A message from Miss quarmby
Hello! So much for an Indian summer – where has all this rain come from? I can’t believe we’re already at the end of Week 2! Our children have returned to school remarkably well, and we’re so proud of every step they are making.
Our Reception children are now in school full time, Year 4 have enjoyed their first swimming visit, and yesterday marked the official opening of our Pre-School! We are incredibly proud of this new provision. Miss Emery, Miss Tree, Miss Hathaway, Miss Ferns, and Miss Ullah have worked their socks off (not to mention Mr Chamberlain and countless flat packs!) to create a stunning, welcoming space for our youngest learners. We can’t wait for their first day on Monday. Even if you don’t have younger children who may join the Pre-School, this new resource is already making a positive impact across the whole school – enhancing learning opportunities, supporting community connections, and enriching experiences for all our pupils.
You may have seen in the news that Bridget Phillipson highlighted how children who miss a day or two in the first couple of weeks of term are more likely to become persistently absent. Our attendance this week has been really strong, and it makes the biggest difference when our children are here every single day. Being in school positively impacts friendships, understanding of routines, and academic progress. Let’s keep up the strong start we’ve made this week!
We’re so proud of our whole school family for making such a fantastic start to the term! Have a lovely weekend!
Key dates for the Autumn term:
- 21st October Harvest Festival - Lower School (Y1-Y3): 10am and Upper School (Y4-Y6): 11am at St. Mary's Church. Pre-School and Reception - 2pm at school.
- 21st and 22nd October - Parents Evenings (booking invitations to follow)
- Christmas performances - EYFS - 16th December at 9:30am; KS1 - 17th December at 9:30am or 2:00pm; Y3-Y6 Christmas St Mary's Service - 9th December at 10am.
Attendance
This week, finishing in first place with 100% are RJS, RLE, 2CH and 3RD. In second place are 5AK, with 99.63% and in third place are 1LR, with 99.23%. A shout out also goes to all the other classes, who have also finished the week above our school target of 96.5%
The whole school attendance this week is 99% can we beat this next week? The only way to do that is if we all come to school as often as we can. Please remember look at the NHS guide Is my child too ill for school? - NHS (www.nhs.uk). This is used to determine which reasons for absence will be authorised or unauthorised.
let's take a look at what each year group has been up to this week!
EYFS
Pre- School Opening!
We are so proud to have officially opened our brand-new 2025 Whitkirk Pre-School! On Thursday, we were delighted to welcome Alison Wilson, Regional Director for Yorkshire and Humber, who joined us to celebrate this special occasion and cut the ribbon. It has been such a joy to meet our new preschool families and begin this exciting journey together. Families have then enjoyed Stay & Play sessions on Thursday and Friday, exploring both our indoor and outdoor classrooms. The children’s smiling faces and excitement as they discovered our new spaces have been the perfect way to start! We can’t wait to extend our Whitkirk family even further, build strong relationships with our new children and families, and share in the wonderful learning adventures ahead. This is just the beginning of what promises to be a very exciting year for Whitkirk Pre-School!
What a wonderful first week our Reception children have had! They have been busy learning new routines, enjoying their very first Whitkirk school dinner, and exploring their brand-new classroom. It has been lovely to see them making new friends and settling in so well. The children have amazed Miss Sanderson, Miss Emery, and all of the Early Years staff with their confidence, kindness, and enthusiasm. We are so proud of them already and can’t wait to watch their learning journey grow this year!
LOWER school
Year 1 have wowed us all again this week with their enthusiasm and creativity! In English, the children enjoyed reading Magpie’s Treasure and impressed us by retelling the story using a story map. We certainly have some wonderful storytellers in the making. In Maths, they’ve been busy sorting, counting, and writing numbers as words. The children also embraced our provision challenges, which included making maps, practising name writing, and sorting materials in Science. What a busy and exciting week it’s been. We can’t wait to do it all again next week!
This week, Year 2 have learnt how to navigate using a compass in Geography. In Maths, they have started to learn how to read and write two-digit numbers and explored place value on a number line. We are so proud of what brilliant mathematicians they are!
We have had another exciting week of learning in Year 3! In Maths, we have been representing numbers to 1000 and in English, we have been writing character descriptions. In Science, we applied our understanding of nutrients to identify which ones our school meals contain. We had our first French lesson - we learned how to say hello and goodbye, as well as locating a range of French speaking countries!
UPPER school
We've had a fantastic week in Year 4! We kicked things off as food critics, sampling a variety of sweet treats – a delicious start to the week! In English, we began reading our new text Stitch Head, exploring the emotions conveyed and coming up with creative ways to describe the main character. In maths, we focused on representing and partitioning numbers up to 10,000. Geography had us thinking deeply about the uses of 4- and 8-point compasses, sparking lots of curious questions. In science, we turned our attention to teeth, even exploring our own! 4AR started swimming and absolutely loved it, while 4AB continued with their exciting gymnastics and ball games. Well done, everyone, on another brilliant week!
Year 5 have been superstar writers this week in English. We carefully thought of creative and effective questions to ask the aliens to understand where they originated from and why they had visited Earth. We were super impressed with the children's confidence and creativity when acting in the roles of the aliens! Well done, Year 5.
Year 6 have had another fantastic week. From tackling place value challenges, to creating spooky atmospheres within their writing, they have absolutely blown us away with their creativity and resilience. They've also started to use the apparatus to bring their gymnastic sequences to life! Great job Year 6!