Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

James Mayhew Illustration

Year 1 and 2 were delighted when we received our special picture from author James Mayhew. During our virtual author visit a couple of weeks ago author and illustrator James told us a story whilst creating a painting. He has then signed and sent us the picture which will be hung pride of place in our Key Stage 1 library! 

KS1 Allotment visit

On Tuesday Year 1 and 2 visited the community garden at hillside as part of our learning about plants. We had a tour of the garden and poly tunnel to learn all about what they are growing and how they look after the plants there. We planted our very own sunflower seeds and completed a drawing and painting activity all about sunflowers. We are very grateful to all those at the community garden who organised such a lovely afternoon for us.  

KS1 Plants

Year 2 have lots of fun exploring real plants. We talked about all of the different parts of a plant and what their special job was. Then we dissected a plant. We discovered there was actually lots of roots, stems, leaves and flowers not just one! After that we put our plants back together and drew a detailed diagram. 

Nursery

Our beautiful hillside at the front of school! Full of wild flowers and grasses, supporting a wide and varied ecosystem and encouraging lots of early pollinators in and around Haltwhistle.  Full of fascination!

Bramble class team work

Bramble class have been thinking hard about teamwork! We talked about what it means to be part of a team, then we worked together to try and transport water from one place to another without moving with the water. It was a tricky task but the children worked hard to collaborate and communicate their thinking. The winning team were the team that had the most water in their bucket at the end.  

Blood work in UKS2!

Haltwhistle Carnival!

Skillsbuilder - building our skills for life

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