Newsletters

Dear parents and carers

Thank you so much for entering into the spirit of today for Children in Need. There was a real buzz in school and it was so nice to see so many smiling faces! The other big plus of course is that today raised around £300 for Children in Need. We are conscious that everyone has extra challenges in their work and home life at present so thank you for encouraging your child to dress up (or down) for the day.

Many of you will know that as a school, we have worked hard to encourage children to walk, cycle or scoot to school. Some of the initiatives we have introduced are:

• Creating permit only parking places near the medical centre
• Involving our community police officer in overseeing parking near school
• Meeting with local residents to discuss their views
• Providing scooter and bikeability training
• Providing road safety training
• Providing an additional bike shelter
• Promoting physical activity such as the mile a day initiative on our school field

In addition, we are going to introduce a Living Streets Year round, walk to school challenge. We’ll be providing more details soon and it provides the perfect introduction to our latest initiative, Project Happy.

Project Happy

STOP! YOUR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY NEEDS YOU!

We all know what the morning rush can be like:  searching for reading books that need to be returned that day, practising spellings over breakfast, repeated requests, with increasing volume, to put shoes on ... all of which often make driving to school the easier option, not to mention when the weather and dark mornings/evenings are stacked against us.  Sometimes driving is the only option for some of us, but we can all do our bit.

As the school grows, so too do the number of cars on and around the school at drop off and pick up.  We need to take action now to reduce the number of cars in the immediate school vicinity and help to make Bramhope a safer, healthier and cleaner place to live.

A working party of school governors, staff members, councillors, parents and local residents has come together to discuss ways in which we can all help make the change.  Pupils at the school will be fully involved over the coming months to find ways to become one of the safest and healthiest schools in Leeds (with prizes for the best ideas!).  If you would like to get involved or have any ideas of your own, then please do get in touch.

Watch this space for regular updates.  In the meantime, we ask all parents, grandparents or anyone else doing drop off / pick up to:

• Walk / scoot / cycle to school where at all possible.

If you must drive:

• park further away from school and walk - consider using the council car park at the top end of the village near the Fox & Hounds.

• park with consideration for others.

And never park:

• in the staff car parks (Breary Rise or by the doctors' surgery)

• on corners

• across driveways

• on pavements

or leave the engine running whilst you are waiting in your car.

'National Road Safety Week 16 - 22 November 2020'

Parents evening

This coming week, we are continuing to hold the rest of our planned telephone appointments with parents. These have been scheduled and distributed to you already. Feedback has been good so far and parents and teachers have appreciated the opportunity to talk together. If you have not yet spoken with your child’s teacher, please help us by:

• Emailing your child’s questionnaire to your class teacher before your appointment
• Only requesting a change in appointment time if you are not able to attend
• Ensuring you are available at the time of the call
• Sticking to your allocated time of 10 minutes

Lunches

We have started providing hot meals three times a week in school, all of which are delivered to classes on a daily basis. Although we are very happy for parents to switch to school meals, unfortunately we cannot offer a mix of packed lunches and school meals from week to week. This is because food needs to be ordered in advance. At present, a small number of children are coming to school without a packed lunch and requesting a school meal with no notice. Parents who are paying for a school meal should be opting in for all meals for a whole half term. 

Thank you.

St George’s Crypt

At the end of this term we will be collecting any unwanted adult, warm clothing (particularly coats and jumpers) which we will be passing on to those who need them. If you are planning on sorting out any cupboards before the end of term, please hang on to any adult warm clothing and we will find a good home for it.

Thank you to those parents who attended our first PTA meeting of the school year. Despite the fact it was remote (or maybe because of it) we had our best attendance ever! There is obviously an appetite for keeping our community events going in some form and as ever, an amazing group of parents who are willing and keen to start organising. All Bramhope parents are automatically part of the PTA and anyone is welcome to come to any of our meetings. Our next meeting will be held on 10 December.

