William Barcroft Junior School

'Success and happiness for every child' 


We are very proud of our school, the children, staff and environment and of course the great support we receive from our parents.  

For more information, please visit our full website by clicking here.

In a recent parent questionnaire, parents said the following:

99% of parents say their child is happy at William Barcroft Junior School

98% parents say the school have high expectations

99% of parents said their child does well at school

100% of parents say their child felt safe in our school. 


Message from the Principal:


Good afternoon everyone and welcome to our final newsletter of the half term. We have had a busy fortnight, with Safer Internet Day, dodgeball competitions against other schools and  ICT project days to name a few.

Firstly, I have an important message for you about our term dates. As a trust we have decided that we will be moving to a two- week holiday in October, as many other schools do in our local area. This will not start until October 2025, as the term dates have already been set for next academic year. The dates have been added to the website for you. Hopefully this will help families who have children at other schools with a 2 week break (eg Havelock) and the longer break will also help with the illnesses which often circulate in the large autumn term.

I have a couple of dates for you to pop into your diaries. Further details will be sent after the holidays, but the week of the 4th March will be Parents’ Evenings. Dates will be as follows:

Monday 4th March Year 3

Tuesday 5th March Year 6

Wednesday 6th March Year 5

Thursday 7th March Year 4

Timings will be 1.30-5.00 each afternoon, and a letter will come out to make your appointments after half term.

 

Another date for you; on Thursday 21st March we will be hosting an Easter crafts afternoon where you will be invited to come in and get creative with your child. Again, further details will be sent later but I just wanted to give you a heads-up with the date.

In the first week back children in years 3-5 will be involved in planting some new trees on our school grounds. This will be on the Tuesday and Wednesday (20th/21st Feb) . If they have wellies then these can be worn, and if not can they bring trainers to change into please. This is a really exciting project, working with East Marsh United to enhance our grounds.

That’s all from me this week. Enjoy reading what the children have been up to, and have a lovely half term break everyone.


S Sargent

Principal

This year in school, we aim to improve attendance and punctuality as a key priority.

Week beginning 29/01/2024

Well done Year 5 with the highest attendance  - 96.49%

We hope you enjoyed your extra play time from Mrs Sargent for having 100% in every class one day this week!

Week beginning 5/02/2024

Well done Year 5 with the highest attendance again this week -  94.05%

Here's an example of how your child's attendance is calculated:

5 absent days = 97%

10 absent days = 95%

It is important that you try to get your children into school as much as possible so that they receive the best education and school experiences possible. If your child's attendance drops below 97% the school will monitor this and offer support to parents to help improve this.

If you would like to discuss this more, please contact the school office.

Don't forget we have the attendance treat before Easter half term! More details to follow.

Tuesday 6th February - Safer Internet Day

Thursday 8th February - Y5/6 Dodgeball Competition

Friday 9th February - Chinese New Year celebrations

Friday 9th February - Last day of Spring term 1

Monday 19th February - Return to school for Spring term 2

WB 26th February - HLT Football League - Great Coates Academy (Away)

WB 4th March - Parents evening week

Friday 8th March - World Book Day

Wednesday 13th March - Cross Country at Weelsby Woods

Friday 15th March - Comic Relief Day

WB 18th March - HLT Football League - Healing Academy (Home)

Thursday 21st March - Easter crafts with parents 3.15 - 4.15pm

Monday 25th March - Year 3 Learning Showcase AM

Tuesday 26th March - Year 6 Learning Showcase AM

Wednesday 27th March - Year 5 Learning Showcase AM

Thursday 28th March - Year 4 Learning Showcase AM

Thursday 28th March - Last day of Spring term 2 - Easter holidays begin.

Tuesday 16th April - Return to school for Summer term 1

RED NOSE DAY!

We will be celebrating RED NOSE DAY on Friday 15th March 2024 at WBJS. 


Staff and children are being asked to go "RED TO TOE" to celebrate and raise funds for Comic Relief this year. So dust off your ruby slippers, pop on your lobster suit or simply don your scarlett socks - how far you take it is up to you!


Our pupil governors will also be selling RND themed cookies at breaktime for 50p.


Parent Easter Crafts Session 

It's time to get creative and join us for some 'egg-static' Easter fun at this year's Easter craft session. We'll provide everything you need to create something 'egg-tastic' with your child. This 'egg-citing' event will take place in the hall straight after school on Thursday 21st March 2024. The top 4 designs will receive an 'egg-cellent' prize. We hope you can all join us to celebrate! 

We have so many egg puns, it's not even bunny!


ALSO, KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR MORE INFORMATION REGARDING OUR EASTER BONNET COMPETITION AS WE GET CLOSER TO EASTER.

