Dear All N E W S L E T T E R 1 4

It is with sadness that I am writing to inform you that Mrs Watson has made the decision to leave Shepley

First School at the end of this term to take a new job in Early Years/Reception at Ashbrow School,

Huddersfield.

Mrs Watson has been at Shepley for almost three years, appointed originally as the ‘extra’ Reception

Class teacher and staying on to teach , jointly, the same extra-large Year 1class. We were able to

retain her for a further year in Year 1 knowing that her teaching heart lay in Early Years and Reception.

Whilst this maybe upsetting for the children, I would like to assure you that we have done everything in

our power to ensure consistency for the children in Class Darling (Y1) having appointed Miss Seely who

will continue teaching using many of the strategies and tools used by Mrs Watson.

Miss Seely will be in school on Monday and Tuesday next week giving the children and herself the

opportunity to meet together.

Mrs Watson’s last day at Shepley will be Thursday 2nd April 2015.

We all wish Mrs Watson well as she starts the next steps in her career and know that the children at

Ashbrow School are very fortunate to have her as their teacher.

Good luck Mrs Watson!

Easter is almost upon is, this term has flown by, so much to do and so little time. The children in Y3, Y4 and Y5 are busy rehearsing for the end of term, ‘Pirates of the Curry Bean’ performance. They are working hard to learn their lines and actions whilst parents, no doubt are being very busy creating costume!

There are still tickets available (£2 each) for the Wednesday 2.00pm performance.

Parents Evenings As you are all aware we trialled a new system for booking parents - teacher meetings this year which many schools have

used for a long time and found that it worked well. Previously we sent a slip of paper out requesting parents to record a

convenient time for them to attend a meeting with the teacher. Once all the slips had been returned the teachers met

together to sort and confirm family appointment times. As you can imagine this method takes a long time and often means

that parents are not able to always have the time slot they preferred. We then contacted several schools to see what

system they use and as a staff we agreed to trial the system that we implemented this year. We found that it worked

smoothly for us and many parents appeared to agree however we would like feedback from you as to how we organised

the booking system this year. So please contact school via email, phone, and Homelink book or personally to Mrs Murray

at the front office so we can take your views into consideration next time. Thank you!

Pink and Purple Bake off! Autism Awareness Week 27th

March to 2nd

April 2015. We are asking Reception & KS1 to bake pink and purple versions of your favourite

cakes and sweet treats to support Autism Awareness this weekend? We’re planning to

raise as much as possible for this very worthwhile cause so on Monday 30th March

please bring in your pink and purple donations for the children to sell to the whole

school and enjoy for 20p each! We have asked KS1 as we are very aware that KS2 children will be busy learning

their lines and sorting costumes out for their Performance, but if they would like to bake too that is fine.

Thank you for your continued support.

Book Fair Thanks to all who attended the Book Fair

this week, school received £85 in books for

school. Each child received a free book.

Reminders: Mon 30th March bring 20p to purchase a bun! Check ParentPay accounts are up to date! DO NOT park in the Keep Clear area in the turning circle!

FOSFS Cinema Event Big Heroes 6

There are still some tickets a

vailable (£4 each). Please make

sure you order by Tuesday 31st

March. Thank you

Artsmark GOLD!!!! We are delighted to announce that we have successfully gained the Artsmark GOLD award for

the second time!

Artsmark is Arts Council England’s flagship programme to enable schools and other

organisations to evaluate, strengthen and celebrate their arts/cultural provision; it awards organisations that can

show good practice. Organisations can work towards bronze, silver or gold depending on the level undertaken –

Shepley First School prides itself on delivering a diverse programme through art, music, drama etc. which was

recognized by the Arts Council, when they came in to evaluate our work by awarding gold!!

Achieving Artsmark status demonstrates that Shepley First School has a number of very special qualities.

It demonstrates that we:

have an excellent arts and cultural offer

are forward thinking and open to development

are committed to investing in our staff and young people

are committed to listening to our pupils and providing opportunities for our community

have an effective approach to building sustainable relationships with arts and cultural organisations

value the arts and culture through a broad and balanced curriculum

To achieve Artsmark, we had to undergo a rigorous application process, followed by a validation visit from a

professional arts consultant. We were assessed on many areas of our provision including arts in the curriculum,

extra-curricular arts activities, how we work with artists and arts organisations and how well our arts provision

impacts on staff development and the wider community.

We hope you share our pride in being nationally recognised for our arts and cultural provision. Although the whole

school have worked towards it I’d like to say special WELL DONE to Mrs Mansell who co-ordinated the award.

