Monthly Archives: July 2014

Hello everyone and welcome to an extremely busy and exciting week at Copthorne.  As we near the end of term we have lots of activities to fit in before we break up.

This week at Copthorne

PSHE Week

This week at Copthorne we will be holding our Personal, Social and Health Education Week.  This special week aims to further improve our children’s personal and social skills and their understanding of the many different aspects of health through  a wide range of new learning experiences. There will be lots of fun and exciting activities for children to take part in such as horse riding, ice-skating, bowling, water-based activities and trips to the park.  There will also be a climbing wall for the children to enjoy and Key Stage 1 will have the opportunity to take part in Go Karting. Our children’s understanding of healthy eating will be furthered through a cooking competition, where the children in every class will have to produce a healthy meal and a smoothie. There will also be a poetry and a poster competition related to health ,which children will carry out in their classes. Year 5 will also be visiting the Positive Life Centre to investigate the health risks associated with drugs.

There are also activities to support staff well-being such as lunch-time head massages! This promises to be an exciting and fun-filled week for both children and staff.

Enterprise Week

Last week was our very exciting Enterprise Week at Copthorne. All our children  worked as class teams to develop a business idea to raise money for School Fund in order to purchase new playground equipment.. The aim of the week was to develop our pupils’ enterprise and maths skills and encourage them to collaborate effectively. The children  developed and trialled their product ideas last week before deciding on a final product which they will sell at their class stall on Thursday 17th July.  During Open Evening that night, between 3pm and 4pm , parents, carers and family members will also have the opportunity to visit the Enterprise stalls for each class. The children have been working hard to set up their own class business and this will be an opportunity to see their ideas and buy their wares so please bring some money with you as we wouldn’t want you to miss out on a bargain and the opportunity to celebrate the children’s hard work!  The children will have the opportunity to visit the stalls from 2.30pm that afternoon so we would be grateful if you could give them a small amount of money so that they can buy some of the products that are on display.

Lightwater Valley Trip

On Monday 14th July our wonderful Year 6 children are being rewarded for al their hard work and positive behaviour since joining Copthorne by spending a day at Lightwater Valley theme park. This is a very popular trip and I am sure the children and staff who will be accompanying them will have a fantastic day. I am looking forward to hearing all about it on Tuesday.

“We’re all going to the seaside”

As part of their Seaside theme, Year 2 will be visiting the beach at St Anne’s on Monday 14th July. The children have been studying Grace Darling in class.  Grace,  along with her father, inspired the idea of the RNLI (Royal Navy Lifeboat Institution),  Grace was born in 1815 and lived with her father, the lighthouse keeper, in a lighthouse on the Farne Islands in Northumberland.  Grace became famous for helping her father to rescue the survivors from the SS Forfarshire when the ship was driven by a storm onto Harcar rocks on 7th September 1838.  Whilst at the beach, the children will be able to see the Royal Navy Lifeboat and learn about what fantastic work the men and ladies do to keep us safe at sea.  Have a lovely day Year 2! We hope the weather stays bright and sunny for you.

Achievement and Star of the Year Assembly

On Wednesday 16^th July at 2pm we will be holding our Achievement and Star of the Year Assembly for our children.  This is to celebrate hard work our children put in to achieving our amazing end of Key Stage 1 and 2 test results.  Once again, our children have shown great determination, real focus and a wonderful attitude to learning to achieve wonderful results. I look forward to seeing as many families as possible at this fabulous event.

Attendance Assembly

We will be holding our Attendance Assembly on Thursday 17^th July at 9am.  This is a wonderful assembly to celebrate all our children who have achieved excellent attendance throughout the year and to thank their families.  We would like you to come and join us in this celebration as you have made it possible for your child to achieve these awards.  If for any reason you cannot join us then can I take this opportunity to thank you very much for making sure that your child attends school every day and on time.

Open Evening

On Thursday 17th July from 3-6pm we will be holding our annual Open Evening for parents, carers and family members. During the Open Evening you will be able to visit your child’s classroom and look at the work he/she has been doing throughout the year. In addition, you will be able to visit your child’s new classroom and meet his/her teacher for next year. Children’s reports will be given to you as you arrive for the event so that you can chat informally to the teachers about these during the evening should you wish to do so. Reports for the children whose parents do not attend the Open Evening will be sent home with the children at the end of school on Friday 18th July.

