Headteacher Introduction
It’s the end of May and we have 7 school weeks left! There is so much to squeeze in but I’m sure it will fly by and before we know it it will be the summer holidays! I want to make this a memorable half term in summer 2 for staff and students alike.
Students across school have achieved so much this last year! They have worked incredibly hard and made huge amounts of progress so I can't wait to see this evidenced in our summer term assessment week next month! You should all be incredibly proud.
Personally, I want to say a huge congratulations to Y2 and Y6 children for all their amazing effort, perseverance and positivity with SATs weeks and we couldn't be any more proud as everyone can say they gave everything on those weeks and showcased our school core values: We're Respectful, We're Ambitious, We're Proud - We're Birdwell!
As we look ahead to the next half term, we are excited to share our plans to further enhance our personal development offer for our students. This initiative will not only provide a wide array of enriching experiences but also open up the world of careers and employment opportunities available to them, including the various routes they can take. We have conducted a baseline measure to understand our students' current views on their career aspirations, and we look forward to sharing these insights with you as a starting point.
As always, please do come in and speak to us and use our meet & greet opportunities on a morning to keep us informed. If you don't follow us on Twitter (X) already, remember that you can keep up with updates of the school using @PrimaryBirdwell
Curriculum Update
Reception
We started our half term finding out about technology. The children used different devices including ipads and laptops. The children then created their own laptops which they used in their play.
The children have been very busy in our topic growth and change. The children enjoyed observing the chicks hatch and created chicken school for them to live in. We have explored the story, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk,’ and created a huge story map to read to our friends. The children have been planting seeds and observing them grow.
This half term we have introduced ‘Mystery Reader Tuesdays!’ Thank you to the Parents and Grandparents who have already surprised the children with sharing a story with them. We look forward to this time every week.
A highlight of our half term was when we all went to St Mary’s Church in Worsbrough Village to watch Bob the Bear get Christened. The children explored the features of the church and took part in the Christening ceremony.
In maths, we have been measuring and developing number skills when adding and taking away. The children are challenging themselves to be really quick at identifying number bonds.
Year 1
Year 1 have been very busy this half term.
In science we have been investigating materials. We went on a material hunt around the classroom and through school. We have been using scientific vocabulary to describe the properties of the different materials. Ask us about opaque and transparent.
In maths we continue to develop our understanding of the four operations and have been learning to tell the time to o'clock and half past the hour. During the capacity unit we filled containers and compared them using the vocabulary - nearly full, full, half full and empty. We learnt that the height of a container does not always mean it can hold the most liquid.
We have loved reading Dogger in literacy and can retell the story with lovely expression. Year 1 have been sequencing pictures and writing the events of the story in order. They have used conjunctions to extend their sentences and adjectives to add detail. Ask your child to retell the story.
Cricket has been the focus for PE this half term. We can use a cradle catch and have been learning how to throw the ball overarm and underarm. We have loved working as a team and playing caterpillar cricket.
In music we have been learning some new notes and songs on the recorder. We plan to hold a celebration event before the school year is over. The children have worked so hard this year and are looking forward to sharing their music with you.
Our topic driver has been all about the explorer Christopher Columbus. Year 1 have worked together to produce a poster about their learning. They can talk about where he was born, how and when he set off on his voyage and can even name his three ships. They have used an atlas to map out his voyage and also identified the human and physical changes of the Americas from then to now. They've loved the topic this half term, especially as they've been able to sing the continent song again. Ask them to share this song with you.
Year 2
Year 2 have had a very busy half term!
In literacy we have been learning about how we can help our world and the impact plastic has on our environment. In maths we have been doing a lot of arithmetic practice and also recapped measurement and fractions. We demonstrated our learning when we completed our SATs.
Science has been all about living things and we have spent a lot of time at forest school discussing micro habitats and organising animals or insects based on their characteristics.
In P.E. we have been developing the skills to play tennis – it isn’t as easy as it looks! Our humanities topic was all about Ernest Shackleton and his expedition to Antarctica. Ask us who he was and what he did.
Our key question in RE was ‘How can faith contribute to community cohesion?’ and in PD we focused on relationships.
Year 3
This half term, our Literacy topic has been Myth Story, Arthur And The Golden Rope followed by an African Folk Tale called The Fire Children. First, we wrote a character description about Arthur then we wrote our very own myth story. We then moved on to The Fire Children and creating a recount of the story followed by a setting description. Throughout the term we have worked on our expanded noun phrases, prepositions, pronouns and adverbs.
In Maths, we have focused on the following areas: addition & subtraction, multiplication & division, measurement, geometry and time. The children have enjoyed using clocks to help with time, we have time really tricky although we have been really resilient and tried our best.
Our Science this half term has been ‘Light’. We have been learning the benefits of light, how it is produced and how we can see.
