Welcome to Calverley CE News issue #3. Here you will enjoy finding out what exciting and stimulating learning activities have been taking place throughout school. You will find other useful stories and have insights into other news items from this term too!
Following the teachings of Jesus, we challenge and support all members of our community to love one-another, make the most of their God-given gifts and care for everyone in friendship. Allowing all to flourish; enabling heart, mind and spirit to soar. “I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength.”
Welcome to our final newsletter of the year. It has been a different year again with lots of changes of how school has had to run: starting off in bubbles, coming out of bubbles, classes having to close, staffing challenges through Covid-19, the lifting of restrictions, the beginning of opening up to something a bit like school used to be pre-pandemic, getting to know parents a little better that have joined school recently through all the restrictions that have had to be in place.
The Open morning we held, the Sports Day, the Year 6 production, the return of sporting competitions and visits out all give us hope that 2022/23 will be a great year for school and especially, the children.
FANTASTIC YEAR 6!
We are so thrilled for our Year 6 children who excelled and received amazing end of Key Stage 2 SATs results. 93% passed at Maths; 91% passed at Reading & 90% passed at Grammar & Spelling. ALL children made amazing progress and should be very pleased and proud of their results. It's true to say all these children are ready for High School and should start there with confidence. 83% of our children passed every subject. The National pass rate was 59%, meaning our Year 6 achieved nearly 25% above National average. That is amazing! We are all so pleased for the children and as Headteacher, I am so very proud of them all.
As well as the academic side of things, The Year 6 Production was superb! I know everyone who saw that would agree. The lines were learnt exceptionally well, the timing was excellent, the courage to perform astounding. It was a total joy and definitely a highlight of my year! Teams of children from Year 6 have also recently won Cricket and Rounders competitions. That is also great news and more reason to celebrate the group.
We'll be sad to see the children leave us at the end of term, but I am sure they are all well prepared to do very well at High School. We wish them all the best of luck for the future!
OTHER RESULTS
We are also extremely pleased with the results at the end of Key Stage 1, with phonics in Year 1 and for the outcomes at Reception Class. All are comfortably above local and national averages.
It has been a challenge for us to ensure that we got our curriculum offer as good as we could following the pandemic and I hope the work we have all undertaken has led to these wonderful outcomes.
I have once again, really enjoyed working with the children, parents and staff throughout this year. It's a privilege to work at this school.
I hope everyone manages to have a wonderful Summer break and we look forward to continuing to work with many of you in 2022/23 and, again, send our best wishes to Year 6 and their families for the future.
Mr Curran.
DYEING TO TELL YOU!
In Year 3, we have been doing an Art unit of work on ‘Craft’ and we have really enjoyed starting this unit of learning by creating our own mood boards. We had to carefully select fabrics, colours, textures and images to inspire us with our learning for this topic. The next part of our topic involved learning about the process of tie-dyeing and creating our own tie-dyed materials! We learnt about how to create patterns on materials and we explored different effects. We found out that the tie-dye pattern created was dependent upon if the material was either scrunched or folded
NELL BANK- WE LOVED IT!
Year 4
Our trip to Nell Bank was brilliant. We went for a walk in the local woods, hunted for mini beasts, did some pond-dipping, went on a habitat hunt and played on the adventure playground. When we were pond-dipping, we discovered a rare newt along with many other fascinating creatures. At the mini beast hunt, we found a toad and an outstanding collection of beetles. We looked at many different trees on our walk in the woods and finished with an amazing stick tower competition. Overall we had a fantastic day and can't wait to go on our next school trip in Year 5!
by Ben (4OB) Florence (4SG)
MARVELLOUS MINI BEASTS!
This half term we have been learning about mini beasts. We have had visits from Prickly Pigs Hedgehog rescue in Otley and Animal Club. We have learnt lots of facts about mini beasts and why it is important to care for them. We had a visit from one of the children’s parents who is a beekeeper and we learnt all about how bees make honey, we even got to try some, yummy! We have painted pictures of mini beasts, read poems about them and made our own riddles using the facts we know. We even went on a mini beast hunt and have our own wormery in class. We have had a Creepy Crawly Café in our role play area and made spider sandwiches for our friends! The Boogie Bugs have had lots of fun this summer learning about bugs and insects.
YEAR 6
English: In English, we have been reading our class novel of 'The Last Wild'. From this we have developed a wide variety of writing, such as diary entries, continuing the narrative, poetry, dialogue and non-fiction writing with fact files.
Art: We have recently completed our unit on photography. As part of it, we have created photomontages, drawn single line portraits, used macro photography on fruit and re-created our own version of Edvard Munch's 'Scream'.
