A Message From Miss Quarmby
Hello! We’ve been jumping for joy this week at Whitkirk and couldn’t be prouder of our children. A huge well done to our Year 1 pupils who have completed their phonics screening check with such positivity and determination – they have worked incredibly hard all year and it has truly shown. Well done also to our Year 4 children, who have approached the multiplication check with such focus and resilience. We have been so impressed with their attitude and effort throughout the week. These moments are always a reminder of just how far our children have come. Thank you, as always, for your continued support at home – it really does make such a difference. We sent a reminder about Sports Day earlier – please note that it is definitely Wednesday 24th June not Tuesday. Have a lovely weekend!
KEY DATES FOR SUMMER 2
- Whole class photos - 15th June
- Year 2 trip to Yorkshire Wildlife Park - 23rd June
- Sports Day - 24th June
- Year 6 St Mary's Church experience - 25th June
- PTA Colour Run & Non-Uniform Day– 26th June: Children may wear non-uniform ready for the Colour Run after school and are asked to bring a tombola prize donation (e.g. sweets, chocolates or small toys; no nuts please) to support the Summer Fair.
- Summer Fair - 2nd July
- Training Day - 3rd July
- Year 3 Egyptians trip to Leeds City Museum - 9th July
- House Film afternoon - 15th July
- Diamond & Platinum Awards - 16th July
- Break up for Summer Holidays - 17th July
Attendance
This week, finishing in first place with 97.13% are 2CH. In second place are 1RS, with 97.11% and in third place are 6NT with 96.95%. A shout out also goes to 1VM who have also finished the week above our school target of 96.5%. The whole school attendance this week is 96.02%. 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.
Junior parkrun
We are so proud of Joseph! Since we launched our Junior parkrun partnership with school, he has run a full marathon distance. What an incredible achievement! Well done, Joseph! It was fantastic to see so many Whitkirk children enjoying parkrun on Sunday, challenging themselves, and cheering each other on. We look forward to seeing even more children join us at future Junior parkruns!
let's take a look at what each year group has been up to this week!
EYFS
This week in Maths, Pre-school have explored shape, space and measure, focusing on position. We have investigated small world scenes from different points of view, describing what we can and cannot see when we change position. The children particularly enjoyed peeking through or around things in order to be seen! We have also explored following simple routes by creating paths with our train tracks and have even practised drawing our own curvy paths onto maps at our mark making table. Well done Pre-school, you are all Maths superstars!
This week in Reception, the children continued exploring our Big Idea, “Where can we travel?” by creating their very own journey sticks during our Muddy Monday adventures. As they explored the Forest School site the children collected natural treasures such as leaves, bark, flowers and grass to help them remember different parts of their journey and attached them to their sticks. We talked about what we could see, hear and feel in the environment, noticing the signs of summer around us. The children enjoyed discussing the colours, textures and shapes of the objects they found and were able to explain where they had discovered them. Well done Reception, you were all fantastic explorers!
LOWER SCHOOL
The children have blown us away this week! They have shown amazing confidence and enthusiasm during their phonics screening check, with each and every child making us so proud with their effort and determination. We have also been so impressed with their wonderful writing, using nouns, adjectives and conjunctions to create exciting pieces of work. To top it all off, they have been getting creative in art, recreating Castle and Sun with fantastic imagination and care. We are so incredibly proud of you Year 1!
This week in Year 2, we had a visit from Miss Kaur who answered all of our questions about Sikhism. In PE, we have been practicing bunny hops and roll backs and in maths have worked hard to solve problems related to time. Well done Year 2!
We have enjoyed our week in Year 3 - In Science, we have been learning about the process of animal pollination and how this affects the life cycle of a plant. We used role play to act out what happens! In PE, we have been busy practising for sports day in our athletics unit!
UPPER school
As scientists, Year 4 took their learning beyond the classroom and carried out a litter survey across our school grounds. Working in small groups, we carefully observed different areas of the site, recording and categorising the types of litter we found. This hands-on investigation helped us to develop our scientific skills, including data collection, observation, and analysis, while also encouraging us to think critically about real-world environmental issues.
This half term in Art, Year 5 have started exploring mosaics. In this week’s lesson, they learned what mosaics are, discovered the origins of this art form, and began researching famous examples. We were very impressed with their knowledge and understanding!
Year 6 have had another busy week, including their auditions for the end of year show! We have been blown away by their commitment, enthusiasm and talent and can't wait to get started with rehearsals! In Maths, we have continued our focus on real-life applications of maths, but also found time for some fun (and competitive) games to really show off our strategies!