Friday 27th January 2012

Dear Parents/Carers,

 
Another busy week has whizzed by – I can barely believe it’s February next week and we have not had a drop of snow so far this academic year. Fingers crossed.. ! This week I have been observing numeracy across school. I have seen some great learning from Reception to Class 8. We are putting some challenging stuff in front of our little learners, who are busy working with partners to secure new learning at a great pace. I am delighted by what I am seeing... and look forward to seeing more of it next week! If you haven’t already, please have a look at the super set of maths games available on the school website to support your child’s mathematical learning at home. Click here to have a look. These are being used brilliantly in sessions and I am sure that your children will settle down to play yet more maths games at home given the chance!

Friends

Our PTA group met on Thursday to discuss the next phase of fundraising. So far this year, Friends have raised over £2,000 towards our playground developments which will be completed over the Summer. Friends also subsidises school visits across school each year and is a very powerful fund raising enterprise that greatly enhances the school experience for all of our children. Thank you for your ongoing support to the Friends events. If you are able to lend a hand towards the organisation that goes on behind the scenes – please do contact us via the school website, or call in and see us. More details of upcoming events will be revealed shortly...

Parking

Over the course of the last few months, I have received many complaints about the parking situation before school, in particular. This week, a concerned parent revealed their concerns about the safety of all of our children as - whilst escorting their child into school this week - they were almost run over. A local resident has also reported an incident in which he was verbally abused for challenging a parent’s decision to park in front of his drive. It is embarrassing that the behaviour of a few of our parents is leading to an unacceptable situation. The safety of our pupils is a very real concern and I fear that the sometimes chaotic situation outside of school will lead to an accident before long. I am currently liaising with the local community to see how we might overcome these difficulties, and am in the process of finalising arrangement for our very own walking bus. If you are available to ‘man’ the walking bus on even an infrequent basis, do get in touch as it is likely to be more successful if we have ample support. More news on the walking bus shortly.. In the meantime, please drive carefully and park with due respect to the road markings – for the safety of our entire community.

Playground supervision

Please be aware that children remain the responsibility of parents until school opens at 8.45 each morning. Children on site before this time are insured by Leeds City Council but as a visitor on site, and the legal advice to schools is that they do not endeavour to provide supervision before the designated school start time. Children arriving into the school playground unattended are not, thereby, supervised by school staff before 8.45 and my advice is that they should, thereby, be supervised by parents. There are places available at Funtime breakfast club. If you would like more information, please contact Ann Sadler at Funtime via the school office.

Foundation Thinking Day

Brownies, Guides, Scouts, Cubs & Beavers are invited to wear their uniform to school on Wednesday 22^nd February 2012 to commemorate Lord Baden Powell’s birthday.

Much Ado About The Grand

Don’t forget - Class 8 will be performing their spectacular, self penned show on 1^st February and you are welcome to attend. If you have not yet bought a ticket, do come and find us.. More information can be found on Class 8’s brand new blog spot www.class8cookridge.blogspot.com. I cannot wait!

Attendance

Our attendance this week was a healthy 96% This is another good week for us and continues an improving trend. I am very grateful to all parents who are helping us to make great progress in improving this aspect of school. Cookie – our attendance mascot – has spent the week in Class 1b with Miss Hobson and the gang. He has had another wonderful week of fun both in the classroom and in the homes of some of our families. He’s having a whale of a time and has quickly become a much loved member of the Cookridge community. We will find out on Monday which class has the highest attendance and where he will be next week.

Please remember, we are legally obliged to make first day contact with the parents of pupils who are absent from school. This is a safeguarding measure to allow schools to ensure all children are accounted for – either safely in school or at home with an adult who knows their whereabouts. Please telephone the school office to notify us of a school absence by 9.30am.

And finally...

Sadly, one of our children had their scooter stolen from the playground shelters this week. It was a birthday present, and the young lady concerned was obviously very upset. If you saw anything untoward or have any idea as to it’s whereabouts – please let us know. I am sure that you are as sad as I am that that this has happened in our community.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Bailey

Cookie's exploits...

Cookie's first week at Cookridge has been fantastic. I have seen the daily diary entry that children in Class 5 have written - and I can tell you that they have made sure he's had fun this week! He's even spent his evening at home with a few of his new friends... I am sure that he is glad Cookridge is his new home.

We will find out on Monday which class had the highest attendance last week and - therefore -  where he will be spending the next week...

