Newsletter – 19 July 2024

Dear parents and carers, 

We’ve made it! What a jam-packed half-term it’s been, as you will see from the photos in our final newsletter of the year. From sports evening, to drama festivals, the Barbican Arts Festival, Year 6 leavers’ celebrations and Forest School adventures for EYFS and KS1 – it’s been a blast! As ever, the children have made us so proud in all their endeavours. 

I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all of you for your huge commitment and contribution to the life of the school. We are incredibly grateful for your continued support, and it has been lovely to see so many of you at the many school events that have been held in recent months. What a vibrant community Scarcroft is part of!

A particularly big thank you goes to FOSS who work tirelessly throughout the year to raise money for Scarcroft, to Lizzie Fathers for organising the most incredible raffles, and to Lucy Burrows, who has donated all money raised for class photos back to school. A special thank you goes to Pen and Rosie, our co-chair and secretary for FOSS who are stepping down, and have given so much to the school. We really cannot thank FOSS enough – they’re amazing!

We say a very fond farewell to a number of members of staff, to whom we are forever grateful: teaching assistants Miss Goldsmith, Mrs Aked and Miss Sharma, and teachers Mrs Barker, Mrs Hannah and Miss Birch. We wish them all the very best for the future and look forward to keeping in touch.

Another special thank you to Tracey Skelton and Mrs Southen, who today received their awards for long service, for having worked at Scarcroft Primary for 20 years! The children raised the roof in their applause for the two of them – we are all so appreciative for their dedication to the school. 

We’re very excited that building and redevelopment works will begin over the summer break, with EYFS moving over to the site of the current Nest in order for children to be able to access a new free-flow outdoor area. Other works include the refurbishment of windows and toilets, a new sensory room, a new pastoral space and a new music room. The cherry on the top promises to be our brand new library space, which will now be situated in the downstairs hall, and become the hub of the school. We can’t wait to show you the end results! 

We have lots of new initiatives coming Scarcroft’s way in September – from a newly developed programme of Sports provision; our ‘Thrive’ Personal Development and enrichment offer, as well as new school houses and class names. We’ll communicate all of this to you in the new academic year. However, as a taster of what’s to come – a new school motto for a new chapter: ‘Scarcroft Primary School: where every child thrives!’

Finally, I’d like to say a huge thank you to the staff at Scarcroft. They are an incredible team who work extremely hard to deliver the best possible education for the children in our care. Scarcroft continues to go from strength to strength, and it is through the dedication and positivity of the entire team, that we’re making so many strides forwards. I am sure you will join me in wishing them a very well-deserved summer break, and I hope you all too have a wonderful summer. 

If you’re anything like me, you’ll be trying to fill the 6 weeks to keep your small people as entertained as possible! See the link below for useful information about summer holiday activities available in the local area: https://york.mumbler.co.uk/kids/child-care/kids-club-holiday-care/ 

If you are in need of any support over the summer, please don’t hesitate to contact school on the following email address: admin@scarcroft.elt.org.uk. We will check the email inbox periodically and will get back to you at the earliest opportunity. 

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 3rd September. 

Very best wishes, 

Jen Mitchell 

Head of School 

Reception:  95.2%

Year 1:   96.2%

Year 2:   92.2%

Year 3:   96.4%

Year 4:   95.9%

Year 5:   96.3%

Year 6:   94.1%

After reading ‘Goldilocks And The Three Bears’ we made our own beds for bears at Forest School using natural materials.

We created our own group firework pictures by splatting, flicking, and splattering the paint. It was very messy but we had lots of fun.

We created collages of the school inspired by the work of the Artist Megan Coyle

Recognition Awards

Arthur S  – for fantastic independent writing in class

Max –  for amazing listening in class

Eloise – for super detailed artwork and being so creative.

Kim – for wonderful concentration and taking lots of time and care with her work.

Tilly C- for working so hard to blend words  using her phonic sounds. 

Laina – for her wonderful musical ability.

Esmae –  for her creative work and always including other children with her fun games and ideas.

Esme – for being a super star reader and helping others to enjoy reading. 

Trophy- Achievement 

Mrs Mason’s Class – Arthur because he is so interested in our work especially on animals and finds out his own fascinating facts 

In our Science lessons, we have  loved getting hands on by classifying trees according to their leaves and bark and recognising seeds. We were amazed to discover how different bulbs and seeds can grow such a variety of plants!

