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Whitkirk News! 17th June 2022

A message from Miss Quarmby

What a super week! First, I'd like to say a HUGE well done and congratulations to our UKS2 rugby team, who won the Watson's Cup at Leeds Rhinos' training ground on Wednesday. The children behaved impeccably, and we're very proud of each and every one of them. We heard that they sang the whole way home on the mini-bus and rightly so! Of course, thank you to Mr Stout and Mr Shooter who run rugby training each Monday, and organised this for our children to take part in.

We also have more congratulations in order, as we're delighted to say that from September, Miss Lynch will be our new KS1 Phase Leader. Miss Lynch has given 100% this year to her Reading Leader role, and proven her fantastic leadership skills. We know that she'll excel in her role as Phase Leader too. Thank you to Miss Emery who took on the role temporarily for the last two terms. Miss Emery will continue to lead Early Years, and we have all seen what a transformation she has made to our provision this year, so we can't wait to see what's to come next!

On Tuesday, we had an external review of Maths at Whitkirk. The day was such a success, and we left feeling very proud of the progress that has been made. Here are just a few of the strengths that were noted:

  • The use of an additional daily 15 minute arithmetic session that we've introduced to develop children's automaticity.
  • The consistency of maths environments in classrooms across school.
  • Children clearly want to do their best and strong learning was seen.
  • Children are clearly happy to be in school.

Personally, this is the most important - if children are happy, and want to come to school, then they are able to flourish within their learning, and that's exactly what we're seeing. So, enough from me, let's see what our classes have been up to this week... Have a great weekend!

Rugby League

As Miss Quarmby mentioned, on Wednesday afternoon we competed in our first full contact rugby league tournament. We played in the Watson's Cup (a Year 6 competition at Leeds Rhinos Training Ground) and wow 🤩 were we impressed! We were even more impressed with the children as the vast majority had never played rugby before and most of the team were Year 5's. We won all our matches against Gledhow Primary School, Immaculate Heart Primary School, and St Augustines Primary. As a result, we won the Watson's Cup. Next Tuesday, we are competing in the Culley's seven-a-side tournament, so fingers crossed 🤞.

Attendance

Our attendance winners this week are 2KDO with 99.1%! In second place, it’s 1JL with 98.6% and third place is 4AR with 97.9%. A big well done to all these classes. A special mention to RJS who are the most improved attendance from last week going from 91.7% to 94.7%. This is so great to see Reception. Our whole school attendance at Whitkirk this week is 94% 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.

Let's see what's been happening in our classes this week

EYFS

Another busy week of learning in EYFS! In maths, the children have been grouping in order to make equal amounts, using Mr Gumpy's boat as a context for learning. The children were very skilled when identifying numbers that could be shared into equal groups. They really impressed Mrs Martin, our maths leader, with their mathematical language when she visited our class on Tuesday. The children have also shown excellent independence throughout this week when learning in the areas of provision. From creating number sentences using dominoes, subitising using logs outside to creating their own number sentences - what a group of mathematical superstars!

In English this week, the children have been writing messages to Mr Gumpy, from our class text Mr Gumpy's Outing. We are incredibly proud of how the children are using the phonics sounds that they have learnt within their independent writing. Well done Reception!

Key Stage 1

We have had a wonderful week in Year 1! In Maths, we have been revisiting addition and subtraction using number lines to help us. We have been counting forwards and backwards and we have even been solving missing number problems. In Talk4Writing, we have learned and rehearsed the traditional story of 'The Three Little Pigs'. This week, we have began to innovate the story and make it our own. We have had some very exciting ideas which we can’t wait to plan and write next week including The Three Fish and The Big Bad Shark and The Three Mice and The Big Bad Lion! In Science, we have continued to look at animals and this week we have looked specifically at pets. Year 1 brought in pictures of their own pets from home and we held a pet parade. We found similarities and differences between the pets looking if they had fur, how many legs they had, whether they swam and how they are looked after. It is safe to say we have some adorable pets in Year 1! In Computing, we have been looking at the importance of instructions and algorithms. We set instructions for our friends when building Lego to find out just how important key details in algorithms are…otherwise lots of things may go wrong!

This week, Year 2 have been busy learning about Arthur France and why he started Leeds West Indian Carnival. We have learnt a lot of interesting facts about his life. In Maths, we have used our place value knowledge and arrays to work out fractions of numbers within 100. In Talk4Writing, we have written some amazing setting descriptions of the carnival using commas in a list and expanded noun phrases.

Lower Key Stage 2

It's been another fantastic week in Year 3! In English, we have been learning how to use apostrophes for possession, as well as prepositions for place. We can't wait for the children to use these in their character descriptions next week! In Maths, we have been learning about angles in shapes, in addition to parallel and perpendicular lines. We had an exciting Science lesson - we dissected a flower and identified the different parts and their functions. Well done Year 3!

What a fabulous week we've had in Year 4! In Maths, we have started looking at coordinates and how we can write and plot these accurately to solve problems. We have become poets in English and begun to use similes and metaphors to paint a picture in the reader's mind. All the adults are really looking forward to hearing your poems next week! We have become historians by looking at a range of primary sources about Alexander the Great to delve more into his past. Our PE lessons have been made this week by the sunshine; everyone has loved working on their tennis skills and working as part of a team. Finally, a huge well done to you all for your efforts in our Multiplication Tables Check this week, we are all so proud of you!

Upper Key Stage 2

We've had a fantastically busy and productive week in Year 5. In maths we have become line graph experts, learning how to construct them, read them and interpret them! We have been some impressed with the children's wellness to rise to challenges and really push themselves. In writing we are learning how to write biographies. We are currently writing a biography about Rosa Parks ( the fantastic civil rights activist who refused to give up her bus seat due to racial segregation). In Science we learnt how to separate mixtures using a range of sieves. We're not sure our cleaners appreciated this lesson!

The heat has not stopped the Year 6s this week! Going full steam ahead (quite literally!) with all things maths, English, science, drama, music, RSE, PE and so much more! We have continued our light topic in science, exploring how the size of a shadow changes when the light source is further away from the object. We were fortunate again to have Leeds Rhinos working with us on Wednesday to develop our team building skills. Our coach commented on how impressed she was with their ability to listen to each other and respond to the opposing teams' actions. In English, our writing is going from strength to strength, as we continue to write our persuasive letter to our local MP pleading with him to act urgently to do more for our climate crisis. In amongst all this, we have squeezed in music, dancing and acting as we step up the pace for our end of year performance. Well done Year 6, another excellent week!

Stars of the Week

Have a fantastic weekend, see you on Monday!

Created By
Rachel Martin
Appreciate