Christ Church CE (VC) Primary School Autumn Newsletter 2017

Dear Parents

This autumn term has been filled with much success including sporting accomplishments and pupil-led initiatives, as well as many PTA fund raising and social events. Of course our main reason for celebration is that our children have really engaged with their learning, enjoying trips and curriculum days along the way. The class pages later on in this newsletter celebrate more of this success.

As always by Christmas we see the Reception children becoming more confident and already looking as though they have been at Christ Church much longer than 15 weeks! The Year 6 children enjoyed being able to support their new younger friends at playtimes during their first few weeks, but are similarly pleased to be sharing their time now with older friends. Some of our Year 4 and Year 5 children are looking forward to the New Year when they will become members of the new ‘Sports Crew’ encouraging others to be involved in active play.

As a school our work with Revd. Harris and Christ Church is very important to us. During this term Revd. Harris and Revd. Wheatley have led us in collective worship in school and we have also enjoyed special times in church, particularly the recent prayer day.

Christmas at Christ Church has been wonderful. The Posadas were very much enjoyed by the children and their families and great adventures have been had on the long journey to Bethlehem during Advent.

All of our children were fabulous in our nativity ‘Bethlehem, The Musical’. Their delight was clear to see and I know that parents, families and friends also thoroughly enjoyed the performances. This morning’s church service was another opportunity for us all to celebrate this special time of year through readings, carols and prayer, a very peaceful way to bring this term to a close and look forward to the next.

All of us at Christ Church are very grateful for the beautiful cards and lovely gifts that we have received – thank you for your kindness.

We wish you all a very peaceful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mrs Cooper

Autumn 2017 Newsletter

Class 1 Our Year One children have been working hard in all areas of the curriculum. In English they have been pushing themselves to improve their story writing and in maths they have improved their understanding of addition and subtraction.

In Science, the whole class have had fun exploring different sounds. They have been investigating different ways of making sound and what they like and dislike about it.

We have also been looking at the seasons and how the weather changes throughout the year. We had great fun at Aireville Park looking at the changes from summer to autumn and will continue to monitor these during the winter months. In History, we all enjoyed learning about Skipton Castle and we really loved our trip to the castle with Class two.

Throughout the autumn term, Class 1 have enjoyed countless great learning experiences. We have participated in a drumming workshop, a health and safety talk with the fire service, tennis with Adam, musical workshops and much more. Roll on next term!

Autumn 2017 Newsletter

Class 2 It has been a busy and exciting term for the children in Class 2! In English, the children have been writing non-chronological reports and instructions. We have also been working on improving our story writing. In Maths, the children have been working on 2D and 3D shapes and on addition and subtraction. In History, we all enjoyed learning about Skipton Castle. Class 2 joined Class 1 on a trip to the Castle and even celebrated with a Great Hall feast!

In science, the children have been learning about sound and how to categorise instruments and in PE they have been practising their tennis skills.

Autumn 2017 Newsletter

Class 3 In Design Technology we have been learning about mechanical systems with our focus on pulleys, gears and motors. We enjoyed working in small groups to carefully follow instructions to make a moving hungry alligator from lego. We then used a computer program to make the alligator roar and move its mouth. We had a lot of fun with this unit!

We have looked at a variety of ways to write in English and so we have written information texts on different habitats, a recount of our visit to the Bradford Media Museum and created haiku winter poems. The children have enjoyed retelling their favourite traditional tales but with a twist.

We enjoyed our school trip to the Bradford Science and Media Museum where the children got to explore the different galleries. We were very excited to see the Soyuz TMA-19M capsule which brought Tim Peake’s back to Earth. A big thank you to the PTA for funding this trip.

This term we have been lucky enough to receive music tuition from Mr Joplin who is helping us to learn to play the ukulele. We have now learned a range of chords and can play quite a variety of songs.

Autumn 2017 Newsletter

Class 4 Class 4 have enjoyed lots of practical lessons this term including hot seating and performance poetry in Literacy and Big Sheet Maths, making human number lines and investigations in Maths.

The first day of a new school year!

In art we have been learning about Carnivals and we

have made our own Carnival masks. We have had a

Tennis coaching session every week as one of our PE lessons. We particularly enjoyed the Tug of War competitions which helped us to remember that we

need a wide, strong stance in the ‘tennis ready’ position.

Class 4 have enjoyed many other learning activities this term including a visit to the Media Museum in Bradford where we learnt about the International Space Station. We also took part in an African Drumming workshop where we tried to make different pitched sounds on the drums and followed the rhythm of different rhymes. We are all ready for a rest!

