IN THIS ISSUE
- IN THIS ISSUE
- Entry Doors - Using the Correct Doors
- Spring Break - Extreme Reading Challenge
- Festival of Languages
- Calligram Entries
- Signing Children Into School - The 'LATE' Book
- Poppy Appeal 2025
- Newcastle Music Service - Music Ensembles
- Year 2 - Busy Bees!!!
- Fundraising Origami Superstar
- Year 4 Greek Workshop
- Sports Ropes for Upper Body Strength
- Active April
- Loose Parts Resources Needed
- Headlice
- Early Years Easter Stay and Play
- Help with Online Safety
- Careers at Archibald: North East Raising Aspirations Partnership
- Dates and Letters
- Horror Films and Age Ratings
- Influencers
Entry Doors - Using the Correct Doors
Parents must use the correct doors to drop their children off every day. Thank you for your support with this.
Some reception children are being dropped off at the year 1 / 2 entrance and crossing the hall, going into their classes on their own. The doors are locked from the hall and they are then in the hall by themselves. Because they are late and because they don't come through their own entrance, they are being marked late in the class register.
As the Parent/Carer - you are responsible for making sure they enter through the correct door and see their staff member.
Equally, parents are dropping children from Years 3 and 4 off at the Year 1/2 entrance. This may be because you feel you are late or because you don't want to walk around. Again, you are responsible for being on time and entering school using the correct entrance.
The staff at this door have young children they need to support and the older children, without siblings in Year 1/2 MUST be taken to the rear doors.
Thank you again for supporting with this.
Spring Break - Extreme Reading Challenge
At Archibald, we LOVE reading! Where is the wackiest or most extreme/fun place that you can read? Over the Easter/Spring break, we are challenging you to read somewhere extreme, exciting, fun and unusual. Take a picture of you doing this and send it in via Seesaw or Tapestry with #AFSreadschallenge.
There will be a prize for each year groups wackiest reading place! Deadline for entries 22.4.26
Festival of Languages
The Art Ambassadors along with some Year 4 origami experts have been working on some beautiful origami butterflies for the Together we fly world friendship project which is part of the north east festival of languages. Each butterfly has a message of friendship in a different language. The butterflies will be displayed as part of a larger in an exhibition in Newcastle Civic Centre in April.
Also, as part of the festival of languages Year 2 took part in an Chiense language and art session which saw them learning how to write several Chinese Characters and create a beautiful print.
Calligram Entries
Signing Children Into School - The 'LATE' Book
Being late happens to us all...
When it is occasional, then this is not a problem at all. However if you are always late, then this does become an issue...
Regardless of if the lateness is a one off or recurrent, parents and carers are reminded of the need to be honest about the time they sign their children into school.
Some parents are very liberal with the time they record and some 'create' a time that is earlier than the actual entry into school. In fact some parents arrive 'before' people who have signed in earlier than them!!!
We have to keep a correct register of all children, including lates and recording in the register how many minutes they are late. This is a legal document and can be used in court by the Attendance team at Newcastle City Council. It also builds a picture of attendance and lates for our attendance reports that go to Governors, DfE, Census and the Attendance team and dictates which families are written to about their attendance/lates.
The office team, will always record the correct time in the register and will amend incorrect times recorded.
Please be honest and accurate.
Newcastle Music Service - Music Ensembles
Come and join our ensembles… It’s an excellent way of progressing further in music, enjoying making music with others and making new friends! We have a wide variety of ensembles to suit all ages, standards and styles of music. On the website, Ensembles — Newcastle Music Service click on each of the boxes to find out more or if you have any other questions, please email SISMusicHubAdmin@newcastle.gov.uk. All of our ensembles are provided free of charge!
Year 2 - Busy Bees!!!
Microbit Workshop Year 2 had a wonderful coding workshop with Julian from Gem Education. They learned how to code using the Mocrobit software and then transfer the code to make their very own remote-control car. The cars could change direction and light up using the code for LEDs. Great skills for the future!
Science Workshop One of our year 2 parents, Mr Wake, came in to deliver a science workshop on materials for Year 2. Milo loved having his dad visit, and the children loved seeing science come to life with fascinating, exciting experiments.
