Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

Haltwhistle Academy awarded DfE Early Years Stronger Practice Hub

We are over the moon to share that we have been successful in our bid to become an Early Years Stronger Practice Hub.  This means that we will lead one of only 18 hubs across the country, chosen to deliver networks, support and training to Early Years schools and settings across the North East on behalf of the Department for Education.  It follows an incredibly rigorous selection process by the DfE and National Children's Bureau and is an honour and privilege to be able to support the wider Early Years sector in this way.  We have partnered with some wonderful partner settings across Northumberland, SEND2Learn nursery, Cleaswell Hill School, Central Primary School and a childminder to deliver this project.  We will have a busy summer ahead as Mrs Drake works with our Head Office team so set up the systems needed to deliver the project.

Congratulations and a huge thank you to our fantastic Early Years team for their part in the selection process.  

In the polytunnel this week ...

We planted them, we watered them and watched them grow. Finally, after lots of hard work the day came for us to pick our potatoes. WOW! We were so excited to see all the potatoes under the soil. We carefully collected all the potatoes and took them back to nursery to get washed. When the potatoes were all clean we cooked them and ate them with a little bit of butter. They tasted delicious ! We had grown so many potatoes we even took some to the kitchen and Mrs Beverly cooked them for our lunch.  What an amazing learning journey we have had on our school allotment.     

Plant reproduction

Year 6 have been learning about how flowering plants reproduce. They started off by learning the the names of the different reproductive parts and their function. The children then dissected a  flower so that they could find, identify and label the different parts. Well done Year 6! 

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