Friday 30th November 2012.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Another week has whizzed by and I’m amazed that December begins tomorrow. The Christmas tree has arrived, the first advent calendars will be opening a few hours from now and there are officially only 25 sleeps until Christmas day, believe it or not! Christmas rehearsals are in full swing and the sound of music, singing and dancing tells me it WILL be alright on the night., though I think there are some well bitten fingernails amongst the staff at this point...

Next Wednesday afternoon our children will enjoy a whole school pantomime – oh yes they will! It is traditional at this time of year to enjoy a panto, and we will be welcoming a visiting theatre group into school for what promises to be a loud and wacky retelling of Aladdin. I’m fairly confident much fun will be had by all!

Twitter

Mr Walker emailed me this week to suggest a school twitter account. What a great idea, very quickly realised. I will use twitter to update you briefly on school news, and it will undoubtedly prove invaluable should we have a snowy winter coming our way. Find us here https://twitter.com/CookridgePrimar and be sure to follow.. Thanks to Mr Walker for this great idea – if you have any suggestions for ways we can improve, just get in touch. Your ideas really do lead us forward.

Save our Surgery – Friday 7^th December
Next Friday - in common with schools across Yorkshire - we are supporting Leeds General Infirmary in their “Wear Red” event to raise both funds and awareness of the Children’s Heart Unit’s plight to remain open, saving families of very poorly young children and babies the added ordeal of travel to Newcastle, Liverpool or Birmingham. Each participating school is being matched with a local business who will match our donation so we have the opportunity to double our money this time around. Given the great – but recent – success of the Children in Need event, I am not setting a figure for donation and simply appeal to parents to give what they can – even 20p from every child will raise £60, and doubled this will see us contribute £120.

Year 5/6 writers

Our Y56 children have had a double treat this week – ‘that poetry bloke’ Craig Bradley treated them to a poetry workshop crammed with fun and frolics on Wednesday, and author Alan Gibbons worked with them all day on Thursday on a creative writing project. Alan is an ex-teacher turned writer, and he is incredibly gifted in both his own ability to create a brilliant range of children’s books and the way in which he talks strategy with the children to elicit some stunning writing from young writers. I am certain that Alan’s visit will have a lasting impact not only on the children, but also on the teachers who saw him work his magic on Thursday!  A range of Alan’s books will take centre stage in the class 7, 8 & 9 book corners and eventually find their way into the school library for all to enjoy.

Library

The library area is nearing completion and a great range of new books have been stocked and stickered. Each class has a book corner and children in each class are responsible for selecting their class book stock for each half term, so the range of books for each reader is pretty vast! So far, our investments have concentrated on story books – next year we will begin work stocking up the non-fiction section so that the children can use the library for research. Your child should continue to bring home reading scheme books – colour banded according to their current reading levels – and you are welcome to change these books with your child after school. Again, a class stock is available in each classroom so you can quickly help your child to choose a new book after school. In addition, your child should also be bringing home a ‘free choice’ library book.

Several parents have approached us this week to ask about using the library after school – hoorah to that, I say! If you would like to bob into the library after school to read a book together or to choose a book to borrow for home, then you are very welcome to do so. We have invested £16,000 in books in the last 12 months and are proud to be offering over 3,500 new books to families at Cookridge – this is money we cannot afford to invest every year sadly so please look after our new books and bring them back when you’ve read them!

Friends

We are literally weeks away from our Christmas Fair which will take place on Tuesday 18^th December from 3.05pm until 4.30pm. Parents of Reception children will be able to collect their child from 2.30pm on that day to ease congestion around Santa Claus! We really hope you can make it, and are sure the event will be as big as ever BUT we do need your help. We are looking for donations for the bottle, chocolate and soft toy tombola, cakes for the cafe and TIME for the glittery preparations.. A Friends newsletter is coming out today with all the details – if you haven’t got yours please check out their new blog via the website: click on Friends!

