Weekly Newsletter
Friday 30th September 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
Harvest collection Many thanks to everyone who has sent in donations for the Selby Foodbank through our Harvest collections, they will be very much appreciated. We hope those of who joined us in church enjoyed some singing and the children's thoughts around Harvest time.
Book look session and parents' evenings this term We are having a book look/open classroom session this half term on Monday 17th October from 2:45pm. Come along and see your child's teacher, classroom and some of their work from the new school year!
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.
Covid reminder As part of the Government's 'Living with Covid' guidance from April, there is no requirement for testing children or adults, and no rules around self-isolation. We are coming into the season of coughs and colds which means that if your child has cold symptoms, if they are well enough to attend school they can still come, but if they are very unwell they may need to stay at home.
DFE guidance states that 'it is not recommended that children and young people are tested for COVID-19 unless directed to by a health professional...Children and young people who usually go to school, college or childcare and who live with someone who has a positive COVID-19 test result should continue to attend as normal.'
Website Our new school website has been built and is live at www.braytonprimary.com We have got the key things in there for now and will be carrying on updating it over this half term. We hope you like the fresh look we have chosen, and have tried to make it easier to navigate than the old site! Most of the day to day information is on the 'Families' page. As always, if you need any help please contact the school office.
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
Tuesday 4 October - NSPCC Online Safety workshop, Sherburn High School 6-7pm
Monday 10 October - NSPCC Online Safety workshop, Monk Fryston Primary School, 6-7pm
Tuesday 11 October - Open session for September 2023 admissions 1:30-2:30pm
Monday 17 October - Book look/open classrooms from 2:45pm
Monday 17 October - NSPCC Online Safety workshop, Tadcaster Grammar School, 6-7pm
Thursday 20 October - School closes for half term
Friday 21 October - Training day
Monday 31 October - Deadline for secondary school applications
Tuesday 22 November - Open session for September 2023 admissions 1:30-2:30pm
Thursday 1 December - Christmas wreath making workshop (evening)
Tuesday 13 December - Christmas Services at St Wilf's
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.....
Max Willis
Kian Bird
Isla Lodge
Aurora Jamieson
Noah Whittaker-Doherty
Joseph Possnett
Maya Prosser
Abigail Lawlor
This week in classrooms
Nursery - Stars
The children have explored the theme of Harvest this week. We have looked at the stories Rosie’s Walk and Oliver’s Vegetables. We have enjoyed singing the song Big Red Combine Harvester and joining in with all the actions ready for our Harvest Festival with Rev Pete on Monday. In the provision we have printed with vegetables, played with the small world farm, counted how many animals were in each field.
In phonics this week we have continued to focus on our listening skills. We have played sound lotto and lots of guessing the sound games. In maths we have explored 1-1 correspondence by moving objects (1 person for each train carriage) and the number 1.
Star of the Week
Ella Broadhead
Reception - Moon and Mercury
Every day this week we have shared the story ‘Once there were Giants’ by Martin Waddell. We have had little quizzes and asked if there are really giants in the story? We then discussed our own families and realised how different they really are.
In phonics this week, the children have been taught ‘g, o, c, k’. We were amazed when they wrote the words dog, cat, mat and cap. Look out for their next new eBook on Oxford Owl.
In maths we have we read ‘The Button Box’ and talked about colours, shapes and we played a matching pairs game.
We began our RE theme exploring the idea that Christians believe God is the giver of life. We are very much looking forward to our Harvest Celebration in the hall and meeting Rev Pete on Monday.
Star of the week
Moon: Daisy Trotter
Mercury: Oscar-James Rushton
Year 1 - Galaxy and Venus
In English, we have been reading Gorilla by Anthony Browne, exploring vocabulary and developing retrieval and inference skills. We have been finding out about gorillas in the wild and making fact files about them. We have discovered what they like to eat, where they live and other interesting facts. In maths, we have been comparing groups, finding more, fewer, greater than, less than and equal to. In geography, we are developing our map making skills and have drawn maps of our school grounds. In R.E. We have been learning about Jonah and the Whale and understanding the links which help us to understand what God is like.
We had our first school visit to St Wilfrid’s on Tuesday and we really enjoyed it.
