Drighlington Primary School

Are your children bored during school holidays? Updated 30.7.19)

Try this link for school holiday activities:

https://www.familylives.org.uk/advice/your-family/holidays/how-to-entertain-your-children-in-the-holidays/

 

Training days and Test dates for 2020 (updated 26.7.19)

Training days 2019-20:

• Monday 2.9.19
• Monday 4.11.19
• Friday 14.2.20
• Friday 22.5.20
• Monday 20.7.20

2020 Tests dates:

Y1 Phonics: 8th-12th June 2020

Y2 SATs: the whole of May 2020

Y4 multiplication: 8th -26th June 2020 

Y6 SATs: 11th - 14th May 2020

School Picnic (Updated 19.7.19)

There seems to be some confusion about the picnic.  As explained before we will be going ahead as planned.  At 2.30pm class teachers will open classroom doors and families will be made welcome to eat their picnic in the classroom, or collect their child and then collect other children in the family.  All children will need to be signed out with their class teacher.  Once this is done families can choose to have their picnic in any classroom or any space in school.  As long as children are signed out parents may leave at any point after their picnic, taking their children with them.  They should leave through a classroom door and not the main entrance.

What a shame we are in this predicament after such a fantastic week, but we will not be beaten by the weather.

End of year update (updated 18.7.19)

We hope that you appreciate and prefer our new style of reports; we wanted them to be much more personalised than in previous years.

What an exceptional week we have had - a superb ending to a very positive school year. Well-being Week has added to our successes; morning wake up shake up, guest sports people, walk to school, Sports Days and many other things have been very much enjoyed.

We are pleased that the weather has help up this week. Tomorrow we aim to have a picnic on the field; however, it is likely to rain.  If it does so, feel free to still bring along a picnic, but go to classroom doors where staff will let you in from 2.30pm onwards so that you can eat indoors.

Remember too that next Tuesday is Bedtime Stories Day - children can bring along their favourite story book and wear sensible pyjamas. They will do various reading and story-telling tasks in the morning, with afternoon popcorn and video linked to previous learning.

For the summer, we have just been informed that 12 children from our school can attend summer workshops at Skelton Grange. Please see the attached letter that explains how to place an interest in being allocated a place.

Bedtime Story Day (updated 23.7.19)

On Tuesday 23rd July 2019 we will be celebrating bedtime reading by holding a Bedtime Story Day in school.  Children are welcome to come to school in their pyjamas and bring their favourite bedtime story to share with their friends. In the afternoon, we will be finishing off the school year by watching a film version of one of our favourite books (with popcorn, of course!)

PTA Easter Fair (updated 18.4.19)

Due to the fact the Easter Fair had to be cancelled yesterday, the PTA are now struggling for another date. To enable them to offload the chocolate, they are going to set up the chocolate tombola in the main school playground after school at 3.15pm today. We would greatly appreciate parents supporting our PTA and all the hard work they put in. Thank you.

PTA Easter Fair (updated 19.3.19)

The PTA Easter Fair will be held on the 17th April, in the main hall, between 3.15 and 4.15pm. We hope you will join us there!

PTA Dress Down Day (updated 28.3.19)

Tomorrow is PTA Chocolate Tombola Dress Down Day. Children may wear football strips as long as they are sensible about this. Please would all those who dress down bring chocolates for the PTA Easter Fair. Thank you. 

Grant funding (updated 23.3.19)

Yippee! We are pleased to announce that Mrs Christie has secured £10,000 lottery grant funding. Our PTA has also secured just over £9,300 grant funding. All monies will be spent on playgrounds, as stated in the grant criteria. Look out for changes over the next few months!

Governors Meeting (updated 23.3.19)

Governor Resources Committee met this week to discuss how we meet the needs of all children in these challenging times of financial restraint. They also considered a risk assessment of premises and plans for grant funding.

Mobile app (updated 21.3.19)

We try to improve communication with families as often as possible.

