Our weekly message: Friday 03 October 2025

We’ll start this week’s message with a letter from the Safer Leeds Partnership. You should be aware, although it’s probably more relevant if you’ve older children.

This week’s message has four articles, including a couple of different ways to support your child…

Support with sleep

Does your child struggle with sleep sometimes? If so, you might like to attend a workshop coming up from MindMate Support Team. The workshop will cover:

• Why sleep matters for mental health
• Common sleep difficulties and their impact
• What healthy sleep looks like at different ages
• Tips for building a consistent and positive bedtime routine
• Evidence-based strategies to make bedtime calmer and more manageable

The hour-long session is on Wednesday 15 October 2025 at 5pm. It’s at Collingham Lady Elizabeth Hastings C of E School, LS22 5BS.

Top trips

Class trips are a wonderful enrichment to the learning going on at Scholes (Elmet) Primary, especially in Topic and Science. We’ve recently reviewed the trips, taking on board the views of pupils and teachers, and your comments from the annual survey in the Summer term.

The visits are mapped out across Reception, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 to ensure progression and continuity (subject to change eg if a venue is temporarily closed). The 2025-26 school year is in Cycle A.

Read more about our curriculum, including the Topic and Science long term plans.

12 ways to help your child make friends

Some people might think of school as being all about learning. It’s not. Making relationships with other children is one of the prime purposes. The social aspect of schools is vital to the socialisation of children at important points of their lives. Properly socialised children make for properly socialised adults, who in turn make excellent citizens in later life.

For some children it may be easier said than done. Navigating the topsy-turvy of these nascent relationships is not for the faint hearted, yet it must be done. ACAMH Learn has produced a webinar (it’s short – only 15 minutes) to explore some of the ways this can be helped: watch the webinar here.

Year 5: Bikeability

Bikeability takes place in the Spring term for children in Year 5. This year, it will take place from Monday 16 to Monday 23 March 2026.

The training has two core elements: basic skills and road safety. If your child is unable to ride a bike, they may be unable to take part in the road safety aspect as they will not be able to cycle outside of school. We’re giving plenty of notice, in case your child would like to practise before March.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our weekly message: Friday 26 September 2025

This week in school, children in Key Stage 1 and 2 have been considering rights and responsibilities, part of Living and Learning.

A key message is that alongside every right comes responsibility:

• At school for example, children have the right to play and relax, and alongside this comes the responsibility to play alongside others safely and respectfully.
• In lots of situations, we’ve the right to express our views, and alongside this  we must do so in a respectful way.

Spend some time thinking of more examples in different situations: rights and responsibilities at home, in a shop, in a park…

BBC Bitesize ‘Rules, rights and responsibilities’ is worth checking out with children in Key Stage 2.

Assessments

Just so you’re aware, primary school pupils in England take part in six statutory assessments. Click on the links for more information from the Department for Education.

• Reception Baseline Assessment: It’s likely your child has already completed this assessment, which must be done within the first 6 weeks of entering Reception
• Early Years Foundation Stage Profile Assessment: Towards the end of the Reception year, teachers consider whether your child has reached what’s called a Good Level of Development
• Phonics Screening Check: In June of Year 1, (and for some pupils in Year 2, too), pupils are asked to read some words (real and made-up) to assess their phonics skills, crucial as a step in learning to read
• Key Stage 1 tests: Pupils do these near the end of year 2, which is the end of Key Stage 1
• Multiplication Tables Check: Pupils in Year 4 do this online check in June
• Key Stage 2 tests (often called ‘SATs’): These tests happen in May of Year 6

All of the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 tests feature in our school calendar. (The two assessments which happen in Reception are more gradual and ongoing, so they don’t feature – your child won’t even be aware of these.)

Attendance

Talking of assessments…

There’s lots of national evidence about the link between attendance at school and success at school and beyond. Here’s a simple conclusion from just the three schools in Sphere Federation. It’s based on the 87 pupils in Year 6 last year (2024-25).

33 pupils out of the 87 pupils across the Year 6 classes (38%) had excellent attendance (98% or higher)…

• Almost all of them (around 92%) reached Expected Standard in the Reading and Maths SATs tests (there’s no test for Writing).
• Almost half of these pupils reached Greater Depth Standard in Reading.
• Just under one third reached Greater Depth Standard in Maths.

