Weekly Newsletter
Friday 24th November 2023
This week in school
Wraparound bookings The booking forms were sent out earlier this week for the spring term: please make sure they are returned ASAP as places are limited. Even if you have had a place this term, you still need to book again for next term.
The MAT finance team need to process and send out the invoices at the end of November/beginning of December so if we can have the forms back by the end of next week please.
Parking around school We have had another near miss this week when a grandparent reversed without care, almost hitting a parent and child. The car was parked on the 'wrong' side of the road and on the double yellow lines. We do know the make, colour and registration number and it is being reported to the police. Please drive and park with care around the school: parking further away or walking is better than putting people's safety at risk.
Nursery places form Earlier this week we sent out a Google form about nursery places and planning for these in the future. If you have children who are not yet school age, please complete the form so that we can see what the level of need is within our community. Many thanks to everyone who has already completed it, the answers have been really helpful. https://forms.gle/oJDcMUcwPrJKsrex5
Parents evenings December 2023 The links for parent's evenings should be on their way by text and email. Any problems, please contact the school office next week.
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
And another strong week for attendance last week, with our school attendance staying high: thanks for this! 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
Friday 1 December - Brayton Christmas lights switch-on (evening)
Wednesday 6 & Thursday 7 December - Parents evenings (exact timings TBC)
Tuesday 12 December - Christmas services at church (am)
Wednesday 13 December - Chrismas lunch and jumper day
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.....
Isla Harris
Bertie Whisker-Taylor
Albert Heslop
Noah Littlewood
This week in classrooms
Nursery - Stars
We have been learning all about patterns this week. The children have enjoyed searching for patterns in the nursery environment. We have looked at patterns on animals and have been learning words to describe patterns. The children have been recognising and creating ABAB patterns in the provision, including putting a pattern of jewels on paper crowns and painting animal patterns. We have enjoyed the stories ‘My Mum and Dad Make Me Laugh’, ‘We all Went on Safari’, ‘Patterns Everywhere’, ‘Pitter Pattern’ and ‘Pattern Bugs’ which are all full of patterns. We even made patterns with words and sounds in phonics (eg clap, pat, clap, pat).
We have also taken part in the whole school RE Pause Day when we looked at Bible stories. Aptly, on the morning of the Pause Day, there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky which was perfect for the story of Noah’s ark and led to awe and wonder from the children.
Star of the Week: Florence Young
Reception - Moon and Mercury
IIn Reception we have focussed our learning on the traditional story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. Again, we have enjoyed learning the repeated refrains, such as ‘Who’s been sitting in my chair?’ We have some very convincing bears! During Drawing Club, the children have created some very good pictures of Goldilocks, with special codes to make something exciting happen!
In maths, our focus has been on the numbers 4 and 5. As well as recognising the numerals, we have also been thinking about the composition of each number. We have also been finding 1 more and 1 less than a number, singing some of our favourite counting rhymes.
In phonics we introduced the new digraphs sh, th, ng and nk. We have practised how to form the letters correctly for each of these digraphs, using the mnemonics and we have been blending and segmenting words containing these sounds.
This week we all took part in ‘Pause Day’. We focussed on the story of Creation and created some great pieces of artwork.
Although the weather has been a challenge, we have still managed to enjoy outdoor P.E. The children really enjoyed learning how to play ‘duck, duck, goose’ and had to run very fast!
Star of the week
Moon: Penny Possnett
Mercury: Santana Lowther
Year 1 - Galaxy and Venus
Another busy week in Year 1! Monday we all took part in our school Pause day. In year 1, we looked at the incarnation of Jesus and using our fabulous collage skills from last term we each completed a figure from the Nativity scene. Later in the week we explored how different individuals would feel during the birth of Christ and what questions they may have through drama and acting. This week we have taken time to consolidate our addition and subtraction skills using number lines. The children have really gained confidence in independently using number lines to solve problems with increasingly larger numbers.
Galaxy: Sam Collins
Venus: Freya Firth
Year 2 - Earth and Mars
This week we have begun writing our own non-chronological report. It has involved remembering lots of information about the significant figures we have studied in History. We have been really impressed with how much the children can remember. In maths, we have begun our new topic on shape. We have been identifying shapes through counting sides and vertices. In Geography we learnt about compass points and created some mnemonics to help us remember the order in which they come. We have also begun a new topic in computing looking at data handling. We used a program to create pictograms of our favourite animals. We really enjoyed our RE Pause Day looking at the big story of the Bible and focussing on the theme of Gospel in it. The children had some excellent ‘big thoughts’ about themes throughout the Bible and we enjoyed exploring some stories about Jesus in the New Testament. Well done Year 2! Another super week!
Star of the Week
Earth: George Bramald
Mars: Arthur Skelding
Year 3 - Jupiter and Saturn
In Maths, we have continued to practise column addition and subtraction with an exchange, using these methods to solve a variety of problems. We have also recapped finding complements to 100, working out which other two-digit number goes with a given two-digit number to make 100 using bridging and number bonds to ten.
