Newsletter March 2018

A message from Miss Towler…

What a wonderful half term we have had! I am extremely proud of the hard work the children have put into their learning. Our key stage one and two children have continued to really enjoy our topic, ‘How should we care for our planet?’ and our early year’s children have been very excited about becoming police detectives and have been very busy solving lots of crimes! In sharing assemblies the children have also loved showing off their learning to their families; thank you to all who have been able to join us on a Friday afternoon this term.

We look forward to more exciting learning in the coming term when we begin to explore all about living things in our summer topic, ‘How does our planet care for us? ’. This will see us doing lots of growing, cooking and eating! We can’t wait!

As a school team, we really value that our parents take the time to come to school or call up with any feedback or queries that they may have. We place great importance on a trusting, sharing partnership and recognise what a difference this makes when working to provide your children with the highest quality education possible. Please get in touch if you have any suggestions on how we can make our school even better, we value your views and appreciate the thoughts of our supportive parent community.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a lovely Easter break with lots of chocolate surprises and we look forward to seeing you on our return to school. Happy Easter!

Best wishes, Caroline Towler

Sports stars!

We have had many successes this term, but one we are very proud of is our sporting achievements in the Sportshall Athletics Competition. It was wonderful to see the children from key stage two return to school with their medals after coming second place out of 500 schools across North Yorkshire. Being the highest achieving school in the Selby district was also a real highlight! Well done all!

Sports Relief Fundraising

We are delighted to announce that we raised a whopping £191.00 for Sports Relief through our non-uniform day and after-school activity session! Well done to all the children who got sporty to raise money. The Daily Mile was a big success and the children loved getting outside in the fresh air with all the other teams to burn off some energy.

British Values Week – Respecting other cultures in our global community

In British values week, the children were given lots of opportunities to explore different cultures. We focussed on showing tolerance and respect to everyone. During the week we met three special visitors who gave the children greater cultural awareness. Yazi, Hilaire and Jaynee from Oxfam really helped the children to gain a greater insight into life throughout our global community.

Attendance Update…

As a school we have been working really hard to ensure every child is in school on time. We have had some fantastic attendance scores this half term, with several teams achieving 100% attendance throughout different weeks. Below we have included the half-term attendance percentages for each of our teams.Well done to all those children who have achieved 100% attendance this term. You will be receiving your certificates this week! A big well done to teams Aire and Derwent who achieved the top attendance for last half term.

• Attendance update

  Team Esk – 93.9%

  Team Nidd – 96.8%

  Team Ouse – 96.3%

  Team Aire – 97.2%

  Team Derwent – 97.2%

  Team Foss – 96.7%

  Team Humber – 95.2%

As you will appreciate the government set very strict standards when it comes to attendance and punctuality. Here at Brotherton and Byram CP Academy we always appreciate the efforts parents make to work with us on what is a sensitive aspect of school life. A thought-provoking statistic: Children who attend school for 90% of the school year effectively miss four weeks of valuable learning time across the academic year. As a school, we are working hard to aim for whole school attendance of 97%. This year’s whole school attendance currently stands at: 95.6%

World Book Day Celebrations!

Thank you to all the parents who helped to make our World Book Day celebrations such a success. After the ‘Beast from the East’ did its best to see us postpone the book celebrations we were determined to get dressed up and welcome our parents into our teams for a bit of shared storytelling! What a wonderful day we had. Look at the fab costumes the children came in!

Our restorative mission and the importance of pupil emotional health

Those who have followed the school’s success over the years will be familiar with what a critical part restorative practice plays in your child’s day to day experience of being at Brotherton and Byram Primary Academy. Fundamentally it is about ensuring we are raising young people with a great moral code who are able to make valuable and worthwhile contributions to society. A big part of our restorative provision is done through the delivery of circles. We firmly believe each child’s entitlement is to be listened to and cared for whilst creating a trusting and safe environment to explore difficult emotions that they may encounter along the way. Equally our circles are used to celebrate successes and share personal achievements.

From a daily check-in, to solution circles, every child’s voice is recognised and each child’s differences are celebrated. Conflict is something we teach children to resolve, and mutual respect and trust are values we hold dear. We are always keen to show off our restorative approach and are happy to dispel any myths for those who may be less clear or unsure about how it works. Our biggest advocates and adverts for the school’s ethos are our children, so please do talk to them about what they learn in their hub time. This term we have focused on kindness and gratitude, making sure that children are able to understand that making our school a safe and friendly place to start with them. We have been helping the children to build empathy and enjoy that feeling of doing something for somebody without the need to receive anything back in return-we are sure you will agree all really important life lessons!

You can download a copy of the newsletter, here