Weekly Newsflash! 13th October 2023
Coming up next week…
| Monday | – Swallows PTCs – Kingfishers PTCs |
| Tuesday | – Balance bike sessions at Bainbridge – Y1 and Y5 swimming – Herons PTCs – Merlins PTCs – Robins PTCs – Owls PTCs – Swallows PTCs – Kingfishers PTCs |
| Wednesday | – Wear a Woolly Wednesday – Y4/5/6 Girls Football @ The Wensleydale School – After-school sports – Herons PTCs – Golden Eagles – Merlins PTCs – Robins PTCs – Owls PTCs – Swallows PTCs – Kingfishers PTCs |
| Thursday | – After-school cycling club – Golden Eagles PTCs – Herons PTCs |
| Friday | – Harvest Festival – After-school science club |
Mrs Park – SENco
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Mary Park as our new SENDCO (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator). Mary is a much-loved teacher at our federation and those of you with children who have been in her class will know her to be highly skilled at helping all her pupils feel special and nurtured.
She will continue to teach her class at West Burton but will also now have the opportunity to bring her inclusive, caring approach to this additional and important role, providing support to pupils and teachers across the three schools. She will undergo extensive training with the regional SEND team and will also benefit from the support of a mentor from another local school, expertise from the NYCC SEND hub and, of course, handover support from our outgoing SENCO, Alexa. Congratulations Mrs Park!
Times Table Rockstars LAUNCH DAY!
We have had a fabulous day wearing our fancy dress to celebrate the launch of TT Rockstars. Some of the outfits on display were fantastic – we obviously have some budding rockstars in our midst…
Login information has been handed out to the children today, but if you need any further information/the login has been misplaced, please contact the office.
Flu Vaccinations
In a few weeks time we will have the Yorkshire Immunisation Team visiting the schools to administer the nasal flu vaccine. If you haven’t already, please fill in the form here to either consent or opt out of the vaccine. Thank you for your co-operation.
TONIGHT!! Beetle Drive @ Askrigg Village Hall
Wear a Woolly Wednesday
On Wednesday 18th we will be taking part in the ‘Wear a Woolly Wednesday’ initiative.
As well as their usual school uniform, children need come to school with an extra layer, gloves, scarf and hat as we turn off the heating for the day in order to understand the impact it has on our energy usage.
Our eco-warriors will read the meters at the beginning and end of the school day on Tuesday and Wednesday so we can see what a difference wearing our woollies can make!
Half-Term Science Workshop!
Our wonderful after-school science club teacher, Mrs Clarkson is running a SPOOOOKY SCIENCE CLUB over the half term break. Take a look below for more details.
Spooooky-Science-workshopAutism Central Workshops
AC-learning-workshops-OCT-DEC-23Calendar
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
Last week we harvested the potatoes we had planted last year. We sorted, chopped and cooked. They were delicious and we ate lots. Yum!
We have also been learning about Patterns in Maths this week. The children are learning that patterns mean exactly the same thing repeated over and over again. The children made repeating patterns with the natural objects from our Maths shed, eg. “Stick, pine cone, stick, pine cone…”. They have also made repeating patterns with musical instrument sounds and with body actions. The children listened carefully to repeating pattern language in the story “We’re going on a Bear Hunt” too, eg. Stumble, trip, stumble, trip…
The loveliest thing this week has been watching children choosing to make patterns in different ways during their Independent Learning.
Owls
Last week the Owls enjoyed exploring the police vehicle when two officers came to visit. We learnt about the importance of the sirens and listened to the different noises it made. We also looked at the different equipment the officers had on board.
In art we have been continuing to explore spirals, this time using watercolours.
In PSHE we enjoyed our connect me and calm me sessions in the sunshine outside, we could hear the birds and the trees it was very relaxing. We made the most of the Autumn sunshine and had some time on the field too!
Swallows & Kingfishers
Here a few pictures from the Swallows and Kingfishers geography trip to York. We had a fantastic time working on our geographical vocabulary and map reading skills. We also identified a range of similarities and differences between life in our rural community and life in York. Our children were a real credit to our federation throughout the day.
