Dear Parents and Carers,
​
As we move towards the start of a new month, I wanted to update you on a few matters.  The children continue to be very settled in school and are enjoying their new Quest – What Makes Our World Work?  Thank you to those of you who attended the Meet the Teacher event for years 1 – 6.  If you were unable to attend the presentations that were shared are on the school website.

School Attendance

For those of you who were with us this time last year, I wrote to you outlining new statutory guidance regarding attendance.  I am sure you will agree that attending school is important for every single one of our children at Norbury Hall.  We understand that children get poorly from time to time and need to be at home but we would encourage you to ensure that attendance at school is maximised.  The following information may help to guide your thinking.

Please be aware that there is no way of authorising a term time holiday.  These are now recorded as unauthorised absences which could lead to a penalty notice.  I am being asked for an increasing number of term time holidays.  As a school we do not currently issue penalty notices but this is a conversation I plan to revisit with our Local Governing Board this term. 

Safety at the start and end of the school day

The gates to school are opened at approximately 8:30 am and are closed again at around 9:05 am.  Please make sure you have left the site by this time.  If you are detained in the school building you will need to leave via the school office.  I would ask that conversations with teachers at the start of the day are brief as they have to start their teaching day.  They will always be willing to make an alternative time to talk if it is a longer conversation.  If you are late to school in the morning, please enter via the school office so that we can ensure your child receives their mark in the register. 

At the end of the day, the gates are opened at approximately 3 pm.  They will be closed at around 3:25 pm.  This is because we have after school clubs on site and need to ensure the children still inside the building are safe.  Again, please make sure you have left the site by this time.

The children are not allowed to play on the adventure playgrounds or tyre park at the start and end of the school day.  Please keep your children with you at all times before the doors open in the morning and after your children have been handed to you at the end of the school day.

School Fund

We ask for a voluntary donation to school fund on an annual basis.  We request a sum of £7.50 per family.  This will be added as a payment to school money.  This helps us buy additional resources for the children in their classrooms.

Parents’ Association

Thank you to those parents who attended the AGM of our Parents’ Association last week and thank you to those parents who have put themselves forward to form the core committee.  We are looking forward to another exciting year of fund raising – please see the diary below for events this term.  As well as attending events, an easy way to donate is to sign up to the Easy Fundraising website which brings funds directly to our Parents’ Association without any additional cost to you.  They are currently working in association with Tesco.  Please follow the link to be able to donate – https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/norburyhall/?utm_campaign=pmc&utm_source=whatsapp&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tesco-bff-wa1

The school disco on Thursday 23rd October, is for all children in the school.  This is a Glow Disco with UV lights.  We ask that the children wear a white T-shirt or top.  The Parents’ Association have UV paints and temporary tattoos for the children.  Children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are invited to come between 5:15 pm and 6:15 pm and children in Years 3 – 6 are welcome from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm.  Nursery parents are permitted to stay but we ask that all other parents drop their children off and collect them at the end – this is simply due to capacity within our school hall.  Plenty of school staff and members of the PA team are on hand to look after the children.  There is an unlimited supply of juice or biscuits for the children.  Sweets and other treats are available for the children to purchase.

At the end of the disco, please queue outside the main entrance.  We will sit the children down on the hall floor and then allow parents to come through and pick their children up, exiting through the rear entrance of the hall and back on to the school car park.  We have found this is the most efficient and safest way to match the children to their adults at the end of the event.

OPAL

In my last newsletter, I informed you about the Outdoor Play and Learning project we are taking part in.  We have our audit and first staff training session for this on Wednesday of this week.  As a result, we intend to get the children outside as much as possible even if it is wet.  Please can you make sure they come to school dressed for this with wellies and waterproofs. 
Thank you as ever for your continued support.
​
Best wishes
Becky Wood

Each year the children are invited to put themselves forward to be our next class councillors. A Norbury Hall councillor is a pupil, elected by their classmates to represent their views and help improve the school community.

Every class in school from Year 2 and upwards will have two school councillors. We try to do this as fairly as possible, whilst still allowing the opportunity for anyone who wants to take part to do so.

Pupils interested should put together a short presentation, no longer than 3 minutes, explaining why they would make a great councillor.  This could be a poster, poem, a song or speech.

If your child is interested, this needs to be completed by Monday 29th September 2025. All children interested will then be given the opportunity to share their presentation, in class to their peers during the week. As a class, the children will then fairly vote.
​
They will be voted for in class and two new school councillors will be elected.
The meetings for our new school council will always be held during the school day.

Last year the councillors took part in various different projects, raised money for our chosen charities and supported the PA.

I would like to wish all those interested the best of luck. If your child is unsuccessful this year, they have an opportunity to put themselves forward again next year.

Many thanks,
Sian Murphy

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to our Year 5 and 6 children to another fun-filled year! We hope you have all had a great summer break and are enjoying seeing your children settle into the new term. We have enjoyed getting to know the children and seeing their individual personalities shine. They have been working hard across the school to follow new routines and we have been very impressed with the children’s attitude towards their learning.
 
What Makes Our World Work?
This term there is a science focus right across school with the title of our new quest being
‘What Makes Our World Work? ’ We are stepping into the shoes of scientists to bring our learning to life, beginning to think scientifically and to question the world around us.
 
Reading
As always, reading is a very important part of learning at Norbury Hall. We encourage children to develop their reading skills and want to inspire their own reading for pleasure. Every classroom has a reading area for our children to enjoy and an adult in school will hear them read each week. To benefit your child, we are asking children to read at home at least three times a week and for this to be recorded in their reading records. This will be checked daily, during the school day.
​
Each class also has an author box which allows them to explore a range of books from chosen authors. The author boxes will then be swapped between year groups after the half term break.

Scooters and Bikes
As a school we encourage children to come to school on their bikes and scooters, but can we kindly ask they dismount their bike or scooter at the gate and then walk it into school. We do have a large bike shed in the junior playground which is available to use. Our school site is extremely busy in the mornings and at the end of the day and we want to keep everyone safe. Many thanks for your support with this.
 
