School Newsletter

Thursday 29th March 2018 Spring Term 2018 - Issue 2

Richmond Methodist School

Telephone: 01748 822794

Email: admin@richmondmethodist.n-yorks.sch.uk

Web: www.richmondmethodist.n-yorks.sch.uk

Dear Parents and Carers,

We have enjoyed a really busy half term, as you will see from this newsletter. The school has enjoyed a great

deal of sporting success, in addition to great results for our Quiz Club and Debating Club and the Band, Duets and

Choir in the Wensleydale Tournament of Song. As you are aware, Enrichment Friday is when we aim to deepen

and extend children’s learning, through an ever increasing range of opportunities. This term’s enrichment expe-

riences have included Fairtrade Week and a visit from Roop Singh (more details overleaf).

Even our very youngest children enjoyed the Fairtrade Marketplace (especially the chocolate!) and understood

the links to our theme of ’Justice and Fairness’ this half term. One of the very youngest pupils exclaimed (with a

very chocolatey grin) “It’s all about Fair Trade!”

Children and staff are now very ready for a good break, as I’m sure that you are too.

I wish you all a very happy and sunny Easter,

We are incredibly pleased to announce that one of our pupils, Emmy has won The

Station’s Tour de Yorkshire banner competition! This means that her banner will

be hung outside The Station in the lead up to, and during, the race. Emmy also

had the pleasure of see-

ing her banner being

printed at Eyecatching

Signs. The Station re-

ceived a huge number of

entries so what a great

achievement!

REVIEW

TOUR DE YORKSHIRE BANNER COMPETITION

TOUR DE YORKSHIRE

As a host town for the Tour de Yorkshire, departing on Saturday 5th May, Rich-

mondshire District Council had the privilege of having the trophies for a day. On

16th March 2018 they took them around all the schools in Richmond and also some

local attractions. Mr Rowley of

‘Welcome to Yorkshire’ spoke to the

children from Years 1 to 6 about

what the winning male and female

trophies were made of, who had made them and who had won

them in the past.

Our School Council representatives are pictured with the trophies.

SUCCESS STORIES

Quiz Club

Congratulations to our Quiz Club team, who rose to the challenge of some very demanding ques-

tions in the recent Quiz Club heat at Brompton-on-Swale. Very well done to Phoebe, Georgia,

Katie and Amber!

Debate Club

On Friday 23rd March, Lara, Nicole, Thomas, Ellen, Charlie and Murray went to Richmond School to compete in

an area heat for the 2018 Debating Competition. The topic for the debate was ‘Is social media a danger to chil-

dren?’

Our musicians have had a busy time this term. Lots of hard work and extra rehearsals have taken place to prepare them for the Wensleydale Tournament of Music in Leyburn. What a super opportunity this is to listen to performers and to take part in. They children were fantastic representatives of the school and we have received compliments from parents on the quality of the children’s performances and their exemplary behaviour over the three days. Thank you very much to Mrs Wilford and Mrs Emmerson and all the parents who supported.

Wednesday - Band Nine of our instrumentalists took part in the Junior Ensemble in Leyburn. The children demonstrated exemplary behaviour for the whole afternoon, particularly as they didn’t even manage to eat their lunch until after 2.00pm, there was not one complaint! They played very well, even with fewer rehearsals than they had hoped. They managed to pull it all together for their perfor-mance, demonstrating a great range of dynamics and confident playing. Overall, they came joint second. A huge thank you to the parents who transported their own children, other children and quite a variety of instruments. Without your help, it would have been very difficult. Thursday - Duets Three pairs of children went to sing in Leyburn and they also did very well. Standing on a stage with just two is very challenging. In preparation, the children had their first taste of performing to an audience at school before competing. Beth and Phoebe came third, Tabitha and Elsa came second, Georgie and Fearn came first. Georgie was congratulated on her 'excellent lower part maintaining the harmony’. Well done to all of you. Friday - Choir Our Choir had a full day over at Tennants Garden Rooms. There were 33 children who had to learn a number of songs in quite a short space of time. They did considerably well to learn all of the words, melodies and harmonies. We took part in seven categories singing eight songs during the day. We were placed in the following places for the categories: Unison song - 5th. Two part harmony - 3rd Round - 2nd. Action Song - 3rd Sacred Song / Hymn - 1st Choral Singing we sang two songs - 2nd Folk song - third. Our action song, which we sang 'Peace Perfect Peace’, was commented on by a number from the audi-ence who said it brought them to tears. We achieved ‘Commended’ in four of the categories and ‘merit’ in the others. These are very pleasing results as a result of a lot of hard work. A special mention must go to Mrs Muxworthy who gave up so much time to practice, rehearse and accompany Choir. Thank you very much. Our helpers on the day were again very helpful, thank you. An opportunity to see for yourself! On Monday 23rd April, the band, duets and choir will be performing in the school hall at 3.45pm. Parents of the children involved have been informed by letter, however the concert is open to anybody who wishes to attend. Please let the office know so we have an idea of numbers. Refreshments will be available for a donation. All donations will go towards our exciting new playground development.

