Children in Need

A huge thanks for the money you donated this morning.  So far, we’ve raised £351.81!! Amazing

A few people asked if the buckets would be there at the end of the day – yes they will be.  I’ll send you the grand total as soon as I know.

Thanks for your generosity

A happy and healthy place to learn…PE

This year, we’ve thought a lot about how we teach PE at Scholes (Elmet) Primary School. We’ve re-designed our curriculum and really value how an effective, whole-school approach to our PE curriculum helps our school to be a happy and healthy place to learn.

As part of this, we worked alongside Foot-Tech. They’re an innovative sports coaching company that provide sessions across the city for children to develop their skills and develop a life-long love of sport and physical activity. We’re lucky to have worked with them over the last few months to improve our PE provision.

Recently, they came into school to work with our Early Years and KS1 teachers to deliver some valuable CPD about how to teach effective PE lessons.  Their purposeful, game-based approach to delivering PE matches our vision and they’ve helped us to develop our provision for Early Years and KS1.

We’re grateful for their support and hope you can check out their website for how to get your child involved in what they do.

Help at home by asking your child what they’re learning about in their PE lessons. What’re they enjoying? What skills are they learning? At the moment, all our children are developing their confidence, strength, flexibility and coordination through gymnastics.

Scholes news

A few bits of news and a couple of reminders…

Monday is Odd Socks Day, part of anti-bullying week.  Come to school in your odd socks to show how unique you are.

Friday is Children in Need day.  We’ll be having a non-uniform day and our JLT will be in the playground shaking their buckets.  Please make a donation if you’re able to.

I’ve had a few emails from local residents about parking around school. Wood Lane, close to Scholes village library, has been blocked to such an extent that residents are unable to gain access to their land.  Morwick Grove’s road markings have recently changed -you should be aware that places where you used to park may now be covered by double yellow lines.

Our dedicated Lollipop Sue has also noticed that some people are crossing the road in the place where the crossing used to be and not where the new crossing is.  This makes it dangerous for everyone.  Please cross with Sue.

On Wednesday 22 November, I’ve said that Garforth and District Lions can use our Key Stage 2 gazebo as a collection point for used clothes which will then be donated to The Clothing Bank. I’ll open the gates a little earlier at the end of the school day (2.45 pm) so that local people can drop off their donations.  If you’d like to bring any of your old clothes (they must be clean and serviceable – no underwear or socks), please bring them at the end of the school day.  If this is successful, we might tag this event onto our annual harvest collection.

This week’s message (Friday 10 November 2023)

This week’s been a busy one – the first of our two themed weeks in the year. This one’s been Me and My Money. Ask your child what they’ve been learning about. Our Living and Learning Curriculum Guide lists the learning that we’ve been focusing on in school – see page 17.

Sticking to Living and Learning…

Bullying, Odd Socks and STOP

Next Monday, 13 November, is Anti-Bullying Day. This year’s theme is ‘Make noise about bullying’ and we will be taking part in Odd Socks Day on this day.

Odd Socks Day raises awareness of our differences, individuality and personal choice. Your child can come to school wearing odd socks (with their uniform) to celebrate what makes them unique.

Check out this parent and carer pack about bullying.

Remember our two STOP acronyms about bullying:

• the definition: Several Times On Purpose
• the solution: Start Telling Other People

Attendance matters

The whole-school attendance figure for Autumn 1 half-term was 95.7%. The national figure from 11 September to 13 October 2023 was 93.7% – we’re two percentage points higher than national! Thank you for making sure your child attends school as much as possible.

Here’s a breakdown for each class – the Year 3,4 phase are smashing it!

