Low Ash Primary

Thank you to everyone who came and supported our Christmas Fair tonight. As ever it was 'packed' and was a huge success.

From September 2026, we will be changing the finishing time of school. Children from Reception - Year 6 will finish school at 3.15pm (as opposed to 3.25pm). Nursery hours will remain unchanged. This still ensures we fulfil the government's requirement of 32.5 hours of education per week. The additional 50 minutes per week will allow us to provide regular training for our support staff which, I am sure you will agree, is hugely important. This has not been able to happen with a 3.25 finish. Thank you for your support in this.

A big well done to all of the Stars of the Week!

Friday 5th December -

Monday 8th December - KS1 Nativity (pm) dress rehearsal + parents & young children

Tuesday 9th December (am) - KS1 Nativity

Wednesday 10th December (pm) - KS1 Nativity

Monday 15th December - Elf run (more details to follow) - pupils can wear their Christmas jumper on this day

Wednesday 17th December - Christmas lunch day - pupils can wear their Christmas jumper on this day

Thursday 18th December - EYFS Christmas craft and sing a long event

Thursday 18th December - Carols by Candlelight (KS2)

Friday 19th December - School breaks up for Christmas

Every school day counts! Did you know if you take a two week holiday in term time, the highest attendance % your child can get is 94.7% - this is below the national expected standard.

As we said last week, if your child has a mild cold or feels a bit tired, they can usually still come to school. We’ll keep an eye on them and let you know if anything changes.

This week's school attendance is: 93.1% - this is sadly still really low.

This year's attendance to date is 94.9%.

Early Years & KS1 class of the week is 1W with 98%.

KS2 classes of the week is 6LG with 98%.

A reminder that, as a school, we are aiming for no less than 96% attendance.

Thank you to all of you who completed the parent and carer questionnaire at the end of the last half term.

Below are some of the comments made linked to things parents and carers feel Low Ash does well:

• The range of extra-curricular and fun activities such as non-uniform, discos, Christmas event
• Having the pupils treat each other with respect
• It is a very personal and loving school
• Praising students on their success
• The kids say learning is fun
• Provide a caring environment and very inclusive
• Take good care of child’s support and help with their interests very well organised school offering lots of after school activities
• The Tapestry app and Marvellous Me helps me loads to keep up with my children’s day to day
• Plenty of after school clubs and trips out
• Really help in making children feel settled and welcome
• Provide a good learning environment
• The school has a good enrichment program
• Respond to any questions or queries we may have with adequate and appropriate resolutions
• The culture / community spirit is brilliant

Things you feel we could improve:

• Having attended a few of the end of term classroom sessions, they vary massively. Some are really well led by the teachers and include lots of input from the class, others are really casual and not well structured. I know there is room for both but I think a clearer plan of what is expected from these sessions would be helpful for all.

Action - Key stage leaders will work together and come up with some more specific guidance for their teams so we can aim for greater consistency.

• Communication with parents

Action: we try to communicate regularly through a range of channels eg. School Ping, Facebook and the school website. If there is anything in particular (for example, see comment below) you don't feel we communicate well enough, please let us know.

• Could improve communication of weekly topics that’s learned at school

Action: We will discuss if there's more we can do to help with this.

• Homework. We have raised this a number of times but nothing has changed. Homework helps cement their understanding of a task or subject and not giving them some homework is a disservice.

Action: Homework is always a divisive topic. However research indicates that formal homework offers minimal academic gains for primary-aged children and in fact additional tasks often provoke stress, anxiety, and sleep disruption, outweighing any potential benefits. We expect daily reading, spellings to be practised and times tables and KIRFS to be learnt. Other than this, we add optional learning challenges on the school website and they are also Pinged home for those pupils who do want to do more at home (we do not enforce these however).

• Dealing with children who have wider behavioural issues which impact upon the learning of my child.

Action: We have a number of high needs pupils in school who, at times, become dysregulated. Whilst we always aim to keep any disruption to other pupils' learning to a minimum.

• Deleting messages in School Ping.

Action Messages expire after a period of time. This was in response to a number of parents saying there were too may messages on their app. Messages should not expire until after the event / trip or, for homework challenges, they shouldn't expire until the last day of the half term. If you are ever in a position where you can't locate a Ping, please contact school.

• A breakfast club that starts earlier than 0800 and an after-school club until about 1700

Action: Breakfast club currently starts at 7.45am but we are exploring the possibility of a 7.30am start from September. We are also about to consult parents and carers on whether an after school wrap around care club would be of interest.

• Less or no TV at all shown in school, unless relevant to the curriculum.

