Weekly Newsletter
Friday 30th June 2023
This week in school
SAVE THE DATE Summer Fair Our Summer Fair will be on Thursday 6 July, running straight after school from 3:30-5:30pm. We are planning for lots of stalls and activities, with each class taking charge of a stall, as well as visiting stalls, refreshments, bouncy castle/inflatable and the ice cream van.
Dojo posts Class Dojo is intended to be a tool for sharing and celebrating things that are happening in school, and for families to message teachers easily. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, it is not a place for negativity or for venting and where we see these types of comments, they will be removed. If you have a genuine concern or worry, please contact your child's class teacher.
Ear piercing If you are thinking of letting your child have their ears pierced, please make sure this happens at the start of the summer holiday so they have time to heal before coming back to school. Children cannot wear earrings or have tape/plasters over them for PE and sport so please also make sure they are removed on PE days, or that your child can take them in and out themselves.
Sports Days The forecast rain held off long enough for everyone to enjoy both the sports day sessions! Final results for the Key Stage 2 teams were:
1st - Wiggins (blue)
2nd - Farah (red)
3rd - Ennis-Hill (white)
4th - Adams (green)
Huge well done to the children for their dedication and to the staff for their organisation, especially Mr Pooley and Mr Osborne for putting everything together. We hope you all enjoyed the chance to see your children taking part and supporting each other through the events.
Preloved/worn uniform If you are looking to replace uniform or get hold of new sizes ready for September, please take a look at the preloved uniform Facebook group: Brayton C of E Primary uniform sale/giveaway page.
Children's health Reminder that we have had a small number of confirmed and/or suspected cases of scarlet fever in school. If your child is unwell, please make sure you get medical advice if they show any of the scarlet fever symptoms https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/scarlet-fever/
Parking around school The Parish Council have had some complaints about parking around the area, and are liaising with the police around them carrying out some spot checks. The main issues are around parking on the yellow zip-zag markings and some drivers making 3-point turns on Brayton Lane. Both of these cause a hazard to pedestrians and other road users.
Updated RSE Policy You should have recieved the school's updated RSE policy, which was approved by the governors at their last meeting. If you would like to give any feedback, please use our Google form https://forms.gle/kTuLhnzBTLVp3uH1A
OMG Healthy Start Scheme for families This is a scheme to support families who are expecting a baby or have a child aged under 4. It includes financial support to help with buying healthy foods and milk. You can find out more at https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/what-youll-get-and-how-to-shop/
Term dates 2023-24 The term dates for the next school year are now on the school website at https://brayton-cofe-primary-school.secure-primarysite.net/term-dates/
Jewellery No necklaces, bracelets, rings or other jewellery should be worn to school. If your child has earrings, these must be removed for PE sessions, or earrings can be left at home on PE days. Earrings for school should be small stud types so they don't get caught and cause any injuries.
Free School Meals
Free school meals: save up to £450 a year With so much in the news about the cost of living and now energy prices going up, you can check whether your child could be eligible for a free school meal, whatever school year they are in. All the information is on the NYCC website at https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/free-school-meals Some of this information may be out of date, especially around eligibility, so please get in touch if you are unsure.
If you would like any advice or support with this, please contact the school office. We treat these matters with complete confidentiality and are always happy to help if needed.
Thank you for your continued support.
Allyson Buckton (Headteacher) & Mel Walmsley (Deputy Headteacher)
Whole School Attendance
Whole school attendance to date is still hovering below 95%, around a combination of holidays being taken and some illness in the younger years of school. The different date for Brayton Academy's half term break has also given some issues, as families have taken holidays in line with the week off for older siblings.
The DfE's attendance target for schools is 96%, and as a school we need to be working towards this. With your help there have been massive improvements in attendance over this year and this is now better across school than it has been in a very long time!
As we get into the summer term there has also been an increase in requests for leave due to holidays: we will be putting a much higher number of these forward for Fixed Penalty Notices in May and June than any months so far. We would also remind you that, according to the new guidance for schools, ANY leave for holidays should be unauthorised: there is no longer the 'up to 5 days/10 sessions' which can be authorised at the Headteacher's discretion.
