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 7th 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!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 31st
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 18th 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 13th December, please speak to Mrs Hyde in the school office by Friday 23rd 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
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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%
|
||
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