Our mobile app can be downloaded free of charge. To help Parents, there are now direct links to Parent Pay and Twitter on our mobile app.

For those who do not want to open a Twitter account, select "not now" and you will be able to see Twitter. You will not be able to interact without an account, but we hope it will be useful for you to quickly see news updates.

Leeds Rhinos visit (updated 21.3.19)

Harvey, from Leeds Rhinos, came to talk to us about healthy lifestyles. He brought along Ronnie Rhino, who danced to show us how fit he is. We will eat well, to be strong and healthy like Ronnie. Harvey also invited children to join rugby sessions with the Rhinos. 

Supporting Comic Relief (updated 15.3.19)

 We are responsible for making the right choices. Everyone dressed up today to contribute to fundraising for the charity. We decided that this was a good choice, as we were helping others less fortunate than ourselves. Thank you to all families who arranged red outfits!

Knife Crime Assembly (updated 11.3.19)

PCSO 624 talked to Y5 and Y6 children about knife crime. Afterwards, the children asked questions. They were sensible and respectful. They learnt important values about keeping safe.

Parents Evening Reminder (updated 11.3.19)

 Just a quick reminder that we are hosting Parents Evenings tonight and on Wednesday for all year groups except Y3. If you do not have an appointment please ask your child's teacher. Y3 meetings will be held a little later in the year. 

Red Nose Day Reminder (updated 10.3.19)

Remember Friday 15th March is Comic Relief Day - wear something red. When you donate to Comic Relief you support vulnerable people in the UK and internationally. The vision is to create a just world, free from poverty. We can help by supporting the fundraising every year.

New Parent Governor (updated 4.3.19)

We are pleased to inform you that we now have a new Parent Governor. There was only one nomination. Therefore, we do not need to go to ballot. The new Parent Governor is Nicola Warren, who has two children at our school.

Momo Challenge (updated 2.3.19)

This week, we have been made aware of an online issue that puts children at risk. It is called the Momo challenge.

At our school, we put safeguarding as our main priority. We often talk to children about being “safe and happy”.

Please use the link address below to find a useful guidance sheet, recommended by Leeds City Council Child Protection Team. Also, there is a lot of advice on this website about other factors that may be worrying to parents and carers.

http://www.drighlingtonprimary.co.uk/our-school-1/our-school/safeguarding

Please be aware that we will do all that we can to support any family in any situation. If you have any concerns about anything at all, please contact us.

I look forward to seeing you all next week during our Parent’s Evening sessions and hope you will be pleased with the work our teachers share with you. We have a really committed team of staff who work very hard to meet our vision – nurturing, supporting, believing, achieving.

Successful Fire Evacuation Practice (updated 1.3.19)

Today our children, staff and guests evacuated the building within two minutes, and were all accounted for within three and a half minutes. We practice regularly so that, in the event of a real need to evacuate, we can do this effectively. We also practice invacuation, where the whole school goes into lockdown. These measures add to our commitment to safeguarding.  

Leeds Rhinos Coach in School (updated 1.3.19)

We work in partnership with a wide range of local people. Year 1 and year 3 enjoyed their rugby session with the Leeds Rhinos coach today. They learned how to carry a rugby ball and how to place the ball down when scoring a try. 

British Values (update 27.2.19)

In assembly we thought about British Values and how we behave in school. It is up to each child to decide how hard they work in lessons. We call this individual liberty. We agreed that we all have to follow rules - even adults must follow the rule of law.

World Book Day (updated 27.2.19)

Book Fair (updated 26.2.19)

 Come along to our book fair. A great choice of books. 3:15 to 4:00pm in the small hall Wed. 27th Feb until Friday 1st March. Don't forget you can use your World Book Day £1 voucher towards the cost of your books. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Supporting our Community (updated 25.2.19)

We have been invited to create pictures of pets to be used for the front cover of the next Drighlington Parish newsletter. Our children are very busy, painting and drawing in the style of famous artists. They are enjoying the challenge!

