Dear
Parents/Carers,
Welcome back to a photo
edition of the newsletter… Stuff happening in school is too good not to be
seen!
Summer
Term gets off to a flying start!
This week, we began the
summer in earnest with a short but action packed week. Reception pupils
returned to school on Wednesday all dressed for their holidays – bringing their
carefully packed suitcases along with them for a flight to Spain! LKS2 pupils
began the term with three jam-packed days of science investigation, UKS2 have
been honing their mapping skills as they begin their study of the city of Leeds
and KS1 are out at ‘The Deep’ next week to get their topic started with a bang.
Having been into school for a few days over the holidays - and of course for
Tuesday’s training day - I can honestly say a school is nothing without the 315
little hearts and souls we love and cherish: there has been a fabulous atmosphere
in school since the children returned on Wednesday and we are all glad to be
back!
The
lovely library
Over the holidays, Miss
Fowler worked her magic in our lovely library. The bulk of the work had already
been done, however, by our Extreme Readers who visited Waterstones to select
their choice of books during the final week of last half term. Each of the
books carefully chosen by our Extreme Readers have a sticker on the inside
front cover which singles the book out as one specially chosen for you by your
friends. The gang of eleven pupils made a fantastic selection and the library
has never looked so good – thank you to them and, of course, ENORMOUS thanks to
Miss Fowler for creating the most magnificent school library I have EVER seen!
Welcome
aboard!
The Cookridge Team
expanded a little this week as we welcomed Mrs Brosnan, Miss Hester and Mr Joy
into school, and Mrs Barnes began her new role. As the Family & Support Team
are poised and ready to offer advice, guidance and find help on any and every
level (excluding bank loans!) – PLEASE come and see us if there is anything you
wonder if we might be able to help you with. We just might… Please ask!
150
mile ‘month of pain’…
I want to take this opportunity
to draw your attention to the plight of one of our very own families. You may
have seen Duncan Brownnutt zooming around the streets of Cookridge of late –
last week he was even joined by local MP Greg Mulholland. Mr Brownnut is not running
to keep fit per se – he is running 5 miles every day in April to meet his self-determined
target of 150 miles in a ‘month of pain’ to raise money for a very special
charity - the Batten Disease Family
Association. Both of Duncan's children, Ellie Mae in Reception and Caleb in nursery,
have recently been diagnosed with Late Infantile Batten's Disease. This
condition is very rare and only affects about 30 children in the UK with only
4-5 new cases diagnosed each year. Duncan is looking to raise £4500 to help the
charity support families of children who have been diagnosed with Battens
Disease. You can show your support by donating through Duncan's JustGiving page
http://www.justgiving.com/Duncan-Brownnutt2,
and if you see him pounding the streets give him a wave and a cheer to
encourage him on! Watch this space, as Cookridge Primary School will be doing
something to show their support for this family very soon….
Year 4 Australian
Partnership
Miss Carroll has
friends in HOT places and has been busy establishing a connection with
Hillsmeade Primary School in Melbourne, Australia on our behalf. Year 4 have
begun an extremely exciting, very old-fashioned, FUN project! Each child has
been partnered up with a pen pal and they will spend time during school hours
writing letters, drawing, making videos and taking pictures to send to
Australia. Before the Easter holidays the children wrote their first letter to
their pen pal. They were signed, sealed and delivered all the way to sunny
Melbourne. This week we have received a fabulous parcel with letters and
photographs from the children at Hillsmeade Primary School. As you can imagine,
the Year 4 children were very excited to read their letters, and they can't
wait to get started on their next letter! Thank you to Miss Carroll who has been
in regular contact with the teachers at Hillsmeade to get this
project up and running and create yet another wonderful opportunity for our
kids!
Attendance
Yet again, attendance
in school is pretty fabulous! CONGRATULATIONS to Reception A who have this week
secured the magic 100% attendance… Wow! Last terms 100% attendance certificates
and termly reports will be with you next week so you can see for yourself just
how well you are doing! Keep up the excellent work, folks…
National Minimum
‘Good’ Expectation
|
Target
2013-2014
|
Attendance this
week
03/04/2014 -23/04/2014
|
Year to date
04/09/2013 – 23/04/2014
|
||||||||
95%
|
96%
|
96%
|
96.0%
|
||||||||
Class attendance
figures for the W/E 19/03/2014
|
|||||||||||
Rec A
Rec B
|
Class 1
|
Class 2
|
Class 3
|
Class 4
|
Class 5
|
Class 6
|
Class 7
|
Class 8
|
Class 9
|
||
100%
95.5%
|
97.8 %
|
92.2%
|
96.6%
|
95.6%
|
95.0%
|
96.1 %
|
97.7%
|
92.5 %
|
97.3%
|
Y6 SATS
Spare a thought for our Y6 pupils who are working
their socks off at the moment in preparation for their national tests. We are
very impressed with the level of effort and determination they are putting in
and the children can be very proud of themselves for this, whatever the outcome
of the tests in May! The test week is the week beginning 12th May, so please don’t miss your chance to shine by being
absent that week, Y6!
Have
a wonderful weekend,
Mrs
Bailey