Scholes in Bloom flower bed competition winner
Larraine came in to our assembly in school on Monday this week. She announced the winner of the competition. It was chosen because of the eye-catching design featuring lovely bright coloured stripes and a love heart. The winning design will be made using flowers in the bed outside the school on Morwick Grove.
Well done to the runners up too.
Scholes Reading Champion
In January, Leeds School Library Services set a competition to search for KS2 Reading Champions. They were looking for children who advocate for reading within their school and those that encourage others to develop a love of reading. Schools were invited to nominate one person and we nominated Olivia from Year 5. Olivia is not only one of our school librarians but she also supports younger children in developing their reading skills. She also has a real passion for reading for pleasure.
Whilst Olivia was not the winner on this occasion, the library service emailed school to say just how impressed they were with Olivia’s entry.
“Olivia’s love of reading shines through and the judges were very impressed with all the work that she puts into ensuring that the library is a welcoming space for other children. It is also fantastic that Olivia supports KS1 children with their reading, hoping to instill in them the same passion for books that she has…she certainly is a star!”
Olivia, we’re very proud of you. Well done – you are definitely a Scholes Reading Champion.
Our weekly message (Friday 19 April 2024)
We hope your Easter break was a good one. As usual in our first message of the term, we kick off with an attendance update…
Amazing attendance
For the full Autumn and Spring terms (04 September 2023 to 28 March 2024), our whole school attendance figure is 95.8%. This continues to be above the national figure – thank you.
All the classes are doing well – they’re all above the national attendance figure for primary schools (94.6%), so well done to everyone.
- Sunshine (Miss Parling): 94.7%
- Rainbow (Mrs Allen-Kelly and Mrs Flynn): 95.2%
- 1A (Mrs Brown and Mrs Wilkins): 95.5%
- 1/2B (Mrs Latham): 96.1%
- 2C (Miss Young): 95.8%
- 3/4A (Mrs Paterson): 96%
- 3/4B (Miss Iveson): 96.4%
- 3/4C (Mrs Wadsworth): 96.2%
- 5/6A (Mr Wain): 95.9%
- 5/6B (Mrs Hogarth): 95.4%
- 5/6C (Mr Lindsay): 95.3%
Contact details
Finally, a quick reminder: if there are any new contact details for you or other people on our records, please remember to let us know. We need up-to-date details for the people on our lists in case of emergencies. (The people on our lists are the ones you gave us when your child started school – in most cases, this will be three different people.)
Special needs support
Leeds SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice Support Service) have some drop-in sessions coming up if you’d like to receive information and advice about SEND services in Leeds. They’re also running a series of specific events.
Finally, when one of us stands at the school gate at the start and end of the day, we love to hear a friendly ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’. It’s something we’ve been working on across the year – not only is it a polite thing to do, but it helps to develop children’s confidence and positive relationships. We’re really pleased to see that more and more often, children are doing this naturally. Thank you for helping us with this, too!
School Journalists
Hello there!
Today, we will be informing you on the latest news around school.
On the last Tuesday before the holidays, we watched the Y3,4 production. It had a Roman bake-off theme, was funny and was very exciting. There lots of standout performers, including: Lorien, Lani, Theo and Joseph. But, everyone played a very big part and it took a lot of time to master the brilliant play.
We interviewed Lewis in Y3 (a very good joke teller) on this.
How did you feel performing?
I wasn’t too nervous as we did a lot of rehearsing. I felt comfortable telling the jokes on stage as I’ve already performed on the piano.
How did the play go?
Really well. Everyone was part of the play and it went smoothly. Everyone delivered their lines well.
Did you enjoy it?
I love being on stage and it felt even better being one of the main characters and the audience really enjoyed it.
We also interviewed Lani in Y4.
Was the play enjoyable?
Yes, it was really fun and a great experience.
What was your favourite song?
Bake. It was a really catchy tune.
What was it like being on stage?
I enjoyed it a lot but I did feel nervous as well because I had to deliver a lot of important lines.
In other news, starting this week, martial arts classes will be happening every Thursday. We had an assembly last week where some special visitors who are martial arts instructors from British Military Martial Arts came and told us about the new club.
If you’ve read our previous articles, you will already know that we have quite a lot of talent in martial arts around school.
Thank you for reading!
School Journalists: a special interview
Hello there!
Today, we will be talking about Jeevan in Year 5 and his very special talent: Taekwondo.
He is currently the British champion and 3rd in the world for his age. He became the world number 3 in late 2023 and invests a lot of time into it. In the Easter holidays, he will be taking his black belt assessment. This is a very young age to become a black belt. He has also had to write an essay to show why he wants to achieve it and why he is worthy of it (check out the Y5,6 class news post from Mr Lindsay on Friday 22 March to have a read).