As you may know, we have already spent some of the PTA money to improve playtime for all. Improvements have included:

• Re-tarmacing part of the KS2 playground and (thanks to WJ) installing some fantastic markings-with a little help from the school council
• Purchasing three playground sheds for storing new equipment (two of which are yet to arrive) for reception, KS1 and KS2
• Soft surfacing the new reception outdoor area
• Buying two bins, (one for KS1 and one for KS2) as voted by the school

We also have a considerable sum left to put into developing the KS1 playground. This is currently on hold as I am in the latter stages of discussion about school expansion, moving from one and a half form entry to two form entry. If this expansion were to go ahead, we would be considering the potential of  the KS1 playground area around the outdoor stage and therefore it makes sense to improve the playground as part of the big picture. I should have a definitive answer about potential school expansion at the end of this month and will be able to update you this term.

Thank you and have a lovely weekend

R Colbourn

Times Tables Rock Stars

Following on from the success of this week's TimesTables Rockstars Rock Week, we have entered the November Numeracy Challenge on Mathletics. This is a world-wide maths challenge focused on students mastering curriculum activities and practising their mental maths skills. Prizes are awarded for top performing schools. The November Numeracy Challenge will run from Monday 16th November until Sunday 22nd November.

How to earn points

Curriculum Activities 10 points per correct answer.

Live Mathletics Students 1 point per correct answer or two points per correct answers on their bonus level indicated by a gold star next to the level number.

Good Luck!

Mrs Laws

Egyptian Workshop

KS2 were transported back to the mysterious world of Ancient Egypt through a virtual reality experience today.  Through their headsets they experienced the building of the pyramids, exploration of the inside of a Pharaoh's tomb and a look at life on the River Nile.  It was great to see the children engaged in an activity outside of their classroom and from their comments below, they thoroughly enjoyed it!

'I loved it so much! It all felt real and that we were there. It was so cool to see what Ancient Egypt was like. Thank you so much.' 

Emelia, 5/6L

'It was awesome - the best lesson ever!'

Spencer D, 4/5S

'It was EPIC!  By far the coolest thing I've done in school.'

Charlie H, 4/5S

'It was the best thing that has ever happened in school. '

Jack F, 5/6L

Can we do it again?

Ben W, 3/4 HL

Mrs Stewart

Armistice Day

Although we could not all get together as a school to mark Remembrance Day, each class observed the 2 minute silence in their classrooms following a special assembly.  Special thank you to the children who read the poems so respectfully.

Mrs Stewart

Miller Homes Time Capsule

Thank you so much to all the children who submitted items for the Miller Homes Time Capsule.  We had a wide variety of work ranging from poems, posters, letters and artefacts of the past, such as face masks!

In total, there were 42 entries and we have sent them all off today.  We will let you know which pieces of work have been selected in due course.

Mrs Stewart

Rosie's Books

This week, we took part in our first ever virtual book fair run by our school linked Independent Usborne Organiser ‘Rosie’s Readers’. This is normally an event we run during our Parents’ Evenings but, like many things this year, that is not possible. However, we didn’t want to miss out on the children having the opportunity to purchase some fabulous books so we have organised some class session via Teams.

Both developing reading ability and reading for pleasure are a high priority at Bramhope Primary School and so we were thrilled that we were able to work closely with Rosie and produce an online book fair. Not only do we hope that you child/ren purchase and enjoy books at home but, as a school, we too receive FREE books correlating to the amount spent by parents – a win-win result!

On Monday, Rosie shared a range of age appropriate fiction texts with each of the classes. Her selection of text and pitch of delivery was matched to your child’s age range. Below shows the small sample of Rosie’s vast range of books which were shared with the different year groups. Next Monday, Rosie will ‘virtually’ visit the classes again but this time her focus will be non-fiction books.

We are so pleased to hear that Rosie has already started to receive a number of emails from parents and that children have gone home talking enthusiastically about the books she shared.