Friday 20th January 2012

Dear Parents/Carers,

This week has seen two exciting developments in school.. On Monday our new attendance mascot ‘Cookie’ arrived in school. He has spent the week with Class 5 and has had the time of his life! Each day, one of the children has taken Cookie home and recorded his special adventures in his diary. From what I’ve seen so far, he’s been treated like a King as a fully fledged member of a remarkable, high achieving and high attending class! Our second exciting event arrived in the form of a visitor into school on Wednesday. Debbie Hepplewhite - Government advisor, author and program writer who has developed the new Oxford Reading Tree phonics materials we are beginning to use - visited us in school. Debbie was most impressed with the staff and children and the wonderful atmosphere across school – and she’s right about the energy and excitement that is alive and well in Cookridge! She has given us some great ‘top tips’ to get us going and will be back soon to do some work in class with us. She is keen to work with Cookridge to develop model practice in this field, and this is something we are very excited about...


Raving about Reading – Playing with Poetry
As you may remember, back in November a fantastic poet called Nick Toczek visited our school. After giving a wonderful assembly full of poems and magic, he worked with children from Cookridge and other local schools to develop their skills in poetry.  Fiona Shakespeare, Jack Hoyle, Emma Rushfirth, Cerys Jones, Phyllis Hoyle and Lewis Bird - 6 of our brilliant pupils - took part in the workshop. They had a wonderful time writing poems inspired by Nick’s own work and were absolutely buzzing after the day.  This week, they presented some of their work to the school and now you can enjoy it in the leaflet we have sent home. It really is of a very high standard and we are very proud of their efforts. Following this presentation (to keep us all ‘raving about reading’ at Cookridge) a travelling box of Nick’s books has started a journey around school, visiting each class on it’s way. So please ask your child what they have read and join in our passion for reading at Cookridge!

Sports News

In Basketball news... there are two further basketball training sessions on Monday 6th and Monday 20th February with the tournament on Thursday 23rd February at Horsforth High.

Netball club has resumed again on a Tuesday after school. Any child in Year 5 or 6 that would like to join, please see either me, Miss Fowler or Miss Golia.

Football Club - will hopefully be starting again for both Y3/4 and Y5/6 end of Feb/ early March. A letter will be sent out nearer the time. Can children who no longer wish to come please let me know as there is a waiting list for places!

The Year 5/6 team have a friendly match on Tuesday 7th Feb (weather permitting) against Holy Name, at Holy Name Primary. There is also a league game at Cookridge (again weather permitting) on Thursday 9^th February against the reigning league champions - Adel St John. Wish us luck!


International Comenius Project

Our thanks to parents and pupils who completed and returned their questionnaires to help us get our project underway. If you haven’t yet – there’s still time! Please spare a few minutes to lend a hand.

Foundation Thinking Day

Brownies, Guides, Scouts, Cubs & Beavers are invited to wear their uniform to school on Wednesday 22^nd February 2012 to commemorate Lord Baden Powell’s birthday.

Much Ado About The Grand

Class 8 have launched an aggressive marketing campaign this week to get their enterprise project underway. Class 8 have joined the blogging frenzy and have created their own – see it evolve at www.class8cookridge.blogspot.com. A reminder that tickets are now on sale for their stunning performance on 1^st February and can be bought in the school hall after school every day. The children are very excited by their Alan Sugar style task and we are all very eager to see if they manage to turn a profit on their first money making venture. With talents like theirs, I will be very surprised if they don’t!

Fun Time Childcare: February Half Term Holidays Cover 2012

We are looking at the possibility of opening on Monday 13^th and Tuesday 14^th February this year for half term cover. If you need any childcare for these 2 days then please obtain a form from Funtime room or the office this week. Completed forms need to be returned with a deposit of £10 per child by next Friday 27^th January to Ann Sadler at Funtime.

Fees are as follows: -

· £12.00 - ½ Day (8.00am to 12noon/12noon – 4.00pm)

· £21.00 – Full Day

If we do not get sufficient bookings by this date then we will not open for half term holiday cover on Monday 13^th and Tuesday 14^th February. It is necessary to make this decision, as during previous half terms there were very low numbers of parents using the holiday club. Childcare vouchers accepted.

Attendance

Our attendance this week was a healthy 96.6% This is a great improvement on recent weeks, sees us achieve our Leeds agreed target of 95.5% and is a good 2% above the Ofsted benchmark for ‘satisfactory’ attendance. Thank you very much to those parents who are supporting our drive to improve attendance - every choice you make on this really does count.

Please remember, we are legally obliged to make first day contact with the parents of pupils who are absent from school. This is a safeguarding measure to allow schools to ensure all children are accounted for – either safely in school or at home with an adult who knows their whereabouts. Please telephone the school office to notify us of a school absence by 9.30am.

