Dear Parents and Carers

I hope you are all well and looking forward to the Bank Holiday weekend.

Thursday 7th May – Polling Day

The school is being used as a polling station on Thursday 7th May.  This is something that is determined by the local council and we are notified after we have set our term dates for the year.  School will be open to the children on this day.  The hall and dining room will be used as a polling station and we are able to safely lockdown this area of school so that the general public can’t get into the areas where the children are. Lunchtime arrangements will be different with the children either eating outside or in their classrooms.  The school kitchen is providing a sandwich-based lunch for children who have a school lunch.  Norbury Tinkers will be based in Mrs Mills’ and Mrs Williams’ classrooms and access to these rooms will be the external doors on to the car park.  Drop off and pick up arrangements remain largely the same.  The Year 3 children will come out on to the same playground but not via the hall doors. 

Bikes and scooters

With the recent good weather, we have more children cycling and scooting to school. 
We have such large numbers doing this so we are looking into buying an additional
cycle shelter for storage.  Our Parents’ Association are helping us to fund this. 

Can I however remind children and parents that bikes and scooters must not be used inside the school grounds.  I would also urge caution on the surrounding streets as the new traffic calming measures have made some pavements more narrow and we need to be mindful of the safety of pedestrians. 

OPAL

OPAL is now fully up and running at lunchtimes and the children are really enjoying using all of the zones that we have created. Photographs will appear shortly on our website so that you can see the children in action and the fun they have been having.

In the second half of the Summer term we would like to hold another parent volunteer day on Friday 26th June as there are several jobs we would like to do to enable us to open additional zones. This includes creating a pallet hut village as an area where the children can sit and relax with friends as well as share books. We are also hoping to create a track to enable us to have a wheeled vehicle area. If you have carpentry skills or are able to construct storage that would be amazing but we are also looking for helpers that can just help us to organise and move resources. In addition, there are also some painting jobs to do including the fencing for the Reception area that is looking a little tired.

The parent volunteer day in the Spring term was so successful and we achieved so much. If you can spare an hour or two it would be fantastic and make such a difference for the children. As we did previously, we will provide bacon and sausage butties mid-morning for refreshments.

If you are able to help please email
Mrs Adnett at [email protected].

Dear Parents and Carers

We are pleased to share that our school will be recognising World Mental Health Week from Monday 11th to Friday 15th May.

Throughout the week, children will take part in a range of age-appropriate activities designed to promote positive wellbeing, encourage open conversations and help them to understand the importance of looking after their mental health.

To mark the end of the week, we will be holding a non-uniform day on Friday 15th May. On this day, we invite all children to come to school wearing green – this could be a small item, a splash of green, or even head to toe in green, if they wish.

Please note that no donations are required for this event. The focus is on raising awareness and showing support for mental health in a positive and inclusive way.

We look forward to a meaningful week across the school,
​
Kind Regards,
Sara Turner

Summer Quest Trapped?

Last week we kicked off the summer term with a new quest and a series of discoveries to make! The children received letters from a mysterious stranger, R, who needed their help. They spent the first two days of the term making plans and examining evidence to find and rescue the trapped character who we later discovered to be Rapunzel! On Wednesday, we were then treated to an amazing performance by the Wrongsemble theatre company to their version of the fairy tale. We later discovered that the performance had been inspired by the twisted tale ‘Rapunzel’ written and illustrated by Bethan Woollvin. Now we are immersing ourselves in the creative world of Bethan Woollvin, learning about her inspirations and building upon our drawing and painting skills.

Dance
This term, both Year 3 and 4 will have the opportunity to work with our dance specialist Laura Kendall who has created bespoke performances for the children. Year 3 will have dance lessons on Tuesday morning and Year 4 on Wednesday morning. At the end of the school year, we hope to share our learning with you, to perform and to celebrate our successes at Norbury Fest. This will also include a whole school collaborative performance and an enterprise project to showcase our artwork.
Year 3 will continue to have their outdoor P.E lesson on Monday afternoon and 4N will begin swimming lessons on Friday morning, with 4H playing cricket.

