A Message From Miss Quarmby
Happy Easter! I can’t quite believe that another half term is already complete – it doesn’t feel like two minutes since February half term! Thank you so much to everyone who created an Easter bonnet or decorated an egg; we really do have such creative pupils across school. We’ve also had lots of fantastic entries for our Science and Art competition – thank you to everyone who took part. Our house winners this half term were Turtles once again! We’ll have to see who can knock them off the top spot next half term as we head towards May half term. A reminder to please take a few minutes to complete our parent survey if you haven’t already. Your feedback is incredibly valuable to us and really does help shape our work in school – thank you for taking the time to do so. I hope everyone has a super Easter break. We look forward to welcoming the children back to school on Monday 20th April. Take care and enjoy a well‑earned rest!
Attendance
This week, finishing in first place with 99.17% are RJS. In second place are 6NT, with 98.86% and in third place are 2CH with 97.22%. A shout out also goes to 3RD who have also finished the week above our school target of 96.5%. The whole school attendance this week is 94.46%. 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
We’ve had a wonderfully egg-citing week in Pre-school! First we read a story about how some families celebrate Easter and the children enjoyed buttering and tasting delicious hot cross buns. Our little chefs also made crispy chocolate nests for our bake sale and practised our counting skills by carefully adding two eggs to each nest. On Welly Wednesday we searched high and low to find lots of hidden Easter eggs, using mathematical language (such as on top, under and next to) to describe where the eggs were hiding! What a lovely week of learning and celebrating together!
This half term in Reception, Tim the Travelling Turtle travelled to Ghana! Throughout the term, the children have been exploring Ghanaian culture. They have learned about Kente cloth, created their own colourful patterns, and developed a deeper understanding of this vibrant country. This week, the children had the exciting opportunity to taste a traditional Ghanaian dish—jollof rice! A big thank you to Mrs Downes’ family for preparing such a delicious feast for Reception. It was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. The children have loved following Tim’s travels throughout the year so far—from Leeds, to China for Lunar New Year, to India for Diwali, and now Ghana. We can’t wait to see where he travels next!
LOWER SCHOOL
In Year 1 this week, we have finished our unit on How to Catch a Star, and the children have produced some wonderful instructional writing. We have also completed our art unit by creating a fantastic giant group piece inspired by Wassily Kandinsky. Have a wonderful Easter break, everyone!
This week, Year 2 have been developing their knowledge of quarters, halves, and thirds. In RE, we have compared Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Islam. Year 2 have worked incredibly hard all term because of their hard work, they ended the week with a well‑deserved Easter egg hunt.
What a wonderful final week of term we have had in Year 3! In English, we have been writing poetry inspired by How to Train Your Dragon, and in Maths we have been measuring capacity and volume. In the wider curriculum, we have been consolidating our understanding of each topic and in Art we finished our final sketches of Temple Newsam House.
UPPER school
This week, Year 4 have published their letters to Mr and Mrs Arable (characters from our class text - Charlotte's Web). The standard of writing has absolutely blown us away! The children enjoyed celebrating each others' writing by giving complements as well as ideas to further improve it. A super half term Year 4!
In History this week, the children began debating whether it was appropriate for children to work in factories during the Industrial Revolution or whether their education should have taken priority. It was wonderful to see them using emotive language and factual evidence to present strong arguments on both sides. Well done, Year 5!
This week in Year 6, we have been focussing on Art, using the works of Alberto Giacometti and Kira Freije as inspiration to create our own sculptures of people. The children have worked so carefully, building up from sketches, to using foil to create models to then crafting with wire. Well done Year 6: we're so proud of your creations!