What a wonderful first month to the new academic year it has been! The children have been so engaged in their learning and have really settled into their new classes. It is a joy to see their smiling faces and hear all their exciting news as I walk around school. Can I also take this opportunity to welcome again all the new families we have at school this year; your children have started school so well and are a credit to you. We pride ourselves on strong working relationships between home and school, so please talk to a member of staff if we can do anything to help.
In this Issue
Theme of the Year: Small Steps, Dream Big
This year our whole school theme will be 'Small Steps, Dream Big'. We will be encouraging the children to think about how small steps can make a big difference. We will be thinking about the small steps individuals take in their journey to achieve their ambitions and how we can apply these in our lives. We will also consider how our actions can achieve big things when we work together.
To introduce this theme all the children took part in a week of learning called 'Every Shoe Tells A Story'. A selection of mysterious shoes arrived in classrooms and the children thought about who they might have belonged to; what journey they'd been on and what that person had achieved in their lives. For example year 1 worked with a shoe that had been thrown away with the rubbish leading to a shark eating it - they had lots of discussion about saving our oceans. And year 3 learnt all about Adidas trainers and the sustainability project they have as a company to make trainers out of recycled rubbish.
We will be revisiting this theme throughout the year and look forward to seeing what small steps our children take to achieve their dreams.
Eat Smart
This term Regent Farm have been involved in a primary school food waste project, this educational programme helps children understand the importance of reducing food waste. It is also another example of how when we work together we can achieve big things
Step 1 involved an initial food waste audit conducted by a team of pupils called the Waste Warriors. These children included past and present members of the School Council. The children weighed all the food waste from the kitchen, dinner hall and classrooms - even the staffroom was added to the total!
The Waste Warriors presented the results to the whole school during an assembly. They found that the total amount of food wasted in a week was 185 kg, which is the equivalent in weight to about 7 year 3 children and 800 meals! We were shocked that the total value of this number of meals wasted in one week is £ 1,800 and the total value for one year is approximately £ 69,000. Some of this waste, such as peelings, is unavoidable but the Waste Warriors have been thinking about what they can do to reduce this figure and make compost from the rest.
We discovered that most of the food was being wasted in the dining hall and so came up with an Action Plan to help reduce the amount of waste going in the bin. This Action Plan included carrying out a salad bar and menu survey; a poster competition to encourage less waste; having leftover puddings for afternoon/story time snack and getting a Waste Warrior sticker if we were brave enough to try new foods!
The children will be carrying out a second audit to measure the effectiveness of our Action Plan and we will share these results with you.
Curriculum Information and Homework
We will continue to send out curriculum information every half term - in electronic and paper format. Each year group also has a section on the school website where you can find copies of the curriculum overview, spellings, KIRFs and optional homework booklets. The optional homework booklets will be shared each half term with some fun tasks linked to the topic. These are usually screen/device-free and we encourage you to talk to your child about this learning. This accelerates language development which in turn accelerates progress in reading, writing and has a positive impact right across the curriculum.
Parents often ask us how they can give children support with learning at home. The best thing you can do is talk to them about their day and share a love of books. By this, we mean read to your children, read with them, encourage them to read, listen to them read and let them read whatever they want to read (as well as the books from school). All reading is good reading!
This year we have also developed some further maths skills you can practise at home with your child, these are called KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts). It is really important your child is confident with these skills in all possible forms and contexts including problems.
Photographs In School Performances
For many years, we have allowed parents and carers to take pictures and make recordings during our performances. We know that these give you precious memories to treasure. We always remind audiences that these pictures and recordings must never be shared on social media and are for families own personal use. We would like to continue doing this as much as possible. But, if for safeguarding reasons you cannot allow this to happen, then please let us know in advance so that we can ask visitors to refrain from taking pictures or making recordings before the event.
Reception and Middle School Applications
Reception September 2025 - The application process has opened for children who wish to join our reception classes next year. Applications cannot be made directly to school, but must go to through Newcastle City Council using the weblink below. The deadline for application is 15th January 2025. We are offering tours of our reception during the day and open evenings. If you would like to book onto a session please contact the school office. Please be aware if your child currently attends our nursery you will need to apply for reception - you are not automatically given a space.
Middle School September 2025 - If your child is currently in year 4, you will need to apply for a middle school place for September: your child does not automatically get offered a space. The deadline for applications is 31st October 2024 and you will find out which school you have been offered on 3rd March. We advise parents to use all four preferences to ensure you are allocated a place in a local school.
Important Messages
- We have an increasing number of parents who are asking to collect their children early from school, often on a Friday afternoon. If your child has a medical appointment please ensure you show a copy of this to the office - a letter/email/text message is fine. There are very few other reasons why a child needs collecting early from school and should be here until 3:15pm.
