Newsletters

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you for sending children in House T shirts today. We have been talking this week about the inspirational men and women whose achievements we celebrate through our four Houses: Burton, Wilberforce, Bronte and Hepworth. Our aim is that every child knows a little bit about their House namesake-why they are famous, as well as their link to Yorkshire. Hopefully your child can tell you all about their own House!

Update on site expansion

You may be aware that the Executive Board meeting took place on Wednesday of this week and proposals for the Bramhope school expansion were presented to Local Councillors. I am delighted to let you know that our expansion was confirmed at the meeting and therefore our school will officially become 2 form entry from 2022. This expansion will be funded by the Local Authority.

As part of the scheme, a full transport review will be conducted. The Local Authority will be focusing on ways to reduce traffic, increase parking and encourage walking and cycling to school. Our Chair of governors (Fiona Wrightson) has already started working with local residents to hear their views and we are all committed to creating a greener environment around school.

The expansion will involve considerable refurbishment of several classrooms and an opportunity to improve a number of facilities including site access and security, the computer suite, library, hall and toilets. Expanding will also enable us to simplify our curriculum as we gradually move to single age classes.

Building work will not commence until next academic year but I am working with the Local Authority to make improvements to the dining hall prior to September’21. As I’ve said before, we will ‘grow’ the school from reception upwards and therefore there are various options for mixing of classes until September 2025. By 2025, we will finally have 420 pupils and two, single age classes in every age group. I will of course keep you informed about developments along the way but please just ask if you have any immediate questions. 

The importance of reading

Now that everyone is back in school again, we very much hope that you can help us boost lost learning by re-focusing on reading. Here are three practical ways to help your child:

1. Log onto Bug Club if you have not done so already. Even if you have plenty of real books at home and your child is an able reader, using Bug Club provides regular opportunities for comprehension in a structured format which is difficult to replicate. We currently have 86% of pupils accessing Bug club books so please keep up the good work of your child is using it already!
2. Turn on the subtitles This brilliantly simple, free, small change to children’s existing TV viewing habits can drastically improve their reading skills. Here is Stephen Fry to explain the benefits of turning on the subtitles in more detail. www.turnonthesubtitles.org/parents.
3. Look for opportunities to read all the time with your child and adopt the TRUST model. This model emphasises the benefits of your child reading aloud and sharing books with you.  Reading aloud often stops once a child can read fluently and this model emphasises the importance of discussing books together right through KS2. More information about specific age -related questions to ask your child can be found HERE and HERE.

School meals

We are currently experiencing problems with meal numbers. This week, despite a number of reminders, a considerable number of parents (26) did not book a meal or send their child with a packed lunch. As you will appreciate, this causes great difficulty as the chef orders food for pre-booked meals and last minute requests put additional pressures on catering staff and admin.

We do recognise that there are occasionally exceptional circumstances which mean a parent may have not been able to place an order or provide a lunch. However, it is not practical or sustainable for us to produce so many additional meals at no notice. Please note that unless school meal orders are placed by 11.30am every Thursday, we may not be able to provide a lunch for your child.

Lunch Menus and links to the order forms can be found on the school website HERE.

The new form for wc 29 March is now ready for parents to place orders, please click HERE. Please order by 11.30 on Thursday 25 March.

Bramhope Buzz

Please send your contributions for the next issue of the school magazine to:

caroline.judd@bramhopeprimaryschool.co.uk  

BramhopeBuzz@bramhopeprimaryschool.co.uk 

Class 12G created their own characters for Red Nose Day, what fantastic drawings!

Housepoints!

The children really look forward to me announcing our ‘weekly winners’ in assembly-well done to everyone who has been awarded a house point this week!

The total points for this week and so far this term are:

PTA Easter Scavenger Hunt

The Easter Scavenger Hunt is a guided walk round Bramhope village looking for the answers to various questions whilst also searching for 'Easter egg pictures' which will each give you a letter to decipher a secret message!

There are separate questions for KS1 and KS2 and entry is £5.  The route is the same for both KS1 and KS2, and both question sheets are included in the entry fee. Tickets are available to purchase now on the PTA website.

There is a £15 Amazon voucher for the winning entry of each of the KS1 and KS2 questions (the winner will be drawn from a hat if there are multiple entries with the same high score). 

Once you have undertaken the trail, please submit your answers and the secret message to the email address from which the question sheets were sent.

The answers, and the winner, will be revealed after the Easter holiday.

The Easter eggs will be visible from Friday 2 April until Sunday 18 April, so the hunt can be done any time during the Easter holidays.

Please ensure that you follow the current Coronavirus Government guidance when taking part in the Scavenger Hunt.

Many thanks

Your PTA Team

Track and Trace

Finally, please remember that the school continues to operate a Track and Trace system. If your child or another member of their family develops symptoms, is awaiting a test result or has a positive test result you must self- isolate. Please also email me directly so that I can take appropriate action regarding closure of bubbles: rachel.colbourn@bramhopeprimaryschool.co.uk