And finally...

Zainab – Class 5 – came to see me on Thursday for a Head teacher’s award. She asked how many more days there are until the weekend. Thinking she was growing tired and looking forward to the weekend (as only adults do!) I reassured her only one. Only then did I realise her disappointment. “I don’t want it to be the weekend,” she said. “I would rather come to school every day....” What a wonderful note to end the week on!

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Bailey

Holt Park Newsletter

Please click here to read the latest on the Holt Park development..

Say 'hello' to Cookie...

Welcome Cookie, our new attendance mascot! Each week, the class with the highest percentage attendance overall will take Cookie back to their class for the week. Now.. Cookie likes a good time. It's important that the children who look after him each week are kind to him and make sure he has fun, fun, fun in their class... He might like extra playtime (!), a tea party, he LOVES art and making things and working in the garden - so it's your job to see that he gets a little of what he likes in between lots of super learning.

Cookie has a diary, and his exploits week-to-week will be recorded in his diary so that we know all about what he's been up to!

I wonder who will be the first class to walk away with Cookie on Monday?!

Friday 13th January 2012

Dear Parents/Carers,

Another fabulous week in school. I am seeing great learning in all classes, with children who are motivated to do their very best.. And we can’t do any better than our best! We are having a focus across school to increase the amount of talking our children are doing in class – to each other and the adults in the room. We aim to ensure that every child in school gives thought to every question asked and takes the time to talk through their answer before possibly being asked to explain their ideas to the group. This is something you can support at home – more conversation with your child at home, in the car or walking to and from school each day will help their ability to explain their ideas in school. Don’t worry about linking the talk specifically to the things they are learning in school – talk about anything and everything, whenever you can..

Much Ado About... Fantastic Learning!

Class 8 are coming to the end of an amazing project which has seen them undertake a series of visits to the Grand theatre to learn about the history, architecture and drama of this incredible venue. Across the course of the project, the children have written their own play which they intend to perform for you! The children are now on the final leg of the project, devising a marketing campaign and business plan which will hopefully see them cover the costs of the project AND make small profit which I have assured them is theirs to re-invest in their next venture.. A piece written by Class 8 on their forthcoming production:-

Come to see a Cracking Comedy at Cookridge!

On Wednesday 1st February, Class 8 will be performing an exciting extravaganza called Much Ado About the Grand.  This extraordinary show combines Shakepeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing and some Victorian characters to re-create the opening night of The Grand Theatre in 1878.  This performance is the final product after all our hard work and workshops at The Grand Theatre and is a unique play created by us. It will take place in the school hall and will start at 7.00pm. It will undoubtedly be an evening to remember so buy your tickets either at the office or look out for sales in the playground.    Tickets will be available from next week. Don’t miss out!

 

Comenius project

As you know, this year we have begun a new International partnership project with partner schools in Birmingham (Jervoise), Ireland and Slovakia. Mrs Speak, Mr Llewellyn and Mr Gamble got the project underway with their visit to Slovakia back in October, and across the course of this year and next more of our team will travel to our other partner schools to meet staff and pupils and learn about learning in other places. We need your help to get the project underway... Please complete the attached questionnaire to help us in planning out our project to reduce the school’s carbon footprint and attain ‘Green Flag’ status.

Nappy news!

Miss Cowles shared some exciting news with her class last week – the fact that she is expecting a baby! As this is Miss Cowles first baby, it is an especially exciting time for her, and her class are delighted to be sharing the excitement of her pregnancy. I am sure they are looking forward to meeting ‘baby Cowles’ almost as much as mummy and daddy are.. Miss Cowles will be taking Maternity leave from Easter.

 

Home school agreement and permission slips

We are still awaiting a small number of pupil information and permission slips. We recently sent out an update form for all pupil contact information which incorporated permissions for local trips, use of the internet in school, use of photos in school publications, the website and blog and a home-school partnership agreement. This information will be kept on record for the lifetime of your child’s Cookridge career - you will NOT be required to complete it every year, so it is well worth investing the time. If you have not already returned yours, please do so as a matter of urgency.

Garden news

Plans are well underway for 2012! Mrs Whitley has been VERY busy securing small grants and donations of materials from far and wide and the garden developments this year will include completion of the pond area, seating, fencing as well as crops aplenty! If there are any builders amongst you who can donate any bags of gravel, please let us know. If you have skills or expertise and can donate your time in helping us erect a fence – don’t be shy! We want to hear from you. Likewise, if you work for a company that is still able to support community projects in these trying times, let us know. We are also always on the look-out for parents or grandparents who can offer us a few hours in the allotment.. Please get involved with this fabulous community resource.

