Weekly Newsletter
Friday 10th November 2023
This week in school
Driving and parking around school Again this week we have had a near miss where a small child was almost hit by a car reversing quickly and without care on the access road outside school. Unfortunately when the parent went to speak to the driver, they received a very aggressive response. Although this is outside school, we would still remind you that our Code of Conduct for parents and carers clearly states that offensive and threatening language is not acceptable. We know the make, model and colour of the car and have advised the parent to report the incident to the police.
Children in Need Next week (Friday 17 November) we will be marking Children in Need day very simply with a non-uniform day. We are very conscious of the cost of living and that as families you have already been buying school photos and contributing to harvest, the Poppy Appeal, Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes and the Spirit of Christmas toy bank. With this in mind, we are asking that you make any donations directly to Children in Need instead of bringing money into school. As usual, no football kits and please make sure your child is dressed for the weather!
Donations can be made using this link https://donate.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/
Poppy Appeal 2023 Thanks to everyone who has supported the Poopy Appeal this year: we ran out of stock and had to collect another box as the items were so popular. The local coordinators for the appeal will let us know the total raised once they have counted up.
As we are not in school on 11 November this year, we took part in our act of remembrance on the Green this morning. This included readings, prayers, the laying of wreaths and crosses and a silence at 11am. We were joined by some of the Parish Council, who also provided the wreaths and crosses for the memorial: many thanks to them for their support. The Parish Council have also organised the poppies which are displayed over the Green as a mark of respect.
Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal: final deadline next week As part of our way of living out our school values of Thankfulness and Compassion we would like to invite you to take part in the Shoebox Appeal.
Preparing a shoebox for a child who wouldn't otherwise receive any Christmas presents is a fun thing to do with your child.
Please follow this link to download instructions and a label for your own shoebox.
https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/
The same link will also enable you to create a filled shoebox online if you would rather do that. Your child can still help you to decide what they would like to put in the shoebox. Please bring any completed shoeboxes into school by 10th November or alternatively take them to a local collection point such as St James Church in Selby up to 20th November.
If you are unable to create a whole shoebox yourself, we are also collecting donations in school which we will put together into a shared shoebox. Please look on the above website for ideas of what to send. If you would rather send a monetary donation of any amount that is also fine. Please send any donations to your class teacher by 10th November.
Thank you for your support in helping our children to help others.
Spirit of Christmas We have been asked by some parents if they can support the Selby Spirit of Christmas charity by making donations of items that can be donated to families in need of support. A bit like the food bank but for toys, games and books! We now have a big red box just outside the school office for any donations of new or very good condition toys, books, games, puzzles, craft kits etc if you would like to bring these in
Brayton Christmas Lights The PTA are working with the Parish Council on the Christmas Light Switch On/Christmas Market event.
This will be on Friday 1st December 5.30pm-7.30pm on the Green, with some stalls and refreshments in the Victoria Hall.
Medicines in school We have had a few instances over the past couple of weeks of over-the-counter medicines being brought into school, sometimes by the children. In school we will only administer medicines that have been prescibed by a health professional, and the consent form must be completed and signed by a parent or carer.
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.
Even if your child already comes to our nursery, you still need to apply for a place in Reception.
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 much better than national in the week up to half term, as children got over their bugs and got back to school quickly. Unless your child has a high temperature or has an upset stomach (sickness and/or diarrhoea) they really need to be in school. We have noticed a lot of absence with the reason being given as 'feeling unwell' but really children should only be absent if they have physical symptoms of illness.
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
Friday 17 November - Non-uniform day for Children in Need
Friday 1 December - Brayton Christmas lights switch-on (evening)
Tuesday 12 December - Christmas services at church (am)
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 (schools 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.....
