Weekly Newsflash! Friday 28th April 2023
Olivia’s Prayer for the King
Check this out:
Many congratulations to Olivia! We hope that some of you can get to Ripon and see her prayer on display in the Cathedral. What an achievement!
SAFEGUARDING and bus registers
Please can I impress upon families the importance of letting school know if you make changes to your child’s collection arrangements. In addition to our internal shuttle buses, we also have several county runs to manage at the end of the day and we hold registers for the pupils going on each bus. If you make a change to what we understand to be happening, please contact school so that we can be confident that we are putting the right children on the right transport. I am sure that families would be the first to complain if we got this wrong (quite rightly) but we need the right information to work with. Thank you in anticipation.
KS2 SATs – Y6
Our Y6 children will be sitting their SATs paper in the week beginning 9th May (just after the coronation weekend). This is a pressured time and we always do our best to make the children feel relaxed and confident – they are always amazing. Each day they will have a delicious breakfast in school before beginning their tests, and they will have plenty of opportunity to let off steam and relax after each paper. The timetable is as follows:
| Tuesday 9th May | Grammar and Punctuation – 45 mins Spelling – 20 mins |
| Wednesday 10th May | English Reading – 60 minutes |
| Thursday 11th May | Mathematics Arithmetic (Paper 1) – 30 minutes Mathematics Reasoning (Paper 2) – 40 minutes |
| Friday 12th May | Mathematics Reasoning (Paper 3) – 40 minutes |
Please make sure that your children are well rested and get plenty of sleep so that they have the very best chance to shine in their assessments. Thank you.
KS1 SATs – Y2
Our Y2 children will also be sitting SATs papers during the week beginning 15th May. The timetable for this is not strictly determined, although it is a statutory testing process. Mr Scrafton may be in touch with more details about how the assessments will be conducted nearer to the time.
Teacher Strikes
We do not anticipate any disruption to our schools on the additional strike days that have been announced.
PTFA Meeting – 4th May 2023
Please come along to the latest PTFA meeting next Thursday 4th May – held at The Falls Cafe in Aysgarth at 19:30, we hope to see you there!
Uniform
We are very happy to say that after parent feedback we have changed supplier to the Yorkshire-based company SchoolShop – our uniform is currently on order and we think you’ll be very pleased with the better quality. The logo will no longer have individual school names beneath it as suggested by many parents. We will update you when our individual SchoolShop page is open to orders.
Great North Air Ambulance Service – DONATIONS
As our families are so fantastic at raising funds, we have once again booked a collection for GNAAS for Wednesday 10th May. Please bring your bags to school that morning and leave outside. They need your old clothing and can also take toner/ink cartridges or unwanted mobile phones in any condition (in a separate bag).
Bank Holiday Weekend
Remember that this Monday is a bank holiday and we look forward to welcoming the children back to school on Tuesday 2nd May. Have a great extended weekend!
Safeguarding – BE ALERT
Please be alert when you are out and about. There exists a pervasive risk unique to rural communities: a complacency which leads to a dangerous belief that ‘those sorts of things don’t happen round here‘. If we think like this then we are closed to spotting signs and keeping our children safe.
Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Be vigilant. Be safe.
World Immunisation Week
This year’s theme is ‘The Big Catch Up’ which is urging parents to ensure their children are up to date with all their routine vaccinations, but especially the MMR vaccination as there has been an increase in measles cases, yet there is a decrease in the numbers of children being vaccinated. Take a look here for more information.
North Yorkshire Council Community Awards 2023
Do you know someone who is worthy of an award? North Yorkshire Council are looking for people in the following categories:
- Best community group
- Caring for the environment: Awarded to groups who have demonstrated a commitment to delivering community based initiatives that protect, restore and enhance our natural environment, helping to tackle the causes and impacts of climate change or supporting nature to thrive.
- Volunteer of the year: awarded to individual volunteers carrying out voluntary activity/activities in North Yorkshire.
The winner of each category will be awarded £1,000 for the relevant project, group or nominated relevant local charity in the case of the volunteer awards. Two runners up in each category will receive £250. For more information please click here.
Growing Community Connections
Growing Community Connections is an opportunity for local groups to collaborate with the Woodmeadow Trust to create high quality sustainable community green spaces for nature and people. Woodmeadow Trust offer help and support tailored to the group’s needs including ecological designs and even a little financial help. Find out more information here.