15 pupils out of the 87 Year 6 pupils (17%) had low attendance (92% or lower)…

• A much lower proportion reached Expected Standard in Reading and Maths: 30%.
• Only about one in ten of them reached Greater Depth Standard

Check out the NHS website to decide if your child is well enough to attend school.

Finally this week, you might like to check out some more images of Wetherby High School’s new building. Quite a few children from Scholes (Elmet) Primary move on to this secondary, so the pics might be of interest.

Our weekly message: Friday 19 September 2025

This week’s Living and Learning theme has centred around manners. Good manners help people to get on well with others. Encourage your child to greet people politely (including the adults as they arrive at school), to say please and thank you, and to avoid interrupting. Like everything else, this sometimes needs practice! 

Cooking

Over the course of the year, your child will enjoy three opportunities to prepare food:

• Year 1 and 2: banana sandwich, fruit salad, a wrap
• Year 3 and 4: leek and potato soup, pitta pizza, and salad and dressing
• Year 5 and 6: lentil and vegetable soup, omelette, and a tomato sauce base

We’ve a couple of requests, please:

Most importantly, please alert us to any allergies your child has. We’ll do our best to adapt recipes.

To make sure that we can continue to offer this, please make a voluntary donation of £3 to £6 to pay for the ingredients. We really appreciated your donations last year.

For more about our Cooking curriculum, please check out our Cooking and Nutrition Curriculum Guide – they include the recipes and background information including the food preparation skills children will practise. (We’re in Year A this year.)

Relationships and Sex Education

At the start of each year, we like to encourage you to be aware of our Relationships and Sex Education Policy.

Later in the year, your child will have Relationships and Sex Education lessons. In those lessons, we’ll talk about anatomical terms and different relationships. However, we might need to use the terms at other times, such as when dealing with incidents of misuse or disrespectful language, and we’ll talk about lots of different relationships at any time of the year, too.

End of Key Stage 2 outcomes (SATs)

We’re proud of our 2025 Key Stage 2 outcomes. These are the SAT tests which our 2024-25 Year 5 pupils did in May.

74% of our pupils achieved the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Maths, combined – this is securely above the national figure of 62%. Greater proportions than national reached the expected standard in each subject, too:

• Reading: 79% meeting expected standards (national: 75%)
• Writing: 81% meeting expected standards (national: 72%)
• Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling: 76% meeting expected standards (national: 73%)
• Maths: 79% meeting expected standards (national: 74%)

Well done to all the pupils.

Staying safe

As you and your child settle back into school routines, keep online safety top of mind this school year.

Check out these parent guides to help get you up to speed on what children are up to online and any risks you should be looking out for.

Finally this week, a message from the Department for Education…

Best start in life

The Best Start in Life website replaces the Childcare Choices website as the main source of information for early education and childcare support – offering a broader range of resources for families, including eligibility for childcare offers, information about free breakfast clubs and Best Start Family Hubs in their area, and support on pregnancy through to starting school and beyond. Although the website has changed, the offers for parents – such as support for working parents and the 2-year-old childcare offer – are not affected.

The weather feels like summer is months ago. One of the joys of autumn is seeing the excitement on children’s faces when they collect conkers. Over the weekend, why not look out for other signs of autumn? 

Our weekly message: Friday 12 September 2025

Let’s start this week with a message not from us but from Wetherby High School. It’s about their new building. The plans are ready to go out to informal public consultation. On Wednesday 17 September, the school will be joined by the representatives from the Department for Education and contractors to share more detailed designs of the building and how the actual building progress will work. Read more here.

The rest of this week’s message is all about the half-term topic we’ve just started in Key Stages 1 and 2.

What do we mean by topics?

For children in Key Stage 1 and 2, topics are the vehicle for delivering much of the learning in foundation subjects (History, Art, Geography, for example). Each half-termly topic has a driving subject: the main focus for teaching your child the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in life. The driver changes with each topic.

Although there’s a focus on one subject in each topic, there are opportunities for enrichment through other subjects. For example, learning in a History driven subject may be enriched by observational drawing of an artefact. In this example, the enricher is art.

For more information about our topics, click here.

What is this half-term’s topic?

This half-term, we’re geographers. The topic is called Where in the world am I?

