One of the busiest weeks of the year at Birkwood and indeed every Primary School in England. A huge well done to our Year Six children for all of their hard work and effort that has gone into test week. They were absolutely fantastic, and I could not be more delighted with the effort, aptitude and pride that the children took in their work. We are so proud of them! I have to say an enormous thank you to the staff for preparing them and we all remember that as long as they have tried their best, we shall be delighted with whatever the outcomes may be. The children certainly achieved this, so really, really well done!
I know that lots of our Year 6 children will be looking forward to a very exciting London trip. Many of the opportunities that we provide at Birkwood are truly fabulous and there is a clear message here that hard work can unlock exciting experiences that will be remembered for life! Moreover, the children richly deserve these experiences, and it is a pleasure to serve them.
With great interest, I saw in the news lots and lots of information, speculation and reporting regarding Sex Education. Whenever this area is discussed especially when working with young people, it stirs lots of opinion. This is completely understandable. Because of the headlines, I wish to clarify our position at Birkwood.
First of all, in order to help with the above we are hosting a very important Sex and Relationships Education meeting on Tuesday 4th June at 2pm in the School Hall. Miss Keen and Mrs. Wilkie will be sharing our curriculum with you.
I have taken the below from the Government website - Gov.uk
What is RSHE?
Since September 2020, Relationships Education has been compulsory for all pupils receiving primary education and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) for all pupils receiving secondary education. Health Education is now compulsory in all schools too.
From the BBC (BBC.co.uk) I would like to share
- Throughout primary school, children are taught about healthy, respectful relationships, focusing on family and friendships - including online and social media.
- Children also learn about physical health, parts of the body, boundaries and puberty.
- The government strongly encourages schools to include teaching about different types of family and same-sex relationships.
The key message around relationships education at Birkwood is ‘safety.’ This safety includes working with children to make them aware of safe and responsible adults, to make them aware of what healthy relationships look like and being able to stay safe by knowing and understanding what safe behaviour from all of us is. The use of accurate scientific and medical terms to describe body parts is of course part of the National Curriculum and is entirely appropriate so that children are able to describe any potential health problems in an accurate and appropriate way with medical professionals and main carer.
We have previously consulted with parents twice around Sex and Relationships Education and have shared all of the materials that teachers shall use. And as I said earlier, there is another opportunity to meet in school (should you not be available materials from the meeting will of course be available) to see exactly what our children will learn. I stress again the absolute key to all of this is keeping our children safe. Please do not hesitate to contact school if you have any queries around our personal development and PSHCE curriculum
Remaining with safety, our eSafety Page contains a very useful booklet for young people which helps all of us to stay safe online. This was produced by Barnsley Council and is an excellent resource in assisting with appropriate online behaviour. The below E-Safety button will take you directly to the booklet.
More safety news - this time regarding some of our elderly neighbours. I respectfully ask everybody to attempt to park away from the Westhaven bungalows next to school. With communities such as this, emergency access is often crucial. Double parked cars may occasionally obstruct this, so please be mindful about our neighbours and I politely ask you to park a reasonable distance away from school at pick up and drop off times. A member of our community gave me a call to ask me to share this with you. I'm sure you will understand this request.
Many thanks to everybody who contributed to our successful Tesco community campaign. We are delighted that we have managed to achieve 2nd place and with this a £1000 grant to assist with our breakfast club provision. Fantastic news again, so many, many thanks.
Don't forget that, if your child would like to attend an after school club, Parentpay is open until Sunday 19th. If your child has received a place on any of the clubs, confirmation slips will be sent out w/c Monday 20th May.
I want to give a big shout out to our Year 5 - 6 Girl's football team, who played valiantly in two matches this week.
On Monday the girls played a good, competitive game away at Chuchfield which resulted in Birkwood 0-3 Churchfield. Well battled girls.
On Thursday the girls lost 2-0 away to Cherrydale, who were tough opponents. The girls worked brilliantly as a team, which was commented on by the opposition's coach. Well done to our goal keeper who was in fabulous form and tried her very hardest,
Good luck to our KS1 rounders team who have been invited to play in a competition at Ladywood. I am sure they will do us proud.
Next week is our annual Spring Disco. Tickets are available until 3.15pm on Monday 20th April. Please put the £3 in an envelope, with your child's name on the front and hand to their class teacher.
On the run up to the Spring term there are several community events which may be of interest to you. Please see the below promotional literature for further information.
I look forward to an extremely busy week to end the half term (where did the time go?) and wish everybody a lovely weekend where hopefully we shall see some pleasant weather.
- Headteachers Superstar EYFS/KS1 - NN Y1 Nightingale
- Headteachers Superstar KS2 - JL Y4 Pankhurst
- Class Times Table Rockstars - Y5 Attenborough
- Music Maestro - AS Y4 Pankhurst
House Winners
- This weeks winners - Air
- Current Half Term Leaders - Earth
- Overall Leaders - Earth
- School Attendance Target for the Year - 96.50%
- School attendance this year so far - 94.9%
- School attendance this week - 96.3%
- EYFS2 Anning - 92.2%
- EYFS2 Sharman - 91.9%
- Year 1 Einstein -96.5%
- Year 1 Nightingale -92.8%
- Year 2 Parks - 95.5%
- Year 2 Seacole - 98.1%
- Year 3 Earhart - 95.6%
- Year 3/4 Holmes - 100%
- Year 4 Pankhurst - 96.4%
- Year 5 Attenborough - 94.2%
- Year 5/6 Wollstonecraft - 95.7%
- Year 6 Kings - 98.7%
Well done to Class Holmes who are this week's joint winners with an amazing 100% attendance. Congratulations.
Our suite of X (formerly Twitter) Handles is here for you. Below is a link for 'all things Birkwood.'
PE & Sport
Please ensure children in KS2, Years 3-6 come to school IN PE KIT on their allocated PE Days. Appropriate trainers must be worn. No crop tops – Sports t-shirts please and shorts. A tracksuit may be worn – please make a judgment on temperature. This will be until building work is complete as we have no access to discrete changing areas.
This Year's Term Dates
Next Year's Term Dates Below
Wednesday 4th September 2024 – Children return to school
Friday 25th October 2024 – School closes for Half Term
Monday 4th November 2024 – Children return to school
Friday 20th December 2024 – School Closes for Christmas Break
Monday 6th January 2025 - Children return to school
Friday 14th February 2025 - School Closes for Half Term
Monday 24th February 2025 - Children return to school
Friday 4th April 2025 – School Closes for Easter Break
Tuesday 22nd April 2025 - Children return to school
Monday 5th May 2025 – School Closed May Day Bank Holiday
Friday 23 May 2025 – School Closes for Half Term
Monday 2 June 2025 – INSET Day
Tuesday 3 June 2025 – Children return to school
Friday 18 July 2025 - School Closes for Summer
For current Year 6 children, their tests shall be Monday 13th May to Thursday 16th May 2024.
For current Year 5 children, their tests will be Monday 12th to Thursday 15th May 2025.
For current Year 4 children, their tests will be Monday 11th to Thursday 14th May 2026.