Weekly Newsletter
Friday 12th May 2023
This week in school
Access to school the Parish Council have told us that the barrier will be installed next week, possibly Wednesday/Thursday. It will be locked in position at the times when vehicle access is restricted (8:30-9:15 and 2:45-3:30).
The barrier will NOT be opened within these times for any reason other than emergency services access if needed.
Special 'well done' to the Year 6 children who have been amazing during the tests this week. They have all been so calm and sensible in how they have approached the week: despite what you may have seen in the news and on social media, we have had no tears or drama! The Year 6 staff have done a fantastic job in supporting and preparing all the children, along with the army of staff helpers who have been involved in test administration in different rooms and smaller groups for those children who have needed this (as well as providing the before-SATs breakfasts!). Huge thanks to everyone for this week.
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.
St Wilf's spring fair Our Spring Fair for 2023 will soon be here with all the usual stalls and entertainment laid on.
The fair is a very important fundraiser for our church.
We hope it is a great success and you can help us by;
- Sharing the attached poster with your friends, neighbours and family and on your Facebook/Instagram page.
- Donating things for our stalls - We need:
- Nearly new children's toys and games, Books, Plants, Tombola and Raffle Prizes (please leave in the back of church or bring on the morning)
- Cakes and savouries for our cafe (please bring on the morning from 9.30am)
- Helping on a stall (please contact Lis Middup fair organiser for details lismiddup@aol.com )
- Visiting local places to seek prizes for our raffle (please contact Lis for details if you can do this)
- But most of all tell your friends and come along!
Thankyou
We look forward to seeing you there.
Best wishes
Lis (Fair Organiser)
Pat (Churchwarden)
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
Attendance figures for last week showed this picking up again to being in line with national, which is a big improvement on the previous week!
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. Taking your child out of school has a significant impact on their learning, especially where we have seen requests for leave at the very start of the new school year. At this time, children need to be settling into their new classes and routines, and getting to know their new teachers.
DIARY DATES
Thursday 25 May - School closes for half term
Friday 26 May - Training day (school closed to children)
Monday 5 June - School opens
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.....
Alice Watson
Evie-May Brown
Mason Snedker
Ryder Varley
Millie - Rose Scott
Jenson Riley
Emily Sharlotte
This week in classrooms
Nursery - Stars
Nursery
This week we have looked at stories about growing. When we read ‘Mabel’s Magical Garden’, we painted beautiful flowers like the artist Georgina O’Keefe and counted flowers in the Maths area. After reading ‘Oliver’s Vegetables’, we mixed orange paint and made marks with carrots as well as trying carrots, spinach and beetroot at snack time. We also practised cutting and grinding herbs to improve our motor skills. All week, the children have loved pretending to plant flowers and dig vegetables in the ‘tuff tray’ as well as retelling the stories and learning new vocabulary.
In Phonics, the children were introduced to ‘Metal Mike’ the robot who segments the sounds in words. They practised segmenting the sounds and talking in robot voices. After that they guessed which word was being said when the robot said the sounds.
In Maths, we have been thinking of numbers ‘1 less’ as well as revising ‘1 more’ by joining in number rhymes and playing the ‘1 more or 1 less’ game where we had to jump forwards and backwards on a number line.
Star of the Week- Gracie-May AldermanReception - Moon and Mercury
Reception
Whoever knew a London Bus could be so naughty? We have read ‘Naughty Bus’ by Jan and Jerry Oke and on Tuesday we took photographs of the bus in a naughty place! We then did some fantastic writing explaining where the bus was and even where it could possibly be going next on its travels. We enjoyed taking a virtual stroll through London town identifying many famous landmarks and the children were very knowledgeable. In phonics we have reviewed the previously learnt suffix /ed/d and focused again on forming lower-case and capital letters correctly and using a capital letter and full stop. Re-reading has also been a key skill to check what they have written actually makes sense. In maths we have been grouping objects, making pairs and using the mathematical language odd and even. We also shared the story ‘One Odd Day’ by Doris Fisher and created odd aliens. In RE we met Imran and discovered that a mosque is also a religious building where Muslims pray and we identified some of the key features of a mosque. The children used the greeting ‘As-salaam alaikum’ or the English translation ‘peace be upon you’.
Star of the week
Moon - Rahatullah Mirzakhel Mercury - Leon SzafranskiYear 1 - Galaxy and Venus
Another short week in Year 1 has seen us busy yet again. We have had a fantastic week focussed around the book ‘The Tiny Seed’ written by Eric Carle. In Science, the children planted their own bean seeds and have created a bean diary to monitor its progress over the coming weeks. In Writing, they have followed on from this and have looked at writing instructions, with the finish point of writing their own instructions for planting bean seeds. In Art, the children have continued to look at printing and specifically in the style Eric Carle is famous for. This week they have planned and engraved their design onto their foam boards, ready for using paint next week to print these. In Maths, we have continued to look at fractions, with a focus on quarters. The children have breezed through this and have been able to apply this knowledge to working out quarters of shapes and amounts. In R.E, the children have continued to look at the creation story and have thought about the importance for everyone of being grateful for what we have.
