Weekly Newsletter
Friday 23rd June 2023
This week in school
SAVE THE DATE Summer Fair Our Summer Fair will be on Thursday 6 July, running straight after school from 3:30-5:30pm. We are planning for lots of stalls and activities, with each class taking charge of a stall, as well as visiting stalls, refreshments, bouncy castle/inflatable and the ice cream van.
Ear piercing If you are thinking of letting your child have their ears pierced, please make sure this happens at the start of the summer holiday so they have time to heal before coming back to school. Children cannot wear earrings or have tape/plasters over them for PE and sport so please also make sure they are removed on PE days, or that your child can take them in and out themselves.
Sports Day next week At both sports days we will have the ice cream van on site again. Visitors (parents and other family members) can go along at any time during the sports; for the children in school we are asking that you send in £1.50 in a named envelope on the day so that they can go along with their class for an ice cream or a lolly at then end of the events.
Children's health Reminder that we have had a small number of confirmed and/or suspected cases of scarlet fever in school. If your child is unwell, please make sure you get medical advice if they show any of the scarlet fever symptoms https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/scarlet-fever/
Parking around school The Parish Council have had some complaints about parking around the area, and are liaising with the police around them carrying out some spot checks. The main issues are around parking on the yellow zip-zag markings and some drivers making 3-point turns on Brayton Lane. Both of these cause a hazard to pedestrians and other road users.
Updated RSE Policy You should have recieved the school's updated RSE policy, which was approved by the governors at their last meeting. If you would like to give any feedback, please use our Google form https://forms.gle/kTuLhnzBTLVp3uH1A
OMG Healthy Start Scheme for families This is a scheme to support families who are expecting a baby or have a child aged under 4. It includes financial support to help with buying healthy foods and milk. You can find out more at https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/what-youll-get-and-how-to-shop/
Term dates 2023-24 The term dates for the next school year are now on the school website at https://brayton-cofe-primary-school.secure-primarysite.net/term-dates/
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
Whole school attendance is still hovering below 95%, around a combination of holidays being taken and some illness in the younger years of school. The different date for Brayton Academy's half term break has also given some issues, as families have taken holidays in line with the week off for older siblings.
The DfE's attendance target for schools is 96%, and as a school we need to be working towards this. With your help there have been massive improvements in attendance over this year and this is now better across school than it has been in a very long time!
As we get into the summer term there has also been an increase in requests for leave due to holidays: we will be putting a much higher number of these forward for Fixed Penalty Notices in May and June than any months so far. 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.
DIARY DATES
Tuesday 27 June - Reception 2023 Information Evening for parents/carers 5pm-6pm
Wednesday 28 June - Sports Day (EYFS & KS1 am, KS2 pm)
Thursday 6 July - School Summer Fair 3:30-5:30pm
Tuesday 25 July - School closes for summer holiday
Happy Birthdays!
Many many many many happy returns next week to.....
Imogen Herring
Edward Horgan
Isabel Harris
Kobi Irving
Sofia Kitson
Elliott Tweddle
This week in classrooms
Nursery - Stars
This week we have journeyed under the sea. We have enjoyed the story of ‘The Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister and ‘Sharing a Shell’ by Julia Donaldson. We have created an underwater scene in the water tray, played in the sand, added scales to the fish by printing with celery and made our very own collage rainbow fish. We have used the magnetic fishing game to improve our number recognition and have done lots of mark making in the sand.
In phonics we have continued to focus on initial sounds. This week we have been sorting objects according to their initial sound. In maths we have looked at positional language such as in, on, under and above.The children have enjoyed discussing where Spot the dog is on each page of ‘Where’s Spot?’ and have enjoyed following instructions to place Spot in various positions.
Star of the Week: Arthur Hazell
Reception - Moon and Mercury
This week in Reception we have been using the text ‘The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch’ as our stimulus. The children have really enjoyed thinking about lighthouses and learning about their use. Everyone found the story so enjoyable, especially as the seagulls stole Mr Grinling’s sandwiches! This inspired us to think about our own favourite sandwiches, with chocolate spread or cheese being contenders. Outdoors, we decided to trick the seagulls, by making disgusting sandwiches. We used sticks, mud, stones and leaves to create some truly revolting concoctions!
In phonics we have introduced more phase 5 alternative graphemes - wh, ph, ew, oe. The children continue to amaze us with their phonic knowledge.
In maths we have been considering how to make new shapes from triangles and also from squares. We had to rotate the shapes and place them together. We discovered a parallelogram - what a great name!
Of course, the highlight of our week was our trip to Beetle Bank farm. Every single moment of the day was enjoyable (even getting very soggy in the rain). A particular favourite was enjoying cuddles with the guinea pigs and rabbits, what a treat and such a wonderful way to instil a love of animals.