- Please remember that all children should be in school by 8:45am - anyone arriving after this time will be marked as late. Learning starts at 8:45am, if your child arrives after this time they are missing out on experiences in the classroom. Please ensure you leave home early enough to get to school on time. We will contact parents who are regularly late to see what we can do to help ensure your child arrives on time.
- We will be holding our traditional ‘Fancy Dress Spooky Disco’ this year on Thursday 24th October. The children will go into the decorated hall in year groups for their disco. Children can come into school dressed up and we hope they have lots of fun. If you do not wish your child to attend the disco please let your class teacher know.
- Please remember that we are no longer giving out items for birthdays which are brought in from home such as sweets, cakes or party bags. This will not only make food in school healthier but will also help those children who have dietary needs and avoid adding unnecessary costs to families. Birthdays will be celebrated in school in other ways such as with a card or song.
Curriculum Update - Early Years
Nursery have had a wonderful first month of school, settling into life at Regent Farm. Our topic has been traditional tales - we have chased the Gingerbread Man; stopped the Big Bad Wolf eating Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood and even had a piggy party when the wolf was defeated by the house of bricks. We cannot wait to see what adventures will continue with Jack and The Beanstalk!
In Reception the superheroes arrived! Superheroes of all different kinds! After visits from real life heroes including nurses, fire officers, police, supermarket workers and even a dentist; Reception realised that superheroes were living amongst us - helping the people around them stay safe and well. They talked about ways they could help and what they would like to do for their job when they grew up. Lots of fun was had at superhero school after reading Eliot Jones Midnight Superhero. Reception spent time learning skills like “super strength”, “super speed” and “super flying” and were able to help out the callers who rang Superhero HQ in need of assistance. Finally, this half term they have been finding out about their own superpowers, learning that we all have them and that they are all different but equally special.
Curriculum Update - Key Stage 1
Year 1 have been thinking about the question, 'How can we make the world a better place for all?' Through their books of the week they have been exploring issues like plastic in the oceans and deforestation. They have begun to think about Reusing and Recycling, turning 'trash' into 'treasure'. They have loved the opportunity to show off their creativity through junk modelling and this has become inspiration for their writing. In Art they have been thinking about the artist Antony Gormley and the sculptures he creates, lots of the children recognised the Angel of the North but were amazed that he made one of his pieces entirely from bread!!
The children in Year 2 have had an excellent first half term. They've read some great stories about sea creatures and the children have created some lovely pieces of writing. In Science, they have been learning about animal needs for survival; looking at mammals, birds and fish. If you look around our school you might spot some of our bird feeders and animal feeding stations. In Geography, they've done some great map work and created their own maps of our school grounds with keys. In PE, they children created penguin dances after reading the story Penguin Small by Mick Inkpen; they thought about the characters emotions and sequenced some fantastic actions/moves which they've performed to music. This half term in Art, year 2 are using different grade pencils to draw and create patterns on different types of paper. They've looked at the artist Zachary Bennet Brook and created patterns using his style of lines and dots.
Curriculum Update-Key Stage 2
Year 3 have settled in well to Key Stage 2 and have made a great start to the term. The whole school topic of ‘Global Warriors’ has and will include a range of activities in Year 3. Global Warriors challenges our children to think about the environment and gain a greater understanding of the world we live in and the problems we are currently facing. The children have been particularly interested in the thought-provoking video ‘Catch a lot’ which has enabled them to understand the consequences to our actions and how this impacts on the wider world. The childre are exploring the enquiry question ‘Is it too late to save our oceans?’ Next week they will be having a visit from St Mary’s Lighthouse as unfortunately it is closed to visitors at the moment. There will also be a rock pooling workshop and children will learn about the effects micro plastics are having on sea creatures.
This month in Year 4 has been filled with engaging activities and learning experiences! The children been diving into research about leopards and tigers as they prepare to write letters persuading our parents to help us adopt an animal. Their maths lessons featured a fun and competitive Connect 4-style game that helped them practise rounding to the nearest 10, making learning both exciting and interactive. In science, they’ve explored the fascinating world of animal groups, focusing on vertebrates and invertebrates. The students have shown great enthusiasm in class discussions and activities. They are also thoroughly enjoying our guided reading book this term, Charlotte's Web, which has sparked wonderful conversations and reflections among the children. Additionally, they recently participated in Bikeability, where everyone learnt essential skills for safely riding their bikes. It’s been a busy month and a great start to Year 4!
Dates for Next Half Term
- Tuesday 1st October Y2 Trip to Northumberland Zoo
- Wednesday 2nd October Deadline for returning Christmas Card
- Wednesday 9th October Flu Immunisation
- Thursday 10th October Staff from St Mary’s Lighthouse visiting school to work with Year 3
- Tuesday 22nd October Year 1 Environment Day
- Wednesday 23rd October Harvest Collection for People’s Kitchen
- Thursday 24th October Fancy Dress Day and Spooky Disco
- Friday 25th October Training Day – School Closed to Pupils
October Half Term - Week beginning 28th October
School reopens Monday 4th November