Golden Eagles
The Golden Eagles are loving the new science topic states of matter. We started by exploring the three states of matter using ice, water and air inside balloons and then moved on to exploring materials that are more challenging to categorise such as pouring solids like rice and sand; viscous liquids like golden syrup and the children’s favourite, non-Newtonian liquids like oobleck, which is a liquid when touched gently and solid when pressed.
Oobleck can easily be made at home using approximately 2 parts cornflour to 1 part water.
Herons
The Herons had enormous fun at their CCF taster day on Wednesday! They learnt skills such as first aid, concealment and shelter building – what a great opportunity thanks to The Wensleydale School!
Merlins
On Wednesday, our year 6 girls took a trip to York to celebrate ‘Day of the Girl’ and explore opportunities in the STEM sector. The children listened to a presentation from members of Network Rail and discussed empowerment and the importance of a diverse and equal society. The children took part in a ‘Mythbuster’ and had the challenge of dropping an egg from over two metres, without it cracking on the ground. They used a range of materials and interesting strategies to protect their eggs and all came out as winners!
Our year 6 boys also took a trip to York and visited the Railway Museum. They took part in a ‘Wonderlab’ workshop and played their way through 18 hands-on activities and experiences. The children were able to test their engineering skills as they stepped into the human wind tunnel and launched a rocket. The day was ended by an explosive live show to reveal the science behind the fun. A fantastic time was had by all and some of the children described it as ‘The best day ever!”.
This Week’s Awards:
| Pupil of the week | |||||
| Robins (Reception) | Willow for taking responsibility for her learning. She has chosen to write letter sounds and make repeating patterns during independent learning – well done Willow! | ||||
| Owls (Y1) | William for effort and enjoyment in maths, he has been enjoying working on part whole models’ carefully explaining his thinking. | ||||
| Swallows (Y2) | Ben for his fantastic questions on our trip to York, taking it all the sights, sounds and smells. | ||||
| Kingfishers (Y3) | Rosie for showing great enthusiasm during our play practise and geography fieldwork. | ||||
| Golden Eagles (Y4) | Sylvi for effort and enjoyment in her UWNL story. | ||||
| Herons (Y5) | Rory for effort: careful thinking about variables in science | ||||
| Merlins (Y6) | Archie for effort in English with his writing and enjoyment during our York trip. |
| Headteacher’s Awards | |
| Bainbridge | Brodie – making good progress with his choices |
| Askrigg | Connie – always being kind and helpful, looking after her peers |
| West Burton | Olivia – a polite, hard-working approach to school life |
| Good Samaritan Awards | For courage, care, compassion (for the children, from the children). | Nominated by |
| Robins | George for being a good friend at his first swimming lesson | Jack |
| Owls | Annie for being a kind friend, letting her go first when she was feeling sad | Ceci |
| Swallows | Sophie and Rosie B for teaching her how to do a front flip on the bars. | Libby |
| Kingfishers | Sammy and Rosie for helping her after the ball had hit her in the face | Lizzy |
| Rose for sharing her piano | Theodore | |
| Lizzy for helping her learn a back bend | Martha | |
| Rosie and Theodore for being good friends | Olivia | |
| Golden Eagles | Joey, Louisa and Alex for cheering her up at breaktime | Sylvi |
| Herons | Raf for helping him in maths | Harry |
| Tristan for helping to even out the football team numbers | Rory | |
| William for helping him when he felt sad | Caleb | |
| Sydney for making the little ones laugh on the bus | Abe | |
| Hugo for being a generous friend while playing | Oliver | |
| Oliver for cheering him up | Callum | |
| Lily-Anne for helping put her instrument away | Lily | |
| Lily-Anne for cheering her up | Lydia | |
| Merlins | Georgie for giving him her activity book from the York visit | AntonI |
| Archie for helping him when he had lost something and Johnny for being a good friend to him on the bus | Toby | |
| Beatrice QB and Ava for giving her the confidence to walk into the classroom dressed up in her wig | Beatrice C | |
| Beatrice C and Ava for being good friends | Beatrice QB |
| Other | |
| Best Learning Space (classroom) | Owls |
| Most Effective learning Environment (school) | Askrigg |
| House Point Winning Team | Otters |
| Best Class Attendance | Swallows & Kingfishers – 100% |