Chinese Art Workshop As part of the language festival of Languages, Year 2 took part in a Chinese art workshop led by GemArts from Gateshead. They learned about how writing has evolved in China over thousands of years and then used some of the symbols to inspire their art work. This was done with printing ink and rollers. The children showed curiosity and creativity.
Fundraising Origami Superstar
What a superstar Reuben is!!!!
Reuben's mum was really pleased to let everyone know that Rubén raised £123.50 (inc gift aid) for the Archibald PTFA by selling his origami! Rubén sold his origami on a stall at the craft market in Gosforth shopping centre over the weekend. Together, mum and Reuben had a great day and were so pleased the origami proved popular. The NUFC shirts and Easter gift boxes were especially popular! They even had to make more origami on the day to meet demand. Reuben is also running origami classes at our house in April and May to raise further funds
Sports Ropes for Upper Body Strength
Active April
Loose Parts Resources Needed
Loose Parts Resources Needed! Do you work in a trade, have building work happening at home, or know someone who does? We are always on the lookout for loose parts to support our children’s creativity and problem‑solving on the Loose Parts Yard. Because so many children enjoy building, designing, and creating every day, our resources get lots of use and we would be very grateful for any donations of materials, including:
- Pallets
- Cable drums or reels
- Tubing, guttering, funnels
- Hosepipes, bore pipes, or any other types of pipes
- Wheelbarrows
- Tarpaulins
- Tree trunks
- Tyres- bicycle, motor bike or go-kart tyres
- Large shallow trays
- Steering wheels
- Portable seats, camping or gardening mats
- Baths
- Any other interesting construction or industrial off‑cuts you may have!
A GOLD STAR for anyone who can get us some TRACTOR WHEELS!!!!
If you or your workplace can help, please let us know. Your contributions make a huge difference to the children’s play and learning experiences.
Headlice
HEADLICE: Please continue to ‘take a peek, once a week and check your child’s hair.
Headlice are very common in children. If you know that your child has had or has headlice, please let us know so that we can also raise awareness within their class and let other grown-ups know that there are headlice in the year group. This means that everyone has the opportunity to check their own child’s hair. No child or family will ever be named regarding having headlice.
If your child does have headlice, and you would rather treat them straight away as opposed to waiting until that evening, we are very happy for you to do this and then bring your child into school. We would never want any of our children to be uncomfortable or itchy.
Early Years Easter Stay and Play
Early Years held their second stay and play this year and had a great time doing lots of Easter activiies. The rainy weather on Tuesday did not dampen our spirits as we hunted for eggs, played bunny bowling, decorated eggs, made bunnies and even gave our grown ups some Spring flowers from the Garden Centre. Thank you to all the grown ups who came. We hope you had a great time.
Help with Online Safety
How to “Layer-up” your children's online safety with Internet Matters To support families in keeping children safe online, we’re sharing this helpful short video from Internet Matters, which explains their simple “Layer Up” approach to online safety. The idea is to build protection in three layers — network controls, device controls, and app or platform controls — so children have consistent safeguards wherever they go online. Using these layers together, alongside regular conversations at home, helps create a safer and more positive digital experience for your child.
Careers at Archibald: North East Raising Aspirations Partnership
On Thursday 26th March Year 2, 3 and 4 had a visit from the North East Raising Aspirations Partnership. It is a collaboration of all five universities in the region—Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, and Teesside—designed to inspire young people and support them in accessing higher education. They talked to the children about what a career is and how many different careers they can have. They shared about university and the pathway to get to university. They shared what you could do at university too.
- A Levels (Academic): Generally two-year, exam-based courses designed for university entry.
- T Levels (Technical): Two-year courses (80% classroom, 20% work) designed to prepare students for specific, skilled employment or higher-level apprenticeships. This can also be used to get into University.
- V Levels (Vocational - New 2027): Smaller, flexible qualifications focusing on technical skills in specific industries (e.g., Digital, Finance, Health). They allow students to mix and match with A Levels or other subjects.
These are just some of the ways to get into a career. And though it may seem like a long way off for our pupils, it is never to early to start thinking about the future.