Newsletter – 23rd March 2026

Dear parents and carers, 

I hope you’re all well and looking forward to the Easter break. We’ve had a busy few weeks in school, with a Year 3 trip to Murton Park, a debate club trip to Millthorpe, performance poetry auditions for Key Stage 2, and a tag rugby tournament for Year 5 and 6 pupils. 

Thank you to FOSS!

A big thank you as ever to FOSS who have been working hard in their fundraising efforts, including bake-sales and the Easter raffle which will take place on the last day of term. Tickets are available to purchase on Parent Pay. 

A huge big well done to Matilda in Reception who won ‘the best cake in the world award’ and a £10 book voucher on World Book Day for her Stickman cake submission! Not only did it look incredible, it was also DELICIOUS! 

Volunteers! 

A great big thank you to everyone that has volunteered to support with school trips and after-school clubs. Your help is invaluable and really is very much appreciated. 

Staff vs parent netball

Come and join us for a fun and social game of netball at Millthorpe School Sports Hall. The netball match will be held on 26th March from 3.30-4.30. All you have to do is turn up and we will organise teams.

International Day 

We’re really excited about International Day on Thursday this week, and have an action-packed itinerary for the day. Children are invited to come into school wearing something to represent a country from around the world. This could mean wearing the colours of a particular flag, dressing in traditional dress, wearing a national sports kit or any other creative interpretation. 

Please note that there will be a change to the menu on this day. Information will be shared with you by the school admin team. 

Dates for the diary

Reception – Fishergate: 89.05%

Reception – Petergate: 91.93%

Year 1/2 – Castlegate: 92.54%

Year 1/2 – Micklegate: 98.53%

Year 1/2 – Stonegate: 93.33%

Year 3 – Coppergate: 97.9%

Year 3 – Whip ma whop ma gate: 98.56%

Year 4 – Swinegate: 96.85%

Year 4 – Walmgate: 96.87%

Year 5 – Colliergate: 93.43%

Year 5 – Skeldergate: 98.14%

Year 6 – Fossgate: 95%

Year 6 – Goodramgate: 95.73%

This week in EYFS we have been learning about how to care for our planet! The children have been planting new flowers for the bugs and bees, saving electricity by turning off the lights when we leave the classroom, recycling old rubbish and turning into creations in the craft corner and even walking to school every chance they get!

Recognition Awards

Fishergate 

Olive – For being a superstar 100% of the time in both learning and free time.

Petergate 

Ash – For being a role model and always making the right choice. Ash is always focused and engaged. 

Milki – For her enthusiasm and engagement in phonics.

Achievement award – Ada – For her fantastic independent writing. 

In Writing the children made some beautiful, fact-filled posters about different animals. They used headings, sub-headings, illustrations, and fact boxes. The children are now writing their own stories based on the book ‘The Bear and the Piano’.

We have loved making a moving storybook in our DT lessons. We can’t wait to share them with the Reception classes.

In Science, Year 1/2 have been investigating everyday materials.

We investigated the way that the shape of some solids changed when we stretched, twisted, bent and squashed them.

Recognition Awards

Stonegate

Lucas – For settling into Scarcroft brilliantly. Lucas follows our school expectations and engages well with his learning. Lucas has also shown that he is a kind friend and has made some lovely friendships. 

Heidi – For being a superstar in every lesson. Heidi puts 100% effort into all her learning which is why she produces high quality work. She is a role model for the other children and always strives for silver. 

Castlegate

Arthur S – Arthur is such a kind, lovely member of our class. He plays with his friends in such a kind, respectful manner. He is working hard on his joined up writing and has made a lot of progress!

Kyelan – Kyelan has settled into Scarcroft so well. He has made great friends and enjoys being at school. He tries so hard in his work and has made so much progress in his maths!

Micklegate

Leo L (Y2) – Leo has made huge improvements with his handwriting and now loves to write. It’s great to see him so proud of his work. His attitude to learning has really developed and he works hard to get all of his work completed.

Elliott (Y2) – Elliott has a wonderful approach to learning and always puts 100% effort into everything he does. He has been incredibly engaged with our Geography topic about continents and it’s been so lovely to share his homework with the class.

