Spring Newsletter 10 [Friday 10th March]
Dear Parents & Carers
You should have received a parent message yesterday from our House Captains outlining what they have planned for Red Nose Day next week on Friday 17th March: non-uniform day, selling red noses (see below), joke competition. They will also be leading a whole school assembly next week too!
Talking of Red Nose Day, I need to bring something to your attention. As normal, we ordered enough red noses for every child in the school from nursery to Y6. Its one of our biggest events of the year, raising money for a wonderful charity, Comic Relief, that makes a difference to families lives both here & abroad. It was only when the noses arrived that we realised that the packaging of each red nose contains the following: ‘Warning Not suitable for children under 7 years of age due to small parts – choking hazard do not swallow’. Therefore, we will not be able to sell these noses to the children in nursery, reception (Red & Blue classes) and Y1&2 (Green, Purple & Yellow classes). We will not be able to let the children in those classes wear the 2023 red noses in school on Red Nose Day either. This year’s red noses have been created by the design guru Sir Jony Ives (iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook, etc.); he may have made some of the most iconic products in history but he cannot design a red nose suitable for every child in a primary school. Our House Captains will come onto the infant yard each morning as the children arrive & will sell red noses to parents of the younger children to wear at home whilst being supervised. They will still be selling red noses to the children in Y3-Y6 as planned.
The children had a wonderful time playing in the snow on the school field this morning. There were lots of snow angels & snowmen – Holly the Chef was able to supply carrots for noses! ‘Proper snow’ is such a rarity in Formby so it was lovely to be able to get the children out altogether to enjoy it. I’m sure there will be lots of photos on the class pages on the website.
Here are the ‘nudges’ to help you find out about your child’s learning this week (don’t worry Y1&2 know that mammoths aren’t dinosaurs but there are dinosaurs in part of the book!):
Nursery
Can you talk about the festival of Holi?
{Understanding the World}
Reception [Red & Blue]
What happens in spring? Can you talk about what happened to the weather, trees, plants & animals?
{Science / Understanding the World}
Y1&2 [Green, Yellow & Purple]
Tell me a fact about a dinosaur.
{English topic: ‘The Curious Case of the Missing Mammoth’ Ellie Hattie}
Y3&4 [3A, 3/4M & 4G]
What can you remember about the rivers of Africa?
{Geography topic: ‘Rivers’}
Y5&6 [5D, 5/6P & 6R]
Can you explain why New Zealand experiences earthquakes?
{Geography topic: ‘New Zealand’}
This week, our whole school attendance is 93.4% - we’ve had a slump. We had no classes with 100% attendance this week & only 1 class reaching or exceeding our 97% target: 5/6P (97.2%).
We had had 2 classes who had no late marks this week: 3/4M & 5D. We had 38 late marks across the whole school. 25 late marks were ‘before the register closed’ (that’s before 9.20am) & 13 late marks ‘after the register has closed’, that’s after 9.20am. I think these punctuality figures would have been much better if we hadn’t had the snow this morning.
Please make sure you send your child with a warm, waterproof coat each day. We do try & get the children outside for break & lunchtime as much as possible. After working their socks off in class, they need the benefits of running around in the fresh air without even if the weather is somewhat Baltic.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend
KD Williams
Headteacher
Last word revisited
My poor knowledge of Greek mythology
has always been my Achilles elbow.
