Summer Newsletter 4 [Friday 10th May]

Dear Parents & Carers

Our Y6 children take their end of KS2 SATs next week. We wish them all the best – as we keep telling them, all we want is for them to try their very best. If they do that, we can’t ask for any more. Their week looks like this:

• Monday: EGPS [English: grammar, punctuation & spelling]
• Tuesday: Reading [1 hour to read 3 texts & answer a series of comprehension questions]
• Wednesday: Maths 1 [arithmetic] & Maths 2 [reasoning]
• Thursday: Maths 3 [reasoning]
• Friday: relax

This week, our Y5&6 children went on a field trip to the pinewoods at ‘The Squirrels’ where Ranger Chris, from the National Trust, spoke to them about an exciting project that we are involved in. Way back in the 1980s, Woodlands children were involved in creating a nature area behind St. Luke’s Church. Sadly, 40 years later, this location is neglected & is now inaccessible to both the residents of Formby & day visitors. The National Trust is looking to reinvigorate this area & has asked our children to help design a play trail made out of natural materials. Our first field trip was to see an existing play trail at Cornerstones so the children could get an idea of what materials they can use in their designs – basically soil & wood (bits of trees to be more precise). Before May half term, the children will make another site visit to the area where the new trim trail will be installed – this will give them an idea of the size of the play trail & how it will fit into the landscape. Hopefully, before the end of the summer term the Y5&6 children will be able to return to the site to help the National Trust Rangers & volunteers install the play trail that they have designed. Exciting times!

Here are the ‘nudges’ to find out your child’s learning this week…

Nursery

Can you talk about how you made your snail in the style of Henri Matisse?

{Expressive Arts & Design / Communication & Language}

Reception [Red & Blue]

Can you retell the story of Jack & the Beanstalk?

{Literacy / Communication & Language }

Y1&2 [Green, Yellow & Purple]

How do we keep our community clean & tidy?

{PSHE topic: ‘Our World’}

Y3&4 [3A, 3/4M & 4G]

Can you evaluate the bread you made? Were you pleased with the finished product?

{DT topic: ‘Making Bread’}

Y5&6 [5D, 5/6P & 6R]

Do you think that people would behave differently in life if they believe in reincarnation?

{RE topic: ‘What do religions tell us when life gets hard?’}

This week, our whole school attendance is 95.3% - well below our 97% target. We had no classes with 100% attendance. We have 4 classes equalling or bettering 97%: Red Class (98.9%), Yellow Class (97.1%), 3G (98.6%) & 6R (99.2%).

We had 3 classes who had no late marks this week: Red Class, 3/4M & 6R. We had 34 late marks across the whole school. All 26 late mark were ‘before the register closed’ – that’s before 9.20am & 8 late marks ‘after the register has closed’, that’s after 9.20am.

We’ve been asked to share this message from Sefton’s Be Active team:

Be Active returns for May Half Term! There are many different activities to get involved with this school holiday and you don’t want to miss out on your place.

Please see attached the booklet with all the information you need to book a place. Don’t spend too long looking for activities in Formby, there aren’t any…

I have also attached the National Trust’s spring newsletter – very interesting it is too!

I hope you all have a good weekend.

KD Williams

Headteacher

Last word

The hardest thing about being a beekeeper is remembering all their names…