Introduction
First and foremost, I hope all our families at Hoylandswaine Primary School have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! We are thoroughly excited to be back and relishing the prospect of another fantastic term moving forward. Just in these first few days, it is always a pleasure to hear the buzz of classrooms again and it is something that you miss when you spend any time away from the school so it is great to have everyone back. Over the course of the next term, I know that our classes have got some exciting writing and wider curriculum topics planned that I am looking forward to seeing progress across school. If you don't follow us on Twitter already, remember that you can keep up with updates of the school using @HoylandswainePS
As we enter what seems like another uncertain few months ahead, rest assured that as a school we will have your children's interests at heart and no matter what obstacles or challenges are presented to us as a school community, we will continue to strive to provide the very best quality of education we can do for our students!
School Drop-Off
Just a reminder for everyone that from Tuesday 4th January 2022, the gates will be open from 8:45am at the side of the school for children to enter and go straight into their class. The register will close at 9am as will the gates to the school. During this 15 minute period, children complete their '5 a day' which is an arithmetic activity based on their appropriate year group maths objectives. This repetitive practice of the key skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division form solid foundations for children to access wider mathematical content as well as build confidence for the End of Key Stage Arithmetic Tests. I have added an example from Year 5 below.
Engaging Writing Opportunities
A focus over the the last few weeks of the term and moving into Spring Term will be our whole school approach to the teaching of writing. There is strong research-based evidence around the benefits of using high-quality, purposeful and engaging hooks into children's writing to support their enthusiasm for application in writing. As part of this approach, we have worked as a staff team to revise and redevelop planning to include this so that our children produce their very best writing. Here is a sample from a few of our classes!
#AttendanceMatters
At Hoylandswaine Primary School, we fully recognise the impact of good attendance and punctuality on the success and development of young people both socially and academically.
Research has proved that any student with attendance under 95% is at risk of achieving a grade lower in every subject by the time they leave school. We expect all students to attend school regularly and our whole school attendance attendance target is 97%. We have introduced the 100 Club as an outstanding target for classes to meet each week.
Curriculum Topics
As we enter Spring Term 1, all our classes will be starting new curriculum topics. Each topic will last for a half term and will use one 'key subject' driver to deliver the curriculum content based around the topic for context. Each topic will have an engaging hook for children to introduce their learning and a high-quality, purposeful end outcome that they will work towards in order to apply their learning in a real-life scenario.
Find out the topic your child will be doing below so that you can ask them all about what they are doing in school.
Class 1: Emails from the pacific - Subject Focus: Geography
The children have received a specific delivery from a Japanese school with items relating to their country. Children will be focusing on the comparisons between human and physical features of Japan and our locality, before conducting some fieldwork. They will create an immersive Japanese experience using iMovie to share the knowledge they have gained.
Class 2: All Aboard - Subject Focus: History
Have you ever wondered when the train was developed? The children experienced a train ride in the 19th Century before exploring their history and the different roles on the timelines. This journey took them right into the middle of the Victorian Era where they will learn all about social life during those times, including the different job roles and social classes.
Class 3: Avert the Disaster - Subject Focus: Geography
What would you do if you knew disaster was about to strike? Children will be focusing on the power of Extreme Earth focusing on events such as volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, hurricanes and tornados before mapping out their government response to avert a disaster striking a city.
Class 4: Energy! Enough for Everyone? - Subject Focus: Geography
This topic will focus on comparing the land use in Barnsley to the North American state of Wyoming. Children will investigate using fieldwork skills before devising a map of their ideal town to maximise land use in order to gain the most environmental-friendly land use.
Class 5: Game Over! - Subject Focus: COmputing
Children will use their computing and DT skills to investigate the development of gaming through history. They will use their findings to develop and publish their own game using Bloxels.
Our new approach to homework
As one of the main feedback responses gained from the parent survey, many people requested a more streamlined and modern approach to homework across school.
At Hoylandswaine, we want pupils, families and carers to be excited to share their home learning, furthering their knowledge at home. More importantly, being enthused to share that with their teacher and their peers. This is where we believe this new approach will truly thrive!
All home learning will now focus on the three key areas of: Reading, Spelling and Times Tables. These three areas are essential for all children to engage with their learning and provide the framework for learning in school to be enhanced.
We have decided to use Seesaw for homework based on the success and feedback from teachers, parents and pupils from other schools as well as its ease of use and use across the classroom moving forward.
House Points & Dojos
Before Christmas, we created the Hoylandswaine Rules after input from the whole school. These are displayed in the corridors and classrooms, and shared with children on a regular basis
As a school, we recognise the importance of positive praise when promoting positive behaviour. We have developed a range of reward systems in order to encourage positive behaviours to learning, but also recognises that intrinsic rewards are key to promoting a culture of positive behaviours for learning.
We have reviewed how we use our Dojo award system in school. Pupils can receive Dojo points for demonstrating positive learning behaviours and achievements. These are totalled and certificates are given for achieving milestones, which gives children to chance to draw from the prize box.
In addition to this, the individual totals of children’s Dojos are collated and totalled into House Points: House Locke, House Bramah, House Hyman and House Fletcher. These houses have been created based upon successful people from Barnsley to raise aspirations and demonstrate the range of roles available to our children. This promotes a communal attitude towards the importance of every individual’s behaviour. There is whole school House Points rewards system to celebrate combined achievements on a half termly basis.
Y6 Booster Groups
All Year 6 children (Class 5) will be invited to attend SATs Booster Groups from Monday 17th January. These will take place every Monday evening from 3pm until 3:45pm. The content of the Booster sessions will alternate on a carousel to cover the key SATs content of Reading, Maths and Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling. It would be great if we could see everyone attend - there may even be juice and biscuits on offer!
Penistone 4 Sports - Upcoming Competitions
After the success of our first competition before Christmas, we are excited to release the upcoming competitions for this half term, starting with our Y3/4 Sports Hall Athletics competition on Thursday 13th January!
Please Note: Our Extra-Curricular Sports Clubs this term run alongside these events so if your child would be interested in competing, sign them up for additional practice.
HSA - Thank you!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the HSA for all their hard work and dedication over the course of the run up to Christmas. They did a fantastic job organising the Christmas Fayre, which was a huge success, as well as the raffles and prizes. Your support for the school is always appreciated and we look forward to continuing to work together moving into 2022!
Ollie's Amazing Christmas Project - Update!
We were blown away by Ollie in Class 1, who has been working incredibly hard on this project with his dad since June this year!
Dasher was conceived and built by Ollie from Class 1 at our school (with a little help from his dad) to raise money for the Hoylandswaine School Alliance. I think you have to agree that it is very impressive!
Ollie has so far managed to raise a magnificent £305, so a huge well done from us - what an achievement!
Credits:
Created with images by adonyig - "school learning back-to-school package" • pixel2013 - "christmas christmas balls christmas bells"