Ripon Cathedral School Update

Enjoying Ripon Market!

Year 3 Sandwiches

On Thursday, Year 3 sold fresh and delicious sandwiches at Ripon Market as part of this term’s Design and Technology (DT) project. The children were involved in every stage of the process, from designing and pricing their sandwiches to purchasing the ingredients and preparing the final products for sale at their very own market stall.

The children were excellent ambassadors for the school and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Thanks to their hard work and enthusiasm, they raised over £100, which will be used to purchase new playtime equipment for all the children to enjoy.

We are grateful to Thomas the Bakers for donating all the bread rolls which was very generous. Many thanks also to all parents, friends and family members who supported the stall.

Year 5 T-shirts and Bags

The Year 5 children have also been hard at work this term on their DT project. They planned their wildlife themed design and carefully created a lino cut in order to be able to print onto t-shirts and tote bags. The finished products were amazing and sold out on their market stall. Well done Year 5!

Year 4 become Victorian children for a day!

On Tuesday, the Year 4 children spent the day at the Ripon Workhouse Museum, exploring and experiencing what life was like for poor children living in a Victorian workhouse. Throughout the day, they learned a great deal about the challenges faced by those who lived there.

The children remained in role for most of the visit. On arrival, they were greeted by the matron, who separated them into boys and girls, just as would have happened in Victorian times. During the morning, they took part in lessons in arithmetic, reading and handwriting using slate boards in an authentic Victorian classroom. They also completed a range of chores, including making beds, setting tables and cleaning brass.

In the afternoon, the children participated in a series of physical drills similar to those carried out daily by workhouse children to improve posture and endurance. They also examined census records to learn more about the people who once lived and worked in the workhouse.

The children reported:

“I learnt so many new things about the Victorians, but I think it was very hard being a poor Victorian child.” – Maxwell

“I couldn’t choose my favourite thing because I enjoyed it all. The teachers were a lot meaner back then, and the jobs were very tiring.” – Alisa

“It must have been very hard for Victorian children in the workhouse because I was very tired after just one day of doing all the chores.” – Ella

“I learnt that if you did your work too slowly, you had to stand in the corner of the classroom with a hat on your head. Left-handed children had to cover their left hand, so they could only write with their right hand.” – Elliot

The museum is currently undergoing a major refurbishment, which meant we were unable to visit every area. Despite this, we still had a fantastic day and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Well done to this week's stars.

Nursery – Mackenzie, for working hard to complete a 2D shape matching game.

Reception – Melo, for the amazing effort she is putting into her phonics sessions and reading groups.

Year 1 – Clara, for her fantastic independent writing. Clara has worked incredibly hard on her information text about the seasons, showing great stamina for writing to get all her ideas on the page. She always takes care with her punctuation too!

Year 2 – Adith, for writing a fantastic version of the poem 'I went to a wishing well.' Adith persevered and showed real determination to include repetition, rhyme and humour.

Year 3 – Beatrix, for being an amazing ambassador for our school on the market stall; being polite, friendly and helpful to her peers, customers and school staff.

Year 4 – James, for his excellent contributions to class discussions, he has focussed really well this week.

Year 5 – Isabelle, for such determination this week during assessments and for representing the school beautifully at the market stall.

Year 6 - Georgia, for challenging herself in English and for showing great enthusiasm in production practice.

Friends of the School

Summer Fair Friday 26th June 2pm to 5pm

On the day

We are all getting excited about the Summer Fair which is being held next Friday 26th June, 2pm - 5pm. We hope that many of you are planning to come along! Children will stay in classes with a member of staff until 3.15pm as usual, but you will be able to collect from the classroom door any time after 2pm (3.15pm at the latest unless your child is booked into Oscar's). As soon as you have collected, your child/ren are then in your care to enjoy the fair with you, rather than the responsibility of the school, and you may leave without notifying school staff.

