Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

Annie @ Theatre Royal

We had a wonderful time visiting the Theatre Royal to see Annie last week.  The children were totally transfixed, particularly with the children actors and for many Sandy, the golden retriever was the star of the show (so many ahhhh's!).  It was a really memorable evening.

Nursery visit our polytunnel

Our first afternoon of seed planting in the polytunnel. The weather outside was quite wet and cold but inside the polytunnel it was lovely and sheltered just right for planting seeds. Our nursery children were very keen to plant the apple seeds they had collected from their snack time apples and they also had some sage and lavender seeds to plant. We looked closely at the different seeds. The sage seeds were quite big and round, the apple seeds were an oval shape and quite flat and the lavender seeds were so tiny it was hard to pick them up so we had to sprinkle them on to the soil. Over the next few months we will share more photos from our allotment as the children plant more seeds, take charge of the watering and start to see their seeds germinate and grow into beautiful plants.   

Growing cress

Bramble class planted some cress seeds. We discussed how planting the seeds was different to the beans. We looked closely at

the seeds and were amazed that they would be able to grow into something we could eat. We put the seeds onto the window to germinate.  Hopefully we will have delicious cress in the near future. 

Dance in reception

Our first story!

Bramble class we very proud to write like an author this week to create their very first story!  We practiced retelling our story, using our story mountain to help us remember the order of events of our core text, Jack and the Beanstalk. This is the first time the children have written a full story and they all concentrated so hard and were amazed with with their own achievements! We are super impressed with their writing! 

Using paintz

Cookery Club

Y 5/6 Spaghetti bolognese

Upper KS2 are spending this term investigating spaghetti bolognese. We have already looked at where some of our ingredients come from, compared some recipes, and identified the key food groups. This week we have analysed a ready-made product and evaluated it,  recording our findings in a special star diagram.

We plan to use this to compare and contrast when we make our own bolognese in future lessons. 

Has your child had an eye test?

We are aware that Vision screening due to the pandemic, not all children may have accessed vision screening or an eye test not due to reduced services.  It's recommended that every child has an eye test at age 4 or 5, as 'lazy eye' (Amblyopia ) and other issues can be treated most effectively at this age.  Around 1 in 4 children nationally need to wear glasses nationally.  If your child hasn't accessed a free eye test, please could we ask families to arrange for a test for their child.   The nearest opticians are:

Skills builder at home

Attendance Matters

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 Allsop