Our School Vision
Introduction
Well what a term it has been! It has been very short, with ten weeks in total and within that time, many great things have happened, including our OFSTED visit! There is truly a lot to shout about at Holme and we are over the moon of all the positives OFSTED saw during their visit and wrote in our report. The main take home point is that we continue to be a GOOD school! There has been a lot of hard work and dedication from all stakeholders, but most importantly the staff team and the children themselves. I couldn't ask for a better team and children to work with on a daily basis and I am sure you will join me in thanking each and every one of them for their hard work and dedication in ensuring Holme School is the place to be and all children leave as well rounded citizens. For those who are interested and who have not seen the report, it is now available for the general public and can be read here.
We now enter a new phase of our improvement journey and will continue to work hard in ensuring our curriculum is broad, balanced and robust in ensuring that every child receives key knowledge in a timely manner along their Holme journey. We are also in a privileged position in being able to support our local partner school, Hinchliffe Mill. We're looking forward to a closer collaboration and way of working to ensure the children receive even more experiences with our neighbours down the road.
Grab a cuppa, see what we have been up to during the Spring Term and what we have to look forward to over the next half term.
Thank you all for your ongoing support.
Please remember if you're not following our Facebook page, like and share for regular updates!
Staffing Update
I am delighted to announce that Miss Wood is now our substantive Assistant Headteacher and is no longer temporarily covering this role. She has made an outstanding contribution to Holme School during her time with us and it's testament to what she has done for all the children that she continues in this role on a permanent basis.
I am also thrilled to announce that Mrs Broughton will now be joining us on a permanent basis. When she joined the school in September, this was on a temporary fixed term contract. During the short time she has been with us, she has reinvigorated our Maths curriculum and also added a sparkle to teaching the Year 3/4 children and also all of Class 2 during an afternoon. We are over the moon to have her onboard in the Holme Team for much longer!
Family Learning
Thank you to those parents who made it to our Maths Family Learning session. I know the children valued their parents alongside supporting with their learning and feedback from parents valued the opportunity to have an insight into their child's school life and also understand how they can support better at home. We will of course take this onboard for the future and look forward to welcoming our allocated parents to our Forest School/Science session on Thursday 18th April at 2:00 - 3:10pm.
Parents' Evening
This is a gentle reminder that parents' evening will be on Monday 15th April. If you have not made an appointment yet, please do speak to your child's class teacher or Miss Talbot in the office, who will be more than happy to book you a slot. We hope parents and carers find our parents' evenings informative and useful.
Comic Relief
Children enjoyed taking part in raising some money for comic relief by wearing something silly, red or their Pyjamas. The teachers and staff also joined in. We will update you with the total money raised via Weduc soon.
Snow Fun!
Just because when it snows we can't resist having some fun!
Bookworms
We love to read at Holme and this term has been no exception. As well as World Book Day, we invited parents to come into school as a 'Mystery Reader' to read to the children and also had some buddies with the older children and younger children reading together. We also took part in some virtual reading workshops. We foster a love of reading here at Holme and it certainly shines through!
World Book Day
The children and staff really enjoyed World Book Day 2024. We saw some great costume characters and the children really enjoyed their book themed day. During the day the children worked their way around the classrooms in teams to complete fun activities themed around the teachers costumes. We had an exercise class with Mrs Trunchbull, making a get well soon card for Grandma with Red Riding Hood and making some delayed action mouse formula biscuits (from the Witches).
Young Voices 2024!
Wow, what a stunning evening it was at Sheffield Arena! We sang our hearts out, danced the night away and had a fantastic time! A big shout out and thank you to Mrs King for rehearsing with us during a lunchtime and supporting in giving this wonderful experience. It was touch and go with the weather, but we happened to make a different evening so could join in the fun!
