Weekly Newsflash! 12th January 2024
Coming up next week…
| Tuesday | – Y3 & Y4 Swimming Please can children come into school with their swimming gear underneath their uniform, along with a towel, water bottle and goggles if they wish. Children are also welcome to bring a piece of fruit with them 🙂 |
| Wednesday | – After School Sports @ Askrigg |
| Friday | – Celebration Assembly – Science Club @ Askrigg |
A message from the Headteacher
Dear families,
I am delighted to announce that we have a new Base Leader at Askrigg: Matthew Scrafton. An experienced teacher in KS1 and KS2, Matthew has been a valued asset to our federation for a number of years and has already begun to put his admirable organisational skills to good use at Askrigg. It is lovely to see staff step up to roles with greater responsibility – thank you Matthew.
I also wanted to let you know that we are making some changes to the way we teach reading following feedback from the Parent Forum and from our staff and children – more to follow on this. As part of this project, we will be discontinuing our use of the Boom Reader app from the beginning of February and replacing this digital service with paper reading records.
PTFA Fundraiser! Pie & Pea Night – Friday 19th January
Any donations to the raffle would be gratefully received, we hope to see you there!
British Heart Foundation
Our local BHF store needs donations, so if you have any unwanted furniture or electricals, please think about getting in touch with them below.
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
It’s been a very busy first week back in Robins. We have welcomed some new nursery starters, who are settling in really well. They are getting used to our routines and being shown what to do by our other Robins.
The children have all had opportunities to talk about their Christmases and they loved looking through special family photos of their Christmas with their friends. The children are beginning to represent their Christmas through drawings, paintings and crafts during independent learning too.
The playdough has been very popular this week. It smells just like chocolate! The children have enjoyed helping to measure out ingredients and separate the playdough ‘chocolates’ into chocolate boxes.
The magnets have provided some very exciting learning opportunities. The children have loved discovering other classroom resources that are magnetic and like to talk about how the magnets work.
Owls
A great start to the new term, the Owls have settled straight back into their learning.
In history the children have been looking at timelines and creating their own timeline by sequencing photos.
In art the children have been exploring colour mixing using watercolours.
Swallows & Kingfishers
This week has been back to business for the Kingfishers. We have had a great first week back and have started our HIIT workouts again. These have been a great start to the morning and have really woken us up, ready for a day of learning.
Just before Christmas Martha decided to write to the Prime Minter to share her concerns regarding deforestation and its impact on the climate. This week Martha received a reply from Mr Sunak explaining the measures the country are taking to address this concern. A wonderful example of courageous advocacy from Martha on a very important topic.
Golden Eagles
The Golden Eagles have had a fantastic start to the New Year and are very excited about the term ahead.
In science we have been investigating sound, using a decibel meter, measuring the volume of musical instruments and investigating the noise levels at different times of the school day – unsurprisingly, lunch time was the loudest!
In music, the Golden Eagles listened and responded to a piece of music by composing their own musical accompaniment.
Herons
This week we started our new topic in history – What did the Greeks ever do for us?
Here the children are working in groups making timelines to show the key periods in the Ancient Greek civilisation.
Merlins
In Merlins, we have started our new Power of Reading book ‘Street Child’. We read the first chapter and used charcoal to sketch and capture a significant freeze frame from chapter one. We discussed what the towns and streets would have looked like in London in the 1860’s and what life would have been like for little ‘Jim Jarvis’. We made some great inferences and are excited to find out more about our main character and his story.
This Week’s Awards:
| Pupil of the week | |||||
| Robins (Reception) | Ronnie for excited learning – investigating magnets in detail and sharing his learning. Also for a continued effort to make the right choices in his learning. Well done Ronnie! | ||||
| Owls (Y1) | Otto for effort and enjoyment in maths, sharing and explaining his answers clearly. | ||||
| Swallows (Y2) | Libby for her focus in Maths and for always having a smile on her face! | ||||
| Kingfishers (Y3) | Martha for positive contributions to life in and out of school. | ||||
| Golden Eagles (Y4) | Florence for being a great role model and ambassador for our RESPECT code. (Florence will be our new RESPECT ambassador). | ||||
| Herons (Y5) | Theo for hard work and determination in maths. | ||||
| Merlins (Y6) | Layla for a positive and enthusiastic start to the year and for being a responsible learner by creating SATs revision cards at home. |
| Headteacher’s Awards | |
| Bainbridge | Theo for a positive start to the new term; he’s unfailingly polite and has a great work ethic! |
| Askrigg | Amelie for her kindness to others. She’s always helpful and a super role model. |
| West Burton | Beatrice QB for a great start to the term; she has demonstrated admirable resilience while maintaining her usual fantastic work ethic. |
| Good Samaritan Awards | For courage, care, compassion (for the children, from the children). | Nominated by |
| Kingfishers | Aidan for managing to get a hoop back that had almost been lost. | Theodore & Rosie |
| Theodore for collecting things for other at playtime | Martha | |
| Olivia for supporting her during computing if she gets stuck. | Libby | |
| Herons | Dylan for being an excellent role model to our younger children. | Callum |
| Merlins | Amelie for helping him with his sketching in English. | Archie |
| Other | |
| Tidiest Classroom | Owls |
| House Point Winning Team | Red Squirrels |
