Welcome to the May edition of our newsletter. The pace in school always increases from this point in the year. Events come thick and fast, the children are out on trips or at events and we seem to very quickly run out of days and weeks, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. There’s lots of information to update you on below including our sports day, a spotlight on behaviour, the monster market and our yard project, so please read on to find out more.
In the next month, I’ll be able to update you on who your child’s class teacher will be for next academic year. As you know there will be at least one change due to Mrs Redfern’s maternity leave. Once I have everything confirmed, I will send out details. We will be having a move up afternoon for all children on Friday 5th July. On this day children will spend some time with their new class teacher.
A theme throughout this newsletter is how proud I am of the children’s behaviour. Whether it be our fabulous Y6 children’s efforts in their SATs, the Y1 and Y2 children at the swimming pool or general behaviour across the school, it’s clear that our children are making good choices and flourishing into superstars. I have included an overview of how we manage the rare occasions that a child chooses poor behaviour. To be clear this is just for information and not because of an increase in negative behaviour in the school. I welcome your feedback on all aspects of our school offer, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any comments or require further information.
I hope you’ll join me in congratulating Miss Blake one of our TA apprentices who got married over the half term holiday. Miss Blake is now Mrs. Davis, we all send our congratulations and wish her and her husband the very best for married life.
It seems like a while ago now, but I wanted to publicly congratulate our Year Six children for their effort, attitudes and behaviour throughout SATs week. The children worked exceptionally hard and made us so proud of their achievements. I wrote to the children before the tests to say that they are so much more than the result of a test, I still firmly believe this, but I am also confident that their results will be a great reflection of the progress they have made. We’re now in their final half term as pupils at school where things can be that little bit more relaxed, and we can help them prepare for their transition to secondary.
Hopefully you’re all aware that we had to change the date of our sports day to Friday 14th June. Thanks for your understanding with this, the term is such a busy one with lots going on in school. We’re looking forward to welcoming you to the event. The gates will open at 12.30pm onwards and races will commence at 1pm. Class teachers will be in touch to confirm what children will need to wear for the day. If conditions are warm, can you please make sure children have sun cream already applied, a sun hat and plenty of water. Refreshments will be available to purchase during the event. You can take your child home afterwards, but we will need to take them back to their classrooms afterwards to pick up their belongings. We will then dismiss by the usual arrangements onto the school yard or EYFS door.
Next academic year we’re going to make a lot more of the school’s house teams with a series of events, festivals and competitions held across the year. We have created a special board in our hall with the house badges and colours. Each time the children take part in an activity, they will earn points for their house. The house with the most points at the end of the year will win a prize chosen by the children.
In PE, we’d like the children to wear their house colours so that they can compete against their peers in inter-house competitions and events again to earn points for their team. To support this, we will buying each child a house-coloured t-shirt. Miss Varley will be in touch before the end of term to request details of the t-shirt size you’d like to order. These will be ordered early next academic year and delivered before the end of September. We’ll then make sure these are available to buy through our school uniform supplier in case children grow out of the first one they receive.
Most of our children come to school wearing the correct school uniform and look super smart in doing so. As children move through school and prepare for the next phase of their education looking after their belongings, including wearing uniform correctly is important to enable them to thrive and attract the right type of attention at secondary school.
Our uniform policy states that:
Children are required to wear the following:
The following are optional:
I have noticed a small number of children who are not wearing the correct uniform, particularly t-shirts and shoes. Can you please ensure that your child is dressed appropriately so that standards remain high. I have asked staff to challenge children who are not wearing the correct uniform and this might involve them contacting you as their parent to bring appropriate clothing to school.
I recognise that this can be expensive and that children frequently grow out of their uniforms often before it is worn out. We have the recycling point in the school car park for any uniform or other clothing that is worn out. I wondered whether parents felt an in-school swop shop might be a useful addition to the school offer?
This would involve us collecting any uniform that had been grown out of but was in good condition and then displaying it in school. If your child grows out of their uniform it could be swapped free of charge for a different item. I recognise that a lot of uniform is purchased with names embroided into it, but hope this would still be a useful option for families. I’d appreciate it if you could let me know your thoughts and we can arrange for this to be set up.