General Information
With the cold weather creeping in, please can we request that children bring a coat with them each day. It would be useful, as with all items, that they are clearly labelled. Can we also request that children bring water to school, rather than juice for their classroom drink.
 
Walking to and from school
If you haven’t already done so, please can you email or write a note in the reading record to inform your child’s teacher if your child is walking home from school. As the children get older, some of them bring a mobile phone to school. These will need to be given in and locked away as soon as they are in school and they will be given back to them as they leave school (the same for smart watches). Children are not permitted to have their phones out whilst on the school site and they should not use their cameras at any times, in line with out safeguarding policy. Many thanks for your support with this.

Dear Parents and Carers,
​
Welcome back to our Year 3 and 4 children to another fun-filled year! We hope you have all had a great summer break and are enjoying seeing your children settle into the new term. We have enjoyed getting to know the children and seeing their individual personalities shine. They have been working hard across the school to follow new routines and we have been very impressed with the children’s attitude towards their learning.
 
What Makes Our World Work?
This term there is a science focus right across school with the title of our new quest being ‘What Makes Our World Work? ’ We are stepping into the shoes of scientists to bring our learning to life, beginning to think scientifically and to question the world around us.
 
Reading
As always, reading is a very important part of learning at Norbury Hall. We encourage children to develop their reading skills and want to inspire their own reading for pleasure. Every classroom has a reading area for our children to enjoy and an adult in school will hear them read each week. To benefit your child, we are asking children to read at home at least three times a week and for this to be recorded in their reading records. This will be checked daily, during the school day.

Each class also has an author box which allows them to explore a range of books from chosen authors. The author boxes will then be swapped between year groups after the half term break.

TTRS
Every child in the school also has an individual login for Times Tables Rock Stars. This is a brilliant way for our children to secure their times tables in fun way. Your child’s class teacher will set specific times tables personalised to their ability and they will be allocated time at school to practise, however we know that any additional time spent using TTRS at home has a huge impact on securing a quick recall of division and multiplication facts. Alongside reading, we are also asking that children play TTRS at least 3 times a week.
​
Scooters and Bikes
As a school we encourage children to come to school on their bikes and scooters, but can we kindly ask they dismount their bike or scooter at the gate and then walk it into school. We do have a large bike shed in the junior playground which is available to use. Our school site is extremely busy in the mornings and at the end of the day and we want to keep everyone safe. Many thanks for your support with this.
 
General Information
With the cold weather creeping in, please can we request that children bring a coat with them each day. It would be useful, as with all items, that they are clearly labelled. Can we also request that children bring water to school, rather than juice for their classroom drink.

Dear parents,
 
Norbury Hal Primary School is about to start a programme to improve opportunities for physical activity, socialisation, cooperation, coordination, resilience, creativity, imagination and enjoyment through improved play.
 
In what ways, if any, do you think you benefited from playtime? Thinking about your own childhood, what did you like playing at school or at home? Children today don’t have the same freedoms we once did, so we want to give children back time to really enjoy and learn from play. After all, it’s a child’s basic human right.
 
The Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) Primary Programme is the result of over 20 years of testing and development in over 800 schools and has been used in Spain, Canada, France and New Zealand. The programme has also been adapted and used in schools in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Austria under the Play Friendly Schools project. In 2018, OPAL won first prize in an EU-funded award for the best active school’s programme in Europe and two UK national playwork awards. In 2019, OPAL was awarded a quarter of a million pounds by Sport England to bring the programme to many more schools.
 
OPAL is based on the idea that, as well as learning through good teaching, your children also learn when they play. As 20% of their time in school is playtime, we want to make sure that this amount of time (equivalent to 1.4 years of primary school) is as good as possible.
 
One reason the school is carrying out this programme is that childhood has changed, and many children no longer get their play needs met out of school. 

• Average screen time per day is six hours.
• Average outdoor play time per week is five hours.
• Percentage of UK children who only play outdoors with other children at school is 56%.

 
There are many proven benefits for schools that carry out the OPAL Primary Programme. They usually include: more enjoyment of school, less teaching time lost to disputes between children, fewer accidents and greatly improved behaviour. 
 
Play is not messing about. It is the process evolution has come up with to enable children to learn all of the things that cannot be taught, while also having so much fun. There are certain things children must have in order to be able to play. These include:

• Having clothes that they can play in.
• Having things to play with.
• Having a certain amount of freedom.

 
As the school improves play opportunities for your children, you may find the school is asking you for resources and is making changes about how the children use the school grounds. They may use more of the grounds, for more of the year. Your children may get a bit messier, be exposed to more challenges and have greater freedoms to play where, with whom and how they like. The experiences the school is fostering are essential for children’s physical and mental wellbeing and are in line with all current good practice advice on health and safety, wellbeing and development.
 
The school will be supported by OPAL for 18 months and there will be an opportunity to come and talk to the OPAL mentor at your child’s school. If you would like to learn more about the OPAL Primary Programme, please have a look at the OPAL website (www.outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk), where you will find lots of useful information and several videos about the programme.
 
In the coming 18 months you will be invited to events where you can come and see for yourselves what is happening and have the opportunity to join in too.
 
We will be in touch in the near future with how you can get involved with donations, kit for the children and even parent play sessions.
 
Parents Survey
We are looking at our playtimes and thinking about how we can improve them by introducing the Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) Primary Programme.

Can you help? We really want to know what you think of playtimes now. Please click on the link below to fill out our short survey.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdBEuRzqxCYOkyqFIIb3eQyc0-MYKivMTXtCUoEVO2pIQs81g/viewform?usp=dialog
 
Thank you in advance.
 
We are really excited about this project and hope that you will support us in our efforts to improve playtime for all children.
 
