Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

Happy New Year! We hope you all had a magical Christmas and a restful, joyful holiday season filled with special moments. As we welcome 2025, we are so excited to see everyone back at school, ready for a new term of learning, growth, and fun.

The start of a new year is a wonderful time to set fresh goals, embrace challenges, and celebrate achievements—big and small. Together, we will continue to create a caring and inspiring environment for every child to thrive.

This term, we have lots of exciting activities, events, and opportunities planned, and we can’t wait to share these experiences with you. Keep an eye on our newsletters and updates for all the details!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and partnership. Here’s to another fantastic term at Haltwhistle Primary Academy.

Year 5 and 6 had great fun looking at the photomontage art of Hannah Hoch and Maria Rivens. They took inspiration from them to create their own surrealist photomontages. We were aiming for 'wildness, weirdness and joy'. Here are a few examples!

Upper Key Stage Two End of Year Performance

Attendance - Fire Pit Friday

Pupils who are in school everyday for a week (100% attendance) are entered into a hat and chosen by random. 2 lucky winners from Years 1-6 are come to 'Fire Pit Friday' and enjoy a hot chocolate around the fire. This week's winners had a great time!

Who will it be next week?

School driveway

Please could we remind parents that the school driveway can be used at the following times only:

• To drop off for breakfast club (before 8.20am)

• To collect from after school care (after 3.45pm)

The drive is closed to vehicles from 8.20 - 9am and 3pm - 3.45pm to ensure the safety of the young children walking to and from school.  Only school taxi's and drivers with a blue badge can use the driveway during these times and must observe the 5mph limit.  

Thank you for your support.

Citizen's Advice

Social Media & Mental Health

Children's Health 

Healthier Together App

Haltwhistle Family Hub

Attendance Matters - important changes coming

Every second in school counts, as missing school, whether by being late or taking unnecessary days off, creates more new learning gaps which need to be addressed.  The best way you can support your child to recover from the lost school time of recent years is to ensure they are in school and ready to learn every day. 

We want every child's attendance to be good or better.  This means 96%+

Please check your child's attendance (see our app) against the class and national data.  School staff are able to offer support if your child's attendance is of concern.    

Please do not take your child out of school during term time as it disrupts your child’s learning and you risk financial penalties.   Any term time leave of absence must be applied for more than 2 weeks before the date of leave and can only be authorised by the Headteacher in the case of EXCEPTIONAL circumstances.  Please could we urge parents to book holidays during the 13 weeks of annual school holidays which are available each year.    In line with our attendance policy, we are required to refer all qualifying absences due to holidays during term time to the Education Welfare Officer at Northumberland County Council.  

If leave has not been authorised and your child is out of school then you may receive a minimum fine of £60 per child, per parent.  If the time out of school makes your child’s attendance drop below 90% then they are known as persistently absent under the governments attendance definitions.  This means that you may face prosecution through the courts. 

Please help us to help your child catch up by ensuring they are in school and ready to learn every day.

Pupil illness - Please note that in line with the new attendance guidance, we need a clear reason for absence for the school register.  If your child is 'poorly' their absence is registered as unauthorised until a reason is provided. Please contact the school office as soon as possible so that the illness reason can be authorised.   

Under the new government policy, if one parent takes their child on an unauthorised term time holiday, both parents with parental responsibility could be subject to a fine issued by Northumberland County Council.  This includes when parents are separated.  

Before and After School club bookings

Calendar of Events - Please scroll to see all dates

If reading this on your phone, please turn your phone sideways to be able to scroll through our planned dates.  You can also add our calendar to your own phone calendar to be sure you don't miss a date.  

Our school designated safeguarding leads are Susie Drake, Alex Wood, Vicki Ridley, Robyn Brockman - Crow and Shirley Phillips

Everyone is responsible for safeguarding children.  Please speak to a member of this team if you are concerned about the safety of a child.