Weekly Newsletter
Friday 15th December 2023
This week in school
Christmas services All the classes enjoyed sharing the Christmas story, along with songs and prayers, at our services on Tuesday. This year was especially meaningful as it was our last service led by Rev pete before he moves onto his new role. Pete has been a true friend to the school and the community for the past 14 years and he will be very much missed by everyone. Thanks Pete for everyting and don't forget us!
Christmas Dinner Huge thanks to the kitchen staff for the amazing Christmas dinner on Wednesday this week! A record-breaking number of children signed up to enjoy a traditional roast dinner, with crackers provided by the PTA for everyone.
Staffing update After Christmas we will be welcoming Sam Winn as the new member of our admin team. Sam will be working in the afternoons on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We will also see the return of Mr Matty Pooley, who will be doing his second teacher training placement in Y5 with Asteroid class. Finally, we will be saying goodbye to Miss Steph Shipley as she moves on from her school role.
We are currently advertising for a full time teaching assistant to work with us next term: if you know anyone who may be interested, please let them know. Full details are available through the link on the school website https://www.braytonprimary.com/vacancies/
Starting school in September 2024 Applications are now open. If your child is due to start school in September 2024 (if they will have their 5th birthday btween 1.9.2024 and 31.8.2025) then you need to apply for a primary school place for September 2024. Applications should be made online at https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/education-and-learning/school-admissions and the deadline is 15 January. You can still apply after this, but your application will be dealt with after all the others and you may not get your first choice school.
PLEASE CHECK: we know there are children who are in our nursery who have not applied yet!
Term dates 2023-24 The term dates for this school year are on the school website at https://brayton-cofe-primary-school.secure-primarysite.net/term-dates/
We have had to make a slight change to the training days in 2024: children are now expected back in school on Monday 8 January 2024 after the Christmas break, and there will be a training day on Friday 24 May 2024 instead of this.
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
Attendance was strong again up to the end of last week! The lowest attendance in the school is in Year 5 and we would ask families in that year group to be especially aware of the amount of absence your child has had, especially if you have had a holiday in term time. We will be contacting families directly to follow up concerns.
Please remember, we will always contact you if your child is unwell during the day, so please make sure they are here as much as possible. With your help we made massive improvements in attendance over last year and this is now better across school than it has been in a very long time!
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. Last year we put forward 38 requests for Fixed Penalty Notices to be issued, which the Local Authority have advised us that they have actioned.
DIARY DATES
w/c 18 December - Class parties (see Dojo for info from teachers)
Friday 22 December - School closes for Christmas
Monday 8 January - School opens
Friday 9 February - School closes for half term
Thursday 21 March - School closes for Easter
Friday 22 March - STAR MAT training day (school closed to children)
Monday 8 April - School opens
Monday 6 May - May Day Bank Holiday
Thursday 23 May - School closes for half term
Friday 24 May - Training day (school closed to children)
Monday 3 June - School opens
Friday 19 July - School closes for summer
Monday 22 July - Training day (school closed to children)
Happy Birthdays!
Many many many many happy returns over the next week to.....
Willow Bray
Luca Grafton
Amelia Mills
Priscilla-Valentina Knight
Jenson Riley
Willow Wood
Niamh Jones
This week in classrooms
Nursery - Stars
The children have been amazing this week as we have continued our Christmas theme; we have had a very busy week making lots of pretty things for you to enjoy. The children have enjoyed learning about the Christmas story through the story ‘Little Owl and the Star’. They have acted it out with the small world Nativity set and even tried on some of the costumes for the Nativity characters themselves. They have also been decorating Christmas trees and have enjoyed learning lots of new Christmas songs. On Wednesday, we enjoyed our Christmas lunch wearing our Christmas jumpers.
In phonics we have been using the musical instruments to make up some music to go with the Christmas story and we have also made our own pieces of music to perform to the other children. In maths we have been revising patterns with a Christmas theme. We have also looked at the number rhymes ‘Five Little Fir Trees’ and ‘5 Little Elves’.
Thank you to all those who could make our Christmas Singalong. The children enjoyed performing their Christmas songs.
Star of the week: Finley Yeowart
Reception - Moon and Mercury
This week we went on our first expedition out of school! The walk to church was really interesting, with lots of children spotting familiar buildings. Once we arrived at church, the children were all really excited to see lots of parents. They listened very carefully to Rev. Pete and joined in with the songs. It was a great way to say goodbye to Rev. Pete and to wish him well in his new role.
For drawing club, we have been reading ‘The Gingerbread Man’. The children have really enjoyed chanting the repeated refrains and they have created some wonderful drawings. They have also thought of some excellent ways for the gingerbread man to get across the river!
In Jigsaw, our focus was ‘standing up for yourself’. We talked about how to tell someone if we don’t like what they are doing. We also talked about kind things that we can say or do for our friends.
Star of the week
Moon: Jude Robson
Mercury: Lois Gatenby
Year 1 - Galaxy and Venus
The start of the week certainly was exciting. Year one were so excited to walk to church on Tuesday and really made us proud at how well they listened and joined in with our Christmas service.
Continuing with our exploration of significant individuals in history, this week the children learned about Mae Jemison the first black female astronaut. This has led onto some wonderful discussions that things like skin colour or gender don't stop people from being able to do what they want, so just keep trying!
In maths, we have continued applying our knowledge of numbers up to twenty. This week the children have ordered and compared greater numbers than before. As the week has gone on we've even began looking out how pur number knowledge to 10 can help us solve tricker problems such as 14+3.
During our Thursday outdoor P.E lesson the children were able to really show off all of their tag rugby skills that they have been building over the term by having our own mini game. Here the children were able to demonstrate their passing, running, ball holding and tag snatching skills. Well done all!