Best wishes,
Bridget Adnett and Hannah Garrett
Deputy Head Teachers

Teacher Led Clubs – will run from 3.20pm until 4pm
We are offering teacher led clubs for the children to attend after school from Monday 15th September 2025 clubs and will finish on Friday 17th October 2025. Please be aware that some clubs will have limited spaces. Children are to be collected from the junior playground when the club finishes.
 
If you would like your child to attend a club listed below, hosted by the teachers, please contact them directly using their emails. Please do not contact the office as they will not have waiting lists or numbers. Please do so by Friday 12th September.   
 
Hazel Grove Tennis Club
Advantage You! New Term Starts Wednesday 10th September! 
Get ready to ace the new term of After-school Tennis Club at Norbury Hall Primary School! 
Y3, 4 & 5 + younger siblings
Time: 15:20 - 16:20
Day: Wednesday 10 Sept - 23 Oct 
Amount: £35.00 
We now have a new booking system via our mobile APP! Please download using the link below. You register and book your weekly Coaching or School sessions. 
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/hazel-grove-bowling-and-tennis/id6749573373
 
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.activitypro.hgbat
Please create an account in your name and add your child/children as Family Members to book them on the School Session. 
You can get in touch directly for support with bookings via email or phone [email protected]   07961649667
Faris McGrath - Head Coach - Top Spin Tennis Academy
 
Primary Sports Clubs after school 
PSC will be running an afterschool football club for Years 2, 3 and 4 on a Friday (starting on Friday 5th September, from 15:15-16:30.
The link to book on to the club is: 
https://primaryscl.coordinate.cloud/book/246056

Spanish Club
This will continue on Mondays for those children already signed up. We email parents later in the term to book onto the next club.
 
Best wishes
Mrs Adnett and Miss Garrett
Deputy Headteacher

Autumn Term: ‘What Makes Our World Work?’
Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Years 1 and 2! We hope you have all had a great summer break and are enjoying seeing your children settle into the new term. In the first few weeks, we have enjoyed getting to know the children, talking with them and seeing their personalities shine. We have been working hard across the school and have been impressed with the children’s attitude towards their learning.

What Makes Our World Work?
The children have been working hard and have already produced some fantastic work. This term there is a science focus right across school. With the title of our new quest being ‘What Makes Our World Work’ We are stepping into the shoes of scientists, inventors and explorers to bring our learning to life and are discovering how to think scientifically, questioning the world around us.

Reading
As always, reading is a very important part of learning at Norbury Hall. We encourage children to develop their reading skills and want to inspire their own reading for pleasure. Every classroom has a reading area for our children to enjoy and an adult in school will hear them read each week. To benefit your child, we are asking children to read at home at least three times a week and for this to be recorded in their reading   records. This will be checked daily, during the school day. We are also encouraging the use of our online reading platform, Bug Club for the children to read a range of books and develop their understanding of what they have read.

Each class also has an author box which allows them to explore a range of books from chosen authors. The author boxes will then we swapped between year groups after the half term break.

General Information
With the colder weather on its way, please can we request that children bring a coat with them each day. A pair of wellies is useful for our weekly, outdoor learning activities. It would be useful, as with all items, that they are clearly labelled. Can we also request that children bring water to school, rather than juice for their classroom drink. All Key Stage 1 children are still entitled to the free fruit and veg scheme and do not need bring in any snacks for break.

Scooters and Bikes
As a school we encourage children to come to school on their bikes and scooters, but can we kindly ask they dismount their bike or scooter at the gate and then walk it into school. We do have a large bike shed in the junior playground which is available to use. Our school site is extremely busy in the mornings and at the end of the day and we want to keep everyone safe. Many thanks for your support with this.

Autumn Term—What Makes Our World Work?
Week Beginning: 8th September 2025
 
Dear Parents and Carers,
 
We are so proud of all of our Reception learners for settling in so well during their first days in Reception. We’ve had a great start getting to know your children and lots of fun exploring the classroom, outdoors and all the resources. The children are learning the routines of the day, expectations and the adults and children in their class. Please make sure all items of clothing, water bottles and wellies are labelled.

Over the next few weeks we will be…
· Talking about who is in our family and lives in our house.
· Starting phonics sessions and playing phonics games together.
· Practising counting sets of objects with 1:1 correspondence and careful counting.
· Subitising numbers to 5 (looking at a small set of objects and knowing how many are there without counting them).
· Continuing to explore the resources and areas of the classroom.

Reading books
Reading books will be changed, where necessary, on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We do ask that you either write a comment or simply sign the reading record to let us know when a book is completed and therefore ready to be changed. You’ll also notice a login for your child for BugClub at the very front of your child’s reading record.  Phonic books will be allocated each week for your child to read on an ipad/computer.  This book will link with the phonics taught in class.
 
Tapestry                                                                                      
You should now all (hopefully) be set up on Tapestry. This is a great resource that we use regularly to share photos and communicate information on.
We also encourage you to share any photos or news on there that we can then share with the class. The children always love sharing and talking about their Tapestry photos.
 
Phonics
Phonics is taught daily and is a key part of our curriculum. These sessions are fun and interactive. Phonics supports us to teach your child to read and write. Over this half term we will mix children from both classes into groups.
At school we follow the Letters and Sounds phonics scheme.
Please follow the link for a useful watch of the correct pronunciation of the phonemes (sounds): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ksblMiliA8 
 
Packed Lunches and Nut-based Products
As we have some children in school with nut allergies, please can we be mindful of not including nut-based products in packed lunches.
 
Please do not hesitate to speak/email a member of staff if you have any questions.
Thank you so much,
​
The Reception Team

A huge welcome to all of our new children into Nursery, we are so excited to get to know you all and your whole family properly. We loved having all the children and adults in Nursery on Wednesday, it was brilliant to see all the children exploring the different areas both in our indoor and outdoor classrooms. We have also spent this Thursday and Friday completing home visits.

Next week (week beginning the 8th of September) we will continue with our transition programme and welcome children into the nursery for two 2- hour sessions. We encourage these sessions to be drop-off, but we will obviously work with yourselves if you feel you want to stay in nursery for a little bit to help settle your child. During these sessions, we will be exploring the areas some more, having a story and snack together.

