Issue 11 • May 2024
...................... A message from Mr Copeland .................... Despite the first half of the Summer Term being largely cold and rainy, the children have still been spending lots of time outside. I recently read a piece of research from Natural England about children’s exposure to nature and the impact on health. Some of the many benefits from spending time in the natural world include an improved ability to self-regulate emotions, a reduction in stress and anxiety, and better academic performance. For these reasons and plenty more, the outdoors will continue to feature in many of our lessons and activities. I am also very grateful to the HCA who have recently funded outdoor toys, storage and fencing to develop our outdoor areas in order to provide the children with more enriching experiences. During this half term I have been fortunate enough to join all year groups on their school trips across Yorkshire. In each section of the newsletter you will find more details of the children’s experiences alongside photos of their adventures. The children were excellent ambassadors for our school with the CARE Code firmly placed in their rucksacks! It was heart-warming to hear many members of the public complimenting the children’s behaviour, manners and engagement whilst on the trips.
We have had a couple of key sporting events this half term for the Year 2 pupils. The first of these was an U7 Girls football fixture against a local club team, Chanterlands Girls’ Football Club. The players were fantastic and worked well as a team to score a number of goals and defended well against their opponents. This was part of a wider
evening of football with over 100 girls from age 6 to 11 representing their school or club. On Monday 13 May all of the Year 2 pupils travelled over to the Hymers campus for the annual Year 2 and Year 3 Swimming Gala. All children took part in at least two races and supported each other superbly from the side of the pool. It was fantastic to see the progress the children have made in swimming and to see their confidence continue to flourish. Congratulations must go to Brandesburton, this year’s winning house. Please look at the Key Dates section of the newsletter to see what is coming up before the end of the year. During the next half term the children will be taking part in transitional activities to support their move to the next academic year and we are all excited to see the Year 2 performance of Pirates vs Mermaids! Finally, I would like to finish by sending my congratulations to Miss Chapman and her husband James on the birth of their second child Beau, pictured left. It looks like Milo is settling into his big brother role beautifully!
............................... PRE-SCHOOL ............................. We have enjoyed a wonderful start to the Summer Term in the Pre-School! We have had lots of fun learning about butterflies, worms, spiders, ants, ladybirds and bees. The children made beautiful minibeast pictures using their collage and cutting skills,
then brought them to life by decorating them and adding googly eyes. We also looked at the life cycle of a ladybird and have been fascinated watching our class ladybirds as they grow and change from larvae to pupae into adult ladybirds. We are looking forward to releasing them into our school garden in the coming weeks.