Reggie Booth
Esta Heslop
Tommy Young
Ralph Hudson
Jessica Jackson
Nellie Mattinson
Oscar O'Driscoll
Ella-Rose Howard
Riley Cooke
Logan Abbott
Braxton Walton
Carmen Mahon
Edward Possnett
Elliott Vernon
From St Wilf's
As autumn rapidly approaches it is time to think about the Autumn Fair.
The date has been set for Saturday 11th 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 last year.
If you are able to help in any way please let Pat Jarvis or Lis Middup know.
We will need volunteers for all the usual stalls; tombola, raffle, toiletries, nearly new children's things, along with a cafe.
If you have a new stall you'd like to introduce please let us know!
This week in classrooms
Nursery - Stars
We have been celebrating bonfire night this week with the children telling us all about their experiences of fireworks. We have watched firework displays, danced like fireworks, did our dough disco to firework music and even built a pretend bonfire in the school grounds. In the provision, we have painted fireworks, used our mark making to draw fireworks and made fireworks with our ‘funky fingers’. We have also been finding out about Remembrance Day and painting poppies. We held a 2 minute’s silence at 11 o’clock on Friday just like the rest of the school. We were proud of the children.
In phonics we have explored instrumental sounds. We have been learning the names of the different instruments we have in Stars and playing them quietly, loudly, quickly and slowly. We even made our own shakers to play. In maths we have been comparing sizes and lengths.
Star of the Week: Daisy Hardcastle
Reception - Moon and Mercury
In Reception we have started our new topic for this half term - traditional stories. This week we have been reading ‘The Three Little Pigs’. The children quickly began to join in with the repeated refrains and enjoyed using different voices for each character. This story has also been our focus in ‘drawing club’, where we have enjoyed thinking of ways to help the wolf to trap the pigs!
In maths, our focus has been looking at circles and triangles. First we identified the shapes and talked about their properties. We then compared the shapes and thought about how we could use them to make pictures. Finally we looked for circles and triangles in our environment. The children then used ipads to take photographs of the shapes that they could find.
In phonics we introduced the new graphemes j, v, w and x. We have practised how to form the letters correctly using the mnemonics and we have been blending and segmenting words containing these sounds.
In our RE work we have been considering the question - ‘Why do Christians perform nativity plays at Christmas?’ We looked at the main characters that appear in the nativity story and we read it in our class Bible. The children enjoyed re-telling the story with our class knitted nativity. We are now looking forward to our own version!
Star of the week Moon: Ella Johnson
Mercury: Charlie Catton
Year 1 - Galaxy and Venus
It’s been an explosive start into Autumn 2, we have dived straight into our History work where the children have been introduced to a timeline and explored the concept of past, present and future. As historians we have travelled back over 400 years ago to explore the Gunpowder plot and Guy Fawkes. The children have then been able to apply this learning to produce some fabulous writing. In P.E, we have also started our new unit Gymnastics, this was met with much excitement as the children explored different ways to move, a range of balances and were introduced to the Gymnastics mats. In Maths, we have completed our unit of Place Value with the children demonstrating some fantastic taking away skills.
Galaxy: Reuben Hick
Venus: Alfie Penrose
Year 2 - Earth and Mars
We have got straight back into working really hard this week. We’ve been learning about Guy Fawkes in Guided Reading and History and writing lots of amazing facts about him. In Maths, we have been tackling addition of two 2 digit numbers involving exchange. This is tricky and we have been impressed with how hard the children have been working on this. We have begun our compositions of some pieces of music, this week focussing on the timbre of sounds needed to create ‘cold sounds’ and we also began our DT topic by looking at books with moving parts. In RE we learned about the Muslim festival of Eid and our PD work has been looking at some of the stereotypes around what boys and girls like. In science we have been exploring some differences between natural and man-made materials. Well done for an excellent first week back Year 2!
