Newsletter – 18 October 2024

Dear parents and carers, 

I hope you’re all well as we approach the end of a very long, action-packed half-term. School has been a hive of activity. We’ve had a whole host of clubs running, from Chess Club to Football Club, Coding Club to Dance Club – keep an eye out for information regarding additional football, netball, table tennis and music clubs that will be running next half-term.

As usual our children have made us very proud on their trips this half-term, with so many people commenting on how polite, friendly and engaged they were. You’ll see from the photos below how much they enjoyed themselves! 

Disco

As you will be aware, the FOSS Halloween disco will take place on Monday after school. Please be reminded that KS1 are invited between 4pm and 5pm, and KS2 between 5.15 and 6.15pm. Children are asked to come into school in their normal uniform during the day, and their party clothes for the disco. A separate email will be sent to parents of children attending After School Club on Monday. 

Bookshop Takeover!

A big shout out for Rose and Florence from Year 5, who took part in the Blue House Bookshop takeover for World Bookshop Day, which was a huge success! The girls had lots of (real!) customers who they served behind the till and gave book recommendations to. They also raised nearly £40 by taking donations in exchange for cakes, which Rose had baked with her Granna. The money raised will be sent to the Book Trust –  a charity that helps get children reading. Well done Rose and Florence.

Here are the girls being interviewed by Radio York! 

Great big thank you, and goodbye! 

Finally, we are saying a very heartfelt thank you and goodbye to Mrs Dennis, who has worked at Scarcroft since February 2001. During that time, she has worked within the school admin team, then as office manager and as the school business manager, and offered unending support to her team, as well as the teachers and headteachers she has worked alongside. We wish her every happiness and success in her new adventure, and hope to see her as much as possible in the future. We can’t thank her enough! See below a few cheeky snaps of Mrs Dennis during her time at the school 🙂 

Dates for the diary

Wishing you all a very happy weekend. 

Best wishes, 

Jen Mitchell 

Head of School 

Reception – Fishergate:  95.6%

Year 1 – Gillygate:   97.4%

Year 1 – Stonegate:   97.0%

Year 2 – Castlegate:   99.2%

Year 2 – Micklegate:  98.2%

Year 3 – Coppergate:   95.2%

Year 3 – Whip ma whop ma gate:   95.5%

Year 4 – Swinegate:   96.8%

Year 4 – Walmgate:   97.0%

Year 5 – Colliergate:   97.3%

Year 5 – Skeldergate:   96.6%

Year 6 – Fossgate:   97.8%

Year 6 – Goodramgate:   96.3%

We are really enjoying our phonics lessons and have had fun writing letters on large paper, outside with water and brushes, and even in the sand. 

In our  ‘Autumn’ topic we have learnt about Deciduous and Evergreen trees. We went on an Autumn walk to look for signs of Autumn and to collect Autumn leaves. During the week we also used cotton buds to paint tiny Autumn coloured leaves on  tree trunks and some floating down to the ground. 

There has been some amazing teamwork and creativity this week using the milk crates, tyres and steering wheels. The children have ‘sailed to sea, become firefighters and worked on a bin lorry’ 

In Computing we have been learning how to use Sketchpad to create scenes from The Three Little Pigs.

In PE we have been focusing on teamwork and the importance of using good communication skills to achieve a common goal.

Recognition awards

1 Stonegate

• Emily – For fantastic maths work and listening really well in lessons.
• Rosie – For amazing letter formation and exceptional presentation skills.

1 Gillygate

• Charlie – For dedication and perseverance towards his work and always pushing himself to achieve.
• Toby – For bringing a positive attitude to everything he does, and setting a good example towards others.

Year 2 Visit to Ripon Workhouse Museum

Year 2 had a fabulous day at Ripon Workhouse Museum. The children experienced what a Victorian classroom was like first hand and were able to draw on their knowledge from their history lessons. They discovered what life would have been like for many Victorians – helping with the laundry, chores and gardening. They also took part in games that Victorian children would have played.

Inspired by Romare Bearden, we have created our own collages using textured paper that we designed.

Recognition Y2 Micklegate:

• Ernesto – Settling so well into his new school and country!
• Iana – Effort Trophy for putting everything into her work
• Xander – Working really hard and showing much more resilience
• Sophia – Superb behaviour for learning at all times
• Joni – Amazing transition between printing and joined handwriting

Recognition in Y2 Castlegate:

• Saul – for increased focus, independence and determination in his learning.
• Adira – for attention to detail in her work, especially in writing
• Sarah – for being an amazing friend
• Poppy – for being a team player and looking out for others.

Kindness Trophy for Prima

Yorkshire Museum trip 

Both classes enjoyed a trip to the Yorkshire Museum recently to support their learning all around the Stone Age to the Iron Age. Whilst there, we searched for clues as to how homes and clothes have changed throughout history. We are incredibly proud of their behaviour and how well they represented the school. A special thank you also to our parent helpers who made it possible for the trip to go ahead.