Then from the week beginning the 15th of September 2025, children will be in for the full allocated hours.

Now you have all met us, we thought we would just let you know who will be working when:

If you have not yet returned your forms, it would be great if you could bring them to the sessions next week. We have some spare forms too if these are needed, so please do ask one of us. Over the weekend, we will be setting up Tapestry accounts. If you have returned the Tapestry letter and consented, then you will be receiving an email to activate your account. Sometimes these emails do go to the junk folder, but if you have consented and not received your email by Monday please speak to one of us. Tapestry is our online tool that we use each week. This online service allows us to share all the amazing things we’ve been up to in nursery, show you photos of your child’s learning and adventures and offer some key communication updates.

Please bring a packed lunch for your child to enjoy at lunchtime and the following items to be kept in school…

• A pair of named wellies.
• A bag with spare clothes and underwear.
  
  

We look forward to seeing you all again next week.

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to the start of a new term and new school year.  I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable summer break and that the children are refreshed and ready to return to school.

Welcome to our new Nursery and Reception children who will be starting with us this week.  Welcome also to children joining in other year groups.  If you are a family new to school, you are very welcome.  We know that your child starting school is an exciting time but also recognise this can be daunting as you get to know us and understand how the school works.  Our Nursery and Reception teams are open to any query or question – if you are unsure about anything or need to talk to someone, please ask.  Similarly, our office team are happy to help.  Please either contact them by phone or [email protected].  Our website is a great source of information.  All newsletters and year group information can be found here and there is a Parents Hub – the password for this is NorbertHazel2025.

Staff News
We welcome Mrs Sarah Gray back following her maternity leave.  She is teaching in Year 4 and spent some time with the children in the summer term.

​Meet the Teacher Event – Wednesday 10th September
Parents of children in Years 1 - 6 are invited to attend our annual Meet the Teacher event.  We will be holding sessions at 5:15 pm and 6 pm – the session will be a repeat so that you can attend more than one session if you have more than one child in the school.  The session will outline the necessary information for the children in each year group and you will have a chance to ask any questions.  Please enter the school via the main entrance; sessions will be held in the classrooms.

Communication with School
It is really important to us that you converse with us regarding your child.  There are obviously formal events within the calendar to facilitate this but we recognise there are many other times where you may have messages you want to convey or need a conversation. 

You are welcome to hold an informal conversation with teachers at the end of the day.  However, if this is a longer conversation, it may be necessary to make an appointment for a more formal conversation.  A quick message can be placed in your child’s reading record.  These are checked each day.  The office staff are also available if you need to get a message to us.  Please contact them either by telephone or email. 

Teachers will respond to an email you send to their personal email address but please be mindful that within a busy teaching day they do not have time to check their emails whilst they are teaching.  Emails will not be responded to before 8 am and after 5 pm.

Medical Updates
If following the summer break, you have any medical updates regarding your child, please let us know.  You can either email the office with the update or make an appointment to see your child’s class teacher.  If your child has an inhaler, please make sure we have this in school and that it is date.  If your child has a Medical Care Plan, we will shortly be sending them out for you to review and sign.

Uniform
It was lovely to see the children looking so smart yesterday as they returned to school.  Please can I remind you that the children are unable to wear jewellery to school and we will be asking them to remove any items they do wear.  The children need wellies in school for outdoor activities – please make sure these have your child’s name in them.  The weather is quite changeable at the moment and we will endeavour to have the children outside whenever possible.  Please make sure they have a coat in school so that they can stay dry in wet weather.

Parents’ Association
Our Parents’ Association raised in excess of £15,000 for us last year.  This money enables us to offer so much more to our children.  They are holding their AGM in school on Wednesday 17th September at 6 pm – all are welcome to attend.

School Office Administrator
We have a vacancy in the school office for an administrator.  If you think you might be interested or know someone who could be the post is advertised on the Greater Jobs website (https://www.greater.jobs/job/75732649).

We are looking forward to another great year for the children in our care.  We very much want to work in partnership with you to make every moment safe, exciting and successful for your children.
​
Best wishes
Becky Wood

Dear Parents and Carers,

This will be the last newsletter of the year.  Your children have amazed us this year
with their enthusiasm for learning, their caring and polite manners and their sense of fun.  Their annual reports are a real celebration of all they have achieved and we are very proud of them all.

We wish our Year 6 leavers the very best of luck as they start new adventures at
high school.  We will miss them. 

There are a few updates I need to give you some of which relate to events
​in September.

Sports Day
At the time of writing, the weather looks fairly unsettled for this week.  We are very much hoping Sports Day can go ahead but will need to decide on Wednesday morning based on the safety of the children.  We will communicate this to you as quickly as possible. The Nursery beginning of the week group, RN, Year 1 and Year 2 event will take place at 9:30 am and the Nursery end of the week group, RH and Years 3 – 6 will take place at 1:30 pm.
​
Meet the Teacher
For Years 1 – 6 we will be holding our annual Meet the Teacher event in September.  We do not hold a September meeting for Nursery and Reception as the induction meeting took place in June.  The presentations shared at the Nursery and Reception meetings are on the school website if you want to refer back to them. 

The Meet the Teacher sessions will be on Wednesday 10th September.  The teachers will share their presentation at 5:15 pm and 6 pm – this is repeated so that parents with more than one child in school can attend different presentations.  The event will be held in the classrooms.  We hope to see as many of you attend as possible.  Following the event, the presentations will be on the school website.

Parents’ Association News
Thank you to those of you who attended the Summer Festival.  I am delighted to say that we raised £3639 on the night.  Thank you so much to the team for organising such a great event.  The total raised this year by the Parents’ Association is £15,700.  The school are so grateful for this as it means we can offer so much more to our children.  The children really enjoyed the cinema visits which were funded by the PA and we were also appreciative of the time some members of the PA gave to organise a Teddy Bear’s Picnic event for our new Reception children. 

