Friday 26 April 2013

Friday 26th April 2013


Dear Parents/Carers,

I have no idea where this week has gone! Yet again, we find ourselves on Friday and looking ahead to the weekend...

 

Slovakia

Miss Glendinning, Mrs Hawkins, Mr El Sayed and Mrs Riley have this week travelled to Slovakia in the final International visit of the two year Commenius project we are currently involved with. Children from across school have worked on art projects – so the team certainly had plenty to fill their suitcases with to offer gifts to our partnership schools in Slovakia, Finland, Ireland and Birmingham. The project, this time, has focused on developing a shared understanding of environmental issues and ways in which we can each, individually, help combat them. Alongside this valuable learning for the children and the opportunity to communicate with children in our four partner schools, the staff have obviously benefited from the opportunity to see what happens in classrooms across Europe. This current Commenius project draws to a close during half term, when a party of staff will visit Birmingham for the closing meeting. Let’s hope we are able to get involved with further International projects in the future..

 

Before and after school access to school

You are very welcome to come into school to speak to a member of staff before or after school, whatever your reasons for needing to do so. Obviously, at 8.45am each morning the teaching staff are very focused on the day ahead and so if you need to speak to them urgently, please come into the school office so that we can organise it as a matter of urgency.  Alternatively, school staff are positioned on each doorway so that any urgent messages can be passed to relevant staff or dealt with on your behalf. In the interests of pupil safeguarding, can parents who need to come into school for any reason please come in via the school office and refrain from slipping in through the classrooms. Thank you.

 

Parentmail

From time to time, we have a need to communicate with you urgent information. Snow updates are a prime example, but there are many other occasions when the ability to text a group of parents is invaluable. It is our aim to get 100% sign up for the service in the coming months and so we ask for your help in achieving this. It couldn’t be simpler – simply complete the slip below and return to the school office.. We will do the rest! Can any parents who have changed their mobile number in the last 12 months also please complete the form so that we can update our records, for both Parentmail and urgent school contact information. Thank you.

 

Friends

Last night, the Friends group met to discuss the year’s events. It’s been a busy year for us, with lots of lovely family friendly events for us all to enjoy. We hope to be able to offer even more of these in the year ahead. As we now have an idea of the kind of events that have been popular, we will get our thinking caps on. If you yourself have any ideas – then please share! Last night, we began the planning for the Summer Fair which will be held on Saturday 15th June 2013 from 2pm-4pm. Put the date in your diaries and be sure to come along! This week, we will be putting an appeal for help on every classroom door. Don’t ignore it – if you are able to lend a hand if only for an hour on the day OR the day before when there is plenty of setting up to do... Step forward! We need you.

 

Class Photographs

Tempest will be in school on the morning of Tuesday 7th May to take Class Photographs. A proof will be sent home so that you and your child can place an order and have a memento of their friends and teachers during this school year. If you would like one – please return the proof to school as soon as possible.

 

Sports News

The Year 5/6 Football team have games coming thick and fast at the moment. Next Tuesday, the team take on Adel St John and Ireland Wood in a double header of league fixtures at Adel St John Primary. Once again – good luck, team.


Mr Lloyd is back in school next Friday to do another taster assembly for children who might be interested in Kickboxing.  We are hoping to run a kickboxing after school club during the final half-term but need a certain number of children to sign up to make it feasible. Thank you to those parents and children who have already returned reply slips, we will let you know more details as soon as possible.

 

This year, our after school sports provision has offered a whole host of new sports and experiences. We are currently making plans for our Sports offer for 2013-14. The Government has pledged an additional sum of money to schools to ensure that this aspect of primary school life is strengthened – which makes the year ahead an exciting one! Mr Gamble will shortly be circulating a survey to all parents to gather feedback from the after school sports provision he put in place this year. Please take a few moments to give us your views – as this will influence our decisions for the year ahead.

 

Attendance

This week’s attendance is championed by Class 2 who have managed almost 98% Well done to Class 2 – it’s not the first time lately Cookie has been to play with you!

 

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation
Target
2012-13
Attendance this week
Year to date
95%
96%
94.8%
95.1%
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 91.7%
B 95.4%
93.9%
97.4%
95.6%
94.0%
95.5%
93.0%
92.9%
96.9%
96.3%

 

Have a wonderful weekend, 

 

Mrs Bailey

Friday 19 April 2013

Friday 19th April 2013


Dear Parents/Carers,

It’s been a joy and a pleasure to be back in school this week. A little bit of sunshine, new topics and a summer term to look forward to have given us that spring in our step that the never ending snow was slowly zapping!  This week we have welcomed Mrs Turner into her post as Acting Deputy Head, Mrs Withington to her post as Class 4 teacher and Mrs Dawson has settled into her role as the Special Needs Coordinator. Exciting times...