Well done on another fantastic week Year 1, we look forward to having another full week with you next week!
Stars of the Week:
Galaxy-Annie Scott
Venus- Louis Robinson
Year 2 - Earth and Mars
It’s been another incredibly busy week in year 2. In English, we have been writing our own stories about a fairy tale character who loves reading. Of course, books came to the rescue and helped them to overcome any difficulties they had with pesky giants! In maths we have been solving problems involving all of the four operations, many of which had several steps to work out before reaching an answer. We have been discussing different ways of solving number problems too, deciding on our favourite strategies. Our science has involved planning and setting up an experiment to investigate what plants need to survive. The sunflowers we planted last week are already starting to grow. In PE, we are working on our cricket skills, especially batting and fielding and in RE, we have been comparing a Muslim’s place of worship with the Christian and Jewish ones we have already looked at.
Well done Year 2, you are working incredibly hard and doing brilliantly.
Star of the week
Earth: Tyler Winn
Mars: Alfie Longhurst
Year 3 - Jupiter and Saturn
The fairy tale of The Happy Prince has continued to be our focus in English, however this week it has been from the perspective of the children through their independent writing. We are extremely pleased to see the children’s personalities coming through as they showcase their individual writing styles. In Guided Reading we read about the different features of India, and in Computing the children practised their document editing skills in Word by changing the size and style of font, alignment of text and using keyboard shortcuts ctrl+C and ctrl+V. In Maths, we started our next topic ‘Time’; the children were introduced to Roman numerals and the Roman number system in the context of a clock face. In Art, we studied the famous Dutch artist ‘Rembrandt’ and how his use of texture and shading brought his pencil drawings to life. Using graded graphite pencils, the children recreated one of Rembrandt’s drawings ‘An Elephant’, paying particular attention to the lines and marks he used to capture movement and depth. Another fantastic week! Well done, Year 3s!
Stars of the week:
Saturn: Samuel Holmes
Jupiter: Oliver Pearce
Year 4 - Neptune and Meteor
Another short week but yet again we’ve done so much. The children were very excited on Tuesday to see the conclusion to our experiment to view the impact of soap in preventing bacteria. The results were very clear to see that soap plays a huge part in preventing germs and bacteria. Interestingly, everyone has been much more eager to sanitise and wash their hands! In English, the children have produced fantastic holiday brochures as a class. Moving forwards the children have now begun planning their own holiday brochures for the fantastic sunny destination of Greece! We began researching the geography, the local cuisine as well as sightseeing or adventurous activities to do while there. In Art, we have continued building our skills for our latest unit, this term we will be painting a portrait of a Greek God or Goddess. The children selected a God or Goddess of their choice and each week we will hone our skills as the weeks progress to develop a high quality piece of art.
Star of the week:
Meteor: Bella Smith
Neptune: Demi- Leigh Wyrill
Year 5 - Asteroid and Pluto
Another short week, but plenty of learning happening in Year 5! In Maths, children have really persevered with their newly acquired skill of using a protractor. This week, children used the protractor to draw given angles. This skill has required precision and accuracy, which the children have really delivered! We used addition and subtraction to help us work out missing angles around a point and on a straight line. In English, the children have taken a break from a genre of writing and spent some time not only developing grammar skills we will need next week but showing themselves off as writers and all the grammar skills they have acquired throughout the year woven into a narrative style paragraph a day. Mr Fash-Hill and Miss Goddard have thoroughly enjoyed reading your paragraphs each day and can see how you are choosing skills to enhance your writing- and not just because we’ve told you to! We have finished the week with a tense moment in Holes, the voice that answered weakly we assume to be Zero, but just how weak is he? As part of our Geography learning, children have learnt about the physical features of North America. We have focussed on biomes and learnt how diverse the continent is. We have displayed our learning as a piece of collaborative art using the medium of watercolours. A short but great week, let’s be ready for Monday morning and the five days that follow!
Stars of the week:
Asteroid: Oliver Manning
Pluto: Eliana Cartwright
Year 6 - Nebular and Constellation
This week, the year 6 have truly shown their tenacity, determination, and calm in the face of adversity. Their attitudes and behaviour towards SATs have been exemplary, and we know that you did your very best, each and every day - regardless of what the outcomes may be. Have a restful weekend: sleep in, have pyjama days, watch too much TV, whatever; then come back Monday, ready to go again. Wear your hoodies with pride, because before you know it, your high school journey will be beginning!
Stars:
Nebular: Oscar Miller
Constellation: Harry Wildon