The Parents’ Association will be holding their annual AGM on Wednesday 17th September at 6 pm.  This event will be held in the school.  All parents are welcome to attend.

School Meals
The cost of school meals will be rising to £2.80 in September. This increase has been passed on to us by our school meal provider.  School meals continue to be free for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 as part of the Universal free school meals scheme.

School Library
Do you have some time to spare during the school day to help us keep our school library organised and tidy for the children?  We would welcome any offers of help from September.  If you would like to know more or volunteer, please email the school office.

School Uniform
I sent links to uniform providers on my last newsletter.  Please can I remind you of the uniform requirements for PE lessons.  The children need black shorts, a white T-shirt, black pumps and trainers and jogging bottoms for lessons outside when the weather is colder.  We ask that PE kit isn’t branded – please save these items of clothing for wearing outside of school.

OPAL
OPAL is an Outdoor Play and Learning initiative that we have signed up to as a school.  Children in British primary schools spend 20% or 1.4 years of their school attendance in play.  The programme looks to enhance the offer given to the children during their recreational time.  This will be an 18 month to 2-year programme as we work alongside a mentor from OPAL.  A working group has already been established and taken part in an introductory meeting.  You will hear more about this project as we move forward but we are asking that if you have a tidy of toys over the summer break you consider donating anything suitable to the project.  We are particularly looking for moving toys e.g. cars, diggers etc and small world play toys.  Additionally, if you are getting rid of any old suitcases, these could be excellent for storage.  We will set up some donation points in the new school year.  If you want to know more about this initiative please visit the OPAL website - https://outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk/

I would like to finish by thanking you for your support this year.  I hope you have a lovely summer break and we look forward to seeing the children in September.
​
Best wishes,
Becky Wood

Transition week at primary school is an exciting and important time for children as they prepare for the new school year. It’s a chance to meet their new teachers, make new friends and explore their future classrooms. Seeing where they'll be learning and playing in September helps children feel more confident and settled. It’s also a fun opportunity to get a taste of new routines and start looking forward to the adventures ahead in their next year at school!

Ahead of Transition Week starting on 14th July, we’ve put together handy booklets for you to go through with your children. They’ll give a little flavour of what’s to come, helping your child feel more confident, excited, and ready for the new school year!

Download your copies from the home page of the website.

Entrance is via the Junior gate at the front of the school.

Each class will perform three times – 1:30 pm, 2 pm and 2:30 pm.  Between performances you will be able to purchase the Enterprise products the children have made.  We can only take cash as payment.

2:50 pm – please congregate on the Junior field facing the Junior playground as the children have a special performance for you.

Following this, we will take the children back into the building and dismiss them as we usually would.
​
Arrangements are slightly different for Nursery with one performance at 2 pm. 
​Mrs Robinson has sent details to Nursery parents.

Dear Parents / Carers
​
I am writing to primarily update you on staffing arrangements for next year.  However, there are one or two other pieces of information so please read beyond the information about 2025 / 2026 classes!

​Phase Team Leader – Mrs Kerry Robinson

Phase Team Leader – Mrs Sara Turner

Phase Team Leader – Miss Becca Morgan

Phase Team Leader – Miss Hannah Garrett

You will notice that some members of staff are not included in next year’s teaching profile. 
Mrs Julie Rice is moving to a job within the Four Rivers Trust.  Mrs Rice has been at the school as an Assistant Headteacher for 12 years.  For a large proportion of this time she has been the Inclusion Lead and SENDCo at the school and I know many of you have appreciated the support she has given individual children and families.  We will very much miss Mrs Rice’s wealth of knowledge and the care and nurture she has given to so many of the children.

We are delighted to welcome Mrs Sarah Downes to the school as our new Inclusion Lead and SENDCo.  Sarah is currently SENDCo in another Stockport school and is looking forward to joining the Norbury team.

Mr Dan Hopwood is also moving to a job within the Four Rivers Trust.  Mr Hopwood has made a big impression on the school in a short space of time and I know that those children who have been taught by him have enjoyed their time in his class.  Mr Hopwood has also helped to coordinate many sporting events at the school and we are grateful to the time and energy he has given this.
​
Mrs Claire Miles also leaves us.  Mrs Miles has been part of the Year 1 team for a large part of this year and we are grateful to her for her thorough teaching as well as the care and nurture she has given the children in 1H.

Transition Week

All children will move to their new classes during the week beginning 14th July.  They will be taught by their new teachers during this week.  They will go to their current class teacher on the Monday morning and will then move to their new classes during the morning.  From Monday afternoon to Friday you will be able to drop them off and pick them up from their new teacher.  We will send details nearer the time explaining which entrance and exit you will be using. 

Stockport Food Bank

The foodbank has been in touch to offer support to any family who may need this across the longer summer break.  We have to nominate families and then give you the paperwork to be able to visit over the summer.  If this is something you would be interested in please get in touch – we are keen to support families who may benefit from this invaluable service.

School Uniform

We are trying to hold a more limited stock in school so if you still wish to order uniform for September, the best way to do this is online via the Your School Uniform website - https://www.yourschooluniform.com/   
The next delivery date to school is 17th September 2025 (order online by 24/08/25). If uniform is required for September 2025 you can organise delivery to your home address.
Please remember there is also the option of using Cress who are a preloved uniform shop supported by our Parents’ Association - https://www.wearecress.com/find-your-school/?srsltid=AfmBOorGdWN-cbW8-salKVNKcT9pQjr-Q3ZASIpvHWTR3lQk_X6bCLKV

I have added the calendar of outstanding events below.  Please refer to my previous newsletter for further details.
​
Best wishes,
Becky Wood

We have been continuing to work hard moving into our last half term of the school year-
​oh my! Throughout the school we have been acting, singing, dancing, making, sculpting, drawing and painting! We have lots of upcoming events so please find more details below and some reminders of future dates.
 
