As another school year ends, I would like to thank every member of our school community for a wonderful year. Our children have a wonderful attitude to school and work with determination and I couldn’t be prouder of them. Their desire to learn new things and have fun is superb and every day I look forward to coming to work and seeing their smiling faces; they really are a credit to you all. I would also like to thank you all for your ongoing support. Our young people can only excel with the ongoing help and encouragement from home and school working together: all the staff are exceptionally grateful to you and we hope you have a wonderful summer break.
Today also marks a special point in some of our children’s lives as their journey at Regent Farm has come to an end. I would like to wish the children who are moving on to a new school next year all the very best for the future. Year 4, you are all absolute superstars and I wish you lots of success in Middle School. We will miss you and hope you all keep in touch.
As you know from our previous letter, we also bid farewell to some of our staff this week. Mrs Wardingham, Miss Shaw and Mrs Gegol will be missed at school next year and we wish them lots of luck as they start new chapters of their lives.
In this issue:
School Attendance
I want to make you all aware that the Department of Education have released a new statutory document for schools around attendance - this applies from 19th August 2024. We will be reviewing our attendance policy to ensure it complies with this document but want to give you advanced warning regarding term time holidays. All schools across the Trust will be considering a consistent approach to fining for unauthorised absence such as school holidays, and discussing this with Governors.
This is because both Newcastle City Council and the Department for Education are taking a tougher stance on attendance. It could be that Fixed Penalty Notices will be issued in the event of unauthorised absence in term time which is greater than 10 sessions (5 days). Fixed penalties for the first offence are £160 per child, per parent, reducing to £80 if paid within 21 days. If there is a second offensive within three years there is no reduction to this fine, and a third offence may result in prosecution.
Children are in school for about 190 days per year, this gives a huge amount of time to take holidays. Please consider very carefully booking any term time holidays moving forward as you are increasingly likely to be fined.
Summer Holiday Activities
The summer holiday can be a difficult time for families, both keeping children busy and with costs. Newcastle have organised lots of activities through the 'Newcastle's Best Holiday Ever' and details can be found at the website below.
Children and Families Newcastle have also organised a selection of activities and events from films, crafts, sports, music festivals and family cooking festivals. I have also attached a poster to this email with some events. Newcastle Libraries also have a jam-packed programme of events this summer; and don't forget children up to the age of 11 can travel for free on the metro and bus with a paying adult.
Summer Reading Challenge
This year's Summer Reading Challenge is Marvellous Makers! We'll be firing up our imaginations through all things creative. It is so important to keep children reading across the summer so we would encourage everyone to take part. The children have had an assembly all about the reading challenge with our local librarian so can tell you all about it!
To take part in the challenge you just need to join your local library (the nearest to here is the Gosforth Library), then collect stickers by taking part in creative challenges such as reading, crafting and workshops. Earn five stickers to get a certificate and seven stickers for a chance to win one of our amazing prizes, which include Lego, art sets and show tickets!
Summer Fayre
A huge thank you to all everyone who came to our summer fayre this month, and for the amazing cake donations, we are very grateful.
We raised nearly £3000 over the afternoon and have added this to our total from the last two fayres. This money is being used to purchase new enhancement resources for each classroom over the next year and for our new school library. We are working with a company to design this and hope it will be an amazing space for everyone to enjoy.
New Build Consultation Event
Thank you to those parents who attended the consultation event last week to meet with the builders and look through our proposed designs; your comments were very useful. We will be continuing work over the summer break and the full planning application should be submitted next week.
Many parents were asking about potential timescales. If the planning submission goes well, the team hope to begin the foundations work early in January. This will mean they will begin setting up the site and temporary paths/playground during November and December. I will update you with more information in the Autumn term.
If you did not see the plans we will display these in the entrance next year, and I have included a couple of images below.
Termly Curriculum Update
Early Years
Nursery have been focusing on all things mini-beasts. They have learnt all about how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly and decided what foods are healthy and unhealthy for us. They had our fabulous trip to Kirkley Hall where the children got to see various types of animals, including some mega-beasts. Some of the children were even brave enough to touch them! They then became Hero’s and helped to save Superworm. The children have consolidated all of their learning during the Mini Beast Bop, looking at all the insects and bugs they have read about over the last term.
This term in Reception, the children have looked at how they can keep their bodies healthy inside and out. The term began with a walk down the Funny Bones Street. They learnt all about how their body moves and even learnt a song! The children then focused on what they need to put into their bodies to keep them healthy and made some yummy, scrummy milkshakes. The highlight of the half term was a fantastic visit to Broxfield Farm. Farmer Thompson taught everyone all about life on the farm and they even had a fantastic tractor ride!
As the term comes to an end, we are preparing the children for their transition up to Year 1 by reflecting on our year in Reception, the skills we have learnt and the memories we have made.
Key Stage 1
Key Stage 1 have been thinking about what it means to be healthy inside and out and have been exploring this in different ways.
Year 1 have checked in on the vegetables they planted earlier this year, they may not be ready to eat yet but cooked with these ingredients making beetroot brownies and carrot and orange juice. They loved following the recipe and then wrote their own instructions so they could make the brownies again, maybe without the beetroot this time! In Science they have been looking at identifying different plants and trees, both in our school grounds with their parents and at the Winter Gardens in Sunderland. The continents song is a hot favourite in Year 1 at the moment and they have loved 'visiting' each continent and ocean looking at the animals that live there and the human and physical features which are iconic within each destination.
Year 2 have been thinking about keeping their bodies healthy, loving all of the activities in Sports Week and designing and making a healthy wrap, ensuring it has all the ingredients needed for a healthy balanced diet. They have watched the life cycle of the butterfly happen in their classrooms, watching as the caterpillars turn into chrysalis and finally a butterfly and using this as inspiration to create their own non-fiction book using book creator. They have also been thinking about the human life cycle, guess the baby was a crowd favourite. Some of the babies being easy to identify which child they had grown into but some of the others were a little trickier.
Key Stage 2
In Year 3, the children have been carrying out observational studies in Science. They've been investigating the effect, the quantity of seeds has on a plants growth. In Geography the children showed great team work to find out where the daisies grow best in our school grounds. They made observations, counted how many daisies were in the quadrant and then discussed the physical features and their findings with their friends. As part of the Spanish curriculum, the children have been learning about foods and flavours. They can express their opinions about particular foods and in class they created an ice cream which displayed their favourite ice cream flavours. The children thoroughly enjoyed the whole school Kenyan day and they particularly loved the dance workshop, it was great fun!
The Year 4 children have been busy practising their end of year play which they thoroughly enjoyed performing for the school this morning and are eager to perform for their parents shortly. In class they've been making memory bears as part of the DT curriculum. The children have been putting their sewing skills to the test to create their stuffed teddy bear which is wearing the school logo. We were all very impressed with their determination and resilience as this was a challenging task! The children will get to take these home as their time at Regent Farm comes to an end. Hopefully it will remind them of all of wonderful memories at Regent Farm over the years.
The children enjoyed their recent visit to SafetyWorks to take part in their summer safety campaign. They took part in a range real life scenarios which were designed to educate the Year 4 children on how to keep safe during the summer months. The sessions included a BBQ and fire safety session from the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, a sun, beach and water safety talk from the RNLI and a road safety session.
If you need any further information about the detail of this newsletter, please don't hesitate to contact the school office and have a wonderful summer!
School reopens for pupils on Tuesday 3rd September - Monday 2nd September is Teacher Training Day