School Journalist: FOSP Halloween disco
Why do we celebrate Halloween….?!
I did a little research and Halloween’s origin can be traced back to Ancient Celtic festivals known as Samhain, which was held on 1 November in contemporary calendars. It was believed that on that day, the souls of the dead would return to their homes, so people dressed in costumes and lit bonfires to warn off spirits. Halloween is celebrated on the 31 October every year and it comes the day before All Saint’s Day.
To celebrate we spend lots of time decorating our homes and gardens with things that we associate with Halloween such as pumpkins, black cats, witches, ghosts and lots of other fantastic, scary things so that when the eve of Halloween arrives, we are all ready for trick or treaters! Trick or treats are usually children dressed up in Halloween costumes who are out to have fun on this special night of the year.
We are lucky at Scholes (Elmet) Primary School to have a school disco where we get time to celebrate and have an amazing night with our friends. Dressing up in Halloween costumes is optional but lots of people like to do this. It’s really cool to see how much imagination and effort people put into their costumes!
At the disco we will listen to music and dance. We can also buy drinks and sweets to keep us going. The proceeds from the disco, go to FOSP (our school’s PTA). FOSP are always looking for ways to help support school and our learning. For example, they recently helped us to purchase two new sports kits so we can represent our school looking smart!
Remember Halloween is on 31 October, and this is during school holidays! So, if you are out trick or treating – have fun, make sure you look really scary and stay safe!
By Thea Perks
Wetherby St Joseph's 2 - 6 Scholes (Elmet)
This week, our Year 5 football team travelled over to Wetherby for their first game of the new league season.
Both teams played some fantastic football and it was an absolute joy to watch; the effort, commitment and skill on show was something many of those spectating will not have seen before.
Whilst there were many goal scorers, and many spectacular goals scored, the thing that shone most was the attitude of the Scholes (Elmet) team. They tried hard, supported each other and stuck together as a team!
Well done to the Year 5 football team – we’re very proud of you!
Our weekly message: Friday 11 October
Most of this week’s message is about our first themed week of the year…
Me and my community themed week
Our next whole school themed week is all about identity, diversity and community. It takes place in the week beginning Monday 04 November. This is the first of two themed weeks in the year.
Children will learn about what it means to belong to a community, from family to national or even international communities. Importantly, our children will also learn to respect and celebrate different communities. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of our Living and Learning education.
Events and learning during the week will include looking at our own identity including belonging and self-esteem, diversity of people around us including race, age, religion and disability, and children will also be getting out into the community, working with our local Scholes Library and taking pride in the local area for example by litter picking.
New school charity
During the themed week, classes will have the chance to discuss our charity shortlist*. After class discussions, the Junior Leadership Team will have the final vote for which charity they’d like our school to support, replacing our current charity, The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.
*This year, we’ve invited all the Sphere Federation admin staff to suggest a charity each.
Can you help?
Maybe you speak another language and you’d be happy to speak to children about this or you’d like to share about your own family culture and heritage. If so, please contact the office to pass on your details. Also, do you have any local community links that may support our week?
Governor election outcome
Thank you if you voted in the recent parent governor elections.
Mr Craig Barker will become the new Parent Governor when Mr Matt Hick’s term of office ends on 19 November 2024. Mr Barker’s period as governor is 4 years from 20 November 2024. His appointment is subject to satisfactory DBS checks.
Please remember…
We’ve two policies that are especially important for you to remember. The first is our Uniform Policy – please make sure you check it out, especially details about what to wear on PE days, what jewellery is allowed, and typing back long hair, too. The other is our Attendance Policy – this is important because it reflects recent national changes around penalty fines for unauthorised absence.
Finally this week, a reminder well in advance… Our parent-teacher meetings will be on Tuesday and Thursday in the last week of the term. Please save the date!
School Journalist: Harvest Festival Update
Harvest festival was on the 6th of October and our school did a collection of food and other household items. Harvest festival is to give thanks for the harvest and the food it brings from all the crops. We are very lucky to have farmers who take time and care into our crops.
Did you know…
Fun fact: Harvest Festival is usually celebrated on Sunday closest to the Harvest Moon, also sometimes called the September moon. This is the moon closed to the Autumn equinox, usually towards the end of September or the beginning of November. The autumn equinox is the two moments in the year when the Sun is exactly above the Equator and day and night are of equal length – this marks the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. Pretty cool – eh!
