Prudhoe West News
Our online newsletter for parents, carers and the community
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Spring 2023
Spring 2023
We have been very busy since returning to school. You won't believe just how much we've managed to achieve in the short space of time since coming back!
Please also note our up to date calendar for this term. There's lots to get excited about so we don't want you to miss out!
SKills builder
SKills builder
This year, we are continuing our work with Skills Builder and we're going for the gold award!
Our teachers are already planning on how to develop these further. This term, we are developing our skills in Teamwork. We've taken part in a special assembly and in a range of activities within our classrooms. They have made us think about why teamwork is so invaluable and what our lives would be like without it!
A parent guide can be found here.
To further enhance our children's skills, we are looking to explore occupations and the many different roles people play in society. If you feel that you would be able to offer some time to talk about your job and the skills it entails, please let Miss Reynolds know. Thank you.
SCHOOL MEALS
SCHOOL MEALS
The cost of school meals is now £2.10 a day (£5.50 per week) for children in Preschool, Nursery, Year 3 and Year 4.
Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, alongside those registered for Free School Meals, will continue to receive their meal for free each day.
For children in Preschool - Year 2, all children have a school meal each day.
For children in Year 3 and 4 - children may opt to bring a packed lunch, but our preference would be that they continue to take a school meal.
BREAKTIME SNACK
BREAKTIME SNACK
At the moment, all children up to and including Year 2 are entitled to a free piece of fruit at breaktime through the Governent SFVS Scheme.
For children in Year 3 and 4, you are able to send your child into school with a healthy snack each day for them to eat at breaktime.
Please Remember - Meals should be booked and paid for in advance each week on the School Gateway App - Clubs section.
LUNCHTIME!
LUNCHTIME!
The children are loving their school meals! It's always a pleasure for the staff (and our visitors from Redbrick) to join the children and have a catch up about their day in school, their hobbies and interests. Lunchtime is such a valuable learning time for everyone in school!
Full menus are regularly updated on our school website and can be accessed using the links below.
Considerate travelling!
Considerate travelling!
We are receiving regular reports from neighbours and parents within our school community regarding inconsiderate and often dangerous parking that is putting our children at risk. We have also been informed about damage to cars and property as children travel to and from school, and also when awaiting entry into school grounds.
Examples of these include:
-Parking on double yellow lines, zig-zag lines or confined spaces rather than in bays.
-Driving onto a dropped kerb and continuing along a footpath where children are walking, in order to park.
-Driving onto and parking on, or in front of, resident's driveways.
-Scratching images into resident's fences.
In school, we talk to the children regularly about road safety and respect for property.
Please help us to ensure the following:
- All children have safe and assessible routes on their journey to and from school by parking legally and considerately.
- We treat our neighbours, each other and property with respect and courtesy.
Thank you.
WRAPAROUND CARE
We continue to offer wraparound care for children at Prudhoe West and Highfield Middle. Lots of exciting activities are taking place over the coming weeks including baking, drawing sessions and games nights.
Please support the club to remain open by using it as often as you can. Should you have any issues making a booking, please get in touch with Mrs. Wheeler in the school office on 01661 823388 and she will be happy to help!
External Afterschool Clubs
External Afterschool Clubs
In addition to Shining Stars Kids Club, there are also other clubs available. They are as follows:
GAYLE SMITH GYMNASTICS
GAYLE SMITH GYMNASTICS
Contact Gayle on Facebook - GS Gymnastics or
07852 531844
Seiken Ryu karate
Seiken Ryu karate
Contact Peter for further details at on 07912 533164
Seiken Ryu karate
Seiken Ryu karate
Prudhoe West Pupils Only -EVERY FRIDAY 3.00pm - 4.00pm
Open to children in Y1
Contact instructor Wayne Bond on 07787145497
Attendance
Attendance
It has been long recognised that academic success is built upon a sound foundation of good attendance. Both school and parents have a shared responsibility in ensuring regular attendance. We are aiming for 98-100% attendance for every child.
We appreciate that children are occasionally poorly and do need to be at home. On these occasions, you must contact us on 01661 832288, by 8:45am, to notify us that your child will not be attending and provide a reason for their absence.
Please get in touch if you or your child is experiencing difficulties which are affecting their attendance and well-being. We are happy to support in any way possible.
Lateness
Lateness
Doors and gates close at 8:40am. After this time, children must be signed into the office by their parent.
Every minute late is valuable learning time lost! It can be unnerving for a child to arrive late and often takes a while for them to settle and catch up with learning routines and the vital instructions needed for the day ahead!
Please help your child to have a settled and positive start to the day by arriving on time.
Thank you for your continued support.
our partnership promise
our partnership promise
We are here to help in any way we can so that your child feels safe, secure and able to reach their full potential. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if we can help in any way.
Mrs MICHelle Brewster
Mrs MICHelle Brewster
Acting Headteacher, Safeguarding Lead & SENCO
miss kirstie reynolds
miss kirstie reynolds
Acting Deputy Headteacher,
Early Years Leader & Safeguarding Lead
Miss Abi Ibberson
Miss Abi Ibberson
Safeguarding Lead
Rainbow Room
Rainbow Room
So far this half term, Rainbow Room have enjoyed exploring sensory experiences such as oats, shaving foam and playdough. We have been linking these experiences to our topic, 'Traditional Tales', by mixing up and feeding the Three Bear's their porridge and making the Three Little Pigs out of dough!
nursery
nursery
In Nursery, we have been reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears and have been very busy building a new chair for Baby Bear. We tested how strong it was by finding lots of things that were heavy and light. We also made our own porridge for the Bear's, to replace what had been eaten!