Mayans has been our art topic. We have learnt all about how the Mayans lived and how the Mayan civilization ended, our visit to the York Chocolate Museum taught us lots about Mayans invented chocolate.
PE this half term has been focusing on tennis. We have worked with partners and in small groups to develop balancing the ball and batting techniques.
In music lessons, we have enjoyed learning about Blues Music and enjoyed trying out keyboards on the Ipads using the Blues scale.
Year 4
This half term, we have had two different genres in Literacy: poetry and diary writing. In our poetry lessons, we began by reading Joseph Coelho poems and writing our own poems with figurative language. We then watched some of Michael Rosen’s performance poems before writing and performing our own poems. We based our diary writing on the book ‘Leon and the Place Between’, and focused on using thoughts and feelings, ambitious descriptions and fronted adverbials. Handwriting in Year 4 is really improving and children have been proud to receive their pen licenses.
In Maths, we have focused all four rules and applying these in problem solving, converting units of time, reading and plotting co-ordinates to make shapes, and translating shapes and describing translations. We have continued to work hard learning our times tables ready for the MTC in June. Year 4 were extremely proud to have scored the most points out of all the classes in our school, in our HCAT Tigers Day on Monday.
Our Science this half term has been ‘Sound’. We have learned that sound is made from vibrations, that sound travels in waves and that the amplitude of waves affects the volume. We have investigated how the pitch can be changed, and we have also investigated patterns between the volume and the strength of the vibrations. We enjoyed making string telephones to demonstrate how sound travels.
Our humanities topic this half term has been ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. We have learnt about the golden age of piracy and why the Caribbean became a haven for pirates. We have compared what it was like in Port Royal (Jamaica) to how it is today. We have learnt about the pirate code, researched the different jobs that pirates could do, and looked at the features of pirate ships. We will finish our topic by researching a famous pirate.
Our PE focus has been tennis. We have practised forehand and backhand, hand feed and drop feed, and have enjoyed using these in small games.
In music lessons, we have listened to some 60s pop music, in particular The Beatles. Our focus song was Blackbird which we have learnt how to sing, and we improvised to this using chime bars. We also enjoyed using iPads to compose.
Year 5
What a great start to the summer term in Year 5! Our subject drivers have been History and Geography and our topic has been ‘The Great British Empire’. As part of this, they worked in teams to end the topic with a debate based on the question ‘Was the British Empire Great?’. The children demonstrated their speaking and listening skills, whilst also showing passion for their argument.
At the start of the half term in literacy, we had a poetry focus. We explored a number of different poems in lessons and also in LIRA, before writing our own school inspired poems. We then moved on to focus on writing a fantasy narrative. For this, we have been rewriting the battle scene of the two ice-bears, taken from the book ‘Northern Lights’ and the film adaptation ‘The Golden Compass’. We have really been focusing on making sure our writing is engaging for the reader by trying to create a clear picture in their mind and mixing up our sentence openers.
In maths, we have covered the four operations and have been introduced to long division - the children showed great resilience with this. We have been using our fraction, decimal and percentage knowledge to find fractions and percentages of amounts. Also, we have been applying our maths skills to real life problems linked to measure.
Our Science topic has been ‘Properties and Changes’. We got the chance to test the properties of certain materials and objects, and also considered why materials are used for specific products based on their properties. As a class, we completed an investigation to find out which material was the best thermal insulator.
Year 6
What a half term we've had. I have been immensely proud of the determination and resilience the entire class has shown throughout the SATs half term: every child came to school with a smile and gave their absolute all.
Now SATs are over, we have been looking at our end of year production, Matilda the Musical, which I am sure you have heard all about. The children are extremely excited and will be receiving their parts soon.
The next half term is always a busy but exciting one with Enterprise Day events, a careers week coming up and our end of year production (dates will be sent out at the start of next half term). I can't wait to get started with all these wonderful events and see the children enjoy their final half term at Birdwell.
Next Half Term - Focus Subject
Moving into the Summer Term, all our classes will be starting new cycled curriculum subject as well as the usual weekly lessons. Our cycled subject this half term will be Computing as we explore coding and algorithms as well as looking at presenting and creating media using computing software.
Reception: A Robot World
Year 1: Turtle Power
Year 2: Birdwell Arcade
Year 3: Maze Game My Way!
Year 4: Security System
Year 5: Digital Quest
Year 6: Media Influencer
#AttendanceMatters
At Birdwell Primary School, we fully recognise the impact of good attendance and punctuality on the success and development of young people both socially and academically.
Research has proved that any student with attendance under 95% is at risk of achieving a grade lower in every subject by the time they leave school. We expect all students to attend school regularly and our whole school attendance attendance target is 97%. We have introduced the 100 Club as an outstanding target for classes to meet each week.
