A message from Miss Quarmby
Hello, I hope you’re all well and looking forward to the bank holiday weekend – fingers crossed for sunshine! The days and weeks seem to be flying by, and if Miss Dougan’s class is anything to go by, it’s because we’re having so much fun! Our Y2KDo pupils have been reading The Railway Children, and during their visit to Whitkirk Waterstones, they were begging Miss Dougan to read just one more chapter…she would have loved to but it was home time! Moments like that are so precious. We’ve focusing on the value of ‘Respect’ this half term – we have introduced this by discussing how we show respect to one another, respect each other’s wishes, and respect our environment. This will be the focus of our key stage assemblies this half term.
As the summer term comes, we begin talking about Year 6 leavers, reports and new teachers – this is all to come, but before then we have a busy summer term full of trips, and even more learning to enjoy! Talking of trips, next week, Year 2 are visiting Yorkshire Wildlife Park, and in a couple of weeks, our Year 6 children will go on their residential to Herd Farm. We have some key dates for your diary for this half term:
- 5.5.2022 – Year 2 trip to Yorkshire Wildlife Park
- Year 6 – End of Key Stage 2 assessments – w/c 9th May 2022 – Y6 children must be in school this week and on time each day.
- Year 2 – End of Key Stage 1 assessments – w/c 16th and w/c 23rd May 2022
- 23.5.2022 – 25.5.2022 – Year 6 residential to Herd Farm
- 27.5.2022 – Queen’s Jubilee celebrations
- Year 1 – Phonics Screening Check – w/c 6th June 2022
- Year 4 – Multiplication check – June 2022
- 25.6.2022 – Summer Fair
- 1.7.2022 – School closed – training day
- 5.7.2022 – Sports Day (timings to be confirmed)
Teachers will share information about the relevant statutory assessments over the upcoming days/ weeks, and if you do have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with your child’s class teacher. Class teachers will also be emailing you to invite you to class assemblies if you child’s class hasn’t performed in theirs already - we thoroughly enjoyed Y5JB's assembly this week! Have a fantastic weekend!
Before and after school - Health and Safety polite reminder
- No ball games should be played before or after school.
- If children come to school via bike or scooter, they should walk with this once they are on the school grounds.
- The Adventure Trails shouldn't be used before or after school as they do need a member of school staff supervising children on these.
- Please take care when walking through the car park. The car park is used during transition times so all children must be supervised.
Important Updates to our Behaviour Policy
We have made tremendous progress with behaviour and attitudes across the school since the introduction of our Positive Behaviour Policy and 'Green is the Goal' and continue to have the highest expectations of all of our children. Children report that they feel happy in school and that they feel most children follow the school rules - we couldn't agree more! The majority of children remain on 'Green' and demonstrate extremely positive learning behaviours both in lessons and social time. We have recently developed our behaviour approach to have clearer consequences for the minority of children who do not consistently display our School Values. These have come into place this week. If a child reaches Zone 2 (Orange) on 3 occasions or Zone 3 (Red) on 2 occasions over one week, a meeting will be arranged to discuss your child's behaviour and further action that may be required to support them to be able to achieve in school. Furthermore, any incidents of immediate 'Red cards', given for serious behaviours (foul or abusive language, violence towards peers or staff) will result in children being collected at the main office where a meeting will be held to discuss the incident. We know that parent and carer support is fundamental in children's attitude towards school, and we hope that you support us as we move to clearer guidelines ensuring that all children follow our motto: 'Be the best that we can be!'
Children were informed of these changes last Monday, during their first assembly after the Easter break. If you would like any further information on our behaviour updates, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Martin at the school office, and you can also find our full policy on the school website.
Attendance
Our attendance winners this week are 1JL with 98.9%! In second place it’s 2KDO with 98.6% and third place is RJS with 98.5%. A big well done to all these classes. A special mention to RLE who are the most improved attendance from last week. They have gone from 87.9% to 92.6% - this is so great to see Reception. Our whole school attendance at Whitkirk this week is 94.9%. Let’s see if we can beat this next week! The only way to do this is for everyone to come into school as much as they can. See you all next week for another fantastic week of learning.
