Newsletter – 15th May 2026

Dates for the diary

Reception – Fishergate: 98.71%

Reception – Petergate: 93.79%

Year 1/2 – Castlegate: 95.2%

Year 1/2 – Micklegate: 97.99%

Year 1/2 – Stonegate: 97.27%

Year 3 – Coppergate: 98.55%

Year 3 – Whip ma whop ma gate: 97.65%

Year 4 – Swinegate: 90.9%

Year 4 – Walmgate: 97.32%

Year 5 – Colliergate: 92.94%

Year 5 – Skeldergate: 98.2%

Year 6 – Fossgate: 97.08%

Year 6 – Goodramgate: 96.03%

Down in EYFS the sun has been shining and the children have loved visiting and exploring the forest. We did a fantastic job colour matching the nature around us on our colour bingo cards using flowers, mud, bark and leaves. 

Back in our outdoor classroom we have been taking the bikes for spin! Working together to push, pedal and steer along the track. 

Art

Year 1 / 2 have been very busy in art making beautiful clay tiles! They have spent this half term practicing how to use impressing and joining techniques to decorate their clay tile.

Science

In science the children have been learning about what plants need to survive. We have conducted an experiment as a class and the children also got a chance to grow their own sunflower seed and watch the seed germinate and grow.

Writing

Look at our writing! We are working incredibly hard to make our writing interesting. We are using conjunctions, noun phrases, question marks and we are thinking about our presentation!

David Attenborough’s 100th Birthday!

We had lots of fun learning about David Attenborough and his amazing life. We even had time to watch some of Our planet 3 which is narrated by children.

Recognition Awards

Castlegate

Nell – Nell is such a superstar in every single lesson. She is always listening, focused and participating in class. She takes so much pride in her work and always tries her best!

Sunday – Sunny is such a kind and lovely member of our class. She is always helping others whether that be holding the door open or playing with children if they are by themselves in the playground. 

Jesse – achievement trophy – Jesse is such a polite and kind member of the class. He always tries hard in every lesson! He also shows great sportsmanship and teamwork in sports. This was especially seen in the KS1 football tournament. 

Micklegate

Otis (Y2) – Otis is working really hard to get all of his work completed by settling quicker to his independent work, keeping focussed and thinking carefully about his presentation.

Saibh (Y2) – Saibh for her mature, conscientious attitude to learning and ensuring her work is always to the best of her ability. This wonderful approach to learning makes her an incredible role model to others. 

Billy (Y1) – We are delighted that Billy is showing so much more independence when completing his work. He starts his work straight away, keeps focussed and always demonstrates excellent behaviour for learning.

Stonegate

Luna (y2) – We are all so happy to have Luna joining our class. She has made a wonderful start; putting so much effort into her work, making friends and being a role model to others for behaviour. 

Rosie (y2) – For always doing the right thing. Rosie is a bundle of sunshine and brings so much joy everyday. She is enthusiastic about her work and puts in lots of effort.

Geography

Year 3 enjoyed a fantastic morning exploring our local area during our trip to Clifton Tower.  We conducted a traffic survey to see how many vehicles used our roads.  We then observed features of our locality from the roof of Clifford’s Tower before sketching the castle to support our up-coming DT work.  Our children exhibited fantastic behaviour during this trip and asked some great questions about the history of this impressive building.

Pedestrian Training

The City of York Council road safety team, provided Pedestrian Training for our pupils to help them stay safe near roads. The training included classroom learning and practical road safety sessions in small groups. Pupils learnt how to cross roads safely, use different types of crossings such as zebra and pelican crossings, and spot possible dangers. The pupils were really engaged with all aspects of the training and these sessions definitely help the children become more confident and independent pedestrians.

Science

We have had a fantastic time exploring plants, including how they grow healthily and reproduce.  We have had some interesting experiments to see what will kill plants and applied our knowledge when growing cress.  We really loved having the chance to dissect some flowers and identify their parts.

Recognition Awards

Coppergate

Bella – For working hard to make the choice to edit and improve her work.  You are doing such a good job with this.

Hugo – For having a fantastic “I can” attitude to all his work.  You are tackling all your tasks with independence and careful thought – well done!

Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma Gate

Isaac – is an ‘always’ child, you can always be sure that he’s doing his best, putting in 100%, ready to learn and setting an excellent example for the rest of the class to follow. 

