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We are closed.

Due to treacherous driving conditions and forecast for the entire day, we have decided to close school.

World Book Day

This afternoon, the Y6 children visited F2 to share stories. The children were put into pairs and then chose a story to read together. First the F2 children listened to a story read by the Year 6 children and then the F2 children read one of our Biff, Chip and Kipper stories to them. The F2 children enjoyed reading to the older children.

We are looking forward to welcoming parents/carers to our third stay and play session (stay and read) on Thursday 01 March 8.50am – 9.20am or 2.45pm – 3.15pm. 

The children are very excited about coming to school dressed as their favourite story book character. We (the Foundation 2 staff) will also be dressing up as characters from a storybook.

Scholes in Bloom winners!

Well done to the children who designed a flowerbed for outside our school.  Your ideas were amazing!

Look out for the winning design – this will be planted very soon.

What is my child learning?

Phonics

You’ve probably heard your child talking about digraphs, trigraphs and tricky words. A few parents have been asking what their child is talking about so we’ll be sending an information flyer home to help.

Your child has been learning all the letter sounds for the alphabet – please see the YouTube video for help pronouncing the ‘pure’ sounds.

Since January, your child has started to learn the letter names for these ‘pure’ sounds. We have enjoyed singing a song that sings the letter sounds AND names. Your child has also been learning to read digraphs and trigraphs.

Digraphs consist of two letters (graphemes) but they only make one sound (phoneme). The digraphs are shown below:

Trigraphs consist of three letters (graphemes) but they only make one sound (phoneme). The trigraphs are shown below:

Using their digraph and trigraph knowledge your child will be able to read words such as…

The sound buttons/lines shown underneath the letters help your child sound out words. A line is shown when the letters make a digraph or trigraph- that way your child will only make one sound when reading a digraph/trigraph.

Sound buttons and lines are not everywhere so we need to teach your child to independently spot the digraphs and trigraphs so that they only make one sound when reading a digraph/trigraph!

Can your child spot any digraphs or trigraphs in their reading book?

Tricky words are words your child cannot sound out using their phonic knowledge – they just have to know them by sight… that’s what makes them tricky!

The Big Ink Cartridge Collection

WANTED!

School council are collecting used ink cartridges to raise money for our school and our chosen charity – The Donkey Sanctuary.

All collected used ink and toner cartridges are recycled in an environmentally friendly way and the money raised is donated back to us! The more cartridges we can collect, the more we can raise.

If anyone’s workplace throws their ink cartridges away, we’ll be happy to recycle them for you!

An ink cartridge recycle box is waiting for your donation in the main office reception.

Amazingly atmospheric writing

One of the Year 5 and Year 6 learning objectives is to develop the skills of using other writing as a model for their own writing. This isn’t simply copying another writer; instead, it’s using their work as inspiration, a model, for their own ideas and style (a bit like J K Rowling being inspired, perhaps, by a writer such as Ursula K Le Guin, who also wrote about a wizarding school).

Here, two Year 6 pupils – Reece Morley and Jacob Rayner – have done just that, with great results. The original text was the wonderful The Nowhere Emporium by Ross McKenzie. Their writing is reproduced here (with just a couple of spellings corrected). Enjoy!

The shop was made of midnight black stone, embedded in little specks of silver and gold. The iron gate sat there in front of the grand oak door, guarding the entrance like a soldier. It had wooden beams which reached sky high which loomed ominously over the dusty street. Although the giant beams and the great gate looked quite foreboding, there was something calming and also quite mesmerising about the strange building. Just above a black, tinted, barred window were some letters that spelled out the name: The Midnight Mall.

Inside it seemed almost completely normal. The darkness ate at the light in the corners but that was all. Or at least it seemed like that was all. But if you focused a bit more you’d notice a green aura of light around all of the objects. The walls had cracks in them, the plants whacked each other with their branches even though the air was still. Small and very distant screeches could be heard if you stayed quiet. The place seemed quite intriguing yet kind of scary all at the same time, if you notice all those things. The shop with all this stuff that is quite mysterious can only appear at midnight.

Afterwards, it will be gone.

The Master led Vindictus through the abandoned worn-out factory. The derelict building stood lifeless. Its crumbling chimneys and hanging gutters were clogged with moist, rotting leaves and the walls were pitted, as if they had been gnawed by hundreds of starving rats. Vindictus followed the Master through to the decrepit, ancient office. The Master snatched a worn key from a battered safe. They passed conveyor belts that hadn’t been used for a decade or two.

“Argh!” screamed the Master as a nightmare-ish, blood-curdling wail erupted from a larger-than-life bat. Whilst the Master was hyper-ventilating, Vindictus asked, “Is this where you keep him?” pointing to a weather-worn prison cell.

“I’m afraid we had no choice,” sighed the Master. “He was
violent to the other boys but he is well fed.” The prison cell was dark and dreary. Boxes were scattered around the room. They contained unknown items. Although the entrance was damaged from constant usage, it was still firm. The boy inside was dreary, lonesome and unexcitable. However, there was something intriguing about him.

Our Year 6 Reading workshop

Thanks to the parents and carers of Year 6 children who came to school yesterday evening for a Reading workshop. We’re really pleased to see so many of you taking the time to learn how you can best support your child at home.

Here are two examples of the great feedback we got:

‘The evening was very informative. It helped me understand what the reading SATs paper will be like and where I can help my child… Thank you for taking the time to give us an insight…’

‘I feel more comfortable with what [my child] is being taught and the support he is being given.’

Read the PowerPoint slides here: part one, part two and part three.

Watch a short video about the Key Stage 2 assessments (SATs) here.

One parent suggested the evening should be scheduled towards the end of the school for Year 5 parents, so they are more prepared for Year 6 from the outset. Thanks for the idea – we think it’s a good one and we’re going to organise this.

Golden star of the week!

Well done to our golden star of the week!

Steam Train and Santa!

We had a fabulous time at Middleton Railway this week. All the children were a fantastic advert for our school. We learnt about fireboxes, pistons and crankshafts. Ask you child how a steam train works!

08 December 2017

This week’s spellings are taken from the National Curriculum’s Y3/4 spelling list. They’ll be tested on Thursday 14 December. 

• famous
• favourite
• February (remember this one must have a capital letter because it’s a proper noun)
• forwards
• fruit