Swinefleet Primary School

Headteacher: Laura Bishell-Wells

Email: swinefleet.primary@eastriding.gov.uk
Website: www.swinefleetprimaryschool.co.uk
Location: Swinefleet Primary School, Low Street, Swinefleet, Goole, UK
Phone: 01405 704386
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SwinefleetPrimary
Twitter: @Swinefleet_Pr

It has been wonderful to welcome you all back after the Easter Break. It feels nice to be back to some form of normality especially after the recent lockdowns and the children are certainly enjoying being with their friends.

Building works are still ongoing but we are reassured the ramp and field will be finished soon!

It has been a busy half-term and lots of preparations are already taking place for next year too. There are some exciting events in the pipeline for the children to end this year in style and to give our Year 6s memories to cherish. Staff will be resting up this half-term ready for what is in store. Have a lovely half-term and we will see you on Monday 7th June.

School email will be checked periodically over the break if you need anything please just let us know.

Please let us know what you think to our new newsletter style too. We will be sending a fortnightly newsletter filled with what we have been up to and up and coming dates for the diary.

Have a great half-term!

Miss Bishell-Wells

The Pearls children have been concentrating on growing this term. We’ve enjoyed many stories relating to growing. Oliver’s Vegetables was a great story! We weighed vegetables and measured them. It was great that we got to try different vegetables like Oliver did in the story. We also enjoyed reading the story Jasper’s Beanstalk, ordering days of the week, size ordering using language such as tallest and shortest and making Jasper the cat masks. Look at the fun we all had.

This half term our topic has been 'Growing'. We started the term looking at how different plants grow and what they would need to grow. We planted some sunflowers of our own and have been watching them grow in our outdoor area. We then started looking at different fruits and vegetables that grow on farms. We are able to categorise them into where they grow and can name quite a few that we couldn't name before. We even did some tasting of fruits and vegetables that were new to us, some of us liked them, some of us didn't. Later on in the half term we started looking at how animals and humans grow. We can now name lots of different baby animals. Some surprised us! Did you know a baby rabbit is called a kitten? To round off the half term we have been looking at the lifecycle of humans and learning about how we grow and what we will grow to be.

Next half term we take our learning deeper into the outdoors as we explore the world of minibeasts living around us.

This half term in History, Rubies have been learning about different types of transport through the ages. We began by looking at early forms of transport such as Viking longboats and sedan chairs and moved on to look at cars, trains and planes.

In Art, we have been studying different sculptors and used different techniques and materials to make our own sculptures inspired by them. We have focussed on sculptors such as Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.

In Science, we have been learning all about plants. Year One have begun to learn about different types of plants, how they grow and what their different parts are called. Year Two have been thinking about plant life cycles and really enjoyed learning all about different seed dispersal methods: Blowing, Exploding, Eating , Falling, Floating and Sticking.

We are working on improving our sentences in English and have been so busy in Maths learning about things such as: 3D shapes, fractions, position and direction.

In English this half term, we have been using expanded noun phrases to describe settings and this has led to us writing our own imaginative stories. We have also been learning about life in the 1910s and the Titanic. We have written informative reports about life during this time and a diary entry, as if we were a person boarding the Titanic on her maiden voyage!

In maths we have been focusing on fractions of shapes and amounts and we are currently looking at properties of 2D and 3D shapes in geometry.

Light is our theme in Science, so we have been identifying light sources and reflective materials. We have been observing shadows and investigating opaque and translucent materials that can make shadows. We have been thinking about the sun and how to stay safe in the sun. We have also been looking at our eyes and finding out about how we can see (we have all found this fascinating!)

We have just begun working on The Youth Trust Archbishop Award and started learning leadership skills. The challenges meant we had to work as a team as they were pretty challenging! Please support your child by encouraging them to help at home maybe gardening, cooking with you, helping younger siblings, dusting etc. We would like as many photos of them helping out as possible. It may even be helping in the local community which would be amazing. The children need to complete the challenges to gain the award and photos can either be printed out, emailed to the school or loaded onto Seesaw.