Stone Age Art

We have been creating our very own cave walls to try Stone Age painting techniques on.  We tested painting with natural materials before choosing our favourite British animals to paint on our ‘wall’. We found that painting on a textured surface is much harder than we thought but they still managed to do a great job!

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

For the last 3 weeks we have been delving into the world of ‘The Mysteries of Harris Burdick’. We started by looking at each of the 14 illustrations he left behind and tried to use clues to match each image to their correct title and caption. Year 3 have had great fun writing their own suspense filled stories about what happens in each of the stories, using only the image for inspiration- the creativity has been immense! 

Y3 Coppergate

• Finley – for his hard work every day, especially with his maths and phonics.
• Evie – for her determination to succeed by choosing and using tools to help her, especially in her maths and writing.  
• Kindness trophy – Amber

Y3 Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma Gate

• Cornelius- Consistently showing a determined and positive attitude towards his learning. 
• Lydia- Always completing work in a positive way and for having the confidence to ask when things get a little tricky. 
• Effort trophy- Dylan

Recognition: 

WALMGATE

• Ted Bartlett – for his excellent effort in class and working independently 
• Rob – for his focus, excellent behaviour, kindness and superb attitude

SWINEGATE

• Lowell Koay – for his brilliant behaviour at school and great attitude to teacher support
• Mae – for having wonderful learning behaviours and always trying hard with her work

Trophy Effort – Elizabeth 4 Walmgate 

In Science we have been learning about food chains, which is part of our Digestion topic. To learn about fluctuations in food chains we played a game of tag, where the taggers represented predators. This really helped us build our understanding and it was fun too! 

In writing, we have started a new book called Varmints. To kick start this unit, we investigated a messy scene where the Varmints had left a letter to Year 4. We found this very engaging and it has definitely enthused our writing!

In Computing, we are really enjoying our topic on Network and Computing Systems as it is teaching us how to collaborate with other people in order to create different pieces of work. Here we are making a Google Slides presentation together.

Recognition Awards:

Y5 Skeldergate

• Lucie Day – Fantastic start to Y5 and brilliant Artwork. She can be very proud of her achievements. 
• Cadey Sharp – Super Skeldergate Star. Works hard in every lesson with 100%
• Ted Graham – Excellent week tries his best in every lesson. Brilliant attitude to hockey. 

Kindness trophy – Tilly Tucker – Kind in every way. I first came across Tilly’s kindness in reception and then every year since that. It is a treat to have her kindness everyday in our class

Y5 Colliergate

• Wren Harland – An all round ‘always’ superstar who is a joy to have in class.
• Ellis Boardman – Gives 100% in everything he does and is super responsible.
• Molly Hardy – An absolut joy to be around. Top helper and kind-hearted superstar. 

Achievement  trophy– Alex Weaver – Alex had a stint in hospital recently but bounced back so amazingly that he had to have this trophy!

Caving

For the past 6 weeks, year 5 has been problem solving in PE. Our favourite lessons, by far, have been the last 2 which have involved building caves and navigating them. 

Science

We have been investigating mixtures and solutions. We had to create our own filtering system. We made decisions on which materials to select and what to put in each of the layers. Our water went from really muddy to almost clear!

Virtual Author Visit

We really enjoyed our virtual author visit with Hammah Gold hearing about her new book ‘Turtle Moon’. We were also treated to Levi Pinfold the illustrator and a conservationist who had worked with turtles in Costa Rica. 

Science

In order to cement our learning on classification, we looked at microorganisms recently. The children learned that microorganisms have a lot of the same needs as larger organisms and set out to prove this by seeing if yeast was more or less active with different sources of ‘food’.

Music

We have just finished a project on creating waves in music by changing the pitch, the dynamics and the texture.  The children in 6 Fossgate created a piece of music in small groups and then performed it as an ensemble.

Writing

We have started reading a new book – the Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick – to inspire our writing. So far, we have described characters and written a newspaper report. The story is fascinating in that the author wrote the whole book, illustrated some sections, then deleted any writing he had illustrated, creating a blend of graphic novel and chapter book.

Recognition:

• Arthur Bales – for a fantastic approach to school, really taking charge of his learning and striving to improve.
• Piper McCabe – Piper brightens up our classroom with her friendly positivity and tries hard at literally everything.
• Louisa Elliff – for always listening and focusing on exactly what we are looking at in lessons. Looking at Louisa’s book, I can see exactly what I have taught.
• Oscar Kemp – for a really mature start to the year, particularly making an effort to improve his presentation.
• Finn Woodhurst – Finn has been a superstar since starting year 6.  Nothing is too much effort for him and he has literally solved problems for us!

Trophies:

Orla Murray (effort) – for a wonderfully positive, excited and mature approach to all of her work, friendship and school life. A beacon of positivity.

Katherine Wilcox (attainment) – Katherine is an amazing writer who regularly has Mr and Mrs Roper stopping to marvel at her brilliant sentences.