Weekly Newsflash! Friday 8th September 2023
Great to be back!
The first week back has been a joy! Our children have been superstars: settling quickly into new routines with enthusiasm. All members of our staff team have launched straight into the curriculum, making a great start to the year and ensuring that our children are learning right from the start! We are looking forward to the year ahead.
From our point of view, transport and shuttling arrangements are working well, having made a couple of tweaks over the course of the week. I always value and respond to feedback: please do not hesitate to get in touch if there is anything you would like to discuss.
Have a great weekend in the lovely weather!
PE Timetable
| PE days(s) – PE Kit required | Other PE Provision (PE kit not required) | |
| ROBINS: EYFS at Bainbridge | Wednesday | Yoga on Monday |
| OWLS: Y1 at Bainbridge | Wednesday | Yoga on Monday Swimming on Tuesday (starting Sep 19) |
| SWALLOWS: Y2 at West Burton | Monday | n/a |
| KINGFISHERS: Y3 at West Burton | Monday | n/a |
| GOLDEN EAGLES: Y4 at Askrigg | Tuesday and Thursday | n/a |
| HERONS: Y5 at Askrigg | Thursday | Swimming on Tuesday (starting Sep 19) |
| MERLINS: Y6 at Askrigg | Tuesday and Friday | n/a |
After School Clubs
We still have a few spaces on our Science Club (Fridays at Askrigg from 15th Sept) and Cycle Club (Thursdays at Bainbridge from 21st Sept ), to sign up please fill in the form here, the form will close at midday on Tuesday 12th September.
Please note that Cycle Club has been rearranged to start a week later on Thursday 21st September NOT Thursday 14th September. A reminder email will be sent early next week to those participating. Thank you for your understanding.
PTFA Car Boot Sale
Our fabulous PTFA have organised an event to raise funds for our three schools! If any families can donate a cake or two for the cake stall, that would also be much appreciated! Cakes can be dropped off at school on Friday 22nd Sept or taken directly to the car boot sale.
Calendar
Did you know you can synchronise our calendar with our school calendar? Click here to visit the calendar and click the link at the bottom of the page that says ‘subscribe to calendar’ – this will enable you to push events out to your personal calendars.
Robins
We’ve had a fantastic first week back with Robins, including our lovely new starters that have had lots of fun getting to know our setting and playing in the different areas – they have done so well. Our reception children look so smart and grown up in their school uniforms, we are so proud of them all!
This week has seen all of us getting used to new routines and exciting activities to explore. The children have LOVED getting messy in the mud kitchen (they have left lots of mud pies out in the sun to see how they change), our new ‘Literacy Shed’ has captured lots of interest and encouraged children to draw and write. The children have also enjoyed playing ‘farms’ in our sand tray, as well as having some fun in the sun alongside the water tray!
What a super first week of reception phonics too. We have introduced the children to our first few sounds: M, A, S, D. They have all listened during phonics and worked really hard to write their sounds too. Well done Robins!
Owls
We have had a lovely first week in the owl class, we’ve been very Impressed by the children’s independence and enthusiasm for learning, settling straight into the new term.
In maths this week we have been counting and sorting objects, it was great to see this during some independent learning time, sorting vehicles into those with wheels and those without.
Our class story this week has been Owl Babies (of course!), we have enjoyed sequencing and joining in with key phrases, poor Bill was very sad!
Swallows
The Swallows have had a great start to the new term down at West Burton! As you can see, we have been loving getting back into Maths!
Kingfishers
The first week back has absolutely flown by in Kingfishers. We are well underway with our ‘Power of Reading’ work in English and have made some good progress in maths.
Here are some photos of our recent science lesson where the children had to identify and label the bones of the body including: skull, spine, rib cage, pelvis and femur. We really enjoyed taking this lesson outside and drawing and labelling the bones on the playground.
Golden Eagles
The Golden Eagles have had a fantastic start to the term and are loving the extra space at Askrigg.
On Tuesday, we started the day with a carousel of French activities to get us excited for our French lessons. In the Golden Eagles classroom we played Jeu de la Barbichette (Game of the Goatee), a popular French game where children hold each other by the “goatee” and try not to laugh. Well done Douglas for making it to the final! The Golden Eagles also visited Miss Telford’s French cafe and learnt French songs with Miss Collins.
Mrs Handley is our new TA for the first part of the week and the children were delighted by the contents of her mystery bag which she used to explain a bit about herself. The children were particularly excited by her love of baking as a small sample was brought in for each.
In English, we have started looking at our new Power of Reading book, The Bluest of Blues, a book all about Anna Atkins, the first person to publish a book of photographs. To launch the event, the Golden Eagles brought in special photographs from home.
As part of our work on grouping and classifying animals, the children played games with animal pictures to support their learning on the classification of vertebrates.
On Thursday morning, the sounds of trumpets and trombones rang out at Askrigg or at least they did once all the valves had been unstuck!
Herons
It has been so exciting to have our first week in a brand new class! I have felt very proud of the Herons who have started the new term full of energy and enthusiasm for learning. What a fun year we are going to have.
One of our favourite activities this week has been our investigation into friction in science. We raced an ice cube and a wooden cube against each other down a ramp, experimenting with different slope angles and cube sizes to see if it made a difference to the results. The children used some fantastic scientific language to describe their observations.
Merlins
The Merlins have had a sunny start to the school year and have enjoyed outdoor learning opportunities and exploring what their final year of school will entail. What a bright start to year 6!
