Friday 29th March 2013

Dear Parents/Carers,

Although a four day week, we’ve packed a lot in....

 

Farewell celebration

Mrs Speak and Miss Cowles leave us today. Both ladies have had a long lasting impact on literally hundreds of children at Cookridge Primary school, and both leave with our hearty thanks for all their hard work and our very best wishes for the future. It was wonderful to join parents on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate with Mrs Speak. Enormous thanks to Governors Mounia Gazanayi and Hanadee Kurdee and our Arabic community, who provided delicious food and presented a gifts on behalf of the community in thanks of Mrs Speaks work. There are a few photos on the blog as a memento of this very special event!

 

Easter Egg Competition

The entries for the annual ‘decorate an Egg’ competition were pretty spectacular! Our children certainly are creative geniuses when they put their minds to it – and it was very hard to choose winning entries from the many fantastic designs on show, so much so that I couldn’t do it single handed. Congratulations to everyone who entered and to those who won the lovely egg-tastic prizes! Enjoy...

 

Parent Consultations

Enormous thanks to all parents who are able to attend consultations this week. Staff have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to talk about your children with you – there is a great deal of pride in the quality of learning that is happening in school and there is nothing more special than sharing the secrets contained within a child’s book. A quick comparison between page one and the most recent learning really tells the story of your child’s learning between September and now. On behalf of all adults in school, can I thank you for your incredibly positive feedback to teachers during these consultations. Your kind words really do matter, and I have spoken to many teachers across this week who have been utterly thrilled with something kind that has been said.

 

Thanks also for all those parents who took the time to chat with school governors and/or complete a questionnaire. This feedback will be compiled and the findings shared with you after the Easter break. The feedback is overwhelmingly very positive, but inevitably matters are flagged which we are able to address as a school. Homework still appears to be the main source of disquiet and this is a matter we want to get right.

 

Finally, my apologies to parents of children in both Class 1 and Reception whose appointments were cancelled as a result of staff illness this week. We will reschedule those meetings as soon after Easter as we are able to.

 

Y4 Robin Wood residential assembly

Enormous congratulations to Miss Carroll, Miss Glendinning and the Y4 children who presented an excellent assembly for parents this week. The residential was great fun and the children shared the details of each of the activities they enjoyed during their three day stay – and there were LOTS! We hope to share the magical experience of Robin Wood with a further group of Y4 children next year (this year’s year 3 pupils).  Parents are invited to an information session where you can find out more about this fantastic trip.  The session will be led by Miss Glendinning in Class 6 on Thursday 18^th April @ 3.15.  We need to confirm our booking with Robin Wood soon after Easter and if we do not have sufficient numbers, I’m afraid the visit cannot go ahead - which would be a great shame. If you are undecided, please come along to the information session to find out more.

 

 

Y6 residential assembly

Miss Fowler and Y6 formally invite parents along to their assembly to celebrate their Caythorpe capers. All welcome on Thursday 18^th from 2pm...

Sports News

Thank you to all parents and children who have returned slips and payment for the brand new Kick boxing club. There are still a few places available so if your child is interested then please see either Mrs Hyde or Mr Gamble ASAP.

 

Due to the training day first week back, football club will resume on Monday 22nd April...Weather permitting. 

The rearranged date for the Y5 tag rugby tournament is the first Tuesday back, 16th April. All children involved will have received a letter.

After school sports clubs change after the Easter break. Please log onto the school sports blog, http://cookridgeschoolsport.blogspot.co.uk/,  for an updated list of clubs and signed up children. If you are interested in any club, please see Mr Gamble or Mrs Hyde.

 

Attendance

I trust you all received your termly attendance updates this week and found these informative. There are exactly 13 school weeks left this academic year (!) and so it is still possible to transform an amber position into a green one before the year is out with 130 sessions of attendance up for grabs. On Monday, it took around ten minutes to present those children with 100% attendance their coveted certificate. Children are awarded 100% certificates for each term – and a very high number were presented for this Spring term. A subset of those children were awarded a different certificate for their fantastic achievement of 100% across two terms so far. Remember – if you manage to maintain 100% across the year, you will be going on the very special annual attendance trip to the movies, so keep it up.... !

 

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation		Target 2012-13		Attendance this week				Year to date
95%		96%		91.2%				95.2%
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 91.1% B 82.6%	92.8%	88.2%	93.5%		92.0%	92.7%	89.5%		87.2%	96.4%	96.2%

 

Coffee Morning

The next coffee morning will be on Wednesday 24^th April @9am and will be led, this time, by our newly appointed SENCO Mrs Dawson. Mrs Dawson is very committed to her new role and looks forward to finding a million different ways we can help our families to thrive, whatever the need – help is out there, if only we ask for it.  Please use this opportunity to come in and speak with Mrs Dawson about anything you like...