Wrongsemble Theatre Performance
Wednesday 2nd July

Following last year’s successful visit from Wrongsemble Theatre Company, we are delighted to welcome them back to school. We feel it is important that the children enjoy a live theatre performance in school each year.  We request a donation of £2 per child towards this event.  This will be set up as a payment for you on School Money.

Parents’ Association Summer Festival
Friday 4th July

A reminder that our Summer Festival will take place on Friday 4th July from
4.30pm – 6:30 pm.  We hope to see as many families as possible at this event. In order to prepare for this there will be two non-uniform days in exchange for a donation for the fair. On Friday 27th June we would like a donation for the teddy and book tombolas. On the day of the fair itself (4th July) please could children in Nursery, Reception, Year and Year 2 bring a donation of chocolate or sweets and children in Years 3 – 6 bring a bottle for the bottle tombola. 
 
Norbury Fest
Wednesday 9th July

We are also working hard to rehearse performances ready to share with our friends and families in our whole school Norbury Fest celebrations! Performances will be repeated so that families with more than one child in school can be accommodated. Performances will be at 1:30 pm, 2:00 pm and 2:30 pm. The exception to this is Nursery who will be doing one performance at 2:00 pm. We will then congregate together in front of the junior adventure playground at 2:50 to perform one last song as a whole school. Weather permitting we will hold the event in the school grounds. Further details will be made available before the time. The children have also been creating a range of products to sell to you as part of their enterprise project. This will be a cash only event, so please bring plenty of change with you. The children will then return to class and be dismissed as normal at the end of the day. We look forward to welcoming you to this event and we hope it is one that the whole family enjoy!
 
Savoy Cinema Visits
10th and 11th of July

The Parents’ Association have very kindly funded a visit for every child in school to the Savoy Cinema in Heaton Moor. Over the course of two days, all the children will be travelling by coach to the cinema, enjoying the film and then returning to school. All visits will take place in the school day and the children will be in school for their lunch. All costs for this visit will be funded by the PA.

Visits will take place at the following times:
Thursday 10th July – AM
Years 3 and 4

Thursday 10th July – PM
Years 5 and 6

Friday 11th July - AM
Nursery and Reception

Friday 11th July - PM
Years 1 and 2
 
Children in Years 3 – 6 will be watching the BFG. This is a PG film so if you have any questions or objections to your child seeing this film, please contact their class teacher.  On the Friday, our younger children will be watching the film Wish.  A snack of popcorn and a bottle of water is included.  Again, if you have any objections to this, please contact the class teacher.  We do need parental permission for this visit – if you haven’t already then please complete the Google form at https://forms.gle/QW2HkvRW17e5n6WZ6 to give your consent to your child taking part. If you can offer your support on the day, please contact your child’s class teacher.
 
Tapestry
Friday 11th July

As a school, we stop using Tapestry as a way of sharing with parents at the end of Year 1. Parents and carers of children moving from Year 1 to Year 2, will need to download any pictures, or work saved on their child’s profile, (should you wish to keep it) before it gets cleared. This will need to be completed by Friday 11th July, please.
 
Thanks for your continued support as ever,
Team Norbury 

Dear Parents and Carers,
It has been lovely to see our amazing Reception learners return to school after the term happily. We have loved hearing all their news and what they have been up to.
This term so far we have continued our exciting Quest of ‘Who do I aspire to be?’. We have been following this Quest of enchantment and allowed it to lead us to explore our interests and dreams even more.

We had an exciting delivery of caterpillars when we returned to school. This has led to some exciting learning about life cycles and minibeasts.
We have also been having lots of fun in the sun; learning and playing in our outdoor area and enjoying our school grounds.
 
Cool Milk;
Just to let you know that our subscription with Cool Milk stops when children enter into Year 1. Also you will be aware from Cool Milk, that when your child turns 5 you have to then pay for your child to have milk at school. We do have to stick to the list and consent given from parents to ensure we are meeting the needs with allergies and intolerances.

A few children have recently been asking for milk but are currently not on the list since their birthday. We appreciate that there are only a few more weeks of Cool Milk, but we also wanted to make you aware so that you can have a chat with your child and set up Cool Milk with your child if this is something your child wants for the remainder of Reception.
https://coolmilk.com/
 
Keyrings
Whilst we value our children’s individuality and feel it’s important that children can identify their belongings easily, we are finding that book bags are getting an increasing number of keyrings on them. Some of these keyrings are quite large and struggling to fit in our book bag boxes. Also, we’ve dealt with a number of instances recently where children are playing with their keyrings and they are getting broken or they are swapping keyrings with other children. We would really appreciate your support and ask for there to be just one keyring per bag.  
 
Parents evening RN
Thank you so much to our parents of RN with your understanding regarding the rescheduling of parents evening. We invite those parents that would like to make an appointment with Mrs Matthews to do so once the end of year reports have been sent out. This will then give you chance to read this and discuss anything further with Mrs Matthews. We will be sending further information out about this closer to the time.
 
Warm weather

We are loving this warm weather and are excited for more of it to come. We do ask that all children can be sent into school with a sun hat. We also ask that sun cream is applied before school. If you feel your child will need to reapply suncream at some point in the day, then please send a named bottle in their book bag.
 
Thank for your continued support and have a lovely half term break,
The Reception Team

Dear Parents and Carers,

We hope you’ve had a lovely break and your child is looking forward to an exciting and busy final term in nursery! 

This half term we are continuing our whole school Quest of ‘Who Do I Aspire To Be?’ enjoying lots of activities.  Through rhyming stories, we are learning to listen out for rhyming words and enjoy playing games such as rhyming pairs and continuing rhyming strings e.g. cat sat mat rat, pig jig wig.  This maybe something you could play with your child, along with games such as I spy.

