Newsletter – 27 September 2024

Dear parents and carers, 

As we approach the end of September, we are happy to be able to share with you this month’s class news pages. We’ve had a fantastic start to the school year, as you will see from the photos.

Scarcroft Aims and Values

We are excited to be able to announce our new Scarcroft Aims and Values. These have been developed with input from staff from across school, children, a parent forum as well as our Local Governing Body. 

Scarcroft aims: 

Everyday we aim to: 

1. Develop inquisitive, confident and ambitious learners, ready to take on the world. 
2. Be a warm, welcoming and safe environment in which everyone feels happy, valued and a sense of belonging. 
3. Celebrate individuality, and diversity, embracing and learning from everyone in the Scarcroft community, and understanding the positive influence we can have on our local community and also the wider world. 
4. Provide a rich and engaging curriculum, as well as a wide range of stimulating experiences, helping everyone to be healthy and active, and ensuring inclusivity and equity for all.  

It is our aim that we don’t just learn these values, but that everybody in the Scarcroft community really lives them. We hope you like them! 

Attendance

Thanks so much for ongoing support with regards to attendance. We are committed to meeting our obligation with regards to school attendance through our whole-school culture and ethos that values good attendance, including:

• Promoting and celebrating good attendance.
• Reducing absence, including persistent and severe absence.
• Ensuring every pupil has access to the full-time education to which they are entitled.
• Acting early to address patterns of absence.
• Building strong relationships with families to ensure pupils have the support in place to attend school.

Regular attendance at school is one of the keys to any child achieving their full potential and we try to encourage this at all times at Scarcroft Primary School. I will be writing to you next week with more detailed information about school absence requests. 

Please see below our class attendance. Our whole-school target is 96%.

PE lessons – health and safety

As has always been the case, children are not allowed to wear jewellery or watches in PE lessons. Please be aware that we have now been advised to no longer allow children to take part in PE lessons with tape over earrings for those with recently pierced ears. This follows national health and safety guidance as a precaution against serious injury to the ear lobe and/or brachial nerve. Please do not hesitate to discuss with me in person should you have any questions about this, and I will be happy to share the guidance with you. 

Dates for the diary

Wishing you all a very happy weekend. 

Best wishes, 

Jen Mitchell 

Head of School 

Reception – Fishergate:  94.7%

Year 1 – Gillygate:   96.7%

Year 1 – Stonegate:   98.6%

Year 2 – Castlegate:   99.1%

Year 2 – Micklegate:  98.0%

Year 3 – Coppergate:   94.4%

Year 3 – Whip ma whop ma gate:   95.3%

Year 4 – Swinegate:   94.6%

Year 4 – Walmgate:   97.9%

Year 5 – Colliergate:   97.2%

Year 5 – Skeldergate:   97.0%

Year 6 – Fossgate:   97.5%

Year 6 – Goodramgate:   95.3%

We have started our weekly PE sessions and are really enjoying using the equipment to make up games with a partner and think about safe play. 

In our Topic ‘Peek in the Past’ we have been thinking about the timeline of our life. We ordered pictures from baby to adult to show how we all change over time. 

We have taken advantage of the glorious weather and all the children have really enjoyed exploring our new outdoor area. 

In DT we have been learning how to cut fruit so we are ready to make our smoothies. We practised using the knives safely and learnt how to use a juicer.

In Geography, we have been learning about maps, and enjoyed creating our own ‘messy maps’ using a variety of resources to create our classrooms. What do you think of our maps?

Recognition awards

1 Stonegate

• Theo W – For fantastic listening and always being ready to learn
• Georgina – For being a great role model in our class.
• Laina – For always showing expected behaviour especially in phonics.
• Raffy – Achievement trophy – for always being ready to answer questions in class and use our new topic vocabulary. 

1 Gillygate

• Sunday – For being an excellent role-model and always showing readiness in every lesson.
• Cara – Kindness trophy – for her friendly and helpful nature towards everyone, even staff!
• Arthur A – For always going above and beyond to complete additional challenges, especially in Maths
• Alfred – For a fantastic start to the school year and always working hard in learning time. 

In PE, we are working hard to keep control when we are dribbling a ball.

In History, we have been investigating how schools were different in the past. We became history detectives and devised lots of questions. We were able to ask these questions to Mrs McDonald’s parents who brought artefacts from their childhood, including photographs, a stitching sampler and a pen nib.

Recognition Y2 Micklegate:

• Liv Levasseur, Felix Mitchell: Both made an amazing start to Year 2

Recognition in Y2 Castlegate:

• Elliot Morris for an amazing attitude to learning.
• Tyler Wood for being quietly conscientious and being a fabulous role model.
• Achievement Trophy for Sophie Wallis for always putting in 100% and challenging herself.

Stone Age Houses 

We truly learnt the art of teamwork and perseverance when making our own models of Stone Age houses. We tied straw rings together and then daubed them with clay to represent the wattle and daub part of the houses (although no dung was used in these models!). We then used a paper cone to add straw for the thatched roof which was trickier than it sounds! 

