Great Coates Primary School Newsletter

Newsletter

Friday 15th December 2023

Message from Miss Emson

This is our last newsletter of this term and what a fabulous one it has been. We've still another three days to go before we go on to enjoy the Christmas festivities.

We've had lots of things to celebrate this week - Great Coates Primary School has been recognised as the top performing primary school in NE Lincolnshire. We are absolutely thrilled with this and would like to thank all of our parents, community and children for supporting our journey.

We wish you a very peaceful and merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you and the children on 3rd January 2024.

Reading

This table shows the percentage of children in each class who have read three times last week. Green means the score has stayed the same or gone up. Orange means the score has gone down. Well done to Miss Woolliss's class and Mr Baxter's class for all reading at home 3 times.

News

Nativity Plays

We have seen some amazing Christmas performances in the last week. On Friday, Nursery were treated to a lovely Nativity Play with traditional carols. On Tuesday and Wednesday the Reception children performed a wonderful Christmas Nativity Play . On Wednesday afternoon, the Year 1 children in Mrs Pollard's sang beautifully performing Christmas Carols to their parents. Thank you to all parents who came and supported their children.

Choir Visits

On December the 8th, the choir visited the Bishop King Church Centre and took part in the local community Nativity, organised by the Freshney Forward Group. The children loved singing for the people of the local community.

We visited Chatteris House residential home on Monday 11th December to sing Christmas Carols. The residents really enjoyed our singing and the children were amazed when they had a suprise visit from Father Christmas!

Visit to the Pantomime

On Thursday 14th December, most of the pupils visited the Pantomime. The yearly visit to the pantomime gives our children the opportunity to visit a theatre and see a theatrical performance. The chidren, as usual, were perfectly well behaved and we had a brilliant time. Thank you to parents for supporting our annual visit to the pantomime.

Visit to Healing Secondary School Pantomime

On Wednesday our Year 5 children were invited to Healing Secondary School's Pantomime Performance. The show was absolutely incredible and the children loved it. The children and staff couldn't stop laughing at the jokes and were very impressed with the performances of some of our past pupils.

Design and Technology week

On December 4th the whole school took part in Design and Technology Week. The children took part in many projects which improved their understanding of how things are made to solve problems.

Projects included building bridges, electric money boxes and moving pictures. The children worked together in teams and made some excellent objects.

Grim Fest Artist Visit

We were delighted to be visited by local artist Sarah Palmer in Year 5 and 6. Sarah has illustrated a book by Tracey Todd, 'Grim, A Legend, A Truth And A Secret'. It is the story of Grim the Viking and will be showcased at an exhibition on January 26th. We have selected some of our children's work to be displayed at the exhibition. Those children will win a copy of the book and will be invited to the exhibition.

Sarah was impressed with all of our children, especially how they were ALL confident to create their own imaginative artwork. She also said their attitude and behaviour was fantastic. Well done Year 5 and 6.

This week

Tuesday is Party Day. Children are invited to come to school dressed in anything Disney themed or Party clothes.

On Wednesday the school closes for the Christmas break at 2pm.

We return to school on Wednesday 3rd January.

Reception Open Mornings

We have our final Reception Open morning on Tuesday 9th January. We welcome any prospective parents and their children to come and have a look around the school and spend some time in reception.

Communication with school

We have had a number of incidents recently where members of staff, who work tirelessly to give the children an excellent education, have been abused by parents shouting, swearing and threatening. Parents who are abusive are not welcome on our school site. We pride ourselves on the safe and friendly atmosphere in and around our school. Parents who are aggressive or abusive will be asked to leave and the police called if necessary.

If you wish to speak to a member of staff, or pass on information, you can contact the school by telephone on 01472 808608. Our school email address is :- gcaenquiries@harbourlearningtrust.com .

This email address is monitored constantly, every day and enquiries on this address will be dealt with promptly. Please do not use any other Harbour Learning Trust email to contact school as this will not be picked up by school promptly. You can also speak to staff on the school gates or on the doors. You can also use the messaging system on Class Dojo, but bear in mind that, as teachers are teaching all day, they may not read Class Dojo until the end of the school day, or the next day, therefore important messages need to be sent to the School Office on the above email address.

Attendance

Our results are second to none in North East Lincolnshire and one of the many reasons for our excellent outcomes is that we encourage high attendance. We thank the many parents who have supported our attendance systems so far this academic year.

Please note these are our attendance systems, which are in line with government policies and other schools in the area. You must contact the school every day your child is absent from school. If school has not been notified of an absence, you will receive a text message initially to allow you time to contact the school. If no contact has been made at day two, a safety and well-being check will be made. A calling card will be left at the family home if no response is received. On day three of an absence a visit will be made by our pastoral team to your house. Every child must be spoken to or seen each week by a member of Great Coates staff. On some occassions where children are persistently absent (attendance below 90%) we will complete home visits on day one of an absence if no contact has been made.

Pease read the posters below to see the effect of poor attendance.