In PE, we were lucky to enjoy a bonus session with Mr Scaling where we got to compete in our own Scarcroft Olympics! We practised aiming for a target using the javelins and smooth transitions of batons in a relay. 

Recognition awards

1KM

Iana – for always giving 100% in everything she does. For listening carefully and working hard to make every piece of work the best it can be.

Joni – for always being ready to learn, great listening and amazing enthusiasm. For also being a kind and thoughtful friend.

1GM

Serenity – for her resilience towards her work, even when she finds things tricky, and her growth mindset for challenging herself to complete additional tasks in her work. Well done Serenity!

Tiffany – for her truly kind-hearted, positive attitude towards everybody and every task, and unwavering dedication to her work. Well done Tiffany!

Trophy:

Tiffany – Kindness Trophy

We enjoyed creating freeze frames of the historic moment when the Wright Brothers flew their engine-powered plane ‘Wright Flyer 1’ for the first time. The flight only lasted for 12 seconds but changed the world!

We have been playing team building games in PE this half term. The children had to put trust in their partner to guide them around the playground wearing a blindfold!

We had an amazing time at Woodland Adventure! We searched for different tree and plant species, made minibeast habitats, climbed trees, played in the woods and shared hot-chocolate and marshmallows 

around the campfire!

Recognition Award

2MC

Amber – for always working hard across the curriculum and taking pride in her presentation.

Leyland – for his excellent effort in maths and writing. He is motivated to try the extra challenges.

Florence  – for settling into a new school, learning all the routines so quickly and for her outstanding effort and focus across the whole curriculum.

Finley – for working incredibly hard with his handwriting and for being motivated to write.

Trophy:

Effort Trophy – Rosie – for always wanting to do her very best and for having such a positive attitude towards learning.

2NB

Fran-  for always having such a determined attitude towards her learning even this late on in the year and for also helping Miss B remember what was on post it notes that have gone missing! 

Vinny – for being simply Vinny! With his curious mind, questions and way of being able to calculate things in his head and when asked how just ‘knowing it’ 

Meera – for always showing a positive attitude towards her learning and being a person you can rely on to be responsible and help you with jobs. 

Shannay –  for being her CHIRP-y self throughout all of her learning and showing a good confidence in being able to share her ideas with the class. 

Thomas – for showing a ‘Can do’ attitude and being great all week. 

Trophy:

Kindness trophy- Aisha – Such a kind soul who is always willing to check in on people and help them with their jobs. She also has a great understanding of when someone may need a hug and asks first. 

In art over the last few weeks, we have been creating some pictures of deserts inspired by Henri Rousseau.  We painted several layers onto canvas to make the pictures.

These  are some of the final paintings.  They have been painted with such skill and care.

We recently had a times tables competition on TT Rockstars with the other primary schools in the MAT.  Scarcroft won!  Here is Mrs Roper’s class busy rocking up the correct answers!

 Year 3 have also been learning different drawing techniques in art.  These pictures show some of our work with shape, shading and a collage technique known as frottage.

Recognition awards:

3PR

Rob – for making the most of every opportunity that comes his way.

Indigo – for doing everything with a calm, positive attitude.

Johanna – for her fabulous energy in class and always knowing the right time to take lessons seriously.

River – for engaging in interesting conversations and bringing so much knowledge to the class.

3MR

Alfie – for being a great fun member of the class

Lucas – Welcome to our school all the way from China.  Nǐ hǎo!

Fletcher –  for being a Scarcroft superstar in everything he does.

Trophies:

Achievement- Stephen

Effort- Sofia

Learning

Inventors & Innovators: At the start of July, we went on our postponed visit to Wonderlab at the NRM. The children really enjoyed the hands-on aspect of the gallery and spent ages designing paper structures to fly, catching scarves fired from a cannon and sending balls through a seriously complex machine. Back in school, we have been designing slingshot cars with aerodynamic shapes.

Science – sound: We have been trying to model how sound travels and, in particular, how it travels differently through solids, liquids and gases. Have you ever tapped a table or desk with your ear to the object? We have, and noticed that it’s so much louder so sound must travel better through solids than through air. We also used Chromebooks as decibel metres to measure how loud different instruments are.

Creative Arts: Year 4 must be a creative bunch as we made up a good chunk of the pupils taking part in the Play House Project, the Barbican Arts Fest and the Talent Show. Having attended all three between them, Mr Cole and Miss Birch can confidently say that everyone involved was a credit to the school.

Recognition Awards

Tommy – for trying really hard to overcome things that make him anxious recently, most notably when we are swimming. He is also the most amazing mental mathematician, especially when it comes to times and dates.