Our outdoor learning environment is an ever-changing wonderful space for your child to learn and play. We will be looking for the signs of summer, playing imaginary games in the meadow and observing minibeasts such as the damselflies and dragonflies around the school pond.  The children really enjoy this area of the school grounds and I’m sure we will notice new wildlife arrive and plants growing over these summer months.

We’re also really looking forward to our nursery visit to Tatton Farm.  Here is a reminder for you!

Nursery children will wear high viz vests provided by nursery and will be allocated to an adult with one to three ratio.  Please bear in mind we will be outside for most of the day, so please send children with appropriate footwear e.g. trainers.  As the forecast is sunny and warm, your child must wear sun cream and a sun hat along with an extra drink!

We will be having lunch at Tatton Farm (either outside or in the covered picnic areas), so please could you provide your child with a packed lunch. Please bring their lunch in their own small, named rusk sack, with items that we can dispose of before returning to school. We will be returning to school for approximately 2.45pm.
​
As ever, thank you for all your support
The Early Years Nursery Team

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you had a good half term break.  The children have returned refreshed and ready for their final half term of the school year.  This is a busy half term with many events which I will outline for you below.

Class Photographs
These will be taken on Wednesday 25th June so we ask that all children come in their school uniform on this day. 

Front Row Music Concert
For those children who take part in Front Row music lessons, there will be an end of year concert on Thursday 26th June at 2 pm.  This will take place in the school hall.

Wrongsemble Theatre Performance – Wednesday 2nd July
Following last year’s successful visit from Wrongsemble Theatre Company, we are delighted to welcome them back to school.  We feel it is important that the children enjoy a live theatre performance in school each year.  We request a donation of £2 per child towards this event.  This will be set up as a payment for you on School Money.

Parents’ Association Summer Festival
This will take place on Friday 4th July from 4 pm – 6:30 pm.  We hope to see as many families as possible at this event.  In order to prepare for this there will be two non-uniform days in exchange for a donation for the fair.  On Friday 27th June we would like a donation for the teddy and book tombolas.  On the day of the fair itself (4th July) please could children in Nursery, Reception, Year and Year 2 bring a donation of chocolate or sweets and children in Years 3 – 6 bring a bottle for the bottle tombola. 

Year 6 Production
Our Year 6 children will be performing Ali Baba and the Bongo Bandits on Tuesday 8th July in the afternoon and Thursday 10th July in the evening.  Further information will come from the Year 6 team.

Norbury Fest
This will take place on Wednesday 9th July in the afternoon.  As part of our arts curriculum each year group will be performing during the afternoon.  They will also be selling products they have made as part of an enterprise project.  Performances will be repeated so that families with more than one child in school can be accommodated.  Performances will be at 1:30 pm, 2:00 pm and 2:30 pm.  The exception to this is Nursery who will be doing one performance at 2:00 pm. Weather permitting we will hold the event in the school grounds.  Further details will be made available before the time.

Savoy Cinema Visits
The Parents’ Association have very kindly funded a visit for every child in school to the Savoy Cinema in Heaton Moor.  Over the course of two days, all the children will be travelling by coach to the cinema, enjoying the film and then returning to school.  All visits will take place in the school day and the children will be in school for their lunch.  All costs for this visit will be funded by the PA.
Visits will take place at the following times:
Thursday 10th July – AM
Years 3 and 4

Thursday 10th July – PM
Years 5 and 6

Friday 11th July - AM
Nursery and Reception

Friday 11th July - PM
Years 1 and 2
 
Children in Years 3 – 6 will be watching the BFG.  This is a PG film so if you have any questions or objections to your child seeing this film, please contact their class teacher.  On the Friday, our younger children will be watching the film Wish.  A snack of popcorn and a bottle of water is included.  Again, if you have any objections to this, please contact the class teacher.  We do need parental permission for this visit – please complete the Google form at https://forms.gle/QW2HkvRW17e5n6WZ6 to give your consent to your child taking part.  Class teachers will be in touch to ask for parent help for this visit.

Transition Week
The week beginning 14th July will be our transition week in school.  For those families who are new to us, we feel it is important that our children have a significant amount of time with their new teacher before the summer break.  This allays any anxieties the children might have and gives them and their new teacher a chance to get to know each other.  I will write with more detail nearer the time but the children will spend the week with their new teacher in their new classroom.  We also welcome our new Nursery and Reception children into school over this week.  For our Year 5 children they will be in school on Monday and Tuesday before their visit to Robinwood.  Our Year 6 children are supported by colleagues in school and begin work on their Leavers’ assembly. 

Sports Day
Sports Day will be on Wednesday 23rd July.  The Nursery beginning of the week group, RN, Year 1 and Year 2 event will take place in the morning and the Nursery end of the week group, RH and Years 3 – 6 will take place in the afternoon.  Final timings will be sent nearer the time.  Parents and friends are welcome to join us for this event.

Parental Conduct
I have been made aware of a small number of incidents whereby members of our parent body haven’t necessarily behaved in a way that we would wish.  Some of this behaviour is outside of the school grounds and we obviously have no way of controlling this.  However, I would request that all parents conduct themselves in a suitable manner and consider the wellbeing and welfare of other families.  I have attached a document we shared a few years ago which outlines our expectations of parents and carers.

This term we will also be talking about our own dreams and letting our imaginations take our learning to fun and magical places.

We have also really enjoyed practising and learning our songs for Norbury Fest and cannot wait for you to come and watch us perform.

Dream Jars

We are a little short on glass jars for our dream jar creations. If you use any glass jars over the half term, please do save them and send them in – thank you!
 
Imagine That!

Well, what a brilliant trip we had at Imagine That! We hope you have enjoyed looking at all the fun we had on Tapestry. We had such a brilliant time making snow and slime, watching a science show and exploring in the science and role-play areas (the adults had just as much fun as the children!). Thank you for all your contributions that allowed our trip to take place and also to our parent helpers who were invaluable in helping us on the day.
 
