinely exceptional, these will not be authorised. Lower prices are not an exceptional circumstance, and the guidance is very clear that Headteachers would not be expected to class any term time holiday as exceptional.
The government is currently consulting on approaches to improving school attendance with updated guidance and new legislation coming with effect from September 2023. This is likely to lead to much quicker involvement from the Local Authority where a child's attendance is showing their education to be at risk. Currently if a child's attendance is below 90% we send an initial warning letter, which can be followed by more formal processes if attendance does not improve.
Under this consultation, as many of you will have seen, 1 single session of unauthorised absence will generate a Fixed Penalty Notice, and this shows how seriously the Government is taking attendance as a key part of education recovery.
If your child's attendance is below 90% they will have missed at least 20 days over the year: this is like missing a whole month of school.
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
We are tracking attendance closely and if we see a pattern that we are worried about, such as children missing lots of Fridays, we will be contacting you directly to follow this up.
Please support your child's learning and friendships by keeping their attendance as high as possible. We understand the pressures on families but when school is open for 190 days out of 365 over the year, children need to make the most of that time, and it still leaves 175 other days for breaks, holidays and days out.
DIARY DATES
Thursday 20 October - School closes for half term
Friday 21 October - Training day
Monday 31 October - Deadline for secondary school applications for September 2023
Tuesday 22 November - Open session for September 2023 admissions 1:30-2:30pm
Thursday 24 November - Christmas shopping evening (5-7pm)
Thursday 1 December - Christmas wreath making workshop (6-8.30pm)
Tuesday 13 December - Christmas Services at St Wilf's
Sunday 15 January - Deadline for primary school applications for September 2023
From St Wilf's...
As autumn rapidly approaches it is time to think about the Autumn Fair. The date has been set for Saturday 12th November between 10am and 1pm. There will be time to set up late Friday afternoon or earlier in the morning.
The format will be very similar to pre Covid times. If you are able to help in anyway please let Pat Jarvis (churchwarden) or myself know.
We will need volunteers for all the usual stalls; tombola, raffle, toiletries, nearly new children's things, along with a cafe.
I know Craft group are getting organised and hope that Mother's Union will be able to provide another delicious cake stall.
If I have missed anything or you have any ideas for other stalls or activities please get in touch. Maybe some entertainment?
Best regards
Lis Middup
07770440214
Happy Birthdays!
Many many many many happy returns this week to.....
Matthew Richardson
Ella Larner
Matthew Ward
Ella Maundrill
Connie Lonsdale
Harry Hardy
Penny Fenton
Jude Cooper
This week in classrooms
Nursery - Stars
This week we have had great fun exploring colours and thinking about our favourites. We have used many different media to investigate, including coloured cellophane, paint and watercolours. Powder paint and coloured water were firm favourites. We have shared stories related to colours and we even created coloured toast for snack time which was great fun!
In phonics we have added noises to a story to make a NOISY story, looking at what noises we might hear on each page. We have talked about the noises water can make and guessed what is in each jar by listening to the sounds it makes. All of these activities help to make us good listeners.
In maths we have been playing matching games, trying to find things that are exactly the same and things that are different. We have also been singing lots of different number rhymes to help us with our counting.
Star of the Week -Bea Horgan
Reception - Moon and Mercury
In Reception we have been learning all about the festival of Diwali, the Festival of Light that is celebrated by people who are Sikh or Hindu. We have watched a video on CBeebies about how a little girl celebrates this special time with her family. We also looked at some pictures and found out different ways in which Diwali is celebrated. The children have made their own Diva lamps using salt dough, made Diwali cards and designed Rangoli patterns. They have also drawn Henna tattoos on their handprints. We listened to some traditional Diwali music and the children danced and played along with the instruments. To finish the week, the children came dressed in colourful clothes to celebrate Diwali and as a special treat we all tasted some traditional foods - yum!
In maths, our focus has been the numbers 1, 2 and 3. We have talked about how to make each number and how we can represent each amount. We have enjoyed going for number hunts around the classroom.
In phonics we introduced the new graphemes h, b, f, ff, l and ll. We have practised how to form the letters correctly using the mnemonics and we have been blending and segmenting words containing these sounds.
Our RE work has focussed on saying thank you to God. After watching and listening to a song about thanking God, we wrote our own prayers, to say thank you for our favourite animal.There were lots of different kinds of animals to choose from!
Star of the week:
Moon: Aurora Jamieson
Mercury: Jasmine Whitby
Year 1 - Galaxy and Venus
In Year 1 this week, we have explored the season of Autumn through literature, science and art. We have engaged with ‘Wide Awake Hedgehog’ by Rosie Wellesley in reading, whilst in writing we have studied and created our own shape poems. In art and design, we have studied the work of artist Andy Goldsworthy, and have created some beautiful pieces of autumn environmental art. In science, we have explored seasonal changes, and observed the weather over the week.
