Dear
Parents/Carers,
It
is December next week! This week has been a busy one, with Y4 off on
residential, a Governing Body meeting, a Friends meeting to finalise the finer
detail of the Christmas Fair, a Trust meeting, Performance Management meetings
for staff AND teaching every morning… Where to begin! On that note, thank you
so much for all your donations received today, the response was fantastic.
Pupil Safety
All
parents should have received a text message on Thursday evening informing them
of an incident involving one of our Y6 pupils.
She was approached whilst walking home from school by a man driving a
white van, who offered her a lift. Thankfully, she declined and calmly walked on
and the vehicle left. She then reported
the incident to her parents when she got home so the information was passed to
police to investigate. I want to make
all parents aware of this incident as it is the third incident of this nature
in the last 6 weeks, the two previous around Horsforth schools. We have spoken to all Y5/6 pupils today to
make them aware of the situation and would encourage parents to do the same at
home. I will leave it up to Y5/6 parents
to make a decision regarding their child’s home time arrangement but would ask
you to notify us via the school office if you wish to withdraw your consent for
your child to walk home alone.
Robin Wood
On
Monday morning, Y4 pupils from Class 4, 5 & 6 set off to Todmorden for the
Robin Wood residential. This three day extravaganza includes opportunities to
work at height undertaking the crates challenge, the zip wire, the giant swing
and the trapeze; work underground to navigate the caves and even on the water,
canoeing. The children work individually and in teams to undertake challenges –
including working out a safe way to cross the piranha pool… Without being
bitten by these hungry critters. It is seriously good fun, and the children had
an absolute ball. Miss Fowler, Miss Glendinning, Mrs Williams and Mr Deegan
accompanied the children and all have commented upon the impeccable behaviour
and attitudes of the children whilst facing these challenges. Without such
dedicated staff these experiences simply would not be possible - enormous
thanks to the team who volunteered their time to accompany the children on this
memorable experience! Y4 will be hosting an assembly for parents to tell them
ALL about it soon, so please look out for a date…
Leeds North West
Parents
will recall we formed a Cooperative Trust partnership with neighbouring schools
Ralph Thoresby, Ireland Wood and Iveson. I apologise that Trust activity may
have appeared quiet since we formalised our partnership working, and endeavour
to provide more frequent updates on the work of the Trust in future
newsletters. The reality is, the past 12 months have been largely concentrated
on determining our shared areas of working, establishing an understanding of
one another’s ways of working and targeting specific areas where joint working
will enable each of us to achieve what we want to do – provide the very best
educational experience for our pupils. This year, we have targeted several
areas of joint working and have begun work on a shared maths and reading
project across Y6 & 7, in the first instance. This will lead to common
approaches to assessment (how well are the pupils doing?), curriculum (what are
the pupils doing?) and ultimately improve transition information for our Y6
pupils who transfer to Ralph Thoresby. In working together in this way, we aim
to amalgamate the best bits of what we are each doing to develop the very best
models of teaching and learning it is possible to create, and are genuinely
excited about how this will continue our individual school improvement
conversations. Alongside these learning foci, we are also collaborating on a
number of other areas to establish consistent approaches – e.g. homework,
attendance and admissions – as well as thinking about the best use of our
funding to buy in the resources and services we need to provide the finest
quality provision. I will keep you informed of our progress and thank you for
your patience in awaiting an update!
Christmas Toy Appeal
Next
week is your opportunity to make a child in Leeds
smile over the Christmas period. We are supporting the YMCA Christmas Toy
Appeal and ask parents to donate toys – either old or new – which the YMCA then
collect and distribute to children who will benefit most from our
offerings. Please pass your donations on
via the class teacher or the office and we will ensure they are passed on to
the YMCA when they collect next Friday. Thank you.
Christmas Performances
Can
I request that any parents who wish for their child to abstain from Christmas
performances for religious reasons make the class teacher aware either verbally
or in writing. Please do not rely on your child to pass messages on of this
nature. Thank you.
Attendance
Goodness
me! Exciting times on the attendance front – this is better than the telly at
the moment! We have achieved the unachievable and secured attendance over 96%
for several weeks, ultimately affecting our year-to-date figure IN A GOOD WAY ! We have actually gained 0.1% on the year,
which doesn’t sound a lot but when it takes you back to your 96% target it’s
time to get excited. And I genuinely am! As well as this – just LOOK at what
has happened between Class 5 & 6 this week! After walking away with Bourbon
for the last two weeks with a 0.1% lead, this week the classes have finished
neck and neck and I have to call it a tie break.. Cookie will therefore be
coming out of retirement for one week only so that both classes can have their
just rewards. Seriously – well done everyone. Fantastic news – way to make Mrs
B happy! :0)
|
National Minimum
‘Good’ Expectation
|
Target
2013-2014
|
Attendance this
week
|
Year to date
|
|||||||||
|
95%
|
96%
|
96.3%
|
96%
|
|||||||||
|
Class attendance
figures for this w/e :-27/11/13
|
||||||||||||
|
Rec A
|
Rec B
|
Class 1
|
Class 2
|
Class 3
|
Class 4
|
Class 5
|
Class 6
|
Class 7
|
Class 8
|
Class 9
|
||
|
86.3%
|
95%
|
99%
|
94.7%
|
96.9%
|
94.6%
|
99.3%
|
99.3%
|
94.5%
|
99%
|
97.9%
|
||
Dates for December!
Next week is pretty eventful, with some
of our key Christmas events due to take place. We begin the season in style
with a whole school pantomime on
Tuesday morning. This year, we will be enjoying Sleeping Beauty – if you get
chance please share this story with your child so that they are primed to fully
enjoy it!
Second on the agenda is the event of
the year – the Christmas Fair. This
is always a great event which the children have prepared for, as each class in
school will be running their own stall selling their Christmas Crafts and
encouraging you to play a carefully devised game or activity. Make sure you’re
there..
We also have the first of this year’s
musical concerts on Thursday of next week, with the children invited to see the
Woodwind Trio performing live on
Thursday afternoon AND THEN on Saturday it’s our kids chance to perform, with
the choir performing at the Methodist
Church at 11am. No chance of a quiet week, then?!
|
3/12
|
Sleeping
Beauty – pantomime in school (am).
|
12/12
|
Choir
performance at St Pauls
|
|
4/12
|
Christmas
Fair 3.30 – 5.00
|
16/12
|
2pm
LKS2 (Class 4, 5 & 6) performance
|
|
5/12
|
Woodwind
Trio – music concert in school – pm
|
17/12
|
2pm
KS1 performance (Class 1, 2 & 3)
5.30
LKS2 (Class 4, 5 & 6) performance
|
|
7/12
|
Choir
performance at Methodist church
|
18/12
|
2pm
Reception performance
|
|
12/12
|
Christmas
Dinner
|
20/12
|
2pm
UKS2 lead Carols Around the Tree.
|
Coffee morning
Don’t
forget the FIRST coffee morning of the year is on Wednesday 11th December, 9-10. Don’t leave me on my
lonesome – come along and let me know how the year is panning out for you and
your child!
Have
a wonderful weekend,
Mrs
Bailey
