Newsletters

As we reach the end of term, I am writing to thank you again for your continued support and to express my gratitude to our team of staff for all their hard work over the Autumn term. Since the start of our school expansion in April, parents, and pupils have shown great agility in adapting to the range of circumstances we have been faced with, and I am proud of how our school community coped with the delayed opening in September and the subsequent challenges for all concerned. We are extremely grateful for the strong partnership between staff and parents and look forward to working with you again next term.

Inevitably at this time of year, our thoughts start to turn to January. It is with great sadness that we bid a fond farewell to Miss Harrison today. As you know, Miss Harrison has worked at Bramhope for 17 years. She has seen many of our children through KS1 and her dedication to her role as class teacher and Assistant Head is self-evident. Miss Harrison has always worked incredibly hard and sets herself very high standards. Throughout my time as Head here, I have been struck by Miss Harrison’s commitment to doing her very best for every child. She has led a number of phonics and English-related initiatives, mentored many new teachers and been instrumental in developing our Early Years and teaching and learning across Key Stage One. Children enjoy being in Miss Harrison’s class and many of you will have experienced her sense of humour and school performances at first hand.

As a staff, we are sorry to say goodbye to Miss Harrison and I am sure you will join me in wishing her all the very best for the future.

Finally, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a lovely holiday. Whether you are celebrating Christmas, working or simply relaxing, I hope you're able to enjoy some family time together. We look forward to welcoming everybody back to school on Tuesday 3 January.

Thank you

Chris Kirkpatrick (our school chef) is leaving today and moving to work in a larger, secondary school. Having arrived during Covid and seen our school through expansion, we are very grateful for his flexibility and willingness to work with the school. Our Assistant chef (Nikki) will be standing in from January and Hutchison are currently advertising for a new school chef.

Christmas Jumper Day

Thank you to everyone for coming into school in their Christmas jumpers today!

If you would like to donate to the Save The Children charity, just click HERE

Thank you

Mrs Laws

Bake Sale

Thank you to everyone who baked or purchased a treat from the bake sale. The House Captains who organised the sale were really impressive, and the money raised will go towards The Guide Dogs Association. The group have lots of plans for future fundraising and the total raised today was an amazing £214.50!

2G was one of the four classes who enjoyed last week's KS1 Christmas workshops. The aim of the workshops was for children to learn about the Christmas story in an age appropriate, meaningful way. Children put on costumes and acted out scenes from the story. The workshops were led by Matt Broughton, Vicar of St Giles.

This week, children in KS2 were also welcomed into St Giles for a child-friendly church service, greatly enjoyed by all who attended. Thank you Matt!

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Year 6 Swimming Week

Year 6 have thoroughly enjoyed their week of swimming at Holt Park. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday children swam lengths and practised drills to improve front crawl, breaststroke and backstroke. It was great to see technique and endurance improve day after day.

On Thursday, we practised water safety skills using floating objects to save a partner, safely calling from the pool side and treading water.

After water safety, we held a swimming gala with each child taking part in a qualifying race to represent their house. Then the fastest swimmers from each house raced in the finals. Bronte were the overall winners with an individual win in breaststroke and first place in the mixed medley. Well done Bronte!

The final part of swimming week was a water safety lesson in the classroom and a water wise quiz.

We have had excellent feedback from the week and the children certainly appreciate why it is important to learn to swim:

I enjoyed the water safety part of it, even though it was serious, it was really fun. Charlie

I enjoyed learning how to do breaststroke as it was fun and helpful. Alice

Travel Tracking

Today numerous children received WoW Travel Tracking badges for their positive engagement with sustainable travel. For the month of December, 83% of recorded journeys to school were counted as active travel. This includes walking to school, scooting, cycling or park and stride and reflects a further reduction in car journeys since November. Thank you for supporting us with this initiative.

Badges were handed out by Year 6 WoW Ambassadors Kinza and Leon.

Mr McKeown

Arts Council

I'm delighted to announce that our new members of BPS Arts Council are Noor A, Edward W, William M and Henry M! Well done to them all. Their applications were very well written.

Our first project is to re-design the backdrop of the KS1 outdoor theatre stage. We will be creating designs and putting them to the rest of the school to choose the winner. How exciting!

There is still time to join BPS Arts Council. Just email me (harriet.heald@bramhopeprimaryschool.co.uk) with your name and class explaining why you want to join the Arts Council and why you think you should be chosen. You could then be a part of redesigning the outdoor theatre background and there will be more exciting projects coming up...

Our meetings are held on the first and last Friday of each half-term at lunchtime between 12pm and 12.30pm in the Art Studio. Our next meeting will be on Friday 6 January.

I look forward to receiving more applications!

Thank you

Mrs Heald

Next Parent Workshop:

21 February - Online Safety: Parenting in a digital world

Presented by Charlotte Hahnel-Digital Lead and the Bramhope Digital Leaders

House Points

The children really look forward to me announcing our ‘weekly winners’ in assembly - especially as we now present the house trophy every Friday!

Well done to everyone who has been awarded a house point this week!

The total house points for this week are:

Wilberforce - 416
Hepworth - 405
Bronte - 385
Burton - 240

A big well done to our winner this week - Wilberforce!

The winner for this term however is Bronte with 2799 points!

Well done Bronte!

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Noodle the Reading Dog

At Bramhope Primary School we are passionate about reading. As you may know we are registered for the Pets As Therapy READ 2 DOGS programme, designed to give pupils opportunities to increase their confidence and enjoyment in reading.

We are delighted that Noodle, the reading dog, will be visiting Bramhope once again, in the new year.

Having a reading dog in school really helps motivate some children to read. For those who lack confidence, having a dog as an audience has also found to be calming and reassuring. To find out more about how Reading Dogs support children in learning to read, click this LINK.

Each week the teachers will be encouraging the pupils to read regularly at home. Those that do will be chosen to read with Noodle when he visits.

If you wish to provide permission for your child to meet and read to Noodle, please complete the consent form HERE.

Mrs Lillitos

Have a wonderful Christmas

Mrs Colbourn