Here Comes The Sun!
As the sun is finally shining again, please can you ensure that your child is prepared and safe to enjoy the warmer weather. The children will need a hat to protect them from the sun – please ensure that this is labelled. They may also want to have a pair of sunglasses and their own sun lotion. This can be reapplied by the children at break or lunchtime.

Reading
We continue to work hard in school to promote a love for reading and encourage the children to read consistently at home. Reading books and Reading Records are to be brought into school every day. Please listen to your child read at home as frequently as possible, record this in your child’s Reading Record and support them in bringing these back into school each day. Please ask them questions about the text, to make predictions and to discuss characters to check their understanding. You may also want to discuss any new vocabulary with your children and use dictionaries to define any unknown words.

Thank you for your ongoing support,
Year 3 and 4 Team

Summer Term – Trapped

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been lovely to see our amazing Reception learners return to school after the break happily. We have loved hearing all their news and what they have been up to!
The arrival of a letter sent by ‘R’ saying she was trapped somewhere in the school grounds launched our exciting new Quest!  After talking about the photographic clues, the children went outdoors and found her stuck in a hanging basket! The children came up with lots of creative ideas as to how to rescue her and worked together as a team to bring her down safely. 

The children have enjoyed the performance of Rapunzel and is this steering our learning into sharing different stories and letting our imaginations take us to fun and magical places.
This term we will also be inspired by the artist Matisse, learning about colour and shape to create our own masterpieces for Norbury Fest. 

We are learning to:

• We continue to recall number facts within 10, exploring ways to make 10.  E.g. 7 and 3 make 10.
• Simple addition and subtraction practically – How many more/less?  And then written calculations within 10.
• Sharing and grouping amounts practically.
• Selecting, rotating and manipulating shapes to develop spatial reasoning skills.
• Writing a simple sentence using their knowledge of phonics and tricky words taught so far.  Starting to learn that a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.
• Exploring in outdoor learning and looking for signs of summer, including finding out about minibeasts and their habitats.
• Learning to care and understand about our earth, in particular the creatures in our environment.

 
Bug Club and Weekly Reading

Please can we encourage you to use Bug Club as it is such a valuable resource ensuring the bug’s eyes get closed.  We would like you to aim at reading with your child three times a week in line with the school policy.  As the books become longer, a few pages or for 10 minutes would be ideal!  Many thanks for supporting us with your child’s reading development.
 
As ever, it is a busy term with lots of learning and activities planned for our children.  If you feel you need any support or have any concerns about your child, please contact us. 
 
Many thanks as always for your continued support
 
The Reception Team

Summer Quest – Trapped?
We have started the Summer term with the launch of a new Quest entitled ‘Trapped’.  The children came back into school to clues and a mysterious letter from ‘R’ who had been trapped in the school grounds. The children planned, designed and carried out rescue missions for R who had been trapped by the Wicked Witch. It was then revealed that R was in fact, Rapunzel! The children enjoyed the theatre production from Wrongsemble and found out more about Rapunzel’s predicament of being trapped.  This forms the starting point for a term of narrative based learning incorporating music and the arts. We are focusing our learning around the twisted tale, ‘Rapunzel’ by Bethan Woollvin.
 
Dance
As in previous years, each year group will have a different dance focus for the term. This year, both Year 1 and 2 will have the opportunity to work with our dance specialist Laura Kendall.
At the end of the year, we hope to share our learning with you, to perform and to celebrate our successes at Norbury Fest.

Here Comes The Sun!
As the sun is finally shining again, please can you ensure that your child is prepared and safe to enjoy the warmer weather. The children will need a hat to protect them from the sun – please ensure that this is labelled. They may also want to have a pair of sunglasses and their own sun lotion. This can be reapplied by the children at break or lunchtime.