Sofia – Sofia works so hard everyday in class, she is polite, respectful and a very well mannered girl, always showing me that she is ready! Well done!

Effort Trophy – Elroi has been putting in so much effort recently into everything English. She has been trying so hard in her reading and her writing! Well done and keep it up!

Well done Polya for making this model of Weslandia. This homework challenge was linked to our literacy unit on the book Weslandia.

This term, children have been learning what the terms abstraction, sequencing and decomposition mean in computing. They carried out activities to demonstrate how they could spot patterns in objects, break down tasks to simplify the process and use abstraction to create maps focusing on one element of a park such as the environment or children’s play.

Year 4 has started a new history topic looking at what changed in Britain after the Anglo-Saxon invasion. Children had a go at making wattle and daub walls. It was much more challenging than they thought it would be.

Money has been the topic of conversation in PHSE. Children have been learning how to keep a track of money and carried out a counting activity.

Recognition Awards

Walmgate 

• Edie – for hugely increasing her effort in lessons 
• Fergal – for rising to the challenge and improving his arithmetic scores 

Swinegate

• Tilly – for always trying so hard, being a wonderful role model and always showing kindness to others. 
• Sangyoon – For showing such determination in learning and showing such progress in writing and maths.
• Ivylou – For always showing such a positive attitude in her learning and being so kind an helpful.

Kindness trophy

• For showing such kindness to others whenever they need help.

Bikeability Training

Both Year 5 classes spent 2 days riding their bikes and learning how to ride them safely on the road. Everyone showed such determination and we got such incredible feedback from the instructors and how polite and well behaved our pupils were.

Health & Fitness in PE

In PE, we’ve been focusing on health and fitness and learning about cardio-vascular fitness, flexibility and strength. We tested ourselves in some fitness and flexibility tests in week 1 and we’re hoping to smash our own records in week 6 after some intense circuit training each week where we got very hot, sweaty and out of breath!

The Man who Walked Between the Towers

In writing, we started this unit by discovering some items in a rucksack. We asked questions about the person then made predictions as to who it may belong to. We learnt that they belonged to Phillippe Petit who walked on a tightrope between the Twin Towers. We tried walking on a ‘tightrope’ without the huge drop below and it was harder than it looks!

Recognition Awards

Skeldergate 

River – For always showing me excellent learning behaviour and showing such grit and determination in Bikeability training. 

James – For always showing me excellent learning behaviour and showing such grit and determination in Bikeability training. 

Emily – For always being ready to learn and giving everything 100%. This has resulted in fantastic progress in English and Maths. Well done Emily!

Effort Trophy – Robin – Robin has shown me 100% effort in everything that she does all the way from September to now. A huge achievement. Keep it going Robin!

Colliergate 

Orla – For putting in a huge effort to improve her writing. She is editing her writing more consistently and her handwriting has improved hugely. 

Rob – For always contributing interesting ideas to class discussion – Rob is a fountain of knowledge!

Anna – For having a flying start to her time at Scarcroft. She has really impressed with her contributions in class, enthusiasm and hard work.

Achievement Trophy – Elizabeth – Elizabeth always goes the extra mile. When we discussed collective nouns in class, she went home and researched them, then taught the class what she found out.

SPEECH NIGHT

Speech Night was AMAZING!!! 30 Year 6s, full of courage and spirit, spoke engagingly and articulately on topics they are passionate about to a captivated audience of proud parents and teachers. What an event!

SCIENCE

Super-concentrated science in Y6 last week experimenting with how different beak types affect the food that birds can eat. All part of our work to understand evolution and adaptation!

ART

Aside from testing, we are studying street art this week. The children wandered around a gallery of images of street art in York, deciding if it was art or vandalism. Here, the children are experimenting with lettering styles and shrinking or growing text as part of the first lesson. They will go onto planning a mural for an empty space.

Recognition Awards

Fossgate

Tilly – for coming back to school after Easter full of determination and focus, not letting a bit of jetlag hold her back in the slightest!

Griffin – for a fabulous speech showing his passion for Chess using high quality language and punctuation. 

Hattie – to say thank you for all her hard work recording our Walk to School data as well as for being really diligent with her spelling corrections.

Goodramgate

Lydia – for just being positive and up for absolutely everything in school; work, assembly groups, jobs, sports events. Everything!

Kyla – for being such a wonderfully expressive reader who really tries to engage her audience.

Effort Trophy – Alex – for such stellar effort to make progress in writing this year (and since Year 3!).