Newsletter 23rd September 2022

23 September 2022

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope you have all had a good week.

Today you should have received via ParentHub and our website, calendar dates for this term.  If you have had a chance to look, you will see we have loads planned to give our children as many opportunities as we can and also opportunities for you to join us in school.

This time of year we share our key priorities in school which are:

• Making sure all our children are challenged and can challenge themselves, even when they find this difficult.
• Growing children’s ability to remember what we call ‘sticky knowledge’ (for example, key facts) and are able to use and apply them well (show off what they know)
• Making sure all our vulnerable children achieve well, breaking down barriers to learning.

I would like to share in more detail what we are doing in school and get your input at our next Parent Forum on 4th October.  I will send a reminder out before then but please join me if you can.

Reading is key to unlocking learning and making sure our children learn the ‘sticky knowledge’ across the curriculum and in life.  We read a lot with children in school but also need your help reading with children at home.  Our homework policy has focused on reading over the past few years.  We are reviewing the policy to make it clear how long we would like children to read for homework each day which we will share with you once it has been agreed by our governors.

Traditionally, we also give children a list of spellings to learn for homework each week and test in school.  Unfortunately what often happens is, if a child has not got a spelling correct, they move on to the next set of spellings and there is then a gap in their spelling knowledge.  Or, children get all their spellings correct in a test but then struggle to apply them in their writing.  To improve their learning, we have introduced a new way of teaching, learning and applying spellings in school so children do not have gaps.  

Because of the new way of teaching, and because we would also like children to focus more on reading for homework, we will not be setting spellings as we have done before.   We will send a list of common exception words for your information and children will be able to access Spelling Shed if they would like to do any other learning at home but it will not be an expectation that this is for homework.  We will explain in more detail at the Parents Forum.  

Next week is a busy week.  We are celebrating Languages Day on Monday and also inviting parents in at quarter to 9 (8.45am)  to share how we teach phonics and how you can support us.  We have National Fitness Day on Wednesday and to finish off the week, we would love you to join us for the World’s Biggest Coffee Afternoon in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support from 2.30pm.  Hopefully it will be lovely weather and we can sit outside but if not, it will be in the hall.

During Friday afternoon we will be holding a second hand school uniform stall (which we will do twice a term) starting on Friday during our coffee afternoon.  Please have a look and if you would like anything then all we ask is a small donation if you take any uniform which will go towards school trips.  If you do have any uniform that you no longer need, we would be very grateful for any donations.

Finally, thank you for supporting your children at home this week with their reading.  It really does make a massive difference.

Have a lovely weekend and see you all next week.

Mrs Fletcher

Our school target is 97% 

This week our attendance was %

Nidd – 83.93% 

Aire –84.78% 

Ouse –91.15%

Derwent –92.46% 

Foss – 96.35% 

Calder –  93.42%

Humber – 93% 

Other Key Dates :

Please ensure you pre-book school lunches and breakfast club on Parentpay 48 hours in advance of the day required.