Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we have tried to manage the staff absence of several key members of our team over recent weeks.  We really appreciate your support.  We continue to have difficulties covering the absence of staff due to our rural location.  At times it's been necessary to reorganise our team and use our most experienced teaching assistants to provide temporary class cover.  Whilst this is not ideal, it does ensure the children have the continuity of a familiar member of staff who understands the children's needs, our school systems and is supported with planning and delivery by our team leaders and senior leadership team.    

As we move into the second half of Autumn and have learnt from previous patterns of illness, please could we ask parents to be illness and infection aware.  In school, we continue to operate using covid hygiene measures and ask that parents also consider opening a window and ensuring good hygiene when groups of children meet for parties and other local celebrations.  Reducing covid / flu transmission in the community will help us to also reduce the impact of infections in school for both children and staff.  Thank you for your help.  

Over the half term break we will be continuing to work with the flood recovery team as we work towards reopening our building.  All being well, we are aiming to move all classes back into the main building when children return on Tuesday 1st November.  There will be some work remaining to be completed in the stairway, which will be undertaken outside of school hours wherever possible.  We also await news about the extent of repair needed to our school hall.   We have this work booked for the start of January, so please could we request that parents ensure children have a pair of joggers in their PE kit as some lessons will continue to be taught outdoors.  

After half term, we look forward to welcoming Ashley Hind, who will be joining our office team.  Ashley brings a wealth of school office experience and we are all looking forward to her joining us and supporting our families as part of our team.

We wish you all a wonderful half term break.  

S Drake

Autumn Leaves

Building on their observations of autumn leaves last week, Bramble class created an Autumn tree using leaves from the woods to print.  They mixed colours to create autumnal tones using scented paints. 

Learning about Diwali

Early years have been learning all about Diwali this week. We have made diva lamps and learnt all about the traditions and why Diwali is celebrated. Today we had an Early years Diwali party which involved paper lantern making, creating Rangoli patterns and creating and dancing to Hindu music in the woods. 

Taking Maths outside

Miss Sloane challenged our Year 2 class to a physical challenge on Friday.  The children had to practice their recording and multiplication skills to record their task results.  

Read Write Inc open lessons

We have really enjoyed welcoming almost 20 parents into school to observe their child’s Read Write Inc lesson over the past 2 weeks in our first wave of open lessons.  We hope that you found your visit interesting and learnt a little about how we teach reading in school and how to further support your children at home.   

We have updated our "Early Reading " section on the school website where you can find lots of advice and videos to support reading practice at home.  

A little extra reading practice at home daily makes a huge difference to the speed children secure reading skills, so we're asking all our parents to give their child a head start in life by reading daily at home every day.   

Please do not worry if you have not received an invite; we will be running more open lessons after half term. If you received an invitation this time but were unable to make it please let us know either via the office or Miss Broadbent and we can arrange a time that is convenient for you

Keeping secrets

Year 5 children used dramatisation and role play to explore the idea of secrets: when is it right or wrong to keep a secret? What can be the impact of breaking someone's confidence? How do we resolve those conflicts? Was especially great to see a couple of children stepping into the role of a teacher - perhaps staff of the future for Haltwhistle Academy! 

Vindolanda visit

As Year 5 and 6 come to the end of their local history project, 'Hadrian's Wall and the people who lived there', the classes visited local archaeological site, Vindolanda.  Here the children were able to identify the layout of the town which would have stood here 1900 years ago.  The children particularly enjoyed visiting the museum where they were able to find the key artefacts which they had learnt about in class.  Exclamations of "I've found the medusa ring!" caused a stir of excitement as the children clamoured to see these wonderful artefacts found on the site.  

Year 1 Weather station

Skills builder at home

Haltwhistle Scarecrow trail

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