Goodbye Mrs Dew

As you may be aware, Mrs Jean Dew is retiring from teaching after 28 years at Copthorne.  We know that many of you and your children have very fond memories of Mrs Dew and would like to say goodbye to her.  We have therefore arranged a Farewell Coffee Morning in the school hall at 9am on Friday 18^th July. This will give parents the opportunity to come and chat informally to Mrs Dew and wish her well as she leaves Copthorne ready for the next exciting stage in her life.  We appreciate that many of you will be fasting for Ramadan at the time of the event but hope that you feel able to attend. We look forward to seeing you there.

Farewell to Mrs Gamble and Mr Sandhu

On July 22nd we also say a sad goodbye to Mrs Gamble who has worked tirelessly with Year 6 to support and guide them in achieving the highest standards. Mrs Gamble leaves us for a school in Huddersfield where she will become a specialist Maths Teacher. We thank her for all her hard work and commitment to Copthorne and wish her every success in her new role. We will miss her terribly.

Mr Sandhu, 5 Cedar’s class teacher, is also leaving us next week. Mr Sandhu has dreamt of working in the Middle East for some time and has now secured a teaching post in Dubai. We thank him for his hard work and calm, caring manner. I know that 5 Cedar will miss him terribly as will all the staff and pupils. We hope that he enjoys his adventure in Dubai and hope that he will come back to the UK to visit us often.

Dates for your diary

Exceed Attendance Celebration

The annual Exceed Attendance Celebration for all those children who have achieved 100% attendance and no lates this year, takes place on Monday 21st July from 12.30-3pm at the University of Bradford. Letters have already gone home to the parents of the pupils achieving the award. I look forward to seeing you at the event and celebrating another great achievement for our pupils.

Leavers’ Assembly

The Year 6 Leavers’ Assembly will take place on Tuesday 22nd July at 9.15 am and 2 pm. Parents, carers and family members are encouraged to attend and see our Year 6 in their final production at Copthorne. The event is always very entertaining but also very poignant as we say goodbye to our amazing children and share with them some of their Copthorne journey. I hope to see as many of you there as possible.

I hope you have a lovely week and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at one of our events.

Mrs Shepherd

Hello everybody and I hope that you have had a lovely weekend.  We have reached that time of  year where school is extra busy and there are lots of fun and exciting activites for the children to take part in.  Have a great week everyone!

Important Notice

Due to industrial action by members of the NUT, UNISON, GMB and UNITE, we have no alternative but to close school to children on Thursday 10^th July. On this day we will not have enough staff to ensure the health and safety of pupils on our site. The strike is in response to changes made to staff pay, pensions and working conditions by the Government. These changes will see all staff working longer, paying more and receiving less. Whilst the staff involved are sorry for any inconvenience parents and carers may suffer as a result of their action, they feel that they have been forced into this position and have no alternative but to strike. School will be open as normal on Friday 11^th July.

This week at Copthorne

Enterprise Week

This week is our very exciting Enterprise Week at Copthorne. All our children will be working as class teams to develop a business idea to raise money for School Fund. The aim of the week is to develop our pupils’ enterprise and maths skills and encourage them to collaborate effectively. The children will be developing and trialling product ideas this week and deciding on a final product which they will sell at their class stall on Thursday 17th July. At Copthorne we are constantly working to improve our pupils’ maths skills by setting maths in a real life context. We believe that our Enterprise Week will support this work effectively and we know that our children will enjoy this opportunity to demonstrate their entrepreneurial skills. I imagine that we’ll soon be seeing some of them on The Apprentice!

Year 4 off to the zoo

On Wednesday 9th July, children in Year 4 will visit Chester Zoo in order to support the learning in their science lessons this half term.  The children have been busy this half term making snacks and drinks to sell to staff and children at breaktime, to subsidise their trip. I am sure the children will have a fantastic time learning all about the different kinds of animals.  Have fun Year 4 and learn lots!

Raving Readers

On Wednesday 9th and Friday 10th July, small groups of our wonderful Raving Readers will be visiting Waterstones, the very exciting bookshop in Bradford City Centre.  Whilst there, the children will be able to look at a selection of books, choose a book of their choice and have a hot chocolate as a reward for all their hard work with reading this year.  Childrens’ reading skills are vital to their success in school and our children have found that reading can be a fun and imaginative activity, which opens doors to all kinds of new worlds for them. Well done Raving Readers, we are very proud of you. Keep up the hard work!

 Copthorne’s Superstars!

On Friday 11th July we will hold our Star of the Month Assembly.  At the assembly one pupil from each class will be  rewarded for exceptional learning behaviour and work. Staff working in each class  nominate the children they feel have displayed a no excuses, positive attitude. Well done to this month’s award winners.