Science Week
To mark British Science Week, which we themed around 'space', all pupils were given an 'Astronaut Pass' with a list of missions to complete within and outside of school, including creating space themed animations, mobiles, music, moon buggies and chocolate bars. We couldn't believe how engaged and involved the children were. They exuded lots of the qualities that the National Space Centre consider astronauts should have: creativity, diligence, tenacity, to name a few. Here are some pictures of some of the children's excellent work. Thanks to parents for being so involved too!
The Great Holme School Bake Off!
Our children were tasked with baking skills for our DT work, showcasing crumbles, biscuits and lattice creations. All the children showed our Shine Bright Values to be creative, aspirational, adventurous, resilient, respectful and independent. A big thank you to our VIP judges from the Fleece Inn & BLOC Holmfirth. We had a wonderful time and three star bakers! (Even though everybody was a star in our eyes!)
Prospective Parents
If you know of any parents who are looking for a school place, please do send them our way and we can showcase what our wonderful school has to offer! We currently have availability in Years 1, 3 and 6.
Friends of Holme School
Bongo Bingo
Friends of Holme School had another hugely successful bongo bingo night in February raising in excess of £1600 for Holme School. The FOHS team worked extremely hard to make the event successful and we thank each of those involved for helping to raise funds for our school. The event was fun and bought much laughter to many and enable our school to fund school projects and equipment. Thank you also to those who donated prizes to the night to make it even more special.
Holme School Parents' Parking Promise
Congestion on the roads around school at drop off and pick up poses a risk to children and their families, as they travel to and from school.
It’s a parent’s responsibility to see their children safely to and from school but, in doing so, they should not create dangers to others. Walking, scooting, or cycling to school has endless benefits for you and you child/ren and is without doubt the best way to travel to and from school.
However, we recognise that there are circumstances when travelling to school via car is the only option. If this is the case, then we would ask you to please park with care and consideration.
We are asking parents and carers to complete and sign the parking promise, agreeing that, as a caring and responsible driver they:
- Will NOT park or stop on the ‘SCHOOL KEEP CLEAR’ markings during school hours
- Will NOT park on double yellow lines in and around the school and village with the exception of a displayed valid Blue Badge
- Will NOT park on single yellow lines during the hours stated in and around the school and the village with the exception of a displayed valid Blue Badge
- Will NOT block the school entrances
- Will NOT park on pavements in the village, making it difficult for prams and wheelchairs to get by
- Will NOT park on the school side of the road creating a bottleneck and hazards for children crossing
- Will make sure children get out of the car safely
- Will park some distance away from the school, walking a short journey, even in bad weather conditions. (We have made arrangements with The Fleece to utilise their carpark and walk the short distance to school or advise parking on the cobbles at the bottom of Meal Hill Road.)
- Will turn my engine off while waiting outside school, to avoid unnecessary air pollution
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED AND VALUED SUPPORT
We also had a visit from the Road Safety Team at Kirklees who worked with Class 1 to learn all about the dangers of the road and what to do. Class 2 will be looking forward to theirs on 15th and 16th April.
School Council
The School Council organised a fantastic Movie Night with hot dogs, popcorn and drinks. They decided to watch Despicable Me 3. From the pictures, I am sure you will agree that they had a wonderful time. Now that we are moving into our new budget year, we will be looking at our Forest School area over the coming term, as well as organising our Talent Show. Stay tuned for further information to come in subsequent newsletters.
Fair Trade Conference at The Tolson Museum
Our School Councillors were invited to attend a Fairtrade conference workshop at the Tolson Museum. Nine schools across Kirklees and Calderdale enjoyed workshops from the wonderful Rose Condo, Suma Wholefoods, Fair & Funky and Coer de Xocolat. There they did some poetry, created a vase and sampled some of the delicious chocolate but most importantly they learned about the importance of Fairtrade. MP Jason McCartney also joined in on the day.
School Website
As the year progresses, we will be updating our school website. This is the first port of call if you need any information about school. Some parents and carers have asked questions about where they can find information. I thought it would be useful to signpost the most common pages that might be helpful (and to possibly bookmark for the future):
- Calendar - Our calendar is regularly updated. It can be found here.