 

Don’t forget, we return to school on Tuesday 16^th April after the Easter holidays as there is a staff training day on Monday 15^th. 

 

Have a wonderful break..  

 

Mrs Bailey

Mrs Speak is leaving us!

And so today, we bid farewell to Mrs Speak as she gets ready to take on her new role at New Bewerley Primary School. It was a real celebration of Mrs Speak's hard work over many years, and was entirely led by the parents of Cookridge Primary School - making it all the more special.

This group of parents are so grateful for all that Mrs Speak has done for our school that they voluntarily prepared food, drinks and organised a shin-dig in school, presenting gifts and sharing their thoughts as to why Mrs Speak is soooooooo wonderful and how she has positively effected all of our lives during her time with us.

 

 Mrs Speak will not be going alone.... She's got a new friend to take with her!!!

A very talented Mounia actually made this cake... !


Mrs Speak was genuinely touched by the kind words of parents, both present this afternoon and also over the course of the past week.

Good luck Mrs Speak - we will miss you!

Friday 22nd March 2013

Dear Parents/Carers,

Four days to go and still so much happening in school! This week, Reception pupils visited Ralph Thoresby in search of the Easter bunny. Now – I might be mistaken but I suspect that an Easter Egg hunt IN THE SNOW does not happen very often? Wonderful weather we’re having! Mark’s Magic Show was a phenomenal success and the KS1 team have quite simply transformed the KS1 corridor into a phenomenal celebration of Literacy learning across this half term. Using practically every board in the building, they have created a spectacular Julia Donaldson display adjacent to the library that simply has to be seen to be believed! Three cheers for Mrs Farrell, Mrs Hallatt and the KS1 team (children and adults!) – be sure to call and see it when you are in school for parent consults next week!

 

Parent Consultations

Don’t forget: next week brings the opportunity to sit down for a chat with your child’s class teacher. You should, by now, have your appointment slip – if not please contact the school office who will be happy to allocate one of the remaining slots.

 

During this round of consultations, we will be seeking your views! Governors will be in attendance and will be catching as many of you as possible, encouraging you to complete a survey. This is your chance to tell us what we’re doing well, what we could do better and perhaps even things that we haven’t even thought about doing yet: this is your school, and your opportunity to shape it! Please take a few minutes to complete the survey in between meetings and post them in the boxes available.

 

Leavers Event: Wednesday 27^th March

Since the news in last week’s newsletter, you have been busy! A group of parents have been in touch to organise an event to celebrate Mrs Speak’s promotion and departure from our school. All parents and governors are invited to join the celebration from 1.30 – 3pm on Wednesday. My thanks to those parents who have galvanised themselves to organise the event: I’m certain Mrs Speak will be very touched by your good wishes.

 

Staffing News

As you know, Miss Cowles returned from Maternity Leave just before Christmas. She has since secured a post at another Leeds school in a role which allows her to spend more time with her little man, and will be leaving us at Easter. Miss Cowles has been a fabulous and fun teacher at Cookridge for over five years, and I am certain that those children who have been lucky enough to be in her class have loved every minute. We wish Miss Cowles and baby Seth a beautiful and bright future...  After Easter, we will be joined by Mrs Withington. Mrs Withington will be in school all of next week around Class 4 and I’m sure she’ll appreciate a warm Cookridge welcome: pop in and say hello!

 

Friends Spot

Mark’s Magic Show on Wednesday was a phenomenal success and I’m assured much fun was had by all. Sadly, I was in a governors meeting and missed all the magic... Including levitation! I have reserved my spot on the front row next year. Enormous thanks to Mrs Herbert and Mr and Mrs Nixon who manned the event as a dynamic team of three... We really do need more hands on deck if we are to fulfil our dream of these fun, family events becoming bigger, better and more frequent! If you can get involved – please do come along to the next Friends meeting, or email us to say how you can help.

 

The next Friends event is the Easter Disco on Thursday 28^th March. Reception and KS1 children will dance from 3.00 and should be collected from their classroom doors at 4pm. KS2 (years 3-6) should arrive for a 4pm start and should be collected from the hall doors at 5pm. Y56 children who normally make their own way home are welcome to do so.

