William Barcroft Junior School
'Success and happiness for all'
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Message from the Principal:
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the very first newsletter of the new academic year. The children have quickly settled back into the swing of things and have been impressing me already with the high standard of work and wonderful effort. Year 3 have adapted incredibly well to their new routines and Year 6 have been excellent role models around school, supporting them well. For your information, this term we will be focusing on our school value AMBITION and will be working with the children to really raise aspirations. We will finish the half term with our annual Careers Day where the children will meet people from a wide range of professions. We have lots of other exciting things planned for the term: workshops with GTFC, an author visit, a theatre production in school to name a few.
Over the summer we received notification that we have received the GOLD award for the School Games Mark. Mr Dawes has worked incredibly hard to achieve this and I would like to thank him for the many extra hours he puts in so that our children get a great deal in PE and sports. Thank you for all of the positive comments we have had regarding the free PE kits given out. As you can imagine this was a huge expense and quite an operation to sort, but the children have looked very smart in lessons so far and this really helps to set the high expectations for PE.
Can I draw your attention to the information on this newsletter regarding Asda and their Cashpot for Schools initiative. They are currently collecting money for schools until November and it is really easy to sign up. Thank you to anyone who has already done this; we already have a fantastic £96 to spend on our children.
Please enjoy looking through the newsletter this week and seeing a sample of what the children have been learning and have a lovely weekend everyone.
S Sargent
Principal
National Attendance Updates - September 2024
National Attendance Updates - September 2024
At Willaim Barcroft Junior School we offer a supportive approach to attendance and encourage our families to contact us should there be any barriers to your child arriving at school on time every day. Please ensure you read the following and review any holiday plans during term-time you may have as a family.
New Attendance Rules Parents Need to Know for September 2024
You will know that if a child misses just one day of school, that is one day’s worth of education lost. If it’s more than one day, those losses will be cumulative and the effect on long-term prospects could not be more damaging. Prior to Covid, absenteeism had been on the decline, but since the lockdowns, it appears attitudes towards attendance have changed and we are now seeing a steep increase in absenteeism once again - around 380,000 fewer pupils were persistently off school last year than the year before. This does not take into account the number of children not attending school due to SEND/SEMH.
Ministers have now published guidance on managing school attendance that will become mandatory from September 2024. Here's what you need to know.
£80 fines and Improvement Notices
Absence fines charged to parents will rise from £60 to £80, or £160 if not paid within 21 days. From Autumn term 2024, only two fines can be issued to the same parent for the same child within a three-year rolling period. Any notice thereafter will automatically be charged at £160. Parents will also receive "improvement notices", where they are are informed that this is their last opportunity to engage with education and improve their child's attendance before a fine is issued.
National fine thresholds
From September, schools will have to consider a fine if a pupil misses 10 sessions (each session is half a day) of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. The threshold can be met with “any combination of unauthorised absence”. For example, four sessions in term time plus six instances of arriving late.
Long-Term Sickness to be Flagged with Local Authorities
Schools will have to give councils the name and address of sick pupils who they believe will miss 15 consecutive or cumulative days. Schools will also be “expected to inform a pupil’s social worker and/or youth offending team worker if there are unexplained absences from school”.
Autumn Term 1 - Week 1
Congratulations to 4B and 5B who achieved 99% attendance in their first week back!
Autumn Term 1 - Week 2
Congratulations to 3C and 5S who achieved the highest attendance in school this week!
School/ Class X accounts
School/ Class X accounts
Please check out the following links to our X (Twitter) accounts and see what each class have been up to this week in real-time!
#wbjsinthecommunity
Autumn Term 1
Monday 23rd September - Luke Temple Author Visit
Tuesday 24th September AM - Luke Temple Book Signings
Friday 18th October - Careers Day
Friday 18th October - Last day of term - Autumn 1
Autumn Term 2
Monday 28th October - Return to school for Autumn 2
Friday 15th November - Flu Vaccines
Friday 15th November - Children In Need
General Information
Please do not ride bikes and scooters on the school grounds, this is for children and adults. This is for the safety of our children, thank you.
Please note, electric scooters are not allowed on the school site due to health and safety regulations and not having the facilities to store them in school.
Please do not bring pets onto the school site due to health and safety regulations.
PE kit MUST be brought to school on your child's PE days,
Year 3 and Year 5 will have PE Tuesday and Thursday
Year 4 and Year 6 will have PE Monday and Wednesday
WBJS Newsround
YEAR 3
We are so proud of how well our new Year 3 pupils have settled into William Barcroft! Even though it has been such a big change, they are all coping extremely well and have been fabulous!
