Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

With such cold weather at the moment, please could we ask parents to ensure all children bring a warm coat to school.  A hat / gloves are also advisable as our playground doesn't get a lot of sun at this time of year and can feel very cold - please make sure these are named so we can reunite them with their owners if they become lost.

Our school council were excited to see the items that they ordered for the playground start to arrive in school.  An additional 15 tonnes of sand has been added to their beach, alongside more scooters, skipping ropes and spinning tops.  We look forward to the rest of their order arriving over the coming weeks.  

Mr Irvine and I have been very impressed with the children's behaviour at lunchtime, both in the dining room and outside.  Mrs Hind and our Playground Friends are doing a wonderful job at making every playtime enjoyable by setting up games, sporting challenges and obstacle courses for the children to enjoy every day.  The new schedule of football fixtures in the muga is also popular with the children.  

Please check our school calendar below, where you can find all the important dates in the run up to Christmas.  You can also find our new school calendar for 23-24 at the bottom of todays newsletter and on the school dates page of our website for future reference.  Please could we remind parents thinking of booking holidays to check the school term dates before doing so.  

Parents Maths visits

Thank you to all the parents who joined us and their child for Maths lessons across school this week.  Thank you for the wonderful feedback about the excellent behaviour in classes and the "things you've learnt!".  The children have really enjoyed sharing their work with their special visitors and we will be repeating this again next term.  

Stargazing club

Stargazing club had an amazing time on Wednesday evening. The sky was so clear we managed to see lots interesting objects in the sky. The children were so excited to get a glimpse of Jupiter and four of its Moons, Mars, Saturn (you could even see it’s ring!), Pleiades (star cluster). We could also clearly see the surface of the Moon and some of the craters in detail as well as watching a satellite travel across the sky.  

LKS2 Animations

This week, Years 3/4 completed the first draft our stop motion animations. We LOVED how they've turned out. We made sure our background was always in the shot, that our Ipad never moved so we could maintain and we used the onion skinning tool so that our animations were smooth and consistent. We can't wait to add music and captions to them next week!

School council traffic proposal

Our school council met with Mrs Drake on Thursday to discuss the proposed traffic calming measures to Park Avenue and the surrounding streets.  The children were very thoughtful, giving reasoned arguments as to why they thought the scheme was a positive improvement and they made suggestions about how the scheme could be extended to Park Road which they viewed as a high risk area.  They also invited the representatives from the council to meet with them so that they could show them their concerns.  The following letter was sent in response to the formal consultation.  

Early Years - Writing in the snow

There's nothing like a sprinkling of snow to excite and inspire our children and in Early years the children have been enjoying mark making and writing in the snow using sticks, they also enjoyed melting the snow with warm water and paintbrushes. 

Year 6 writing

Year 6 have been using a range of figurative language to write poems based on the short film ‘ The Lighthouse’. 

They have also been analysing the work of William Wordsworth who used a range of the same devices in his poem ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ Fantastic effort Year 6!

Christmas Dinner and Christmas Jumper Day Friday 16th December

Skills builder at home

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.

Holiday Dates for 23-24

Before and After School club bookings

Our school designated safeguarding leads are Susie Drake, Tony Irvine, Michelle Brewster and Bethan Allsop