We have also loved playing in it. It was so exciting to see that it could be moulded into snowballs and a snowman. We enjoyed making snow angels and were fascinated that we could make it melt in our hands!
Reception
Reception
We have been learning all about The Gingerbread Man! We developed our understanding of estimation and measure by baking our own. They were soooo yummy! We did such a good job, we ate them all up!
Year 1
Year 1
Year 1 had the most exciting start to the new year when they discovered a spaceship had crash landed on the school yard! The children loved investigating the scene and figuring out what had happened. This hooked all the children into their English story 'Beegu', a story all about a lost alien.
Year 2
Year 2
Year 2 have really enjoyed developing our new skill of Teamwork.
We launched this by looking at the qualities of a good team player and why teamwork is a really important skill to have.
We then completed a team building game where each class was split into two and the children had to work as a team to find all of the hidden number cars around the classroom, within a time limit.
All of the children build upon their listening and communication skills to help make sure they collected the correct amount in the short space of time they had! We are looking forward to exploring more team building games in the coming weeks!
Year 3
Year 3
Magpie class have brightened up the dark days of January by learning all about light in Science. We learnt about light sources and reflectors and how shadows are formed. We investigated how shadows change throughout the day and had lots of fun making shadow puppets.
We have also begun reading our new class book, the wonderful “Varjak Paw” - the story of a Mesopotamian Blue cat. We have done some fantastic writing imagining Varjak’s diary and can’t wait to find out what adventures Varjak will have.
Year 4
Year 4
As part of our Skills Builder project, the children in Year 4 have been practicing the skill of teamwork. We have played games in our English lessons where we have to work as a team to write answers on whiteboards that reach right across the table. For example, everyone has to write a different preposition or an expanded noun phrase. We have also played games such as keeping the balloon in the air.
extra-curricular clubs
extra-curricular clubs
After half term Miss Waggott will be starting a 'Lego Club' for the children in Year 3. She would love anyone who has a passion for Lego and building to come along and have fun.
The club will start on Thursday 2nd March 3:15-4:15 and run for 4 weeks, the last week being 23rd March 2023.
Information will be sent out via SchoolComms shortly, so look out. She can't wait to see you all!
We had a great first session at Craft Club. Starting with drawing our designs then the fun (and messy) part was to use PVA glue and string to make it 3D.
Mrs. Willis-Mcstea was very impressed with the patience and skills the children showed. Next week we will be using our designs to try some printing which might be even messier than this week!
Reception's Messy Baking Club has been running for the last two weeks and what a great time we've had! We've made our own crispy cakes and were challenged to lick melted chocolate off our noses.
We also wrote our name in different coloured 'moon dust' and made yummy fruit kebabs!
There are only 3 rules in Messy Club:
Be safe
Have fun
Get as messy as possible!
NSPCC NUmber day
NSPCC NUmber day
Following on from the success of last year, we will be taking part in NSPCC number day on Friday 3rd February 2023.
Children are invited to 'dress up for digits' on this day, instead of wearing school uniform. Some ways children may wish to dress up are below.
There is a suggested donation of up to £2, which can be paid on the School Gateway App. Children will take part in fun number activities, in their classes, throughout the day.
A letter from Miss Ibberson, further explaining Number Day, can be found here.
Staffing Updates
Staffing Updates
We sadly said goodbye to our lovely Office Apprentice, Mr. Carson, at Christmas. We'd like to thank him for all of his hard work and wish him all the best as he sets off on his Australian adventure!
We welcome Mrs. Routledge to our office team. Parents and children will be familiar with her as she already works in our school kitchen. She has settled well into her newest role and looks forward to being able to assist you!
We also say thank you and goodbye to our trainee teachers in Year One, Miss McMullon and Miss Robinson. They have successfully completed their placements here and will be leaving at the end of this week. We wish them the best of luck for the future!
Upcoming events
Friday 27th January 2023, Little Stars Toddler Group, 8:45-10am.
Friday 27th January 2023, Reception Vision Screening, 9-11am.
Friday 3rd February 2023, Little Stars Toddler Group, 8:45-10am.
Friday 3rd February 2023, NSPCC Number Day - children can dress up in digits
Thursday 9th February 2023, Robinwood Meeting, 3:15pm (Please collect children first. Meeting will be held in Miss Speed's class)
Friday 10th February 2023, Little Stars Toddler Group, 8:45-10am.
Wednesday 15th February 2023, Parents Evening (information to follow)
Thursday 16th February 2023, Parents Evening (information to follow)
Thursday 16th February 2023, school closes for February half term.
Friday 17th February 2023, Teacher Training Day.
Monday 27th February 2023, school reopens after February half term.
Friday 3rd March 2023, Little Stars Toddler Group, 8:45-10am.
Wednesday 8th - Friday 10th March, Year 4 residential to Robinwood. (Those children not going on the visit must attend school as usual.)
Friday 10th March 2023, Little Stars Toddler Group, 8:45-10am.
Monday 13th March 2023, Year 4 Share and Stay (Writing), 8:50-9:45am.
Tuesday 14th March 2023, Year 3 Share and Stay (Writing), 8:50-9:45am.
Wednesday 15th March 2023, Year 2 Share and Stay (Writing), 8:50-9:45am.
Thursday 16th March 2023, Year 1 Share and Stay (Writing), 8:50-9:45am.
Friday 17th March 2023, Little Stars Toddler Group, 8:45-10am.
Friday 17th March 2023, Reception Mother's Day Assembly, followed by a Share and Stay Session (Writing) 1:45-2:45pm.
Friday 24th March 2023, Little Stars Toddler Group, 8:45-10am.
Friday 31st March 2023, Little Stars Toddler Group, 8:45-10am.
Friday 31st March 2023, school closes for Easter break.
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