PARKDALE NEWS & VIEWS
Newsletter 202
TALKING HEAD
News & Views from the Head’s Office
As we head towards half-term, I’m quietly enjoying colleagues in other schools bemoaning the two-week break. “What am I supposed to do with the kids/myself in this weather?” “The children in school were just getting going, and now we stop!”
I think overall we remain pleased with the decision to keep to just the one week and have longer in Summer. Though we do have a sneaking suspicion that we might get OfSTED in the last week of this half-term, by virtue of there not being many other places for them to go!
Census Day – Thanks
Many thanks to those who booked a school dinner for yesterday. Weird as it may seem, it really does make a huge difference to the amount of funding we get and therefore how much we have available to spend on your children.
Music Teacher
As yet, the Notts Music Hib have not been able to find us a permanent replacement for Mr Hatherley. We have a very nice temprary teacher for the rest of this term, Mrs Heath.
Mrs Heath does not teach the ukulele, but will focus on Musical Drama as well as singing. She’ll also do some other instrumental lessons. Feedback from the children last week on the Musical Drama was really positive – they loved it! Ukulele will resume for Years 5 and 6 after Christmas.
National Poetry Day and Week
We will be marking National Poetry Day on in English lessons on October the 7th.
We will also be having a whole week dedicated to poetry, the first week back after half-term.
DIARY
REMINDERS
HALF-TERM
Remember, we are not on half-term in the week beginning the 18th of October!
We have one week for half-term, starting Monday 25th OCtober.
Harvest Festival is on Wednesday 13th October.
If you are able to support our collection for the Emmanuel House Food Bank, could you please send in items from their wish list (attached). Food donations can be brought into your child’s class from Monday 11th and donations will be celebrated in our Assembly on Wednesday morning. Thank you in advance for your continued generosity in supporting our Harvest Food collections for local food banks. Mrs Cooper
Facebook Page
A reminder that we have set up a Facebook Page to share posts directly from this new website. There is a button linking to this on the Home page, to the right of the Head’s comments. This page is unmonitored and we have tried to disable comments as best we can (though Facebook don’t make that very easy!). Any comments that do get through the filtering are likely to remain hidden and won’t be responded to. The page is purely for information sharing, to draw your attention to updates here, which will appear on your timeline if you follow us.
Meet… The Wellbeing Warriors!
This year Parkdale School will have Wellbeing Warriors for the first time !
They are made up of 8 enthusiastic ,caring year 5 and year 6 children. They applied for the ‘job’ at the end of the last academic year and spent time over September being trained for the role. They will be a point of contact for children in school to talk to, if they have a problem or worry. They have relaunched the schools worry boxes, so children can leave them a note to say they would like some help. Don’t worry the pastoral team are still close by for any bigger issues.
The Wellbeing Warriors have been taught about confidentiality, identifying and understanding emotions, the basics of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and positive communication.
They are eager to get started and genuinely want to help other children in school if they are worried or anxious about something. It’s another way children at Parkdale can express how they feel and sometimes it’s easier talking to someone their own age rather than an adult.
Well done so far Warriors, we are proud to have you !
Human Rights Education
As part of our continual focus on values and developing positive attitudes and wellbeing, we are focussing on the United Nations Declaration of Human RIghts in our assemblies of late. So far, we have looked at he first 4 (of 30) ‘articles’:
- That everyone should be born free and equal
- That human rights apply to everyone, free of discrimination
- That everyone has the right to life and to live freely
- That slavery is not permissible.
Children have gone on to discuss these in an age-appropriate way in class. Up in Year 6, for example, this has been getting quite deep and meaningful, with lots of great philosophical debate and thinking going on: “Is everyone born equal?” “If everyone has the right to be free, where do criminals fit in?” “Does slavery actually still exist and is it right for the World Cup 2022 to be hosted by Qatar?”
We are also looking at how ‘British Values’, along with our school and Transform Trust values support and reflect these human rights.
Over the coming months, we will be looking more at Human Rights and the remainder of the 30. We’ll also look more specifically at the RIghts of The Child as defined in the UN Convention. The Unicef website is a good point of reference for those interested in knowing more.
Uniform Market Research
We’d be interested to get some feedback on one particular aspect of school uniform: shirts and ties as Winter uniform.
Our impression, and that of the Governors who decide such things, has always been that people value the smart look that the shirt and tie brings. It’s certainly something visitors and prospective new arrivals usually comment on favourably.
We think the smart look is part of our school and it sets us apart a bit (although lots off schools seem to be adopting ties now!). We also think that being smart is a definite factor in the brilliant behaviour and manners we see, along with real pride in being a ‘Parkdaler’.
Lots of children wear the shirt and tie even when they don’t have to (Reception and in ‘Summer’ uniform time). School council did a quick check this week and on Wednesday 128 (25% of those present) children were wearing a shirt and tie when they didn’t have to be! 186 children (46%) said they positively like wearing the shirt and tie, another 90 children (23%) weren’t fussed either way.
However, we realise the tie is an extra expense and that might be a concern for some.
It’s not a ‘vote’ as such – Governors decide these things – but we’d be interested in your views at this very quick Surveymonkey.
IN OTHER NEWS…
TAG RUGBY FESTIVAL
On Tuesday afternoon Miss Baker took a group of Year 5/6 children to a Tag Rugby event at Arnold Hill. The afternoon was based on practising game play and skills rather than being a competitive tournament. The children had great fun and represented Parkdale brilliantly, showing all our school values whilst having fun!
YEAR 3 ARCHAEOLOGISTS
Year 3 had a wonderful experience on Monday afternoon, exploring real life artefacts from ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome. We were all mesmerised by the detail and the beauty that laid out before us! We had lots of fun discussing what the objects might have been used for and posed questions for further discovery. But our favourite highlight had to be the 5000 year old Egyptian vase! Yes, you read that right …. 5000 years!
Gold TImes Tables Awards
Well done to Imogen and Alex (Poplar) and Jacob (Ash) who have earned their Gold TImes Tables Awards this week. They’ll be presented in next Friday’s Star Assembly (they’re out on a trip this Friday)!
Y4 Scientists
In Year 4 this week the children have been investigating circuits in Science. They were given several challenges to complete in the fastest time. It was so nice to see all the children working brilliantly in their teams and hearing so much scientific language being used.
More From Year 4
Year 4 have also been looking at ‘The Best Part of Me’ they have produced some great work and really thought about how their best part helps them to be who they really are.
Plea for return of books
Directed at Year 2 from the Year 1 team, here… could any books not returned last year when the bubble was closed please be sent back in. Year 1 are a bit short!
Story Readers Wanted!
READING FOR PLEASURE
As you know we place a high priority on reading for pleasure at Parkdale and we spend some time dedicated to this every day. With this in mind, we would LOVE to invite parents, carers, grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins, to come in to school and read a story to your child’s class. You could bring a loved story from home or we can provide one for you. If you could spare 10 or 15 minutes and this is something you’d like to do, please email your child’s class teacher to arrange.
Many thanks for your continued support with our children’s love of reading!
Football Fixture
Our girls have a League match at home to Burton Joyce on Tuesday the 12th. Kick off 3:45pm. All supporters welcome!
News From Year 1
Year 1 have a trip next Thursday to the tramqway Museum at Crich. Look out for reports on their page. Also, to much excitement, the mysterious eggs in the classrooms have hatched to reveal a baby Beegu!