We’re focusing on the geography of the United Kingdom and helping to develop children’s sense of where they live through the use of fieldwork. As you read about the learning planned in each phase, you’ll see how the learning progresses across the primary age range.

Children in Years 1 and 2 will learn about the different countries that make up the United Kingdom and their capital cities. They’ll learn about the difference between physical and human geography and identify examples of both in the local area. They’ll also learn about the four compass points and use geographical vocabulary to describe what is north, south, east or west of them. A big chunk of the learning will have a focus on fieldwork. They’ll think of questions about the locality. For example, what types of trees are growing in the school grounds? They’ll then collect and present data to answer the question.

Children in Years 3 and 4 will develop their locational knowledge by using maps and atlases to locate some of the other cities in the United Kingdom. They’ll learn about counties and use the eight compass points to describe locations. The big focus for this phase is on maps. They’ll learn how to use Ordnance Survey maps and their keys. They’ll learn about four figure grid references and use these to locate features. They’ll then apply this learning more locally by mapping a route in the locality.

Children in Year 5 and 6 will learn about national parks, using maps to locate them. They’ll then learn about urban green spaces and their importance before learning about how Leeds has expanded over time. Importantly, children will get an understanding of how a geographer works by completing fieldwork in the locality. They’ll gather data about the amount of carbon stored in trees and present that data.

How can you help?

To kick off with, check out the links for each phase (above) to explore more about the United Kingdom, Ordnance Survey and national parks.

Regardless of the year group your child is in, Google Earth is a brilliant tool to help develop children’s understanding of their sense of place in the world. Zoom right in on your home and then zoom out to reveal the area of Leeds that you live in. Zoom further out to see what city you live. Zoom further for the county. A little further and you might start to spot some national parks. Further still and you can see the country that we live in. Keep zooming and you’ll see the continent we live in (though this isn’t labelled). Before you know it, you’re floating in space and circling the Earth!

Google Maps is another great tool for investigating where you live. Try the street view option and you can walk along your street. You can even toggle between different data points to see what your house or garden looked like in previous years. (My lack of gardening skills were laid bare in a staff meeting when we compared my unkempt garden in 2019 to the lush, wildlife haven the previous owners had lovingly created in 2008!)

Have a quiz with your child about some locational knowledge to help them remember important information. I’ve listed some examples below. Use the age-related expectations and vocabulary on page 17 and 18 to find the right pitch for your child.

• What country do we live in?
• Which county do we live in?
• Which city do we live in?
• Which part of Leeds do we live in?
• Which four countries make up the United Kingdom?
• Which national parks are located in Yorkshire?

If you can, go to the library and get some geography related books, especially an atlas. You could compare maps of the same place to see what type of information they show. For example, you find lots of maps of the United Kingdom. One might show the countries and capital cities. Another might show the mountains, rivers and national parks. Another might give information about the climate.

Children could draw a plan/map of their bedroom with a key. Older children could try to do this for each room of their house. Children could also create a map of a mythical location with an accompanying key.

For children in Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6), there are lots of different games and activities on Ordnance Survey Mapzone. I especially like the jigsaws in the Map Puzzles section of the Games.

Also for KS2 children, there’s a lot of information and some tasks and quizzes on BBC Bitesize.

Our weekly message: Friday 05 September 2025

The start of a new school year, after six weeks away, can be a tricky time for everyone. Despite this, the atmosphere in school has been a happy and healthy one – children have settled in really well. We’ve enjoyed welcoming children back to school – and welcoming new children joining us, too. We’ve loved hearing children greet us happily each morning!

We’ve welcomed back Mrs Lake (3,4B), who’s been teaching at Moortown Primary, and Mrs Paterson, who’s returned from maternity leave. It’s great to see these familiar faces around school. It was also lovely to see Miss Gilliland, who’s now working at St James’ CE Primary, at our Sphere Federation training day on Monday.

School is looking really smart. This is the first year in quite a while that we haven’t had a big building project happening over summer so our site staff have been able to get on with lots of painting.

It was also great to return to school to hear about the success of one of our pupils who entered a National Diving Competition. Well done! We believe this was diving from a 3 metre board but your parents tell me you aren’t scared of diving from the 10 metres!

Summer competition

Did you enter our Summer competition this year?

