Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely half term break and the children are feeling ready for the half term ahead. The lighter mornings and evenings and making it feel more like spring which definitely helps.

Well done to this week's Stars of the Week! You should all be very proud of yourselves.

This week's school attendance is 93.5%.

Whole school attendance so far this year is 94.9%.

Early Years/Key Stage 1 class of the week is All Day Nursery with 100% attendance!

Key Stage 2 class of the week is 4BY with 98.8% attendance - well done!

Once more, here is the link to the attendance page of the school website which has information on the Penalty Notice system. Ultimately, more than 2 penalty notices could result in the council taking you to court and a criminal record. We really do not want any of our families to have to go through this.

Attendance | Low Ash Primary School

Saturday 1st March - Swimming Gala

Monday 3rd March - Year 5 class trip to Saltaire

Monday 3rd March - Local author visiting school

Tuesday 4th March - Hanson winter games

Wednesday 5th March - Year 5 class visit to Saltaire

Wednesday 5th March - 'Girl power' sports workshop involving some year 5 girls

Thursday 6th March - World Book Day

Thursday 6th March - Cross Country Finals

Friday 7th March - 2W school trip

Friday 7th March - Years 4 - 6 football at Goals (in school day)

Friday 7th March - Year 6 live Science lesson

Monday 10th - Wednesday 12th March - Year 4 residential

Monday 10th March - Year 5 class visit to Saltaire

Tuesday 11th March - 'William Petty' visiting Year 2

Tuesday 11th March - Year 6 live Science lesson

Thursday 13th March - 3M Geography trip

Friday 14th March - 3B Geography trip

Tuesday 18th March - Year 5 - 'Rewind to Easter' church visit

Friday 21st March - Red Nose Day - non uniform day

Wednesday 26th March - Consultation evening

Thursday 27th March - Consultation evening

Friday 28th March - Mother's Day Secret Room

Tuesday 1st April - Rocksteady performance

Friday 4th April - Schools break up

Scarlett and Sophia, two of our pupils, are running the Leeds 1.5km run on June 15th in aid of the children’s cancer charity Candlelighters. Their cousin was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in January and has sadly lost his sight because of this. He is still in the LGI receiving chemotherapy. If you would like to donate to the cause, please click on the link below.

Thank you to all those who supported the Valentine's film nights which took place before the holidays. Over £700 was raised for school which is absolutely fantastic. Money raised from fundraising helps us with a variety of things from helping us to maintain the school minibuses, helping us to subsidise some trips and clubs and also developing our outdoor and SEND provision in school amongst many other things. A huge thank you to FOLA for another really successful event.

You might remember that, last year, a team of staff from school completed the Leeds half marathon to raise money for school. Thanks to your contributions over £2,000 was raised! This year, on Saturday May 17th, a team from school will be walking the 3 peaks in a day to raise money for school. This will be no mean feat - a 24-25 mile trek in a day. I am sure there will some sore feat and legs on the Monday. If you can support in any way, please click on the link below.

A reminder that World Book Day is next week and children are invited to dress up as their favourite story character. Please do not spend any / a lot of money on outfits. Many can be put together from items you already have at home. Below is a link to the official World Book Day site and also to a site with an idea for some 'last minute' costumes!

World Book Day - World Book Day | World Book Day is a registered charity. Our mission is to give every child and young person a book of their own.

126 easy World Book Day homemade costume ideas 2025 with pictures | MadeForMums

Hopefully you will all have seen the information about the Wonka's Bars which were very popular last year and will be on sale again this year. You never know, your child could be one of the lucky 'golden ticket' winners!

We are excited to share with you some pictures of our newly developed sensory place. This room is designed to be a calming place for pupils who might need it.

As normal, the half term started with our Art and DT days. Year 6 did a wonderful job sewing, making their own soft toys and cushions. We were very impressed by their skills!

2M enjoyed a trip to Harlow Carr this week. They behaved brilliantly and members of the public commented on this - we are very proud of them all.

Well done to all of our country runners. They took part in Blakehill Primary's cross country competition and did amazingly. A special mention to Darcie from Year 4 who finished in a fantastic 4th place! Well done to all.

This week, we have had quite a serious online safety issue concerning some of our Years 5 and 6 pupils (and some pupils from Year 7). Although this has been communicated separately to the parents and carers of pupils in those year groups, we just would like to remind you about the importance of being vigilant with your child's devices.

To assist you in monitoring your child's online activity, if you are not already, we recommend using parental control apps. These apps can help you keep track of your child's device usage, set screen time limits, and block inappropriate content. Some parental control available which might be of use are:

• Net Nanny: Offers web filtering, app blocking, and location tracking

• Kaspersky Safe Kids: Provides detailed activity reports, screen time management, and social media monitoring

• Qustodio: Allows you to monitor calls and messages, set time limits, and track your child's location.

• Google Family Link: Helps you manage your child's app usage, set screen time limits, and see their device activity

• OurPact: Enables you to block apps, set schedules, and monitor your child's online activity.

• Norton Family: Effective for screen time and location management

• mSpy: Detailed monitoring, including texts and social media

• EyeZy: Best for social media surveillance and keystroke monitoring

• Life360: Family location sharing app

March's online safety newsletter below contains some useful information on AI generated images, books to use to support online safety (many of which we use in school) and gaming. We hope you find it useful.

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