 

Sports News

On Tuesday this week, 14 of our Year 5/6 children ventured up to Horsforth High School to participate in the annual Sportshall Athletics Competition. We competed valiantly and came fourth overall. Some notable individual performances came from Poppy Naylor (2nd in the javelin), Georgia Hart (1st in speed bounce), Mackenzie Turner (1st in the individual two lap sprint race) and Jack Appleyard (1st in the speed bounce). It was a great team effort and an enjoyable evening for all. Thank you to all the parents who came and watched the events - your support meant a lot to the children! Our next tournament will be the Year 5’s Tag Rugby at Broadgate Primary next Wednesday – wish us luck!

A reminder that both football and netball clubs have now finished for the winter and will return in the spring. All other clubs continue to run as normal next week.

Parking

I have this week received an email from Councillor Sue Bentley expressing her concerns about parking on Tinshill Drive. Local residents are often blocked in during morning and after school drop off’s, and even more sadly are sometimes subject to unreasonable behaviour when they approach drivers who have parked illegally or inconsiderately. The situation outside of school is of great concern because it is not a safe one for our children. Parents are urged to think carefully about their parking, and to escort their child across the busy and unpredictable road into the safety of the playground. I have reassured Sue that parents at Cookridge will be keen to improve this dangerous situation. Sue has recommended a police presence on Tinshill Drive to reinforce legal parking, common courtesy and a safe arrival and home time for our children.

Parental conduct - before and after school

I have been informed of another incident before school where a parent has sought to discipline a child on the school playground. Let me reiterate – it is not acceptable for parents to do so and any parent who does take this step is placing themselves in a situation where they may ultimately be banned from the school site. I am not asking anyone to overlook a child’s inappropriate behaviour but I must insist that parents follow the correct course of action and report the matter to a member of school staff - available on every door once the school bell sounds and the doors open – so that the matter can be managed appropriately. Thank you.

Attendance

Less than a fortnight until our 100% attendance award, and there are currently 117 children who have not missed a single day of school since September. Well done guys – and keep it up! This week’s attendance is great again with Class 5 achieving a fabulous 100% - well done!

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation		Target 2012-13		Attendance this week				Year to date
95%		96%		96.4%				96.2%
Class attendance figures for this week are:-
Rec	Class 1	Class 2	Class 3		Class 4	Class 5	Class 6		Class 7	Class 8	Class 9
A 95.6% B 95.0%	97.3%	98.3%	95.5%		98.5%	100%	94.7%		92.6%	95.5%	97.4%

Dates for this term...
Dates for the term ahead are all available to view on the blog: don’t miss out – check the dates and be sure you know what’s happening across this term. http://cookridgeprimaryschool.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/thursday-25th-october.html

The next coffee morning will be on Wednesday 12^th December @ 9am – please come along if you can make it: the more the merrier and it’s always good to welcome new faces to the crowd that gather. As this one is so close to Christmas, I will be splashing out on some Christmassy treats to help our coffee go down! See you there.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bailey

Friday 23rd November 2012

Dear Parents/Carers,

In 15 months as Head teacher at Cookridge, I have yet to experience an ‘ordinary’ week,.. This week was far from that, and we really have found the ‘extra’ in ‘ordinary’ to enjoy an extraordinary 5 days in school. The first of our residential visits to Dobroyd Castle this year and a rather large convoy of International visitors have all made this week even more memorable than most... And a little bit more exhausting!

 

Year 5 Residential: Dobroyd Castle
On Monday morning - bright and early - our Year 5 children congregated in the hall for an experience of a lifetime. 31 children, Mr Maldonado, Miss Glendinning, Mrs Hawkins and I climbed onto the coach certain of only one thing: we were about to have a very good time! The three days spent at the Todmordon adventure centre did not disappoint... We’ve been caving and canoeing, have climbed walls and leapt from a giant pole towards a trapeze (a real leap of faith!), have built crate towers that we’ve teetered upon before ‘flying’ to the ground (fortunately suspended by ropes), swung from a giant swing from an abnormal height and have undertaken quests and solved mysteries using our teamwork and combined ingenuity – no muscle was left unturned... The highlight of the trip for many was working as a team to cross the piranha pool... With a limited amount of time before the piranha’s were released, we really were working against the clock to solve the puzzles and make it safely back across the pool before time ran out. The children worked incredibly hard during their three days, fortunately slept well each evening once lights were out at around 10pm, and each and every one of them conquered fears they didn’t know they had to succeed in every challenge set for them. Enormous thanks to the staff who accompanied the visit – without their generosity of time, lifelong experiences such as this one simply could not happen. Parents will be invited to a presentation event led by the children in the next few weeks to enjoy the photos and videos collated over the three days... Our next visit to Dobroyd Castle is in March when our Year 4 children will also ‘face their fears’!