Play-club bags

This is a great resource that we have in Reception. We have been using them in school, but we wanted all the children in Reception to have the opportunity to explore them at home too.
​
The bags are aimed at developing children's phonics and language skills further. We will rotate the bags and who gets to take them home over the term. If your child receives a bag on the Tuesday, please send this back into school by the Monday the following week. We hope you enjoy exploring the Play Club bags together!
 
All Stars Cricket Rec-Year 2

All Stars Cricket is a fantastic entry-level cricket programme for 5-8 year
(Reception-Year2) old boys and girls and is back for another year! Join children nationwide for a summer of family fun at your local cricket club. Every child receives a free participant pack, including personalised t-shirt, bat and ball, as part of the programme. Visit www.allstarscricket.co.uk to find your nearest centre.
 
Thank for your continued support and have a lovely half term break,
The Reception Team

The phonics screening check has 40 words. 20 real word and 20 nonsense words. 
 
Nonsense words are words that are phonetically decodable but are not actual words with an associated meaning e.g. brip, snorb. Nonsense words (sometimes called pseudo words) are included in the check specifically to assess whether your child can decode a word using their phonics skills and not their memory.
 
It is important that children practise reading nonsense words and identify that they are a nonsense word. The pseudo words will be shown to your child with a picture of an alien and they will be asked to tell their teacher what sort of alien it is by reading the word. This not only makes the check a bit more fun, but provides the children with a context for the nonsense word which is independent from any existing vocabulary they may have. Crucially, it does not provide any clues, so your child just has to be able to decode it. Children generally find nonsense words amusing so they will probably enjoy reading these words.
As with all reading of words out of context (ie in a book) it is important to look for known digraphs (sh, th, ng etc) and trigraphs (igh, ure, air etc).

Your child will bring home a set of words and activities today along with this letter to practise.

Phonics Play, is a really useful and free online site which offers lots of interactive games which can be played on iphones, ipads and computers.

We will be administering the Phonics Screening the week beginning the 9th June, so please, is possible, use the Whit Holiday to continue to rehearse, read and complete the activities sent home. As a reminder, Monday 9th June is an INSET day.
 
Thank you for your continued support.
The Year One Team

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you had a lovely weekend and enjoyed the warm spell we are experiencing at the moment.  The children have come back to school after the Easter break refreshed and ready to learn.  Our Quest ‘Who do I aspire to be?’ continues with a focus on art, dance, music and narrative.  Initial work is focused around the theme of giants with a focus on the BFG.

Relationships and Values at Norbury Hall

I recently wrote to you to consult on our work to redefine the values in school and to share part of the revision of our behaviour policy.  This is a consultative process and I asked for any responses to be sent into school.  Please see the newsletters section of the website to view this and make any responses by the end of this half term.

Sun safety

Whilst we are enjoying this warm spell, I would like to remind you to send your child to school with a hat, a water bottle and with sun cream applied.  If you require your child to reapply sun cream during the school day, we are unable to do this for them.  However, they can do this for themselves.  Please however keep an eye on the weather.  If rain is forecast, please send them with a waterproof jacket or coat.  We endeavour to go outside even when wet so please make sure they have this back up.

Drop off and pick up times

Thank you for your continued support with both parking and safety whilst using scooters and bikes.  Could I please also request that dogs are not brought into the school grounds.  I have been made aware that a couple of dogs are being brought on to the playgrounds. This could be unsafe and we do have some children who are wary of dogs so I would ask you to consider alternative arrangements.

Appointments in the school day

We have an increased number of parents picking children up for appointments during the school day, particularly during the afternoon.  It is important your children are in school as much as possible so where it is feasible we would ask you to make appointments outside of the school day.  I understand that in some instances this isn’t possible and school will always support genuine appointments.

PA news

As ever, our PA are working hard to support our children in a variety of ways.  Thank to those of you who took part in the Easter egg challenge. We have school discos this Friday (16th May).  The EY and KS1 disco will be from 5:15 pm – 6:15 pm and the KS2 disco will be from 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm.  The disco at the end of Year 6’s SATs week is a Norbury tradition and we look forward to seeing all of our children but especially our Y6 children.  For further details please see the PA Facebook page or notices on the school gates.  The PA Summer Festival is on Friday 4th July starting at 4 pm.  We hope to see as many of you there as possible.  We are grateful to the PA for funding a whole school event for our children.  Over the course of a couple of days in July, all of the children will be going on a visit to the Savoy Cinema in Heaton Moor.  We will be going in four separate groups and will be needing some parent volunteers to support each group.  Further details to come from school shortly. 
This is a very short half term but a very busy one! 

​Thank you as ever for your support
Best wishes
Becky Wood

Dear Parents and Carers,
 
The Summer term is always particularly busy here in school, with lots of activities and dates for your diary, so please take additional time to note them.

This term, our whole school Quest is ‘Who Do I Aspire To Be?’ Our nursery learners really enjoyed discovering a big sack of oversized objects in the ‘meadow’ and deciding who they might belong to!   This Quest hook, inspired the children to think about familiar stories they knew about giants such as the traditional tale of Jack and the Beanstalk and joining in with rhyming words from The Smartest Giant in Town. We are now starting to share the story, You Choose Your Dreams in our ‘circles’ sessions. 

In our music and dance sessions, we are learning to listen and respond to music and how musical instruments are played.  The children are also now beginning to learn songs for our ‘Norbury Fest’ later in the Summer, so I’m sure it won’t be long before you’re hearing your child singing at home!

Later in the term, we will be finding out about what animals live on a farm, learning the names of baby animals and which food is grown in/under the ground or on trees/bushes.  Our visit to Tatton Farm should be a lovely day and an opportunity for a first-hand experience around a farm!
​
As the sunny weather continues, please can you ensure that your child wears sun cream, has a labelled sun hat in nursery and a water bottle.  We always make use of our amazing outdoor areas and, over the lunch time particularly, it can get warm even when keeping the children in the shade as much as possible. Thank you!

The Early Years Nursery Team

This term's overviews are now ready to download. Head over to the Parent's Hub to check them out.