 

Revised date for Movie Night: Thursday April 18^th 6-7.45pm. 

Sports News

Football- After another cancellation due to the poor weather, Football Club will resume on Monday 25th March (weather permitting). The Y5/6 football team resume their local league matches next Wednesday with games at Adel St John Primary, again weather permitting. Good luck boys!

 

Rugby- The Y5 Rugby Day at Yarnbury was cancelled yesterday due to snow and the condition of the playing fields. It will be rescheduled for as soon as possible and those children who were attending will receive another confirmation letter.

 

Kickboxing Club- After an exciting assembly this morning led by John Lloyd, Kickboxing Club, for Y3-Y6, will start in the hall on Thursdays (3:15-4:15) after the Easter break. All children in Key Stage 2 will be bringing home a letter today, places at the club are limited so please return your reply slip as soon as possible to ensure your child receives a place. My thanks to Ben Walker for making this introduction and hopefully enticing other children to take up this sport longer term through the club that Mr Lloyd runs locally. This year, we have introduced a wide range of sports to the itinerary at Cookridge and hope to have got children interested in a sport they may never have experienced otherwise: thanks to Mr Gamble for his work in this field.

 

Attendance

Next week, you will receive your termly letter sharing an update for your child’s attendance for the year so far. Remember, letters are red, amber or green – green letters celebrating children who have managed to maintain attendance above the school target of 96% this year and amber marking the large group who could still achieve that with impeccable attendance in the final term! At this point in the year, 43 children have done remarkably well to avoid the bugs and have so far maintained 100% attendance this school year and are on track for the end of year trip to celebrate their achievement. Keep it up guys.

 

Sadly, attendance this week is below our 95% ‘good’ benchmark and has reduced the year to date by 0.1%. Every little helps – please do your bit to support your child’s learning by ensuring they are in school whenever they are well enough to do so.

 

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation		Target 2012-13		Attendance this week				Year to date
95%		96%		94.6%				95.3%
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 96.1% B 87.5%	98.1%	97.4%	95.6%		94.9%	95.5%	95.7%		90.4%	93.3%	95.2%

 

 

Easter Egg competition

Final call for entrants to the annual Easter Egg competition! Children can bring their decorated eggs into school from Monday, and might just win the coveted prize! If you are looking for inspiration, just have a look at some of last year’s entries on the blog: http://cookridgeprimaryschool.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/egg-straordinary-eggs.html 

Final thought... A reminder that we break up on Thursday 28^th March and return to school on Tuesday 16^th April after the Easter holidays. A lovely long break for you! I wonder if there will be any sign of Spring when we get back for the SUMMER term?!

 

Have a wonderful weekend,

 

 

Mrs Bailey

Snow update!

School is open as usual, despite the snow. All staff are making their way in, and conditions on the site/main roads are safe. Tinshill Drive is a bit hazardous, so please take extra care at this point.

Please keep an eye on Twitter / the blog throughout the day. We will advise IF we are advising an early closure, as we are aware the snow is forecast to continue throughout the day..... Despite the fact that it is MARCH!!!!

Friday 15th March 2013

Dear Parents/Carers,

And so we reach the point in the term when we realise we only have NINE DAYS left until the next holiday! After that, of course, we are into our final term of the year and begin our preparations for the academic year ahead. Where does the time go?

Red Nose Day 2013

Today was just another brilliant event and memory filled day. Wearing red, we each enjoyed our hour of Wacky Races, including the red nose and spoon race! Thanks to you we also had a magnificent bun sale – something the children really do love. The real highlight of the day for me was assembly, led by Miss Hobson. Miss Hobson challenged the staff to RND2013 missions... Miss Glendinning had to stand in a bucket full of jelly, Mr Green shaved his beard off live in assembly and I had to put as many marshmallows in my mouth as possible. That’s a whole lot of marshmallows and made for a peaceful assembly! Once again, grateful thanks to Miss Hobson for her organisation – she is quickly becoming the ‘Events Queen’ of Cookridge and little wonder: it’s always a fun day with Miss Hobson around.

Parent Consultations

We are really looking forward to welcoming you into school to talk about your child’s learning and progress since October. We think you will be very impressed by the incredible learning evident in the children’s books, on the walls and in the classrooms! You should by now have had your letter asking you which days/times suit you for our Parent Consultations during the week commencing 25^th March. Please return your slips by Friday 15^th March so that appointments can be allocated. Thank you.