For more information regarding attendance, please see the dedicated page on our school website which features the school's attendance policy.
Birdwell Primary School: SUmmer Term Attendance Year to date Figures
Whole School Target: 97%
Whole School Attendance: 96.2%
- Reception: 96.1%
- Year 1: 96.2%
- Year 2: 95.3%
- Year 3: 96.4%
- Year 4: 96.7%
- Year 5: 96.1%
- Year 6: 96.7%
We will send our attendance traffic light information letters to parents and carers on Wednesday 22nd May.
Careers Week
We are thrilled to announce that, in the week commencing Monday 1st July, we will be hosting a whole school careers week aimed at boosting our students' understanding of the employment prospects available to them as they get older.
We will kick off the week with a special "Dress to Impress" day on Monday 1st July, where children are encouraged to come dressed as or bring items linked to a job they would like in the future.
Throughout the week, students will enjoy a variety of visitors, workshops and in-class activities all centred around careers, essential skills, and the wider world.
On Monday 1st July or at other opportunities throughout the week, we would like to host workshops through the day with individuals from different professions.
If you'd be happy to come and take part, please register your interest via the link below. We would be grateful for your support.
Parent Consultation: School Behaviour and Anti-Bullying Policy
We are pleased to invite you to a parent coffee morning on Wednesday 26th June at 9am, where we will be consulting with you about our school's behaviour and anti-bullying policy for the upcoming academic year.
We believe that a strong home-school agreement on high expectations of behaviour is essential and your input is invaluable in strengthening these bonds.
It would be highly beneficial to have as many parents as possible attending this session, as your perspectives and feedback will help us create a supportive and positive environment for all our students.
It will also be a good opportunity to hear more about our approach to behaviour and how we ensure high expectations for all children.
PE Kit - 2024/25
We are planning to make amendments to our school PE uniform policy for the next academic year.
Based on your feedback, we recognise the value of children being in uniform while also appreciating the benefits of having them come to school in their PE kits, which allows us to extend PE sessions by an additional 10-20 minutes per lesson. However, we have noticed that PE kits have become increasingly non-uniform.
Therefore, starting next year, we are specifying that children wear a new logo PE shirt on their respective PE days, which will be available from our supplier, Vortex.
Additionally, children can wear navy shorts or tracksuit bottoms, and a tracksuit top or hoodie on their PE days, but these items must be navy in colour.
We believe these changes will help maintain a cohesive and professional appearance while maximising PE time for our students.
Phonics Screening Check
As the Phonics Screening Check is approaching again this year, here as some facts for parents.
The Phonics Screening Check is a compulsory assessment that all children in Year 1 must take in the week commencing Monday 10th June. It is used to assess a students phonic decoding skills. Previously to pass, a student must correctly read around 32/40 words correctly. We will know at the end of June if this is still the case.
The 40 words in the check are split into sections progressing from simple word structures to trickier words with five or six letters. The often confusing thing about the screening check is that 20/40 of the words that children are expected to read are ‘nonsense words’, alien words that have no meaning. This really tests a child’s phonic decoding skills to check they have the appropriate standard.
What can I do to help?
There are past phonics screening checks from on this website:
Multiplication Times table Check
All children in Year 4 will be participating in the multiplication tables check in June. We will be administering ours on the week commencing Monday 10th June.
The purpose of the check is to determine whether your child can fluently recall their times tables up to 12, which is essential for future success in mathematics.
The MTC is an on-screen check consisting of 25 times table questions. Your child will be able to answer 3 practice questions before taking the actual check. They will then have 6 seconds to answer each question. This will be a similar format to the TTRS Soundcheck.
On average, the check should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete.
What can I do to help?
Click on the buttons below to access more information and resources around the MTC
Transition Arrangements
As a school, we fully recognise how important transition will be for our staff and children coming up to September so we are placing a significant emphasis on a high-quality transition period before summer term. We have provisionally added the dates Thursday 11th July & Friday 12th July to allow children to move up to their new classrooms and spend time with new class teachers for two day! It's also an exciting time as we welcome our new starters for September 2024 too!
Meet the Teacher
As part of the transition arrangements, we received positive feedback about our 'Meet the Teacher' event last year so on Monday 8th July at 3:30pm, we will be hosting a meet the teacher session for all parents or guardians to attend. These sessions will be held in your child's new classroom, with the respective teacher/s they will have. We look forward to seeing you all there!
Parent Forum - Summer Term 1
We are delighted to share the valuable feedback gathered from our recent parent forum, where dedicated members of our school community came together to discuss important topics. Your input has been invaluable, guiding us in addressing key concerns and shaping our actions for the betterment of our school.
Extra-Curricular Clubs
Sign up for After School Clubs are live from 5pm on 22nd May 2024