• Sunshine (Miss Parling) – 95.6%
• Rainbow (Mrs Allen-Kelly) – 96.0%
• Class 1A (Mrs Brown and Mrs Wilkins) – 95.1%
• Class 1/2B (Mrs Latham) – 96.0%
• Class 2C (Miss Young) – 96.1%
• Class 3/4A (Mrs Paterson) – 96.4% – excellent!
• Class 3/4B (Miss Iveson) – 96.3% – brilliant!
• Class 3/4C (Mrs Wadsworth) – 97.1% – amazing attendance!
• Class 5/6A (Mr Wain) – 94.9%
• Class 5/6B (Mrs Hogarth) – 94.5%
• Class 5/6C (Mr Lindsay) – 94.5%

Remember to check this new NHS website if you’re not sure whether your child is ill enough to miss out on school.

Rocking Rockstars

If your child’s in Year 3, 4, 5 or 6, they should be practising their times tables regularly at home – a little every day is best for most children. Children in Year 4 are expected to know their times tables with quick recall, and the matching division facts – check out this guide.

A good way to practise is to use Times Tables Rock Stars. The Times Tables Rock Stars website has just been updated, including:

• intro video
• parent guide
• the importance of times tables
• FAQs
• free downloadables

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Phenomenal phonics

Phonics is the foundation stone for reading and for lifelong learning. It’s all about matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. For example, the sound k can be spelled as c, k, ck or ch.

We’re proud of our excellent teaching and the excellent results. In 2023, almost all of our Year 1 children reached the expected level in the national Phonics Screening Check. The outcomes are significantly above the national data – in fact, we’re in the 97th percentile.

(Percentiles are a way of ranking. Basically, imagine all the schools in England in order from lowest to highest outcomes, and then divide the group into 100 smaller, similar performing groups. The first percentile is the lowest performing groups and the 100th percentile is the top-performing group.)

Well done to all the children in the cohort (our current Year 2 pupils), and thank you to parents and carers for making sure their child is reading regularly at home.

Read more about our Phonics provision.

This week’s message (Friday 27 October 2023)

It’s our last Friday’s message of Autumn 1 half-term.

Today’s a training day in school. All the teachers across Sphere Federation have gathered together to learn more about Maths, PE and Art. They’re learning about it in a carousel of phases – Early Years and Y1,2 in one, Y3,4 in another, and Y5,6 in the third.

In last week’s message, we announced our new Junior Leadership Team. This week, we thought you might like to hear from some them, talking about their favourite aspects of Scholes (Elmet) Primary…

• Jenson, Y2: “Our school library is full of fun, exciting books that we get to take home.”
• Eric, Y6: “I find maths puzzling and fun at the same time because it makes me feel challenged.”
• Noah, Y6: “We do a variety of different topics ranging from Geography to Computing. This helps us learn about the world.”
• Eric, Y6: “I find it fun testing different things like running around with bin bags.”
• Emilia, Y6: “Living and Learning allows us to share our thoughts and feelings.”
• Lani, Y4: “I enjoy playtime as everyone gets to play with each other.”
• Caleb, Y4: “Our teachers make lessons interesting and fun – we get to enjoy our learning.”
• Lani, Y4: “I enjoy assemblies because I get to think and learn about different things from around the world.”
• Thea, Y4: “Mrs Hague always helps us and she is a very kind person.”
• Noah, Y6: “Mr Roundtree is polite and never forgets to greet people when he’s at the gate.”
• Olivia, Y2: “Our school has lots of things to do after school like dancing and football.”

These comments now feature at the foot of the homepage of our website, too.

Leeds City Council Admissions Policy – consultation

Leeds City Council is running a public consultation on the 2025/2026 admission policy for Leeds community and voluntary controlled schools. You can share your views until 4 December. Share your views.

It’s been an extra long Autumn 1 half-term – eight weeks. Lots of children are tired – a break will be welcome to relax and recuperate. We hope you’re able to enjoy a longer weekend and a great half-term break.

Fab Feedback

We’re nearly at the end of our first half term – it’s been a long one with lots going on.

I wanted to share some of the ‘Fab Feedback’ we’ve had over the last few weeks.