Dates for your diary

Open Evening

On Thursday 17th July from 3-6pm we will be holding our annual Open Evening for parents, carers and family members. During the Open Evening you will be able to visit your child’s classroom and look at the work he/she has been doing throughout the year. In addition, you will be able to visit your child’s new classroom and meet his/her teacher for next year. Children’s reports will be given to you as you arrive for the event so that you can chat informally to the teachers about these during the evening should you wish to do so. Reports for the children whose parents do not attend the Open Evening will be sent home with the children at the end of school on Friday 18th July.

During the event you will also have the opportunity to visit the Enterprise stalls for each class. The children have been working hard to set up their own class business and this will be an opportunity to see their ideas and buy their wares so please bring some money with you as we wouldn’t want you to miss out on a bargain and the opportunity to celebrate the children’s hard work!

The children will have the opportunity to visit the stalls from 2.30 that afternoon so we would be grateful if you could give them a small amount of money so that they can buy some of the products that are on display.

Summer Holiday

Copthorne Primary School closes for the Summer Holidays after school on July 22nd. There is a staff training day on July 23rd.

School re-opens for children at the usual time on Tuesday 2nd September.

I hope you have a super week.

Mrs Shepherd

Hello everyone and welcome to our blog.  I hope you enjoy reading about the events that take place in our school. As usual we have another busy week ahead of us.

Cup Final Fever!!

I am thrilled to inform you that our fantastic Year 5/6 football team won the Exceed Football Cup Final against Horton Grange last Wednesday, with an amazing 3-0 victory.  Congratulations to Horton Grange for getting through to the final. They gave us a very tough game, keeping us at 1-0 until the last few minutes of the game. Our team have been playing in the league since September and have won all of their games.  I am sure we will be hearing from the England Football Manager very shortly to sign them up! Once again congratulations to you all on this amazing achievement and for being wonderful ambassadors for our school.

Copthorne’s Got Talent

Last week we held the final for the annual Copthorne’s Got Talent competition. The standard of talent this year, as always, was amazing and a delight to watch and I would like to congratulate all our talented finalists for reaching the last stage of the competion. The three acts that won the competion were “The four happy girls” – Naida, Naleema, Hiba and Hawaa who danced and sang along to the Happy Song and had us all clapping along and feeling very joyful.  Representing Lower Key Stage 2 were the magicians: Ehsan and Danish, who showed us some amazing magic tricks. Representing Upper Key Stage 2, was the very talented Wahib who showed us some slick moves dancing to Micheal Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”.  The three winning acts then went on to represent Copthorne at the Exceed’s Got Talent competition where they competed against the finalists of the LAP schools in our area.  I am pleased to announce that Wahib came second out of all the other contestants in the competition.  In our eyes all our children are winners and each year I am astounded by the amount of talent we have in our school.  I would like to thank all the staff involved in this event, especially Mr A Khan for making this another great success.

This week at Copthorne

New to Reception Parents’ Meeting

We have arranged two important meetings for parents’ of children who will be attending our Reception classes in September.  The meetings will be held at school on Monday 30th June at either 9:00am or 2:15pm. Starting full time education can be exciting and daunting for both parents and children alike.  At Copthorne we assure parents that we will do our best to meet the needs of their children and we look foward to working closely with them to ensure a smooth transition process.

Transition Day

Wednesday 2nd July is Transition day for the whole school.   During the morning children will visit their new class for next term and meet their new class teacher and support staff who will be working with them.  They will spend the morning  taking  part in activities and tasks to help staff and childen get to know each other.  Year 6 will spend the day at their new upper school and so will not be expected to come to Copthorne that day. We wish everyone a wonderful and exciting morning. I know that it will leave you feeling enthused and excited about the year ahead.

“Aye Aye Captain “

Year 1 are very lucky to be having a visit from a pirate on Friday 4th July.  They will be carrying out a range of pirate themed activities which will support their learning in class.  Children will be coming to school dressed as a pirate.  This is always a very exciting day for the children and I am sure they will have a great learning experience.

Children’s Book Week: World War One Commemoration Event

On Friday 4th July, thirty of our Year 4 children will be visiting the City Library in Bradford to celebrate Children’s Book Week. Whilst at the library children will have the opportunity to listen to historian, Dr Kathryn Hughes who will take the children back in time to explore what life was like for children living in Bradford in the First World War. The session will also include a chance for every child to have a ‘hands on’ rag rug making session with West Yorkshire Ruggers.

I would like to send good wishes to our families and staff who will be fasting during this special month of Ramadan. We will be thinking of you.

I hope you have a lovely week.

Mrs Shepherd