Mental Health Week
Last week we focused on looking after our own mental health. We spent time thinking about each of the Zones of Regulation and how we might feel or react to different situations. The children spent some time learning mindfulness techniques and how we can help grow positive thoughts in our minds. All classrooms were given a new calm box with a selection of resources that the children can access at anytime to help them manage their emotions; these are already proving very popular.
We have lots more resources on our school website to support mental health, please follow the link below to access this or contact Mrs Doonan for more information.
As part of our mental health week we also had a Kindness Workshop from the charity 52 Lives and their School of Kindness. We learned that kindness has three qualities – being friendly, generous and considerate.
We learnt about the science of kindness and the positive impact it has on our physical and mental health. Next, we practised empathy by watching videos of kindness in action and then said kind things to each other in the classroom. To put our kindness into action, we thought of someone we knew who could do with a little kindness. We then made them something in our classrooms and shared these across school, my office now includes a fabulous kindness paperchain! Finally, we looked at the quote ‘be the change that you want to see in the world’ and decided that we can help to create the kind of world we want to live in.
The School of Kindness has a Kids’ Club which is free to join where you will get a free newsletter with kindness challenges, stories, activities, jokes, competitions and videos to watch. If you would like to sign up to this online tool please use the link below.
Lego Coding
Just incase you missed the earlier email, we have an exciting new coding club opportunity which we would like to offer to Year 3 and 4 children. This club will use Lego and a computer coding system for the children to make and programme models.
The club will run on a Friday morning and begin at 7:45am, the children will be taken into their class as soon as the club is finished at 9am. The club will be £35 for a half term (beginning Friday 7th March and ending Friday 11th April). Children will need breakfast before they arrive at school. We apologise that the club is more expensive than our usual providers, but school has subsidised the cost for all to try to bring the price down as much as possible.
We expect there to be lots of interest in this club so please complete an expression of interest form using the link below. This form will remain open until Friday 7th February. If we do not have enough spaces on the club for everyone, we will select children at random. You will be notified if your child has a space on Monday 10th February and payments can be made at this point via the Reach More Parents App.
Over the next term we will be purchasing our own Lego kits to have in school and working with Raising Robots Ltd to train staff in delivering Lego coding to all children in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. This will be a wonderful opportunity for everyone, and be a super addition to our Computing Curriculum.
Nursery Applications
The applications for September 2025 places to our Nursery are now open. Please call in to the school office for an application pack, or send an email to admin@regentfarm.newcastle.sch.uk. Please return the form directly to school, not to the Local Authority, by Friday 14th March.
We are very proud of our happy, busy and loving Nursery: we believe it helps to create the very best start to school life for your child and is the foundations for a successful education. We would be delighted to show prospective parents around nursery, please just contact the office to organise a convenient time. There is also lots more information about the on the Nursery page in the Year Groups section of the website.
Curriculum Information
Our whole school topic this half term is 'Time Travellers' and the classes have responded very well to their new lessons. The children have been learning about lots of aspects of the past from dinosaurs and the Stone Age through to space travel. Every class has been making the staff proud with their curiosity and questioning skills. We've also been developing the children's use of historical sources to find evidence and gather new information. The musician of the half term is The Beatles and the children have been enjoying some classic songs: The Yellow Submarine is a particular hit!
Early Years
The children in Nursery have been learning all about the difference between fire and ice. The cold weather we had at the start of January helped them dive into frozen worlds. It was a highlight watching them slide on the children slide on their tummy like a penguin! The children are now looking at the fantasy world of fire and dragons; this week they've been to dragon school. Everyone created their own wings and learnt how to roar, fly and breathe fire!
The Dinosaurs have landed in Reception! They began the term with an exploration into the different dinosaurs and the children created fantastic fact books containing knowledge about what the dinosaurs ate, how long they lived and another interesting fact: did you know that a Stegosaurs' brain is the same size as a ping pong ball? Their trip to the Great North Museum last week allowed the children to dive deeper into the dinosaur world. They explored prehistoric fossils, completed a workshop involving a t-rex skeleton and were paleontologists in discovering new fossils. Inspired by their trip to the Museum, the children have created and opened their own classroom museums, filled with facts and artefacts as well as a gift shop.
Key Stage 1
The children in Year 1 have been learning all about space travel in their topic 'Can we touch the moon?'. They have learnt about two famous astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Tim Peak. The children have also been finding out all about what goes on behind the scenes in space travel focusing on the NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson who played a key role in several missions, including Apollo 11. In science lessons they have been learning about the order of the planets and become rocket engineers, thinking about whether a big or small rocket might get to the moon first.
In Year 2, they have have travelled back in time to 1666 and learnt all about The Great Fire of London. They have been showing superb curiosity and asked some amazing questions which they are beginning to answer by using a variety of historical sources. The have learnt about what life was like in the 1600s and how different things were to today. The children also learnt how to make bread just like Thomas Farriner from Pudding Lane who's bakery was allegedly the starting point of the Fire. The children are very excited to showcase all their learning in their Great Fire of London play next month.
Key Stage 2
Year 3 have been focusing on the history of The Stone Age, looking at a variety of sources to find out about life thousands of years ago. This week they had a wonderful trip to The Rising Sun Country Park to take part in a Stone Age workshop. The experts surprised everyone with their shocking facts, amazing real life artefacts and brilliant resources. Not only did the children learn a lot about life in the Stone Age; they were able to get hands on experience by making shelters, grinding wheat to make flour, making flat breads and cooking them on an open fire. The children and staff thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and will be using their new knowledge for the rest of this topic to design Stone Age houses.
Year 4 have had a fantastic start to 2025! For the first 2 weeks of term pupils attended daily swimming lessons at the Gosforth pool. We were so proud of how they approached this with determination and enthusiasm. All the children made fantastic progress and lots of them overcame their worries about swimming. Well done Year 4! They have also been learning about the Egyptians in History. They have learnt about how Ancient Egypt developed, the Pyramids and the process of mummification - everyone agrees it sounded very gruesome! In Science the children have been learning about electricity and have shown curiosity and teamwork in building circuits and working with conductors and insulators; they even made a human circuit using an energy stick!
Dates for Half Term
- Week beginning 3rd February Outnumbered Maths Week
- All Children in school will take part in a variety of maths challenges, puzzles and investigations. We welcome a company called Subject Revolution who will be doing some ‘maths style escape rooms’ with the school. We also look forward to parents joining us for our fun maths sessions (see additional letter which has gone home this week with timings for each year group.)
- Tuesday 18th February 9:00am Year 2 Great Fire of London Play for Parents This performance is for the children in Mr Matthew’s Class (two adults per child).
- Tuesday 18th February Year 1 Visit to Centre for Life
- Wednesday 19th February 9:00am Year 2 Great Fire of London Play for Parents This performance is for the children in Miss Horn/Miss Morgan’s Class (two adults per child).
- Wednesday 19th February Mid-Year Progress Reports sent home for all children
- Thursday 20th February Reception Alligator Ball Please bring in some party clothes in a named bag for our alligator ball in the afternoon!
Friday 21st February School Closed – Teacher Training Day
Week commencing 24th February - Half Term
School Re-opens Monday 3rd March