During the last half term, some of our youngest children took part in swimming lessons at Wolsingham pool. The children did exceptionally well, behaved perfectly and seemed to enjoy this opportunity. I just wanted to say how proud I was of every one of them. Swimming is an important life skill; we want every child to reach age-related expectations for swimming before they leave us and having the confidence to engage in swimming lessons makes a big difference.
| Year Group | Average Attendance | Group | Average Attendance |
| Reception | 95.54% | Overall | 95.69% |
| Year One | 95.42% | Boys | 96.07% |
| Year Two | 95.71% | Girls | 95.28% |
| Year Three | 96.58% | Class One | 96.28% |
| Year Four | 96.47% | Class Two | 95.55% |
| Year Five | 93.71% | Class Three | 96.46% |
| Year Six | 95.70% | Class Four | 94.73% |
Your child might have spoken to you about the potato head challenge currently running across the school. Each class has a potato head character in their room. If the class has an average of 97% or above for the week, they will receive a piece of the puzzle to construct their model. The class who completes their model first will choose their own reward. As you can see in our latest attendance update, Class Three have the best attendance along with Year Three. We will therefore award them a piece of their puzzle to add to their model.
We’re so proud of the behaviour of our children. We model and then challenge the children to demonstrate our school values of kindness, aiming high, working together, respect and resilience. The children receive castle points when they show one of our values. So far this year we’ve given out 21,113 castle points for these reasons. The spread of these is as follows:
| This Year | Class One | Class Two | Class Three | Class Four | Total |
| Kindness | 241 | 280 | 200 | 244 | 965 |
| Aiming High | 1038 | 3984 | 1179 | 2556 | 8757 |
| Working Together | 604 | 570 | 1591 | 1641 | 4406 |
| Respect | 480 | 1582 | 1109 | 1109 | 4280 |
| Resilience | 303 | 503 | 1300 | 599 | 2705 |
| Total | 2666 | 6919 | 5379 | 6149 | 21,113 |
I’ve asked staff to look for more opportunities to reward children for their kindness, I certainly don’t think they show kindness less than other values, we just need to make sure we spot and reward it when they do.
When children reach 100 castle points they receive a castle cash voucher. They can spend these at the Monster Market. Miss Jones has taken over responsibility for this initiative, she has spoken to the children and together they have come up with some exciting options that are available for purchase. These include things such as pencils and pens but also unusual items like the opportunity to sit at their teacher’s desk for the afternoon and being able to jump the dinner queue and sit at a special table. From this point moving forward, the monster market will run each half term to allow children to spend their vouchers.
When children make the wrong choices, the table below shows how we address their behaviour. Most issues are addressed at stages one or two but occasionally things can escalate if a child continues to make poor choices or in the event of a more serious incident. As you can see, we will involve you in this process at the earliest opportunity. Your support is crucial to ensure your child’s behaviour returns to the expected standard as soon as possible. If you have any questions or comments about this process, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
| Stage | Consequence | Communication |
| Stage 8 | Suspension | Team Meeting: HT, Class Teacher, Parents |
| Stage 7 | In-School Suspension | HT Phone Call |
| Stage 6 | Letter Home | |
| Stage 5 | Removed From Class | Consultation between staff and parent |
| Stage 4 | Restoration Room | |
| Stage 3 | In-Class Separation | |
| Stage 2 | Negative Dojo + Message | |
| Stage 1 | Verbal Reminder | Classroom Management |
The play offer on our school yard continues to develop. We have had some brilliant donations of play items to support our project and we’re now beginning to see the establishment of zones with a range of options for the children to access. It is a huge pleasure to watch the children playing together on the yard and not to have football completely dominate the area. The children are very much leading this project alongside Miss Jones, we’re currently constructing a mud kitchen as well as other zones. If you feel that you have any items that you no longer need and that could compliment our offer, please don’t hesitate to contact Miss Jones either in person or through Class Dojo.
| Date | Event | Additional Information |
| Monday 10th June | Rounders Festival – Parkside Academy | Y5 and Y6 Children – Details to follow |
| Tuesday 11th June | Y3/4 Cricket Festival | Details to follow |
| Friday 14th June | Sports Day | Weather dependent – Details on Class Dojo |
| Friday 21st June | Football Tournament – Staindrop Academy | Y4, Y5 and Y6 |
| Monday 24th to Wednesday 26th June | Borrowdale residential visit | |
| Monday 1st July | Dave Burn in school – Be Safe Workshop | Class 3 and Class 4 |
| Friday 5th July | Move up afternoon | Children to spend time with their new class teacher |
| Tuesday 16th July | EYFS graduation | 2pm – More details to follow |
| Tuesday 16th July | KS2 end of year performance | Evening performance – Ticket information and details to follow |
| Wednesday 17th July | End of Term Assembly | End of year awards – Invitations to be sent to parents of award winners |
| Thursday 18th July | Leavers’ Assembly | 2pm onwards |
| Thursday 18th July | Toy Day | |
| Friday 19th July | School closed for summer holiday | |
| Wednesday 4th September | School reopens for children |