23 Oct 2009 - Newsletter October 2009
Friday October 23rd 2009
Dear Parents and Carers, This half term has flown by and it has been a busy and productive time for everyone at school. The children now seem settled into their new classes and year groups and staff are supporting each individual to develop their learning and confidence. I hope you all enjoy a happy half term break with your children and families and look forward to next half term! Tracey Palk
Residential trip to Robinwood
Many of our key stage two pupils visited the Robinwood activity centre at Dobroyd Castle, Todmorden in September, where many activities were enjoyed by both pupils and staff. This kind of residential visit is always an excellent opportunity for the children to experience what is for some, their first time away from home, whilst encouraging skills of independence and
communication. During our visit we witnessed children surpassing themselves as they achieved success during challenging activities such as zip wire, trapeze, archery, canoeing and raft building, usually enthusiastically encouraged by their peers! The children were a credit to our school and feedback from parents and children has indicated that they have extremely happy memories of their visit.
Wakefield Wildcats ‘TEAM-Together Everyone Achieves More’
Rugby Club Wakefield Wildcats continued the ‘teamwork’ ethos recently by holding a ‘Healthy Lifestyles’ day at our school. Gavin Lighthowler introduced the concept during assembly, followed by workshops for each class in turn. The physical, stimulating sessions encouraged cooperative approach to sport and the children received an additional boost of fun as the Wildcats mascot ‘Daddy Cool’ visited during break time and held an impromptu ‘dance competition’ ! We will continue to promote the ‘teamwork’ ethos throughout our school and within the Ossett Trust, so that everyone does, indeed, achieve more!
Key Stage 2 York trip
Classes 3 and 4 enjoyed an exciting trip yesterday, to the Dig and Jorvik Viking Centres in York. They learned all about Viking life and found out lots of information to support their History topic. The children behaved very well and represented our school admirably.
Clubs
We have three new after school clubs beginning after half term for key stage two pupils.
Choir (to be confirmed), Ballroom dancing on Wednesdays, and badminton on Thursdays. Both the dancing and badminton are being held by qualified coaches. Key stage one children are currently enjoying sport skills on Tuesdays run by Total Sporting Solutions.
Breakfast club
Many thanks to those Parents who completed our questionnaire, regarding the proposed breakfast club. We are going to trial the club soon after half term from 8-9am every morning and hopefully this will provide a useful service to our school community, where we aim to provide a calm, pleasant start to the day for a minimal cost. I hope this will assist
working parents and welcome any further feedback or enquiries. Further details to follow!
Outdoor Environment
Wildlife club have been busy pond dipping, harvesting garlic, onions and blackberries and making jam and pizzas with the crops! Many thanks to Mr Wakefield who made bread for us to enjoy with our jam- we are looking forward to further culinary delights and activities to enjoy outdoors!
Relief Crossing Patrol Warden
We are eternally grateful to Mrs Beaumont our Crossing patrol Warden who keeps our children safe when crossing the road near school come rain or shine! However, if ever she became unavailable we would really miss her. If you think you could help us by very occasionally ‘filling in’ this vital role – please call into the school office for details regarding pay, hours etc. Thank you
School kitchen award
I am delighted to announce that our school kitchen staff, Mrs Veronica Livingstone and Mrs Sharon Ellis have won a prestigious award from the local authority- for excellent standards of hygiene and service. They were presented with a trophy in our weekly achievements assembly last week. Well done ladies! If your child has sandwiches and you feel that they
would benefit from a hot school lunch now the colder weather is approaching please contact the school office for details.
Dates for your diary (more information to follow later where appropriate)
November
Monday 2nd- School re-opens
Wednesday 4th - Friends of Flushdyke meeting 6pm
Thursday 5th -KS2 ‘Viking day’
Tuesday 17th & Thursday 19th- Parents evenings
Friday 27th- Christmas Fayre
December
Tuesday 8th Christmas concert
Friday 11th December- Ossett Trust Carol Concert. Ossett Town Hall 6.30pm