A message from Miss Quarmby
What a fantastic start to the week we had on Monday! Our annual M&M pantomime, Snow White this year, was an absolute hit. The children were laughing, joining in, and dancing – it’s always such a special morning for everyone involved. A huge thank you to all of you for your generous donations at PTA-led events, which make wonderful experiences like this possible. As part of the show every year, I secretly select two teachers per key stage to take the stage – usually for a dance-off. This year’s lucky teachers were Miss Hickman and Miss Pease in KS1, and Mr Fayers and Miss Richardson in UKS2. Keep an eye out for pictures and videos – we’ll be sharing those soon.
A quick reminder that our Christmas Fair is happening next Wednesday. This year, all the funds raised will go toward our Cash for Kids fundraising initiative (we're currently in second place). Mr. Sadler shared more details about this last week, and will be sharing a further update below and on our Class Dojo school story. On the day of the fair, we’re inviting children to come to school wearing a Christmas jumper instead of their school jumper. Have a wonderful weekend – for me, it’s finally time for Christmas decorations!
Cash for Kids competition - December
Our fundraising amount is starting to rise, which is brilliant. We're currently in second place on the leaderboard, and we have several events planned over the next couple of weeks, including the Christmas Fair, which should see that total jump further (maybe we can even get into first place!)
A reminder about the Challenge 2025 set by the PTA, which is a fundraising initiative aimed at encouraging each student at our school to raise £20.25. We are hoping that as many people as possible with participate in this challenge, promoting a spirit of collaboration and creativity but also creating a sense of responsibility. It could be through selling old toys you no longer play with, doing jobs for friends and family, holding a bake sale, or any other creative idea you can come up with.
If you do participate, please send a photo in to school with details of what you did. As part of the Cash for Kids initiative, we can nominate children for the 'Fundraising Creativity Award', for which there are extra prizes!
Cash for Kids - Whitkirk homepage is the link to the website. Please keep sharing it far and wide if you know of anywhere that might be prepared to help and support us. You can see all of our events throughout December here:
Autumn 2 dates
- 12th December - EYFS Nativity @ 9:30am and 2:15pm (2 seats per child, parents to pick one performance only)
- 17th December - KS2 Church Service - 10am (please don't park in the Community Centre Car Park due to an event taking place in the Community Centre for people with mobility difficulties).
- 18th December - KS1 Nativity @ 9:30am (Parents of 2KD and 1LBR) and 2:00pm (Parents of 2CH and 1JL) - 2 seats available per child
PTA updates
Attendance
This week, finishing in first place with 98.28% are 1JL. In second place, are 3RD with 98.06% and in third place are 5/6AR, with 98%.
A shout out also goes to 1LR, who have also finished the week above our school target of 96.5%
The whole school attendance this week is 93.54%. Can we beat this next week? The only way to do that is if we all come to school as often as we can.
Let's take a look AT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON THIS WEEK
EYFS
This week in Reception, the children have blown Miss Emery and Miss Sanderson away with their mathematical understanding! The children have explored composing numbers 2,3,4 and 5 in different ways. Using the Numberblocks, the children found out that the amounts can look very different when the blocks are moved around. The children used positional language to describe the layout of each Numberblock, for example "on top of" and "next to" and then described their formation using the part whole rhyme, for example " part of me is 3, and part of me is 2, and the whole of me is 5". Well done reception, what a brilliant week of learning!
Key Stage 1
We've had another fabulous week in Year 1. In English, we were surprised to find a Christmas postbox in our class from the Jolly Postman! He had also delivered us a postcard telling us about his journey. We can't wait to write him a postcard back. In History, we loved exploring games from the past such as 'jacks' and 'pick-up sticks' and rating them on what we preferred to play.
Year 2 have had a brilliant week problem solving with 2D shapes and learning all about symmetry. We have published our fantastic narratives based on Jack and the Beanstalk in our English lessons. In History, we have learned all about Victorian jobs.
Lower Key Stage 2
Miss Cook and Miss Dougall's socks have well and truly been blown off this week, after reading Year 3's exceptional setting descriptions based on the White Witch's castle! In Maths, we have been multiplying and dividing by 4. In Science, we learnt that magnets 'attract' and 'repel' due to their north and south poles.
Year 4 have been working scientifically this week to investigate sound. We went outside and experimented how distance affects sound, using data loggers to measure the decibels. We have some super scientists in Year 4!
Upper Key Stage 2
Year 5 have had an incredible week this week! We started our new Fractions topic in Maths. We started our week playing 'Equivalent Fractions Connect Four' and have continued to develop our knowledge as we learnt about improper fractions. Miss Richardson and Miss Kaur have been amazed by Year 5's understanding of the Golden Rule in equivalent fractions! We had a lovely time with M&M productions earlier this week, watching the Snow White production and witnessing Miss Richardson's amazing dance moves!
Year 6 have had a fantastic week! We have really immersed ourselves in our fantastic fractions work in Maths and have been applying our knowledge to solve some very tricky problems! We have loved our open-ended keeping skills sharp activities when looking at multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000. We know how important it is to keep our skills sharp and continuing to improve our fluency. We are true Maths' whizzes in Year 6! In PSHE, we have been discussing refugees and why some people have to leave the country they live in. The children really impressed us with their empathy and understanding.