A Message from Miss Cooksley
As you know, King Charles III's coronation is on Saturday 6th May and as a result we have a national bank holiday on the following Monday. Therefore, school will also be closed on Monday 8th May. We hope you all have a wonderful extended weekend and it's filled with fun.
As part of the celebrations and festivities, we will mark the coronation on Friday 5th May with a non-uniform day and class tea parties. On Friday, the children will be invited to dress as someone who inspires them, is an icon or, a role model to them.
This month it is also National Inventors Month. If you would like to participate in any home learning, click the link below to give you some ideas.
Last week, our latest group of after school Litter Heroes had so much fun taking care of our school grounds and the environment! We are so proud of everyone who participated, well done!
Finally, last week was fantastic, with lots of incredible learning taking place in every classroom. We hope you continue to find this information in this bulletin useful and informative. As always, the children continue to impress the adults in school with their superb attitude towards their learning.
Summer Term Subject Newsletters
Here's our Care, CLL and Humanities Teams' newsletters for the Summer Term. Next week, the Arts and STEM newsletters will be added.
Attendance Matters
Your child’s attendance at school each day is important – every day counts. We place a high value on classroom based learning at Briar Hill and expect every parent to share this commitment by supporting your child to attend each day and arrive on time. We ensure that from the start of school at 8.45 am, fast paced learning is taking place within all our classrooms and because of this, if your child is absent, they are likely to miss out on significant learning that day.
Government research has shown the impact that just a handful of days absence each year has on primary aged children’s attainment and progress. Below we have included a simple guide for parents indicating what each level of attendance means and hours of learning lost:
Our overall attendance for this week is 94.6%
We’re here to help! Your child’s learning and attendance at school is also important to us. Please let the school know as soon as possible if you require any support to ensure your children arrival at school or, if you know of any issues, home or school related, which may be preventing your child from attending each day. Thank you for your continued support to ensure your child attends school, on time, every day. If you require any further information or would like to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact Miss Leslie (Attendance Lead).
Our Uniform Expectations
The basic Briar Hill uniform consists of:
- Briar Hill logo grey jumper or cardigan (available from Karl Sports)
- plain white polo-shirt or plain white shirt
- black trousers or knee length skirt
- black shoes (not trainers)
- blue check summer dresses or smart black shorts (only in summer months)
- a Briar Hill school book bag
- Year 5-6 - will be given a teal tie - please see the office if you need to reorder one.
Our PE Uniform
- plain white t-shirt
- black shorts or trousers
- jumper or jacket can be worn outside
- trainers or plimsolls
A Lens into Learning at Briar Hill
Some of the Year 6 pupils attended Saturday school this weekend and what a success it was! Thank you to all who attended and were involved.
Check out Year 4's text maps which capture their key knowledge of the human skeleton!
Nursery have been exploring the Woodland Classroom and participated in team building outdoor learning.
In Year 1, they had a strange delivery that was left at the office door. In the box, there were some suspicious clues. They had a good look and then predicted what creature their new model text might be about.
Today Year 2 marked The International Day of Dance and the 1st ever World Daily Mile Day with laps around the playground. They walked, ran, danced, skipped, shimmied and congo’d around our daily mile route to celebrate both these joyous events!
Children in Year 3 have loved their first look at artwork from Stephen Wiltshire and are looking forward to developing their own pencil skills!
Grendel is gone! Year 5 have enjoyed re telling the story of Beowulf and interviewing some of the characters involved in the saga!
Today Reception had a wonderful time at the Woodland Classroom. We have introduced hammers to the area and the children have loved learning how to hammer nails into wood safely. We had a fantastic time learning in the sun together!
Take a Tour of our School
Celebrations
Star of the Week
A huge congratulations to all the children who have been presented with a star of the week award. You are all shining role models and the school is incredibly proud of you all. Well done and THANK YOU!
