A Review of Last Half Term

The children have worked extremely hard throughout the last half term and the older ones coped very well with the inevitable pressure of SATs. We do all that we can to make the process of statutory testing as stress-free as possible, but we understand that some children do get upset with any formal testing. We are grateful to staff and the PTA who made the Cool Kids' Café possible for year 6 children.

A number of classes also managed to fit in some curricular enrichment activities in addition to the testing. Year 2 had a visit to the Bird of Prey Centre at Kirky Whiske; year 4 has two sessions of road safety training for pedestrians; year 5 had some "off-road" cycle training and began a series of cricket training sessions with coaches from Yorkshire Cricket Club; a number of year 5 pupils enjoyed one of the music workshop days for recorder players or singers; and year 6 had a day at Headingly Cricket ground.

Children have again had the opportunity to think about children in other parts of the world who do not have the same opportunities in life as we enjoy here. We were involved in a Global education assembly and 4 children wrote to the Prime Minister on our behalf. They have received a reply. We also had an assembly on Christian Aid during their Christian Aid week. All our children seem to have a real awareness of the difficulties experienced in other parts of the world.

The PTA once again hosted an excellent Fashion Show. Thank you to all the models without whom the evening could not have happened. You also contributed well to our Bag2School day helping to raise another £100.

Mr Arthur Marshall

Our good friend and colleague Arthur Marshall died during half term. Many of you will possibly not know Arthur, but he has been associated with the church and the school for a long time. He has been clerk to the governing body for very many years and has been involved in very many aspects of school management. Arthur was a very kind and caring man who it was a privilege to know and work with. He will be greatly missed.

Prayer Group

Meetings this term will be on Monday 14 June at 8.30pm and Friday 16 July at 12 noon.

For further details and venues, please ring David and Julia Thompson on 0113 2402036. If you are unable to get to the meetings but have something specific you would like them to pray for, please contact either the Thompsons or Mrs Davies before those dates.

Security and Safety

Following advice from the local authority, we can now confirm that the car park will remain closed for parents and the gates will remain closed throughout the school day. This will ensure that the children are free from any risk from moving traffic whilst they are at school. We ask parents to refrain from parking in front of the school gates at any time as they are the only access to the building for emergency vehicles. We have been asked by our neighbours on North Lane to ask you to park in a way that does not stop them getting in and out of their drives.

School Meals

You will know that we have now introduced a sandwich option into the daily menu. Sample menus are available throughout school for you to see the range of choices that children have each day. We hope that this encourages you and your children to remain with or move on to school meals. For those children who have previously had a packed lunch and wish to try school meals, we are happy for a commitment of just a week to be made rather than the usual half term. Please encourage your child to try school meals and save yourself the job of preparing a packed lunch each day.

As from September the cost of meals will be increased by 5p a day. This means that the weekly cost will be £7.25 for children from Reception to Year 4 and £7.50 for children in years 5 and 6. This still represents excellent value for a balanced meal and compares well with the cost of preparing many of the packed lunches that we see each day.

Attendance

Congratulations on the attendance figures for last half term. We achieved 96.6% attendance. Since going on to electronic registers we are able to get accurate statistics on a weekly basis. Each Friday we recognise each class's attendance figures and the top 4 classes are shown on our "attendance mountain". The class with the best attendance is awarded the trophy for the week. Congratulations to years 3 and 5 who each had one week of 100% attendance during the half term.

Summer Clothes

Thank you for helping us to maintain high standards of school dress during the hot weather last term. There are several pieces of research that prove strong links between high standards of dress and high achievement.

We hope that we have continued good weather this half term. Please remember that T-shirts or polo tops should be plain white red or grey and that trousers and skirts should be traditional school wear.

It is still important for children to have indoor shoes to change into each day. We cannot guarantee that the floors are always clear of things that may hurt a foot without a shoe and we know that children in socks love to slide in the corridors thus causing risk to themselves and those they bump into!