Haltwhistle Academy Newsletter

Reading diaries

Harvest festival thanks

Attendance - Fire Pit Friday

We have now entered our second week of our new 'Fire Pit Friday'. Pupils who are in school everyday for a week (100% attendance) are entered into a hat and chosen by our random selector. 2 lucky winners from Years 1-6 are come to 'Fire Pit Friday' and enjoy a hot chocolate around the fire. 

Who will it be next week?

We were pleased to welcome teams from Allendale, Shaftoe and West Tyne Federation (Greenhead & Henshaw) to celebrate our first games of our new season (West Northumberland School League). Unfortunately, Newbrough were not able to play. This did, however, benefit both of our Haltwhistle teams standing in the league, as they received a 3-0 win due to forfeit. Both teams played incredibly well and showed fantastic resilience. 

Follow our season here: 

https://www.tournify.uk/live/schoolfootballwest 

Poppy display at the church

Haltwhistle Methodist Church are kindly allowing us to put up a poppy display on the church steps. Over the next few weeks pupils will be making poppies in school using various materials. As you can imagine we need a huge amount of poppies for this so if your child would like to make some poppies at home and bring them into school that would be great. The poppies can be made of anything as long as they can be laminated or are waterproof. We have included some ideas below.

Thank you

Read, write inc parent visits

Key Stage 1 have welcomed parents into their Read Write Inc lessons this week. Parents were able to engage in a full reading lesson and get a real insight into how we teach reading so they are able to fully support their children at home. The sessions have been warmly welcomed with parents sharing how insightful they have been and how nice it was to be a part of their child's learning.

Marvellous Mathematicians in Year 2!

Year 2 have been busing practising their number bonds to 10 using the rekenreks to support their understanding. We recorded each number bond in our book (very neatly!) and worked in a systematic order. We noticed that some of them are the same just swapped over - 1+9 and 9+1. We also say our sentence for each bond; 1 needs 9 to make a 10.  

Managing conflict, keeping calm

Safety works

Year 6 had a very informative visit to Safety Works in Newcastle on Thursday. The children spent time learning about how to stay safe in and around the community. This was linked to their PSHE topic 'Keeping Safe' from the summer, and explored areas linked closely to risk factors in our area and how to make good choices when out and about. Fantastic discussions Year 6! 

Virtual Author / Mental Health Awareness

Drawing Club

School driveway

Please could we remind parents that the school driveway can be used at the following times only:

• To drop off for breakfast club (before 8.20am)

• To collect from after school care (after 3.45pm)

The drive is closed to vehicles from 8.20 - 9am and 3pm - 3.45pm to ensure the safety of the young children walking to and from school.  Only school taxi's and drivers with a blue badge can use the driveway during these times and must observe the 5mph limit.  

Thank you for your support.

Internet Safety Monthly Messages

Check out our parent/carer guides for social media this Month:

Whatsapp

Tik Tok

Snap Chat

Understanding Autistic Overwhelm, Meltdown and Shutdown Workshop for Parents 

Hexham Family Hub Monday 14th October 10-12 

Delivery of in-person learning workshops on understanding Sensory Differences is taking place with a member of the Autism Central at Daisy Chain team. We will look at how sensory differences impact autistic people. This workshop is aimed at the parents and carers of school-aged children. No diagnosis is necessary.

Places must be booked: https://daisychainproject.co.uk/product/in-person-learning-workshops-northumberland/

Haltwhistle Family Hub

Attendance Matters - important changes coming

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.

Pupil illness - Please note that in line with the new attendance guidance, we need a clear reason for absence for the school register.  If your child is 'poorly' their absence is registered as unauthorised until a reason is provided. Please contact the school office as soon as possible so that the illness reason can be authorised.   

Under the new government policy, if one parent takes their child on an unauthorised term time holiday, both parents with parental responsibility could be subject to a fine issued by Northumberland County Council.  This includes when parents are separated.  

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.