For further information or to browse at the selection of books, please take a look at her website: https://org.usbornebooksathome.co.uk/rosies_readers

Alternatively, you can email her at: rosiesanderson@hotmail.com

Our in school contact regarding the Book Fair is Miss Harrison although all orders, order enquires and book queries should go directly to Rosie.

Thank you so much for your support.

PTA

We had our public PTA meeting via zoom on Tuesday 10 November and had a great turnout. Sadly, we said good bye to Susan Littlejohn as chair and Rachel Groves as co-chair who helped us to raise the much needed funds for our great outdoor project (still ongoing) and now we are in need of a new chair. We will vote for this position at our next meeting on Thursday 10^th December at 8pm via zoom again (job description to follow). And of course, any of the positions in the PTA committee are available; so if anybody would like be the secretary or the treasurer, please feel free and put yourself forward or ask for more information. We need people who have skills in all walks of life, everybody can make a difference.

We have had some wonderful ideas for fundraising already and hopefully we all will see the fruits of labour. If you would like to run a fundraiser or a project or have an idea, please get in touch via admin@bramhopeprimaryschool.co.uk.

Christmas

Family table wreath decorating competition

Bring out your competitive side and have some festive fun with your family!

We will be running a competition for the best decorated wreath - feel free to use garden clippings or go foraging further afield for extra items to decorate your wreath ring.  Once completed, please send a picture of your wreath ring to wreathpta@outlook.com.  Any interesting location / background will be taken into account in the judging, and the winners will be selected by Mrs Colbourn. 

Amazon vouchers (which have been donated to the PTA) will be awarded for the top 3 entries – top prize £30, second prize £20, third prize £10.

The final date to submit photos for the competition is Wednesday 16 December.

Winners will be announced on Friday 18 December.

The PTA are now selling wreath making packs, which comprise an 8" wreath ring, 4 candles, a starter pack of decorative items and an instruction sheet to assist.  The wreaths are for tables (not doors), so you will get to enjoy it every meal time!

You can purchase a wreath pack for £10 at www.pta-events.co.uk/bpspta/ - packs are available now and will be on sale until Friday 27 November.

Wreath pack orders will be available for collection from Lily's (1 The Parade, Breary Lane) from Wednesday 2 December.  

A big thank you to Rachel at Lily's for her support with this event.  All funds raised will be supporting the Great Outdoors Project.  Good luck, enjoy decorating and thanks in advance for your support!

Your PTA team

Miller Homes Colouring Competition

Miller Homes are holding a colouring competition for Bramhope Pupils. The template is a house, see below, that you can colour and make as festive as you choose. Click here to download and print the drawing.

A prize will be offered to the winner and runner up prizes for two other children.

Closing date for entries is Friday 27 November. Please scan and email entries to admin@bramhopeprimaryschool.co.uk, or leave your picture with the staff at the office.

Winners will be announced on Thursday 10^th December and all prizes posted to the winners at their school, on Friday 11^th December 

Thank you for your support in joining in with our festive colouring competition.

Miller Homes

Christmas in Bramhope!

Sunday 6 December and Sunday 13 December.

The Village Hall normally hosts the Bramhope Christmas Light Switch on however for obvious reasons, this is not going to be possible this year. Instead they’d love you to get involved with their alternative plans with prizes on offer for the most Christmassy households.

Fill your travel mugs up with your favourite Christmas beverage and put on your Christmas tunes for others to enjoy as they pass by your house.

Leave your house and enjoy a family walk together throughout our friendly village.

Christmas Preparations

To Do List:

• Prepare outdoor lights
• Fill windows with Christmas crafts or decorations
• Decorate your outdoor trees and gardens
• Choose a Christmas playlist
• Add mulled wine or hot chocolate and marshmallows to the shopping list

More details will follow on the Bramhope Village Hall Events Facebook page.

Thank you

Bramhope Village Hall