Friday 1st February 2013

Dear Parents/Carers,

Incredible to think that, with ‘Issue 19’, we are exactly half way through another school year and into February already. Time certainly does fly at Cookridge...

 Paired observations!

The teaching team have embraced ‘paired observation’ in school, and over the next two weeks every member of teaching staff will have had the opportunity to observe teaching and learning in the rooms next door. This might not sound exciting to you but, believe me, what they don’t tell you about teaching is: once qualified and in the job you rarely get chance to see anybody else teach! It is SO important that paired observations become a regular feature of our school so that our entire teaching team has the chance to stand back, reflect and continue to learn from the magic happening just metres away! As ever, dedicating hours to be in classrooms is an absolute pleasure: incredible to see the kids bloom and grow, to have chance to flick back to the first page in their literacy or numeracy book and talk about their achievements so far... But also GREAT to be able to have those same conversations with staff about their ongoing blooming and growing! Thank you SO much to all teachers and children for having us in your rooms this week.

 Writers Workshop

Tuesday saw 30 talented writers from a range of local schools come together to work with Mary Colsen on a day long writing workshop. For the first time at Cookridge, the writing workshop focused on non-fiction which was a superb opportunity to stretch the children's writing skills. Mary, who has published up to 50 books, took the children through the writing process from drafting to publishing and gave them a real taste of how this works in the 'real world'.  The children drafted their own pages for an information text on animals and the compiled texts are going to be copied and sent to each school as a celebration of their achievements. Six Cookridge children took part  - Anna Weeks, Max Wilson, Nada Sultaan, Amy Clarke, Jake Smithson and Bradley Simpson - and they did the school extremely proud with their enthusiasm, effort and attitude throughout the day.   We really do have some talented writers at Cookridge.

Friends Update

There is a great level of enthusiasm in school for the movie night, to be screened in school on Wednesday 13^th February, beginning at 6pm. Admission will be by ticket only at £2 per ticket or a bargain £5 per family, and the cost will include popcorn and a drink. Please return the attached reply slip if your child/children want/s to come along by Friday 8^th February so that we can get tickets produced and distributed before the night.  

More news on next half terms social events - Mark’s Magic Show (20^th March) and the Easter disco (28^th March) - to follow soon...

Apologies but a very helpful ‘Friend’ has pointed out an error in the dates included in the last two weeks’ newsletter for upcoming meetings. The correct dates are:-

Thursday 28^th February (not March – that’s disco time!)

Thursday 25^th April @ 6.30pm

Thursday 23^rd May @ 6.30pm.

All meetings are held in school from 6.30pm so if you are free and want to get involved – please do!

Sports News

We continue to wrestle with LCC to sort out our swimming. There has been progress this week but not enough to resolve it and set a date for the return of swimming. I will keep you informed and hope to have positive news very soon.
 
Standards update
On the school website, there are a few great sources of information if you are keen to keep an eye on how we are doing in our mission to secure outstanding teaching and learning so that ALL our pupils achieve well – or better! – during their seven years with us. The ‘Our School’ section includes an Ofsted tab, with links to Department of Education Performance tables  http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=107894 and the ‘league tables’ published by the Telegraph which allow you to compare our school with others, both locally and nationally. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/leaguetables/9739316/Primary-school-league-tables-2012-compare-your-schools-performance.html. Hours of fun!  The data published in these tables is a report of the achievement secured by Y6 in July 2012 (last year’s Y6’s) and the key data by which the success of the school is measured. The DFE data shows a clear improvement in the number of pupils securing Level 4 or above in both English and Maths each year since 2009, rising from 57% to 75% last year. 96% of pupils made expected progress between KS1 and 2, achieving the national expectation of 2 levels (12 points) progress. In fact, over 50% of pupils made better than expected progress to achieve national expectations or above...  

All of this is good news indeed and marks the beginning of our journey towards outstanding provision for our children. Hitting these benchmarks matters, as the pressure on schools to do so has clearly increased – I’m sure the media has made everyone aware of that. Let us not lose sight of the REAL reason all of this is good news however..... More of our children left our school more confident and competent in their reading, writing and maths last year and more of our children began high school more ready for that challenge as a result... Thanks to parents past and present for your ongoing support of your child’s learning: it really is ‘making a difference’.

I will also draw your attention to Parent View, a link for which appears on the same webpage. http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/ It is an online survey, conducted and reported directly to Ofsted, to gather parent views of their child’s school. If you have comments to register – go right ahead: ESPECIALLY if they are positive! :0)

Attendance

Brilliant news – our attendance continues to climb back from the low point in December and we are up 0.2% overall once again this week. Remarkably, nine out of eleven classes have posted attendance over and above the 96% target for the year. That is a brilliant achievement – well done to you all, and keep it up.. We’re half way through the year already!