Wensleydale Tournament of Song

SPORTING SUCCESS—REPORTS BY OUR SPORTS WRITERS

Year 5 and 6 Sportshall Athletics—26th February

On Monday 26th February, Year 5 and 6 went to Catterick Garrison Leisure Centre for the Indoor Athletics Coun-

ty Championships. The running events included obstacle, under and over and four other races. The field events

included vertical jump, standing long jump, triple jump, chest pass, javelin and speed bounce.

Our team consisted of ten girls: Evie, Lilly, Daisy P, Maggie, Emily R, Lara, Olivia, Nina, Elsa and Beth.

We also had nine boys: Shawn, Murray, Mason, Ollie, Lincon, Dan R, Joseph, Daniel G and Oliver.

The results were: 1st Scarcroft (York 1) (342 points) 2nd Brotherton and Byram (Selby) (294 points) 3rd Richmond Methodist (Richmondshire) (286 points) 4th Robert Wilkinson (York 2) (278 points) 5th St Peters (Scarborough) ( 242 points) 6th Pannal (Harrogate) ( 208 points) 7th Romanby (Hambleton) (206 points) 8th Airy Hill School (Rydale and Whitby) (182 points) 9th Water Street Primary School (Craven) (180 points)

Tag Rugby Level 2

On 12th March the ‘A’ team for tag rugby went to Richmond Rugby Club to play in the final round of tag rugby. In our first game we played Carnagill School and we won 9-0. Then we rested for two games. After that, we played Wavell Junior School and won another game 4-0.

Later on we had a match with Bedale School and at the end the scores were 6-2 to us. Straight after that we played Leyburn School and once more we won 5-2.

A while after, that we played Brompton-on-Swale School but this time we drew 6-6.

Finally, our last match was versus Crakehall School which ended 9-2 to us. At the end of the day the final scores were announced and we were placed first, drawing with Brompton-on-Swale! We all got handed medals and went back to school!

Richmondshire Cross Country Finals

On Tuesday 13th March our team of 40 children went to Richmond School with Mr Larder, Mrs Lawson and Mrs

Emmerson to compete in the Richmondshire Cross Country Competition. Everyone who participated in this

event did incredibly well on what was a diffi-

cult uphill course. Maggie, Jake and Ollie got

medals and these children along with Isla and

Josh progressed to the North Yorkshire Finals

at Dalby Forest.

CRICKET TOPS—REQUEST FOR SPONSORING

On Thursday 22nd March, five pupils from RMS competed in the North

Yorkshire Cross County Finals in Dalby Forest. The pupils were Jake, Isla,

Josh, Maggie and Ollie. All Year 5 and 6 pupils had to run a mile, while

the Year 3 and 4’s ran 1,200 me-

tres. The results were:

Year 3 boys—Jake 19th

Year 4 boys—Josh 56th

Year 4 girls—Isla 36th

Year 5 boys—Ollie 28th

Year 5 girls—Maggie 1st.

All the runners would like to thank

Mr Larder and Mrs Emmerson and everybody else involved in the process for being such great coaches.

Last year our Year 5/6 Cricket Team won the Area Finals, North Yorkshire Finals and ultimately competed in the

Yorkshire Finals where the boys did very well and really held their own.

This year it would be wonderful if we could provide the teams with a new kit for the season ahead. We won-

dered if any parents would like to sponsor the tops. The cost would be £200 and we could include the sponsor’s

name.

Please contact Mr Larder if you feel this is something you would be interested in doing.

North Yorkshire Cross Country Finals

EASTERTINGLE

On Tuesday 27th March the children from Years 5 and 6 visited Richmond Methodist Church to celebrate Easter and learn about the Easter Story.

The children enacting the traders in the Temple area. The Last Supper.

FORMS MOVIE NIGHT

On Thursday 22nd March FORMS ran a movie night and showed Paddington 2. Everyone enjoyed a great even-

ing and FORMS raised an most impressive £390. Thank you for supporting this event!

FAIRTRADE WEEK

VISIT BY ROOP SINGH

On Friday 16th March, Roop Singh visited our school as part of our ‘Enrichment Friday’ provi-sion. Several years ago, Roop started telling sto-ries about the Sikh Gurus in local schools so that non Sikh children would be able to understand what it mean to be a Sikh. We couldn’t wait to meet him! Every half term, as part of Collective Worship, we study in depth a core value. Our current one is ‘Justice’ and so Roop helped us draw parallels between the Christian and Sikh

faiths, as well as celebrating diversity. He entertained all year groups and imparted a fascinating mixture of knowledge and wisdom that the children will remember for a long time. Here are some comments from our Year 5:

”The explanation of the 5 ‘K’s’ was very interesting- the stories were great.”

“It was nice of him to share his beliefs and thoughts with us.“

Roop finished his visit with a whole school collective worship, including a Sikh story with a moral message about the importance of fairness.