  

Attendance

 
Whole school attendance from Thursday 5^th January 2012 to Wednesday 12^th January was 96.5% This figure is well above the satisfactory benchmark of 94% - WELL DONE TO EVERYONE, as this marks a huge improvement on recent weeks! Our Leeds City Council target for whole school attendance this academic year expects improvement on our prior years at 95.5% - please help us to achieve this by ensuring your child is in school every day. Holiday requests in term time will not be granted and all absences of this nature will be classed as unauthorised. Can I also ask parents to ensure that they telephone school to advise of any absence by 9.30am that day.

Remember, all pupils who achieve 100% attendance each week will be entered into our weekly ‘chance’ draw and may be the lucky person in each class who secures a coveted prize!

 

 

Coffee Morning

Our next Coffee Morning is happening on Wednesday 18^th January at 9.00am. We are looking forward to welcoming back some familiar faces and – hopefully – having the opportunity to listen to your ideas for our school.  We are very keen to initiate some more parent groups during the course of this term and would love to hear the kinds of things you would come along to and possibly even enjoy... Weekly parent/toddler groups, toddler art/craft groups, adult learning clubs (maybe computers, art...?), shopping mornings (!) – whatever you fancy we will do our best to get it right for you... but we won’t know if you don’t tell us! If you haven’t already, please come along and meet Mrs Laycock and myself for this informal get together – we always make sure the biscuits are good!

  

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bailey

Talent!

Isabelle Falkiner is working incredibly hard at the moment preparing for her role in a pantomime. Isabelle is a talented dancer who has invested many hours of practice in the passionate pursuit of perfection.. and her talents have been recognised!

Isabelle will be performing in Dick Whittington (and his cat!) at Yeadon Town Hall from Friday 20th to Saturday 28th January. If you would like to go and see this marvellous production featuring Isabelle - tickets can be bought via the booking office 07785 278395.

Well done to Isabelle for this fantastic achievement.

Yesterday lunchtime, I was also treated to a special 1:1 performance by another of our talented children.. Molly Blackburn came to see me with her new guitar - a Christmas present - and demonstrated her strumming talents that she has acquired over the holidays. I am certain that Molly is destined for great things and loved every minute of her performance!


I looked in on a talented group of musicians raising a tune via a violin yesterday. The concentration on the faces of our young musicians told me what I already know - learning an instrument is not easy and requires many hours of dedication and practice...

Keep up the great work Cookridge - your talent amazes me!

Free e-books!

Follow this link to see a fabulous range of audio books and reading activities provided FREE OF CHARGE by Oxford Reading Tree..

Free e-books!

It's not JUST Biff, Chip and Kipper stories - there are many, many more for you to explore, including action, adventure and sci-fi, so GET STUCK IN! I'm sure there's something for everyone..

Let us know what you think via the message boards on the school website.

Friday 6th January 2012

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back! I trust that you all had a wonderful Christmas break and enjoyed the rest.. On behalf of the staff team let me firstly wish you all a Happy New Year. The children have returned to school full of news about their most exciting of holidays and bubbling with enthusiasm for the new school term. There has been an exhilarating atmosphere in school this week with all of our children getting excited by new topics and new challenges, and getting to know the newest members of our teaching team. Miss Hobson and Mrs Caldecott have made a fabulous start in Classes 1 and 6 and I am sure that you will join with me in welcoming them to our community.

Staff training day

On Tuesday, teaching staff returned to school with a spring in their step. Not necessarily because it was the end of a much enjoyed Christmas holiday (!) but because it marked the launch point of our new reading materials in school. There was much enthusiasm for the fantastic books on offer and Miss Fowler did a tremendous job of inspiring a talented team to rise to the challenge of using the books to ensure EVERY child at Cookridge is passionate about reading. In a recent Ofsted publication entitled ‘How the best schools do it’ http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/reading-six-how-best-schools-do-it  we noted that the single consistent factor in the ‘best’ schools in the country was an absolute, unshakeable commitment across the whole school community to children becoming readers. If we want it badly enough then it will happen... And we want it! We look forward to continuing to accrue the fabulous resources that will help us in our mission and sharing them - and our vision - with you.

Please continue to read with your child as often as you can and remember the joy of reading is a free, lifelong gift you give your child in 10-15 minutes a day.. There are few others like it!

