WEEKLY NEWSLETTER west meadows - 4th October 2024

Welcome to West Meadows Weekly!

This week I had the pleasure of watching the children in maths lessons. I saw some fantastic hard work and concentration from children and loved their enthusiasm in tackling some tricky bronze, silver and gold challenges! Our children in Years 1 and 2 are working hard to learn their number facts within 20 and you can help them at home with this by exploring how to make 10 in different ways. Our children in Years 3 to 6 need to keep practicing their TTRockstars at home as often as they can - let’s see how many coins and rewards they can earn!

Harvest Festival:

A reminder that our harvest festival is on Thursday 17th October. Due to restrictions in the number of people we can have in the hall at any time, we are going to do two showings, one at 9:15am and one at 2:45pm. Tickets are free but need to be booked on Arbor to ensure that we do not go over capacity in the hall. There are two places per child available (two for one session or one for each session).

Harvest Donations:

As part of our Harvest Festival celebrations we would like to invite families to make donations of any food items (tins, packets, jars, pasta, flour, sugar etc) towards the Salvation Army in Hoyland. These can be brought in on the day of the festival or before if you would prefer. Donations can be taken into class beforehand or on the day we will leave tables/boxes in the school reception. Many thanks for your support with this.

Halloween Craft Session:

We would like to invite our Foundation 2 (Reception) parents and F1 30 hours parents into school on Tuesday 22nd October at 2:00pm to join in some Halloween crafts with our Parent Support Advisor, Mrs Maree, and their children. We look forward to seeing you there to make some ‘spook-tacular’ creations!

Say Cheese:

On Monday 21st October, Tempest Photographers will be in school to take photographs of children. They will take both individual and sibling photos within school time. However, if you would like a photo taking with siblings who do not attend our school, you can arrive in school from 8.30. Please come into school via the main entrance.

Christmas Pantomime:

Following feedback from parents last year, we have decided that this year we will not be doing a whole school trip to the Pantomime. We have done the annual pantomime trip for a number of years but we are conscience of the rising cost of this to families each year and that a number of our children go to the pantomime at Birdwell with family. This decision, while not an easy one, has been taken so that we can offer a different trip / visit to each class this year linked to their curriculum learning instead. Instead of the pantomime, each class will have a Christmas craft or movie afternoon with treats instead as well as their normal Christmas party day.

World Mental Health Day:

On Thursday 10th October, next week, we will be showing our support for World Mental Health Day and are asking children to WEAR SOMETHING YELLOW to school that day. Children may come in non school uniform with something yellow (a t.shirt, jumper, headband, socks).

Attendance Matters:

Every Friday we will celebrate our children’s achievements, both in school and at home, including their attendance in school. Good attendance is vital for your child’s education and means they can make the most of all aspects of school life. We really need your support this year to raise our attendance. If you need any help or support please come and see Mrs Maree. You can see your own child’s attendance for the year and the last 4 weeks on the Arbor App. An attendance of 97% or above is considered to be good attendance.

Last Week's Attendance:

F1 AM (including 30 hrs) 98%

F2: 91.8%

Year 1: 88.5%

Year 2: 94.6%

Year 3: 98.3%

Year 4: 90.6%

Year 5: 91.5%

Year 6: 82.7%

Congratulations to this week's winners,

Year 3!

Diary Dates:

Mon 7th Oct - Barnsley Youth Choir music workshops in school

Wed 9th Oct - Year 6 Ramp It Up (scooter skills) session at Kirk Balk (afternoon)

Thur 10th Oct - World Mental Health Day – Wear Yellow to School

Thur 10th Oct - Year 3 Fire Safety Workshop

Thur 17th Oct - Year 4 Ramp It Up Scooter Session

Thur 17th Oct - Harvest Festival F2 – Y3 in school 9:15am (Parents invited)

Mon 21st Oct - School Photos Day

Tue 22nd Oct - Halloween Craft Session

Thur 24th Oct - Halloween fancy dress and disco

Fri 25th Oct - INSET DAY

Mon 4th Nov - Return to school