- Nursery – Alaiyah
- Year R Donaldson – Denis
- Year R McKee – Auralia
- Year 1 Rosen – Amelia
- Year 1 Ahlberg – Macey
- Year 2 Potter – Seren
- Year 3 Dahl – Neli
- Year 3 Horowitz – Elliot
- Year 4 Rowling – Milla
- Year 5 Tolkien – Kian
- Year 5 Morpurgo – Lora
- Year 6 Pullman – Kamil
Excellent Behaviour and Attitude Award from Senior Leadership Team
Nusrat - Year 4 Rowling
Reading Rocks Winners
- 1st place - Year 5 Tolkien
- 2nd place - Year 1 Ahlberg
- 3rd place - Year 4 Rowling
Attendance Winners
- 1st place - Year 6 Pullman
- 2nd place - Year 3 Dahl
- 3rd place - Nursery
Behaviour Winners
- 1st place - Year 1 Ahlberg
- 2nd place - Year 5 Tolkien
- 3rd place - Year 6 Pullman
Uniform
The class who made the best effort with wearing the correct uniform this week is Year 3 Horowitz - well done!
Mr Bump
The class with the fewest accidents this week are Year 2 Potter – well done!
Handwriting Award
- Year R Donaldson – Noah
- Year R McKee – Aishah
- Year 1 Rosen – Ella
- Year 1 Ahlberg – Agastya
- Year 2 Potter – Robert
- Year 3 Dahl – Marwa
- Year 3 Horowitz – Paige
- Year 4 Rowling – Amelia Bo
- Year 5 Tolkien – Kean
- Year 5 Morpurgo – Albert
- Year 6 Pullman – Mia
Positive Points
How can you be rewarded for being positive?
Being POSITIVE is so important here at Briar Hill. Having brilliant behaviour is a skill for life and we support children in this. Children can earn these positive points throughout the school day. Once they reach each threshold, they will be awarded a special certificate. At the end of the academic year, the bronze, silver and gold winners will all receive a special treat!
Bronze Certificate Winners
Watch this space next week to see if there are any winners announced.
Reading Rocks at Briar Hill
At Briar Hill Primary School, we expect all children to read at home five times per week for 20 minutes. Reading is promoted, within school, in a number of ways, including reading for pleasure sessions, class novel time and the DRET Reads reading for pleasure challenge.
Reading books are sent out on a Friday and are to be returned on a Thursday. We expect that all home reading to be recorded within your child's reading log, this allows us to monitor reading at home and also helps to decide which class wins our weekly reading competition 'Reading Rocks'.
The house system is an integral part of Briar Hill and is predominately utilised during inter-school competitions, each with a different focus.
Our children are proud to be part of their house teams. Every child and member of staff is allocated to one of four houses, which they then support. Our houses teams are grouped vertically which enables children to socialise and engage with peers and staff beyond their everyday environment. It is an essential part of school life as it facilitates a growing community spirit and enables children to participate collectively, involving children from all year groups who are contributing to something bigger than themselves.
It was important for the house teams to be named after relevant, diverse and inspiring individuals, from different backgrounds. Therefore, the houses are all named after four successful artists. These artists each have a different discipline within art, they are: Gormley, Hockney, Banksy, Wiltshire. The House captains each year are members of Year 6.
Food Allergy Information
Please remember that at Briar Hill children are not allowed to have nuts or nut products at school. If staff see products containing nuts, the will need to remove these. This is in order to protect pupils at school who have nut allergies.
Dates for the Diary
- Friday 21st April - 8:45 - 9am, book and biscuit morning for parents
- Monday 1st May - Bank Holiday
- Monday 8th May - Bank Holiday
- Tuesday 9th - Friday 12th May - Year 6 SATs Week
- Friday 26th May - term finishes
Home Learning
Useful Links for Parents and Carers
Sunshine Club (Breakfast Club) and Stargazer Club (After School Care)
Breakfast club and after school care is extremely popular and is regularly full. Please book in advance as we are sometimes unable to accommodate late bookings.
If you require breakfast club and after school care please read and sign the terms and conditions to ensure we can accept your booking. Bookings must be made in advance of when care is required.
Breakfast Club is available every school day during term time.
Breakfast club opens at 7.45am and closes as the school day starts at 8.45 am. The club costs £3.00 per day and children are provided with a healthy choice of breakfasts and drinks.
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