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Newsletter – 31 January 2025

Scarcroft Primary School > Front page news > Newsletter – 31 January 2025

Your weekly news from Scarcroft School

31st January 2025

Welcome to our weekly roundup!

Dear parents and carers, 

I hope you’re all well and have made it in one piece to the end of January and out the other side. Surely it must have been at least 80 days long?! 

Cycling Proficiency

We’ve been busy as ever in school – Y5 and 6 have finished their cycling proficiency with aplomb, some of them not only learning to ride their bikes for the very first time, but then also managing to navigate cycling on the road! You won’t be surprised to hear that we had fantastic feedback from the trainers: 

‘The children have been delightful and to be able to get those who couldn’t cycle out onto the roads and making such good progress is brilliant.  They should all be very proud of themselves.’

Writing competition

I was thrilled with the number and quality of writing entries we received as part of the Excel Learning Trust writing competition. I’m thrilled to announce that Lyra in Y3 came first in her category, and Alice in Year 6 came third! You can read their stories here: 

A New Rainbow

by Lyra, Y3

Dear Diary,

Today is the first time I’ve been out since the holidays. My walk to school was quite

exciting! I first saw that it had snowed. The inky, black snow was an amazing sight!

As I stepped into the wood, I started to see bright bursts of orange where the grass

was peeping through. A rabbit bounced past me. Its body was covered with a

turquoise carpet of fur.

As the wood got denser, I found a waterfall full of emerald water. I climbed the livid,

lavender trunk of a tree to get a closer look at the foaming broth. As it bubbled, I

thought about everything humans have done to this world and that in a sense we

aren’t really nature any more. As I left behind the coal-black petals of the snowdrops,

a snail and a slug went past me. The snail’s sparkling blue body and lapis lazuli shell

impressed me just as much as the slug’s bright, white skin stunned me. It was a

sight to behold!

As I got closer to school, I saw more children playing and having fun. I stared at the

furious, scarlet sky and felt claustrophobic, enclosed even. When I went over to my

friends, I looked at the chocolate brown bricks of the school. “Seems my hypothesis

was correct”, I breathed. “Only natural things have changed.”

At bedtime, I mulled over the past two months. Now we’re stuck having blue snails

and purple kittens because no one cared about the environment. Originally, animals’

colours were designed for camouflage (rabbits, tigers, etc.) but now 9/10 times they

make them stand out. I personally feel we shouldn’t be responsible for animal

numbers going into decline! Do you? Wow, the chemical spill last December has

changed everything, even the way I think…

Monkeys 

by Alice, Y6 

This day started off just like any other. Monkeys. Some swung branch to branch, chattering in high pitched shrieks,howls and grunts.Their thick furry coats gleamed in the morning beams as they lay underneath the scorching sun. A chaotic troop of monkeys scavenged high and low for any sign of food. Another inactive ape perched on a branch seemingly uninterested by its surroundings. One mischievous chimp teased the others with its shocking intelligence. 

That night everyone fell into a deep sleep but no one noticed the ruffle of leaves or the crunching of the undergrowth as the footsteps came closer. From out of nowhere, the man yanked at a lone chimp’s scruff of the neck and pulled her into a muddy,camouflaged jeep. Soon, the chimp woke up but instead of being serious ,the ape approached the situation with a cheeky grin. She clambered amongst the boxes but after an hour of extreme curiosity she came to think that something was wrong. Where was her family and where was she?

The jeep entered a city. This city was ugly, mean. The girl gazed out of the window and felt a sudden burst of homesickness. Of the palm trees swaying in the breeze, of her friends playing catch but most of all that was her home and this was not. She began clawing angrily at the chair but found her nail stuck in the metal wires.They parked by a skyscraper of apartments. Grey, with no happiness what so ever.

She was chucked into a room.With no light just a mirror and scraps of wood split across the floor. Her legs tightened as she explored the small space but when she came to look up at the mirror ,her face was not what she expected,it was HUMAN.

Japanese Club 

We are incredibly lucky to have a Japanese Club at Scarcroft, run by one of our very dedicated parents, and funded by the Japan Foundation. Last week, students were treated to a Taiko drumming workshop! By all accounts it was incredible! 

Boccia Competition

A team of enthusiastic Year 2 boccia players represented Scarcroft over at York High School on Thursday. After a very excitable (and NOISY) drive over there, the children did us proud and played brilliantly well!