It’s still not too late to contribute to our school collection. It would be helpful to brings things such as:
Long life milk
Canned food
Toiletries
Cleaning products
Tinned fruit
Rice
These are products that have a long use by date that mean they can be stored until they are needed. All the donations will be sent to the Wetherby Food Bank who will then make up food parcels for families and those in need.
Thank you for your donations and help for this wonderful charity.
Happy Harvest!
Thank you for your generosity – our harvest collection was amazing!
All your donations were collected by The Wetherby and District Foodbank.
We should get a certificate in the next few days giving us a few more details about how much we collected. Your donations will make a massive difference to those who are struggling to put food on the table.
Our ‘clothes’ harvest was also successful. The morning collection alone saw about seven large bags full of great quality clothes. All your donations were sent to The Clothing Bank.
A huge thank you to everyone for a very successful day.
Wildflower garden
We planted more seeds in the wildflower garden this week, which will hopefully add to the beautiful display we enjoyed this spring and summer.
There are Corn Chamomiles, Corn Marigolds, Corn Poppies and Night-flowering Catchflies.
A big THANK YOU to the Garforth and District Lions for donating the benches for us too.
Scholes in Bloom Coffee Morning
Please help us celebrate our community by attending the Scholes in Bloom Coffee Morning.
Our new school journalist: Thea!
Our new school journalist is Thea. She’ll be keeping you updated on lots of events happening around school. Her weekly article will provide some insight into school life: it could be interviews with adults, interviews with children, updates about events, or even, ‘a day in the life of…’.
Either way, we’re sure you’ll love her updates and we’re incredibly pleased to bring you her first article…
An Interview With Miss Gilliland
Miss Gilliland is a new teacher at Scholes and has been teaching for a month. I’ve been catching up with her to learn a little bit about her and to see how she is finding her new role.
Something you might not know is that Miss Gilliland was born and raised in Northern Ireland which is part of the UK. Miss Gilliland also has a dog called ‘Schnauzer’ – I wonder what breed this pooch might be!
Miss Gilliland was originally a trainee teacher and worked at Moortown Primary School which is a part of Sphere Federation. Since being at Scholes, Miss Gilliland says she loves learning new names and Wake Up Shake Up dances (or WUSU). She personally thinks Scholes (Elmet) Primary school is a happy and healthy place to study for children and adults. She cares for children every day by showing us all care and respect.
I am sure my friends across the school community will join me in saying a massive ‘Welcome to Scholes’ and that we wish her all the best with her new class this year!
Our weekly message: Friday 27 September
This week’s Living and Learning message is a great one to think about at home: I know that rights come with responsibilities…
- At school for example, children have the right to play, and that comes with the responsibility to play alongside others safely and respectfully.
- Think about this at home. For example, in your house, it might be that your child has the right to be online, but the responsibility to be online for a limited amount of time each day.
Food in school
This week, we want to flag up a page on our website you perhaps don’t visit much – Food in school. This page has lots of information about school dinners (including the current menu), free school meals and packed lunches.
- We’ve a general policy on food in school, setting out some key points, including the importance of water and we don’t allow birthday foods.
- If your child has school dinners, please check out whether they may be entitled to free school meals.
- If your child has a packed lunch, have a look at our packed lunch guidance.
On the subject of food in school, don’t forget to alert us to any allergies that your child may have.
Staying healthy…
Last week, we mentioned the West Yorkshire NHS website Healthier Together, launched to provide consistent advice from local health and care professionals.
Linked to this, check out this guide to keeping your child healthy from the UK Health Security Agency.
…for good attendance
It’s worth thinking about what your child might miss if they were absent for five days in a row…
For younger children learning to read, they’d miss five, half an hour phonics lessons – that’s a full two and half hours of phonics teaching. In this time, they’d miss out on learning four new graphemes (eg ay, ou, oi, ea) and practising reading and writing these in words and in sentences. They’d miss learning up to four new tricky words, too. Your child would also miss valuable time to practise the previous week’s graphemes and developing fluency in reading words containing those sounds. As well as the phonics lessons, your child would miss four reading practice group sessions and would not have the time to read and re-read the physical book in school. In these sessions, we develop fluency, prosody and comprehension. They’d also miss the library session and not be able to choose a new book to take home.