A Fairtrade Whole School Project took place during the week commencing Monday 5th March. The project was intended to engage children in cross-curricular writing and each band focused on a specific product. There was an Oxfam assembly on Tuesday 6th March and a ‘Fairtrade Marketplace’ on Friday 9th March, where children had the op-portunity to teach others about their Fairtrade product and showcase the fantastic work they had researched and produced during the week. All the children enjoyed tasting Fairtrade flavoured tea, chocolate and bananas and bought items from the Fairtrade stall, which was kindly organised by Mrs Pinkey and Rachel Walker.

Miss Ring commented that children of all ages had a great understanding of what Fairtrade was as a result of the project!

TOUR DE YORKSHIRE WRITING PROJECT

We are delighted that the prestigious Tour de Yorkshire will be starting its third stage in Richmond. To celebrate

this historic event, we are inviting the children in our local schools to take part in an exciting writing project –

My Tour de Yorkshire Diary. Using Lucy Pittaway’s ‘Pedals, Passion and Glory’ for inspiration, we are asking the

children to imagine themselves in the seat of a racing bike, setting out from Richmond’s cobbled Market Place.

With hearts pounding, adrenaline racing and stunning scenery all around, their diary entries should reflect how

they imagine the riders feel, what they can see all around them and their hopes and dreams for the race. The

more descriptive, the better!

Writing templates will be given out in school after Easter; however, we hope that your child will talk to you

about their ideas at home over the holiday. All entries will be collected in school by Friday 20th April, with the

best entry from each class being displayed in the Castle Hill Bookshop in time for the race on Saturday 5th May.

Children’s work will also be displayed at Richmond Library and Richmond Methodist Church.

If you have any further questions, please contact your child’s class teacher.

Thanks to your generous support of our recent book fair,

we have earned a magnificent

£893

to spend on guided reading books in our school.

SCHOLASTICS BOOK FAIR

We are holding a rescheduled

Thursday 26th April 2018

WORLD BOOK DAY

WRAP AROUND CARE (WAC)

A report from Mrs Shields, WAC Supervisor.

This last term seems to have flown by. We have celebrated Chinese New Year,

Valentines Day and Mothering Sunday to name a few events that have oc-

curred since Christmas. The children have learnt how to finger knit, make

pompoms and to make ancient maps, colouring them with tea bags! They

have also put their artistic minds to work and created a fantastic gallery in

WAC. This has been achieved with great care and support from all the WAC

staff who have made the children feel that this club is their home away from

home.

Also a big thank you to all the parents and carers for your continued support.

SATs TESTS INFORMATION

Last year the Department for Education have published an information leaflet and videos for parents of children in Year 2 and Year 6 taking the end of Key Stage tests. These can be accessed via the school website under “Information” or alternatively can be accessed by following this link https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2017-national-curriculum-tests-for-key-stages-1-and-2-information-for-parents

School breaks up for Easter holiday Thursday 29th March 2018 at 3.25pm/3.30pm

Pupils return to school Tuesday 17th April 2018

Children to dress up as favourite book character Thursday 26th April 2018

May Day—School Closed Monday 7th May 2018

KS2 SATs Week Week Commencing Monday 14th May 2018

FORMS Disco (hopefully outside) Thursday 24th May 2018

School breaks up for half-term holiday Friday 25th May 2018 at 3.25pm/3.30pm

DIARY DATES

REMINDERS

MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS - Please endeavour to make your child’s dental and doctor’s appointments out-side of school hours. If this is unavoidable, we request that you bring your appointment card when col-lecting your child.

WRAP AROUND CARE AND SCHOOL MEALS - Due to the financial year end, we request that April 2018 bills are not paid until 1st April.

PARKING OUTSIDE SCHOOL GATES - If parents/carers come to school to collect a poorly child, they may bring their car into the school car park. The double gates can only be opened from the inside, so you must enter via the pedestrian gate to do this. Please ensure that you close them behind you when you arrive and again as you leave. It is important that vehicles do not park in the entrance to the car park and block the gates, as these may be needed for emergency access.

NAMING SCHOOL UNIFORM - Please help your child and school by ensuring all uniform, including shoes, PE kits and coats, are clearly labelled.

MIDDAY SUPERVISORY ASSISTANT/RELIEF JOB VACANCY - Required as soon as possible. Please contact the school office or see the school website for further details.

OURSCHOOLS APP

One of our main tools for communicating news and dates to parents is OurSchoolsApp. Using your device (iPad,

iPhone, smart pad, tablet or android phone), visit the relevant marketplace for your product (Apple Store or Google Play).

Search for ‘OurSchoolsApp’ and download the app.

Once downloaded, use the search bar within the app and enter the postcode or the name of the school.

Hit the search button.

Once you see the school name displayed, just touch the screen on the school name.

Confirm your choice by pressing ‘OK’.

You will now be presented with the correct app for your chosen school which contains news, information,

calendar events, contacts and any other relevant details.

Please take time to do this if you haven't already—it is really easy and feedback is that it is very useful!

WE’RE LISTENING

We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that, in order to facilitate feedback, we have placed comment cards and a post box in the reception. We would like to invite parents and carers to let us know of any ideas you have which would help us to improve our school further or take the opportunity to let us know what you value most about Richmond Methodist School.

It is important that you ensure that you do not use social media to criticise or make inappropriate comments about the school, another child or an individual member of staff.