Our Summer competition
We’re a happy and healthy place to learn!
Over the Summer weeks, we want you all at home to stay alert to happy and healthy faces all around you… and take a pic of any hidden smiley faces in your surroundings: a day out at the beach might include creating a smiley face, for example! Here’s our suggestion (look for the smiling face!)…
…but we’re sure you can do better!
Look out for things around you that show a hidden smiley face – a happy and healthy face – or encourage your child to create their own from things around them (pebbles, leaves, Lego…). (Just avoid obvious and intended smiling faces like the ones featured in the Breeze list of summer dates from last week’s message – they’re too easy to spot!)
To enter, email your pics to scholesoffice@spherefederation.org by Friday 09 September. Enter ‘Summer competition’ as the subject.
All entries will be displayed in a happy and healthy display in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.
This week’s message part 2 (Friday 22 July 2022)
The bulk of our last message of the school year comes from Miss Hague. Before that, we’ve an updated uniform policy. Also, we’ve been asked by Leeds City Council to provide you with some important information…
Uniform
Most parents and carers stock up on fresh uniform over the summer holiday, so we want to let you know about our updated policy now.
This year, we’ve been trialling something we introduced in Covid times: wearing PE kit on PE days. Overall, we like this: it increases time for PE (no changing into kit) and there’s less lost property. However, we’ve seen some deviation from our uniform policy on PE days with lots of branded tops and shorts sneaking in. Take a look at our helpful guide for what is acceptable and what isn’t. We hope you’ll agree that the changes should actually save you money and be much more convenient for you.
Prevent
This letter is to help raise your awareness of the dangers of radicalisation and to let you know where to get more information, advice and support if you do have any concerns. This leaflet provides a summary about the Prevent programme and how, through the ACT Early website and Support Line, those who are vulnerable to radicalisation can get the help they may need.
And now over to Miss Hague…
After navigating our way through a global pandemic, the weather threw another challenge our way this week! Not that you’d know it as I sit writing this (grey, rainy and very British looking weather outside), but this week saw some of the hottest temperatures both outside and in school!
Our children were as resilient as ever but even they were beginning to ‘fade’ by lunchtime on Tuesday. Many thanks for working with us to keep everyone happy and healthy in extreme conditions.
This year seems to have gone by in a flash. It’s felt a bit more ‘normal’ with many Covid restrictions lifting at various times. Easter was a highlight as we invited our first group of parents (Y3,4) back into school in almost two years. Since then, we’ve had parents meetings for our new starters, a Year
5,6 production and an end of year disco! We’re starting to populate our school calendar lots of opportunities for you to come into school and get involved.
The end of a school year inevitably brings with it some ‘goodbyes’. Today, we say goodbye to our amazing Year 6 children – they are more than ready to start their journey at high school. We send them off with our very best wishes.
This year sees a fairly large movement in staff, too. We say goodbye to…
- Mr Freeman, who is taking up a role at St James’
- Miss Harker, who starts teaching at another Leeds school in September
- Mr Gathercole, who is having a career change
- Mrs Ravenscroft, who retires after 25 years of working at Scholes (Elmet) Primary
- Miss McAleer, who begins her journey towards a career in teaching
- Miss Wright, who takes up her first teaching role
- Miss Ward, who’s also taking up a role at St James’
We wish all of our amazing staff well as they move on from Scholes. We’ll miss them all!
With departures come arrivals. We say hello to:
- Mr Robson, who’s going to teach in Y5,6
- Miss Paterson, who’ll be teaching in Y3,4
- Miss Young, our new teacher in Y2
- Mr Nash, who’ll take up a role as a teaching assistant in Y5,6 TA
- Mrs Flynn, who returns to us from a meternity leave and a year teaching at St James’
Lots of work is going on over the summer! You’ll definitely spot one change as we’re having the entrance/exit to school made wider. Hopefully, that will avoid the bottle-neck we often experience. We’re also having the room used for out of school provision refurbished. This area will be called The Hub and will have a fully-equipped kitchen for children to participate in more cooking activities.