Before deciding to keep your child at home, remember to check this NHS site: Is my child too ill for school?
Governor recruitment
We’ve had two expressions of interest from parents who are interested in joining our Governing Board. This means we now have an election. Please take a couple of minutes to read each of the two candidates’ written statement and make your vote. Thank you.
Finally, a quick reminder…
We’ve another Watch Us While We Work session next week – Tuesday morning. This is the first of two opportunities in the year to see some Maths and Reading being taught in school so that you can support your child at home.
Our weekly message: Friday 20 September
We hope you’ve enjoyed this sunny week – this Indian summer.
Our Living and Learning theme has been a simple one this week: ‘I use good manners’. At school, this can mean greeting people politely (including adults as they arrive at school), saying please and thank you, and avoiding interrupting. Have a chat with your child about what it means at home, too.
Cooking
Over the course of the year, your child will enjoy three opportunities to prepare food…
- Year 1 and 2: fruit smoothies, overnight oats, and fruit bars
- Year 3 and 4: egg pots, chopped tomatoes and garlic, and savoury scones
- Year 5 and 6: vegetable and chickpea curry, pasta bake, and bread
We’ve a couple of requests, please:
Most importantly, please alert us to any allergies your child has. We’ll do our best to adapt recipes.
To make sure that we can continue to offer this, please make a voluntary donation of £3 to £6 to pay for the ingredients. We really appreciated your donations last year.
For more about our Cooking curriculum, please check out our Cooking and Nutrition Curriculum Guide – they include the recipes and background information including the food preparation skills children will practise. (We’re in Year B this year.)
Relationships and Sex Education
At the start of each year, we like to encourage you to be aware of our Relationships and Sex Education Policy. Later in the year, your child will have Relationships and Sex Education lessons. In those lessons, we’ll talk about anatomical terms and different relationships. However, we might need to use the terms at other times, such as when dealing with incidents of misuse or disrespectful language, and we’ll talk about lots of different relationships at any time of the year, too.
How we communicate home
Another thing we like to do at the start of the year is help you be aware of how we communicate home. Findings from our annual survey of parents and carers indicate the vast majority of you are happy with how we communicate, but we’re also aware of a small number of you who are less content. We do our best to stick to the following…
Texts
Anything urgent (such as the cancellation of an after-school club) or a quick reminder about something (like the photographer being in school) will be sent by text. If you have the School Gateway app, it might be useful to set it so you receive notifications of messages. Texts will automatically be sent to your app.
Emails
Our emails will usually be a longer message about one specific thing. We’re moving away from sending out hard copies of most letters (it’s better for the environment to send things electronically and things don’t always get to you if they’re sent home in book bags). Please try to check your emails daily, so you don’t miss anything important.
Weekly messages
Just like this one, our Weekly Messages usually contain more general information. They might include reminders, such as forthcoming events or policy details, but will mainly consist of other information that you might find useful. Usually, they’re published on the school website on Friday afternoons and emailed out a little later the same day.
Class news
For anything relevant to your child’s class, please check the Class News pages of the website (we recommend doing this at least once a week). Nursery and Reception classes use these pages a lot because there are often forthcoming events specific to the Early Years.
Homework
For children in Key Stage 1 and 2, your child should bring home a hard copy of their weekly homework, but you’ll also be able to find it on the Homework section of the website. (There’s no specific homework set for children in Nursery and Reception, but read the Class News articles for lots of ideas to help you support your child at home.)
Social media
Finally, we have Facebook. Messages on here are usually repeats of other communications, such as our Weekly Messages. Nothing urgent or particularly important will be posted only on social media because we know that not everyone accesses these things.
Healthier together
We’ve been asked to let you know about West Yorkshire NHS website Healthier Together.
The initiative was launched to provide families, children and young people with consistent, quality advice from local health and care professionals.
September can be a time when there are more common infections and illnesses amongst children. It’s important that families become familiar with different illnesses (fever, coughs, asthma, bronchiolitis, gastroenteritis…) and how to manage them ahead of the new school year.
And on that note, have a happy and healthy weekend, hopefully enjoying the last of the Indian summer!