A message from Miss Quarmby
What a busy week we have had! Reception went to Halton Library, Year 1 to Temple Newsam House, it has been the Year 4 multiplication check, and Mr Stout has taken six UKS2 pupils to Harrogate Grammar School to take part in the RKLT Youth Board Olympics! On Thursday, we also had lots of Deputy Headteachers from across the Red Kite Alliance visiting our school. Mr Sadler hosted the morning and then they were all able to have tours of our wonderful school. They were very impressed, particularly by how independent our Reception children are and what outstanding writers and mathematicians they already are!
The summer term is always a busy one. Plans are underway for Sports Day which will take place on Thursday 27th June. Reception and Year 1 will begin at 9:30am and KS1 at 1pm. It will be based on Whitkirk field as per previous years. Any additional information will follow shortly. This year, children will be organised in their house teams rather than countries. We're also looking forward to seeing lots of you at our Summer Fair on Saturday 29th June - it is always an incredible event and a big thank you to our PTA who are working away to organise this special event for our school. Have a great weekend!
SUMMER FAIR - SATURDAY 29TH JUNE
Uniform Exchange:
We know how quickly children grow and every year, lots of school uniform ends up in landfill. Do your bit to help our environment (and your pocket!) by donating and/or taking from our bank of pre-loved school uniform. It's free uniform for anybody who wants it and anybody is welcome to donate, take, or swap. Every little bit helps! Use the link to the Facebook page to find out more: Whitkirk Primary School Uniform Swap, Donate & Recycle | Facebook
Upcoming dates/ events you may be interested IN:
- w/c 10th June 2024 - Year 1 Phonics Screening Check begins
- Thursday 27th June 2024 - Sports Day (Reception and KS1 - 9:30am; KS2 - 1:00pm)
- Saturday 29th June 2024 - PTA Summer Fair
ATTENDANCE
This week, finishing in first place with 99.03% are 6AS. In second place are 2RD, with 98.06% and in third place are 1JL, with 97.33%. The whole school attendance this week is 94.82%. A shout also goes to 3KD and 6NT who have also finished the week above our school target of 96.5%. The whole school attendance so far this year is 95.72%.
Let's see what's been happening in our classes this week
EYFS
This week in Reception, the children found out that their new Big Idea this term is 'Where can we travel?' Throughout the year, the children in Reception have built up their knowledge of their local area, visiting St Mary's Church for Harvest, Temple Newsam farm to learn about life cycles and on Monday they visited Halton Library. The children created a map of their route and enjoyed identifying key features such as the post box and Kids Planet nursery which many of our children attended. We are very excited to start to compare different climates around the world to Leeds and cannot believe that we have started our final 7 weeks in Reception.
Key Stage 1
It's hard to believe we're on the final term of Year 1, but our children have come back to school showing they are so ready for Year 2! We had a wonderful start to the week, walking to and visiting the grounds of Temple Newsam house. We used observational drawing skills learnt in art to sketch the magnificent house ready for our new big history idea 'What was life like in Temple Newsam house?'. This week, we've loved learning our new Talk4Writing text based on Quentin Blake's story 'Mrs Armitage on Wheels'.
Year 2 have had an exciting week, diving into the history of the Leeds West Indian Carnival. We have enjoyed tasting rice, peas, jerk sauce, and plantain crisps while learning about the event's growth and traditions. In maths, we have explored pictograms in 2s, 5s, and 10s, and even challenged themselves with halving symbols.
Lower Key Stage 2
Year 3 started their week off with doing a virtual tour of Whitby Abbey! This was to introduce our new Big Idea: How has life changed in Whitby Abbey? We began by placing key events on a timeline, using our knowledge of previously learnt time periods to understand where Whitby Abbey sits in British history. Then, we discovered a map of Whitby Abbey and used it to go on a quest to solve questions about the abbey. The children showed fantastic teamwork when gathering the information and worked well when listening to each others' ideas. Great work Year 3, a super start to the half term!
Year 4 started their new history topic about how Whitby Abbey has changed in over 1,000 years. This week, we created timelines with different facts about the abbey and made links with our previous history topics. Proving themselves to be great historians, there were many impressive questions from pupils and everyone was enthusiastic to learn more. Well done Year 4!
Upper Key Stage 2
What a fabulous first week back we have had in Year 5! We launched our new Science topic 'marvellous mixtures' by investigating how mixtures can be separated. The children's prior knowledge was brilliant and the children enjoyed using a range of sieves and filters to separate the big mess made in our Science cupboard! In Art we explored the work of pop artist Andy Warhol and looked a range of his most famous printworks. We will be taking inspiration from his work this half term.
This week, we had a visit from a strange character when Mr Sadler dressed up and played the role of a sinister hitchhiker from the short, animated movie ' Road's End'. The children interviewed him to learn more about his motives. From this, the children have written some fantastic character descriptions and amazing recounts. In PE, we have started a unit on Cricket. In this, we practiced our fielding skills and practised over arm bowling. We even enjoyed some typical British Summer Time weather: rain! As well, we are currently rehearsing our leavers concert 'The Whitkirk School Of Rock'. All in all, a very varied and enjoyable week has had by all.