The Tree Planting Scheme

After half term, we are taking part in a tree planting scheme.  This has been in the planning for over a year and we finally have the funding from Create Streets (East Marsh United) to allow WBJS to plant a number of trees on site.  We have been asked to be the lead school in promoting this and the Mayor and Players/Coaches from GTFC have been invited for the big event.  The trees will increase shade for our children, help with the environment and also be a basis to enrich learning in many areas, as well as being a really fun activity for our children to get involved in. 

 General Information

PE kit MUST be brought to school on your child's PE days,


Year 3 will have PE Monday and Wednesday

Year 4 will have PE Tuesday and Thursday

Year 5 will have PE Monday and Wednesday

Year 6 will have PE Tuesday and Thursday


What's happening in class at WBJS? 

YEAR 3

In English we have finished our diary entries and then we wrote a set of instructions on how we would survive or escape from a natural disaster using ideas from our Flood book. Within these, we all made sure that each step of our instructions included a sequential word and an imperative verb.

During maths lessons we have started our new Length and Perimeter topic. We have all shown amazing engagement and enthusiasm when looking at what we can measure in millimetres, centimetres and metres. This then led to us looking at how we can compare between different units of measure (mm, cm and m).

In topic lessons, we have enjoyed looking at what the difference is between climate and temperature, and exploring the different climate zones around the world.

Our whole class reading text this week is called Gung Hay Fat Choy which is an information text all about Chinese New Year which we are incredibly excited to celebrate at school today! In the first lesson for this text we learnt that those of us born between September to December were born in the year of the sheep, and those born from January to August were born in the year of the monkey.

Have a wonderful half term!

YEAR 4

We have been extremely busy in year 4 this week and we cannot wait to share our work with you! In maths we have been learning how to calculate the perimeter of a rectaliner shape whilst using our detective skills to spot and work out missing lengths.

In English we have started reading an inspiring book called ‘The Kapok Tree’ which is all about saving the rainforest. We have taken the time to understand the perspective of rainforest animals and how they are feeling about the destruction of their habitats. We have then researched this further during our topic sessions and discussed what we can do as humans to help save our planet.

During our Science sessions we have been investigating minibeasts by completing a minibeast hunt and have used our Scientific skills to categories their features!

On Wednesday, we completed our ICT project day called ‘My Own Game’. We’ve explored how gaming can impact our lives and what we can do to make our gaming experiences online much more positive. Following this, we have learned how to code using a range of software, such as Scratch, and we have created own very own mini-games.

On Friday, we learned about how Chinese New Year is celebrated, wrote some powerful poems in our writing teams and created some fantastic, creative crafts to hang in our classrooms.

We’re now ready for a good rest ready for the next half term!

YEAR 5

This week, Year 5 have been writing their newspapers all about the landing of Curiosity on Mars, based on our picture book. We have learnt how to use quotations to write both direct and reported speech and how the landing was one of the trickiest parts of the journey for the NASA team. We are really enjoying our topic of Space and have also learnt about how, on Earth, we can experience both a Lunar and Solar eclipse. The size of our universe and the question of ‘could anyone else be out there?’ has been a real topic of debate and we have enjoyed learning how it could possible and what NASA have found out so far in distant galaxies.

In Maths, we have been learning how to find fractions of amounts and wholes using different methods. We are beginning our new topic on decimals and percentages and have been looking at the place value of two decimal places (tenths and hundredths) and what each digit is worth. Next week, we will be moving onto learning about equivalent fractions and decimals and how to work these out and write them as a fraction, decimal and percentage. 

YEAR 6

In Year 6, we’ve perfected our newspapers based on The Hunger Games through editing and improving with our peers. We focused well using our writing frameworks that help us with what we need to include. We also began writing from a point in the story – the particular moment being when Katniss, and the other 23 tributes, are plunged into the Games. We mastered our use of vocabulary and sentence types to portray Katniss’ character and thoughts. In Maths, we’ve looked at scale factors, angles, angles in a straight line and angles around a point. We attempted reasoning style questions, remembering our key facts that angles in a straight line add up to 180 degrees and angles around a point add up to 360 degrees. We even delved deeper into vertically opposite angles that could help us to solve angle problems. In topic, we’ve been learning about Darwin’s finches and conducted our own experiment to determine which type of foods were easier to collect using different types of beaks: this aligned with our knowledge of natural selection. We discussed the theory of human evolution by investigating any similarities and differences between the skeletons and bone structure of apes and humans.

In art, we’re continuing to look at Louise Bourgeois, a well-known artist and sculptor. We began our sculpture design and followed a brief from Bourgeois by dedicating the sculpture to someone special in our lives.

Take a look at this week's Star of the Week, our Time Table Rock Star champions,  our Readers of the Week and our exciting birthday celebrations.

Can you take photographs in school?