In preparation

We would appreciate help before the big event as we would love donations for:

Teddy bear tombola
Bottle tombola
General tombola
Raffle prizes, including any vouchers for local businesses/shops etc. if people can source donations.
Baked items (to be brought in Thursday 25th or Friday 26th June not in advance!).

Please could you continue to bring items into school, thank you.

Mrs Walsh will be sending out a letter to parents of Year 5 and 6 children asking for permission for any who can to stay in school until 4.30pm to help with stalls and activities. We also really need parent volunteers on the day itself, please email rcpsfriends@gmail.com if you can help.

KS2 Summer Production

Parents of KS2 children should all have received a letter mid-week to explain how to purchase tickets for the summer production of 'I'm an 11 year old, get me out of here!' Tickets are selling fast, so we recommend going on to ParentPay this weekend if you haven't yet booked your seats. We have had to limit tickets in the first instance so all children have the opportunity to have a family member in the audience and numbers of seats in the hall comply with health and safety guidelines. However, if not all tickets are sold, we will open up further sales.

Currently tickets are only on sale to parents of KS2 children as the younger children do not feature in the show. If tickets remain and EYFS/KS1 parents are interested in attending, we will sell spares nearer the time.

Colour Run Friday 3rd July 2.30pm

We hope all the children are excited about this year's Colour Run. If your child wasn't in school two years ago, they might like to ask an older child about how much fun we had last time! Sunglasses (eye protection is essential) and white t-shirts are available to purchase on ParentPay. You may, of course, provide your own but we hope our bulk buying power may make them cheaper. We are fundraising for our new school library, so all sponsorship is greatly appreciated. As it is difficult for us to have large amounts of cash in school, we are asking parents to collect the sponsorship money, then when you are ready, to pay in the money online using ParentPay. Thank you for your support for this exciting project.

Sorry that parents will not be able to attend the event (pick up at normal time). This is for safeguarding reasons to ensure there is sufficient and safe space for the children to participate. There's no doubt you will be able to see that the children have had fun participating in a colour run when you pick them up from school!

Why Schools Have to Be Tough on Attendance

One of the questions we are often asked is why we take attendance so seriously. We believe that regular school attendance is one of the most important factors in a child's educational success and future opportunities. Research consistently shows that children who miss school frequently are more likely to fall behind academically. Even a few days of absence can mean missing important learning, while persistent absence can have a significant impact on attainment, confidence, friendships and future prospects. Good attendance helps children develop routines, resilience and positive habits that support success later in life.

The Department for Education (DfE) makes clear that attending school every day is not optional. Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure that children of compulsory school age receive a suitable education and attend school regularly. Schools, in turn, have a duty to promote good attendance, identify concerns early, and work with families to remove barriers that may prevent children from attending school.

The government's statutory guidance, ‘Working Together to Improve School Attendance’, requires schools and local authorities to take a consistent approach to attendance. This means that schools cannot ignore unauthorised absences, even when they understand that families may have genuine pressures or difficult circumstances. We understand that holidays taken during school holiday periods are more expensive: school staff are also affected by these inflated prices! However, the DfE are clear in their expectations that holidays are not to be considered as ‘exceptional circumstances’ and that these absences should not be authorised.

In certain circumstances, parents may receive a penalty notice for unauthorised absence: this does include unauthorised term-time holidays. A common misconception is that schools benefit financially from attendance fines. This is not the case. Schools do not receive the money collected through penalty notices. Fines are issued and administered by local authorities.

Schools are held accountable for attendance. Attendance data is collected nationally and schools are expected to monitor attendance carefully and reduce persistent absence. Inspectors from Ofsted consider attendance as part of their evaluation of a school. They look at attendance rates, patterns of absence and the effectiveness of the school's work to support and improve attendance. The DfE have set our school an attendance target this year of 97.5%.

We recognise that every family faces challenges from time to time. However, we want to ensure that every child has the best possible opportunity to learn, thrive and achieve their full potential through regular attendance at school. Thank you for your continued support in helping us make attendance a priority for every child.