Weekly Newsflash! Friday 3rd March 2023
World Book Day
We had a wonderful World Book Day this week, with the children excited to share their love of reading with one another and to recommend books. The day provided the opportunity to enjoy favourite stories and explore and discover new ones too. We all enjoyed making masks of characters from some of our favourite books (although stringing the elastic onto them was quite tricky!) and each class enjoyed a lovely book-reading event provided by the local charity Settle Stories.
The day also saw the launch of our new Rewarding Reading scheme and many of the children have already begun reading books that will count towards the personalised prizes they can earn. In fact, one child even managed to finish one of the books within the day – well done Fearne!
The reading excitement didn’t end there, as many children attended the bedtime story event after school, kindly organised by our PTFA. Thank you to the members of staff who shared their favourite stories with the children.
WBD tokens will be going home today, remember that they can be used in the fabulous Wonky Tree Bookshop in Leyburn.
https://thewonkytreebookshop.co.uk/
New Homework Launch!
This week we have:
- Explained the ‘Rewarding Reading’ challenge with all of our pupils and provided everyone from Y2 upwards with a record for this challenge.
- Explained the ‘Activity Passport’ with children and provided every child from YR upwards with a copy for you to use at home.
- Sent an email to all parents (from the class teacher) about this half-term’s ‘Teacher’s Challenge‘.
Please click here to navigate to our homework information page where you will find all the supporting materials needed for our new homework challenges and loads of helpful resources.
If you have any questions about our new homework expectations, please do not hesitate to ask. Equally, if you have any suggestions for the homework page on the website, please do shout.
The Wensleydale Tournament of Song
If your child is involved in a solo or duet, you will have received additional information regarding the timing of their class(es). We have also asked you for confirmation of transport arrangements, and to let us know if your child will be absent over lunchtime.
The choral speaking (Golden Eagles and Merlins) takes place in The Methodist Hall, Leyburn, at 1:50pm on Tuesday 14th March. We will be taking the children there by bus and they will be back at their normal home time location for the normal end of the school day. We would love to see some of our parents in the audience for moral support!
I believe that a full programme will be available soon.
Friday 24th March sees a full day of singing at Tennant’s for all children in Y2 upwards. Transport is being arranged from school and drop-off and collection arrangements are not affected.
Please note that celebration assembly on Friday 24th March is cancelled on account of the tournament.
Junior Bake-Off Opportunity
Hi there,
My name is Hannah and I’m a Casting Researcher at Love Productions; the company behind The Great British Bake Off, The Great British Sewing Bee and The Great Pottery Throw Down.
We are delighted to say, that we have recently opened applications for the 9th series of Junior Bake Off; a Channel 4 programme that celebrates the culinary talent and ambition of the younger generation in Britain.
We are looking for young budding bakers between 9-12 years old.
Filming would take place from July 2023, but our applications close on Sunday 12th March 2023.
Interested bakers can apply online at – www.applyforjuniorbakeoff.co.uk
Please do feel free to contact us on 0207 067 4833, should you have any questions regarding the above.
Best wishes,
The Junior Bake Off Team
enquiries: applyforjuniorbakeoff@loveproductions.co.uk
S9-APPLY-FOR-JBO-FLYERTeacher Strikes
We do not anticipate any disruption to our schools on strike days.
Yoga from the Heart
Our wonderful Yoga teacher, Nic, is holding yoga sessions for both adults and children in Askrigg. Please find out more information here.
Nursery
Did you know that every 3 year old is entitled to 15 hours of free nursery funding?! Next month, we have a few taster sessions open for our fantastic nursery! Why not come along and get a ‘feel’ for what we offer – our nursery boasts a free-flow outdoor area together with the latest facilities and equipment indoors across two rooms.
Our open days are due to take place on the 28th and 29th March between 13:30 – 15:30, we hope to see you there! If you plan on coming along, please email or call the office with your details so we can be ready to welcome you!
Shoe Donation
Do you have any shoes or sandals gathering dust? Donations would be much appreciated to send onto Kenya, via the Saving Yorkshire’s Dogs charity shop in Leyburn. The shoes don’t have to be in pristine condition, just wearable! If you wish to donate, please leave them in any of our school offices. Thanks in advance!
PTFA Meeting
Our next PTFA meeting is scheduled for the 9th March at the Falls Café in Aysgarth. We would love to see you there – for more information click here.
