Weekly Blog 13th October

Weekly Round up

We can’t believe school has been back 6 weeks already!

We are so pleased with how well children have responded to their new classes, and the amount of amazing work going on throughout the academy.

This week Mrs McDonald looked at the work children have completed in geography and history, and was amazed by how well children presented information, and how well they could remember their learning. Year 1 and 2 are also completing their Read Write Inc assessments this week, and we are delighted by how much progress they have made, whether it is learning sounds, reading words or answering questions based on a text – KS1 children are working incredibly hard on their reading!

A letter will be sent next week to introduce all our KS1 families into school to learn more about Read Write Inc, and to see children learning with their group. We look forward to welcoming our community in to school!

Elsewhere, Year 2 and Year 4 were visited this week by Rab from The National Literacy Trust, who came to talk to them about the importance of reading, and gift them a book each to help spread the love of stories. It has been lovely to see so many excited readers across school – and to see the improvement in Golden Tickets this week – keep it up everyone!

Class Round up

Nursery, Reception and B1 are here to share what they’ve been up to since we last saw them.

Nursery

This week Nursery have been exploring mark making through paint and music!

We had to tune into different sounds and the result was a fantastic masterpiece! 

Reception

Reception have been learning about people who help us within our community. We have had some wonderful visits by some truly amazing people. 

Becky and Claire, members of the Ladies of Steel, visited Reception recently. They talked about how ladies of steel were created, how they help people of all ages in the community and how they are able to provide this support.

Many of our children have been to a Ladies of Steel event before and are extremely grateful for this charity. We are helping them with ideas to improve our local park by sending them our ideas.

School is still very thankful for the support Ladies of Steel gave during Covid by providing packed lunches for children during lockdown. 

Last week, Tess the guide dog and her handler Allison visited Reception to talk about Allison’s life, how guide dogs are trained and how they help people? It was humbling and inspirational visit that the children thoroughly enjoyed. 

We are looking forward to more visits from more amazing people in the coming weeks. 

B1

This term in B1 we are learning about people who help us.

Last week, we learned about how dentists help us to keep our teeth clean and healthy. The children enjoyed dressing up and role playing as dentists to clean the very dirty teeth!

This week we are learning about how doctors help to keep our bodies healthy and how they help us when we are poorly or hurt.

B1 have also been reading the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

The children have enjoyed making porridge for the bears in our role play area and acting out the story. We have also created our own bear art work.

Attendance

Each week we have an ‘Awesome Attendance’ competition for the class or classes with the highest attendance. The class with the highest attendance will receive a letter and the first class to spell out ‘Awesome’ receives a treat for the whole class.

Which class will be the first to receive that treat?

This weeks winners are……….

B1, B2 with 100% and Y2 with 99%

Missed Learning

 44.5 days of missed learning occurred this week due to unauthorised absences. Unauthorised absences are for holidays, parents/carers not contacting the academy or any other unexplained absence. With most minor ailments, children can be in school, so we really encourage you to think about keeping your child at home.

100% Attendance

This week we had 226 children who achieved 100% Attendance for this week. A huge WELL DONE to you all 😊

Can you get 100% next week?

Missed Appointments

We strive to accommodate parents/carers with appointment times within the academy.

Unfortunately we have noticed that many appointments have been missed, occasionally this may be due to unforeseen circumstances.

If you have to cancel and/or re-arrange your appointment, please ensure you contact the academy as soon as possible.

Failing to turn up for an appointment and not contacting the academy to cancel it has an adverse effect on other parents/carers appointment times. This can also take valuable staff time that could have been utilised by other parents.

Diary Dates and Reminders

World Mental Health Day

On Tuesday 10^th of October we took part in Mental Health Day. 

All children were given a booklet to complete at home to help them talk about their thoughts and feelings with their families. 

This was an idea we used from ITV’s Britain’s Get Talking, by Ant and Dec, to help children to open up. The children did a range of activities across the school which included yoga, deep breathing, exercise and of course lots of talking. 

We hope our families continue to talk and support each other to share their thought and feelings. 

Halloween Disco

Power of Women – Day of the Girl

Lunch Menu

Our lunches are provided on a 3 week rota. Next weeks options will be Week 2.

Nut Free Academy

A reminder to all parents we are a Nut Free Academy, please read below.

Lunchtime Supervisor Vacancy

We are looking to appoint a dedicated lunchtime supervisor, who is confident and with strong behaviour management.  Their duties will include supervising children, both in the dining hall at mealtimes and other parts of the school including the playground, leading play activities, ensuring the safety, wellbeing and good behaviour of all our children.  Ideally, the successful candidates will have experience of working with children and young people.

We are looking for someone who enjoys working with children, can remain calm and positive, and has strong communication and interpersonal skills.  We need someone who can provide some social and educational training, such as good table manners, and encourage children to eat healthy. 

Please see the link below for more details and an application pack.

Applications to be made before Friday 20th October.

https://www.teesvalleyeducation.co.uk/careers/lunchtime-supervisor-dormanstown-primary-academy/

Links to Support our Children and Families

Cost of Living

Families Drop In

Online Courses for Parents

Access to Research

Max Card

Uniforms

As we are all being affected by the cost-of-living crisis, we have a small stock of preloved uniform and coats/jackets that parents can come and purchase, all we are asking for is a donation. This will be open for you to come and have a look on a Tuesday & Thursday between 08.50 – 09.15 and 14.40 – 15.00 via the main office.

Lollipops

You can also get your children’s uniform here.

Lollipops have a preloved rail out on the shop floor with various items on including polo tops, trousers, sweatshirts/cardigans, shoes, plimsolls, summer dresses etc. All items on the rail are free for anyone to take, they just ask for customers to be considerate of others when taking items. There is a box for anyone who would like to make donations which we then add to the rail.

Facebook – @lollipopsmiddlesbrough

Twitter – @LollipopsMiddl1

Instagram – @lollipops_middlesbrough

Lollipops
20 Norfolk Place
Berwick Hills
Middlesbrough
TS3 7PA

Actions for Happiness