We’re also having our Key Stage 1 playground extended to give our children more space to safely play. The garden area will be re-located so we’ll still be able to grow some veggies!
Have a fabulous summer – stay happy and healthy and remember to enter our summer competition. We’ll see you back in school on Tuesday 05 September.
This week’s message part 1 (Tuesday 19 July 2022)
It’s the last week of term. This week, we’ve two messages.
This first one kicks off with a thank you to all of you who worked with us, sending your child into school despite the extreme temperatures. We worked hard to ensure the children remained as comfortable as possible – on the whole, I think we succeeded!
The rest of this message has contents that come from other organisation, but which you may find helpful, especially the first item…
Using A&E?
Leeds Teaching Hospitals are experiencing extreme demand for services. They’re seeing increasing visits to paediatric emergency department with needs that may be better met in other ways.
With consistent, accurate and trustworthy healthcare advice, the West Yorkshire Healthier Together website is available to support families to decide if a visit to A&E is appropriate.
The information on the site has been reviewed by local paediatricians, GPs and clinicians across the region to ensure it aligns with current practices and procedures.
You can use the quick links, search bar, or menus to find clear advice with easy to use traffic light guide, red, amber, green found in the parents/carers section. This will help to identify when, where, and how you should seek help for your poorly baby or child.
Parent and carers can also look through the site for practical guidance such as ‘should my child go to school’.
Music summer club
Leeds City Council and ArtForms are hosting free music summer clubs this August, with a range of music activities for children in Leeds aged 8 and above.
The sessions will take place between 08 and 10 August at Horsforth School. Read more.
Child friendly Leeds
This July marks the tenth year since the launch of Child Friendly Leeds. To mark the event, you and your child might want to attend the Our Leeds Wishes Display | Leeds Inspired this weekend.
Look out for our final message of the school on Friday.
Extreme temperatures – an update
We’ve coped well today in the heat, helped no doubt by moving classrooms, cool clothing and staying in at break times.
However, by 2.00pm, it was stifling in places around school – uncomfortable to say the least. The temperature at around this time was the temperature predicted for about 11.00am tomorrow.
The peak temperature of 38 degrees is predicted between 2.00pm and 4.00pm. Based on this, we’re suggesting a pick-up time of 1.30pm tomorrow, Tuesday 19 July, if you can.
If you’re unable to collect your child at this time, there will be staff to support and supervise in school. We’ll use the three air conditioned spaces to keep the children as comfortable as possible until you can collect.
Many thanks for your support.
Extreme temperatures forecast
We all know about the extreme temperatures forecast for the first part of next week. The Department for Education is not advising that schools close; instead they have issued guidance to schools.
Please note there is a possibility we may need to close early, or invite you to collect your child from 1.30pm. We’ll let you know if this is the case as soon as we can.
Apologies: we haven’t advised on this earlier as we’ve been waiting more guidance and continued monitoring of weather forecasts. (And a lot depends on the day: a strong breeze, like today, will help make the next couple of days bearable, if there is one.)
In case you missed Friday’s message, the guidance sets out sensible points to follow – make sure you consider each of the following:
- make sure your child comes to school with a large bottle (it could have water previously frozen)
- your child should wear a sun hat and loose, cool clothing (we’re relaxing the rules around school uniform – replace uniform items with things that are cooler eg open sandals rather than shoes, uniform shorts with lighter PE shorts – try to stay as smart as possible)
- your child should be wearing Factor 50 sunblock when they arrive at school and may apply more during the day
In school, we’ll take as many actions as we can. These will include indoor lunchtimes, avoiding vigorous activity, and avoiding being in large groups in one indoor space for a longer time.