- Class Curriculum Information - Teachers update their Class pages at least once a term with important updates as to what children are learning and ways in which parents and carers can support at home. These should be updated by the 19th January for this term. You can access the Class 1 and Class 2 pages.
- Curriculum Information - We are currently in the process of updating our school curriculum. You can find more information here. Please use the links at the side or the 'Curriculum' drop down menu to see specific pages.
- Policies - We are currently in the process of updating our school policies. If you see a little red page with the Adobe symbol in it, this means the policy has recently been updated. You can find our policies page here. These will continue to be updated.
- E-Safety - We have created a dedicated page with information for parents and carers. It can be found here. We have also produced a page with questions and answers that parents and carers may find useful. This can be found here.
- Parent Information - Miss Talbot and Miss Devlin are currently updating our parent information pages. Please keep an eye here as updates continue. Please use the links at the side of the 'Parent Information' drop down menu to see specific pages.
Shine Bright Values
Our shine bright values encompass what we believe our children should foster during their time with us to become well-rounded citizens in our community and the wider world. We cultivate our children to be independent, resilient, respectful, creative, adventurous and aspirational for their future. These will be featuring more regularly within school through our positive behaviour policy, being rewarded as part of Class Dojo and having a 'Shine Bright Values' award of the week. This will be one child in the entire school each week who has been recommended by all the staff in school, achieving one of our Shine Bright Values really well. We would like to encourage parents and our local community to support us with these values outside of school to ensure that the children understand the language and are able to show these life skills in order to thrive, not just now, but in the future. Here are our January, February and March award winners. Great work! We can't wait to see more children actively showing our Shine Bright Values.
Positive Behaviour Policy
We have updated our Positive Behaviour Policy to include our Shine Bright Values. We wanted to make parents and carers aware of what positive behaviours we would like to see on your child's journey throughout Holme School and also the awards and consequences children will receive dependent on the behaviours they display in-line with our code. We will be celebrating our Shine Bright Values daily in class and allow children to understand what these mean to them and also how they support in their whole Holme School journey to leave as well rounded citizens.
Celebration Assembly
It's been great to see our children continue to be awarded for Honour of Holme, Shine Bright Value award, Remarkable Writer, Regal Reader and Maths Mogul. We've also added an all new Lunchtime Award and Super Speller! Our lunchtime award winner is chosen weekly by Mrs Crowther. This lucky person will be able to have their trophy and Munch eating with them for the week. She's keeping a close eye for those with good manners, eat their yummy lunch and are respectful at all times during their time in the dining hall. As spelling is a school focus, we have also introduced our Super Speller, where one child throughout school is chosen each week. Here are some of our award winners for January, February and March.
Please remember to keep those pictures of what your child is up to outside of school coming in for our Shine Bright Board. It doesn't have to be a sport, it can be anything they're proud of achieving. We do ask that you send these to shinebright@holmejischool.co.uk. If pictures are sent to Mr Bond or the Office e-mail, there is no guarantee they will make it to the board. When we receive them, they will be printed and placed onto our board, being celebrated in the next Celebration Assembly. Please note, any that are received after a Thursday lunchtime will be celebrated the following week.
FOHS (Friends of Holme School) usually supply refreshments each week and we kindly ask that you make a donation as all funds go back to the children. This will start again when the colder months approach. All of our community are welcome to attend the assemblies outlined on the Key Dates section at the end of each newsletter.
Attendance Matters
At Holme Junior & Infant 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 young person with attendance under 95% is at risk of achieving a grade lower in every subject by the time they leave school. We expect all children to attend school regularly.
We do understand that children become ill and there are guidelines around how long a child should be absent for. We do take these guidelines onboard. We do ask that parents consider the period of absence beyond the guidelines as this may have a negative impact on the child missing further learning.
We take attendance seriously at Holme and follow our school procedure in-line with our policy that has been ratified by the governing body and also follows national guidelines. You can take a look at our policy here for further information and clarification. If you are ever unsure, please contact the school office in the first instance who will happily support and advise.