DIARY DATES
Thursday 6 July - School Summer Fair 3:30-5:30pm
Tuesday 25 July - School closes for summer holiday
Happy Birthdays!
Many many many many happy returns next week to.....
Cameron Younger
Aniela Nycek
Kaydon Chamberlain
Bradley Spowage
Anna Sorrell
Penelope Wood
This week in classrooms
Nursery - Stars
This week in Stars we have been keeping fit and healthy. We have spent lots of time in the outdoor area - walked on stilts, played skittles, chased after bubbles, completed an obstacle challenge, moved like animals, danced to our favourite songs and done lots of different exercises. We have also talked about the importance of washing our hands and cleaning our teeth. We have been very busy!
In phonics we have continued to look at rhyme. We have enjoyed rhyming stories and played ‘Rhyming odd one out’. In maths we have looked at positional language and enjoyed the story ‘Where’s my Teddy?’
Thank you to everybody who attended Sports Day. The children made us very proud and completed all the races with such a great ‘can do’ attitude and with a big smile on their faces.
Star of the Week - Izzy Holmes
Reception - Moon and Mercury
This week we have shared the story ‘Old Shell New Shell’ and this has helped us to learn the names of lots of sea creatures. It has also helped us to think about rock pools and how they are formed. We have made our own rock pools with craft materials and added the sea creatures that we know can be found there.
In phonics we have learnt the sounds au, ey, a-e and e-e. We have been spotting these sounds in words and practising the correct formation. It is amazing to observe the children recognising these split digraphs!
In maths we have been rehearsing our number bonds of 10. We used numicon as a practical resource and then we recorded as many number bonds as we could remember and created a rainbow cloud with them.
In R.E we thought about all the different festivals that we have discussed, such as Diwali and Sukkot. We then decorated a tree to show what we have been learning about all the different festivals.
Of course, the highlight of the week was sports day! We were so impressed with all of the children and their ‘can do’ attitude. Everyone participated with a smile on their faces. Thank you so much for supporting the children and cheering them on, they really enjoyed themselves.
Star of the Week
Mercury - Sienna Craft
Moon - Daisy Trotter
Year 1 - Galaxy and Venus
It has been another fantastic week in Year 1. Our text this week has been ‘The Dragon and the Nibblesome-Knight’ and the children have absolutely loved the beautiful illustrations that have accompanied the story. In English, we have focussed on creating our own Newspaper Report to inform all about the events that transpired in the story. The children have been absolutely fantastic at remembering the key features from when we last looked at this form of writing and have also been amazing at applying them. In Maths, we have continued to focus on Time and have really started to look at telling the time on clocks, as well as the differences between seconds, minutes and hours. In Music, we have started to look at differentiating musical instruments and picking these out of pieces of music based on the different sounds we can hear. In History, we have had a debate based on the ‘Battle of Hastings’ and the potential rulers of England. The children have had to pick which King they thought would do the best job and then had to give reasons for their choices. They all did a fantastic job! On Wednesday, it was Sports Day. It was so impressive watching all the children race in the four different events and showing brilliant determination throughout the whole morning. It was also lovely getting to see so many adults cheering the children on!
As a year group, we are all so proud of everything the children have achieved this week and especially their sporting achievements! Well done to all and keep the good work up.
Stars of the Week:
Galaxy- Ramsey Snedker
Venus- Ryder Varley
Year 2 - Earth and Mars
This week we have been getting persuasive! We have had great fun trying to persuade each other to eat certain vegetables or take our coats off when it’s warm in preparation for our next writing topic on persuasive writing. We’ve loved sharing the book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ by Drew Daywalt and have started sentencing stacking for our own persuasive letter. We‘ve also loved hearing more about the adventures of Stanley in ‘Flat Stanley’ during our Guided Reading lessons - this week, he captured some thieves and managed to become 3D again! In maths we have been consolidating our addition and subtraction skills and finding missing numbers. A highlight of the week was Sports Day! We were so proud of the way the children gave it their all and cheered each other on. Science this week fitted in with sports day as we focussed on the importance of exercise and in PSHE we talked about how we grow and change.
