Monthly Archives: March 2014

Hello everybody and I hope you have had a lovely weekend.  I hope all the mums had a happy Mother’s day and that you were spoilt by your wonderful children. You all deserve it!

Linking Schools Project

Last week 4 Poplar welcomed pupils from All Saints Primary School in Ilkley as part of their Linking Schools project.  The children spent the day at Copthorne meeting their partners to whom they have already been writing.  The children had an “indoor picnic” in school and spent time doing team building activites.  It was a delight to welcome them to Copthorne.

Fruit and Milk 

Just a reminder to let you know that milk and fruit money is now due for next term.  If your child is in Year 1 or 2 and they would like to have milk, the amount for next term is £10.  If your child is in Year 3, 4, 5 or 6 and they would like to have fruit, the amount for next term is £8.  Please send all money in an envelope with your child’s name, class and fruit money clearly labelled no later than Friday 4th April 2014.

Multi Sports

Last Monday some of our KS1 children went to Grange Technology College with Mr H Khan to take part in a multi-sports tournament.  They met children from the other Exceed schools and took part in activities involving jumping, running, catching and balancing. They had an amazing time and were a credit to our school.

This week at Copthorne:

Delivery of Chicks

We are very excited, today, to welcome the annual arrival of a set of fertilised eggs which we hope will hatch into chicks.  This is an exciting time in school as we watch the chicks prepare to hatch.  When the chicks have hatched they are moved to a brooder box where children can watch the chicks as they eat and sleep. This year, the eggs will be incubated in Nursery and we know that this will be a great opportunity for our children to learn about living things.

Rounders Tournament

The rounders team will take part in an Exceed rounders tournament today. Along with Mr A Khan they will travel to Grange Technology College and I am sure they will do their very best to do our school proud – Good luck to them all!

Year 4 – Eden Camp Trip

On Wednesday 2nd April, Year 4 will be going to Eden Camp near  Malton in North Yorkshire.  The visit has been arranged in order to support the work currently being carried out in the classroom on World War 2.  Eden Camp is a Modern History Themed Museum housed within the grounds of an original World War Two prisoner of war camp.  It was developed into a museum by local businessman Stan Johnson to stand as a tribute to all people, civilian and military, who endured hardship throughout World War Two.  The children will be able to experience the sights, sounds, smells of wartime Britain. This is always a very popular trip with Year 4 and I am sure the children will learn lots of interesting facts to extend the learning they have been doing in class.  Have a lovely day, everyone!

Exceed Football Competition

Copthorne’s football team will take part in the Exceed’s semi-final cup game against Farnham Primary School on Wednesday at Grange Technology College.  They have done so well to get to the semi-finals.  Go Copthorne!

Year 6 – Copthorne’s Got Talent Auditions

On Wednesday we will hold the Year 6 Copthorne’s Got Talent Auditions.  Unfortunately this had to be postponed last week but we are looking forward, this week, to seeing what great talent our year 6 children have.  The judges have described level of talent that they have already seen in the school as amazing and now cannot wait to see the Year 6 acts.

School Council Meeting

On Thursday 3rd April, it will be the turn of Copthorne’s School Council members to host members from other Exceed schools.  The children will have lunch and then a tour around school.  After lunch they will meet and share ideas and discuss projects that have already taken place.  As well as the the Exceed School Council members, a group of children from Stanbury Primary School in Haworth will also visit be visiting Copthorne to have a look at our wonderful school.  We look forward to welcoming them all.

I hope you all have a super week.

Mrs Shepherd

Welcome to our blog and a very special welcome home to the 8 members of the Copthorne family who have returned from their exciting adventure in Turkey.

The group comprised 4 of our Year 5 children: Uzayr, Isa, Miranda and Ayesha and 4 members of staff: Miss Wood, Mrs Rice, Mr LLoyd and Mr Jacques. The group had an absolutely wonderful time and experienced a great deal of Istanbul’s culture and famous sites. The children stayed with Turkish families and were looked after beautifully. As usual they were a credit to Copthorne.

We would like thank our Turkish hosts for their friendship, care and great hospitality. We look forward to seeing the entire Comenius group again during the next meeting which takes place in Rhodes this June.

This week at Copthorne

Reception classes go shopping!

This week, our Reception children will be visiting our local Asda store to look at the range of food for sale and to learn about how we buy and pay for our shopping. I am sure they will learn a lot about the types of goods a supermarket sells and enjoy their shopping experience.

Governors visit our school

Once again we are thrilled to welcome members of our Governing Body as they come in to school on Wednesday 26th March to spend time in Key Stage 2. Governors will be spending time in lessons talking to and reading with children as well as answering any questions the children have about the governing body. After the meeting, Mrs Hussain – the Chair of Governors – will meet with Mrs Gamble (our Science Coordinator)  to hear about the current picture as regards Science in our school. We are really looking forward to giving the governors even more opportunities to be activiely involved in our school.

Strike Action

On Wednesday 26th March some members of the NUT (National Union of Teachers) will be taking industrial action. Although the majority of the school will remain open, we have had to ask some classes to stay at home as we will have insufficient staff to teach them or to ensure their health and safety. The classes affected are: Nursery (both morning and afternoon), 1R, 1Oak, 2Elm and 5 Willow. Therefore, children from these classes should not attend school on Wednesday 26th. Children from all other classes must attend as usual. We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.

We wish you all a pleasant week ahead.

Mrs Shepherd

Hello and welcome to our blog.  I hope you have had a lovely weekend and that you are all enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

This week is another full one for Copthorne with lots of interesting activities planned to help our children make great progress in their learning.

