As it is our final newsletter of this half term, we are delighted to share this half terms highlights. Firstly, we would like to thank you as parents and carers for your support, especially at the start of January with the difficult weather, it was not an easy start but we were pleased with how our children soon settled in. We have welcomed 6 new nursery children and 2 pupils have joined us in Years 2 and 5. Our whole school attendance year to date is 96.1% which is very good, just slightly behind our target, and we are regularly at the top of the leader board across all the primary schools within our Trust, so thank you.
We have had visits from the Lifebase Caravan, local author Emily Parkin, and the Mental Health Support Team who arranged a coffee morning and afternoon for parents and have been doing some wonderful work with many of our children. Year 3 and Year 5 have been out on school trips and all year groups in key stage 1 and 2 have had the opportunity to go to the Grue Exhibition at Damart in Bingley. Our FOPPS team organised a brilliant NEON Disco to end the half term, we hope all the children who attended had a great time dancing with glowsticks and their friends!
Finally, we say goodbye to Mrs Fuller in Year 3 who was a temporary teacher and has found a role elsewhere and Mr Hogg in Year 4 who was also temporary covering Miss Cooper’s maternity, we would like to thank them both for all their hard work, they will be missed. We now welcome Miss Cooper back from her maternity and Mrs Hill who will be joining Year 3.
We would like to wish all our families a lovely February holiday. Did you know it is ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ Day on Monday 17th February, maybe our children would like to get involved, here are just some ideas; compliment a friend, donate to charity, leave a positive note for someone, help a sibling learn something new or set the table for dinner time. If children would like to share their random act of kindness, please email [email protected] and these will be shared on the newsletter after half term.
Dates for your diary
FEBRUARY
Monday 24th February – SCHOOL REOPENS
Thursday 27th February – NCMP and Audio Screening for Reception (see email for details)
MARCH
Thursday 6th March – World Book Day – dress as your favourite character or wear your best pyjamas and bring a book to donate to someone else
Monday 17th March – Thursday 20th March – Year 6 Bikeability
Thursday 20th March – Year 1 Class Assembly – parents, carers and families are welcome
Friday 21st March – SCHOOL CLOSED FOR TRUST DATA DAY
*NEW DATE* – Monday 24th March – FOPPS Mother’s Day shop (more details to follow)
Monday 24th March – Parents’ Evening 3:30pm – 6:00pm (more details to follow)
Wednesday 26th March – Year 5 and 6 Puberty Workshop
Wednesday 26th March – Parents’ Evening 3:30pm – 5:30pm (more details to follow)
Thursday 27th March – Year 6 Class Assembly – parents, carers and families are welcome
Monday 31st March – SCHOOL CLOSED FOR EID
Attendance
Our whole school attendance last week was 97% , well done to everyone, another week of hitting our target!
Reception – 97.9%
Year 1 – 94.8%
Year 2 – 96.2%
Year 3 – 95.2%
Year 4 – 97.7%
Year 5 – 97.5%
Year 6 – 98.7%
Well done to Reception, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 for fantastic attendance!
Pride of Priestthorpe Awards
Early Years – Felicia and Teddy
Year 1 – Blake. P and Xander
Year 2 – Xander and Carson
Year 3 – Jessica and Selina
Year 4 – Rosie and Aarushi
Year 5 – George and Vinnie
Year 6 – Skylar and Alexia
Thank you to all those parents, carers and extended family and friends that joined us in our Friday assembly.
Early Years
Early Years have been making pictures and patterns using different shapes.
Year 1
Year 1 visited the fantasy cardboard land of Grue at Damart Mill as part of the City of Culture 2025. We had an amazing time meeting Elsie the dream dragon and creating our own shadow puppets.
Year 2
Year 2 begun their geography topic this week about the British Isles. We used atlases to look at the main islands in the British Isles.
Year 3
Year 3 had a great trip to Cliffe Castle and learnt lots more about the Egyptians.
Year 4
Year 4 have created a soap carving of a fish. They experimented with different methods of carving. The children found it difficult and had limited success. They reflected on what worked well and where they could improve. The classroom has never smelt so clean!
Year 5
Year 5 have been learning about astronomy in their science lessons. We have explored the concept of space and looked at earth’s nearest celestial objects and galaxies. We have explored the concepts of gravity, weight and matter as well as how gravity acts and reacts in different scenarios. This week we looked at our solar system and the eight planets and two dwarf planets that orbit around the sun. After studying their different properties, we then created some fantastic solar system diagrams to show off all that we had learned.
Year 6
Year 6 have begun their geography topic about North America. We located the countries of the continent and coloured them in using the flags of that country.
Important learning information
We use a range of Learning Apps in school, which can also be accessed at home. Please use the links below to practice key skills.
Times Table Rockstars is an award-winning maths learning platform where children can practice their times tables like a rock star! Certificates can be achieved every Thursday for the children who have made the most progress in terms of the biggest increase in accuracy that week. We also run in school competitions.
Times Tables Rock Stars – Times Tables Rock Stars
Accelerated Reader will allow children to read a book and then take an online quiz to test their knowledge and understanding of the text, and receive immediate feedback. Students respond to regular feedback and are motivated to improve their reading skills.
Spelling Shed uses the science of spelling to teach it to pupils. Using phonics as a base and drawing upon proven approaches such as teaching morphology, etymology, and orthographic mapping, as well as teaching spelling patterns. Children are set new activities on here each week.
