Message from Mrs Gunning
It has been wonderful to be back at school since my return to work and I wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you to all of the children, staff and parents who have welcomed me back into our Beckfoot Priestthorpe family. I am now back to my full time role as Headteacher of our great little school and thoroughly enjoying being back doing what I love.
Mrs Cutting has done an amazing job as Acting Headteacher in my absence and I am very grateful to her for everything she has done. It is fantastic to be working side by side again and leading Team Priestthorpe together as we continue on our journey to being remarkable.
Diary Dates
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
*NEW DATE* Tuesday 11th March – Year 4 school trip to Science Museum in Science Week
*NEW DATE* Thursday 13th March – Cross Country Race 3 at Northcliffe Country Park in Shipley
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 “Superwoman” shop (more details to follow)
*NEW DATE* – Monday 24th March – KS2 The Big Spring Clean 2025 (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
*NEW DATES* April
Monday 1st April – Design Technology Art Exhibition in the school hall – parents, carers and families are welcome
Tuesday 2nd April – A special themed lunch for Eid (menu to follow)
Friday 4th April – Year 5 Rewind to Easter, visit to Bingley Baptist church
Attendance
Our whole school attendance the week before February half term was 94.1%.
Reception – 94.7%
Year 1 – 85.9%
Year 2 – 97.2%
Year 3 – 96.1%
Year 4 – 99%
Year 5 – 98.8%
Year 6 – 92.3%
Well done to Year 4 with a fantastic attendance and Year 5 who also achieved our attendance target
Pride of Priestthorpe Awards
Early Years – Freddie and Kamila
Year 1 – Poppy. S and Mario
Year 2 – Theo and Isla
Year 3 – Yugesh and Aeyla
Year 4 – Lewis. D and Poppy. B
Year 5 – Naomi and Alfie
Year 6 – Ben and Ralph
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 exploring our Farm Shop.
Year 1
Year 1 have started their new unit of programming a robot with algorithms. We explored the different commands and programmed the Bee-Bot to move down the table in a loop.
Year 2
Year 2 have begun our fiction topic ‘Supertato Rescue!’ We got into groups and created a freeze frame for each part of the story. We then brought the freeze frame to life to show the story. We had so much fun!
Year 3
In RE this week, the children thought about what meals would be eaten during Ramadan.
Year 4
Year 4 have been exploring the countries and capital cities surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
Year 5
Year 5 attended their first swimming lesson this week. Everyone remembered their swimming things so that was a great start! The children attended the safety talk and learned all about how to conduct themselves in a swimming pool in order to keep themselves and others safe. They were then asked to swim a width in the shallow end so that they could be placed in the appropriate groups. Behaviour was fabulous as always and I’m sure they are all looking forward to next week!
Year 6
Year 6 have started their next fiction focus – a tale with an emphasis on dialogue called ‘The Tunnel’. We have unpicked the text identifying the 5 stages of a story, boxed up what happens in each section, created story maps then looked at the toolkit that underpins the grammar that we need to include in our own writing.
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.