Another great week year 2, well done! You are all stars!
Stars of the week -
Earth: Grace Short
Mars: Evie Priest
Year 3 - Jupiter and Saturn
This week in English, the children have made the last few tweaks to their ‘Flood’ stories then moved on to learning about the key features and structure of non-chronological reports through the book ‘Earth Shattering Events’. Our English topic linked seamlessly to Geography this week as we investigated the location and names of Earth’s tectonic plates. In Maths, we concluded our current learning focus of ‘Shape’ by drawing polygons and constructing 3D shapes using a given number of cubes. On Thursday, we launched our new maths topic, Statistics, by reading and interpreting information presented in pictograms, building on the children’s learning from Year 2. Friday is a very popular day at the moment, not just because it’s the start of the weekend, but it means ‘Binca time’! The children really do look forward to and enjoy the mindfulness and personal achievements of sewing, even when their needles unthread and their embroidery silks become tangled! It goes without saying that Sports Day was the focus and highlight of the week; all the children enjoyed the event and were very keen to participate in their races and support one another. Well done, yet another fantastic week, Year 3!
Star of the Week
Saturn: Emily Westwood
Jupiter: Alfie Butler
Year 4 - Neptune and Meteor
This week in English, we have researched facts about water and the water cycle and gathered a range of language used in a guided tour in preparation for our sentence stacking lessons. In maths we have continued with our unit ‘shape’, we have identified the properties of different shapes and compared different angles. In Guided reading, we have read a persuasive article about how we can save water at home. I think we were all definitely shocked by some of the facts - I wonder if it will encourage us to not waste any water! On Wednesday afternoon, we all enjoyed sports day. It was great to see all the children participate in events and cheer each other on. To top it off, we all enjoyed a well deserved ice cream! On Thursday afternoon, we continued with the Young Leaders Award. This week the big question was ‘Does it cost to change the world’. The children discussed their ideas and looked at global charities. They then picked 1 charity to find out more about. Finally, a huge well done to Neptune class who lead the whole school worship on Thursday.
Another great week Year 4, well done!
Stars
Meteor - Harvey Halliwell
Neptune - Bethany Horsman
Year 5 - Asteroid and Pluto
In Maths, we have moved onto negative numbers, and it was fair to say we were not expecting such a positive reaction to them. We started our lessons understanding negative numbers, why we use them and how to write them correctly. We moved onto counting past zero, comparing and ordering them, and finding the difference between them. At the start of the week, the Year 5s drafted and edited their story endings to Arabian Nights. At this point in the book, we know that the Sultan was not going to kill Scheherazade, as the two of them have fallen in love with one another. We have been surprised by the maturity and thoughtfulness of the children. Sports day was a great success again! Most children took part in the races (plus, the dancing!), and really enjoyed themselves. Thanks to all the parents who were able to attend. You really helped with the atmosphere. Finally, in Art, the children have completed an art study on Botanical Illustrations, ahead of our trip to Harlow Carr .
Stars
Asteroid - Freddy Barrett
Pluto - Oscar Dyson
Year 6 - Nebular and Constellation
This week has seen year 6 slipping seamlessly into the planning and rehearsal phase of the leavers’ production; oh my word, you’ll be in for a treat. Humorous stories and a random choice of favourite songs will await you. Learning lines and song words is the next hurdle we face as the evening will soon be approaching. We had fantastic commitment and lots of enthusiasm for the races on what has been our last primary school sports day. Plenty of singing and dancing along to accompany the events as well and finally, we got to the ice cream van! We’ve also done some normal school work as well by the way. In maths we have been recapping ratio & proportion as we tackle a ‘bakery project’ and the young entrepreneurs have enjoyed the discussion about profit and loss. Our English has culminated in a piece of writing demonstrating a balanced argument about deforestation, something we’ve seen on our news too this week. Next week sees the first of the high school transition days and we wish all those who are off on their visits the very best of experiences as you all look forward to the opportunities which will be on offer in Year 7 and beyond.
Stars:
Constellation: Violet Durnin
Nebular: Jessica Pearce