 

Important Dates for your Diary (updated 23.2.19)

Our training days for 2018-19 are:

• Friday 24th May 2019
• Wednesday 24th July 2019  

Comic Relief Red Nose Day 15th March 2019 - wear something red!

A Date to Remember (updated 21.2.19)

Don't forget Evidence of Learning Day 17th July 2019. This is the time of year when families come into school to share and celebrate their child's learning achievements. We hope the weather will be pleasant, so that families can sit out in the sunshine whilst looking at books.

New Family Challenge (updated 15.02.19)

For our next family challenge we are focusing on promoting reading and, particularly, reading for pleasure.

Reading is a vital skill for children to master if they are to be successful in life. It is really important that every child in school should read every day.  We would love to see pictures of your children (and yourselves?)  enjoying a favourite book, a library book or one from the reading scheme, as we have some lovely new books in school. Children have reported enjoying our colour coded book scheme and choosing their own reading books.

All classes are visiting the library once a month and children are encouraged to bring a book from home they have out grown or already read and swap it at Reading Rinaldo’s Book Swap shelf for a different book.

Y5/6 Monday

Y3/4 Wednesday

Y1/2 Friday

Early Years children have book swap boxes in their classrooms and can swap their books daily.

Our family challenge is to take a photograph of your child ‘Extreme Reading’ and bring it into school or send via email to info@drighlingtonprimary.org.uk. This can be reading: in the garden, up a tree, at the zoo or anywhere you can read!

Entries should contain the child’s name and class and will be judged and displayed in school by Friday 1^st March. We look forward to receiving your imaginative ideas.

Newsround Reporters (updated 8.2.19)

Our Newsround Reporters are Joe, Hanifa, Liam, Armani and Daisy. In assembly today, we introduced them and talked about the important job they will be doing. They will have to find out what children think about our school and then write reports to share the ideas.

This afternoon, they had their first Newsround meeting - they were given special badges to wear in school. Their first job is to find out what children like about our school.  They will publish their reports on the Children's section of our website.

Christmas Jumper Day 2018 (updated 01.02.19)

We would like to say a big thank you to all who supported the Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 14th December. It was a great success and together we raised a grand total of £289.28!

Safe parking (updated 31.1.19)

Sadly we have had another report about unsafe parking on the yellow lines outside the school, this can make it more difficult for children to cross the road safely.  As you know, being safe and happy is the most important work of our school. We want the start and end of the day to be safe for our children. 

We are determined to make sure that everyone understands our vision and knows what we aim to achieve. It is important that everyone understands the meaning of our vision words - nurturing, supporting, believing and achieving. In assembly this morning we revisited the four vision words. This week, we will send a key messages booklet to all families so that our vision, school improvement targets and curriculum aims are clear to everyone. A copy of the key messages booklet can be found at the top of this page.

One of the ways in which we aim to help children to be better readers and writers is by developing their understanding of a wider range of words. Starting from today, each class teacher will be focusing on 5 words a week (3 words in nursery). These will be linked to our class texts to encourage children to develop their independent use of vocabulary. Words will also be displayed on classroom doors. Parents and Carers can help us by asking children to tell them what their focus words are and by asking them to explain what the words mean. Happy learning everyone!

 

 

For our next family challenge project, we are focussing on ways in which we can help to save our environment. We have been talking to children in KS1 and KS2 about three key things we can all do:

• REDUCE: for example, save paper and reduce the amount we use in school
• REUSE: for example, using yoghurt pots to store pencils
• RECYCLE: for example, sending paper to be recycled into new items

The new family challenge (open to all children) is to draw a picture, create a poster, write a poem, or write instructions about how to reduce, reuse or recycle. The deadline for completing the family challenge is next Friday the 25^th January 2019. Every entry will receive a small prize and the winners will be displayed on the website, around school and in local public places such as local churches and the library.

