A message from Miss Quarmby
Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful half-term break, celebrating Halloween, Diwali, Bonfire Night — it’s been a jam-packed couple of weeks, hasn’t it? Thank you so much to everyone who joined us for our PTA Lantern Walk on Wednesday. It was lovely to see so many of you there, and a huge thanks goes to our fantastic PTA for organizing such a lovely event! Over the holidays, our latest Whitkirk member arrived. Miss Odor's little boy, Hugo, entered the world on 29.10.24 weighing 8lb 4oz. Both Mum and Baby are doing well and are both excited to come say hi to the Whitkirk team very soon.
This week, we kicked off our new history themes, covering everything from the Romans and Victorians to World War II! There’s been such an exciting buzz around school, and we’re already eager to dive deeper into all this fascinating history. We know that quite a few children have been absent with chicken pox this week. We hope everyone’s on the mend and can join us back in school soon — we’ve got so much planned, and we don’t want anyone to miss out! As always, Autumn Term 2 is one of our busiest times, so please check the dates below and add them to your diaries. Have a fantastic weekend, and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday!
Anti-Bullying Week
Autumn 2 dates
- 12th November @ 9am - LKS2 (Year 3 and Year 4) Learning Together session
- 13th November @ 9am - KS1 (Year 1 and Year 2) Learning Together session (Year 1 parents large hall / Year 2 parents small hall)
- 14th November @ 9am - UKS2 (Year 5 and Year 6) Learning Together session
- 15th November - Training Day - school closed for all children
- 25th November - Christmas Panto (during school time)
- 12th December - EYFS Nativity @ 9:30am and 2:15pm (2 seats per child, parents to pick one performance only)
- 17th December - KS2 Church Service - 10am
- 18th December - KS1 Nativity @ 9:30am (Parents of 2KD and 1LBR) and 2:00pm (Parents of 2CH and 1JL) - 2 seats available per child
Attendance
This week, finishing in first place with 98.71% are 4JF. In second place are 5AK, with 97.32% and in third place are 6NT with 96.69%.
A shout out also goes to 1LR, who have also finished the week above our school target of 96.5%
The whole school attendance this week is 90.06%: can we beat this next week? The only way to do that is if we all come to school as often as we can
An unauthorised absence is when there has been no contact from home and school have not been able to contact a parent/carer; or no specific reason has been given for an illness, for example “they aren’t well today”; or the reason given for absence has not been authorised. This could be due to it not meeting the NHS guidelines on ‘When is my child too ill for school?’ - for example they are kept at home due to a runny nose, tummy ache or being tired. This will appear as an O on your child’s attendance certificate for both the morning and the afternoon if they remain absent for the whole day.
If your child arrives at school, after the register has closed (this being 9.15am), they will receive an unauthorised late mark. This will appear as a U on your child’s attendance certificate for the morning.
Let's take a look AT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON THIS WEEK
EYFS
This week in Reception the children explored their new big idea , How do we Celebrate?
They started the week by celebrating Diwali, learning about the festival of lights, making and decorating Diva lamps and dancing to celebratory Diwali music. The children then learned about different celebrations around the world including weddings, birthdays, Luna new year, Christmas and Eid. Throughout this term, the children will continue to learn about different celebrations around the world and discuss which celebrations they take part in and our wider school community.
Key Stage 1
Year 1 have returned to school with the most outstanding attitude to learning! We have adored learning our new class text 'The Lonely Beast' by Chris Judge this week and retelling the story using our story map and actions. We launched our new History topic 'What did our Grandparents enjoy?' by exploring our own history and creating our timelines using photos from babies until now. In science, we concluded our learning on materials by researching the scientist Chester Greenwood who invented ear muffs and testing different materials to make our own pair of suitable earmuffs.
Year 2 launched the week with an exciting Wow Day! We loved stepping back in time as Victorian children, writing on chalkboards and completing the Victorian drill. In maths, we have shown incredible resilience while adding and subtracting two-digit numbers. We have also started exploring our new text, Jack and the Beanstalk, sparking lots of imaginative ideas.
Lower Key Stage 2
What a fantastic week we have had in Year 3! In English, we have been writing poems inspired by John Agard about Bonfire Night. In Maths, we have been multiplying by 2, 5 and 10. In History, we launched our new Big Idea, 'Who were the first people in Britain?' We created cave paintings, using sources of evidence. Well done, Year 3!
This half term, Year 4 are learning all about sound and vibrations. Using instruments, we observed how sounds are made and then investigated how we can change sounds. Year 4 have also been superstars in History, where they learnt about the Roman Empire. We can't wait to see what they achieve this term!
Upper Key Stage 2
Year 5 have well and truly started the half term off with a bang! In English, we have started looking at setting character descriptions, ready to write our narratives based on Beowulf. Miss Richardson and Ms Kaur have been amazed by Year 5's vocabulary choices and similes! We have also launched our new Big Idea, all about World War II and the impact this had on Leeds by visiting the Temple Newsam Cross Memorial and reading our remembrance poems from last half term. We were so proud of how well you represented Whitkirk and all of your thoughtful questions about our new topic.
Year 6 have had a fantastic first week back after half term. We have been working hard to rehearse our poem ready to perform at the Cenotaph. We have launched our new big idea 'What was life really life in World War 2?' We looked specifically at the events of the Blitz when Britain came under attack. We learnt about how people made Anderson Shelters to keep themselves safe. We know we are going to really love this big idea!