A Message From Miss Quarmby
Hello everyone. What a gorgeous week it has been at Whitkirk! A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our KS2 Christmas Service at St. Mary’s Church. I was so proud of all the children—this might have been our best singing yet! Their big smiles and confident voices during the readings were wonderful to see. The Year 6 reflections on What Christmas Means to Me and the Year 3 poem had me teary-eyed! A special thank you to all the staff involved, and especially Miss Odor and Miss Tomlinson, who worked so hard to make it such a success. On Wednesday, we hosted our Christmas Fair—and what an event it was! Thank you to everyone who came and supported us (thank you for being so patient queuing to get in!). It was a fantastic evening, and our PTA were incredible from start to finish, working alongside Miss Emery to make sure every detail was perfect and we were ready to go. We raised an amazing £1,900—and that’s before today’s Elf Run! A huge thank you to Jacqui, our PTA Chair, and all the PTA volunteers for their hard work and dedication. We also enjoyed our Drumming Winter Performance this week. Every time they perform, I’m blown away by their talent—true stars in the making! The Christmas cheer continues next week, and we can’t wait to celebrate more festive fun together. Have a lovely weekend!
Eco-Warriors
Our eco message comes from Willow. She has noticed with Christmas fast approaching lots of chocolate and sweets are being eaten. She would like everyone next week to think about recycling empty wrappers.
Attendance
This week, finishing in first place with 99.17% are 5AK. In second place are 1LR, with 99.13% and in third place are 5AS, with 97.18%. A shout out also goes 6NT who have also finished the week above our school target of 96.5%. The whole school attendance this week is 94.12%: can we beat this next week? The only way to do that is if we all come to school as often as we can. 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 in Pre-school, we were inspired by the colourful artwork of Anna Blatman as we explored our own painting skills. The children used their favourite colours to create beautiful flowers that have brightened up our classroom! The children practitised using gentle brush strokes and learned how to dip their brushes into water between colours.We are so proud of our little artists; their creativity and excitement for painting have been a joy to watch. Well done, Pre-school!
During Forest School this week, the children were thrilled to spot a tiny elf tucked away between the trees! He’d come with a special surprise - hot chocolate and a gingerbread man for everyone - but he had one challenge for the children first... He needed a warm, cosy home for the winter. The children worked together to find sticks, leaves and moss, using their fantastic ideas to create little shelters and pathways for the elf! The children definitely earened their special hot chocolate treat at the end of the session!
LOWER school
Year 1 have had an amazing week of learning! In Maths, we’ve been comparing teen numbers and exploring how they relate to each other. In Religion and World Views, the children have enjoyed learning and retelling the Nativity story with lots of enthusiasm. We also finished our Science topic on the senses, recalling some incredible facts about how our bodies work. It’s been a fantastic week full of curiosity and creativity - well done, Year 1!
Year 2 have had a brilliant week, from creating colourful shape patterns in Maths to publishing our very own narratives as real books. We have also been busy rehearsing for the Nativity, learning lines, songs, and actions with great enthusiasm. We can’t wait to perform our production, A Bundle of Joy, for you next week!
This week in Year 3, we have refined and completed our animations on Scratch, programming sprites to move and speak. We used iPads to animate the Stone Age, In English, we have been learning to use onomatopoeia and similes to write christmas poetry and in Science, we have tested the strength of magnets!
UPPER school
What a wonderful week it has been in Year 4! The children shone during their fantastic church performance and absolutely wowed everyone with a totally awesome drumming assembly. In art, we have begun our final Lucy Arnold–inspired pieces, and they are already looking truly impressive! Our computing sessions have been full of festive fun as the children designed their own Christmas jumpers using Keynote. In English, the class has started writing persuasive letters to Scrooge, encouraging him to embrace kindness and respect as the most important values. Meanwhile in maths, we have been exploring the area of different shapes. We finished the week off with the long-anticipated elf run - which was so much fun! Well done Year 4.
This week in Year 5 we braved the elements (which seems to becoming a tradition) as we made our way to church for our Christmas Service. Despite the dismal weather, we certainly added some Christmas cheer with our fantastic readings and singing. Back in class, we have been getting to grips with converting improper fractions and mixed numbers and even progressed to add subtracting fractions! In history we learnt about the similarities between Anglo- Saxon and Viking societies.
Year 6 have had a really busy week this week, and had so many opportunities to show off their creative sides. From their performance in the Christmas Concert, to Christmas crafting with their buddies, and creating games on Scratch in Computing AND stop motion animations in art, it has been non-stop. We're so proud of how eagerly they have taken on all these challenges and how proud they are of what they have created! Well done Year 6!