Weekly Newsletter
Friday 10th June 2022
This week in school
Congratulations to Miss Steph Shipley and her partner who had a baby girl last weekend. For this term, Miss Shipley's work in Neptune and Nursery is being covered by Mrs Tracy Turner.
School website You may have noticed that the content on the school website is getting less and less! We are in the process of setting up a fresh new website ready for the new school year that will be clearer and make it easier to find everything you need.
Wraparound care Thanks to all families who have supported the opening of our After School Club this week. It has gone very smoothly and has been extremely popular. There may be a few teething problems as we get going so please be patient with us!
School structure from September Now that we have organised where all the teachers will be working in September, we are starting work on the class lists. This is so that we can make sure that each class has an even balance of different needs, personalities and even boys/girls. For some of the older children, we will be asking them about social groupings so there will definitely be some familiar faces for them; but as we do only have 2 classes per year group they are never going to be far from the others!
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.
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. On the annual reports we will be adding how many days of school your child has missed, as well as their % attendance.
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
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- Proud Headteacher
King Arthur and His Knights Continue to Conquer!
Brayton 5 v 0 North Duffield (17.05.22)
Once again the footballing gods provided the perfect weather for this Tuesday night fixture. Fortress Brayton again providing the perfect setting for battle. Squad rotation was employed by the coaches Pooley and Fash-Hill for the game, giving opportunities for others and to provide competition for the first team.
An unfortunate injury, prior to the game, to Harrison Riley robbed him of his first start of the season. This resulted in the team talk of all team talks - a rally cry to perform as this was the players chance to shine and give the coaches difficult decisions when squad selection for the next game is made.
Brayton came out of the starting blocks just as the management had wanted, and with Richardson miscontrolling the ball on the edge of the box, it fortuitously landed at the feet of Thomas Summerton to slot it into the net.
The second would soon follow with a quick throw resulting in a perfect cross from Richardson for Summerton to volley in his second at the back post. Brayton would take a 2-0 lead into half time.
Early in the second half, Summerton could have completed his hat-trick, but instead unselfishly pass the ball beyond a stranded keeper for Josh Colley to score into an empty net, on his debut.
The strategies of Coach Pooley are becoming infamous in the Selby district, particularly his high press and ‘Pooley Ball’ (also known as pass and move). The former resulted in the goal number 4, when a high press by the returning Billy Wright resulted in an intercepted pass, deep in the opposition territory, for Preston Brook to rifle it into the net beyond the onrushing Duffield Keeper.
Richardson would cap off a sterling performance with a goal of his own, when he rebounded his own shot on goal and nutmegged the keeper.
Richardson had a commanding presence in the midfield, being the centre of most of Brayton’s attacks. The debuting Charlie Birch would also impress with a solid performance in defence and by unleashing his pearler of a left foot whenever the chance arrived.
A great performance by the Brayton side, which even Coach Fash-Hill could find little to criticise.
Man of the Match: Arthur Richardson.
Whole School Attendance
The graph below shows our school attendance since the start of the school year up to the end of last week (we are the pink line).
An amazing 337 children have had 100% attendance this week: a new school record!
DIARY DATES...
Monday 6th June-Friday 10th June 2022: Y1 Phonics Screening Check week
Monday 6th June-Friday 24th June 2022: Y4 Multiplication Tables Check
Saturday 25th June 2022: PTA Summer Fair 12pm-3pm
Tuesday 28th June 2022: Year 2/3 trip to Bridlington
Wednesday 13th & Thursday 14th July 2022: Whole school transition days
Happy Birthdays!
Many many many many happy returns this week to.....
Rhys Knight
Lacey Mae Booth
Isabella Leadbeater
Thomas Loose
Thea Platts
George Bramhald
Tilly Tonks
This week in classrooms
Our school values
Nursery - Stars
The children have loved learning about the jungle this week. We have enjoyed lots of jungle stories and rhymes and looked at some of the animals and plants we would find in the jungle. We have made a jungle scene in the tuff tray and matched animals to their patterns. We have made butterflies, snakes and animal masks and practised moving like different animals in the outside area.
We also learnt about the story of Pentecost as part of the whole school Pause Day. We had great fun making streamers, watching them blow in the wind and comparing the power of the wind to that of God, the Holy Spirit.
In phonics we have looked at initial sounds. We have had fun thinking of names for the animals that start with the same sound as their animal name. In maths we have been using the words bigger and smaller when comparing numbers.
Star of the Week: Riley Smith
FS - Moon and Mercury
Time flies when we’re having fun! Can you believe that we are in our final term of the year? This week we have introduced our new topic ‘Fun at the beach’. We shared the book At the beach by Rowland Harvey, through amusing postcards which tell a story of families visiting Crabby Spit. It was full of humour and definitely had us giggling and reminiscing! The children enjoyed writing postcards as if they were on their holidays and we recorded words linked to their five senses describing what they could see and hear at the beach. In maths we have learnt that doubling means twice as many and we have explored doubles using real objects and pictorial representations of matching groups. We then designed our own perfect delicious ice-creams with flakes and sprinkles and on Friday we enjoyed creating and eating the real thing!