Year 6 – Wensleydale School
On Wednesday 17th May at 6pm, the The Wensleydale School & Sixth Form is holding an in-person Question and Answer Evening. This will provide you with the opportunity for them to share up-to-date information about the school, the plans for transition week and to answer any questions you may have. There will also be the opportunity for you to try on their uniform for sizes.
Robins
This week the Robins visited Sycamore Hall – they shared family photos with the residents and chatted about changes, the past and present using the evidence in the photos.
Owls
A busy week in the Owl classroom! In music, we have been working on our improvisation on the glockenspiels. Improvisation can be very tricky but we are starting to get the hang of it! In science, we have been for a spring walk to identify different spring plants and trees. Ask an Owl a plant or tree we saw on the walk and I’m sure they can tell you! A firm favourite was ‘cowslip’ which we thought was a very funny name for a flower! Everyone has been working hard as always in phonics and our writing is improving every week. We all love writing in the Owls!
Swallows
In RE this half term, the Swallows are investigating sacred books. This week they started off by looking at different types of bibles, examining the similarities and differences whilst also considering why they were all sacred. In English, this term’s Power of Reading book is Moth by Isabel Thomas. The Swallows created a moth attractor to inspire their instructional writing. In PE, the Swallows have worked together as effective teams, playing team games and solving problems as a team in PE. Finally in Geography, the Swallows have been making adverts to show their learning on why people might choose to live at the coast.
Kingfishers
The Kingfishers had a great start to their new history topic which is all about the Anglo Saxons & Vikings. We used a map to investigate some place names to see if we could spot some that had Anglo Saxon or Viking roots. It was amazing how many the children managed to find!
Golden Eagles
The Golden Eagles have enjoyed learning about 4-figure grid references and being able to find the correct coordinates for places in their local area.
RESPECT Ambassadors
| Robins | Albert |
| Owls | Rosie |
| Swallows | Sammy |
| Kingfishers | Nico |
| Golden Eagles | Caleb |
| Merlins | Antoni |
Rewarding Reading
| Swallows | 10 books: Theodore |
| Kingfishers | 10 books: Elsie, Joey, Sylvi, Louisa, Maisie |
| Merlins | 10 books: Jo, Georgie, Isaac, Fred, Arthur, Eliza, Dec, Dylan, Gabriel |
This Week’s Awards:
| Pupil of the week | |||||
| Robins (Nursery) | Jacob for a great start to Robins. Jacob has shown enthusiasm for lots of our learning activities and has listened well. | ||||
| Robins (Reception) | Rosie for effort when creating her Mosque collage. Rosie took great care and spent a lot of time adding detail to it. | ||||
| Owls (Y1) | Sophie for enthusiasm in all subjects- a real love for learning! | ||||
| Swallows (Y2) | Sammy for taking responsibility in his role as respect ambassador. | ||||
| Kingfishers (Y3) | Charlie for a fantastic attitude to learning, particularly in English. | ||||
| Golden Eagles (Y4) | Isaac for taking a mature approach to learning and improving how he articulates his answers in maths using mathematical terminology. | ||||
| Merlins (Y5) | Gabriel for a superb attitude towards maths and making excellent progress because of all his hard work. | ||||
| Merlins (Y6) | Will for taking responsibility for his learning and having a mature and methodical approach particularly in maths. |
| Headteacher’s Awards | |
| Bainbridge | Theo L for effort and responsibility, observed during swimming. Theo’s behaviour was exemplary both in and out of the pool. |
| Askrigg | Annie T for a mature and responsible attitude to school life, following the RESPECT code at all times. |
| West Burton | Sidney L for effort in DT, making a fantastic torch last term, bringing additional resources in from home and modifying his design over time. |
| Good Samaritan Awards | For courage, care, compassion (for the children, from the children). | Nominated by |
| Owls | Sophie for always being ‘super kind’ to her. | Jemima |
| Swallows | Sammy for holding the door for her. Sammy for helping him up when he fell down. | Rosie Aidan |
| Rosie for showing Ben around West Burton. | Theodore | |
| Kingfishers | Isla for helping her to get ready for PE. | Matilda |
| Maisie for helping him. | Joey B-L |
| Other | |
| Best Learning Space (classroom) | Golden Eagles |
| Most Effective Learning Environment (school) | West Burton |
| House Point Winning Team | Dormice |
| Best Class Attendance | Swallows (100%) |