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation		Target 2012-13		Attendance this week				Year to date
95%		96%		96.8%				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 99.1% B 94.3%	96.9%	99.3%	93.1%		97.8%	97.5%	97.7%		97.1%	97.0%	95.2%

Coffee Morning
The next date is set for the coffee morning – Wednesday 13^th February, 9-10am. It will be great to see you there... Mrs Speak and Mr Green will be on hand so if you would like to talk to them about anything at all put the date in your diary – don’t be shy!

 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bailey

Friday 25th January 2013

Dear Parents/Carers,

Well – that was an exciting week! After a snow day start, the children got back to it from Tuesday onwards and I must say seemed highly energised following their day of fun... I’ve even heard suggestion that every week starts exactly the same way. Fancy that?! On that note....

Snow day

Many apologies for the disruption to the start of the week. As I’m sure you can appreciate – the decision to close the school is never one taken lightly. On this occasion – the decision was entirely determined by my concern for the safe arrival of our children into school, given the conditions on many roads but in particular Tinshill Drive on Monday. I can commend all staff who have made the journeys into school each and every day this week - whatever the weather - and take my hat off to Mr Lucas who has done a fantastic job of ensuring access to the school each day in the bitter weather: we salute you!

I hope that the unexpected day was not too much of an inconvenience for you, and hope that some of you even enjoyed the time to play in the snow – as many did. Please remember your FIRST notification for school closure will come via Twitter, the website and the Blog, followed by the Leeds City Council website and radio stations. A decision will always be taken as early as possible – typically around 7.30am. A parentmail text message is also sent out at 7.30, but there is sometimes an unexplainable delay – perhaps given the volume of bulk texts being sent at that time. I would ask that you use these sources of news updates rather than phoning in for information... The volume of calls on Monday and Tuesday morning were very hard to manage before 8.30 - when office staff commence work - and might also hinder staff getting through to school to inform us of difficulties in their individual journeys. Thank you for your understanding.

Friends Update

This week, Mrs Herbert (PTA Chair) met with our School Council to talk through their ideas for fund raising in school this year and quite what we might be raising money for. I am very grateful to Mrs Herbert to take the time out of her busy life to pop in and chat to our councillors – it was a fascinating conversation to oversee.  The decision was a tough one and was almost an equal split, with some strong themes emerging. The older children had a strong preference to increase the number of DS’s and Nintendo Wii’s we have in school, explaining how unfair they thought it that some classes have these marvellous additions whilst others do not. I take this on board and we WILL be doing something about it... How quickly we can do that depends upon the funds we can raise! The younger children were keen to expand on our playground repertoire and discussed a number of options, including quiet ‘chill out’ areas (indoor and outdoor), and a new climbing area. Exciting times – we will of course be consulting the whole school via Class Council meetings but the headline news is: we need to pull together and raise some funds to satisfy our children’s needs/wants/desires!

Our next fund raising & social event will be the movie night, screened in school on Wednesday 13^th February, beginning at 6pm. Admission will be by ticket only at £2 per ticket or a bargain £5 per family, and the cost will include popcorn and a drink. I will consult with the children next week to select the particular film. There is a reply slip attached to this newsletter – if your child wants to come along, please complete the slip and return it – along with the cost of the ticket(s) - so that we can make arrangements for the number of children who will be viewing and get tickets distributed nearer the time.

More news on Mark’s Magic Show to follow soon...

If you are able to spare some time to get involved in the work of our Friends, remember remaining meetings for the committee will be in school on Thursday 28^th March @ 6.30pm, Thursday 25^th April @ 6.30pm and Thursday 23^rd May @ 6.30pm. Come along – your school needs you!

Sports News

We continue to wrestle with LCC to sort out our swimming. There has been progress this week but not enough to resolve it and set a date for the return of swimming. I will keep you informed and hope to have positive news very soon.

 

Northern Ballet Easter Course 2013

Northern Ballet are running a course during the Easter holidays – 9-12^th April 2013. Suitable for any children aged 6-14 who are interested in dance with the opportunity to work alongside specialist teachers in professional studios in Quarry Hill, I felt it was too good an opportunity to overlook. The course costs £100 (or £95 with a Breeze card).  If any parents are interested, we have a few leaflets in the main office which you can collect or you can contact Shelley Firth on 0113 220 8000 or shelly.firth@northernballet.com .

