Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

It's been great to welcome so many parents into school this week.  We had a great turn out to the Friends Resilience coffee morning, thank you everyone who attended.  Parents also asked for workshops to provide sleep advice and managing behaviour at home.  We will arrange these and let you know the date asap.

Thanks also to everyone who supported the football tournament with Shaftoe school.  It was fantastic to have so many children playing and enjoying football together on our new pitch.  Thanks to Mr Hutton (what a star he is) for arranging the practices and event for everyone to enjoy.  

We also offered an online safety evening on Thursday.  If you missed this and would like further information, please speak to Mrs Allsop. 

Y2 Local Jobs in Haltwhistle

Year 2 have been learning all about their local area of Haltwhistle in Geography and this week we explored local jobs. The children were very excited to interview ‘special guests’ to find out about their job. We thought of some questions we would like to ask and listened carefully to learn all about the different jobs. We learnt about Mrs Beverley’s job as a cook, Mrs Taylor’s previous job working in a factory on quality control, Mrs Phillips’s  job working in an office and Miss Sloane’s previous job as a life guard. 

Reception light and dark

This week Brambles have been learning all about light and dark. We then started to think about reflective materials and why they are important at the moment when it is getting darker earlier so that we can stay safe when walking about Haltwhistle. The children have had lots of fun experimenting with the torches.   

Reception class - The Gingerbread man

This week Bramble class have been enjoying the story of the Gingerbread man.  We retold the story and made gingerbread men biscuits. The children followed instructions to create the dough, then carefully cut and decorated them. They then ate their biscuits outside with a drink. They were delicious!

Reception - Forest school

This week during their forest school session, Bramble class used natural materials to create art outside. We used pictures of Andy Goldsworthy’s work as a stimulus for our work 

Skills builder at home

Attendance Matters

As we continue to recover from the disruption to children’s education caused by the pandemic, it is now more important than ever that children’s attendance is good or better.  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.   

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.

Before and After School club bookings

Our school designated safeguarding leads are Susie Drake, Tony Irvine, Michelle Brewster and Bethan Alsopp