We asked him some questions…
Are you nervous about your black belt assessment?
Yes, because there are five grand-masters taking my grading and there is a lot of pressure.
You must spend a lot of time practising your Taekwondo. How long do you spend every week doing it?
I train for two hours with a club but I do an extra 30 minutes at home each day.
How did you feel and react when you found out you had come 3rd in the world for your age?
Surprised! I never thought I would go that far in the competition.
What is your favourite Taekwondo move?
A 360 back kick. You take your stance, jump and, whilst in the air, you do a 360 and then try to kick to the head!
Do you have your hopes set on a career in Taekwondo?
Yes – I will train a lot and hopefully one day get to the Olympics.
Wow! Thanks, Jeevan.
And, thanks to the readers, too. Have a nice break and we’ll be back after the holidays.
Our weekly message (Thursday 28 March 2024)
This week’s message comes a day earlier than normal…
Policies and other points
We’ve a few policy updates that you might want to be aware of.
Our Food in School policy sets out key points for parents/carers and staff. For parents/carers, this includes guidance around special occasions, birthdays, rewards and the importance of alerting us if your child has a food allergy. We’ve also updated our Packed Lunch Guidance. (Talking of food, you might want to check out the NHS Eatwell Guide for advice around eating healthily.)
Another update is our Smoking and Vaping policy. The message here remains the same: smoking and vaping are not permitted in any part of the school’s grounds.
Finally, please be aware of our Home-School Positive Relationships Policy, which supports the Governors’ Statement of Behavioural Principles.
School meal prices
Earlier this week, we received notification from Catering Leeds, the company who supplies our school lunches, that they have to significantly increase the prices for school meals from September.
Unfortunately, this means that we’re going to have to increase what we charge you:
- Nursery: the cost of a school lunch will increase to £2.60 per day
- Key Stage 2 children: the cost will be £2.75 per day
- Reception and Key Stage 1 children: Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) will continue, meaning that your child will still be able to get a school lunch provided free of charge.
We appreciate the price rises are a big increase. We’ve been assured that Leeds City Council school meal prices are still relatively low. In 2023/24, Gateshead Council schools charge £3.00 for their school meals, North Yorkshire County Council charges £3.24 and Derbyshire Council charges £3.25.
And finally…
The children were really engaged and all looked like they were enjoying their computing topic. The children had clearly picked up what they had learnt and were able to demonstrate this with their game. The children on [my daughter’s] table were all polite and friendly – they all worked well together.
That’s one of many positive comments following our recent Topic Review session. A big thanks to all who came to the session, and an even bigger thanks to those of you who left some feedback. We’ll read and consider all the comments.
Have a great Easter holiday. See you again on Monday 15 April.
School Journalists
Hi all it’s Jimmy, Louie and Zara here with another news report.
First, it’s Jimmy.
On Saturday, I went to see the City of Leeds Youth Orchestra perform Peter and the Wolf. It is a magical piece of music and can often inspire children to to try playing music. When I was three, I heard this piece and was then trying to play the part of the wolf on the French horn. Five years later, I started my French horn lessons here at Scholes (Elmet) Primary. This school offers lots in terms of music, with lessons on many instruments available including piano, drums and guitar. Music is very important and often brings out creativity and imagination in people. The City of Leeds Youth Orchestra is a music group in Artforms. Artforms is a music and arts service which belongs to Leeds City Council. It helps children achieve their musical goals as well as having fun with their friends.
Next, it’s Louie and Zara.
This week, we’re interviewing Archie in in Y5. We will be interviewing him about a recent trip the Y5s went on. We went to watch Beauty and the Beast at John Smeaton Academy last Monday.
Why did you enjoy the play?
I enjoyed the play because I loved to see the play come to life and it was done by the students in the school.
Who was your favourite character?
The Beast – he did very well to remember his lines.
What was your favourite song?
My favourite was ‘Be our Guest!’
All of year 5 enjoyed the performance. We all thought it was very impressive as it was done by the students. Overall, it was a great experience with smiles everywhere.
I guess that’s all from us.
See you next week!
Our weekly message (Friday 22 March 2024)
Look out for your child’s latest Learning Update which will be sent home next week.
This week’s message comes from Mr Catherall…
Words, words, words
We try to regularly give tips for you can help at home across various subjects. To help with reading, we encourage you to read with your child every day. To help with maths, we encourage the use of Numbots or Times Table Rockstars. To help with writing, we ask you to regularly practise the spellings that are sent home. But, there’s another way you can really help your child with their writing. Before the big reveal, a quick note on spelling…
Why spelling?
