Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

Our incredible year!

This week we've been reflecting on our incredible year at Haltwhistle Academy!  In assemblies we remembered the challenges of 'the flood' in September and celebrated the resilience and determination of everyone within school - our families, children, trust and staff team to work together to ensure we could continue to provide the best opportunities and experiences for our children whilst we restored our classrooms to their former glory.  

We looked at photographs and reminisced about the memorable experiences we've enjoyed and the learning linked to them, the charity events we've supported, community events we've taken part in, wonderful visitors who have shared their expertise with us in school.  We celebrated our whole school achievement, reminding the children that they individually and as part of our Haltwhistle family make our school such a special place, and makes every child outstanding in their own way.  We also commended our sports day and swimming gala achievements in our medals ceremonies.  

The development of our Early Years Stronger Practice Hub has also continued this week with meetings with our strategic partners, and we are looking forward to sharing our practice with early years providers across the North from September.  Our final achievement of the year was the School Games Mark - Gold, which we were awarded on the final day of term.  Thank you to Mr Irvine for leading this initiative this year.  

All of these achievements help our children believe that they really can achieve anything when they work together.  As we bring the year to a close, we are thinking about the the great 'partnerships' which have helped our school team to achieve everything they have this year.  So to our families, thank you for working so closely in partnership with us this year, your support really has made the biggest difference for your child, and together we can achieve anything!   The biggest thank you to our phenomenal team, they have shed tears, moved mountains (or classrooms!) and dug deep to support each other through this rollercoaster of a year, we are lucky to have so many dedicated practitioners who go above and beyond for every child.

And so it's time to rest, recharge and spend those long summer days with family and friends.  I hope the sun shines wherever your summer adventures take you.  

With best wishes,

Susie Drake

Food chains

Year 2 enjoyed expressing science through art this week. Focusing on coastal animals the children created some fantastic food chains ensuring the arrow was showing us the energy being transferred.  

Last school lunchtime together for our Y6's with their younger brothers and sisters. 

Y6 leavers pizza party

Y6 leavers pizza party. Thank you Haltwhistle Swimming Pool for a fantastic time! 

 Slipping and sliding into the summer!

A few downpours of rain made for a very fun slip and slide today!  A few of our Y6 photo's here - keep an eye on facebook for pictures from other year groups.  

Skillsbuilder - building our skills for life

Skills builder at home

Summer holiday events and links

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