Star of the Week
Earth: Esme Senior
Mars: Miles Smith
Year 3 - Jupiter and Saturn
It was wonderful to see the children return to school refreshed and ready to learn after the half term break. We began our week with Maths, learning how to set out and use the formal written method of column addition and subtraction to add and subtract two, 3 digit numbers without an exchange. The children then progressed to the slightly trickier concept of showing an exchange when the ones total more than 9, by placing a one under the tens’ column. In Writing, we wrote effective sentences for the first four plots of our new class text, ‘Flood’ by Alvaro Villa. As part of the sentence stacking process, the children learnt how to use short sentences and repetition for effect, personification, dialogue and when to use the determiners, a and an in front of a noun. We jumped forward to the year 2500 BCE in History, exploring the developments and features of Bronze Age Britain. In Science, the children researched and recorded the characteristics of the three main types of natural rocks - metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous. This week in our Monday PE session, the children were introduced to Tag Rugby, focusing on the key skills of handling and passing the ball. In Gymnastics on Friday, the children performed a sequence of shapes and movements on the floor and mats. On Friday morning, we joined the whole school for a Remembrance service on Brayton Green.
Well done Year 3, an excellent first week back!
Stars of the week:
Saturn: Xander Ward
Jupiter: Isabella Leadbeater
Year 4 - Neptune and Meteor
It was great to see the children again after half term and what a busy week we’ve had! We have completed our unit of Addition and Subtraction in Maths ready to move onto ‘Area’ next week. In English, we have started our new unit to write a persuasive letter to invite an author into school. We can’t wait to hear the children’s ideas about how we could persuade an author to come and visit us! In Science, we have explored how teeth are a vital part of our digestive system. We have looked at the different types of teeth and their names. We even compared the teeth of omnivores, carnivores and herbivores. The children have shown off their skills in our new PE unit - Gymnastics! They worked in pairs to create a routine applying new skills they had learnt. On Friday morning, we joined the whole school for a lovely Remembrance worship on the green.
Stars of the week:
Meteor: Emily Westwood
Neptune: Bettie Hanson
Year 5 - Asteroid and Pluto
A great week from Year 5 to start our final Autumn half term. We have started fractions in Maths, and it is good to see how much they have remembered from Year 4. More children are completing the expected amount, and getting it correct too! In English, we have been focusing on poetry. The main subject being Remembrance Day. This week the children planned and wrote a class poem, so that it would be read out to the school during the service. Next week, the children will build on this and create their own poems using relative clauses, modal verbs and other Year 5 objectives. In Guided Reading, we started a new book - Street Child. The children are reading about a boy called Jim in the Victorian times, and how hard it was for people. Jim is currently in a workhouse, and the children have had to predict whether they think he will stay there or run away and try to be reunited with his sisters. In History, the children are building on their knowledge of crime and punishment in the Anglo-Saxons period and seeing how it developed in the Victorian times. In Science, we have learnt about fair testing and decided which material is best for wiping up water.
Stars of the week:
Asteroid - Jonah Grafton
Pluto - Melody Wildon
Year 6 - Nebular and Constellation
The week in year 6 has seen the children throw themselves back into everything that we put in front of them. We continued our work on newspapers of the Titanic’s sinking in English, adding to the exaggerated nature of the press and ‘interviewing’ survivors of the sinking. In maths, we have moved on to our greatest nemesis yet - fractions. We have begun to use factors to simplify fractions and found equivalence (please, please, please, help your children to learn their times tables as these elements of maths are greatly influenced by this knowledge). In guided reading, we have found that our main character, Patrick Waters, has become a true Water’s boy, but not quite like his mother would have expected. In Science, we have started our electrical circuits lessons and applied knowledge from year 4 to predict why given circuits were not working. They then created the circuits and explained how they could be complete. We have also created poppies (thanks again for the bottle bottoms) and written prayers to be used at our Remembrance service. Geography involved using lines of latitude and longitude to locate the main points along Titanic’s journey to disaster
A great return everybody! Well done - it’s been a busy one.
Star of the Week
Nebular: Chloe Riley
Constellation: Daisy Bispham