Bexton Primary School NEWS January 2015 Bexton Pupils take over the airwaves On January 9th, Bexton was pleased to be chosen as Silk 106.9 fm’s school of the week. The radio station visited the school at the beginning of the month to interview Bexton pupils. They brought along their mascot who was delighted to take home a Bexton Choir CD. The children could be heard on Silk 106.9fm from January 19th to January 23rd during the station’s Drive Time Show. Year 6 Christmas Stories Towards the end of last term, Year 6 created Christmas stories to read to our younger pupils. Using the ipads as a recording medium, the stories were written and then read to Year 6’s buddies in the Reception classes. They did so well that they were asked to read them to Year 1 too. Sports News On Saturday 17th January, nine Bexton students had an early start to get to Preston for 7.30am to represent the school in the North West School Gymnastic Team Competition. There were three teams competing, Bexton 1st team (Mia P, Sophie B and Emma R), Bexton 2nd Team (Safia H, Mia W and Amber F) and Bexton under-eleven Boys (Jacob H, Alex B, James S). All three teams made the podium. Bexton under 11 Boys were awarded a Bronze medal and Bexton 2nd team won Silver. Bexton 1st team won a Gold medal for their routines as well as a gold medal for achieving the overall best score for under-sixteen gymnasts. Sophie and Mia P said that the day was lots of fun and that they didn’t feel nervous as they had done a lot of practice. The 1st team and Boys under- eleven will now go through to the National Championships held in May. To find out more about Bexton sports news, read Knutsford Schools Sports Newsletter here Ethical Enterprise News Last half term our Ethical Enterprise charity was CAFT (The Children’s Adventure Farm Trust) The charity was selected to give the children the opportunity to learn about a local initiative and gain a better understanding of children that don’t have the advantages many of us are lucky enough to experience. Pupils raised money through our house point scheme, Bexton Choir CD sales, collections at the nativity play and KS2 Carol concert. CAFT’s Julie Grey came to Bexton and was presented with a cheque for £1,012.58. This term our chosen charity is Little Big Africa. This small charity works alongside rural communities to implement projects that protect, harness and promote natural resources with a big focus on water, sanitation, hygiene and efficient energies. By linking this half-term’s curriculum to this project, children will learn about a very different culture. On Friday January 23rd the whole school made African style jewellery which they sold in the afternoon alongside Y3’s cake sale. The money raised will be added to our Ethical Enterprise fund. Pupils are finding their own ways to contribute. After discussing Little Big Africa with his mum, William in Class 3 was very keen to raise extra funds. He asked that in exchange for him doing extra chores around his home, his mum would donate money to Ethical Enterprise. So far he has tidied his room and intends on cleaning up after his dinner. He is very keen that the children work hard to gain more house points now. Here is what class 5 and 6 have to say about their lessons on Uganda:“This week in year 2 we enjoyed learning about Uganda! We compared the Water Cycle in England to how people get water in Uganda. “We can just turn on a tap and we have water! In Uganda the children have to walk for hours to get buckets of water! The Ugandans get their water from dirty puddles or lakes, they are full bird droppings and they shared the water with cows and pigs! We thought that was disgusting! “During Literacy we carried large buckets of water up and down the playground it was exhausting! We think living in Uganda must be very hard.” Requests for Leaves of Absence As part of our continued commitment to keeping you informed, please find below a brief outline of the situation in respect of requesting holidays during term time. A copy of this year’s term dates and the provisional dates for 2015 – 16 are available on the school website and have been sent out with this week’s Weekly Update. Please be aware that the 2015 – 2016 dates are provisional dates only and cannot be confirmed as definite until they have been agreed by the Governing Body. Under the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013, head teachers are unable to grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Determination as to whether a requested leave of absence meets the requirements of such circumstances can only be decided by the Head Teacher. Parents have no entitlement to take their child out of school for a holiday in term time. African Drummers As a wonderful introduction to our third charity ‘Little Big Africa’ we were delighted when musicians Drumroots came to Bexton to teach Year1 and Year 3 pupils how to play the African ‘djembe’ drum during workshops throughout the day. All requests for leaves of absence due to exceptional circumstances must be made in writing to the Head Teacher on the school’s standard form. Parents will be advised of the outcome of their request through return of a copy of the form with the request agreed or declined by the Head Teacher. Children from years 1 and 3 then performed in an assembly attended by their parents and the rest of the school. Those attending, including parents and teachers, were taught an African song to perform themselves. Everyone was ecstatic when Mr Dolan suggested that the pupils should practice their new drumming skills at home with their pots and pans. Schools must report to the Local Authority any child who has had at least 10 sessions (5 full days) of unauthorised absence in an academic year, this includes absence days where the school has not been contacted to advise a reason for absence before 9:15am on the day. The Local Authority may then issue a Fixed Penalty Notice for £60 per parent / carer per child, to be paid within 21 days of the issue of the said notice. An explanatory letter will be sent, alongside the Fixed Penalty Notice. The Notice gives parent(s)/carer(s) the opportunity to pay a penalty fine instead of being prosecuted in the criminal courts. After 21 days the amount payable rises to £120 per child per parent/carer, up to the 28th day. If full payment is not received by the 28th day, a summons will be sent to the parent/carer informing of their need to appear before the Magistrates’ Court on the grounds that they have failed to secure their child’s regular attendance at school. Lend Me Your Literacy In January, Year 2 pupils enjoyed workshops with Mr O from Lend me your Literacy. The work they produced was so good that Bexton was chosen as their school of the week and was given a bundle of books for the school library. Examples of the children’s writing can be found by following this link. We look forward to more visits from Lend Me Your Literacy in the near future. Here is what some of year 2 have written about their day with Mr O. we had to use adjectives to describe more animals. It was exciting to see my work on the internet through the „Lend me your Literacy‟ website. By Meri age 7 On Thursday Mr. O came into Class 6. He was from „Lend Me Your Literacy‟ and he asked us to write about a pretend horrible and nasty holiday we had been on. On my holiday I had to eat snails on toast and slug soup! After that Mr. O put my work on the „Lend Me Your Literacy‟ website on the internet. This is exciting because lots of people can now see it all around the world. By Alfie, age 6 Last week Mr. O came into Year 2. He explained that we had to write a letter about a horrible and nasty holiday. He was a visitor from „Lend Me Your Literacy‟. During the afternoon I wrote about being stuck in a hotel where they tried to make me drink snail slime and worm slime. My favourite part of the letter was when I described the awful bedroom I had to sleep in. Mr. O put my work on the „Lend Me Your Literacy‟ website so that lots of people could see it all around the world. By Ruby, age 7 I had a great day with Mr O! The best piece of writing I enjoyed was writing the letter to my parent s from my holiday. I liked telling them all the horrible things that had happened to me. The end of the letter was exciting making my parents feel guilty for sending me there that made me laugh. I loved reading my work on the internet it made me feel famous! By Thomas age 7 My day with Mr O! My favourite part of the day was when I had to describe an animal using my name. I had to write “Meri” down the side of my page and think of a word for each letter (Acrostic Poem) that made everyone giggle. After that Together we can make a Difference