Stars of the week
Venus - Isla Harris
Galaxy - Harry Hardy
Year 2 - Earth and Mars
It’s been another full and busy week in year 2. This week we have enjoyed learning more about Max, the unlucky hedgehog in our class book, The Hodgeheg by Dick King Smith. We have been also writing about hedgehogs and other animals that hibernate in our non chronological reports.The children are doing so well at identifying different sections of a report and writing facts under different sub headings. In maths we have continued our work on place value and have been estimating and finding numbers on a number line. We thoroughly enjoyed our harvest service at church and have been thinking about things that we are thankful for. In RE, we learnt about a Muslim’s place of worship and drew some fantastic pictures of a mosque.
Star of the week:
Earth: Eleanor Watson
Mars: Fearne Colley
Year 3 - Jupiter and Saturn
In English this week, the children practised their creative writing skills by describing Lady De Vass’s mysterious, walled garden through the eyes of the main character, Lenny. Children came up with their own expanded noun phrases and similes to describe the setting, helping to create an image in the reader’s mind. In Maths, the children have been estimating, ordering and comparing numbers to 1000 as well as counting in multiples of 50. The children thoroughly enjoyed visiting Church this week for the Harvest Festival service; they sang beautifully and linked their thankfulness to the Creation story. Wartime rationing and ‘Dig for Victory’ was the focus of History this week; the children thoroughly enjoyed going back in time, sampling a popular wartime party food ‘Celery Basket’ (celery, mashed potato and tomato sauce with grated cheese) delicious! They were fascinated to learn that Brayton Primary had a wartime garden on the school grounds during WW2. :)
Star of the Week:
Jupiter - Oscar O’Driscoll
Saturn - Eleanor Hare
Year 4 - Neptune and Meteor
This week the children helped write some lovely prayers in school, which helped form the prayer read in church and all thoroughly enjoyed going to church to celebrate Harvest. Thank you to all the parents that joined us or very kindly provided donations.
In Maths, we have been continuing with our unit of place value and have been exploring Roman Numerals. It was great fun to recap our Roman Numeral knowledge with a fantastic song paired with Numeral dance moves. In History, we have continued learning more about Vikings and their infamous longhouses. We looked at what they were made of, what they looked like and what was in them. Not many of us were keen on living in one room with a fire pit and animals. In Guided Reading we have continued with our text, How to Train your Dragon. Thankfully, our unassuming hero, Hiccup, has just escaped from the nursery and burgled his dragon.
Star of the Week:
Neptune: Amber Kilmartin
Meteor: Evie Brown
Year 5 - Asteroid and Pluto
This week in Year 5, the children enjoyed the Harvest service at church. During class worship, we explored Harvest further discussing how this time can inspire ourselves to do more for others. On that note, thank you all for your donations! Back in school, we continued to use our class text ‘Street Child’. In English, the text inspired some brilliant character descriptions where the children had a chance to again practise those descriptive writing skills we have focussed on since their return to school. In Art, we started our printing journey. We began by creating observational sketches of some wonderful-looking plants, kindly donated by the staff around school. Our initial sketches will be transformed next week as children use these ideas to create a tile design in the style of Victorian artist, William Morris. In Maths, we have finished our first unit of learning on place value and we are ready to get started on addition and subtraction next week! In RE, children have created some stunning pieces of work using biblical texts to support Christian beliefs about God. Look out on dojos for photos! Happy weekend, all!
Stars of the week
Asteroid- Arron Hartley
Pluto- Macy Adkin
Year 6 - Nebular and Constellation
Wow, is it Friday already?! This week in Nebular and Constellation, we have yet again shown some really excellent learning behaviours, both inside the classroom and at St.Wilf’s church for our harvest festival. In class, we have made our way through the murky depths of factors and multiples in maths, whilst also battling the raging torrents of relative clauses and subordination in English. In our topic work, we created our own timelines for the important events, from the Titanic’s conception, to its untimely demise. In our guided reading sessions, we have continued our journey onto the Queen of the Seas with our characters Patrick, Berryman, Rockwell and James. Using the question strands of VIPERS, we then created questions for each other to complete.
Another good week everyone. Keep working hard!
Stars:
Nebular: Millie ‘Manny’ Mansell
Constellation: Ciara Chamberlain