In this Issue
Messages
Although the school is due to be rebuilt, we still want to ensure our current building is kept in a good condition for all the children. In addition to some new outside equipment, we will be having new carpet fitted to all the corridor spaces in the Easter break.
Thank you to everyone for their Red Nose Day donations - we made a total of £209 for this fabulous charity.
Well done to all the classes for their good attendance so far this year - we have a very tight leader board!!
- Third Place - 4KD/BW: 96.5%
- Second Place - 1KB: 96.7%
- First Place - 2RH/RM: 97.2%
The entries for our Easter Egg Competition were absolutely amazing, I was blown away by the effort everyone had put in and have included a few pictures for you to enjoy.
Children's Cancer Run
Just a reminder that Sunday 18th May is the Children's Cancer Run at the Gosforth Racecourse; it is still not too late to register.
T-shirts and race numbers will be delivered to school early in May, for those who register very soon. The day is a huge amount of fun, as well as raising funds for a very worthwhile charity. You do not need to be a runner! You can register to join us by clicking on the link below, remember to say you are running with Regent Farm First School!
Parents and carers are responsible for their children at all times during the run. Adults can accompany their children without paying for entry, but will not be eligible for a medal or goody bag at the end unless registered. There will be members of staff there to cheer you all on!
New School Building
I know many of you are wondering when building work will start on our new school; the staff are too! I can promise you that there are lots of conversations and meetings going on behind the scenes to try and get on site as soon as possible.
Currently, the submitted plans are still with the planners and planning permission is being considered. We are meeting with all parties to try and address any queries, and make changes to designs if needed. I am hopeful we will have a decision before the summer; please keep everything crossed! As soon as I know more, I will write to you all.
Outside Areas
The scheme 'Asda Cash Pot for Schools' ran a few months ago and last week we received our money from Asda which was a grand total of £1253.43; we are so grateful to you all for your shopping! The children have asked us to buy some additional outside tables, chairs, benches and equipment for them to use while on the yard. We hope to have these shortly after the Easter break.
The school has also been awarded a Nature Grant of just over £8000 to help improve the biodiversity of our site. We will be working with our Ecostars to plan how we can use this money to buy some new raised beds, gardening tools and plants. We hope to improve a variety of areas of the yard etc in school with portable items which can be moved following our new school build. We need to be careful that anything installed is not impacted by the new school in a year or twos time.
Kenya Day
On Monday 7th April, we held an amazing whole school celebration of our partnership with Mercy Primary School in Kenya. This was the third year of holding this special event and we are very grateful to everyone for their support. The friendship between Mercy and Regent Farm began in 2015 and we are in regular contact via an exchange of pupils’ work, letters and photographs. All children came to school in the colours of the Kenyan flag and took part in African themed activities such as drumming and mask making. Children have also written letters and created art work to send to the children at Mercy. In the summer term, the School Council will take part in a Teams call with children in Mercy School. On this fun filled day we raised £194.11 to help buy equipment for their lessons so a huge thankyou for your donations.
Start Small Dream Big
At Regent Farm, we are proud to be part of the Start Small Dream Big Initiative, which connects schools with employers to give pupils the opportunity to explore different careers and see what the world of work is all about. Our vision is to create a community where children are empowered to dream, explore, and achieve, with the confidence that they can make a significant impact on the world.
As part of this initiative, we are reaching out to you, our parents, to ask if anyone (or anyone you know) would be willing to come into school to speak with our students about your career journey. Whether it's a class chat, an assembly, or a workshop, sharing your experiences will inspire and guide our students as they start to imagine their futures.
We truly believe that parents are key to helping our children with career-related learning, and we'd love to have you involved in this important part of their development. If you’re interested, please get in touch with Miss Burns (in Year 4) or Mrs Moore to discuss the details.
We would be so grateful for your support and would love to hear from you soon!
All About Family Magazine
Please find a link below to a new free digital magazine aimed at giving your parents valuable information for their children. There is exclusive content from OFSTED, NSPCC, St John Ambulance and some very good online safety advice. Within the magazine there are also sections on:
- Internet Safety
- Phonics
- Books
- First Aid
- Healthy Eating
- Snap Chat/Instagram/WhatsApp Advice
- Family Law Advice
Easter Holiday Activities Seven Stories
Seven Stories are delighted to announce that they are delivering their Holiday Activity Fund HAF Programme again this year as part of Newcastle’s Best Holiday Ever. These sessions are targeted towards those families receiving free school meals.
They will be running morning and aftenoon sessions on:
Monday 14th April, Tuesday 15th April, Wednesday 16th April, Thursday 17th April, Tuesday 22nd April, Wednesday 23rd April, Thursday 24th April, Friday 25th April.
Children will get to take part in interactive story times, crafts, exploring our magical building and local area and will finish with a meal made in our kitchen.
Places are limited, please direct families to book via our website through the button below.
Nursery and Reception Spaces September 2025
Reception places will be offered directly to parents by Newcastle City Council on April 16th. We are aware this is in the middle of the Easter holidays. If you have any problems with your application, please get in touch the Admissions and Newcastle City Council since they offer all school spaces; this process is not managed by school.
When your child has been offered a reception place for September 2025, please do not forget to accept this offer through the council's online portal. There should be a link to this in your offer email.
