Daily Archives: October 20, 2013

Welcome to another exciting week at Copthorne and I hope that you all had a wonderful Eid.  Thank you to all of you who returned to school on time on Thursday. It was great to see everyone happy and relaxed after the very long weekend.

This week

Year 3 Residential Parents’ Meeting

There will be two short meetings for parents/carers on Monday 21^st October to outline the final arrangements for the Year 3 Exceed residential to Bewerley Park Outdoor Education Centre, Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire. The meetings will be held at 8.45am and 2.30pm, during which you will be provided with details of what your child will need to pack and have the chance to ask any questions you may have. 

It is important for the parents of the children who are going on the trip to attend as there are  important medical consent forms for you to complete.  This is an exciting opportunity for our year 3 children and I am sure that they will have a fantastic experience at the centre.

Parents’ Evening

On Tuesday 22nd October between 3.15 and 6.00pm we will be holding our parents’ evening.  We are looking forward to seeing as many parents’ as possible at the first parents’ evening of this academic year.  During the evening you will have the opportunity to talk to your child’s class teacher about how your child has settled into his/her new class and to hear about his/her targets for this term.  I will also be collecting your views and ideas for Copthorne during the evening. I look forward to seeing you there.

Hawkshead Trip

From Wednesday 23rd to Friday 25th October, 42 of our year 6 pupils will be taking part in the residential visit to Hawkshead in the Lake District.  The children will be accompanied by Mr Darr, Miss Bray, Miss Nelson, Mrs Robinson, Mr A Khan, Mr H Khan, Mr Sajid and Miss Zaman. 

This trip is very important in helping our children work together as a team and in giving them the opportiunity to stay away from home for the first time in a safe but new environment. During their stay the children will be carying out work to deepen and extend their lerning in a number of curriculum areas including Geography, History and Art.  We wish all the pupils and staff an enjoyable trip. I will be driving up to the Lake District on Wednesdy evening to see the children and hear all about their first day’s adventures.

Visit to All Saints Church, Bradford

On Thursday 24th October, the remainder of the year 6 children will be visiting All Saints Church in Bradford as part of their work for R.E.  The children will learn about what the different parts of the church symbolise and what a traditional Christian service involves.  Once again I am sure our children will be wonderful ambassadors for Copthorne.

Half Term Holiday

School will close for half term at the end of school on Friday 25th October and re-open on Monday 4th November at the usual time.  We wish you all an enjoyable rest.

Holiday Challenge

The theme for this holiday’s challenge is ‘Autumn’.  Children are asked to produce a piece of work – this can be anything from art work (drawings, painting, models, collage etc.)to any form of writing or even a film or photographs – about Autumn.  Completed work should be taken to class on Monday 4th November. I will will view the work during that week and samples will then be presented to the whole school in assembly.  Good luck everyone!

Dates for your diary

 Mums Do Maths

From 8.45am to 11.30am on Tuesday 15th November we will be holding our first Mums Do Maths session for female family members of children in year 5 and 6.  Mums and/or any adult female members of the family are invited to come into school that morning and work alongside their children on a variety of maths challenges.  This is a wonderful opportunity for mums and family members to develop a clearer understanding of how maths is taught in our school.  We look forward to welcoming you all to this event.

Wishing you all a great week, hoping that you are keeping warm now that the weather has become very autumnal!

Mrs Shepherd

Well, it’s going to be a very short week at Copthorne this week but, as usual, it will be busy and involve lots of exciting learning oportunities for our children.

Last week we were fortunate in being able to welcome a group of visitors from Ghana.  The group presented an assembly to KS1 about life in Ghana and then visited individual classrooms, where they answered children’s questions and taught some traditional Ghanian dancing.  This visit supports the work we are doing in school for the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard award and was thoroughly enjoyed by all our children and staff. It was also an opportunity for Miss Armitstead to revisit her experiences from this summer as she spent her holiday in Ghana doing charity work.

A great big thank you to our visitors.

 Football Tournament

Last week our football team came first in the Exceed Football League.  Well done to our players for such excellent team work.  You all looked so smart in your new kit too.

Asian Dress Day

Thank you to all of our parents for sending the children to school last Friday dressed to celebrate Eid.  Children enjoyed parties in the afternoon and it was great to see all of our staff joining in with the theme of the day looking so smart and sparkly.

This week at Copthorne

Eid Holiday

School will be closed on Monday 14^th October to Wednesday 16^th October inclusive.  We look forward to welcoming the children back to school at the usual time on Thursday 17^th October 2013.  I would like to wish everyone an enjoyable break with your family at this very special time.

Visit to Poland

From Monday 14^th October to Friday 18^th October, our Assistant Head Teacher Mr Lloyd and our Diversity Co-ordinator Mrs Van Tol will be visiting Poland for the first meeting between the 10 schools involved in our Comenius Project.  We will be working with schools from Poland, Romania, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Lithuania, Portugal, Cyprus and the Netherlands.  As part of this project, staff will visit each of these countries and our children will have the opportunity to take part in some of these visits.  In return we will be welcoming staff and some children from each of the 9 schools. Together we will bw working on a project to develop pupils’ literacy skills through the use of traditional tales. We look forward to taking part in the project and to learning more about the culture and customs of each of the other countries.

Dates for your diary

Parents’ Evening

There will be a parents evening on 22^nd October 2013 from 3.15 – 6pm..  Please could parents’ return their appointment slips to the class teachers by Thursday 17^th October 2013. We look forward to seeing you all and working with you to both celebrate the work of and plan the next steps for our children.

I hope you all have a lovely week with your families.

Eid Mubarak!

Mrs Shepherd