Action: Unless it is a class reward or linked to the curriculum, TV should not be shown in school at all. If you feel this is happening in your child's class, please report it to school so we can investigate.

• Reward scheme - merit system isn’t fair.

Action: We acknowledge that there were inconsistencies in our reward system. We sent home some information last week about the changes we are making which we hope will help. Some pupils in school will not respond to the whole school reward system so will need alternative reward systems in place.

• More sporting events or not choosing the same children for everything

We're sorry that you feel we don't take part in enough sporting events . Last year pupils took part in tennis, football, pickle ball , cross country, dodgeball, benchball, triathlon, panathlon, swimming, tag rugby, cricket and dance. 52% of KS2 pupils had the opportunity to represent school and 49% of pupils in Years 2 - 6. The amount of activities we offer pupils and the number of pupils are involved was identified as real strength of the school when we had our Ofsted Inspection in January.

• Consistency in behavioural management

Action: We are working hard on this and there has been a number of training sessions for all staff. Any school behaviour system will be effective for approximately 95% of the school population. For some pupils, alternative strategies/ rewards might need to be used. We try to explain this to pupils although I appreciate some might feel this is unfair or there is not consistency.

Below is an overview in percentages.

With Christmas just around the corner you might be interested in this Christmas bauble workshop taking place on 13th December form 11.00am-3.00pm. Please click on the link below for further details.

Christmas Bauble Workshop | News | Bradford Schools Online

Our budding rockstars did a fantastic job yesterday along with Tim from Rocksteady!

Year 1 enjoyed a visit from a miniature Shetland pony this week called Flash. He was so soft and cute. The children asked lots of questions and learnt so much. Thank you to 'Diamond Pony Parties'

You might have seen the update on our Facebook page, but we are pleased to announce that our music room has now been completed. Although it can't accommodate a full class at once, Rocksteady and individual music lessons take place in here and we are looking at how we can use it for small group provision,

The sessions (links are below) might be of use for some parents and carers. It's easy to sign up - just follow the instructions once you've clicked o the link.

Autism & ADHD: Strategies To Improve Sleep

Parental Burnout: Child Meltdowns & Behaviour

Well done to R’Mari and Elva who have been filming for Emmerdale recently as supporting artists. Their episodes will be showcased on TV from 11th December.

A rise in measles cases in Bradford has been confirmed. While the number of cases is still

relatively small, measles spreads very easily so even a small rise can lead to wider

outbreaks if people are not protected.

Measles is highly infectious, and some people are at greater risk of becoming seriously

unwell, including unvaccinated young children, pregnant women, and people with

weakened immune systems or long-term conditions.

What to look out for: signs and symptoms

Measles usually starts with cold-like symptoms, followed by a rash a few days later. Key

symptoms include:

• a high fever
• runny or blocked nose
• sneezing
• cough
• sore, red or watery eyes
• small, clustered, white spots inside the mouth that usually appear 2 to 3 days before the rash

• a blotchy rash that often begins on the face or behind the ears before spreading. The measles rash may look different depending on skin tones:

• on lighter skin, the rash typically appears as red or reddish-brown blotches
• on black or brown skin, the rash may appear darker than surrounding skin, may look brown, purple or grey, and can be harder to see
• on all skin tones, the rash can feel slightly raised or rough to the touch.

If someone has symptoms and thinks it might be measles, they should avoid visiting a GP

practice or A&E department centre without calling first as measles spreads very easily.

Where to signpost people for advice

• Call NHS 111 if you are worried about symptoms or need urgent advice
• Go online to 111.nhs.co.uk for assessment of people aged 5 and over
• Call your local GP practice – for vaccination queries and routine support
• NHS website – clear information about symptoms, what to do, and the MMR vaccine: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/measles

About MMR vaccination

birthday, and the second at around three years and four months old.

Because measles spreads so easily, even a small number of unvaccinated people can lead

to wider outbreaks. That’s why making sure you and your family are fully vaccinated is so

important.

If you or your child have missed a dose, you can catch up at any age – it is never too late

to get protected. The MMR vaccine is free on the NHS and having it usually takes only a

few minutes.

If you’re unsure whether you or your children have had both doses, please contact your GP

practice and they can check for you.

Great effort from Low Ash Primary’s under 11s girls football team yesterday.

They took part in the road to Wembley finals at Goals Bradford. These girls worked their socks off and have given it their all. They should be unbelievably proud of themselves.

Well done girls!

Below you will find a link to some information about TikTok parental controls.

A reminder that all of our guides can be found on the online safety page of the website.

Online Safety | Low Ash Primary School

We hope you all have a lovely weekend and we will see you all on Monday.