 

Attendance

I am really impressed with the incredibly high number of parents who got their children into school this week, when I’m sure many of you would have been far cosier at home! Attendance this week is fantastic, with 2 out of 11 classes securing 100% and 6 in total exceeding the school target of 96%.  As we have a 100% tie, we will – for the first time ever – have to consult the class year-to-date figures to determine who gets Cookie for the week! Our whole school year to date figure remains 94.9%, below the Leeds average and significantly below the National picture: we really do need to get back up to our best by maintaining these good levels for many, many weeks to come.... Please continue to do your bit! Thank you.  

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation		Target 2012-13		Attendance this week				Year to date
95%		96%		96.5%				94.9%
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 100% B 93.0%	100%	93.9%	97.9%		96.6%	95.0%	96.4%		95.9%	95.3%	97.1%

Horsforth School: proposal to change admissions policy

A reminder that the final week of consultation for a change to Horsforth School’s admissions policy is next week. The consultation concerns a change to the school’s Admissions Policy which, if adopted, would affect students starting in Year 7 at Horsforth School from September 2014.  It would therefore affect parents who might be considering expressing a preference for Horsforth High School from next September – current Year 5’s and below. The revised admissions policy proposes that, after first giving priority to children in Local Authority Care, those with Special Educational Needs and those with brothers or sisters already in school, the Governors propose to give preference to applicants with an LS18 postcode. This means that children living just this side of the railway line (ie near the Fox and Hounds) and only about half a mile from the school would no longer have priority over those living within the LS18 postcode area which stretches all the way to Carlton Crossroads, almost to Rodley and Calverley. Details of the proposals can be found on the Horsforth School website https://sites.leedslearning.net/schools/horsforth/SiteCollectionDocuments/Admissions.aspx

Parents are invited to respond to the consultation and should send comments to Mrs J Grey, PA to the school's Leadership Team, at greyja01@leedslearning.net by January 31 2013.

 Coffee Morning

The next date is set for the coffee morning – Wednesday 13^th February, 9-10am. It will be great to see you there.

 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bailey

My child would like to come to ‘MOVIE NIGHT!’ on Wednesday 13^th February, 6-8pm.

Child/children’s name(s)...................................................................................................................... Class(es) .....................................

 My child will be collected by.........................................................................................................................................................................

Please note – all children will need to be collected on the evening as we will not be allowing children to make their own way home.

Open as usual....

Weather update for you - please assume we are open unless the weather deteriorates. It is not forecast to... So hopefully that's that! See you all soon.

Weather update - we are OPEN!

Conditions on roads much improved - including Tinshill Drive. Well done, Leeds! School will be OPEN as usual today - 8.45 start.

Weather Closure

Due to poor and worsening conditions - school will be CLOSED today. Apologies - but it really is treacherous out there! See you all tomorrow.

Pre- school is also CLOSED.

Friday 18th January 2013

Dear Parents/Carers,

Another week has rumbled by and the children continue to impress me every single day. Despite being cooped up all week due to snow, they continue to give it everything they’ve got. A wander through school this week revealed the quality of learning going on in Literacy. With Reception writing about Hansel and Gretal, Years 1&2 tackling mystery stories, Y34 traditional stories with a twist and Y56 getting their teeth into writing persuasive letters it is easy to spot the talent we have in school. This week, we launch our ‘Writer of the Week’ award. From this point forward, the teachers will meet to choose the writer in each key phase whose writing really does ‘go that extra mile’. This will be shared in Friday’s assembly, uploaded on the website and displayed in the hall. If your child comes home with the ‘Writer of the Week’ award anytime soon, please be aware just what a huge achievement this is: for their writing to be selected from the quality writing of 90 children is incredible and should be celebrated. Keep your eyes peeled!

 

Random Acts of Kindness

Our assembly theme for the New Year has been exploring the many different ways we can offer kindness to one another. We’ve begun the thinking process with the quote ‘Three things in life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind.’ Over the coming weeks we will be reading stories and thinking about what ‘being kind’ looks like in our school. The challenge this week was to offer kindness by simply smiling, saying thank you and perhaps even holding the door open for another... I’ve witnessed firsthand our children naturally offering kindness to others’ in many different ways and it is wonderful to be able to point out just what a wonderful quality this is and celebrate one of the factors that make Cookridge a special place.

 

Can you believe it is ONE whole year since we introduced our ‘new’ behaviour policy, launching team points, rewards and clear sanctions for inappropriate behaviour. We are just beginning our review of the policy and will be discussing both the successes and areas for improvement with staff across school and children. If any parents have views they would like to share to add into this review process, please email me with your thoughts baileys06@leedslearning.net or call in for a brief chat with myself or Mr Green. 

