MarchNewsletter 2018
Don’t mention snow!
We apologise that due to the unprecedented weather conditions at the end of last week we were forced to close the school. We tried to make the decisions to close as early as possible to give parents enough warning to ensure that they could make alternative arrangements for childcare if required. It is often the uncertainty that creates additional difficulties. The decision to close the school each day was not taken lightly. We needed to consider the conditions on site, the condition of access roads into Ponteland, the number of teachers who were able to get into work and the safety of everyone travelling to site.
Special thanks to Ian Clough who came to school on Thursday and cleared the car park and access paths for parents. This was such a big help to us and made opening today so much easier.
World Book Day
Unfortunately World Book Day has become a casualty of the snow! World Book Day was actually Thursday 1 March and that was one of our closure days. As we have lost 3 full teaching days we do not propose to reschedule the event. We will however still have our planned “book swap” on Friday 9 March. Please ensure that your books to swap are in school before that day if you wish to take part.
We will still have the Design a Book Cover competition for those who have already taken time to complete an entry. Again this will be judged on Tuesday 6 March.
There has been much debate in the media about the commercialisation of World Book Day and I am aware that many supermarkets are cashing in on the event and offering elaborate and often expensive costumes to parents. This is not what it’s about! Developing a love of books in children is one of our most important roles as educators of children. We make sure that we have got really good quality texts at the core of our curriculum in every year group and try to promote positive attitudes to reading at all times.
We will think long and hard about our World Book Day activities for next year and will maybe steer clear of a dressing up approach.
World Book Day tokens are being given out today which give children £1 to spend on a book.
Book Fair
The PTA Book Fair will take place this week both before and after school. This would be the perfect place to spend the World Book Day tokens!
Trophy Cabinet
Thank you to the PTA for generously providing the funds for our new trophy cabinet which is in the main entrance to school. Our challenge now is to win enough trophies to fill it!
Parents’ Evenings
Thank goodness that we managed to get through Parents’ Evenings last week before the snow really took hold. For any parents who missed appointments please contact individual class teachers to make alternative arrangements.
Update from Nursery
Nursery have been such busy bodies since coming back this term – we loved our topic on ‘Transport’ which helped us to understand some opposites. We were very lucky to have a special visit and talk from one of our children’s parents on Helicopters (thank you again for such a marvellous morning).
We had a wonderful week celebrating Chinese New Year – the children absolutely loved the decorations in Nursery and different customs and routines in another culture. We had another visit from a parent who told us a little bit about how their family celebrated Chinese New Year – we saw some amazing photos and even had our own feat for snack.
In the coming weeks, we are looking forward to learning a lot of Nursery Rhymes, through different weekly themes, on our lead up to Easter and (fingers crossed) Spring!
Please can you all be aware that the week commencing 12th-15thMarch is Open Week in Nursery which is a fantastic opportunity for you to chat to Miss Mears, Mrs Thomson and Miss Forster about your Child’s progress and see them in action – you will be able to find out available dates and times in Nursery where you will also find a sheet to sign up.
Update from Reception
Reception have had an exciting start to the second half of the Spring term…an alien landed in our woods! We have been working hard to create a passport for the alien so everyone knows he is. We thought it was important to let his alien family know he was safe and well so we have written them a letter. As everyone knows, aliens love underpants and if you look in our classrooms you will find some fantastic alien underpants which we have designed!
During the first week back after half term, we celebrated Chinese New Year. We were very grateful to Oliver’s Dad, Mr Shek, for coming in and teaching us all about Chinese New Year as well as giving us gifts of fortune cookies and the red envelopes which are traditionally exchanged.
Over the last few snowy days we have enjoyed seeing your photos on Tapestry of the children completing challenges in the snow and we have been so impressed by your snowmen!
Update from Key Stage 1
It’s been a great start to the term for KS1 with lots of exciting things happening!
