Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

Safety in the community

We have received an email from Karbon Homes requesting that children who are playing in the community do not climb or play on scaffolding in the Greenholme Road area of Haltwhistle.  We are aware that police are being called to this area most nights.  We have spoken to the children about this today, but request that you speak to your child about the dangers of scaffolding and do not allow them to play in the vacinity of this building work.  

Pumpkin day!

We enjoyed an afternoon of pumpkin fun in our Early Years Garden.  We had a pumpkin shop where we had to weigh the pumpkins and sort them into heaviest and lightest.

We had a pumpkin workshop where we had to hammer nails ( golf tees) into the pumpkins. We had a wheelbarrow obstacle course where we had to get the biggest pumpkins around the obstacles without them rolling out of the wheelbarrows.  And we had pumpkin scooping in our mud kitchen where we made pumpkin potions and pumpkin soup.

Using our eyes in Early Years

We started our forest school session with a story in the woods.Our story was called "Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?"  After our story we made our own binoculars and telescopes with coloured film over the ends and we set off around school to see what we could see.

Reception bread making

Brambles read the story 'The Little Red Hen'. We made bread just like the little red hen. We sieved, mixed, kneaded and let the bread rise. When it was ready we could eat it. It was delicious! 

Leaf printing in our forest school session.

First we went around the woods looking for lots of juicy green leaves. When we had collected our leaves we placed them nice and flat between two pieces of cotton and used a hammer to squash the leaves. When the leaf was nice and squashed we lifted up the cotton sheet. It was very exciting to see the print of the leaf on the cotton. Our prints looked very beautiful and we could see lots of detail from the leaf and we could notice the differences between each different type of leaf. 

Y2 Computing

In computing this week Year 2 were developing their mouse skills. They were given the challenge to draw a picture using the mouse skills click, double click and click and drag. We were so impressed with their final creations with many choosing to link their drawing to our history topic and drawing their favourite toy

Y2 Toys

Whilst comparing Victorian toys with toys we have today, in history, Year 2 got the chance to have a go using a modern day Diablo. We were very impressed with their skills!  

Y2 Science

This week in Science Year 1 and 2 have been performing tests to find out which material would be the best to make the paper dolls from our story a waterproof coat. We had to use our skills of speaking, listening and teamwork to test lots of different materials. Finally we had to give reasons for the materials we had chosen and in Year 2 we focussed on clearly explaining reasons for suitability.  

Killhope Mine visit

Years 5 and 6 put on their wellies and hard hats to explore the amazing mines at Killhope. The children had a guided tour of the Victorian mine before practising the skills the washer boys used over 160 years ago. Each child left Killhope with a piece of galena, the natural form of lead.

Another successful memorable experience which the children can link to their  classroom learning! 

Skillsbuilder - building our skills for life

Skills builder at home

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

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