The children have worked incredibly hard this half term, they have settled well into Year 1 routines and structures, and we are so proud of their achievements. We hope you have a lovely break, and we look forward to seeing you back in school.
Stars of the week:
Venus- Phoebe Smith
Galaxy- Eryn Carlton
Year 2 - Earth and Mars
This week we have written some fantastic setting descriptions of the habitat under the sea, using some brilliant expanded noun phrases and exciting vocabulary. In maths we have been revising number bonds to ten and using these to create bonds to 100. In science we have been learning about food chains and how animals need other animals and plants in their habitat to survive. In RE we learnt about Muslims’ holy book, The Qu’ran and we discussed words which are special to us too.
The children have worked really hard this week as they have every week this half term. Well done everyone. Have a lovely half term.
Star of the week;
Earth: Finlay Smith
Mars: Alfie FisherYear 3 - Jupiter and Saturn
In Year 3 this week, we have continued our plot point building in English focusing on our use of adverbs, causal conjunctions and dialogue. In maths we have subtracting tens across a hundred and been making connections between addition and subtraction. In history we created timelines of the key events in World War two.
The highlight of the week was of course our trip to Eden Camp modern history museum on Wednesday. The trip really gave us the opportunity to bring history to life, allowing children and adults alike to experience the sights, sounds and smells of life on the Home Front and the Front Line which encompassed a whole host of subjects and themes, from art and design to religious education, geography and science all within the grounds of an original prisoner of war camp. The children had a fantastic day exploring all the different huts and they were a credit to themselves and the whole school community.
Stars of the Week:
Jupiter - Iris Miller
Saturn - Logan Gibbard
Year 4 - Neptune and Meteor
Can you believe we’re halfway through the first term! What a fabulous start to year. The children have really enjoyed the new opportunities that are in Year 4! The children have written their Viking Newspaper report on the deadly attack at Lindisfarne. The final piece looks fantastic and very professional. As Diwali has been approaching, we have made and painted some Diya Dishes. They look absolutely smashing and should all be able to fit a small tea light in, should you choose to light it. The children are working so hard on their latest units of maths addition and subtraction. They’ve really taken such care to make sure their work is set out properly so they can answer questions using column addition and subtraction.
Over half term we have also launched a competition for the children to take part in on TT Rockstars! Neptune and Meteor will have a friendly competition to see which class can score the most points. Children need to log in and play to earn points for their class. Good luck everyone!
We hope you all have a lovely half term and can’t wait to see you soon!
Neptune - Eryn Mansell
Meteor - Emilee Hawe
Year 5 - Asteroid and Pluto
Wow, wow, wow! We can’t believe it’s half term already and what a brilliant half term Year 5 has had! The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Victorians this half term and this area of learning has inspired some fantastic outcomes in all areas of the curriculum. In English, we have had some impressive non-chronological reports (with a range of writing skills!) informing readers of vile Victorian punishments and some beautiful William Morris inspired wallpaper prints in Art. It was great to welcome so many parents in on Monday for the Book Look and share the amazing learning everyone has done this half term. In Maths, we have wrapped up our addition and subtraction unit of learning after a final week of consolidation on inverse operations, missing numbers and two-step problems. While many children are confident with the written methods it would be worthwhile continuing to practise the methods for these operations.
Everyone has worked so hard this half term, so enjoy a well deserved half term break. We are excited to return and see what amazing learning happens in Autumn 2! Happy holidays, all.
Asteroid- Carmen Mahon
Pluto- Alex Auker
Year 6 - Nebular and Constellation
This week has been a different one for the children of year 6 - it has been their first assessment point with tests in each of the subjects being conducted. Every child gave their all and did the very best they could. Well done everyone. In English we continued with our newspaper article, drafting the beginnings of what will be quite superb pieces of writing. In maths we have used our multiplication knowledge to investigate and solve problems. These tricky investigations require deep thinking and perseverance - something which we are pleased to say is growing in leaps and bounds. In guided reading, our journey on Titanic is beginning to reach those Dangerous Waters, with all our main characters having interacted with each other in one way or another - this will no doubt lead to some surprising consequences. Friday culminated in our special guest arriving in school to be grilled about science and religion, and could they work in harmony. We hope Rev Pete enjoyed his afternoon as much as the children did, and we thank him very much for fitting us into his busy schedule.
Enjoy your week off everyone. We only ask that you are ready to carry on where we left off on your return! : )
Stars:
Nebular: Harrison Eames
Constellation: Charlie Wilcock