Star of the week
Galaxy: Aurora Jamieson
Venus: Rosie Durnin
Year 2 - Earth and Mars
After starting off the week with a visit to Church for our Christmas Service, Year 2 made us proud in sharing their work on the part of the Christmas Story where the wise men bring Jesus gifts. We continued to discuss and ask questions about the Christmas story in RE and the lessons we might learn from it. The children described how it inspired them to be kind and generous. In Music the children have been understanding and keeping the pulse to a very famous Christmas song - Jingle Bells! In English we have continued with our sentence stacking lessons to write effective sentences in preparation for our story that we’re going to write next week about a Christmas star! In maths we have continued to learn about money - comparing amounts and making the same amounts using different notes and coins. In Geography we have used an atlas to locate a range of different locations. The children used the index carefully to help them find the country, place or feature they were looking for. In PE the children have been developing their skills in tag rugby and learning and developing the quality of 3 different leaps – Cat, Split and Stag in gymnastics. In Design Technology we have been finishing our Christmas Cards with a moving part - the children cannot wait to share these with you! It’s been another busy week all round in Year 2 - well done and keep up the good work!
Stars of the Week
Earth: Jaxson Acaster
Mars: Oliver Beaumont
Year 3 - Jupiter and Saturn
In English this week, the children really enjoyed planning their own version of the poem ‘The Boy Who Cannot See’, creating similes and metaphors that provide colour imagery through the senses of taste, touch, hearing and smell. We are really looking forward to seeing the final versions next week. In maths the children have continued with our Multiplication and Division unit this week focusing on multiplying and dividing by four.
The children have carried on with their Christmas themed printmaking project in Art this week recreating the children’s wintery themed landscapes they created last week by copying their designs free hand or tracing over the top of the paper onto a styrofoam sheet. The next challenge was to use a pencil or end of a paint brush to create the deep groves/indentations/impressions in the styrofoam.
Finally, in Science the children carried out their investigations which they planned out last week to find out which soil type is the most permeable. This led to them drawing their own conclusions and looking back at their own initial predictions they made last week.
Star of the Week
Jupiter: Finley Hoyle
Saturn: Alex Yesil
Year 4 - Neptune and Meteor
On Tuesday we enjoyed our Christmas service at church. It was great to see so many people there and to all be together for our final service with Rev. Pete. In English, the children have planned and written their creative narrative stories based on the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse. The children have written around the theme of love, kindness, courage and hope and have created their own characters for their stories. In Maths this week, we came to the end of our unit, Multiplication and division. We started the week off by working on dividing a number by 1 and itself before moving on to multiplying 3 numbers together. In Science, the children learnt about how energy is transferred between different organisms in a food chain before creating their own food chains using previous learning to help them. We have been learning about land use in Geography this week, particularly how land is used in York. The children used maps to identify different areas of York and how the land is being used. In Gymnastics, children worked in pairs to put together a routine using all the skills they have learnt over the past few weeks. Pairs then performed their routines to the class, showing off their shapes, balances and jumps before receiving feedback from the class.
1 more week to go - keep up the good work Year 4!
Stars of the Week:
Meteor: Lewis Nicholson
Neptune: Oscar Betteridge
Year 5 - Asteroid and Pluto
After their last piece of assessed writing, which we were both very pleased with, the children have been focussing on adding more Year 5 vocabulary words in their writing. We started by learning about Elizabeth Fry, and how she helped improve the prison system in England. We gave the children 18 different Year 5/6 spelling words to try and put into sentences that they could potentially use in their letters next week. The children have definitely improved their sentence structures and have started to uplevel their work more independently nowadays. In Maths, we are moving back to multiplication and division and learning the method to multiply large numbers by two-digits. The children, who know their times tables, are finding it a lot easier, as they only have to focus more on the method. In PE, we had two great sessions in gymnastics and tag rugby. In gymnastics, the children have been working in small groups to create a sequence containing jumps, shapes, movement and balances. In tag rugby, the children have been using the skills they have learnt over the past few weeks to play a mini game against each other. While this has been difficult, the children have slowly started to realise that it is better to run forward and get tagged, than to run backwards. Finally in DT, the children created their group’s Afternoon Tea. The main part of the lesson was for the children to use a knife and peeler safely. However, we are sure the children enjoyed eating them more! 5 more days to go, and still plenty of work to do!
Star of the week
Asteroid: Ellise Catton
Pluto: Frankie Clowrey
Year 6 - Nebular and Constellation
Really, the penultimate week before the end of term has finished already? It seems like we get our head down to work on a Monday, we lift it up, and it is Friday already!
This week in year 6, we have been working on measures in our maths lessons - converting, comparing and have begun to calculate using length, capacity and mass. English has had the sole purpose of identifying who was to blame for the loss of life on Titanic, and writing a report to share the evidence that pinpoints the main culprit. We have finished our novel in guided reading, and much to the chagrin of the children, there was no alchemy, there was no gold, just the simple but immeasurable understanding that ‘knowledge is power’. In our local study of Selby, we have used 6-figure grid references to identify geographical features in the 1900s and today. As the children found out, there are many significant differences, but shadows of the past remain to this day, throughout the town. We also used sources to prove or disprove facts that suggest Selby was a hub for shipbuilding.
The children did themselves immensely proud in the Christmas church service, delivering heartfelt sentiment when retelling their sections of the Christmas story. And finally, we looked at a well-known artists work to continue their understanding of tonal sketching in art.
Wow, what a week! Only one more everyone; keep it going!
Star of the week
Nebular: Alex Robinson
Constellation: Jan Szafranski