Thank you to those of you who did. We invited you to send in a smiley face spotted at some time in the holidays. Monday’s the deadline to send in a pic.

Dates

In case you missed an earlier email, here’s a list of key events across the year.

For a fuller and up-to-date picture of what’s going on, check out our school calendar.

(Have a look at our weekly Living and Learning theme at the start of each week in the calendar, too – this week, our theme’s been ‘I follow the school rules’ so please talk about these at home.)

A few reminders

Our website

As it’s the start of a new school year, we thought it might be a good time for a quick ‘tour’ of some of the key pages of our website.

The Find Out section is there mainly for the key information you need to know about. One of the pages to be aware of is Policies and Other Points – this page contains lots of information, including our Positive Relationships policies and our Uniform policy.

The Join In section describes lots of different ways that you and your child can get involved, from wraparound care and clubs to any job vacancies we may have. There’s information about our Governing Body in this section, too.

The Learn More page is where to go for ways to support your child’s learning. The Class News pages are always the some of the most visited pages – they help to keep you up to date with what your child’s learning. Other pages give you information about different subjects – Reading, Writing, Maths and other curriculum subjects. If you’re a parent of a child in Nursery or Reception, check out the Early Years page, too.

Talking of supporting your child at home, next week we’ll talk about our new topic for children in Years 1-6. It’s a Geography topic – start asking your child now what they’ve been learning in Geography!

Summer smile competition

Have you captured a smile for our Summer competition yet? This summer, we’re looking for smiley faces to sum up our happy and healthy place to achieve and believe!

Over the Summer holiday, we want you 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…).

To help you get started, look out for some intended smiling faces like McCain Potato Smiles or commercial logos with a hidden smile but they’ll be too obvious to win the competition!

To enter, email your pics to scholesoffice@spherefederation.org by Monday 08 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.

Our last weekly school message of the year: Friday 18 July 2025

We’ve reached the end of the school year – we hope it’s been a happy and healthy one at Scholes (Elmet) Primary for you and your child. Our message this week is a long one:

1. Our first message is about swimming – it’s especially important for parents of children moving into Year 3 next year
2. We’ve a uniform update – this is for everyone
3. Also for everyone are some links for holiday ideas
4. Some early news about assessment outcomes
5. Some news about three different spaces in school
6. After this, we’ve an array of celebrations of our happy and healthy school!

The Year 5,6 performance What a Knight was a great success. There were some amazing individual performances which came together to produce something quite special. Well done to everyone involved.

On Wednesday, we presented our Year 5 children with their special Year 6 sweatshirts. We spoke a great deal about being a role model, contributing to our school community, and embracing the challenges and opportunities that Year 6 presents. We know our Year 5 children will take this responsibility seriously.

Of course, this means we say goodbye to our current Year 6 children. We wish them every success as they move on to the next stage of their life-long learning journey.

Thank you for all your support and engagement this year. Have a wonderful summer and we’ll see you back at school on Tuesday 02 September. Have a happy and healthy holiday!

Our weekly message: Friday 11 July 2025

This week has been our Being Healthy themed week, the second of our Living and Learning themed weeks in the year. A big highlight for children in KS2 was skateboarding. Everyone was eager to put on helmets and pads and give it a go. Balancing for some people was the real challenge and for others a few tricks were in order. For younger children, a highlight was Flexdance:  learning a dance routine and performing it all together was so much fun.

We also had our Sports Day. Isn’t the British weather a challenge? Last year, we were avoiding heavy rain showers; this year, we had to avoid scorching sun.  Despite the heat, a fun morning was had by all. The ice pops were certainly a very welcome refreshment.

Home learning

Our first message this week is here for two reasons:

• to help parents of children going into Year 1 in September know about home learning
• to make sure other parents are aware of our expectations for home learning (this stems from feedback in our 2025 annual survey)

At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, we set out five home learning tasks for children to do:

• Reading – daily for at least 10-15 minutes
• Number fluency – use NumBots or TimesTables Rock Stars for about ten minutes each day
• Spellings – daily for 5-10 minutes
• Talk Time – weekly for about 15 minutes
• Living and Learning– weekly for about 15 minutes

Altogether, this varied diet of home learning totals about 35 minutes each day (that’s allowing for a day or two off). Read our Home Learning Policy. This includes a Homework Guide which you might want to print off and keep somewhere for easy reference.