January Attendance Figures
Whole School Attendance: 93.8%
- Class 1: 93.1%
- Class 2: 94.5%
February Attendance Figures
Whole School Attendance: 97%
- Class 1: 97.7%
- Class 2: 96.2%
March Attendance Figures
Whole School Attendance: 99.1%
- Class 1: 99.1%
- Class 2: 99.1%
Our target as a whole school is 97% and we were unfortunately short of the mark in January, but matched and did better in the subsequent months. We hope to see the good numbers of attendees continue during the Summer Term!
Miss Talbot's Reminders
- Just a gentle reminder that reception children receive free milk until they turn 5. If you would like your child to continue to have milk then this is payable through cool milk www.coolmilk.com
- We remind parents and carers that the schools office telephone is only manned until 3.30pm, therefore any messages that are left may not be picked up until the following day.
- Please can we ask that the office is given as much notice as possible for any medical appointments during school hours. Where possible we ask that routine medical appointments are made outside of school hours.
- Finally, thank you all for your continued support.
As you will have noticed the celebration of our school through Facebook shows just how committed we are at Holme to show the rounded education our children experience. Teachers will be updating our community at least once per week as to what is going on in their class and we will celebrate achievements from our week celebration assembly. I will also be updating Facebook with any further posts that I feel will support our school community. Give us a follow and a like and share with your friends far and wide!
Outdoor Learning
Forest School will recommence during the Summer Term as the weather is now becoming more clement. As we will be continuing to develop our area, the staff will continue to utilise other areas of the school grounds until it is ready and safe. Please can we ask that children come with appropriate outdoor clothing and footwear. There won't be any sessions during week beginning 8th April. Miss Talbot will send out the dates in due course via Weduc.
Parental Engagement
We have had our open book evening in March and thank parents for coming in to look at their child's work books to see what they have been doing. The next one will be on Monday 20th May, revised from Wednesday 22nd May due to staffing onsite.
Cost of Living Crisis
As we are living through these very difficult times with the cost of everything rising at an alarming rate, if you need any support either financially or practically, please do speak to a member of staff, as there are many agencies and charities that have a range of offers to support families through these times and we can confidently signpost you to the most appropriate.
Wellbeing
We have developed some comprehensive parental advice around wellbeing, which can be found on our school website. If you have any concerns around your or your child's wellbeing, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Bond or Miss Wood at this time.
Dates for the Diary
As always, if you wish to speak to us about your child, please do not hesitate to talk to Miss Wood in Class 1 and Mrs Guest or Mrs Broughton in Class 2 in the first instance. We will endeavour to help in any way we can.
Safeguarding
Holme Junior & Infant School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff, volunteers and parents to share this commitment.
We have safeguarding policies and procedures in place that contribute to our safeguarding commitment, including our child protection and safeguarding policy which can be viewed in the policies section of our school website. Our safeguarding policies and procedures seek to ensure that every child, regardless of their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation, has a right to equal protection from harm.
Sometimes we may need to share information and work in partnership with other agencies when there are concerns about a child’s welfare. We will ensure that our concerns about a pupil are discussed with the child’s parents/carers first, unless we have reason to believe that such a move would be contrary to the child’s welfare.
We actively support the Government’s Prevent Agenda: to challenge ideology that supports terrorism and those who promote it, protect vulnerable individuals from being drawn into terrorism, and raise awareness of radicalisation risk.
Further information around safeguarding can be found on our website, which has recently been updated. We ask that parents explore these pages if they are unsure of any procedures.
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is Mr D Bond (Headteacher).
Our Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL) is Miss B Wood (Assistant Headteacher).
Our Safeguarding Governor is Mrs M Thomas.
If you have any safeguarding concerns at all, please do not hesitate to get in touch with either Mr Bond or Miss Wood.
Our school website also has further information around safeguarding and e-safety, which will be updated at regular intervals.