In Year 1 this half term, we have been very busy! We have started reading our new text 'The Lonely Beast' and made some fantastic predictions about what would happen in the story. We've also had a go at story mapping and creating a new story based on 'The Lonely Beast', our stories were fantastic! In maths, we've practised our 2 and 5 times table and can confidently recognise patterns in the tables. We've also started our new topic 'Plants' in Science and have written up our investigation plan to answer our big question "can plants still grow in the dark?". We're very excited to plant peas next week and watch them grow. Finally, our assembly is on Friday 9th March and we can't wait to show everyone how hard we have been working and how much we have learnt!
In Year 2 we started the half term by showcasing our Explorers topic work to mums and dads at our assembly. We really enjoyed sharing all of our work with you! We have started reading The Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine and so far have written diary entries imagining we were Tuffy, the main characterand we got into role as news reporter to broadcast events from the book and write newspaper reports. Soon we will be writing our own sequel to the story and learning about how to look after a pet cat. In Topic we are continuing to look at maps, this time focussing on some atlas and map reading skills and in science we will learning all about living things and their habitats and we will be creating some of our own food chains from different locations around the world. Maths has been all about shape so far but soon we will be moving onto finding fractions of shape and number.
There have been lots of boys and girls from KS1 enjoying Dance Club, Book Club and Glee Club. Those who attend Dance Club, please remember our last session is Wednesday 7thMarch due to the hall being used for disco’s. Dance Club and Glee Club will be doing a short performance on Thursday 29thMarch, starting shortly after 9am. Club mums and dads, we’d love to see you there!
Update from Key Stage 2
Across Key Stage 2, our students have had a very active start to the half term with a variety of sporting events. Year 3 have enjoyed developing their netball skills in P.E lessons with Miss Alderslade, whilst becoming much more accomplished in their swimming techniques through their weekly lessons. A multi-skills festival at Ponteland Leisure Centre gave Year 4 an opportunity to showcase their fabulous coordination and balance skills alongside other schools within the partnership. Year 5 also showed that they could be wizards on the court as they were very successful in the Ponteland partnership netball festival, held at Richard Coates.
This term, all children have been studying a particular novel within their year group, which has given rise to a number of cross-curricular learning opportunities. Year 3 have journeyed into the magical world of Narnia, in their quest for a winter adventure, which has been quite fitting with our recent weather! In Year 4, children have been reading Kensuke’s Kingdom, providing them the opportunity to explore the human geography of countries in the far east. Year 5’s novel, ‘Cosmic’ by Frank Cottrell Boyce has catapulted them into the galaxy as they draw upon their ‘Earth and Space’ unit in Science over the coming weeks. To enhance their knowledge, they will also be visiting Ponteland High School to experience a student performance about early life on Earth.
We look forward to another hard working half term with lots of exciting learning opportunities such as our ‘Made in the North East’ week, where we will learn more about our local heritage. Displays of our learning will be available to visit in school as the half term draws to a close. We look forward to sharing it with you.
Dates for your diary in Spring Term 2017
Week beg 5 March PTA book fair before and after school
Friday 9 March9am – Y1 assembly
Week beg 12 March Foundation stage open week
Wednesday 14 MarchMaths Challenge Day – Y4/5 teams from across the partnership will compete here (pm)
Thursday 15 MarchY5 visit Ponteland High School for Science Show to celebrate National Science Week
Photography Club for Y4/5 (part 2)
Week beg 19 MarchRun a mile each day for Sport Relief
Wednesday 21 MarchPTA Easter Disco - N, R Y1&2
Friday 23 March9.10am – Reception assembly
Week beg 26 March Made In The North East Week
Wednesday 28 MarchPTA Easter Disco – Y3, 4 &5
Thursday 29 MarchEnd of Spring Term
EASTER HOLIDAYS
Monday 16 AprilSummer Term begins
The above dates are those envisaged by the school and may be subject to change
L Blain
Head Teacher
5 March 2018