In Writing, we have reached the end of our ‘Flood’ sentence stacking lessons. The children have learnt and practised using the grammar features and writing styles that will support their independent writing next week. All of the children have enjoyed the story content and are extremely excited about writing their own version of ‘Flood’.
After identifying and sorting rocks into types (metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary) in our previous Science lesson, this week the children investigated and classified the same rocks based on the common properties of permeability (water passes through), durability (hard wearing) and density (buoyancy).
On Monday afternoon, we enjoyed joining in with the RE Pause Day activities; we looked closely at the ‘Big Story’ of the Bible, beginning with the Creation through to the Acts and Revelations. Year 3 focussed on the theme of ‘People of God’ and how Christians were tempted to follow a different path from God.
We began our Geography unit with a quiz on naming and locating the countries of the UK and how to identify the UK on a world map. We then began our new learning of using four-digit grid references to map read. The children practised using four-figure grid references by locating particular places within a grid square on a map of the UK.
Once again, the children have worked incredibly hard - we are very proud of their enthusiasm and determination to go above and beyond! Well done Year 3. :)
Star of the Week:
Jupiter: Emilie Knight
Saturn: Maisie Webster
Year 4 - Neptune and Meteor
In Maths, we have started our new unit of Multiplication and division. We began by looking at multiples of 3 before moving on to the 6 times-tables and division facts. In writing, the children have planned and written up their persuasive letters to send to their chosen author. They have included lots of fantastic reasons about why it would be so great to have an author come and visit our school! We are hoping to send these off and will eagerly be awaiting some responses. In science, we have been using our observation skills when carrying out an ‘eggsperiment’. We have been learning all about the different functions of our teeth and this week we discussed why it is so important to look after our teeth. On Wednesday, we placed 3 eggs into 3 different liquids. We discussed how eggshells are similar to the enamel on our teeth and left the eggs in the liquids for 24 hours before observing the effect the different liquids had on the eggshells (our ‘teeth’). On Monday afternoon, we looked at the big story of the Bible as part of our RE Pause Day. After some great discussion, we focussed on the theme of ‘salvation’ and the children produced some great work. During this busy week, the children have continued to work really hard - well done Year 4!
Stars of the Week:
Meteor: Sophie Howell
Neptune: Alfie Butler
Year 5 - Asteroid and Pluto
Fractions, fractions, fractions, has summed up our Maths lessons this week. In one lesson we have had to add, subtract and multiply denominators! The children have done really well though. It has been tough, but they have stuck with it, so well done Year 5. Unfortunately though, there are more fractions next week. The children have also had two tests this week, which we will be sharing the results at Parents Evening. For their first tests, they have done well, and it has been great to see that they have done well on the parts they have learnt so far. It was Pause Day during this week. We focussed on Gospel, and the children created some very colourful art pieces using oil pastels. They also created a whole piece, which is being displayed in the hall for everyone else to see. In English, we have started our new text type - non-chronological report. It is based around crime and punishment in the Victorian era. We started the week doing some feature finding on an original text. The children have used their computing skills to also research about each punishment. After learning about heat insulators in Science last week, the children did an investigation about which material would keep their ice cream the coolest for longer. Overall, a very good week for the Year 5s, and we look forward to what they can achieve next week.
Asteroid: Ellie Graley
Pluto: Joseph Wilford
Year 6 - Nebular and Constellation
Well, another week completed, and yet more successes have been had!
In our English work, we have been creating narratives that revolve around a survivor of the Titanic disaster. We delved into the sensory overload that they must have experienced whilst being whisked away from the disaster site on the Carpathia; their arrival at Pier 54 in New York, and their sombre walk through the Cunard dockside building. The sheer emotional distress and experiences have truly shone through in the children’s writing.
In Maths, we have been confronted by, and had many victories with the immense and foreboding topic of fractions. We have added and subtracted fractions and mixed numbers and have begun to fully appreciate that multiplication and division knowledge is key to ensure that understanding can be gained.
In RE, we conducted our Pause Day, which focussed on the Kingdom of God. To show our learning, we represented this in rather delightful artistic outcomes showing the word of God being spread amongst the people of his world.
In science, we completed enquiries that aimed to establish how adding different components to a circuit would impact the outputs of said components. Teamwork and investigative skills were certainly on show in these sessions.
In computing, we learnt how to incorporate different images to create maps of the local areas which detailed landmarks of importance. This will lead us nicely to our Geography learning next week as we start our local study. This will have a focus on the ship building history of Selby.
And lastly, our guided reading lessons have seen the Titanic disaster occur, and the mixed reception that the sinking ship had amongst the passengers. Surely this wasn’t the right time to have our characters come together to make a deal which would reveal the mysteries of Sir Francis Bacon’s essaies?!
Stars:
Nebular: Evie-Mae Hanson
Constellation: Kaydon Chamberlain