Staffing News

It is with immense pride that I share with you news of Mrs Speak’s fantastic achievement. As you know, Mrs Speak took on the role of Assistant Head at Cookridge in January 2012 and has been a fantastic asset in our journey towards a good and outstanding school. As a result of this, she has secured herself a Deputy Head’s post at New Bewerley Primary and is due to move on to take on that fresh challenge after Easter – just 4 weeks from now. She faced tough competition for the coveted role and it is testament to Mrs Speak’s hard work and proven leadership skills over many years that she pipped them all to the post. I am certain that New Bewerley will be a better place for securing her services, and I am sure you would like to join me in congratulating Jo, and wishing her all the very best in her future career. As Mrs Speak has been such a key figure in school for many years, I would invite any parents who would like to make a contribution to her collection to do so via the office.

After Easter, we will be joined by Mrs Lorraine Turner, an Assistant Head teacher from another Leeds school who comes highly recommended and who will be taking on some of Mrs Speak’s role on a short term ‘secondment’ basis. I’m confident we can make use of her expertise in Literacy, Assessment, SEN and Foundation Stage in the coming months! We look forward to welcoming Mrs Turner and making the most of her great enthusiasm for a fresh challenge in a completely different school context...

Y6 photographs

Don’t forget - orders for the Y6 photos are to be returned by Friday 22nd March. Thanks.

Friends/PTA event planner

Mark’s Magic Show March 20^th 2013
Easter Disco Thursday 28^th March. Reception and KS1 3.00-4.00, KS2 4.00-5.00. Please return the slip below by 22^nd March if your child would like to boogie their way home on that final Thursday...  
Revised date for Movie Night: Thursday April 18^th 6-7.45pm.  

Sports News

Football Club- After cancelling due to the frozen field on Monday, Key Stage 2 Football Club will resume on Monday (18th March).

 On Tuesday, 10 children from Years 5 and 6 went to Ralph Thoresby High School to take part in a new competition for primary schools. The event was based around the paralympics and included boccia, goal ball, seated volleyball and curling. After completing all events, the scores were totted up and Cookridge came out WINNERS!! The children who competed were Ben Moxon, Nathan Brown, Teisier Jabor, Darcy Bucknell, Taylor Longden, Essay Belay, Bradley Simpson, Sara Hajji, Kaceylee Reynolds and Willow Driscoll-Duke. Huge congratulations to them all, you were a great team, behaviour was impeccable and you were great representatives of Cookridge Primary - well done!

 Catering Assistant - Vacancy

Cookridge Primary School
7½  Hours per Week -  Monday to Friday –  12 Noon until 1.30pm
Term Time Only
£6.19 per hour / 38 weeks Equated over 52 weeks

 This is an external vacancy, offered by Pinnacle who prepare our school meals, and so if you are interested in this role please contact Diane Porter – Cook In Charge – Cookridge Primary School or Chris Tate – Catering Manager on – 07802 262453

 

Attendance

We have only just secured the ‘good’ tag for ourselves this week – just 0.1% over the 95% expectation. Our year to date remains half way between good and great... There are just 16 school weeks left to hold our position or – even better – improve it. I’m confident the weather is set to improve soon (?!) and with the sunshine, we will get rid of the winter bugs and enjoy the summer term in school. With great attendance for the last 16 weeks, we could STILL be up and over 96% - it’s possible!

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation		Target 2012-13		Attendance this week				Year to date
95%		96%		95.1%				95.4%
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 98.7% B 87.5%	96.9%	96.7%	96.3%		96.6%	94.1%	93.0%		94.3%	94.2%	96.7%

Your final challenge for this half term!

Easter is coming and we break up just 9 days from now. It’s been an eventful half term and it’s not over yet! From the week commencing 25^th March, you are invited to present your entries for our annual Easter Egg competition. Decorate an egg, be as creative as you like, and you may – just MAY – win the Easter Egg prize! If you are looking for inspiration, just have a look at some of last year’s entries on the blog:  http://cookridgeprimaryschool.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/egg-straordinary-eggs.html . Eggs should be brought into school from 25^th March, ready for judging and prize giving on Thursday 29^th. Good luck!

Next week I have a coffee morning diaried, 9-10 on Wednesday 20^th. I would love to see you there, whatever your reasons for coming along. Take this as an opportunity to ask questions about your school, to suggest changes, give feedback or just have a chat over a coffee with friends. See you there.

 

Last thing... Advance warning: There is a Training Day on Monday 15^th April, so children return to school on Tuesday 16^th after Easter... Almost May!

 

Have a wonderful weekend,

 

Mrs Bailey