This week’s message (Friday 15 July 2022)
It’s our penultimate message of the year… This one’s a short one, but with two links to something longer if you’re interested…
Before we start the message, a note about extreme temperatures forecast for the first part of next week. The Department for Education is not advising that schools close; instead they have issued guidance to schools. The guidance sets out sensible points to follow – make sure you consider each of the following:
- make sure your child comes to school with a large bottle (it could have water previously frozen)
- your child should wear a sun hat and loose, cool clothing (we’re relaxing the rules around school uniform – replace uniform items with things that are cooler eg open sandals rather than shoes, uniform shorts with lighter PE shorts – try to stay as smart as possible)
- your child should be wearing Factor 50 sunblock when they arrive at school and may apply more during the day
In school, we’ll take as many actions as we can. These will include indoor lunchtimes, avoiding vigorous activity, and avoiding being in large groups in one indoor space for a longer time.
Governance
Governing bodies aren’t required to produce an annual report; however, Sphere Federation governors believe communicating with our school community is important. Check out their annual governance statement.
Summer Fun
Breeze is for all children and young people aged 0-19 from Leeds (and their families) who are looking for positive things to do. Although Breeze is run by Leeds City Council, the information they list comes from all sorts of organisations and partners working positively with children, young people and their families in Leeds, not just the council. Check out the 27 days of fun: Breeze in the Park.
Have a good weekend. Next week, look out for the return of our Summer competition!
WUSU Crew 2022
Scholes in Bloom – winning design
A group of children went out to meet the Britain in Bloom judges today. The winning designer of the Scholes in Bloom competition was there and everyone admired the planted design in the flowerbed outside school. It looks fabulous!
Sports day – KS2 Competitive
This week’s message (Friday 08 July 2022)
It’s a busy time of year in school. Sports day, productions, reports… This week, you should have received an end-of-year report for your child – if you haven’t, please let us know.
At this time of year, you might be already thinking about uniform for next year. This week’s message starts with a reminder that we’ve updated our school uniform policy…
School uniform
Due to a recent change in guidance about school uniform, we’ve recently updated our school uniform policy.
Wearing a school uniform brings with it many benefits, and everyone following the policy brings a sense of fairness.
There’s no change as to what uniform is required in our policy: as has always been the case, branded items are available, but they’re optional. As well as having at least three suppliers for branded items (with different price ranges), you’re able to purchase generic items from a range of retailers, giving you choice and value for money. Second hand uniform items can also benefit parents / carers and, by extending the life of items, are more sustainable. Some items may be available in school (unclaimed and unnamed lost property at the end of term) or at the Leeds School Uniform Exchange. Check out the website for more information on suppliers and the policy.
We do expect all children to follow this policy, including wearing the correct kit on PE days.
Thank you for supporting us with this.
TikTok
Last week’s message mentioned TikTok. Here’s an extract from a weekly email we receive from a safeguarding expert:
A few days ago I spent a rather disturbing half-an-hour on TikTok… Clicking in to TikTok Live was worse than I had thought it would be… there were a number of video streams that I think should concern us from a safeguarding perspective. Livestreams from the school bus, school playgrounds and even from tutor time in classrooms. There was even a group of primary aged boys trying to out-swear each other while they waited for the bell.
Check out these parents’ guides: one from Common Sense Media and one from Internet Matters.
Some summer reading
You might like to read the latest edition of Raring2go. It’s got lots of ideas for the Summer holidays.
Some summer support
The approach to providing free school meals during holidays has changed in line with government guidance.
As a result of this change in government guidance, Leeds City Council has decided to support those households in receipt of council tax support. This will include most households receiving free school meals but this will no longer be the driver of eligibility. More detail on how the council is spending the funding can be found here.
Anyone in urgent need of support for food, rent and other household bills can contact the Leeds Welfare Support Team. Details are available at: Help with food and bills (leeds.gov.uk). The Healthy Holidays scheme will also continue to provide support during the summer holidays to those most in need.
The forecast is looking good… Have a happy and healthy weekend!