Stars:
Moon - Jaxon Booth
Mercury - Logan Chalmers
Year 1 - Galaxy and Venus
This week has been a very busy week in Year 1. We started the week off by completing our PIRA and PUMA tests for the first time. The children were absolutely amazing and blew us away with their sheer determination at completing these tests. Our text for this week has been ‘The Paper Bag Princess’ and we have looked at this across English and Guided Reading. In English, we have focussed on a story retell of our class text and the children have been fantastic at sequencing the key events within their writing. In Maths, we have finished our unit of Money and have just moved onto Time. The children have been absolutely amazing at applying themselves to this unit and have been brilliant at differentiating the different values of money. In Art, we have created our own sculptures, using recycling, based on the characters from our class text. It has been fantastic seeing all their creations come to life through the median of Art! In History, we have looked at typical jobs that were in castles. The children have used Drama to act their jobs out and have had to guess what their peers' jobs were. In PE, we have continued to practice our different sports day events, ready for the big day next week.
Wow, another amazing week, Year 1! Keep up the amazing work, we are all very proud of you.
Star of the week:
Venus- Jordan Smallman
Galaxy- Lucas Armitage
Year 2 - Earth and Mars
This week, our English work has been based around the film animation, ‘Something Fishy’. We wrote a narrative retelling the story and we also researched creatures that live in the sea and wrote some fantastic non-chronological reports. Our class book ‘Flat Stanley’ has continued to make us chuckle as this week Stanley was turned into a kite. We have been practising our inference skills thinking hard about the characters in the book. In Science we have been thinking scientifically and we returned to our experiments investigating the importance of hygiene. It was really exciting to see the mould that had grown on the bread and to see the difference between the slices where we had washed our hands and those where we had not. In RE, we learnt about how different religions believe caring for others is part of their faith. We put our care for others into practice by making cards for residents of Selby hospital. The cards were beautiful and we know they will be very much appreciated. Our maths this week was all about position and direction and we continued using these skills in computing where we are learning about coding. We created our own compositions in music using the piece ‘Connect It’ by Anna Meredith as our inspiration. Our geography involved us locating different seaside towns around the UK and in art we continued studying the work of William Morris.
Another very busy week, Year 2! Well done everyone!
Stars of the week
Earth: Eleanor Watson
Mars: Emilie Knight
Year 3 - Jupiter and Saturn
This week in English we have continued with our independent writing gradually building up our plots to create our own versions of the ‘Flood’. In maths we have looked at horizontal and vertical lines as well as parallel and perpendicular. On Tuesday in Science we carried out an investigation using mirrors to explore how light is reflected from a surface. For guided reading this week we have used an extract from the book ‘Earth shattering events’ written by Robin Jacobs. The children have loved reading the text and finding out all about Earthquakes. Finally in Design Technology on Friday the children began to embroider their Binca bookmarks.
Star of the Week:
Saturn : Natasha Varey
Jupiter: Bettie Hanson
Year 4 - Neptune and Meteor
This week, all of Year 4s hard work had been put to the test when they completed their final PUMA and PIRA tests of the year. In English, the children completed their poems and have now moved onto looking at a factual tour script inspired by ‘Once upon a raindrop, the story of water’. This theme in English closely links with our focus in science, ‘The water cycle’. In science, we set up a practical test to explore how the water cycle works which the children will be able to observe overtime. After writing poems in English, we have further explored poems in guided reading. This week we have read 4 different poems and have looked at how poets use different structures to set out their poems. The children explored how the use of metaphors and language may draw the reader in and what effect the poet's choice of words might have on the reader. In PE, we have continued practising different sports day events in preparation for next week!
Another great week Year 4! Keep up the hard work, only a few weeks left!
Stars of the week:
Meteor: Sam Short
Neptune: Megan Jaise
Year 5 - Asteroid and Pluto
We have had a busy week! We started off the week going to Selby High for a taster experience. The children were split into three groups and had four lessons that day. The lessons could have been Spanish, History, PE, Art, Computer Science or English. The children thoroughly enjoyed the day, and the high school contacted us to say they were impressed with the childrens’ behaviour and attitude to learning. They have also had their final Maths and Reading tests this week, which the children have been working very hard for. In English, we have planned and drafted another conversation between Scheherazade and the Sultan. However, this time they have fallen in love with each other and the story ends with them being “the happiest couple ever”. Finally, in Science, we dissected a plant and separated it into male and female sexual reproduction parts. A few more weeks to go and during that time we have Sports Day and another trip, so let's keep going!
Stars
Asteroid - Willow Wood
Pluto- Elias Smart
Year 6 - Nebular and Constellation
Another packed and busy week in Year 6. This week has seen the conclusion to our maths topic of position and direction and we are all fully au fait with a range of problem solving with coordinates in all four quadrants. We’ve also got to grips with the global issue of deforestation in the rainforests of the world which has involved completing some research and preparing a balanced argument ready for our writing next week. Keeping with our environmental theme we have also been discussing littering in PSHCE and investigating the rates at which common litter such as crisp packets or plastic bottles actually takes to biodegrade. We have also continued with our guided reading and we now find our characters deciding to try eating grubs, we didn’t fancy that either, as they continue their quest for survival in the Amazon. We have concluded our week with a look at Carl Linnaeus who in the 1740’s formalised binomial nomenclature, the system for naming organisms. Looking at his classification system we discover just how rich the jungle is for many of the world’s species of birds, animals and insects; with many new ones still to be discovered.
Stars:
Constellation: Billy Wright
Nebular: Alex Brown