We have introduced the children to the Stone Age topic that we will be doing in history this term. We launched this with our Stone Age workshops one afternoon this week where children had the opportunity to immerse themselves in how the people lived in the Stone Age. All children loved this experience and have gained a good understanding before we delve deeper into the topic.
In maths we have started our place value topic where children have worked extremely hard at partitioning and looking at number lines. We have been using base 10 to do this so all pupils have had the practical resource to help them.
In English we have started our new book The Stone Age Boy. Children are really enjoying this story so far and they have done some fabulous work on making sure their sentences make sense. We will be doing a star reader test so children will have an accurate book for their reading levels so they can all get their 3 reads in at home. Thank you, parents and carers, for your support!
YEAR 4
Year 4 have settled in well and have had a fantastic start to the year! We have started reading our new book called ‘Land of Road’ which has us travelling to an imaginary world. We have met the main characters who have already got themselves into a bit of bother.
We’ve began our place value block in maths which has recapped our understanding of partitioning and number lines. We’ve made this practical and fun by creating human number lines and using base 10 to help us with our understanding. Please ensure your children are accessing TTRS at home as this will help them to build a secure understanding of their times tables.
Our busy afternoons have been filled with learning about electricity in Science, the Ancient Greeks in History and connecting networks in Computing. In our PSHCE sessions we have discussed the school core values and we have learned about the Zones of Regulation which are hopefully going to support us with regulating our own emotions in the future.
YEAR 5
The pupils have settled well into year 5 over these last 2 week. In English we have started our brand new book for this term called 'The Haunting of Aveline Jones' by Phil Hicks and are really enjoying reading it! Please ask us about the story as we'd love to share with you what it is about and has happened so far! We have also been preparing to begin our first piece of writing - which will be a diary entry- and have been practicing different sentence types and looking at the features of a diary ready for it.
In Maths we have been learning how to partition numbers up to 1,000,000, using standard and non-standard methods and find the intervals on a number line.
In science we have been looking at the parts of a flower and how animals and plants reproduce. We dissected a flower and labeled the individual parts of the flower to see how this worked. We also looked at how seeds are carried in different ways and spread by water, wind and animals.
In our history topic, we have begun looking at the Mayans and where they are placed in history and why they were such a successful civilization.
YEAR 6
A great start to the year from year 6, we have been setting those high standards across the board really early on.
In English we have been enjoying reading the Bewitching Of Aveline Jones and so far we have focused on the character of Hazel, who is a perplexing and curious character to say the least. We have written a description of her and are continuing to enjoy reading the story.
In maths we have been gaining a solid foundation of place value and recapping the value of numbers. We have looked at ordering and comparing numbers and reading and writing numbers accurately.
Our topic for this term is the Tudors which we have found fascinating. So far we have looked at the Tudor monarchs and recorded key facts from their time on the throne. We will be moving onto the War Of the Roses this week before focusing on the life of king Henry VIII.
As a little reminder please ensure that children complete their 3 reads at home in their home reading records by Thursday, this will really help support your child this year.
Cashpot for schools
Cashpot for schools
We’ve got some exciting news to share with you.
Parentkind – a charity that supports schools - have teamed up with Asda, who is making millions of pounds available to donate to primary schools across the UK through their ‘Cashpot for Schools’ initiative. To support our school, all you have to do is opt-in through the Asda Rewards app, shop and scan in store or shop online at Asda.com.
Between 2nd September and 30th November 2024 – every time you shop with Asda using your Asda Rewards app, Asda will donate 0.5% of the value of your shop to your chosen Primary school. Also, every time somebody opts-in to support our Primary school, Asda will give an additional £1 to the school Cashpot. Plus, it doesn’t stop there – Asda are also giving £50 to every school to get them started.
The supermarket has joined forces with Joe Wicks to support the initiative – look out for the TV advert, radio ads and social media coverage!
It’s as easy as 1,2,3
1. Download the Asda Rewards app, register and opt-in to Cashpot for Schools (make sure you have the latest version of the app installed)
2. Choose our Primary School – William Barcroft Junior School - either searching by name or postcode
3. Shop instore across Asda and George, or online at Asda.com and start filling your Cashpot as you shop
Asda does the rest, all money raised will be donated to schools to spend on the things they need the most.
Remember, anyone can sign up – so start spreading the news and raising funds for our school.
This initiative is on top of the existing Asda Rewards benefits you get as a shopper – so you won’t lose out on any of your own earnings or Cashpot, so everyone is a winner!