Commenius Project – long awaited visit to Leeds

Last September, we began a new International project which saw us undertake partnership work with schools in Ireland, Slovakia, Finland and Birmingham.  During the course of the project, teachers from our school have visited Ireland, Slovakia and Finland and 2012 saw our first ever International residential, with children from our school boarding a plane and heading to Ireland to meet the children and teachers in one of our partner schools to see first-hand how different – and how similar – schools in other countries actually are.  This week, it has been our turn to host our visitors in Leeds and it was wonderful to hear the very positive feedback our visitors gave about our school. On Thursday afternoon, they were wowed with a celebration event which included a presentation led by the children who went to Swinford, a street dance, a Spanish song and a debut choir performance. On Friday afternoon, our visitors will enjoy the Shakespeare performance our Y6 children recently presented at the West Yorkshire playhouse. Mrs Speak, Mrs Riley and Mr El Sayed have organised a packed itinerary for our guests who will also be treated to some evening events. Once again, only because of the dedication of our staff are our children enjoying showcasing their talents to a world wide audience – thanks to all staff who have been involved in the organisation, the entertainment and the giving of their time to evening and weekend events to make this project a success.

Sports Clubs:

Next week's Football and Netball clubs are the last ones until late Feb/early March. This is due to the darker nights and poorer weather which ensures that the field is a mudbath, even on dry days (which are few and far between!).  Children will receive letters later in the school year to inform them when these clubs are resuming. Please note, ALL other clubs run by outside agencies (the paid clubs) will continue right up until Christmas and throughout January and February.

Authors at Cookridge!

We are very excited to be welcoming yet another author to Cookridge next week. Alan Gibbons (see www.alangibbons.com) will be in school on Thursday 29th October to lead a whole day writing workshop with our Year 5/6 children. He will talk to classes 7, 8 and 9 before launching into hour long workshops with each class, which we know will result in some outstanding writing. Alan is a well known children's author and having been in teacher training workshops with him before, we know just how excellent and engaging his teaching of writing is and how talented he is in eliciting the children’s hidden talents. There will be an assembly at 2:20pm, which parents are warmly invited to attend, where the children's work will be shared and celebrated. There will also be the opportunity to purchase one of Alan's books at the end of the day in the hall for a cost of £5.99 or £6.99. It is set to be a fantastic day and is part of our ongoing initiative to ensure children see themselves as creative and successful authors. Year 5/6 have been writing spy/mystery stories during this half term, and we are hoping to publish their adventures to the website soon – these stories are so good they have to be read!

Christmas Productions

This year, as last, each of our Key Stages will be inviting you to attend their Christmas play and the children are already working hard perfecting their singing, dancing and acting skills to ensure it is ‘alright on the night’. Staff and Governors are very keen that all children take part in the Christmas play, as this is just another opportunity for us to understand the many different cultures which make our school great. If any parent feels that their child should not participate in the Christmas production, can I ask that you make an appointment to come and speak to me personally – please do not assume that they will not be participating this year just because they have not in the past.
 

Friends

The Christmas Fair is almost here and it’s time to begin to publicise the event. We need a poster to get the word out, and for that we need YOU! You will remember the gorgeous poster produced by Sophia Clements to market the Summer Fair? This time, it’s all about Christmas and the winning entry will have their poster produced and distributed – as well as winning a prize for their efforts! If your child would like to submit an entry, please encourage them to hand in their posters to the school office by Friday 30^th November. Remember to include the name of the event (The Christmas Fair!), the date (Tuesday 18^th December from 3.05 till 4.30) and clearly write your name and class on the back of the poster. Good luck!
 

Attendance

Attendance continues to remain above the 96% target for this year – though we are skirting dangerously close to it at this stage. This week, over 60% of classes in school reached the target, with only 4 classes falling below. It would be wonderful if all 11 classes could exceed the target one of these weeks – it’s bound to happen sooner or later! Remember – we are only weeks away from our first 100% attendance awards for the year – do your best: it could be you! 