Summer Fair
Our Summer Fair will be held on Saturday 25th June and before we open up to the wider community, we would like to give our school community the chance to claim a stall for their businesses. If you would like a stall please contact us by Friday 6th May via email at friendsofwhitkirkprimary@hotmail.co.uk our Facebook Page www.facebook.com/FriendsOfWhitkirkPrimaryPta. Please also keep hold of any potential raffle or tombola prizes as we will be collecting soon!
Let's see what's been happening in our classes this week
EYFS
This week in Reception, we had a special delivery… caterpillars! During this term, as part of our 'What is lurking at the bottom of the garden?' big idea, the children will be learning about life cycles. We started this learning by discussing a human life cycle and how we grow and change; recalling on our Autumn 1 knowledge, and then learning about a caterpillar life cycle. The children even learnt the word metamorphosis to describe the change seen in the life cycle! We cannot wait to see how the caterpillars grow and develop over the coming weeks!
This week, the children also perfected their retelling of the story Jasper's Beanstalk. We then adapted the story to create our own versions. Here are a few examples, Charlie's Butterfly and Aila's Orange Tree! We are so proud of the children’s independent story telling and writing. Well done Reception!
Key Stage 1
This week, Year 1 children have become plant detectives! They observed a variety of garden plants closely to identify any similarities and differences between them. They used identification sheets to name the plants and then sketched them with labels. In maths, Year 1 are consolidating their knowledge on place value to 50, exploring tens and ones, comparing numbers within 50 and ordering them.
This week, Year 2 have had a busy week writing non-chronological reports about Yorkshire. In maths, we have learnt all about volume and capacity. We started our new PE topic of Athletics and have really enjoyed learning how to run like Usain Bolt. Next week, Year 2 will be visiting Yorkshire Wildlife Park so please check your Parent Pay to give consent. All the children are very excited for our first school trip this year!
Lower Key Stage 2
It has been another fantastic week in Year 3! In English, we have continued reading our classical text, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', which the children have been enjoying. We have also been developing our understanding of human and physical features of coastal regions. The children have been able to retain lots of information from Year 2, as well as our Science topics in Year 3 to link to our Big Idea for this half term.
This week in Year 4, we have been focusing on addition and subtraction with decimals. We've been really good at using our column methods and remembering how important our decimal point is. We have continued to read our new class text 'The Abominables' by Eva Ibbotson and have begun thinking about our machines that can help the yetis, and explaining these using causal conjunctions and time adverbials. We have become Scientists by looking at classification keys and food chains to identify the relationship between different animals, and identifying whether they are a consumer of energy or a producer of energy. Finally, in Art, we have looked at what is meant by tessellating shapes, and have produced a template to begin making our own. A fantastic week everyone, keep it up!
Upper Key Stage 2
It's been hands on in Year 5 this week. Lots of practical learning in Science, Geography and Maths. In Science we have continued looking at how flowers reproduce. We dissected Tulips finding the anthers, filaments, carpels, stigmas and even had a look at the pollen with magnifying glasses 🔍! In Geography we have been looking at how important the water cycle is to the rainforest and we found out that the Amazon Rainforest receives 2.5 metres of rain a day. We believe that is slightly more than Manchester (not sure if I'm allowed to mention the M word in Leeds) 😜! In maths we have been looking at place value in decimals, being able to convert decimals into tenths, hundredths and thousandths and being able to round decimals.
The focus continues in Year 6 this week with fantastic attitudes seen in their learning across all areas of the curriculum. On Wednesday and Thursday this week, the Year 6 children took part in a workshop led by Leeds United. The children were given various scenarios for real-life situations that they may face in the next few years and how to keep themselves safe with a positive outcome. The adults reported how impressed they were with the maturity and enthusiasm shown! Well done Year 6!