Spelling is a really important part of becoming a fluent writer. Our aim is for children to get to the point where spelling becomes automatic for them. When this happens, loads of ‘brain space’ is freed up to concentrate on the content of what you’re writing. If children are having to really focus on how to spell lots of words, they’re unable to write effectively because their brain is working in overdrive just to get the words down on the page (or device).
So, what’s the other way I can help?
Talk.
That’s it – talk to your child. All the time. About anything– it doesn’t really matter.
Being able to speak to others and communicate effectively is a crucial life skill. But, it’s one we need to practise. The more words you know, the better able you are to communicate with others. So, talk to your child as much as you possibly can. Don’t simplify your language, either. Children are sponges for learning new words so the more we can expose them to, the more they’ll have ‘in the bank’ to use.
If children can speak fluently, they can probably write fluently. The more words they know, the more varied and interesting their writing will be.
It’s not just us that think this. There’s a growing bank of research which proves how important vocabulary and language development is.
‘A child’s vocabulary is a big predictor of their future success,’ says Alice Penfold, Project Manager of the Words for Work programme at the National Literacy Trust. ‘It not only affects their chances of performing well in exams, but also their life chances.
‘For example, children who have a poor vocabulary at the age of five are four times more likely to struggle with reading as adults, and three times more prone to mental health issues.’
With this in mind, it’s well worth making an effort to build your child’s vocabulary.
One way we encourage you talk together at home is through our weekly Talk Time homework. This can be done over dinner, in the car, on the way to the park or swimming or football or gymnastics or wherever you need to be. It doesn’t need to be a serious chat but the prompt we give is one we think should stimulate some discussion.
If you need any help, or further ideas about how to support your child with their writing, please contact your child’s class teacher.
Our weekly message (Friday 15 March 2024)
Parents sometimes tell us their children don’t say much about what they’ve been doing at school. It’s not unusual! If you want to have a chat about school, one idea might be to re-phrase the question to keep it specific and keep it positive:
- What’s the best learning you’ve done today, or this week?
- When have you successfully used an R for learning?
- How have you helped make school a happy and healthy place?
Something else that might help is to come along to the Topic Review session on Monday at 2.30pm. This is the second of two drop-in sessions – come and have a look at your child’s topic learning – and maybe be prepared to join in!
If you do come along to this, please remember to let us have some feedback.
Reception Parent Survey
Thank you again for your responses to our recent survey of parents and carers of children in Reception. It’s been great to read lots of your positive feedback, and it’s also a useful time for us to consider how we can keep getting better.
One suggestion we’ll act on is to add another Stay and Learn session into our schedule for next year – we know this won’t benefit you, but hopefully our parents in 2024-25 will appreciate your suggestion. We’ve spoken with any parent (who left their name) who expressed a particular concern about their own child, too.
A couple of parents commented about communications, but for different reasons. We recognise that there can appear to be fewer communications compared to a Nursery provider, but please be assured you can contact your child’s teacher with questions, comments or concerns. We also understand that, at first, the different ways we communicate can be confusing – this is hard to get right, because just as many parents and carers tell us our communications are just right. For clarification…
Our communications
We thought it would be useful to remind you about the different ways that we communicate things with you.
Anything urgent (such as the cancellation of an after school club) or a quick reminder about something (like the photographer being in school) is sent by text. If you have the School Gateway app, it may be useful to set it so you receive notifications of messages. Texts are automatically sent to your app, if you have it installed (it’s free for us to communicate with you this way).
Our weekly message on Fridays contain information about things coming up, such as parents’ evenings or sports days, as well as other information that we think you might find useful, such as top tips to support your child to stay safe online.
Most letters will be emailed out to you, too. We’re moving away from sending out hard copies of letters (it’s better for the environment to send things electronically and things sometimes don’t always get to you, if they’re sent home in bookbags). Please try and check your emails daily, so you don’t miss anything important.
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 tend to put reminders on their class news page, as they don’t have a homework page.
Finally today, a couple of thank yous…
Thank you
We recently asked you to consider making a voluntary contribution towards our Cooking and Nutrition lessons for the year. A big thank you for your contribution, which will help to pay for the ingredients for these sessions and therefore ensure they go ahead each term.
And also a thank you for your contributions to Comic Relief today. We’re delighted to let you know that we’ve raised £364.23 for this fantastic cause.
Have a good weekend.
Sponsored event update
I’ve double checked the information that Miss Pallister has just sent me as it’s unbelievable!!
The grand total for our sponsored event is ….. £2296.70!!!
Thanks to everyone who helped us get to this staggering total. I’m sure lots of family members and friends were asked to contribute along the way.