Newsletter – 24 May 2024

Dear Parents and Carers

We’ve made it to half-term, and what a jam-packed 7 weeks it’s been, with trips to Murton Park, netball and football tournaments, farm visits to school, bumble bee scarecrows and parties in the park! 

Well done!

I’d like to say an especially big well done to our Year 6 pupils who worked their socks off during SATs week, approaching the tests with great maturity and focus. We are all very proud of them, and they should all be very proud of themselves too! 

Thank you!

I’d also like to take this opportunity to say an ENORMOUS thank you to Juno and Sam in Year 6 who donated a whopping £1330 to our new school library, using money they have raised busking around York. Juno, who sings and plays piano, and Sam who plays drums, have been secretly raising the money for us and we are incredibly grateful for their generosity and kindness. Here’s a picture of them busking in Parliament Street.

York Pride!

On Saturday 1st June, our very own Scarcroft Samba band will be joining forces with that of Knavesmire Primary to lead the schools section of the York Pride parade! Everyone is welcome to come and join in, Samba performer or not. You’re more than welcome to join us, just meet the children along the route when you see our banner!

Staffing update

 It’s with great sadness that we inform you of Mrs Barker’s decision to resign from her position as Year 5 teacher. As many of you will be aware, Mrs Barker has been away from school since Spring term 2023, undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Mrs Barker has explained  that having breast cancer has given her significant cause for reflection, as well as a different perspective on her aspirations and future plans, and feels that her family and health must now be a priority.

Mrs Barker has been with the school since July 2011 and will be greatly missed by everyone here. The good news is that Mrs Barker is almost at the end of her treatment, which has been very successful. I know as a community of parents, pupils and staff, we wish her all the best for the future and of course will miss seeing her in school. She has, however,  promised not to be a stranger!

Dates for your diaries – prepare to be very busy!

Wishing you all a very happy half-term break.

Reception:  98%

Year 1:   96%

Year 2:   94%

Year 3:   96%

Year 4:   94%

Year 5:   94%

Year 6:   94%

We really enjoyed making our bee for the Scarecrow Festival, especially sticking on the tissue paper. It was very messy!

After looking at the work of the artist Mackenzie Thorpe we created our own mixed media pictures of sheep. We really enjoyed choosing the different materials for our art work.

This week we were excited to discover that our caterpillars had come out of their cocoons. It was lovely to see them fly away when we released them on the Green.                                       

Kindness Trophy  – Nia because she looks after and helps all the children in our class.

Recognition Awards:

Sara for listening so well in phonics and being ready to learn.

Otis for fantastic reading and listening in class

William for working so hard in class and being very helpful

Arthur for the huge progress he has made in phonics especially with his writing and beautiful handwriting. 

Elliott for contributing to all carpet sessions and working really well with his talk partner. 

Isaac for being a kind and caring member of our class.

Year 1 have been exploring how penguins’ feathers keep them dry in their science lessons. They covered their penguins in wax and tested how they fared when faced with an Antarctic splash (from a spray bottle!)

Mrs McDonald’s class enjoyed a visit from a parent who told us all about life in Russia. The children loved learning about what was similar and different in Russia and some words in Russian. They also learned about the different animals and a Russian dance.

In PE, Year 1 have been working on their reaction time. The children have concentrated on their focus and moving quickly and with control.

Effort Trophy

Poppy – for always trying to be the best that she can be academically and socially

Achievement Trophy

Elsie – for her consistent hard work and determination to uplevel her writing skills

1KM Recognition Awards

Anna – for her determination and always giving extra

Effie – for always being focused, ready to learn and contributing 100% to every lesson

1GM Recognition Awards 

Indie – Recognition Award for her engagement in learning and thoughtful attitude towards class discussion

Sofia – Recognition Award for always doing what is asked for her and making good choices, without expecting acknowledgement

2MC

In PE we have developed our javelin throw technique and we have enjoyed trying to improve our distances.

In Art, we have used expressions to illustrate our own character and we have developed our illustrations to
tell a story. We love our concertina books! 

2NB

In Geography we have started learning the names of each of the 7 continents of the world and have also been able to locate each continent using the atlases to check our spellings. In our second session we have also identified where the North and South poles are located(making sure not to mix these up!). 

2NB were really lucky this week to get an additional PE slot with Mr Scaling. We were split into 3 teams and went around practising lots of different skills involving bouncing, throwing, rolling and catching. They were fantastic in listening to the instructions and giving each activity their best try

Recognition Awards

2MC

Marc – for his wonderful start to Scarcroft School – learning the new routines and working hard in every lesson.
Finley – for improved focus and a more positive attitude towards learning

Achievement Trophy

Jesse – being a conscientious, enthusiastic learner and enjoying the challenges presented to him.

