Richmond C of E Primary Newsletter Issue One

Richmond Church of England Primary School

School Newsletter TEAM — Together Everyone Achieves More Friday 22nd April, 2016

Summer Term 2016 - Issue 1

WELCOME TO THE NEW ACTING EXECUTIVE HEAD TEACHER Welcome to our new style newsletter!

We will be sending this out on a regular basis to keep parents informed of all the exciting activities taking place in the school so please look out for this in your emails!

We are delighted to welcome Mrs Maxine Price to the school as the Acting Head Teacher. She has already hosted two welcome sessions in the school hall for parents to drop in and have a chat with her and will be doing the same next Wednesday morning, 27th April from 8.45am—9.15am and then 2.45pm—3.15pm in the afternoon.

Parents are very welcome to drop in and meet with her to have an informal chat.

Should any parents wish to have a more formal meeting with Mrs Price please do not hesitate to contact the school to arrange an appointment.

DIARY DATES Rocket Science Project Children in Key Stage One are currently taking part in a national experiment. Astronaut Tim Peake has sent 200 rocket seeds to our school, 100 of which have been on Tim's journey to the International Space Station and the other 100 have been grounded on earth.

Our experiment will focus on similarities and differences in plant growth between the two seed packets and we will be recording our information on a measurement chart. At the end of the experiment we will enter our results into a national database where the data will be analysed and published for everyone to see. We sowed the seeds on Tuesday and can't wait to find out what happens!

British Olympic ‘GetSet’ Initiative The school has now registered with the British Olympic ‘GetSet’ website which has been set up for schools across the country to access and join. It has a wealth of resources and initiatives, such as the ‘Road to Rio’ and ‘Values Awards’, an awards scheme to recognise and reward young people for living the Olympic and Paralympic Values. This will help children to reach their potential by equipping them with valuable life skills and developing their character and resilience.

Middlesbrough Football Club Foundation We are hoping to became part of the MFC Foundation Schools Partnership as part of our on-going PE strategy. Watch this space for further details and developments!

Richmond C of E Primary School Telephone: 01748 822104 Email: admin@richmondcofe.n-yorks.sch.uk Web: www.richmondcofe.n-yorks.sch.uk

REMINDERS Safe use of the Internet—Parental Role

Water bottles, sunhats and sun cream

We have on our website, guidance for parents regarding keeping children safe online and this is also something we teach children about as part of the curriculum. There have been some concerns from parents over their children using Oovoo, a social media site.

We have discussed this with our Legal Department at the Local Authority who have given us the following advice ‘Whilst the bullying of other pupils and/or members of staff should not be tolerated, if comments are posted by the pupils about other families outside of school hours and within the pupil’s homes, the school can do little to enforce any kind of policy. The school can try to get parents to work with them in teaching children what is and is not acceptable when using social media, however, a school cannot police the situation if the parents choose to allow their children to do what they wish.’ Oovoo is not suitable for users under the age of 13 and parents need to reinforce this at home. We do not allow the use of mobile phones in school and any child bringing a phone to school must hand it in for safe keeping for the duration of the school day.

As we are now approaching the summer and the warmer, sunnier weather (hopefully!) could we please remind parents to provide their children with a water bottle for use in school and a sunhat.

It would also be useful if sun cream could be applied to your child before coming into school.

As clothing tends to be abandoned somewhat in the warmer weather, especially jumpers and cardigans, it would be appreciated if all items of clothing and personal possessions are clearly labelled with their names.

Could we also remind parents to ensure their child is wearing appropriate footwear for school. Flip-flops, other similar footwear and sandals without a strap at the heel are not allowed for safety reasons during the warmer weather.

Thank you.

ACHIEVEMENTS YEAR 5 SHAKESPEARE PERFORMANCE

Tomorrow (23.4.16) Year 5 children from Richmond C of E will be performing at the Georgian Theatre. The event is to celebrate 400 years since William Shakespeare died and it will coincide with many other performances throughout the country. Year 5 will be performing adaptations of three different plays: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and the Mechanical’s scene from Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“I really like the battle scene from Macbeth because it’s a good dance routine. I think the audience will love it.” Stated Millie Betteridge, a pupil in Year 5 who is in both the Macbeth scene and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The picture shows children rehearsing on stage at the Georgian Theatre. Summer Stuart provided us with an insight into how the event has been linked into the curriculum “It has helped us understand more about Shakespeare, we’ve studied and read different plays in school. I think it is really interesting and had a good impact on our learning in both English and history.”

Year 5 are really excited, although probably a little nervous, about their performances tomorrow. It promises to be a fantastic event that the children will remember for a long time. The Northern Echo has also been into school to take photographs of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and the article is available to view on-line using the following link http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk /news/ 14439870.Young_actors_perform_Shakespeare_as_part_of_festival/

Richmond C of E Primary School Telephone: 01748 822104 Email: admin@richmondcofe.n-yorks.sch.uk Web: www.richmondcofe.n-yorks.sch.uk

SCHOOL NEWS!!

HATCHING OF THE DUCKS!

SCHOOL GARDEN You may have noticed that we have planted beans, peas, potatoes and onions in our school garden. We are hoping that these will flourish with this good weather. If you have any spare vegetables plants we will be very grateful to receive them.

SCHOOL CLUBS

I’m sure you are aware that we have ducks in school at the moment. They arrived last week and we have been watching the hatch over the past couple of days.

It is very exciting for everyone and we are looking forward to watching them grow up!

Richmond C of E Primary School Telephone: 01748 822104 Email: admin@richmondcofe.n-yorks.sch.uk Web: www.richmondcofe.n-yorks.sch.uk

There has been an overwhelming response to some of the after school clubs. All have started this week (apart from Athletics) and fun has been had by all children and staff involved!