Dear Parents/Carers,
Another
half term draws to a close today and it with great pride that I acknowledge
what a great term it has been. Our children have really settled into their new
classes, formed new friendships, got to grips with new teaching teams, routines
and ways of working AND managed to have fun along the way. It is important to
make time each day to reflect upon what is great about our school and, without
doubt, out of 100 things I could choose I would say that the smiles on our
children’s faces is by far the best feature of our school. Our children are
happy, confident, caring and simply beautiful young people who make every day a
pleasure. Congratulations and well done to all of you – parents, children,
teachers, support staff, governors – for all your hard work on behalf of our
school this half term.
Shakespeare Schools
Festival
Last
Friday night was possibly the proudest moment of my career. 28 of our Year 6
children performed Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ live at the West
Yorkshire Playhouse – and they were truly stunning. It was the first time that
Primary Schools had been invited to join in with the Shakespeare Schools
Festival, a festival which celebrates Shakespeare by working with 700 schools
who ultimately perform simultaneously in 90 theatres right across the UK – and
this year we were a part of it! The children represented Cookridge incredibly
well to give a loud, confident, funny and talented performance: well done to
every single one of you. Miss Fowler is SO brave to volunteer for such a
project, and SO talented to orchestrate it all. Three cheers for Miss Fowler!
Hip hip.....
Ireland
So,
last Thursday Mrs Speak led a delegation of children and adults to Ireland to
meet, face to face, children and teachers at our partner school in Swinford.
This visit was unlike any other – a residential involving air travel, staying
in an Irish cottage with a real log fire and Mr Gamble burning custard as the
teachers wrestled with catering for 14, I’m certain this was a very memorable
experience for them all! The weather was fine for a day at the beach, there was
bowling and days in school during which our children mingled with our Irish
friends... This unique visit would not have been possible without the dedication
of Mrs Speak, our very talented International Leader who is renowned across the
UK for her innovative work in this field. Well done Mrs Speak.. I wonder if we
know anyone is Australia, for next year?!
Parent Governors Elections
Apologies for last week’s posting which failed to
give you the dates for the Parent Governor elections – I wasn’t aiming to
shroud it in mystery but it’s all added to the momentous build up behind this
election! This week I can finally share with you the results of the election process
and am delighted to welcome onto the Governing Body Simon Bannister and Mounia
Gazanayi. I am confident that both Simon and Mounia will make a positive
contribution to a hard working and dedicated Governing Body and am very
grateful to them for offering their services in this role.
Eid celebration
On
Tuesday afternoon, all children were invited to an Eid party in school where
they learned about this celebration first hand through games and activities.
They enjoyed party food and each took away a gift bag... This entire event had
been organised, funded and managed by a great group of parents, led by our
newly elected Parent Governor Mounia Gazanayi. Grateful thanks to all mums and
dads who got involved and created yet another memorable event for our children,
and to Mr El Sayed who led a very informative assembly on Monday morning..
Happy Eid!
Parent Consultations
It
was wonderful to see so many of you in school across this week talking to
teachers about your child’s learning and progress. I hope that you found these
tiny pockets of time informative and valuable. The teachers have most
definitely found them so and I am very grateful that so many of you took the
time during these consultations to say a small thank you to the teachers – it
really does ‘make a difference’! If you
have any feedback or suggestions about how we can make these even more useful,
please let us know.
Sports News
Sports Clubs start the first week back and if your
child selected one of these clubs they should be bringing home a letter today
to remind them. The days and clubs are: Monday (KS2 Football) Monday (Y2 Active
Club) Tuesday (Y3/4/5 Basketball) Wednesday (Year 5/6 Boxercise) Thursday (KS2
netball) Friday (Y1/2 Multi-skills)
Cricket In The Classroom! Classes 8 and 9 are
venturing to Headingley for an exciting day on Wednesday 7th November. The day
consists of classroom based activity linking cricket to Maths, English and ICT
and work with PE and cricket activities. There will also be a tour of
Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground and the Rugby Stadium included in the day.
Again, children from those classes should be bringing home a letter today.
Friends of Cookridge – P.T.A.
Tonight sees our children celebrate the end of term
in style with the school disco, the first PTA event of the year. We are very
interested in increasing the number of social events the Friends group
organise, are especially interested in family gatherings and are currently
exploring a few leads – a magic show and a ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ event, to
name just a few. If you have ideas for things we could be doing, please come
along to the next Friends meeting at 6.30pm on Thursday 15th
November.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank
Shasheen for all her work on behalf of our school PTA. Shasheen has invested
hours of her time over many years, has been one of the pillars underpinning the
success of our ‘Friends’ and is a shining example of a committed mum, born
organiser and great team player who will be missed. On behalf of the school
community – thank you!
Attendance
Goodness me – we end the term with another 100%
attendance secured by Class 7.. They have set the benchmark high and are the
class to beat this year! Our attendance 8 weeks into the school year remains
above our 96% target and I am pleased with our starting point. In line with the
new policy, I have today sent out letters to parents of those children whose attendance
has fallen below 90% during this term. Our intention in sending these early
letters out is to raise awareness of the number of days absence your child
might be totting up, sometimes without us realising. At the end of next half
term (just before Christmas!) we will be producing our first set of attendance
letters for each of you.. green for great, orange for ‘ok’ and red where
attendance is a cause for concern. Go for green – and encourage your child to
be one of the 100% attendees this year! Remember, the attendance policy is
available to download on the school website http://www.cookridgeprimaryschool.org.uk/parents/policies.php
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National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation
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95%
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Target
2012-13
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96%
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Attendance this week
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94.9%
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Year to date
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96.1%
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Class attendance figures for this week are:-
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Rec
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Class 1
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Class 2
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Class 3
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Class 4
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Class 5
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Class 6
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Class 7
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Class 8
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Class 9
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A 93.8%
B 97.3%
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98.1%
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92.3%
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94.8%
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93.0%
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97.9%
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94.7%
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100%
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92.4%
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96.7%
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Dates for next term...
As so much is happening next term, a heads up on
the dates for your diaries...
Monday 5th November – return to school.
Thursday 15th November – Polling day.
School open as usual....
Monday 19th November – Year 5
Residential to Dobroyd Castle
Wednesday 21st November – International
Visitors in school for 3 days
Thursday 29th November – Author Alan
Gibbons working in Y56 all day
Wednesday 5th December – Aladdin
pantomime in school
Saturday 8th December – Choir
performance @ Cookridge Methodist Church
Tuesday 11th December 2pm-3pm KS1
Christmas production
Wednesday 12th December 2pm-3pm or
Thursday 13th December 6pm-7pm LKS2 Christmas production
Wednesday 12th December 6pm-7pm or
Thursday 13th December 2pm-3pm
UKS2 Christmas production
Friday 14th December 2pm-3pm Reception
production
Tuesday 18th December – Winter Gala (PTA
Christmas Fair) – 3pm-4.30pm
Wednesday 19th December (pm) – Reception
and KS1 Christmas Party
Thursday 20th December (pm) – KS2
Christmas Party
Friday 21st December – 2pm Carols around
the tree – parents welcome.... And then we break up!
Have a wonderful and well deserved half term break.. If you are
looking for things to do, Councillor Bentley has flagged up this website which
gives information about an incredible range of family activities including
pumpkin carving, bonfire events, family theatre, craft workshops, film
screenings and art trails , http://www.leedsinspired.co.uk/autumn-half-term. Have fun!
Mrs Bailey
