Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

Book review!

Thank you to Emily for this fantastic book review for this weeks newsletter.

Nursery Forest School

During our Nursery children's Forest School session this week we had a lovely walk around our school grounds looking for signs of spring.

 Everyone had a go at using the ipad to take photographs of all the changes springtime brings to our outdoor areas. We found daffodils, buds, blossom and lovely fresh green grass. We hope you enjoy looking at our photographs. 

New wildflower garden 

Reception class sandwhiches ... with home grown cress!

The children in Reception have enjoyed growing cress and then making egg and cress sandwiches. We had to boil the eggs and then mash them with a fork, this was tricky as the eggs kept moving in the dish. We added mayonnaise and mixed in the cress. We buttered our bread and added our egg and cress filling. The best part was eating them. Many of us had not had them before and thought they were delicious.  

Willow tunnel

Our willow tunnel is coming to life with lots of new fresh green shoots and leaves. We only planted our living tunnel in January and already it is growing well and  becoming a favorite place to play and explore with friends in our Early Years garden. 

Author experience

Years 5 and 6 had the pleasure of a virtual author visit with Struan Murray on Friday when he shared, in detail, the inspiration for his new book - The Secret of the Moonshard. 

Struan talked about his life growing up in Scotland and his love for comics. He enjoyed creating story strips based on the Pokemon cards that he collected as achild, and then  began writing longer stories. These always started with a sketch, and, from there, he brought his books and characters to life.His first book, Orphans of the Tide, took  five years to write and won the prestigious Branford Boase Award, and was included in the Guardian's 'Best children's books of 2020'. A real inspiration!

Telling the time in Y2

Year 2 have been learning how to tell the time this week. So far they have practiced o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. Next week they will be tackling telling the time to every 5 minutes. This is a vital life skill so please help us by practicing telling the time at home too. 

Our NEW School Parent App

Family Drop in Sessions - HINT team

Online safety training for parents

Haltwhistle Family Hub - courses for Summer

Attendance Matters - important changes coming

The government have announced important changes to the school absence measures which schools are required to implement. We are sharing these with parents now as we do not want our families to receive fine as a result of these changes in the future:

• Absence fines charged to parents will rise from £60 to £80, or £160 if not paid within 21 days. 

• From the Autumn, only two fines can be issued to the same parent for the same child within a three-year rolling period. Any second notice will automatically be charged at £160. 

• Schools will have to consider a fine if a pupil misses 10 sessions (half days) of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks.  For example, four sessions in term time plus six instances of arriving late would count as 10 sessions. 

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.    In line with our attendance policy, we are required to refer all qualifying absences due to holidays during term time to the Education Welfare Officer at Northumberland County Council.  

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

Calendar of Events - Please scroll to see all dates

If reading this on your phone, please turn your phone sideways to be able to scroll through our planned dates.  You can also add our calendar to your own phone calendar to be sure you don't miss a date.  

Our school designated safeguarding leads are Susie Drake, Alex Wood, Vicki Ridley, Shirley Phillips

Please speak to a member of this team if you are concerned about the safety of a child.