This half-term, Sapphires have been working hard learning about Titanic and Sound. Our writing has been based on the book Kaspar, Prince of Cats. Linking to the Titanic, we have written reports about the Social Classes of the Victorian period and our own story involving the Titanic - some managed to make Mrs Harrison cry! To help learn about Sound we created cup and string phones and investigated how the sound travelled along the string and designed an experiment to determine which material would be most suitable for ear defenders at a concert. In PE we worked with a dance instructor through HULL FC and have been developing our skills in invasion games. In Maths, we investigated perimeter, area and volume, here we are making different shapes with the same volume.

Reading is crucial and we are determined that every child will leave school being able to read. Children who read regularly are proven to make increased progress. At school the children have Guided Reading sessions each day but we also encourage reading for pleasure by reading to the children too.

Reading at home really supports your child. This can include hearing them read, shared reading or even reading to them. Recording home reading on Seesaw or Tapestry helps us to evaluate how well they are doing too and ensure that the books are the right level for them. For instructions on how to do this please click here. If you are in a rush and maybe have read quickly one morning then please feel free to use the QR on your child's bookmark which will log that they have read.

The children are rewarded for reading both personally and as a class. The children currently have a target number of characters to achieve in our Reading Wars battle and if they do not meet it by the end of the year then the reward goes to staff. The children are really keen to win so please support your child with this. We have tried to sign up all of the children to the library service meaning they can also access books and magazines at home online for free - click here for a video of how to do this.

Tips and examples when reading with your child are all available by clicking here. You can also speak to any member of the team who will be more than happy to help.

As you will be aware we have a collection box at the school's gates and Mrs Harrison kindly drops off your donations to the charity Help the Homelezz. As part of our on-going support of the charity we cooked meals on Thursday which were distributed by the charity throughout Goole and Hull to those living on the streets. A raffle to raise money for ingredients gave us a whopping £68 meaning we will have money for future cooking for the charity as this is something we wish to continue. Well done to Lorraine our raffle winner and thank you to all that supported us. Huge thanks to Tesco especially parent Debbie Wotton for offering us a massive discount on the shopping bill meaning your money will go even further. The children loved being involved and making a difference and we look forward to our next cook for the charity.

Thank you so much everyone!

Pearls - Please ensure kit is in school each day as getting changed for P.E is part of their development.

Rubies - Tuesday wear P.E kit to school.

Diamonds - Monday and Tuesday wear P.E kit to school.

Sapphires - Monday and Tuesday wear P.E kit to school.

Please note that children should only come in P.E kit when specified and should otherwise be in full uniform. Uniform is not compulsory for Nursery children.

Clubs are free and available lunchtimes and after school. Please click the link to fill in the survey enabling your child to attend. Clubs start on the 14th June 2021

We are very excited to be working with Incredible Edibles who have arranged some cooking sessions for the children and are kindly providing the ingredients. We will be taking part in these virtually each Tuesday afternoon.

Week 1 8th June - Veggie Biriyani (Rubies and Sapphires)

Week 2 15th June - Chocolate Brownie (Rubies and Diamonds)

Week 3 22nd June - Pizza (Rubies and Sapphires)

Week 4 29th June - Yogurt Pot Muffins (Rubies and Diamonds)

Week 5 6th July - Quiche (Rubies and Sapphires)

Week 6 13th July - Fruit Plait (Rubies and Diamonds)

We have had a number of children join us this year including some new faces this term which has been wonderful.

Sadly we have to say goodbye to one of our Year Six today as she is moving out of the area. I've been dreading this day since I found out she was leaving. Having been with us since Nursery it will be hard for all of the staff to say goodbye.

You are a wonderful young lady whose confidence has soared over the years. You will be missed by staff and pupils but we know you will have a great time and soon have made loads of friends at your new school. Please stay in touch and remember to always believe in yourself. Sending you all of our love from all of the staff x 😭

Please can we remind parents that when picking up your children that you keep 2m distance and wear a mask (unless exempt). It is crucial we try to minimise any risk of spreading Covid-19 especially when local schools have had outbreaks this week.