Ripon Cathedral School Update

Happy Children In Need Day!

The children have loved taking part in Challenge 25. We had lots of different exercises to do, either 25 repetitions of each activity or 25 seconds of an activity for 25 minutes. It has also been lovely to see the children enjoying non-uniform day, with lots of Pudsey ears in evidence!

Thank you for contributions towards sponsoring the challenges and for non-uniform day; all donations go directly into the Children in Need bank account when you use the payment item on Parent Pay.

Year 5 delivered a thoughtful Remembrance Day service on Tuesday. They shared what we remember and why it is important to remember. They also explained the meaning of the different coloured poppies and created fabulous collages of them. The whole school was beautifully behaved and respectful, and we finished with a 2 minute silence.

Thank you to Year 5 and their teaching and support staff for preparing this meaningful worship and to the Year 5 parents who were able to attend.

Last Friday, our Service Children from Year 2 to Year 6 attended a very special service at Ripon Cathedral, they also invited a friend to share the experience with them. The Festival of Remembrance had over 600 attendees from schools all over North Yorkshire and many military and civilian dignitaries. The event gave this wonderful group of children and young people the opportunity to have their voices heard on a day that is so poignantly relevant to their military community.

Congratulations to our Stars of the Week celebrated in today's worship:

Nursery - Charlie for being kind and caring to his friends in Nursery.

Reception - Dylan for having such a fabulous week! He has challenged himself across the different provision areas. He has also been very creative using his imagination and making lots of beautiful paintings.

Year 1 - Matilda for being a superstar in English this week! She's been loving sharing her fantastic and creative ideas with her class, working hard to use full stops and capital letters, and her dictation work has been super!

Year 2 - Alexa B for showing fantastic focus in all lessons this week and producing brilliant work, but especially in RE where she completed a beautiful and informative poster about the 'Five Pillars of Islam'.

Year 3 - Beatrix for a super effort in English, listening carefully in lessons and producing a detailed report on the Stone Age.

Year 4 - Edward for working hard to write independently in English and topic lessons.

Year 5 - Harvey for showing a great new attitude this week, being respectful, on task and ready to learn. He has shown an excellent example to the rest of the class.

Year 6 - Millie for challenging herself, staying on task, and for making positive contributions in lessons and early sessions.

On our recent Positive Noticing Day, we took time to celebrate one another and notice the many good things that happen in our school community. In our worship time, we also connected this to Anti-Bullying Week (10–14 November 2025), whose theme is “Power for Good”.

We talked about how each one of us has the power to make a positive difference: to speak up, to support someone who might be feeling left out, and to help build a school where kindness and respect are the norm.

Let’s remember: when we see something that doesn’t feel right, we can use our “power for good” by telling a trusted adult, reaching out to a friend, or offering kindness in our words and actions. Every one of us matters, and together we can make a big difference.

Our management information system ScholarPack is being discontinued. School has been given Thursday 20th November as our switch over date to the new system Arbor. Apologies that this may cause some inconvenience in the short term. For a few days from next Thursday, you may need to look out for messages on ClassDojo rather than by email or text/app message. The ScholarPack app will obviously fall out of commission too.

We hope that the new provider gives an improved service but apologise for the inconvenience meanwhile.

As the cooler months arrive, students are reminded that we are now wearing winter uniform.

Boys’ Winter Uniform:

Bottle green woollen ‘V’ neck jumper or cardigan (logo preferred)
School tie
White shirt (long or short sleeves)
Grey trousers
Sensible black shoes
Grey or white socks

Girls’ Winter Uniform:

Bottle green woollen ‘V’ neck jumper or cardigan (logo preferred)
School tie
White blouse (long or short sleeves)
Grey skirt, trousers (long or short), or pinafore dress
Sensible black shoes
Grey or white socks, or grey tights

Footwear:
Boots may be worn during winter. If boots are black, they may be kept on throughout the day. If not, please ensure students bring their school shoes to change into.

Thank you for supporting our students in wearing their winter uniform neatly and with pride!

PE Kit

A reminder that children should wear PE Kit on PE days. This consists of a plain white polo shirt, plain black shorts or grey jogging bottoms and a plain green hoody. Trainers may be worn on PE days but on no other days.

General reminders:

Long hair should be tied back and no jewellery must be worn other than some simple stud earrings. Earrings must be removed for PE. A wristwatch is allowed, but no Smart-watches.

Nursery and Reception

Uniform is optional in Nursery. Children in the Reception class must wear uniform but the tie is optional.

w/c Monday 17th November - Road Safety Week

Tuesday 18th November - School Photographs

Friday 21st November - School Disco

Tuesday 2nd December - 9am EYFS and KS1 Superstars Assembly

Wednesday 3rd December - 9am KS2 Superstars Assembly

Thursday 4th December pm - Christmas Fair

Wednesday 10th December - 2pm Christingle Service at the Cathedral – KS2

Monday 15th December - 1.30pm Nativity Performance 1 at the Cathedral – EYFS and KS1

Monday 15th December - 4pm Nativity Performance 2 at the Cathedral – EYFS and KS1

Wednesday 17th December - School Christmas Lunch

Friday 19th December - School closes for Christmas holidays

We hope to see many families next Friday evening. Please remember that children must be accompanied by an adult at the first disco with no older children unless they have an assigned job. KS2 children may be left unaccompanied at their disco. Please can you let school know if children will be taken home by someone who is not on their contact list. Thank you and looking forward to seeing you there!

Sorry, only for children on roll at Ripon Cathedral School.

Information was sent home on Thursday for an optional fundraising event. We do hope that many of the children will enjoying drawing a Christmas design. Although the date on the information stated a return date of Monday 17th November, please note that this has been extended to Friday 21st November. Whilst most of us no longer send Christmas cards, we know a lot of families like to be able to send personalised greetings to family members, or to buy grandparents gifts which celebrate their grandchildren! There is no commitment to purchase if you send in a design and you can view the proof online first before making any orders. Thank you for your support.