Autumn 2017 Newsletter

Class 5

We have had a busy term in class 5. We have done some great work in maths and English demonstrating just how much we are using a range of skills to become independent learners. We are particularly enjoying taking part in Co-operative Learning, where we can work in small teams with a range of friends, to facilitate our own learning. We have only just started this new learning style but we are looking forward to using it more widely in the new year. We enjoyed our school trip to the Media Museum in Bradford where we saw the Tim Peake exhibition and we have enjoyed learning Yoga as part of our PE lessons.

In Science with Mrs King we looked at fossils. This was really awe-inspiring. We even got to handle fossils in class and we tried to work out what kind of animals the fossils had come from!

We have done some amazing work in RE when we asked whether Jesus was the Messiah. We linked our work to History, Geography and Art! We explored the symbols of Christianity in our school frieze and we thought about what sort of person the Jewish people of the Old Testament expected a messiah would be and what we might

want a messiah to be like today. One of the most interesting challenges we have had this term was our Enterprise Week. We designed games for the School Christmas Fair. We had to sell our ideas to the PTA so that they would give us the money to buy the things we needed and then we needed to set up and run our stalls. We raised a lot of money for the PTA which is great as they help the school so much!

East Barnby was a great experience for many of us, including some of the Year 5 children from Class 4. Those of us that stayed in school spent the week working together on a Remembrance project. As the older children in the school, the team working and co-operative skills that we all developed during this time will continue to help us to become responsible young people as we look towards the next phase of our education.

Autumn 2017 Newsletter

Fundraising During the autumn term, the children and our families have taken part in many different fund raising events. We feel it is important that our children not only learn about others who may be in need, but that we enable them to do something to help. Thank you all for your support.

In addition to all that, a huge thank you goes to everyone for supporting PTA events. Special thanks to the PTA Committee and volunteers for organising some fantastic events.

£142.90

£231.26

£172.30

Autumn 2017 Newsletter

Sport in School We are very pleased to be part of the local School Sports Partnership as this allows us to benefit from a range of coaching and sporting facilities.

The events for this term were:

· Cross Country at Aireville Park. Forty children from Year3 -6 attended this event. Well done everyone!

· Class 3 attended an orienteering event at Sandylands. They had a lot of fun learning new skills and meeting children from other local schools.

· Tennis with Adam Cox from Skipton Tennis Club for every class in the school.

· Children from Year 3 and 4, represented Christ Church at the Football Tournament and came 3rd overall.

· Children from Year 5 ad 6 represented Christ Church at the Football Tournament and came 4th overall.

· Netball coaching at Sandylands for Year 5 and 6 pupils with children from other schools.

· Children from Key Stage 1 attended a basketball festival held at Ings Primary where they learned new basketball skills.

Well done everyone!

School Office Please can we remind all parents to inform the office if any contact details change. It is extremely important that we have up to date telephone numbers and addresses. It is also really useful to have an additional emergency contact number. If you would like to check which numbers we have for you, Mrs Arbuthnott will be happy to help. Also a reminder that Kool Kidz places need to be booked and paid for monthly in advance please. Please contact the school office if you need details of our booking, fees and cancellation policy.

Mobile Phones A reminder that children should only bring mobile phones to school if they are walking on their own and that all phones should be turned off and handed in to Mrs Arbuthnott for safe-keeping.

Autumn 2017 Newsletter

School Lunches Our thanks to Mrs Greaves and Mrs Riley for cooking a delicious Christmas lunch for us all. It was yummy! The spring term menu, which includes a vegetarian option, can be downloaded from http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/article/24764/School-meals

Music Lessons We have a number of very talented musicians in school. If your child would like to take up a musical instrument, please view the details at http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/article/23553/School-music-service

Uniform Our school uniform can now be bought from either of the school uniform shops in Skipton: Skip to School http://www.skiptoschool.co.uk/ MC Sports http://www.mcsports.org.uk/ Both shops have a good selection of uniform, including the new tartan style skirt and pinafore. In addition, Skip to School are selling a new style school hoody which can be worn for sporting events or as outerwear.

Clubs There will be no clubs during the first week back, with the exception of Kanga Sports Multi-Sports club on the Friday. All other clubs will begin the week commencing 15th January. Please look out for the new clubs letter.

Diary dates School re-opens on Tuesday 9th January. Other dates for next term will be posted on the school website.

And finally…

We want every child at Christ Church School to achieve their best and fulfil their potential. The

children and staff are working really hard to achieve this and value your support as well as your

comments and suggestions. Please do keep in touch via your child’s home school link book, the

school website and email addresses and of course by talking with us. I am usually before school up

on the top playground and after school at the front gate or you can speak with Mrs Arbuthnott to

arrange a convenient time.

Mrs Cooper