Cave wall creations 

We have started to make textured backgrounds for our very own cave paintings in a prehistoric style. We have been using a variety of materials from couscous to salt to create a textured background ready to add our animal paintings on top of next week. 

Recognition awards

Coppergate

13.9.24 – Sam – For a wonderful start at Scarcroft.  He has worked with determination and always wants to share his knowledge.

20.7.24 – Maxime – For demonstrating kindness, especially with helping to guide our new starters around school.

27.9.24 – Francesca – For her fantastic effort and listening skills which led to a wonderful piece of writing.

Achievement trophy

Thomas

Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma Gate 

13.9.24 – Max – For always showing a positive and determined attitude towards his learning. Sharing his knowledge in a mature way. 

20.9.24 – Florence – Always showing a readiness for learning and to also mark her way of settling into Year 3 like a duck to water. 

27.9.24 – Bella – Taking on the challenge of Year 3 with a smile on her face. She has worked incredibly hard in every lesson, especially writing as she is still getting used to the complicated English language!

Walmgate Recognition: 

• Jay – for having a brilliantly positive attitude to learning every day. 
• Theo – for giving 100% effort in every single lesson. 

Swinegate Recognition:

• Emaan – for making a flying start to her time at Scarcroft School
• Ammaar – for always striving to understand every lesson he is taught

Trophy: 

• KINDNESS – Annabelle

Learning: 

As part of our art project (power prints), we created our own collages.

Our final ‘power print’ was a group piece. We enjoyed getting crazy and creative! 

We hugely enjoyed making our model teeth. This was part of our digestion topic. The children did a fantastic job of making and labeling a jaw and teeth and it’s really helped us learn about the different types of teeth and what they are designed for. 

We have loved starting our swimming lessons and are getting really good at walking up and back at a good pace as well as being organised in the changing rooms so that we all come home with the right stuff!!

Recognition Awards:

• Alfie Cannon – Amazing start to our school. He had been with us for 2 weeks and it felt like he had been at Scarcroft forever. Well done Alfie for a great first impression. 
• Bea Stock – Fabulous role model. Fully engaged in every lesson. Super helpful too. She can read my mind! 
• Hattie Smith  – Brilliant behaviour for learning. Transferring all the appropriate knowledge she has been taught to all areas of the curriculum. 
• Hannah Richardson – Quietly gets on with what she’s doing but always doing the right thing. Like a ninja super learner! 
• Ellie Roberts – A perfect learner. Always ready, always asking and answering questions and completely curious. 
• Florence Bennett – Always asks questions and is a fantastic member of our class. 

Trophies:

Effort: Miko Roberts – Fantastic start to Y5. Super engagement and exceptional effort in handwriting. He has transformed his handwriting in 1 week. Well done. 

Art: Mixed Media Portraits 

Prospecting for Gold

As part of our science lesson to learn about sieving we had to sieve soil and rocks for gold! We think we recovered about 69 million dollars worth of gold! We also explained the process of sieving with a scientific diagram. 

 
English 

We have been enjoying the exciting adventures of Percy Jackson. Today we used some magic objects and powers to help us fight the Furies! 

Recognition Awards:

Mindui – for generally being a star – focussed and working hard, kind to both adults and friends, full of the most wonderful ideas.

Harry – for quietly being an absolute role model in Year 6 – always doing the right thing, always trying hard in lessons and, occasionally, sharing some really impressive ideas with the class.

Elliott – Elliot has shown such a willingness to improve – he always reads back through his work to check it and makes changes independently.

Kayden – for a bright, confident start to Year 6.  It has been lovely to see how Kayden has matured and grown since I taught him in Year 3.

Maddy – Maddy has already impressed us by helping the younger children at lunchtimes in the school as well as blowing us away in Year 6 with her writing.

Justin – We are delighted to give Justin one of our first recognition awards.  He is quick-witted, smart and an exemplary member of the class.

Trophies:

Abi – kindness trophy – for being so active and mature in her approach to kindness. Abi is always on the lookout for other children to help and is so helpful in the classroom too. In particular, she has been lovely with some of the new starters in Reception. 

Julia – effort trophy – for standing out in the first week as being someone who is always ready to learn.  Julia is the first person to look up and listen.  She is completely dedicated to her school day and is a real role model.

Art:

The children really enjoyed making photomontages of faces. We were really impressed with how effective some of the final compositions were!

Science:

We have been classifying animals.  To correctly classify animals like insects, arachnids and annelids, we made accurate clay models of them first to make sure we knew what their specific characteristics were.

PE – Football

Both classes have been working with Miss Thomas, who is new to our school, on football skills and playing round robin tournaments. By the time this newsletter comes out, some members of Year 6 will have represented the school at a football tournament too. Mr Oxley commented on how hard it was to narrow the teams down due to the quality on show!