Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

Nursery Gardeners

Our little gardeners are becoming so good at looking after all of their lovely young plants and seedlings in the polytunnel.

We have potatoes, beans, peas, pumpkins and lettice all growing away very nicely. We have also planted nasturtiums, sunflowers and wildflowers to bring some colour to our garden and create areas for lots of  insects to feed and find shelter. 

Each time we go down to the polytunnel there is something new to see and lots of watering to do, we can't wait to taste some of the vegetables we are growing. 

Exploring and discovering in our Early Years garden. Noticing seasonal changes, finding amazing tiny creatures, sharing knowledge and taking care of our environment. Science in Early Years is so exciting. 

Teddy Bears Picnic

The children in Reception have been writing invitations to their teddy bears. We have been very clever and used the sounds we have been learning in RWI to write our words. We practice our handwriting everyday when we come into school and our writing is really neat. Our teddies came into school on Wednesday and we had a fun time having a picnic with them. We hope they enjoyed it too 

Quad kids

Year 4 enjoyed Quad Kids, a sporting event held at Allendale Primary. The children were grouped with children from other schools and demonstrated their amazing teamwork,sportsmanship and talents to compete in various sporting activities. 

How tall are you?

Our nursery children have been really enjoying the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see." By Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle.

The children have loved joining in with the words as we read it and also sing it together. We have also had great fun making up our own what can you see songs outside in our garden. We think you might enjoy seeing some of our amazing Brown Bear paintings.

Plant Science

Year 3 and 4 have been learning all about plants. We have dissected plants and looked closely at the roots, stem, leaves and flowers and learnt about their specific functions. We have also looked in detail at the stem, learning that the job of the stem is to transport water and nutrients from the soil to the rest of the plant through tiny tubes called xylem. Through our investigations we were able to see coloured water transported through the xylem in celery and flowers. Some of our flowers even started turning blue! 

Reception Forest School

In forest school, the children in Reception talked about what tree bark felt like. We thought of some super adjectives - bumpy, rough, spikey, scratchy, sharp, hard, brown, pointy. We then went into the Early Years garden to make bark rubbings. It was quite tricky because we had to rub really hard. We noticed lots of different patterns from the bark.  

Pottery Club

Pottery club has got off to a great start this half term. We have started our journey using air-drying clay and natural found objects to make impressions into slabs to create decorations. We have also discussed the properties of clay in its various states of wet/dry/fired and have begun an experiment seeing how long it takes to rehydrate and recycle what appears to be dried out clay - waste not, want not! The children are looking forward to experimenting with moulding, sculpting and hand-building as the weeks progress. 

Carnival Float - 2024 Olympics theme

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

Everyone is responsible for safeguarding children.  Please speak to a member of this team if you are concerned about the safety of a child.