Please ensure if you do take a photograph of your child on school site, that this is ONLY when you are told to do so by a member of staff and that the picture is of only your child. For example: After our Star of the Week assemblies.


Timestable Rockstars Competition!

This term we have been running a competition on Rockstars between all classes and the results are in!


Congratulations to class 4B who managed to answer 26,078 correct answers this half term.

There will be more competitions running throughout next half term in the run up to Easter. Remember to keep practising over the half term break!


Key Scientists

As part of our science curriculum the children learn about key scientists and the impact they have had. Conduct a research enquiry with your child: what can you find out about a key scientist? You could research Isaac Newton, William Beaumont, Ruth Benerito, Harriet Chick, Spencer Silver, Michael Faraday, Thomas Edison, Galileo Galilei, Abu Ali al-Hasan (Alhazan) or one of your choice. We would love to see your findings.

What period of time did they live?

What was their greatest discovery/theory?

What were their challenges?

How have they impacted the world today?

Home Reading Rockstars

Here are the percentages for home reads per class over the last week. 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.  Well done to those classes with 90% and above! 

Drop everything and read!

Here are our current class readers. These are books that have been chosen by the children. Please ask your child what is happening in their current class read! 


3A – The Nothing To See Here Hotel - Steven Butler                                              

3C-  The Nothing To See Here Hotel - Steven Butler                 

3S -  Oscar and the CATastrophe - Alan MacDonald                 

4B - The Explorer - Katherine Rundell 

4LB - The Explorer - Katherine Rundell                                                       

4V -   Bad Dad - David Walliams                                                                                   

5D - The Accidental Prime Minister - Tom McLaughlin 

5HS - The Boy at the Back of the Class - Onjali Q.Rauf 

5S - The Executioner's Daughter - Jane Hardstaff

6B - The Vanishing of Aveline Jones - Phil Hickes

6F - The Vanishing of Aveline Jones - Phil Hickes

6S - The Vanishing of Aveline Jones - Phil Hickes

Safer Internet Day - Tuesday 6th February 2024

This week we have been celebrating Safer Internet Day in school. We have take the time to discuss our worries and concerns together and how we can make a positive impact to the online world in the future. We have also taken part in a poster competition (end date Friday 9th February) and the winner will be selected on Monday 19th February in our first assembly back after half term!

Top Tips Parents and carers

These top tips have been written for you (parents and carers) to help you support your child to stay safe and happy online.

Inspire change by modelling how to be safe online

Just like in their offline lives, children need role models online too. Set clear and fair expectations about how the whole family should use the internet and technology, and demonstrate these yourself. A Family Agreement is a great way to start conversations and put your ideas down on paper, to refer back to later and adapt as your child and your family’s internet use changes.

Make a difference by having regular discussions about the online world

Having regular and open conversations with your child about their use of technology and the internet is the best way to stay up to date, not only with changes in the online world, but also with what they are doing and seeing online. Starting these conversations can sometimes feel daunting, but they can help you feel more informed and show your child that you are taking an interest in their online life. Not sure where to begin? Use the tips and conversations starters in our “Let’s Talk About Life Online” resource.

Manage influence by researching the content and games your child enjoys the most

Giving young people the opportunity to talk about their life online, and enjoying online content together, can be a great way to gain an insight into the content they are viewing. Our ‘Parents and Carers Resource Sheet’ is a great tool that you can use to research any websites, apps and games and find out more about specific content.

Navigate change by knowing where to go for further support

If your child needs help, it’s important you know where to go for further support. Using the report and block buttons,   websites such as ‘Report Harmful Content’, and other safety tools is a great starting point. It can also be useful to discuss any concerns or worries with your child’s school as they may be able to offer further advice and guidance. It can also help to talk to other parents and carers who may have experienced something similar.

BARCROFT DIGITAL LEADERS

Please welcome our new Digital Leaders for 2024! Our application process has taken place this week with a whopping 86 children wanting to gain the responsibility of a Digital Leader at WBJS! It is fantastic to see so many children wanting to make a positive contribution and promote change in the online world. We have selected 12 new Digital Leaders in school and they began their new role on Safer Internet Day. 


Safeguarding

If you are a parent who is experiencing abuse from your child then please speak to Miss Baggott regarding support available. The Who's in Charge programme are no longer supporting families. However, the Parental Education Growth support scheme are available. 


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/


SEND Support


NEL Art Competition

Children in North East Lincolnshire are being encouraged to enter their creative creations into a competition, with a chance to win a cash prize! The work must follow one of the following themes: 

• Life in Cleethorpes 

• Life in Grimsby 

• Life in Immingham

• Fun with family 

And for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), there is an additional theme: 

• Life in North East Lincolnshire as a young person with SEND 

The deadline is Friday February 9. Learn more: www.nelincs.gov.uk/what-will-you-create-for-our-new-competition/ 

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