World Book Day

We had a lot of bookish fun for World Book Day.  Our children worked with Year 6 to share and enjoy books and took part in a ‘choose your own story’ session with the rest of Key Stage 2.  However, the highlight was definitely our virtual author visit with author and illustrator David O’Connell.  We used his session to create some very interesting characters of our own!

Science 

To finish our science topic on Light and Shadows, our children had fun making shadow puppet theatres. We especially enjoyed creating effects using the distance between the object and the torch!

History

Our Romans topic has kicked off to a fabulous start with our trip to Murton Park.  We had an amazing time learning about the Roman empire, writing and numbers, making clay oil lamps and taking part in some serious Roman drills.  Along the way, we even learned a little Latin!  The children were amazing and thoroughly enjoyed themselves – many wanted to stay for the full 25 years of their Roman legionary contract!

Recognition Awards

Coppergate

George – For settling in to Scarcroft so well.  He demonstrated fantastic determination and enthusiasm while joining in all of our activities.  He developed some lovely friendships in his short time with us.

Hope – For her daily determination and resilience.  She is making good use of the support available to her and she is the hardest working child in the classroom. Well done Hope!

Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma Gate

Lucas – His attitude for learning has been amazing over the past! This is starting to pay dividends in class, especially during assessment week! Great job! 

Ernesto – He demonstrated a real passion for learning during our recent Roman trip. His love of everything military was obvious and he really got stuck in! (especially during weapons training) 

Kindness Award – Bea – It had been mentioned a number of times by many people around school just how polite and kind Bea was.  She is a true ambassador for kindness in everything she does around school. Well done!

Year 4 have hugely enjoyed the start of their rivers topic in geography. They made river models! Great team work and great geography!

Computing has been great with children being able to design, program and play their own times table games in Scratch!

Students have continued improving their football skills in PE demonstrating their incredible teamwork skills.

Please continue sending in bottle tops for our geography/art/international day project on March 26th. Thanks!

Recognitions Awards

Walmgate

Rosie – for her amazing focus, determination and resilience in the face of challenges. 

Max – for always giving 100% effort to his independent work. 

Kindness Trophy – Mimi – she is amazingly supporting and kind to everyone in our class.

Swinegate

Leyland – for improving in focus, particularly in his independent work

Marnie – for putting an increased effort into her writing in English recently.

Effort Trophy – Iris – for always giving 110% effort in all of her work!

Merchant Adventurers’ Hall

We had a fantastic trip to Merchant Adventurers’ Hall to kick off our History topic on The Tudors. We watched an interactive performance of Romeo & Juliet, learnt about Tudor clothing, studied portraits and looked at a letter written by Henry VIII himself!

Work Book Day Virtual Author Visits

We loved our virtual author visit with Liz Pichon in the week of World Book Day celebrating 15 years of Tom Gates. We really enjoyed hearing about where she gets her ideas from and joining in a draw along.

In Science we have continued our topic on Earth and Space but learning about Night & day and the seasons. We used models of Earth and torches to replicate how this happens.

WORLD BOOK DAY

We really enjoyed our World Book Day week! Highlights were our trip to the Book Fair, reading with buddies in Year 3 and our virtual author visit with Jamie Gregory, learning all about the new Bone Head book.

GEOGRAPHY

In the build-up to our trip to Drax Power Station, we are looking at where our energy comes from. We have looked at how the USA generates energy, how the UK does and also where on school we think a solar panel would be best placed. We walked the playgrounds, mapping as we went (in the sun, somehow!) then chose a good location.

Recognition Awards

Fossgate

Tommy – Because he is lots more motivated and enthusiastic about his work at the moment. It’s lovely to see him take more ownership of what he produces and make good progress in him understanding because of this

Praise – For her fabulous determination across all subjects at the moment. Mr Cole is really proud of her attitude in Maths and her last piece of Writing was lovely!

Goodramgate

Jessica – for being an absolute superstar in Maths, really working on the areas she needs to practice and making an incredible amount of progress. Keep it up!

Lauren – For being an absolute pleasure to teach at the moment; she is working hard in every area of the curriculum and really improving the quality of her work.