Summer production

The Year 6 leavers’ production of ‘A Knight’s Tale’ was a huge success. Well done to all of the children and staff involved in putting on a wonderful performance. Thank you, also, to all of you who managed to attend. We hope you enjoyed it.

Governance

For those of you interested to read more about our Governing Board, the Sphere Federation Annual Governance Statement for 2024-25 has been published.

We do still have a vacancy on the Governing Board. Please mention this to any friends or relatives! Anyone interested should contact the chair of governors, Mrs Rachel Cooper: rachelcooper@spherefederation.org

That’s a date!

At Sphere Federation, we like to be organised because we know many of you do, too. That’s why you’ll find most of the key dates in our calendar for 2025-26. Because we’ve got these planned in so far in advance, there’s a small chance one or two might need to be changed (we’ve not had to do this very often this year!). Well over 50 events are listed, including:

• Christmas events
• Class assemblies
• Easter productions
• Early Years events such as Stay and Learn sessions
• all our Living and Learning statements (with improved prompts for continuing the  learning at home)
• Living and Learning themed weeks (Me and My Money and Staying Safe)
• Living and Learning themed days (Anti-bullying day and Safer Internet Day)
• National assessments
• Productions across the year
• Watch us while we work sessions (so you can see some teaching and learning in core skills like Reading, Writing and Maths)
• Topic review sessions (come and and see the learning in Art and Computing)
• Some online presentations (Y6 SATs and residential; Y1, Y2 phonics and early reading; online safety)
• Parent-teacher meetings (in October and February)
• Photographer (for individual and class photos)
• lots of events to celebrate Reading
• Sports Day

Safeguarding over the Summer break

During the Summer holiday, you might have a concern about a child that you feel needs acting on. In term time, we would encourage you to share the concern with us at school but this isn’t possible when school is closed.

Here are some options for you if you have any concerns:

• During office hours: You can call Children’s Social Work Services on 0113 222 4403 (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, except Wednesdays when they’re open from 10am). You can also discuss your concerns with someone who works with children and families, such as your health visitor or your GP
• Out of office hours: If you think a child is in immediate danger call the police on 999
• Our Federation Safeguarding Lead will also be picking up emails. You can contact her using our safeguarding email address: stayingsafe@spherefederation.org

Talking of summer, don’t forget…

Our Summer competition

The aim is simple: capture or create a smiley face to sum up our happy and healthy place to learn! We want you 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 in the sand, for example! We’re sure you and your child can do than our suggestion (look for the smiling face!)…

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…).

To enter, email your pics to scholesoffice@spherefederation.org by Monday 08 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.

Next week’s our last week of the 2024-25 school year. The last day of term is Friday 18 July (it’s a non-uniform day). If your child’s in Year 6, we’re looking forward to seeing you for our Leavers’ Assembly on Friday at 2.15pm.

Our weekly message: Friday 04 July 2025

You should have received your child’s annual report this week. Please contact your child’s teacher if you’d like to discuss the report – your questions, comments and concerns are important.

This week’s message has a few repeats of previous messages so you’re prepared…

Themed week: Being Healthy

Next week is the second of two themed weeks in the year. Here are a few reminders.

• Children should wear PE kit throughout the week, but please make sure it follows our Uniform Policy:

• Travel actively to school! For the chance to win a book voucher, send your photos to scholesoffice@spherefederation.org by Thursday 10 July.
• At 3.00pm on Thursday 10 July, a d:side representative will be in the front playground ready to answer any questions you might have about the drug education sessions taking place for all classes.
• Friday 11 July is our Sports Day: our Sports Roundabout for Reception and Key Stage 1 at 9.15am-10.30am, and competitive sports for children in Key Stage 2 at 1.15 – 3.15pm.
• Pupils have an online health questionnaire at home for their homework.

To help us continue with themed weeks such as this, we’re asking for a small contribution: £2 per pupil (Gateway) will help us to pay for visitors for themed weeks. Visitors include LS-TEN skateboarding, Flex Dance and d:side. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far.