2NB 

Harry –  for listening carefully to all instructions and trying his best in everything he is doing. 

Oliver – for putting in a lot of effort into all of his work and trying really hard to make sure everyone is safe within our classroom. 

Kindness Trophy

Iris – for always checking in on people throughout the day and offering help to everyone including her teacher.

Our new design and technology topic is castles.  Here the children are painting the castle walls for display using a printing technique.

Here is a labelled drawing of a castle using some new technical vocabulary.

We have just finished our writing topic based on the book Escape from Pompeii.  We wrote a newspaper report and then used publishing software to make a final version.

Y3 PR Recognition Awards

Sam – for his fantastic positive attitude to every school day

Matteo – for having an impact on class with his vocabulary and calmness

Y3 MR Recognition Awards

Jesse – for always doing the right thing at the right time

Elizabeth – for being a role model for excellent behaviour and attitude to learning

In English, we have been reading the book The Baker by the Sea by Paula White. To start the topic off, we baked hot coconut buns. Since then, the children have written their own persuasive letters and tourism brochures for the feature village. 

In Science, we have been learning about states of matter and the water cycle. The children have learned that water can be present as three states of matter – solid, liquid and gas – and shown how melting/freezing and condensing/evaporating occur. We also modelled the water cycle to try to understand how states of matter change on a larger scale.

4SC Recognition Awards

Lauren has been really focused in recent lessons. Every time I teach something, I see her trying her hardest to show the new skill in her independent work.

Miko has found some real positivity in his approach to school and to work recently. He is trying so hard to improve his arithmetic and times table scores. 

Kindness Trophy

Wren is an incredibly kind young person and we are lucky to have her as a member of the Scarcroft community. She is thoroughly deserving of the extra recognition of receiving our kindess trophy.

4 AB Recognition Awards

Arthur has really impressed me with his incredible writing. He comes up with the most creative ideas and I find myself smiling and laughing along when I read his work. 

Barnaby has shown brilliant perseverance in the last few weeks. He has been so hard working in all his subjects and is carefully listening to ways he can take his work to the next level.

This week has been Shakespeare Week, we have had a fantastic time rehearsing and performing Macbeth in 10 short scenes.

In PE we have been practising our ball chasing skills and have been learning to run past the ball and then stop it with our knee (both legs) and our head! 

In French we have been learning different body parts. We used a crazy song about planting cabbages with different body parts to help us. Here we are planting them with our nose (le nez in French)!

Trophies

Achievement Trophy –  Olivia has put such huge effort and care into her arithmetic practice both at home and at school and it is really starting to pay off. She has almost doubled her arithmetic score from the beginning of term! Well done Olivia

Effort Trophy – Louisa – Fabulous effort in all subjects especially arithmetic. She has doubled her score. She has also put in amazing effort at home as well. Well done, Louisa

5LP Recognition Awards

Christine is always such an enthusiastic member of our class who embodies our school values through and through. I could give her the award every week as she is ALWAYS doing the right thing. Keep it up Christine.

Darcy has made huge improvements in her writing and arithmetic recently as she is focusing so hard on what she needs to do to progress. Fantastic work Darcy – keep it up!

5AT Recognition Awards

Jack’s effort in writing has been brilliant over the last few weeks. Jack has amazing creativity and always puts his own spin on things. Keep being you! I also love his artwork. 

Shirley is such an amazing role model and Scarcroft is so lucky to have her. There is never a time when she isn’t trying her best or striving for the next progression. You should be very proud of yourself, Shirley.

We had a super team of Year 6 helpers that did a fantastic job of our bee!!!!!

After our SATs exams, we all really enjoyed getting our teeth into some artwork. We studied and imitated Hockney and we really enjoyed his bright colours and bold shapes. 

Continuing our art topic, we studied Fiona Rae. We used oil pastels to imitate her style; she uses geometric shapes in a very expressive and dramatic way.

We had a wonderful time celebrating the end of SATs with a picnic at Rowntree Park.  We enjoyed time in the playground, football and basketball games before heading back to school with ice creams from Trinacria. 

In Maths, we have been preparing for our D&T Food topic next half term by thinking about baking cupcakes. We have used this White Rose topic to recap ratio, proportion, measures and all four operations.

It has been Shakespeare Week this final week of the half term and we have spent our time learning about The Scottish Play: MacBeth. Here we are mid-battle to set the scene for the rest of the play!

Y6  Recognition Awards

Tayla – she has been putting in 100% effort into her writing and she is now using semicolons, brackets, dashes and hyphens with confidence. Wow! 

Oliver – for his hard work on his handwriting to ensure that his stunning use of vocabulary is clear and easy to read.

All of Year 6 – for their fantastic effort during SATs week – super determination and resilience!!!!!!!!