Harvest

We received a certificate from Wetherby and District Foodbank to say that our contribution amounted to 453 meals.  That’s a really amazing achievement and will make a huge difference to so many families.

Watch us While we Work

At the beginning of October, we invited parents into school to watch their  child learning and hopefully to takeaway some top tips for helping at home.  Lots of parents gave us positive feedback with many saying that they got some great ideas on how to teach times tables and spellings.  Some parents took away tips on how they could support with reading by using techniques like echo reading or working through a RIC (retrieval, inference/interpretation, choice (author’s choice) process.  Most ‘Even better if …’ were to hold more of these sessions! We do have another coming up 26.01.24, 2.30 – 3.10.  We also have two topic reviews coming up: 01.12.23, 2.30 -3.10 and 18.03.24, 2.30-2.10.

Stay and Learn

Our reception parents also came into school to join in with a stay and learn session.  Lots of parents took away a better understanding of our phonics teaching saying that they now understood what segmenting and blending was all about.  Again, parents made comments about how they would try to use some of the reading strategies at home.  ‘Even better if…’ was all about bigger chairs!!

Open morning

For parents looking for a reception place in 2024, last week, we had our first of three open mornings.  Our amazing Year 6 children showed our visitors around school.  We got lots of feedback about what an amazing job they’d done, how confident and polite they’d been and how knowledgeable they were about our school.  We couldn’t have been more proud of them.  The second and third of our open sessions are coming up: 16.11.23, 1.30-2.30 and 01.12.23, 9.30-10.30.  If you, or anyone you know, are looking for a reception place in September 2024, please come along to one of these sessions.  No need to book.

Visitors to school

We’re always welcoming visitors to school and almost all of them have made the comment about how polite and respectful our children are.  The greetings at the gate are an indication of what it feels like to walk around our school.  It certainly feels like a happy and healthy place to learn.

This week’s message (Friday 20 October 2023)

This week’s message (Friday 13 October 2023)

Our Living and Learning message this week has been about respecting yourself. Have a conversation at home about this. What can your child feel especially proud of at home? And at school? Share examples of you feeling proud, too. How can feeling proud and believing in ourselves help us?

Junior Leadership Team

We’ve recently launched this year’s Junior Leadership Team election process. Our Junior Leadership Team (JLT) is one of the ways that children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.

The election process allows children to develop an understanding of one of the British Values, democracy, with a representative from each class chosen democratically by their peers.

Here are some of the qualities our current Junior Leaders think are needed to be an effective JLT member:

• use the 8Rs for learning
• be respectful and polite
• help others
• be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)
• share and be confident with your ideas
• let others speak
• accept the views of others even if you don’t agree
• be friendly and approachable
• follow our school rules and make good choices in class and around school

This week’s whole school homework is all about the election and democracy, ready for the elections next Thursday 19 October.

Talking of pupil voice…

The Big Ambition

The Children’s Commissioner for England has recently launched ‘The Big Ambition’ to hear directly from children, young people, and parents across the country.

This is an opportunity to hear from all children, in every part of the country and in every setting. The survey will be used to encourage policymakers to think about children and young people’s needs, to ensure children’s voices are reflected in the decisions that will affect them in years to come.

Encourage your child to take part in The Big Ambition survey. 

Measles

Measles cases are rising across the country.

• 9 out of 10 unvaccinated children can catch measles if someone in their class has it.
• 102,000 children starting school in England are at risk of catching measles.

Check your child is up to date with their MMR vaccinations.

Measles is highly infectious and if left unvaccinated nine out of ten children in a classroom can catch the disease if just one child is infectious.

I hope Friday 13th hasn’t been bad luck for you! Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Fantastic food bank collection

A huge thanks for all your contributions to our harvest collection.

Here are a few of our School Council members with your amazing donations

The person from The Wetherby District Foodbank looked both amazed and concerned as he’d only brought his car with him!

After a bit of careful maneuvering, we managed to get it all in.

Your generosity was very much appreciated