Mercury - Oliver Brown
Moon - Riordan Hawe
Y1 - Galaxy and Venus
Welcome back! We have had a super first week with the launch of our new topic - Ahoy there! We have shared the story of Captain Flynn and the Pirate Dinosaurs’ and written character descriptions and predictions about the story. In maths, like all good pirates should learn, we have been describing turns and positions, so we can always find our treasure. In science, we have been identifying the different materials around us and in geography, we have been revising the names and locations of the oceans and continents….. so we always know where we are! In art, we have been creating our own pirate hats and using oil pastels to draw a pirate's favourite bird - parrots. RE this week has focused on Pentecost and the values it promotes. We are all looking forward to further pirate adventures next week.
Star of the week:
Venus- Anna Metcalfe
Galaxy- Benjamin Turner
Year 2 / 3 Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune
We have returned with a bang! Speaking of which, ask your children about onomatopoeia - what does it mean and can they give you a couple of examples. In English we have been ‘sentence stacking’ our use of vocabulary and grammar around ‘The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark. The children have produced some super sentences. All of this structured learning will build up to an independent piece of writing that will blow our socks off! Guided reading has supported this and allowed the children to accumulate subject specific knowledge. Ask your child what a group of owls is called and if they’re stuck, say Boris Johnson to give them a clue!
In maths we have been learning about statistics. This has linked beautifully to our computing unit on data handling. We have studied tally charts and pictograms, comparing how useful each one is in different situations and using a key to save time.
RE this week has focused on Pentecost and we had a whole school ‘Pause’ afternoon on Monday. Science concentrated on animals and the children completed a life cycle of an owl - this is helping to really immerse them in the story.
We are still on the “look out” for a free owl visitor if anyone knows anyone. It would be a hoot!
Stars of the week -
Jupiter- Edward Possnett
Saturn - Scarlett Mead
Neptune- Bettie HansonYear 4 Mars and Earth
What an exciting start to our final term. We kick started the week by exploring those confusing homophones. It’s definitely given us some food for thought considering which they’re, there and their we use or where, we’re and were. In Guided Reading and Topic, we have jumped back in time and explored ancient Greece which means we’re thinking less and less of those sunny beaches and all inclusive resorts. In Guided reading, we have heard the Greek tale of Zeus’ rise to power by defeating his father Cronus and rallying the cyclopses to fight alongside him. In Topic, we have compared how the Olympics have changed over the years, starting with their first Olympic games in Olympia. It’s been so interesting to see how the stadiums have changed over the years. In Maths, we have well and truly been prepping for next week. The children have now all logged into the Official Multiplication Times Table Check to practise logging in and getting a feel for the actual website.
Stars
Mars - Willow Wood
Earth - Frankie Phillips
Year 5 Asteroid and Pluto
Year 5 have come back to school for the last term of the year ready and raring to go! This week, we started reading a new class novel about a young boy whose archeologist parents’ go missing in suspicious circumstances in Central America. Max will have to embark on many exciting adventures to track them down and save them with help from a local Maya girl. Inspired by this, we will write our own adventure story, with Max as our main character. In Maths, we have begun looking at angles in shape, sorting, ordering and classifying the different sizes, Mrs Zealand does have a bit of a soft spot for the ones smaller than right angles, they are so acute! In Science, we have continued our exploration of plant reproduction, this time taking cuttings with the hope that we can propagate lots of baby plants. If your child would like a plant cutting, then please send in a jar that we can pop it in please.
Stars
Asteroid - Francesca Nicholson
Pluto- Harley Robinson
Year 6 Nebular and Constellation
We cannot be more proud of the children this week! It has been all about writing! With the final few days approaching as to the children being able to really show what they can do in their English work, they have been tasked with writing using as many grammar features as they possibly can. It’s amazing how incredibly detailed our letters from Elephant Island are. They have truly embraced the new topic of Survival of the Fittest. We have learnt about Shakleton’s failed mission to cross Antarctica in 1914 and put themselves in the boots of one of his crew. We have also focussed on learning our lines for a very important production. I wonder what that could be?! Our year 6s have also had the opportunity to meet the year 7 leads from high school with transition meetings occurring this week. You will be pleased to know that they really did leave a good first impression and had many important questions to ask. Keep going everyone.
Stars:
Constellation: Imogen Chalkley
Nebular: Bailey Dobson
Who has the most hive points so far?
Amelia-Grace Jackson from Mars and Red Hive is the top Bee Points scorer this week.