A winner in each class will be named the Eco Warrior for their class. We look forward to seeing the artwork and writing!

Change 4 Life School Dinner Day (updated 14.1.19)

As part of our work on healthy eating we will be holding a Change 4 Life school dinner day on Thursday 17th January 2019. All children, even those who do not normally have school dinners, may book a Change 4 Life School dinner for one day so they can try the experience of school dinners with hot vegetables and fresh fruit.  Also, with the busy workload of many families and cold days approaching, we think it would be a good idea to encourage as many children as possible to have hot school dinners.

On Change 4 Life school dinner day we will be serving a roast chicken dinner, with a range of vegetables and an option of ice cream and fresh fruit. We will be talking to children about healthy foods and how a healthy diet can improve brain power.  

Save our planet! Our new Care, Think and Learn statement is making us think about using paper much more carefully so that we can save money. We know that paper is made from trees and have also explored how our action to save paper will make a difference to trees around the world.

This morning we thought about what Christmas means to us with Pastor Barry from Moorside Church. The children reflected upon the Christian  values of Christmas. Celebrating the birth of Jesus is a really special time of the year for everyone.

What a fantastic event! The hall was bustling with excited children, fun stalls and prizes galore. Our PTA raised almost £1000! Raffle tickets not yet collected are:

Yellow 786-790 Walkers Little Pie Shop Voucher

Yellow 891-895 Pink Gin

Yellow 831-835 Glam Jar 

White 16-20 2 Bottles of wine donated by the library

White 126-130 Earring Advent Calendar

This week in school we have been celebrating achieving the Anti-Bullying Quality Mark Bronze Award. Here is a statement from the Anti-Bullying Assessor who visited our school in the Summer Term to judge our school against the required standards:

 

 

We will be celebrating this achievement with some special events in school over the next few weeks. If you would like to read the full final report from the assessor, please visit the school website. Click on 'Our School' then 'Anti-Bullying Quality Mark'. In this section you will also find further information about our Anti-Bullying work in school.

We are sorry but school is closed today due to excessive snow. We know that children will be disappointed about World Book Day. This will be rescheduled to another day. Be safe everyone.

Our Training Days for 2017-18 (updated 13.1.18)

• Monday 4th September 2017
• Monday 30th October 2017
• Friday 9th February 2018
• Friday 25th May 2018
• Wednesday 25th July 2018

 

 

 

There will be other initiatives throughout the year and we will keep families informed.

 

This was organized by our PTA and the container is just outside the main gate. Our first collection raised £57, of which £15.20 was donated to the Fire Fighters Charity.
The remainder of the money will add to the PTA fund to buy more reading books for school. The PTA has already donated £3000 to school this year so that we have been able to buy more reading books. With almost 450 children in school, we need to constantly upgrade our books to keep children interested in reading and give them the good quality books they deserve. Thank you to everyone for your support.

Thank you to everyone who voted in our Parent Governor Ballot. The successful candidate was Rachel Dolman. May we thank all nominees for offering to be involved in the ballot. It is good to know that we have so many supporters who are committed to our school.

Christmas parties will be held next Wednesday, 13th December, at some point in the day for all classes. Children may come to school wearing their party clothes. The school Christmas dinner is on Thursday 14th December and the last day to order is Friday the 8th December. The last day of term is Friday 15th December and children can wear Christmas jumpers as planned. The Christmas fun day last Friday was fabulous - we wanted to surprise children with a full day of exciting activities and the atmosphere in every classroom was magical!

Christmas Performances:

KS2 will perform at Morley Town Hall, details to follow. KS1 and EYFS events are as follows:

• 5^th December – Nursery and Reception Nativity in school hall 9.15am
• 6^th December – Nursery and Reception Nativity in school hall 2.15pm
• 12^th December – Year 1 and Year 2 Nativity in school hall 9.30am
• 12^th December – Year 1 and Year 2 Nativity in school hall 2.30pm

Happy Christmas everyone!