Production: Year 6 are finishing their time at Calverley C of E with a return of the school production. This year the children will take centre stage performing 'Porridge', a crime caper based on children's nursery rhymes. After celebrating amazing SATs results, it's not quite the end for Y6 either with bowling and meal to come, a leaver's assembly and a leaver's lunch still all to look forward to in their final two weeks.
GOING WILD - WITH YEAR 2
We were lucky enough to have a wonderful visit to Yorkshire Wildlife Park. All of the children were extremely excited to be going on a school trip. In the morning, children and staff enjoyed walking around in small groups visiting the different animals. Some of children’s favourite animals were Rhinos, Giraffes, Polar bears, Lions and the Spotted dogs. After so much fun looking at the different animals, apart from the ones that were hiding from the sun, we had a workshop. The workshop started off with a snake. Some of the staff were more scared than the children! After the snake, the children had the opportunity to hold a giant African snail, Camel fur, claws of a Lion, a giant cockroach and various animal skulls. The children were surprised of the size of the skulls, the Polar bear’s skull was impressive. We then had lunch and visited the animals we didn’t have chance to see in the morning. Before we left, all of the children either bought an ice cream or went to the gift shop. A great day was had by all.
Here are some quotes from the children about the trip:
“It was very tropical like and was as if we were in the jungle because we saw lots of different animals.”
“I really enjoyed playing in the play area, seeing the baboons swinging in the trees and I really enjoyed touching the slimy, giant African snail.”
“My favourite part was seeing the Lions.”
“I enjoyed seeing to Polar bears the most because I have never seen them splash and have fun in the water.”
“My favourite animal was the Meerkats because they were running around and being cheeky like me!”
EDEN CAMP - HOME FRONT COMES TO LIFE!
Year 5 have been learning about life during WW2 for men, women and children at 'home during this half term'. To begin this exciting topic, the children visited Eden Camp (near York) which allowed them to interact and explore different artefacts and displays. The children walked through a street which had been bombed during the Blitz - experiencing the sounds, sights and smells(!) that would have been all too frequent for people living in cities like London. They enjoyed looking at many different military vehicles (including the iconic Spitfire) and ate lunch in an authentic P.O.W mess hall. Alongside all the wonderful immersive learning, the children we also thrilled to be able to visit the souvenir shop too!
YEAR 1'S AMAZING HALF TERM
What a half term! We have been very busy learning about so many things that the time has flown by again! Our journey began with plants. We all planted a broad bean seed and waited very patiently for them to grow! Some have gone onto grow so tall and have sprouted lots of bean pods! We identified different types of trees and also learnt all about the different parts of a plant and what their functions are. Our learning on plants then linked in very nicely with our DT topic finding out about where different fruit and vegetables are grown. We even got to make our own fruit smoothies, they were delicious! We also looked at structures and designed and made our own windmill. Our most recent topic work has been based around the theme of the seaside. In English we read the story of ‘The storm whale’, to help us find out more about what it is like to live near the coast. In Art we have been learning about composition and have painted some fabulous seascapes. We also looked at Van Gogh’s painting ‘Fishing Boats on the- Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer’. We used this image to learn about how to add texture to our art work. We watched a Punch and Judy show and created our own puppets too! In computing we have learnt how to collect data and display it in a pictogram using a program on the laptops. We have had a fun packed term and the children deserve a well earned rest. We hope you have a fabulous summer with your families!
COMING, GOING, RETIRING, MARRYING
We want to wish Mrs Curran a happy retirement. She will be leaving at the end of this school year after making such a positive impact here at Calverley as SENDCo. We will all miss her positivity, energy and kindness. Staff, children and parents who have had the pleasure to work with her will certainly wish her well for the next exciting chapter of her life!
We will also be sad to see Mr Sugden leave us at the end of this year. Mr Sugden has a long association with Calverley, previously in his role as 'Jamie the sports coach' for a number of years. He was temporarily covering Mrs Dixon's maternity leave and has a new teaching post at Blake Hill Primary School. We all wish him well and know they're lucky to have him working alongside their excellent team.
Ms Dunne will also be leaving us to take up a new post as a teaching assistant. All her efforts, time and care have been greatly appreciated by all who have worked with her.
Arriving at Calverley will be Mrs Pickard who will be teaching Year 6 next year. She is excited and raring to get going with her new class! We look forward to welcoming her in September.
Finally, Miss Longden will be getting married during the summer break. We wish her well for a wonderful celebration!
HAVE A WONDERFUL SUMMER BREAK!
From all the staff at school, we wish and hope you have a wonderful summer break! We look forward to meeting up again on Wednesday 7th September 2022.