Exciting times

As I’ve made my way around school this week, I’ve had some very exciting moments! DS’s are now being used in Class 4 to support maths learning.. I walked into Class 3 on Thursday to spot four children huddled around an Ipad.. again learning maths! Mr Gamble and Miss Cowles really are leading the way in these exciting methods of learning and both confess to investing some time to research (also known as playing games!) over the festive period – it’s hard work but somebody’s got to do it! The school website and class blogs are receiving hundreds of hits per day with many children leaving messages and playing games (also known as learning!) well beyond the school day. If you haven’t already – do have a look at the school website and the brilliant class based blogs that have popped up. http://www.cookridgeprimaryschool.org.uk/homepage/. We are still developing the resources on offer and will soon be sharing password details for an even greater range of ICT games based websites. A reminder that this newsletter is available to view via the ‘Mrs B’s Blog’ every Friday, so if ‘pupil post’ should fail you – you know where to find it! http://cookridgeprimaryschool.blogspot.com/ We are not now distributing emails via Parentmail as this service will primarily be used for texting in an emergency.

Team Champions

As a reward for accruing the highest number of team points last term, Yellow team this afternoon opted for a rewarding DVD, juice and popcorn treat.. What a delight to see so many young, high achieving people in one room! Well done you Yellows.. Good luck to all for next term!

Christmas Fundraising

You may remember that we were rattling collection buckets at the end of our Christmas productions this year. We were collecting loose change on behalf of Birmingham Children’s hospital in a joint venture with our partner school in Birmingham, who were simultaneously collecting on behalf of Leeds General Infirmary. In total, we raised just over £200 on this occasion – another mark of your generosity towards community projects. Yet again – thank you!

Walking Bus news

A reminder that there is a meeting next Thursday January 12^th at 9.30am with Mark Sadler from Leeds City Council about the Walking Bus initiative. This initiative is one of the ways in which we can work together as a community to alleviate the problems we face with parking, with willing volunteers effectively taking it in turns to walk pupils into school from a nearby designated meeting point. If you are interested in finding out more about – and possibly being part of - this initiative please come along to the meeting.

Attendance

The attendance figure from Thursday 15th Dec to Wed 4th Jan is 93.5%. This is the fourth consecutive week in which our attendance figures have fallen below the National ‘satisfactory’ benchmark of 94%, a figure we have not achieved since the beginning of December. Not only is attendance a key factor underpinning Ofsted’s judgement of a school as ‘good’ or otherwise, it is also one of the key reasons why children’s learning falls behind that of their peers. Please bear this stark fact in mind when taking the decision to keep your child off school and help us to ensure we improve our attendance and, more importantly, help your child achieve their absolute best.

On a more positive note, 80 pupils received 100% attendance awards last term for being in school every day from September through to December. This is a fantastic achievement. Those children who manage to maintain 100% attendance all the way through to July WILL be receiving a very special reward this year in recognition of their achievement. Fingers crossed all 80 pupils manage to keep that ‘clean slate’!

Last term also saw the first of our weekly ‘chance’ awards. Those pupils who had come to school every day for the week were entered into a draw, from which one lucky person from each class chose a prize from our special selection.. We look forward to seeing who will secure those prizes on Monday!

Coffee Morning

Our next Coffee Morning is happening on Wednesday 18^th January at 9.00am. We are looking forward to welcoming back some familiar faces and – hopefully – having the opportunity to listen to your ideas for our school.  We are very keen to initiate some more parent groups during the course of this term and would love to hear the kinds of things you would come along to and possibly even enjoy... Weekly parent/toddler groups, toddler art/craft groups, adult learning clubs (maybe computers, art...?), shopping mornings (!) – whatever you fancy we will do our best to get it right for you... but we won’t know if you don’t tell us! If you haven’t already, please come along and meet Mrs Laycock and myself for this informal get together – we always make sure the biscuits are good!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bailey

5-15 Parent Course

News of a Parent Course available at Ireland Wood, coming in January...

What is it?

A 6 session programme for parenting support and advice. Start date 23rd January 2012 9.15 a.m.

Ireland Wood Children’s Centre

Who is it for?

Parents with children from age 5 – 15

What does it cover?

Following an introductory session topics covered are:
*Encouraging your child * Listening * Talking to your child * Quality Time * Dealing with behaviour that you don’t like * Discipline


If you wish to book a place on this course please contact: Hilary Turner on 07891276076 at Ireland Wood Children’s Centre or Gail Pollard on 07966875516 at Ireland Wood Primary school.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to the Cookridge community! I am certain that 2012 will bring us much to celebrate and enjoy.. Let's make it our 'time to shine' at Cookridge!

Remember - there is a staff training day on Tuesday January 3rd so pupils return to school on Wednesday January 4th. We are very much looking forward to hearing all about your holidays.. and sharing news of ours.

See you all on Wednesday!