Dear Parents and Carers,
As we enter the fourth week of this academic year, many Y5 parents are starting to think about the next stage of their child’s education. Parents of children in Y6 have until 31 October to complete an online application for secondary school, details of which are available from Leeds school admissions department. Yesterday I held a meeting aimed at helping parents with their school choices at secondary school. The PowerPoint from the meeting has a number of prompts for discussion and is available here if you would like to refer to again.
Curriculum information evening
Next Thursday (26 September) we will be holding our curriculum information evening at 7:00pm. As usual, I will be speaking until approximately 7:45 in KS2 hall, after which parents are encouraged to attend an additional half hour meeting in their child’s classroom. These class meetings will be repeated from 8:20-8:50 so that parents with more than one child can attend both sessions. The class meetings are for parents of children from Y1-6. The Reception team will also be in the Reception teaching area, ready for you to drop in and answer questions which may have arisen since the start of term.
Please note that we will be serving some samples from our school meals as well as refreshments (coffee, tea and cake) in aid of Macmillan. Please bring cash with you as we will be collecting donations on the day.
Big Think-Big Talk
Part of our aim in school is to challenge children's thinking and make them knowledgeable and curious about the world outside of Bramhope. With this in mind, I have launched a new initiative which I am calling ‘Big Think-Big Talk' assemblies. As you may know, the whole school now start the week with a ‘Big think’ assembly led by me. This introduces the theme for the week and is designed to initiate conversations about some of the important things in life, be they spiritual, moral, social or cultural. The assembly is then followed up on Wednesday by a ‘Big Talk’ discussion, further exploring the theme of the week, through some key questions. The discussion is class based and age appropriate but the questions are deliberately open ended and designed to stimulate discussion. I know that a number of parents have already heard about our themes and that children have gone home and talked more about them which is great news! With this in mind, I thought it might be useful to share the weekly questions with you so that you are aware what we have been thinking about and what has sparked some of the discussions we have been having in school.
This week’s key questions have been….
Do you know anyone who looks or sounds different to you? How are they different?
Are people who look different to us always treated as equals?
Clubs
We hope your child is looking forward to clubs starting next week! We currently have 105 children signed up for sport alone and many more looking forward to forest club, drama and French as well as children starting instrumental lessons. Please note that we will be re-launching choir after half term, starting with a special six week Christmas choir dedicated to enjoying and sharing music together. This will be an unpaid club which runs at lunchtime-more details to follow.
Parent readers
If you are new to school or an existing parent who would like to hear readers, please let us know! We are looking for volunteers to listen to children, encouraging them to read aloud with fluency and expression and talk about their book. Ideally, we would like parents or grandparents who have an afternoon to spare each week so we can pair adults with classes and they can get to know the children over time. If you would like to hear children read and are able to spare the time, please get in touch with the school admin team.
Children’s safety
We still have on-going concerns about children’s safety around our school car parks. Parents will be aware that we are entitled to use half of the medical centre car park and that this is for staff only. The car park nearest the KS1 playground is also shared between our school staff and the Cliffe House nursery parents and I am concerned that the congestion at drop off and pick up is making it unsafe for our children. Please do park off site if you can.
PTA meeting
We now have the funds to implement phase one of our playground improvements and are looking forward to finalising plans for a half term make over! If you would like to share your views about activities for the children or get involved with fundraising for phase two, please come along to the PTA meeting on Monday. The meeting will take place at 7:30pm in The Fox and Hounds pub and is open to everyone!
Have a lovely weekend.
Rachel Colbourn