Super Archers

Last week our archery team went to the Khidmet Centre to compete in an Exceed Archery Competition.  I am delighted to inform you that they were the overall winners of the competition by a clear margin and have been presented with the winners’ shield for the fifth year in a row.  Two members of our team were each also awarded a trophy for the highest and second highest scores in the competition. Congratulations to the member of the Crossley Hall team for coming third.  Well done to all our archers: we are very proud of you!

This week at Copthorne

Environment Week

This week we are holding our ‘Environment Week’.  The theme this year is ‘Reusable Energy’.  There will be a lot of geography-based activities happening from Nursery to Year 6. These include;

• experiencing lessons without electricity or paper,
• Bottle Drive: a prize for the class who can recycle the most plastic bottles,
• visit to a wind turbine
• visit to recycling area at a supermarket
• forest schools

To raise awareness of our theme, on Friday 21st March, children can wear green clothes to school instead of uniform. In exchange, we ask each child to donate £1 to raise money to encourage sustainability through the planting of fruit trees in our school grounds. I would just like to thank you in advance for your support throughout this week.  I know you will support our children’s understanding of reusable energy at home by talking to them about what it means and what it looks like in our community.

Turkey Visit

I know that, today, there will be 4 of our children and 4 members of staff who will be very excited about their visit to Istanbul in Turkey. They depart from Manchester airport this morning and will return home on Saturday. The visit forms part of our Comenius project. The children will be staying with Turkish families for a true taste of Turkish culture.  During the visit the staff and children will be meeting representatives from the other 9 countries in the project, visiting some Turkish primary schools to share ideas and plan the visits to the remaining 5 countries (Romania, Lithuania, Spain, Greece and the Netherlands) and visiting a range of famous and iconic landmarks in Istanbul.  The children will also be spending a day in school with their partner children from the host families. This is a wonderful opportunity for everybody involved and I know that they are really looking forward to the trip.  We wish our staff and pupils a safe and enjoyable journey and look forward to hearing all about their adventure on their return.

Forest Schools

Today, 3 Alder will be visting St Ives in Bingley with Mrs Robinson as part of Environment week.  They will be participating in activities in relation to ‘Reusable Energy’. The children will be looking at how plants use energy and how animals can help the environment. On Tuesday 18th March it will be 3 Larch’s turn. These visits also support children’s science learning as they are able to apply existing knowledge in a real- life context.

Copthorne’s Got Talent

On Tuesday 18th March, it will be the turn of Year 4 to show the judges what amazing talents they have.  The children are very excited about this popular event and I know the judges are looking forward to seeing what talented artists we have in school.  On Thursday this week Year 3 will get their turn to impress the judges.

Recycling

As part of our Environment Week, Year 2 will be making a trip to the recycling centre at Morrisons on Friday 21st March.  They will be collecting the plastic bottles from each class from the bottle drive and will recyle them on behalf of the school.  A wide range of products can be made from recycled plastic, including new plastic bottles, garden furniture, water butts, compost bins and fleece jackets/jumpers.  In fact it only takes 25 two litre plastic bottles to make an adult sized fleece! So, carry on recycling everyone and protect our planet!

Have a great week, everyone.

Mrs Shepherd

Welcome to our blog and I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend. It was great to see the sun shining and to have no rain. Let’s hope that carries on!

I would like to say a big thank you to our wonderful parents, carers and staff for making World Book Day, last Thursday, a tremendous success.  It was wonderful to see so many children and staff members taking part and dressing up as their favourite book character.  The children learnt lots about different books and authors. There are also a number of reading activites planned for next week.

I am delighted to share some really lovely news this week: one of our Year 5 pupils, Mohammed Malavia, and his sister found some money in the playground  and then they handed it in to the school office.  The money was eventually claimed and the owner was so happy that he left them both a reward.  I am so proud of Mohammed and his sister and this is a wonderful example of how honest and caring our pupils are.  Well done!!

The Year 5 boys enjoyed their first week of swimming last week and were very excited when they returned.  I am sure over the next few weeks they will grow more confident and enjoy the experience even more.

This week at Copthorne:

Copthorne’s Got Talent

This week we begin the first round of auditions for Copthorne’s Got Talent.  It will be the turn of Year 1 and Year 2 this week to show the judges what amazing talents they have.  This is a very popular event and I look forward to seeing the range of skills and abilities that our children have.

Thwaite Mill Museum

On Tuesday 11th March, Year 6 will be visiting the Thwaite Mill Museum in Leeds.  The visit is in association with Environment Week which will be held in school from Monday 17th March.  During the visit the children will take part in a water force workshop.  They will then be sharing their experiences with our Reception children during the following week.  This trip should be a very informative and enjoyable one for our children and I am looking forward to hearing all about the workshop on their return.

Ilkley Toy Museum

Year 1 will be visiting Ilkley Toy Musuem on Wednesday 12th March as part of their Creative Curriculum work this term on toys.  The museum has lots of interesting toys dating from 350 BCE to modern times. Classes that have visited the museum previously have had a wonderful time which was apparent from the work they produced. I am looking forward to seeing the outcomes of this year’s visit.

Mini-Olympics

As part of their work this term on staying healthy, Reception children will be holding a mini-olympics on Wednesday afternoon.  They will be using a range of skills that they have been learning about such as staying in one space, travelling in different directions and lots of other activities.  I am really looking forward to watching the children and I am sure they will enjoy the challenges and have lots of fun as well as keeping fit!

Forest Schools

4 Poplar will carry on with their Forest Schools activities on Friday.  We are hoping the weather will now stay the way it has been this weekend and that the children will enjoy the fresh air over at St Ives.

Last week’s group had a fantastic time learning about shelter building in spite of the weather.

 I hope you all have a super week.

 Mrs Shepherd