If you have been offered a Nursery space for next year, please accept via the school office. If you no longer require this space, please just let the office know to allow us to offer the space to those on our waiting list.
Curriculum Information
Early Years
This month nursery has explored under the sea. First, they became pirates, experimenting with materials to create their own boats before tackling map making to support them on their adventure to find the glittering pants of gold! They battled sharks, crocodiles and beastly bottom barnacles on their way but managed to defeat the other pirate crew. The children then began exploring the creatures who live under the sea, they met Barry the Fish with Fingers, before moving on to explore rockpools in Sharing a Shell. This was all great knowledge for their trip to the aquarium where the children were able to see the sea animals up close and even got to touch some. They are finishing their topic by thinking about how we can look after our oceans and the environment around us .
This half term Reception have taken a deep, deep dive into the depths of the ocean. Their half term started with a shark lying in a bath in the classroom! The children had to discover where the shark had come from, if it was friendly and how to best care for it. This led to an amazing 'Shark fact book' produced by all of the children.
Inspired by Commotion in the Ocean, the children have met several sea creatures, including those that live in the twilight zone. These submarine adventures inspired the children to build an underwater aquarium, where they created fantastic tanks to display their sea creatures.
The highlight of the topic, was our wonderful trip to Cullercoats Beach. It was the most magical day, where the children-built sandcastles, ran away from the waves and explored the deep, dark caves. Our trip to the beach inspired us to create our very own beach in our outdoor area; as well as, an ice cream van! The children have also been amazing problem solvers after they arrived at school and found their outdoor beach covered in rubbish! They quickly came up with a plan to clean the beach and protected the sea creatures along the way; they became the 'clean up crew', inspired by their book of the week. They helped to reduce, reuse and recycled the rubbish by creating fantastic sculptures such as cars, rockets and boats.
Key Stage 1
Year 1 have taken an exciting journey through Africa, diving into the continent's Geography and wildlife. Their adventure came to life with a pretend trip to Kenya, where they explored the continent's stunning geographical features (and flew in an imaginary aeroplane)! In DT the children designed and made their own African animal glove puppets in which they developed their sewing skills. The classes have also delved into a variety of texts that have extended their knowledge of the amazing continent. To help develop the children's understanding, they have also fostered a meaningful connection with Mercy Primary School through letter writing, and exploring the similarities and differences between our communities.
Year 2 have been enjoying a virtual journey down the River Tyne, exploring how the landscape changes from source to mouth through different maps. They have been making amazing observations, asking questions and thinking about how and why the River Tyne is so iconic to Newcastle. In Science the children have been exploring different habitats and how the animals and plants that live there are suited to their habitat. They had a wonderful day at Gosforth Nature Reserve, exploring a woodland and wetland habitat. The highlights were using binoculars to do some bird spotting and pond dipping, some of us even managed to catch a stickleback fish! In Art the children have been exploring the varying styles of French Artist Henri Matisse, from still life, to fauvism to collage. On Kenya Day they have put all their work together to create a collage of Lake Victoria.
Key Stage 2
This half term the children in Year 3 have enjoyed finding out about the world we live in. Through the picture book, ‘Escape to Pompeii’, the children learnt about the devastation caused by a volcanic eruption. In English, the children have been reporters writing a newspaper report on Mount Vesuvius. In Geography, the children have been locating volcanoes and using their knowledge of rocks to understand how volcanoes are formed.
The children thoroughly enjoyed our author visit from the author and poet Laura Mucha. They showed great teamwork - working together to create a poem based on the Emperor’s New Clothes. We had huge amounts of fun and we were each able to illustrate the poem when it was finished.
As an introduction to our history topic for next half term, Year 3 have also been to the Sunderland Empire Theatre to see the Terrible Tudors show. They had an amazing time!
Year 4 have had a fantastic term! They have learnt all about rivers, including studying their features and what happens during flooding. They compared the River Tyne to the River Nile, thinking about size and uses. The children used multilink cubes to try and represent the length of each river in scale. In PE they have started their skipping training for the festival next term: they are becoming experts at events such as side swing and run jump out!
Their Science lessons have taught the children all about sound and they thoroughly enjoyed making different pieces of equipment that use sound waves such as paper cup telephones. Year 4 also enjoyed trips to the Great North Museum and the Sunderland Empire to complete their topic on Egyptians. In DT the children have developed woodworking skills to make robots just like Roz in our guided reading text The Wild Robot.
Dates for Half Term
- Monday 28th April - Year 4 History Workshop with 'That History Bloke'
- Tuesday 29th April - Year 2 Tynemouth Trip
- Monday 5th May - School Closed Bank Holiday
- Wednesday 7th May - Friday 9th May Year 4 Robinwood Residential
- Thursday 8th May - Reception Healthy Lifestyle event for the children
- Monday 12th May - Year 1 Discovery Museum
- Thursday 15th May - Year 3 Healthy Lifestyle event for the children
- Thursday 15th May - Reception Wood Workshop with parents - Staff will hand out a slip to you on the first week back with the time for your child's session. They will either be 9:15am or 2:15pm.
- Sunday 18th May - Children's Cancer Run
- Tuesday 20th May - Year 2 Discovery Museum
School Breaks Up for Half Term – Friday 23rd May at 3:15pm
Monday 2nd June - School Closed for Training Day