Weekly Newsletter

Headteacher - Mrs K Adams

Assistant Headteacher - Miss H Howard

Associate Assistant Headteacher - Miss L Whale

Dear Parents and Carers,

I can’t quite believe that we have come to the end of our first half term in this academic year! It has been a very busy time, but the children have all settled back into their daily routines brilliantly. I would like to extend my thanks to you for all your support and kind wishes for my new role. As already expressed, my door is always open to you so please do contact me through admin if you have any queries.

On Monday, we celebrated Harvest Festival by holding a whole school assembly. The children particularly enjoyed singing our harvest songs and using our new LYFTA platform to learn how food is harvested in other countries. Thank you to all who sent in donations for the food bank. We have a mass of generous donations and I know the people of Pontefract will be grateful to you as we approach the colder months.

On Tuesday, Years 5 and 6 visited Eureka and had a wonderful time! They came back to school buzzing with excitement. The workshops they attended were amazing and all the children learned a lot from this experience. Thank you to Eureka for having us!

On Wednesday, Year 1 and Year 2 had a fun-packed day in the Forest School. They enjoyed making lots of different arts and crafts and had a wonderful time!

On Wednesday, Year 2 and Year 5 had a workshop all about Road Safety. This is a vital workshop for our pupils and certainly helped them to be more aware of how to keep safe.

On Wednesday, we totalled our team points for this half term and were excited to learn that the Eagles had won with 1,085 points! Wow! What a score! Well done to all children working so hard in the Eagles Team. As a reward, the children watched a film in the hall and had popcorn to celebrate. I’m looking forward to seeing if they can maintain this lead or if another team will rival them for first position next half term!

On Friday, I was amazed to see all the children dressed up in their Halloween costumes! There was a wide range of creativity indeed and some very scary outfits! All the children enjoyed their parties and the disco immensely.

Over the last few weeks, the children have been applying to become a Junior Leader in school.

The JLT are the representative of all pupils to enable them to have a say in improving their own education and developing new ideas for the future of our school. The elected team will meet staff regularly and discuss issues that are important to the children. This is a very important role and supports children with their confidence as they may have to take whole school assemblies or meet with VIPS. The process is democratic. Children had to apply in writing and then present their ideas to other children outlining why they should be chosen for the role. They were then voted in or out.

Well done to all who were successful! I am looking forward to working with you and hearing your ideas for the rest of this year.

Last year, Miss Howard ran a whole school photography competition and she was amazed to see all the fabulous photographs taken by your children. Next half term, she will be running the competition again and the focus will be ‘All about Autumn’. Over the half term, please encourage and support your children to take photos of anything autumnal ready to enter the competition when the date is shared! This competition will continue each half term with a different focus and at the end of the year, the winners will have the opportunity to spend time in a special workshop learning all about photography!

One of the primary schools within our Trust, Orchard Head, is currently holding a fundraising event to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. This is a charity that means a lot to the school, due to one of the parents, Rob Burrow MBE, having been diagnosed with MND in December 2019. Staff and pupils are taking part in a challenge to walk 16 miles; the distance from Orchard Head to Headingly Stadium, the home of Leeds Rhinos where Rob played for many years. Everyone will walk a mile a day for 15 days, with the 16th mile being on Tuesday 8th November.

If you can spare anything to donate to this fantastic challenge, it would be much appreciated, using the link here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/orchard-head-walk-for-rob

If you can’t spare any change to donate, we would love it if you could share our posts on Twitter and/or LinkedIn to show your support – Thank you.

Early next half term, the EYFS team and KS1 team will be holding a workshop for parents to share important information about our reading policy. The team will also help parents with understanding how we teach phonics so that you can further support at home.

Today is the last day in school for Mrs Penty, our Year 4 teacher, who is leaving us to start her maternity leave. I think Mrs Penty is ready for a rest before she hears the pitter patter of little feet and I am sure you will join me in sending her our best wishes and hope that we get to meet baby Penty very soon. Miss Parkhurst will take over as Year 4 class teacher after half term.

All that leaves me to say now, is I hope you have a wonderful half term. Stay safe and we will see you soon,

Happy Holidays!

Mrs Adams