 

KS1 trip to Filey

On Tuesday, 90 children and a LOT of adults travelled all the way to Filey for a day on the beach. This marked the beginning of a fantastic seaside topic and the children – and staff – had an absolute ball. It should not go unnoticed that every adult I spoke to about the trip commended the children’s impeccable behaviour and commented upon the sheer joy of seeing the children’s excitement. For some children, this was their first ever visit to the seaside: what better way to learn about a contrasting locality to the city of Leeds than by strolling along the beach? Enormous thanks to Miss Golia for the organisation of a brilliant day, and to all the staff and parents who volunteered their time to make it possible.

 

Y4 visit to Robin Wood 2013-14

Miss Glendinning and Miss Fowler were happy to welcome parents to talk about the excellent Y4 residential to Robin Wood on Thursday. We hope that you were assured that the visit is a spectacular experience and not to be missed. Please can all expressions of interest be made to Mrs Hyde by Friday 26th April so that we can finalise numbers. We just need five more trekkers to secure their place before the trip can go ahead – we would be very sad to cancel so don’t dismiss it... please come and talk to us if you have any reservations.

 

Swimming

Finally, I am able to bring parents of Y4 children good news. After a whole term without swimming, we have managed to secure a booking for swimming at Prince Henry’s Chippendale pool. We will be travelling by bus to the pool for our slot on a Friday afternoon and this will commence on Friday 26th April. Please ensure your child has their swimming kit in school next Friday.

 

Baby news!

I am delighted to share with you news of the birth of Mr Green’s son. George Walter Bennett Green was born four weeks earlier than expected on 11th April and weighed just 5lb 8oz... Both mum and George are well, and Mr Green is recovering well... :0) Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Green – we’re thrilled for you both – and welcome to the world, George.

 

Coats

As the weather warms up, the children very quickly discard their coats in the playground and our task of matching children and coats at the end of lunchtime gets trickier! Please help us to ensure that your expensive coats come home again by simply writing your child’s name inside of the coat.

 

Movie Night, School Disco, Magic Show and more..

The Friends group have to be celebrated for their incredible work on behalf of your children. In the last few weeks, all of the above events have been organised by a very small number of dedicated parents. All of the events have been a great success as they have been fun, family events AND raised a little bit of money for our school. If you have a few hours to spare please come along to the next Friends meeting on Thursday 25th April at 6.30pm and find out how you can help organise the next event - the beloved Summer Fair!

 

Sports News

On Tuesday, 22 Year 5 children walked to Yarnbury to take part in a Leeds North West qualifying Tag Rugby tournament. After a morning of coaching, three teams took part in a competition involving 5 other local primary schools. Teams B and C came second in both their groups with outstanding performances from Matty Caines (8 tries) and Ben Moxon (8 tries). Faisal Al-Shareef, Essay Belay, Taylor Barron and Matthew Hampshire all scored a try each too! Team A won their group, winning all their matches, and progressed onto the semi-final for the first time in Cookridge's history! Despite losing, they qualified for the next round which is the Leeds Regional Tournament. A HUGE congratulation and well done to all children and especially those in Team A who were: Mackenzie Turner (10 tries), Liam Jones (6 tries), Shazanna Morton (1 try), Cobie Hey (1 try), Joshua Harrison (1 try), Nathan Brown (3 tries) and Darcy Bucknell (1 try). A BIG thank you to Joshua Harrison's dad Colin for coming along to help and support Mr Gamble and Mrs Horsley.


After a few false starts, Key Stage 2 Football Club resumes on Monday 22nd April. Let's hope the wintry weather has finally finished and the season ahead is a winning one!


The Y5/6 Netball Team will compete in a High 5 Netball Tournament on Monday at Prince Henry's and the Year 5/6 Football Team kick start their season against Adel St John on Friday 26th April. Good luck to both teams – bring home the trophies!

 

Attendance

We really do need to work hard on our attendance this term – we don’t have much to play with now as we are skirting dangerously close to the bottom line position of 95%. Please help us to ensure we do not drop below this minimum expectation for a ‘good’ school by ensuring your child is in school every day that they are well enough to do so. If we could secure some weeks nearer to 100% than 95%, we could still improve our position – I’m ever hopeful and would LOVE to register a day when every single child is in school!

 

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation
Target
2012-13
Attendance this week
Year to date
95%
96%
94.3%
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 96.5%
B 94.4%
91.5%
96.8%
90.6%
92.2%
95.9%
92.8%
96.4%
95.5%
95.1%

 

 

Coffee Morning

The next coffee morning is next Wednesday 24th April at 9am and will be led, this time, by our newly appointed SENCO Mrs Dawson and Deputy Head Mrs Turner. They are very much looking forward to chatting to parents of pupils right across school so please come along to Funtime and say “hello”!

 

Have a wonderful weekend, 

 

Mrs Bailey