 

This week, as many others, I’ve had the pleasure of showing around parents of pupils who are joining us in school. Our numbers continue to rise and we are now nearing capacity, with a number of children on the waiting list in some year groups. Without fail, visiting parents comment on the wonderful atmosphere in school, the quality of learning happening in school and the incredible school environment. They’re not wrong: we’re very lucky at Cookridge and I always ‘take the tour’ with great pride. 

 

Friends Update

Last week, the Friends (Parent-teacher association) met to celebrate the success of the Christmas Fayre and plan events for the remainder of the year. It was the AGM meeting, and role and responsibilities were agreed amongst the committee – full details on the blog http://friendsofcookridge.blogspot.co.uk/

 

As part of the agenda, we also looked at events across the rest of this school year. We are aiming for an event per half term and have so far made firm bookings for a movie night and a magic show, with an all adult ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ event later in the year, date yet to be confirmed.

 

The movie night will take place in school on Wednesday 13^th February, with the screening beginning at 6pm. Admission will be by tickets only at £2 per ticket or a bargain £5 per family, and the cost will include popcorn and a drink.

 

The family magic show will take place on Wednesday 20^th March 6.15-7.30pm. The show will be presented by ‘Mark’s Magic Kingdom’ and will most definitely be a fantastic, fun evening. Again, tickets come at £3 per child or £10 per family and drinks will be provided for the children.

 

The summer fair is booked for Saturday 15^th June from 2-4pm. This will include all the favourite stalls and is always a fantastic family day out. 

 

The final event of the year is going to be spectacular. Year 6 children have approached me to ask for a different event to mark the end of their time in school – a prom! A committee of children will be meeting with the Chairs of Friends very soon to get some advice about fund raising and event planning, and there is a real air of excitement, talk of themes and clothes across Year 6.. We can’t wait and I am very grateful to Friends for offering our children the chance to put their ideas to real experts in this field!

It is wonderful to see so many events on the calendar, and to note that many of them are about having fun with friends, as a family and as a community. Friends will also be meeting our School Council shortly to decide upon our 2013 fund raising project.. Last year – the spiderweb, this year... Who knows?

 

Remaining meetings for the committee will be in school on:-

Thursday 28^th March @ 6.30pm

Thursday 25^th April @ 6.30pm

Thursday 23^rd May @ 6.30pm

 

We would LOVE to welcome new members to the Friends group, so please come along if you can or email us to let us know you’d like to be involved but struggle with the main meeting dates/times, as there are times in the year when it’s very much an all-hands-on-deck extravaganza... Just before the Summer Fair for example!

 

Wintry Weather Procedures

With forecasts for more snow over the weekend, please take a moment to refresh your understanding of procedures should we need to take the decision for school to close. Full details are on the website and on the blog http://cookridgeprimaryschool.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/friday-14th-december-2012.html . In a nutshell, we will only take the decision to close school if the site is unsafe or if high numbers of staff are unable to get into school to assure your child’s safety in school. That decision will be published on the blog, via twitter, via ParentMail and will be reported to Radio Aire as early as possible. Fingers crossed it won’t come to that!

 

Remaining Training Dates

There are only two remaining training dates for this school year – Monday 15^th April 2013 and Friday 5^th July. The school calendar and all training dates are posted on the school website each year. I will get 2013-14 planned and posted by the end of January so that the organised amongst you can make plans for holidays NEXT summer! http://www.cookridgeprimaryschool.org.uk/parents/school-calendar.php …

 

Sports News

Sadly, following the closure of Holt Park Leisure centre before Christmas and despite assurances to the contrary, we are still awaiting the relevant departments at Leeds City Council to coordinate a swimming slot and bus transport to another leisure centre in the city. Apologies to Y4 children and parents but there will be no swimming again on Monday. You will be notified as soon as we have a firm fixture.

 

Attendance

This week’s attendance clearly shows we are back on form, with three out of the eleven classes achieving over 99% attendance, and nine out of the eleven classes exceeding the target of 96% This is great news and – if we can keep this up – will lead to a gradual improvement in our current year to date figure, which took quite a knock before Christmas! Onwards and upwards...

 

National Minimum ‘Good’ Expectation		Target 2012-13		Attendance this week				Year to date
95%		96%		97.1%				94.9%
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 93.9% B 99.1%	99.2%	91.7%	98.8%		98.2%	99.3%	98.3%		97.5%	95.7%	96.3%

 

Coffee Morning

The next date is set for the coffee morning – Wednesday 13^th February, 9-10am. It will be great to see you there.

 

 

Have a wonderful weekend,

 

Mrs Bailey