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
The Robins classroom was spotless first thing Monday, fortunately none of the senior leadership team were in the classrooms during pancake making – the mud kitchen variety! The Robins are very proud of their ‘Best Learning Environment’ award aka ‘Tidiest Classroom”.
The Robins also celebrated the first day of spring by planting some seeds! It looks like we have some budding gardeners!
Owls
In History this week, the Owls acted out part of the Great Fire of London. The ‘ordinary’ people had to control the fire because there was no fire brigade so here we are pulling down the houses with fire hooks, splashing water on the fire with our leather buckets and using gunpowder to blow up the houses in the fires path! What a fantastic way to learn!
The Owls also had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day, and spent time creating some masks! Aren’t they brilliant?!
Swallows
The Swallows have had a fantastic world book day. They joined in with a book reading and draw along with Swapna Haddow, author of Dave the Pigeon: Bookshop Mayhem (which is available in all good book stores as part of the World Book Day Collection).
The Swallows also made masks with Miss Collins and attended the West Burton Book Bistro, where they perused a menu of books from our Rewarding Reading scheme and ordered books to sample!
The Swallows have also completed a Demon Dentist themed wordsearch and illustrated their own book covers.
Kingfishers
World Book Day
The children had a wonderful day visiting the book café, making masks of well known characters and they enjoyed watching a live author event with Settle stories that featured the author of the Dave the Pigeon Books, Swapna Haddow. I think you will all agree that the masks the Kingfishers have made are very, very good! We are so impressed!
Golden Eagles
The Golden Eagles thoroughly enjoyed a visit from Dave for their Box2Be Fit session. A great fitness session was had by all!
On World Book day, the Golden Eagles checked in to Askrigg library and checked out a good book to sit, read and enjoy with their friends.
Merlins
The Merlins also had a brilliant Box2BeFit session at Askrigg this week. The children all really enjoyed this and were exhausted by the end of the session. A big thank you to Dave from Skip2BeFit for his work with some of the children from our federation across the day. We look forward to the next one! In music with Mr Price this week the Merlins looked at a range of songs and worked on their understanding of reading music and understanding related vocabulary.
This Week’s Awards:
| Pupil of the week | |||||
| Robins (Nursery) | Ronnie D- adapting to the new routine with confidence and increased independence. | ||||
| Robins (Reception) | William T for working hard in his phonics at home and at school and showing great independence when writing. | ||||
| Owls (Y1) | Charlie for having the confidence to lead a warm up at Skip2BFit! | ||||
| Swallows (Y2) | Rosie for enjoyment and enthusiasm for all things book related. | ||||
| Kingfishers (Y3) | Florence for effort in her science work, it is always clear and well presented. | ||||
| Golden Eagles (Y4) | Oliver for his effort in English and enjoyment during the Box2BFit session. | ||||
| Merlins (Y5) | Eliza for purposeful talk within the classroom. Providing really well thought out responses all week. | ||||
| Merlins (Y6) | Kirsty for having a mature approach to school and setting a wonderful example to everyone. She’s year 7 ready! |
| Headteacher’s Awards | |
| Bainbridge | Maisie M, for her kind, supportive approach to The Wensleydale Tournament. She has learned her own poem with competence and given encouraging words of support to others. |
| Askrigg | Joey T, for his effort and enjoyment in reading. It was lovely to see Joey engrossed in his book the entire journey while travelling on the shuttle! |
| West Burton | Martha W for being a wonderful role model to others, always polite and does not hesitate to help others. |
| Good Samaritan Awards | For courage, care, compassion (for the children, from the children). | Nominated by |
| Robins | Otto for playing kindly. | Max |
| Ruby for helping her take her helmet off. | Faye | |
| Owls | Ben for helping a Robin when they fell off a bike. | Oscar |
| Sophie for rushing over to help a Robin who fell over in the playground. | Ben | |
| Swallows | Theodore for helping him in a game. | Sammy |
| Kingfishers | Isla for helping with her laces. | Olivia |
| Louisa for helping him to retrieve his story on SharePoint. | Aaron |
| Other | |
| Best Learning Space (classroom) | Kingfishers |
| Most Effective Learning Environment (school) | West Burton |
| House Point Winning Team | Red Squirrels |
| Best Class Attendance | Golden Eagles (99%) |
