WHITKIRK NEWS

A Message From Miss Quarmby

Hello! I hope you’ve all had a lovely week and enjoyed the start of the World Cup for England - there’s been a real buzz around school, with children talking about their teams and our mini class sweepstake! We’re really looking forward to Sports Day next week, and it’s looking like the weather might be on our side too (fingers crossed!). It’s always a highlight of the year and such a special opportunity to see the children working together, showing determination and having lots of fun. To help everything run smoothly and safely - especially given the additional considerations of using Whitkirk Field - we kindly ask that families remain behind the respect barriers and support children in staying with their class groups at all times. We really appreciate your support with this; it helps us ensure every child is safe and accounted for so we can all enjoy the day. We will aim to keep things running to time, but at the end of the day, we’ll return children to school before dismissing children unless there are exceptional circumstances. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding - these routines really do help us keep everything organised and safe. Due to staffing, there won’t be refreshments on sale this year, so please feel free to bring along anything you might need. You may also have noticed that our Facebook page has been a little quieter recently. This has been a thoughtful decision following updated guidance around safeguarding and the use of images. Going forward, any photos shared on Facebook will not identify children (for example, images taken from behind). While this may mean fewer posts on Facebook, we will continue to share classroom moments regularly via Class Dojo and Famly (for Pre-School), so you won’t miss out on what the children are up to. As we begin to look ahead to September, just a couple of gentle reminders around uniform:

• P.E. kit will be navy only from September.
• Cycling shorts should be a suitable length (ideally just above the knee).
• Hair accessories should be in school colours.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support—it really does make such a difference. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, and we look forward to seeing many of you at Sports Day!

KEY DATES FOR SUMMER 2

• Year 2 trip to Yorkshire Wildlife Park - 23rd June
• Sports Day - 24th June
• Year 6 St Mary's Church experience - 25th June
• PTA Colour Run & Non-Uniform Day– 26th June: Children may wear non-uniform ready for the Colour Run after school and are asked to bring a tombola prize donation (e.g. sweets, chocolates or small toys; no nuts please) to support the Summer Fair.
• Summer Fair - 2nd July
• Training Day - 3rd July
• Year 3 Egyptians trip to Leeds City Museum - 9th July
• House Film afternoon - 15th July
• Diamond & Platinum Awards - 16th July
• Break up for Summer Holidays - 17th July

Join the Friends of Whitkirk PTA for their Summer Disco on Saturday 11th July! This fun-filled event has been organised and led by our fantastic PTA, with music, dancing, refreshments and plenty of fun for the children!

Attendance

This week, finishing in first place with 99.22% are 4AB. In second place are 1RS, with 99.11% and in third place are 3RD with 98.71%. The whole school attendance this week is 95.1%.   Please remember look at the NHS guide Is my child too ill for school? - NHS (www.nhs.uk) This is used to determine which reasons for absence will be authorised or unauthorised.

let's take a look at what each year group has been up to this week!

EYFS

This week Pre-school have explored the movement of water, inspired by Tim’s travels to the beach! We danced with sensory scarves, using them to mimic the ocean waves as we sang “Across the Wavy Sea.” The children loved investigating how water moves in our water trays by pushing and splashing it to create ripples, waves, and even stormy seas that splashed over the sides! We also used paint and paintbrushes to create flowing wavy lines at our mark-making table. It was wonderful to see the children so engaged as they explored, created and played, sharing their ideas and experimenting with the moving water. Well done Pre-school!

This week in reception, the children enjoyed a lovely summer walk around the playground and Forest School. As we explored the outdoor environment, we discovered lots of signs of summer. We spotted green leaves on the trees, colourful flowers blooming, and beautiful daisies growing around us. The children listened carefully to the birds singing and enjoyed talking about the things they could see and hear in nature. We were lucky enough to catch some sunshine towards the end of our walk. Having now completed autumn, winter, spring and summer seasonal walks, we’ve enjoyed observing how Whitkirk changes through the seasons.

LOWER SCHOOL

In Year 1 this week, the children have really enjoyed experimenting with printmaking using a variety of different tools. They carefully considered which tools would be most effective to use for their final piece, which will be inspired by the work of Paul Klee. We have also been learning an important life skill - tying shoelaces. The children have shown great perseverance and are making fantastic progress as they build their independence.

This week, Year 2 have shown outstanding resilience throughout assessment week, approaching every challenge with determination and a brilliant attitude. In RE, we explored how babies are welcomed in Sikhism. We have also loved practising our athletics in preparation for Sports Day!

What a fantastic week we have had in Year 3! We have been completing Maths and Reading quizzes, and it has been amazing to see the progress the children have made, as well as the determination and resilience shown during the quizzes. In Art, we have been learning to overpaint and in Science we have been learning about the process of wind pollination.

UPPER school

This week, Year 4 have been historians. As part of our Anglo-Saxon topic, we put ourselves in the shoes of farmers /merchants /families who were living in Anglo-Saxon times. To help us understand their choices, we explored different reasons why they might have migrated to Britain. The children were brilliant at articulating their arguments and explaining which factors they thought were the most important.