Griffin is a font of knowledge about all sorts of different topics and brings lots of interesting ideas to the classroom. He is also an incredible mental mathematician, great sportsperson and creative author. 

Georgiana is a positive and incredibly hard-working member of our class. She puts so much effort into every lesson and has particularly impressed me with her creative description in writing recently. It was lovely to see her have the confidence to get up on stage and dance (beautifully, I might add) at the talent show.

Rafa is a creative and friendly member of our class who got a recent recognition award for some serious hard work. He has been so focussed on his learning in recent weeks and producing some really lovely pieces of work because of this.

Florence is so polite and considerate to others. She is always asking how people are and offering to help with jobs around the classroom. She is super engaged in her learning and adds the most amazing descriptions to her writing. 

Milo is so enthusiastic and curious. He has thoroughly enjoyed every topic we have done this year and enjoys sharing his learning with others. He has particularly impressed me with his attitude towards drama activities and how fantastic he was in Shakespeare week. 

Maxwell is such a bubbly person to have in class. He loves to learn and asks brilliant questions (which sometimes I have to check the answer to!). It has been lovely to watch his confidence grow this year. 

Tilly is an all round lovely person. Many teachers around school find me to say how polite and helpful she is. Tilly has worked SO hard this year! Especially with her maths and times tables, making excellent progress. 

Trophies

Kindness – Bea is about the most helpful person I’ve ever had in class. She often does jobs and finishes them before I’ve even noticed they needed doing! Despite this, she never expects reward – just does it because it’s a nice thing to do. I’d be remiss to not mention that, having made note of the date last July, she baked me a birthday cake!

Achievement – Ethan has achieved in many ways this year. Academically, he has made great progress. However Ethan’s biggest achievement is how hard he has worked to come out of his comfort zone and grow in confidence. I am so proud of Ethan for this.

In our science lessons, we have been looking at reversible and irreversible changes. We really enjoyed burning different items to see that burning is an irreversible process.

In History we reenacted the Royal Progress through Worcester by Queen Elizabeth I.  We looked at primary sources to help us understand what happened on the day.

We really enjoyed our art sessions at Millthorpe where we learnt pastel and watercolour techniques and created a joiner based on Monet.

Recognition Awards

5AT

Justin Stirling – for being a fantastic Role Model always tries his very best in everything he does 

Isla Price – for being fabulous all year! 

Iris Green –  for making amazing progress in the latter part of the year. Well done. 

Abi Wallis – for being Fantastic all year, a super role model and insightful comments in Daily circle and learning for life. 

5LP

Julia Taylor-Guino –  for being a model pupil who gives everything 100% all of the time.

Eva Lawson – for being our class hype woman and always keeping everyone else happy

Raina Klaces – for being incredibly kind and hard working all year long

Sima Ranel – for becoming part of our Scarcroft family with such ease!

Trophy:

Kindness trophy: Seb always does small acts of kindness without need any recognition. These small acts go a long way!

After some exploration of flavour combinations in class, we had a great time creating our own pizzas and cheesecakes at Millthorpe who kindly allowed us to make use of their cookery rooms.  Children adapted and followed a recipe, used ovens and learned some basic food hygiene. We have some budding chefs in the making!

We had a fascinating tour led by Anna from York Unlocked discovering the history of hidden buildings around York.  Back at class, children used historical reasoning to decide which was the most significant – a tough decision to make!

Our children did a fabulous job in the school play ‘School-o-vision Song Contest’. We are so lucky to have such a talented group of future superstars!

On Wednesday, we took part in the Crucial Crew workshops.  We learned valuable life-saving skills in fire safety, river safety, online safety, road safety and alcohol and drugs.

Recognition: 

Grace P – for her kindness and support to others, giving her time to help others in writing.

Elsie D – for being the most supportive friend and classmate and her responsible attitude in the school community.

Sofia C – for making such good progress in her writing since the start of the year. 

Daisy Belle Mills – for having such a brilliant attitude to work and school life in general. 

Michel – for her great manners and kind attitude all year long. 

Jessika – for being an allround superstar! 

Trophies:

Dorian M – Achievement Award – in recognition of how hard he has worked to achieve his best this year. Well done Dorian!

Effort Trophy – Rose for her outstanding effort and her amazing attitude to learning. She keep up this amazing attitude all day, every day. 

Gold Award:

Rose C,  Juno,  Darcey,  Lucas