Weekly Newsflash! 17th November 2023
Coming up next week…
| Monday | Eco Warrior Meeting |
| Tuesday | – Y1 and Y5 swimming |
| Wednesday | – Year 6 Crucial Crew – After-school sports |
| Friday | – After-school science club |
Headteachers Message
As you will all be aware, technology is advancing at such a pace it can be hard to keep up with it. As a result, we need to constantly review our policies at school to make sure we are still able to protect our children effectively.
We have long had a policy that we don’t allow our children to bring mobile phones into school but it is becoming increasingly clear that some smartwatches now have capabilities are on a par with mobile phones, including recording facilities and the ability to attach to the internet. Both of these capabilities would be capable of causing significant safeguarding issues in a primary school.
Can I therefore ask you all to check any smartwatches your children may have. If their smartwatch is capable of accessing the internet or recording (either audio or video) then I am afraid we can’t allow them to be worn in school. Any child who comes in with one of these devices will be asked to hand them into the care of their teacher for the day.
Thank you in advance for your support and understanding.
Children in Need!
We have had a wonderful Friday celebrating Children in Need! We’ve seen some great outfits, from teachers to train drivers, farmers to footballers – we’ve had a great mix!
A big thank you to Rachel at Fearne & Rosie, who came to support the children whilst baking – as well as overseeing a very important visit from Pudsey bear himself!! Another big thank you has to go to Mrs Fawcett who has organised everything, we think she’ll need a lay down this evening!
Thank you Co-Op!
A big thank you to those that have supported the Wensleydale Scout Group which many of our children attend – Eve & James went to collect the cheque this afternoon, that’s a pretty big number isn’t it?!
PTFA Christmas Fair – 10th December
As we quickly approach Christmas, the PTFA would really appreciate donations of mince pies, chocolate bars, bottles of wine and empty wine bottles (with a screw cap). The money raised will be spent on resources and trips for the children so everything contributed is very much appreciated! Volunteers are also needed, so if you have a spare couple of hours and can help, please contact the office.
The next PTFA meeting is next Thursday 23rd November at The Falls Cafe, Aysgarth. Everyone is welcome and there’s always yummy cakes available so please pop down to support us! Find the agenda for the next meeting here.
A date for your diary!
On Friday 22nd December The Wheatsheaf in Carperby will be hosting a family friendly quiz – all entry and raffle proceeds are kindly being donated to the PTFA. It’s set to be a lovely evening full of fun, so save the date now!
Celebration of Bikeability!
We are thrilled to say that we were nominated for this year’s School of the Year Award!
Safeguarding
To tie in with the message from our Headteachers, the below information may come in handy!
BigGive – Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust
Current-year-visits-copy-of-BigGive-Christmas-Fundraiser-2023Calendar
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
Robins started the week learning all about the Hindu festival, Diwali. The children have made ‘Diva’s’ to hold a candle in, as the festival is also known as “The Festival of Lights”. The Divas have been painted and will be decorated with glitter and sequins, ready to take home. The children understand more about how and why Diwali is celebrated. They have acted out the story of ‘Rama and Sita’ using Puppets and have made ‘Rangoli’ patterns using a range of brightly coloured counting materials.
The children have loved ‘Letterjoin’ on our whiteboard this week. They are getting great at waiting their turn and choosing their own picture to carefully draw around using their finger.
We were so excited to get a visit from Pudsey Bear earlier in the week.We have talked about how raising money for ‘Children in Need’ can help children in lots of different ways. We loved baking for Children in Need too, following a ‘Fearne and Rosie’ recipe and have enjoyed lots of other fun activities- including a ‘Treasure hunt’ to win a special Pudsey related prize!
It was great to see the children all dressed up as what they’d like to be when they grow up!
Owls
In yoga this week the children were adding movement and poses to retell the story, it included woodcutting and being very small quiet mice!
We have had a fantastic Children in Need day, icing our pop tarts, enjoying the treasure hunt in the sun and of course admiring the wonderful outfits: farmers, vets, a scientist and even a paleontologist, great effort everyone!
Swallows & Kingfishers
A busy week in the Kingfishers and Swallows this week. We have had an absolutely fantastic day for Children in Need. We joined in with the ‘burpee challenge’, played the Children in Need board game, had a treasure hunt and even ate our jam turnovers – all whilst dressed up as our future jobs! What a Friday!
On Thursday we prepped our turnovers and were lucky enough to have a visit from Pudsey. We’re not sure who enjoyed this more, the children or the school staff!
In computing this week the classes created stop-motion animations using several pictures to create the illusion of movement.
Golden Eagles
The Golden Eagles were very excited to meet Pudsey who came to visit whilst they were making buns ready to decorate on Friday as part of our Children in need activities.
The Golden Eagles have had a fantastic morning celebrating Children in Need: buns have been decorated and eaten, treasures have been found and maths lessons have been taught by our future teachers!
Herons
We’ve seen some fabulous outfits for Children in Need today! Here are the Herons sampling their Fearne & Rosie buns this afternoon – do you think the sun is in their eyes?!
The Herons have been busy this week perfecting their sewing skills – I think they should start taking commissions!
Merlins
The Merlins thoroughly enjoyed prepping and baking their buns ready for Children in Need day. They will add their finishing touches and enjoy tasting their creations on Friday. Thank you Mrs Fawcett and Mrs Handley!
This Week’s Awards:
| Pupil of the week | |||||
| Robins (Reception) | Zoey, for always giving her absolute best. Zoey has also shown growing confidence for joining in with new activities and playing with a wider circle of friends. Well done Zoey! | ||||
| Owls (Y1) | Zoey for effort and enjoyment in phonics, resulting in great progress. | ||||
| Swallows (Y2) | Sophie for enjoyment in all aspects of school life. We never see Sophie without a smile on her face. She always uses beautiful manners too! | ||||
| Kingfishers (Y3) | Aidan for effort in maths, taking responsibility for his own learning. | ||||
| Golden Eagles (Y4) | Louisa for taking responsibility for her learning by always trying to do just a little bit more. | ||||
| Herons (Y5) | Oliver for choices: choosing to support a friend who was feeling worried and upset. | ||||
| Merlins (Y6) | Antoni for his exemplary behaviour, effort in maths and always being ready to learn. What a great role model. |
| Headteacher’s Awards | |
| Bainbridge | Ada Middleton for smartness and politeness; setting a good example to her peers |
| Askrigg | Ben Carlisle for a quietly enthusiastic approach to school life and lovely manners at all times |
| West Burton | Olivia Hollands-Wilkins for following all aspects of our RESPECT code |
| Good Samaritan Awards | For courage, care, compassion (for the children, from the children). | Nominated by |
| Kingfishers | Sammy for caring for a friend when he was in need. | Myles |
| Lizzy for helping her to keep the classroom tidy. | Martha | |
| Golden Eagles | Alex for sharing his piece of cake when there wasn’t enough for everyone. | Maciek |
| Isla for cheering her up when she was feeling sad. | Ellie | |
| Herons | Abe, as when Theo did not have a partner for swimming, Abe came and offered to be his partner. | Theo |
| Merlins | Otis for showing him how to get out of the swimming pool (without using the steps) when he was struggling to get out. | Harry |
| Other | |
| Best Learning Space (classroom) | Swallows |
| Most Effective learning Environment (school) | West Burton |
| House Point Winning Team | Otters |
| Best Class Attendance | Merlins – 98% |