Best wishes,
The Year 1 and 2 Team

Dear Parents and Carers,
​
I hope you all had a good Easter break and enjoyed the sunshine we had.  The children have returned to school enthusiastically.  We have started the term with the launch of a new Quest entitled ‘Trapped’.  The children have been planning and carrying out rescue missions for R who has been trapped in the school grounds.  Today the children have enjoyed the theatre production and found out more about Rapunzel’s predicament of being trapped.  This forms the starting point for a term of narrative based learning incorporating the arts.

Thank You
Thank you so much for your patience and cooperation following our school closure on Monday morning.  I can inform you that we did find the cause of the issue with our water and that we are happy that there should be no reoccurrence for the same reason.

Parking
The proposed traffic calming measures have been installed over the Easter holiday.  I would strongly request that you park responsibly taking the measures into account and avoiding these areas completely.  I have already had a couple of local residents get in touch with me to indicate that parking would seem in some instances to be worse and not better.   One cited that examples of parking they had seen would not allow emergency vehicles to get through if needed.  Your parking is directly related to the safety of all our children – please be mindful of this at all times.

Marathon Fund Raising for Make a Wish
The children had a great time running their part of the marathon just before the Easter break.  Some had drier weather than others but all had a great time.  Thank you so much to Paul Richardson who encouraged the children along as he did his run and thank you to our School Council for promoting this event.  I am pleased to tell you that donations to date are very close to £2000 which is excellent and will support many families who work with this invaluable charity.

Roblox
I know Roblox is very popular with a number of our children.  A couple of parents have recently highlighted the potential dangers of your children using this platform and I wanted to share this with you.  Please find attached with this newsletter a leaflet which will give you more information.  I wanted to highlight that Roblox has user generated content and chat features which could pose a risk to your child’s safety online.  Using parental controls and monitoring closely your child’s online experiences is so important and I would urge you to review these regularly. 

Dear Parents and Carers,
​
This is just a short newsletter to update you on a few things and to remind you of some previous correspondence.

Staff News
We are very pleased to welcome Miss Gregory back to Year 5.  Miss Manfredi will continue to work alongside her as she makes this return.  To support Miss Gregory, we need to move our Year 5 children to the ground floor of the building.  Our Year 4 children will be moving upstairs.  We intend to move things between classrooms on Friday morning.
We are saying goodbye to Mrs Davis after over 15 year’s service at the school. 
We are immensely grateful to Jo for all she has contributed and she will be missed.

Medication
All medication that comes into school must come via the school office and the appropriate paperwork needs to be completed.  Medication must also be collected from the school office – it cannot be sent home via the class teacher.  If your child attends Norbury Tinkers medication can be sent to and from school via their team.

Fans
We have recently enjoyed some warmer weather after a very long a wet winter.  We obviously do all we can to make the children safe and comfortable in the warmer weather but would ask that the children don’t bring hand held fans into school.

Wrongsemble Theatre Visit
Wrongsemble Theatre Company are in school on Wednesday 15th April.  All children will be watching the performance including our Nursery children.  To support this visit we would ask for a £2 voluntary contribution per child towards the cost.  This has been set up for you on School Money.

The Big Walk and Wheel – 16th – 27th March
Thank you to those families who have walked, biked or scooted to school across this fortnight.  Thank you also to our School Council for encouraging us to do so and collating the information about the number of children who have done this.

Primary Sports Coaching – Holiday Camps
Primary Sports Coaching are running a holiday camp at the school during the Easter holiday (excluding bank holidays and Monday 30th March).
For more information, please visit https://www.primaryscl.co.uk/holiday-camps/  
or email [email protected]
There are a limited number of free places for children who receive ‘benefits related free school meals’ and attend school or reside in Stockport. Vouchers will be sent to eligible families by email in the next few days. Please keep an eye on your emails and on PSCL’s social media pages.

Term Dates – 2026 / 2027
Alongside this newsletter we are publishing term dates for next year.  I would like to use this opportunity to remind parents that term time holidays are unauthorised.  It is important that your child is in school as much as possible.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a lovely Easter break. 
​We look forward to seeing the children after this.

Best wishes
Becky Wood

​