HUGE congratulations to all our children, without whom we would never be able to achieve all the success we do!

Tennis Lessons at Shepley Tennis Club Every Wednesday 4.00 - 5.00pm

£4.50 per session

All equipment supplied

Contact Simon Newton (Club Coach)

07956821686 / 01924 515311

sienewton5@googlemail.com

What a great run by a great runner! Well done Harvey Mosley (Y5) who was placed 11th at the West Yorkshire Winter School Games Festival at Leeds Beckett University on Wednesday March 25th. He raced against over 100 other runners, the only representative from Shepley First School and obviously we are very proud of him. Many of you may have seen him, both before and after school time training around the village making the most of the opportunity to take part and represent the school. His commitment and the support from his family was amazing. Fantastic Harvey, be proud of yourself as we are - a great run.

Class Event

This week Class Nile held their parents’ event based around their topic ‘Habitats’. We had several activities for the

children including making a ‘Bug Hotel’ habitat, dissecting a daffodil and labelling its parts, identifying leaves and

sticks, making food chains and making bird’s nests buns. It was really great to see all the parents and friends who

came in to enjoy working with the children. We had a fabulous time. The homework projects were also displayed

for everyone to see. Thank you to all the children and parents for their fantastic efforts making these.

They were truly amazing!

Football KS1 On Tuesday March 17th a team of boys from Year took part in the after school Shelley Pyramid Football competition which took place at Kirkburton Middle School. The team, one of twelve teams participating played a total of six games against six different teams during the evening. The Year 2 team included Charlie Broadbent, Teddy Hartley, Jamie Horn, Jack Ilsley, Leo Izquierdo Orlos, Jake Jaggar, Thomas Marsland, Solomon Marshall and Ben Ricketts.

A team of six were selected for each of the six games giving every child a great experience cheered on by the magnificent support of the parents. They all played really well and achieved second overall just missing first place by one goal! I, with the parents are very proud of them all as they demonstrated a good team spirit throughout and ensures that in the games in the future we have a great team of footballers to represent the our school. Well done to the football team and many, many thanks to all the parents who transported them to Kirkburton and supported them throughout, a lovely occasion for all. Thank you all very much appreciated.

Class Thames (Reception) went on a visit to Huddersfield Sainsbury’s. It was a very exciting day, we went on

the train from Shepley and had a tour of the whole store. We got to see lots of different fruit, veg and herbs, all

sorts of different meats and fish, then got to try ham and cheese at the deli counter and a chocolate doughnut

from the bakery! In the afternoon we all went shopping! It was a fab day!

Thank you to everyone who came with us!

Congratulations:

Tyler Waddington (Y3) who has been awarded The Chief Scout’s Bronze Award completing all six

challenges at the Shepley Beavers Scout Group. Well done, Tyler!

Imogen Hudson (Y3) shared a book that she had made and written, in the style of the young Bronte

books, and read it to the whole school. It’s a lovely book and well-read in front of a large audience,

well done Imogen!

Freddie Walters (Y4) completed a total of 6 laps of the green line before school started therefore

running a mile, well done Freddie a great start to the school day!

Nia Higgins(Y4) completed a total of 6 laps of the green line before school started therefore running

a mile, well done Nia a great start to the school day!

Abigail Curtis (Y4) completed a total of 6 laps of the green line before school started therefore

running a mile, well done Abigail a great start to the school day!

Imogen Hallas (Y1) has achieved the Puffin Award from Kellogg’s ASA Rainbow Award Scheme

swimming award, well done Imogen!

Pupil of the Week 20.03.15

Class Thames - Reception Oscar Moylan Robin Paskin

Class Darling - Year 1 James Goldthorpe Lola Empson

Class Amazon - Year 2 Molly Marsh Felix Wilkinson

Class Mississippi - Year 3 Louis Kinder Sarah Donoghue

Class Nile - Year 4 Imogen Smith Hallie Firth

Class Yangtze - Year 5 Tom Greenleaf Bronwen Ward

Thursday 23rd April - St George’s Theme Day Lunch

We are celebrating St. George’s Day by having a themed school dinner and a class colouring competition to win a Mini Munch

The lunch will consist of

Dragon flamed hot roast sandwiches

or

George’s catch of the day fish sandwich

Sword slayed mega wedges

Snappy coleslaw

Jewels of sweetcorn

Saintly Sweets

If you child has packed lunches and would like to order the above lunch please order at the school office either via e-mail,

telephone or call in to the office. The lunch costs £1.95 you can pay on ParentPay or send in to the office.

School closes Thursday 2nd April 3.30pm and re-opens Monday 20th April