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation		Target 2012-13		Attendance this week				Year to date
95%		96%		95.7%				96.2%
Class attendance figures for this week are:-
Rec	Class 1	Class 2	Class 3		Class 4	Class 5	Class 6		Class 7	Class 8	Class 9
A 97.7% B 87.7%	95.0%	97.7%	87.7%		99.3%	98.2%	98.0%		95.6%	97.9%	97.0%

Children in Need - Last Friday was a great success and the final total raised was £523.85!!! This was made up of £432.18 from wearing spotty clothes/bun sale and £91.67 from the playground Pudsey Bear.  Thank you to all parents for your generous donations towards a very worthy cause.

Data Collection Forms - You will receive today a sheet containing all the information we hold on record for your child/children. Please check this information and amend where necessary, sign the form and return it to school as soon as possible.

Dates for this term...

Dates for the term ahead are all available to view on the blog: don’t miss out – check the dates and be sure you know what’s happening across this term. http://cookridgeprimaryschool.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/thursday-25th-october.html

The next coffee morning will be on Wednesday 12^th December @ 9am – please come along if you can make it: the more the merrier and it’s always good to welcome new faces to the crowd that gather. As this one is so close to Christmas, I will be splashing out on some Christmassy treats to help our coffee go down! See you there.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bailey

Friday 16th November 2012

Dear Parents/Carers,

Today we’ve had a very spotty end to the week with Children in Need day. Thanks so much to all those parents who found – or made! - spotty clothing, who baked – or bought – buns and biscuits, who donated loose change into our giant Pudsey bear and who, finally, demonstrated great generosity by giving to this cause. Our bun sale was a particular success, and children in KS2 thoroughly enjoyed their time on the stalls! It’s important that our children not only have a great day during these fundraising events, but also learn a little about the plight of others in need and the work of charities, both in our local community and beyond. Thanks to Miss Hobson for organising the day but also thanks to you: we couldn’t do it without you – so thank you.

 

SOS

Our next charity event comes hot on the heels of this one and I apologise for that but as a local cause it’s one I couldn’t overlook. You may not be aware that the Children's Heart Unit at Leeds General Infirmary has been earmarked to lose its surgery, meaning that very sick children and babies in our region will be required to travel to Newcastle, Liverpool or Birmingham for live-saving surgery. The LGI are holding an event on Friday 7^th December 2012, asking every child in Yorkshire to wear something red “be it a jumper, sock or hair bobble” and choose to make a small donation to the Save Our Surgery fund. The organisers are seeking to not only raise vital funds but also awareness as to the unit’s plight. LGI are also matching up each school in Yorkshire with a local business who will match a percentage of each schools donation. More news nearer the time...

Staffing Updates

This has been a busy week for us, staffing wise. Mrs Smith has left us today to begin her maternity leave. She has just over three weeks to go before she becomes a mummy so it is most definitely time – all our love and good luck Mrs Smith: enjoy every minute!

 As Mrs Smith has prepared to go this week, Miss Cowles was back in school on Monday getting ready to come back. Baby Seth is absolutely gorgeous and Miss Cowles has definitely got a heartbreaker on her hands there. Miss Cowles will be returning to school during the final week of this half term, but has decided to return to work part time and is taking on a role across school, so will not be returning to class based responsibility in the first instance.

Miss Carroll’s time with us was due to end at Christmas, in line with Miss Cowles return. I am delighted to inform parents that Miss Carroll has been persuaded to stay on as the Class 5 teacher: good news for us all! Miss Carroll has made plans to go travelling during June/July so will not be with us all the way through the year, but I’m delighted that she will be with us for a while yet!

Our final staffing update shares news that, after a period of absence, Mrs Laycock will not be returning to school. Mrs Laycock has worked with hundreds of children and families during her ten years at Cookridge, and I am sure many parents would join with me in extending their grateful thanks to Mrs Laycock for her support over the years. On Monday, we appointed Mr Green to be our Learning Mentor. Mr Green is very eager to begin working with us in January and we are very eager to have him in school working with our children, staff and families to strengthen what we do and continue our mission to ensure every child in our school thrives.