We are pleased to inform families that we now have a Twitter account. Families can follow us on:

This is a new way in which we can give updates about learning experiences and achievements that children make in school. Families can share Twitter news with their children and talk about what goes on whilst children are in class. 

ROOM OF SURPRISES (updated 29.11.17)

Due to clashes of activities within school, the PTA have shuffled the rota for shopping. See below....

Monday 4th December - 9.30am (Reception & Year 1)

Wednesday 6th December - 9.30am (Nursery & Year 4)

Thursday 7th December - 9.30am (Year 5 & Year 6)

Thursday 7th December - 1.30pm (Year 3 & Nursery)

Friday 8th December - 9.30am after assembly (Year 2 7 Catch up)

Adult helpers needed to support our mini shoppers. Please contact the PTA if you can help via the office, their facebook group or tell your teacher.

May we remind all families of children in Year 3 to Year 6 that we will hold our Christmas Carol Concert at Morley Town Hall on the 7th December 2017. We ask that children wear Christmas colours of red, green or white (white school shirts will suffice). Children may wear a Christmas Hat too. It is really important that children do not wear jumpers - it was far too warm for them on stage last year. The event is booked for the evening and we will confirm exact timings as soon as possible.

Miss Bentley, who teaches in our Nursery, will take the lead of Early Years from January 2018. Mrs Jackson will continue to support Early Years until the new role is well established.

We need to appoint one new parent governor through parent ballot. Ballot papers have been sent to families, two forms per family.

Ballot papers should be returned to the school by 3.30 pm on Friday 1^st December 2017.

The counting of votes will be held at the school on Monday 4^th December 2017.

Exciting news!

Drighlington Primary School PTA has once again been accepted to the Co-op Local Community Fund scheme meaning every time you swipe your membership card at any Co-op you can earn money for the school too. To select DPS PTA as your chosen project log on to https://www.coop.co.uk/membership.

Thank you for your continued support.

Is your child due to start school in September 2018?

If so, this is the time of year when you will be looking at new schools. You are invited to come along to Drighlington Primary School on the 15th November 2017. You will be able to see the school in action and meet staff and children.
Visiting times are: 9.00-11.00am and 1.30-2.30pm
We hope to see you!

Thank you to everyone who was involved in the fundraising event. It is great to support charities that do good work for the community. Thank you to our PTA for organizing the event. Our biggest thanks go to Titan and Rhona, the guide dogs who spent time in school with us last week. We raised £1063.74 for the charity.

In our school we try to be as efficient as possible and make best use of our budget. One of the things we are working towards is spending less on paper and photocopying.
As often as possible, we update information using the mobile app and the news page on the website. More and more often we will send emails to those parents who have supplied an email address.
All of these strategies will save money and help us to cut down on the use of paper, thus saving trees too.
We ask that families keep their email addresses updated, that they check the website parent news page regularly, or load the school mobile app onto their phone for convenient access to updates.

A few of our children have started to bring into school fashion spectacles that have plain glass or elements of magnification in the lenses. We are worried that wearing these may cause damage to eyesight and ask that parents and carers do not send fashion spectacles to school for use in lessons. If any parent or carer is worried about their child's sight they should seek advice from an optician.
If there is anything we need to do to support families, please ask us for help.

Thank you so much to everyone who took part in the treasure trail at the weekend. The final amount raised will be announced soon but in the meantime the winning raffle tickets are:

26 - Perfect Image £10 voucher

34 - The Snack Shop voucher

40 - Footgolf voucher donated by Adwalton Cricket Club

43 - Tequila donated by Adwalton Cricket Club

Please contact us through the PTA Facebook page - www.facebook.com/drigprimarypta or call in to the school office to claim your prize. Treasure Trail packs are still available to buy should for £3 if you would still like to take part.  Please send your money in to school in a sealed envelope with your request and details of your child's class or again contact the PTA through Facebook.