News

EPOSS Incredible Years parenting course

The EPOSS cluster will be running an Incredible Years Parenting Course starting Friday 09 November at Wetherby Children’s Centre. Please see the attached poster/leaflet for further information.

There is no need to book: parents/carers can just turn up on the first session or ring the number provided on the leaflet if you have any questions.

Morning dance club

We have spaces in our Tuesday morning dance club. It is run by Flex Dance and starts at 8am.  It is open for Y2-6 children and will run for the next 3 weeks initially. Please pop into the office for a letter if you are interested.

A few reminders for next week

Just a few reminders about some of the things coming up next week (week commencing 01 October 2018):

On Monday 01 October at 2pm, we invite you to school to share with you our school improvement plan.  We have some great news to share about our end of year data and also some feedback from a school advisor who visited us very recently.

On Tuesday 02 October at 6pm, we have a reading and maths information meeting for Y2, Y3 and Y4 parents.  We’ll share with you tips for how you can support at home and answer any questions you may have.

On Wednesday 03 October, we have the return of the Hobgoblin theatre company. The children in Y1 -Y6 will see a play and children in KS2 will then take part in a workshop.

On Friday 05 October, it’s Mr Catherall’s class assembly.  Parents from this class are welcome to come and watch.

Awesome Orienteering – outdoor and adventurous sport

The children and staff were buzzing after their orienteering sessions this week. They were delivered by the Airienteers who are a group who organise orienteering events in Airedale and Wharfedale. Orienteering is a fun, competitive, and very active, sport.

As part of the PE curriculum children should, “take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges both individually and within a team.” Our year 4 and year 6 residentials offer these opportunities and this year we have used Sport Premium funding to add orienteering to our curriculum.

Girls only basketball

Clubs, clubs, clubs!

We have a jam-packed after, and one before, school club timetable this half term. Letters have been, or will be, sent out inviting children to take part in these. They range from dodgeball to netball, athletics to dancing. If you would like your child to take part in a club, please contact the school office for further details and letters.

Fantastic Fruit Tuck Shop

We’ve started our fruit tuck shop trial. Children enjoyed choosing their fruit (or vegetable) and have made some suggestions that we will take on board. If you’d like your child to join in, please return the slip to the office before next Tuesday.

Living and Learning

Each Autumn, we focus on our Living and Learning theme: ‘The 8 Rs for learning’. This theme is about promoting good learning behaviour for your child. (Our Newsletter gives details of this too!)

Each week, we’ll focus on two different ‘Rs’. We use an animal to symbolise each ‘R’, which might help your child remember all eight – can your child remember which animal matches the correct ‘R’?

You can support your child at home – we’ve listed a few ideas to help you below. Ask us if you’ve any questions or comments.

Download top tips for promoting the 8Rs for good learning behaviour.

I can show I am ready to learn.

Make sure your child is at school for a prompt start of 08:50am.

Make sure your child has had plenty of sleep so they are alert and ready to learn at all times.

Encourage your child to ask lots of questions – that shows they want to learn!

I respond to feedback.

Ask your child if they remember their ‘must do’s’ in English (and Maths).

I take a safe risk.

Talk about the difference between a safe and unsafe risk.  At school, we want your child to take a safe risk by having a go at answering, even if unsure; trying something new and attempting harder learning.

I take responsibility for my own learning.

Provide time and space at home so your child is able to organise themselves: their PE kit, reading book, homework, spellings and tables… Don’t organise everything for them!

Make a link between rights and responsibilities: your child has the right to a great education, but needs to be responsible for their own learning.

I am resourceful.

Encourage your child to be organised so they can play with a range of different toys.

Encourage your child to try new ways to solve a tricky problem.

I am resilient.

Encourage your child to keep going! Set a tricky challenge or puzzle for your child to do.

Encourage your child to think of different ways of doing things.

Don’t let your child win when they play a game – they need to experience losing, too!

Celebrate mistakes as opportunities to learn – be happy that your child found some learning hard and encourage them to ‘bounce back’ and learn from the experience.

I remember.

Make sure they have time to learn spellings, number bonds and times tables – a little practice daily is best.

Play memory games: Kim’s game: show them objects for 30 seconds… can they remember all the objects?

Can they build up the sequence, ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple and a bike.’… ‘I went to the shop and I bought an apple, a bike and a cucumber.’ etc … Take turns!

I reflect about my learning.

Talk with your child about what they’ve learnt, asking questions about:

how they learnt

why they learnt it

when they’ll use their learning

how they would teach this to someone else

what learning might link with what they’ve learnt today etc

As well as covering the 8Rs for learning, pupils will also learn about their rights and responsibilities.

Finally, we end the half term learning about democracy (one of the British Values).  All children have the opportunity to experience democracy in our annual School Council elections.  More details to follow.

Our full Living and Learning long term plan is available on the health pages and you can keep up to date with our weekly Living and Learning statements on the school calendar.

New and improved end of KS2 outcomes

At Scholes (Elmet), proportions at age-related expectations are substantially higher than in recent years – we’re really proud of this and it reflects all the hard work staff are putting in to make the improvements we’ve introduced as successful as they can possibly be.

We had one of our 2017-18 Year 6 pupil’s Reading test re-marked because we had concerns over some of the marking. We’re happy that the re-mark has meant good news for our former pupil (well done!). It also means the outcomes for the school have improved even more.

The proportion who reached age-related expectations in Reading is now 80% (last year, it was 64%).

This means that proportion of children reaching the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Maths (all three combined) has increased: it’s now 71% – higher than the national figure of 64%.

Postcards, postcards and more postcards!

A huge thank you to everyone who sent in a postcard from their summer holiday.  We received over 50!  I have thoroughly enjoyed reading them all and have pondered for a long time about the winners.  You certainly visited some amazing places and got up to some exciting things.

We had postcards from around the UK and as far away as Hong Kong.  We had picture postcards showing special family events and even a jigsaw postcard which needed putting together to reveal the picture.

The postcards will now be displayed in classrooms for everyone to share.  The winners (to be announced this week) will be displayed on a special board within school.