Production

Don’t forget our Key Stage 2 Summer production next week, too. There are three performances:

• Tuesday at 6.00pm
• Wednesday at 1.45pm
• Wednesday at 6.00pm

Classes for next year

On Wednesday, your child met their new teacher and spent some time with their new class.

We’ve got a few changes to our staffing structure for next year as we say goodbye and welcome back to some Sphere Federation staff.

After ten years at Scholes (Elmet) Primary, Miss Parling is leaving to take on a new challenge. We’re all envious of her intent to travel. We’ll also be sad to say goodbye to Miss Gilliland but she’s not travelling as far as she is heading over to St James’ CE Primary to teach.

We’re welcoming back from maternity leave Mrs Paterson. After Christmas we’ll also welcome back Miss Iveson. Mrs Lake is also joining us from Moortown Primary. Mrs Lake worked with us a few years ago – it will be great to see her back.

The school will be organised as below:

Early Years

• Nursery: Mrs Beesley
• Reception Sunshine: Mrs Brown (4 days), Mrs Allen-Kelly (1 day); after Christmas, Mrs Brown (4 days), Mrs Wilkins (1 day)
• Reception Rainbow: Mrs Long (3 days), Mrs Allen-Kelly (3 days)

Key Stage 1

• Year 1: Miss Young
• Year 1,2: Mrs Latham
• Year 2: Mrs Paterson (4 days), Mrs Wilkins (1 day)

Key Stage Two

• Year 3,4A: Mr Wain
• Year 3,4B: Mrs Lake (4 days), Mrs Wilkins (1 day); after Christmas, Mrs Lake (2 days), Miss Iveson (3 days)
• Year 3,4C: Mrs Wadsworth
• Year 5,6A: Mr Goodwin
• Year 5,6B: Mrs Hogarth
• Year 5,6C: Mr Lindsay

That’s all for this week. Before we end, here’s an idea if there’s a summer birthday in your household…

Herd Farm is a council-run activity centre offering a range of outdoor activities and pursuits for both adults and children. They’ve recently launched a Birthday Adventure Offer which they’re trialling during the summer holidays. Interested? Check out this video clip.

Our weekly message: Friday 27 June 2025

This weekend, why not pay a compliment or two?

Our Living and Learning statement this week…

…has been I can say one good thing about myself.

Self-esteem is how you feel about yourself. These feelings can change as things in your life change, such as going to a new school or becoming a brother or sister. Does your child recognise their strengths? Do they know subjects at school they’re strongest at? Outside school, do they know what skills are they especially good at? Just as importantly, what are their strengths in their character?

At home this weekend, have a chat about strengths. Think about questions such as:

• What are they?
• How did they become strengths – practise or a natural talent or luck?
• How can we maintain them?

Attendance matters

This year, the government introduced new measures to tackle unnecessary term-time absence.

• Since August 2024, the fine for school absences across the country has been £80 if paid within 21 days, or £160 if paid within 28 days.
• If a parent receives a second fine for the same child within any three-year period, this will be charged at the higher rate of £160.
• If there’s a third time, other action like a parenting order or prosecution will be considered. If you’re prosecuted and attend court because your child hasn’t been attending school, you could get a fine of up to £2,500. 

Leeds has issued 7,410 penalty notices so far this year and will continue to issue notices across Summer. This figure includes second fines for some parents following two separate periods of absence in the year. It doesn’t include situations where there is a third instance because this results in legal action.

At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, attendance for the vast majority of pupils is good. Thank you for avoiding unnecessary term-time absence.

Our Summer competition

It’s time to get your thinking caps on for the return of our Summer competition. This year, it’s the return of smiley faces to sum up our happy and healthy place to learn!

Over the Summer weeks, we want you 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…).

To help you get started, look out for some intended smiling faces like McCain Potato Smiles or commercial logos with a hidden smile but they’ll be too obvious to win the competition!

To enter, email your pics to scholesoffice@spherefederation.org by Monday 08 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.

As we approach the end of the year, the next few weeks are busy ones – please keep an eye on our calendar. Next week…

• the annual report for your child will be emailed – the day for this depends on your child’s year group
• on Wednesday, your child will meet their 2025-26 teacher
• for parents of pupils in Year 2, there’s a Ready to Read celebration assembly on Thursday
• on Friday, there’s another FOSP Disco to enjoy

Have a happy and healthy weekend.