Dates for the diary

Tuesday 11th February Year 4 performance – 1:15pm
Tuesday 11th February Year 4 performance – 6pm
Wednesday 12th February Year 4 Tropical world trip
Friday 14th February Year 5 Young Voices
Monday 17th February Half Term Holidays
Monday 24th February Welcome back to school
Monday 3rd March Book Fair
Tuesday 4th March Book Fair
Monday 10th March Year 6 Barcelona Trip
Monday 28th April Year 5 Whitby Trip

Wishing you all a very happy week, and thank you as ever for your continued support of our fantastic school. It really is very much appreciated. 

Best wishes, 

Jen Mitchell

Head of School 

 

Attendance - This half term so far!

Reception – Fishergate:  94.6%

Reception – Petergate: 92.6%

Year 1 – Gillygate:   96.2%

Year 1 – Stonegate:   96.2%

Year 2 – Castlegate:   97.5%

Year 2 – Micklegate:  97.8%

Year 3 – Coppergate:   95.2%

Year 3 – Whip ma whop ma gate:   96.1%

Year 4 – Swinegate:   96.2%

Year 4 – Walmgate:   97.3%

Year 5 – Colliergate:   97.5%

Year 5 – Skeldergate:   95.7%

Year 6 – Fossgate:   96.7%

Year 6 – Goodramgate:   95.7%

Whole school updates

We are very excited to announce that ‘Art camp UK’ will be running an Easter holiday club from the 7th April – 17th April here at Scarcroft. More details to follow, we will keep you posted!

WALKING THE WORLD: Staff at Scarcroft are still working hard to complete the 25,000 mile challenge with the aim of raising funds to invest in our library. You can still donate here.

Reception

Reception have been Artists! We listened to a range of different music, including ones with a more upbeat tune and ones that were slower. We discussed how these songs made us feel and what this may look like as a painting. The children did a fantastic job of listening, discussing their feelings and opinions, and turning this into a unique piece of artwork

We have been exploring new foods and flavours this week whilst celebrating Chinese new year. At the start of the week we discussed how families celebrate by wearing new clothes, tidying their homes to remove the bad luck and having special party food. We decided to celebrate the Coming of the year of the snake with our own small party where we tasted noodles and prawn crackers! 

Trophy

Massimo: Massimo was awarded our kindness trophy for always looking after his peers inside the classroom and out on the playground. Massimo is a natural leader and has taken on the role of guiding our new friends around life and routine in Reception. 

Recognition awards

Fishergate

Anna:  For always using her initiative and trying her hardest. Anna is constantly looking to further her learning by exploring and tackling every area of provision independently. 

Billy: For his fantastic attitude to learning especially in phonics, reading and writing. Billy is a perfectionist and works his socks off every day constantly  improving his work and skills.

PeterGate

Nikolai: For being a kind friend and an engaged and enthusiastic learner! Nikolai comes to school everyday with a positive attitude and shows this in every lesson. He makes us very proud every day. 

Misk:  For always using her initiative, listening ears and being ready to learn. Misk is a superstar to have in the classroom and a role model to everyone.

Year 1

Our programming lessons have come to life as we had a go at being robots ourselves! We worked in small groups to be a Programmer, a Beebot or a Judge and see how difficult it is to give out and follow precise instructions to reach a target.

In our colour splash art topic, we have enjoyed investigating colour by exploring mixing while printing with the primary colours. We chose our own resources and arranged the shapes in a formation to produce the outcome we wanted.


Recognition awards

1 Stonegate

Ertu 

Jemima 

1 Gillygate

Reyaan – For his unwavering enthusiasm which he applies to every subject, and his consistent positive attitude when answering questions.

William – For his super concentration when writing sentences in literacy sessions, and always diligently applying his phonic knowledge.

Year 2

Art

In Art, Year 2 have made pinch pots and used slip to join different pieces together. We’ve also used a variety of clay tools to create patterns in the clay.

In our gymnastics sessions, we have created our own sequences using a combination of movements and balances on the apparatus. 

Recognition Awards

2 Castlegate 

Violet – for being an amazing role model and fabulous friend

Hope – for her positive attitude to learning and focus

Effort Trophy

Effie – for her positive and wholehearted approach to everything she does.

2 Micklegate

Olive – for settling quickly into her new school and making lots of contributions during whole class learning.

Abel – for being a secret superstar and always working hard on his independent work.

