Welcome back! I trust that every single one of you
has had a happy and healthy holiday and begins 2013 full of the wonder of what
a whole new year can bring! The children have got straight back into their
stride this week and I’ve been stopped by teachers in corridors, excited about
the way in which their lessons have been received this week: it is absolutely
wonderful to hear such enthusiasm exists not just amongst our children but also
amongst the staff team. Here’s to 2013!
KS1 Super sleuths
KS1 had a fabulous day on Wednesday when a visiting
crime team brought their mystery to Cookridge. The children worked together to
crack codes, solve clues and look very, very carefully at fingerprints until
they worked out just who had broken into the safes. Well done to Miss Golia for
bringing this fantastic experience to Cookridge – a great starting point for 6
weeks focus writing mystery stories in Year 1 and 2! I am confident that the
children will continue to develop their writing skills at a terrific pace, as
has been typical of Year 1 and 2 this year.
Standards, on-line
learning and cause for celebration!
Having looked very closely at our progress
against our improving standards agenda during the latter weeks of last half
term, I am delighted to be able to report great strides forward in the amount
of progress children at Cookridge are making. Children in Reception and KS1 in
particular are thriving, with many on track to make outstanding progress (by
Ofsted definition) and we are thrilled to be in a position where it is likely
we will be reporting standards in KS1 which are in line with National
statistics by the end of this year – for the first time in 5 years. We added
20% to the number of children leaving Reception ‘age appropriate’ (i.e. in line
with all 4/5 year olds nationally) in July 2012, and we anticipate adding yet
another 20% to standards in Reception by the end of this year – increasing the
number of children who are reading, writing and calculating in line with peers
to 90%. This is clearly fantastic news and worthy of celebration.
Standards in Reading Reading
We also attribute progress in reading and
maths to our financial investment – and the children’s time investment – in the
range of e-learning opportunities introduced last year. Remember, your child
has access to a vast range of learning games and resources on the school
website http://www.cookridgeprimaryschool.org.uk/children/learning-zone.php, and personalised password access to Bug
Club (for reading), IamLearning (for maths and literacy) across school. All KS2
pupils also have access to Student Jotter (an online portfolio) and – in Year
56 – the nationally acclaimed Mathletics programme. There are some fantastic
learning opportunities in these game based resources and the impact on learning
is incredible – and painless! If you are not aware of them, ask your child to
tell you all about them and if you need passwords... Get in touch with your
child’s class teacher.
You will note by its absence so far where our
area for improvement remains: in writing. Right across school, this area
remains the one where we fully intend to bring the right opportunities for
learning which leads to transformational results – just as we have in reading
and maths. We are working hard to improve handwriting (through daily practice),
spellings (through phonics), the detail in the children’s sentences (how much
description they include and the range of words they use to explain their
ideas), as well as using words like ‘because’, ‘so’ and ‘but’ to extend their
ideas – so that rather than stopping with a simple sentence like ‘Little Red Riding Hood really likes red.’ we
are asking the children to write loooooonger sentences such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood really likes red so she wears a bright red
cape, red shoes and red socks every day.’ If there
are any of these aspects you can support at home – don’t let us stop you! We
really, really need the children to enjoy writing and feel confident and proud
of their writing. Miss Fowler, Mrs Speak and I are currently looking at the
writing of every child in school (an utter pleasure, I can assure you) and this
and staff-wide conversation next week will spell out (get it?) our next steps
in writing for the rest of this year.
Please keep up the great work you are doing
at home: your children are thriving and we cannot take all the credit for that!
We really appreciate your support and are thankful that you are investing the
time it takes to ensure all of our children feel like giants as a result of the
success they are enjoying in the face of challenging learning every single
day...
More news on writing coming soon J
Sports news
This half terms sports clubs are up and running.
The clubs running this half-term are:Tuesday- Year 3/4/5 Tennis
Wednesday- Year 2/3/4 Street dance
Thursday- Year 2-6 Judo Club
Friday- Year 1/2 Multi-Skills
Football and Netball Clubs for Key Stage 2 will return next half-term when the weather and light have improved. If you have any questions or queries about the clubs, then please see either Mr Gamble or Mrs Hyde.
Baby News!
I am delighted to share news of a bit of a baby
boom at Cookridge! Mrs Spiers is currently well into her second pregnancy and
will be adding to her brood around Easter time. My congratulations to Mr and
Mrs Spiers and big brother Arthur who I’m sure will welcome his new brother or
sister with utter delight! Mr Gamble is also expecting to become a first-time
dad, and Mr Green – our newly appointed Learning Mentor – is also awaiting that
magical moment, both around Easter time. Congratulations to one and all...
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.
Unclaimed Raffle Prize – 1st prize in our Christmas
Raffle still remains unclaimed. The ticket number is 822 – please check your tickets
as soon as possible and call at the office if you are the lucky winner.
Attendance
The good news is – attendance is on the rise.
Whilst the figures this week remain lower than we have gotten used to, please
bear in mind that we calculate attendance Wednesday to Wednesday each week and
so this week’s figure still includes illness absence for the remaining two days
of last half term, when we were clearly blighted by some impressive bugs. This
week, it has been great to see classes full to bursting with healthy children –
I am confident that we will get back to our prime and reclaim 96% soon. Keep up
the great work!|
National Minimum
‘Good’ Expectation
|
Target
2012-13
|
Attendance this
week
|
Year to date
|
||||||||
|
95%
|
96%
|
90.6%
|
94.8%
|
||||||||
|
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 84.3 %
B 88.2 %
|
88.5 %
|
85.0 %
|
88.6 %
|
95.5 %
|
91.7 %
|
93.0 %
|
94.3 %
|
92.9 %
|
91.8 %
|
||
Mrs Bailey