For more details, visit asda.com/cashpotforschools
Barcroft Stars
Every Friday, we celebrate the fantastic work and attitudes of our children during our Star of the Week assembly. Each teacher presents their Star of the Week, Reader of the Week and TTRS of the Week whilst our Learning Mentors award fastasic behaviour and kindess on the playground. We also celebrate our birthdays in style with a whole school sing-song and give out spot prizes for fantastic work and home reading.
If your child is chosen for this assembly, you will receive a message no later than Thursday. If you wish to attend, the assembly times are as follows:
Year 3 and Year 4 - 8.55am
Year 5 and Year 6 - 9.55am
Home Reading
Home Reading
Please can we remind all parents that children are required to read 3 times a week at home and their reading record is expected in school every day. There are a multitude of beneficial reasons why children should read at home: comfort and reassurance, confidence and security, relaxation, happiness and fun. It is essential that we are providing children with the time to explore stories, giving them time and full attention when reading them a story, asking questions to support comprehension and clear routines. Reading at home builds self-esteem, vocabulary, feeds imagination and even improves their sleeping patterns. Not to mention that it supports all areas of the curriculum and increases progress, development and understanding. We offer a well-stocked library and purple area which provides reading books to take home and children are rewarded when completing 3 home reads.
Here are the percentages for home reads per class over the last two weeks. Our school expectation is 3 weekly reads per week and this is taken on a Thursday. Please ensure your child has their reading record every day to be checked.
Thank you for your support with this.
Maths
Maths
This year in maths we are really pushing engagement with Timestables Rockstars. Mr Ferrier spoke to the children in assembly this week about the various competitions that are coming up this year and expectations around logging into Rockstars and practising regularly. There are brand new trophies awarded alongside our Rockstar of the week certificates in assembly, so look out for those! Teachers will print log in’s for children to take home, so parents, please keep an eye out in bookbags!
We will also be carrying out our maths challenges between each of the classes too, lots to look forward to this year maths wise!
Parental support with maths, some useful websites:
https://www.nnchallenge.org.uk/
http://www.nnparenttoolkit.org.uk/
https://www.maths4mumsanddads.co.uk/
Phonesmart with EE
Phonesmart with EE
With 65% of parent who gave their child a smartphone at age 11 wishing they had done something differently, online safety is as relevant as ever. The online world is full of dangers and many parents are concerned and looking for guidance. While tech and connectivity are critical to children’s futures, their use should never come at the expense of their safety or wellbeing. EE have developed PhoneSmart. Together with safer internet organisations and charities, this interactive course is one way to make sure kids know exactly how to stay safe online.
What is PhoneSmart?
PhoneSmart is an interactive course that will help your child navigate the online world while staying safe and being kind.
It consists of five modules that introduce children to best practicebehaviours when online and different issues they may face, such as cyberbullying and fake news.
Each module features:
• an engaging animation with relatable characters.
• an interactive quiz to equip young people with the skills and knowledge to keep them safe in the virtual world.
• tips on what to do if they find themselves in a tricky situation.
The resource below explains how as parents and careers you can help at home.
Anti-bullying week
Anti-bullying week
Every November schools throughout the United Kingdom take part in Anti-Bullying Week. This is an opportunity to spotlight bullying and consider the steps we can take together to stop it. Anti-Bullying Week 2024 will take place from Monday 11th - Friday 15th November, with the theme: Choose Respect.
As a parent or carer, you are a vital piece of the puzzle in tackling bullying. You have a unique role to play in guiding and supporting your child through their school years and there are many positive steps you can take to help keep your child safe from bullying and harm.
The Anti-bullying alliance have developed a FREE Parent and Carer Pack to help you bring Anti-Bullying Week and Odd Socks Day to your home. The link below has resources to help you start the conversation about bullying no matter the age of your child and give you other ideas about anti-bullying at home
Check out this link for more interesting information...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVbiPSi5Z14&list=PL_5OKef10sqeAXU_JezZ71XAKZgE4BvRu&index=2
Science
Science
In This Week's Episode…
In parts of the Midwest, it's been hot. Extremely hot. Why? It’s all down to a peculiar phenomenon making summers stickier than usual – corn sweat.
Meanwhile, in Australia, scientists are listening to soil – yes, really! By placing microphones underground, they can hear how healthy and teeming with life the soil is.
Follow this link to visit the safeguarding section of our website, and for a copy of our Safeguarding and Child Protection policy. https://wba.harbourlearningtrust.com/our-academy/safeguarding/
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