James – for trying hard with his handwriting and thinking carefully about his presentation.

Year 3

Year 3

Swimming 

We are really proud of the way both classes have settled into our Wednesday afternoon routine of going swimming. Everyone is trying hard to listen and push themselves to learn more skills each lesson and we can see an improvement already in our confidence levels! 

Geography 

We have begun a geography unit with the key question of ‘Who lives in Antarctica?’. We have explored how the lines of latitude and longitude can help us locate different continents across the globe and have noticed that the further away we are from the equator the colder the climate becomes. We also learnt about the explorer Ernest Shackleton and were fascinated to plot his expedition route using four figure grid references and voice recordings to help us. 

Recognition awards

Coppergate

Ruby – For being determined to aim for the challenging tasks in all her work and being curious in all her afternoon topics.

Olivia – for her super efforts in writing to produce an extended piece of work packed full of description and interesting sentence starters.

Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma Gate

Esther- For always showing such a determined attitude towards her learning and being so kind to help with jobs around the classroom too. 

Daisy- Being a kind and caring member of the class. Always trying her hardest in every lesson and for letting us see her blossoming sense of humour too!

Achievement Trophy- Ivylou

Year 4

Recognition 

Walmgate: 

  • River – for his heartfelt and excellent work on how the world could be a better place. 
  • Orla – for always being ready to learn and putting in 100% effort 

Tophy – James B – achievement – James always put in 100% effort to independent work and consequently makes excellent progress in every lesson. 

Some children have been making their own model rainforests at home. They are all fantastic! Wow! 

In science, we have been testing the properties of different materials. Here the girls are testing the properties of water by trying to compress it in the syringes but they couldn’t. 

Year 5

Recognition

5 Colliergate

Margot – A super friend and curious member of our class who has blown me away with her writing in recent weeks.

Tommy – Making huge leaps in bravery (and quite literally!) in gymnastics sessions. 

5 Skeldergate

Belva – Fantastic member of our class. Hard working especially a super star in maths and always trying her best. Belva’s manners are also impeccable. 

Miko – Amazing progress in absolutely everything. He is a brilliant member of the class who can be relied upon to help us with any technical issues. Thank you 

Science

In Science we are learning about Earth and Space. We created a model of the solar system using fruit. We tried to make a scale model but couldn’t fit Neptune or Pluto in the hall! We used different fruit to represent the relative sizes; Yoga ball for the sun (not to scale); 1 peppercorn to represent Mercury; 2 cherry tomatoes to represent Venus and Earth; 1 blueberry to represent Mars; 1 watermelon to represent Jupiter; 1 large grapefruit to represent Saturn; 1 apple to represent Uranus; 1 orange to represent Neptune and 1 grain of sugar or salt to represent Pluto.

In Art we have been creating collagraph plates for printing. We used different materials to create different effects and textures and stick these on a piece of thick cardboard. We then painted these with acrylic paint and used rollers to print them onto paper. We will use these as the background to our final piece of artwork which is a vision of the future.

In Writing we have been designing Mars rovers and creating labels explaining what each part of the rover does. We have been working on using a more formal tone in our writing, extending our sentences and using dashes to add extra information. 

Year 6

Bikeability

Last week, both classes took part in the level 1 and 2 Bikeability courses, provided by City of York Council. They learned how to check that a bike is roadworthy and how to cycle safely on the roads in the local area. They coped well with the low temperatures and the trainers spoke very highly of everyone.

PE

We have been recapping gymnastics skills taught throughout school on apparatus of different levels, including the big draw- the wall bars! Mr Davies, who is new to school, has also been teaching both classes tag rugby.

Music

Mr Cole’s class has just finished a unit of work on waves using dynamics, pitch and texture.  Here are some photographs of the children playing their final class composition.

Recognition Awards:

Megan – for an absolutely stunning return to school after Christmas, throwing herself into learning in all subjects.

Olive – for being a fantastic friend and hard-working pupil as well as really shining in recent pieces of writing.

Mimi (kindness trophy) – for brightening up the class with her positivity, for being a great friend and for being supportive and friendly towards all adults in school too.

Lullah – for an amazing start to her time at Scarcroft.  Lullah has become involved in so many things around school (like clubs and becoming a reading mentor) that it feels like she has always been here.

Noah – for showing huge kindness and compassion in helping a new starter in our class.  It has been lovely to watch Noah offer support and guidance without any prompting from an adult.

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