NWLEPT (North West Leeds Education Partnership Trust) News

Having been formalised on August 31^st 2012, our Trust partnership with Iveson, Ireland Wood and Ralph Thoresby High School has got off to a good start. The Head teachers from each school have met regularly since September, and an action plan which outlines our focus for this year has been developed with all four schools’ individual developmental priorities in mind. A maths and writing focus have therefore been decided. We are now beginning that work, with collaboration amongst our maths and literacy leaders and theirs we hope to make rapid progress in the areas identified. This collaboration will see the development of a consistent calculation policy, the sharing of approaches to the teaching of maths and writing (including observing one another’s lessons) and developing awareness of assessment frameworks across the four schools. Miss Fowler got the activity started this week by observing Literacy in Year 6 at Iveson Primary School. This is an exciting time for us, and is only a starting point in terms of what can be achieved together.

Morrison’s” Let’s Grow” vouchers

We have collected 2,927 Morrisons "Let's Grow" vouchers and have put in an order for garden and cookery equipment which will arrive next April. We have ordered garden gloves, a mini wheelbarrow and cookery scales amongst other items. Thank you so much for collecting the vouchers as this really is a great source of much needed, good quality and free equipment for the allotment and our green fingered children.

Friends

Our PTA group met last night for a very exciting and well attended meeting which saw us finalise arrangements for the Christmas Fair on Tuesday 18^th December from 3.05 till 4.30pm – put the date in your diary because Santa certainly has! We also pencilled a number of Friends events in for across the school year, and we look forward to bringing you news of a movie night (January), a possible January sale or  ‘swish’ event, an evening magic show for families (March), and a Strictly Come Dancing event in the summer – strictly for grown ups! We are hoping to continue the excellent work of the PTA in raising funds for our school to enable us to buy things that we wouldn’t ordinarily be in a position to buy.. But we want to have fun along the way so we hope you can join us!

Christmas Dinner

Each year in school those children who eat school dinners have a Christmas dinner day – a traditional Christmas meal as we approach this momentous event. This year, I would like to extend this offer to everyone, so that even those who prefer packed lunches day to day can – if they want – join in with the festivities for a one-off event. If your child wants a Christmas dinner on the 13^th December, please speak to Mrs Hyde in the school office by Friday 23^rd November so that we can get the food ordered and let the preparations commence!

Attendance
We are a matter of weeks away now from our first 100% attendance certificates for the year, and a good number of children so far have maintained this impeccable record during the 10 weeks so far this year. If this IS you, keep it up. It would be GREAT to have double the number of children attend our end of year 100% attendance trip at the end of this year – last year about 40 children made it.. Can 80 or more this year?? Our overall attendance figure of 96.5% is brilliant and I continue to be very thankful of your support with this – and many other – agendas.

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation		Target 2012-13		Attendance this week				Year to date
95%		96%		96.2%				96.5%
Class attendance figures for this week are:-
Rec	Class 1	Class 2	Class 3		Class 4	Class 5	Class 6		Class 7	Class 8	Class 9
A95.5% B91.8%	98.5%	96.3%	96.1%		99.6%	97.9%\AZ	94.3%		95.9%	97.2%	97.8%

Robin Wood Residential
Next week sees the second of our residential visits this year. After our first ever International resi last term, our Y5 children set off next week for 3 days at Dobroyd Castle in Lancashire. Mr Maldonado, Miss Glendinning, Mrs Hawkins and I are lucky enough to accompany the children on this visit, and we are all VERY excited. There is a very packed agenda, and the children will be enjoying archery, climbing, caving, canoeing and raft building, will tackle the zip wire, the giant swing and trapeze and at some point will have to face the ultimate challenge: carefully balancing to cross the Piranha Pool... More news next week!

International Visitors
Next week also sees our Commenius Partners arrive in school. During this two year partnership, teachers from our school have visited Ireland, Slovakia, Finland and Birmingham and now it’s their turn to visit us. 20 International Visitors arrive throughout Wednesday, and Mrs Speak has planned a very packed itinerary for them.

Dates for this term...

Dates for the term ahead are all available to view on the blog: don’t miss out – check the dates and be sure you know what’s happening across this term. http://cookridgeprimaryschool.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/thursday-25th-october.html

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bailey