World Book Day 2024
We had a wonderful day in school celebrating World Book Day. The whole day was packed full with book related activities (and a little bit of PE and maths...!) and we all enjoyed sharing our favourite books and taking part in Reading Families. Below are some highlights of the day.
Walk and Wheel 2024
We are excited to be taking part in the 15th year celebration of Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel, the UK’s largest inter-school cycling, walking, wheeling and scooting challenge. The challenge runs from 11-22 March 2024. It’s free to take part and we would love as many of you as possible to be involved.
What do you need to do?
Encourage your child(ren) to walk, use a wheelchair, scoot or cycle to school on as many days as possible during the event. Each day, we count the number of sustainable journeys and we submit our data to Sustrans. Everyone can go online and see where we are compared to other schools in our region and Nationally.
Including everyone
We want to make sure that everyone can get involved in Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel.
We know it may be more difficult for some pupils to take part than others. You don’t need to commute on foot or wheels from home, you can park at the park and ride, or somewhere nearby, and just do the last part of your commute on foot or wheels! If you or your child have any mobility issues and you are unsure about how to take part, just get in touch.
Why we are taking part
Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel is a great way to build physical activity in children’s daily routine which is important for their physical health and mental wellbeing.
Active school runs also help to reduce congestion and air pollution outside the school gate. A 2021 YouGov study showed nearly half of UK children worry about air pollution near their school. And that children thought active travel was the best away to bring down these pollution levels.
We know that it is muddy and messy around school and that the cycling and walking infrastructure of the Great Park is not how we want it to be yet. We are taking care of our site but we can’t do anything about the areas around our site. Please still try to be involved if you can.
Useful resources
To help you prepare, Sustrans has developed a handy free guide to walking, cycling or scooting to school. It is packed with advice to help you have hassle-free journey to school.
Download your free family guide using this link:
For more information about the event go to www.bigwalkandwheel.org.uk . Enjoy the challenge!
Best wishes
Sally McMillan - PE Lead
Segedunum Trip Postponed
Y4 Classes were due to visit Segedunum on 21st March. Unfortunately, we have been informed by the museum that, due to metal theft from their roof, they will not be able to go ahead with school visits in March and the visit will therefore have to be postponed. We don't yet have a new date but will share it as soon as possible.
Easter Egg Competition 2024
Dear Children,
It’s a whole year since we made some egg puns and yokes, so here goes…
We are very egg-cited to announce that we are rehatching our egg decorating competition as it is now a well-established Broadway East/Havannah First tradition! You are all invited to decorate an egg (or more than one egg) at home. Be as simple, as flamboyant or as eggstraordinary as you like and make your design as eggspensive or as cheep as you like! You might have a good idea already or you might poach ideas from somewhere else! You can then bring your eggstra special creation into school from Monday 25th March for everyone to see. We ask that your grown ups make a donation of £1 to the PTFA on ParentMail when you have created your eggstra lovely egg. Your teachers will put your eggs in either Caterpillar Room (Reception), Maple Room (KS1) or Curlew Room (KS2).
Good luck everyone, I am eggstremely egg-cited to see your creations, don’t forget that you can share your creations on the school Tweeter @Havannah1st.
We will judge the eggs on the last day of term and give our lots of eggcellent eggy prizes!
You can collect your eggs on the last day of term (Thursday 28th March) to take home. Uncluckily, any eggs which are left will have to be thrown away because they will get very smelly in the holidays!
Get cracking!
PS - Don’t forget to ask a grown up to hard boil your eggs before you decorate them so that they don’t make a mess if you eggsidentally drop them!
PPS - How many egg jokes/puns did you spot?
GPA New Build
As you will be able to see, the work for Gosforth Park Academy is well underway! There is a lot of traffic coming off and on site and so far this had been very well managed by Galliford Try and their gate man, Johnny. The disruption and mess are unavoidable but as you might have noticed, there is currently a road cleaning vehicle on site and this is helping to manage the mud and mess! At drop off and pick up times the pedestrian crossing at the top of the site is fenced off but this is not the case at other times. With this in mind, those of you who are dropping off and picking up from Gosforth Out of School Club should take extra care when walking from the car park into school.
The messiest part of the build will soon be over (fingers crossed!) and the steel frame will be going up. We know that the children will love watching this development and seeing the new school grow over the weeks and months.
Y5 Places at Middle Schools
Parents and carers of children in Year 4 should have had an email from Newcastle City Council (Admissions) to inform them of their child's offer of a middle school place. If you haven't received this, please contact the Admissions team as soon as possible. Please feel welcome to ask us too, if you have any questions.
Book Fair
Don't forget that the Book Fair is taking place next week (starting on Tuesday). You will be able to come to the Book Fair before school from 8.30am and after school until 4.00pm. The Book Fair will be in the community room and you can come into the room directly from the door at the front of school.
Payments are made online and there will be a member of staff there to help you. All sales raise money for school so please enjoy some bookish retail therapy!
Northumbria Police - County Lines Information
County Lines is a form of criminal exploitation involving the transport and sale of drugs. It can involve moving drugs from one street to another or from one of the country to the other. Vulnerable children are targeted and groomed by criminal gangs to do this and it can involve children as young as 7.
Northumbria Police have asked us to share information with you. We have attached a flier to the email you have received for this newsletter. Please take time to read it and to report any concerns or information to the Police, as described in the information. Thank you.
Photo Gallery
Below are some pictures from the past couple of weeks in school. Everything from art lessons to visiting Bowmont House to the Ceilidh workshops to science investigations...
I hope everyone has a lovely weekend enjoying the slightly longer days and milder weather (fingers crossed!)
Best Wishes
Helen McKenna, Headteacher