WEEKLY BLOG – Friday 26th June

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June 26, 2026

Weekly Update

Another exciting (and very hot!) week in school. The children have been very good at coping with the unprecedented weather, drinking lots of water and trying to stay cool.

It was lovely to welcome parents and carers into school or the Nursery Open Night on Tuesday and for the Year 1 Parental Partnership afternoon on Wednesday. The children loved having the support of their parents or other family members to support them in making a house from the time of The Fire of London.

On Tuesday, we welcomed a TAG rugby coach to work with our Year 5 children; there was lots of friendly competition and useful skills were learned. We had great success at the Tees Valley Athletics Finals on Wednesday where we were the winners! Well done to everyone who got to the finals and for your amazing effort on the day!

Wednesday saw the Year 5 children attend the Poetry Slam at the Town Hall. The performances were very entertaining both the Funky Flamingos and the Acklam Poets. A huge congratulations to the Funky Flamingos who were joint runners up with some very strong competition. You should all be very proud of yourselves for performing on such a large stage and to an unknown audience! Prizes and books were provided by The Works and Oxford University Press.

We can’t wait to welcome everyone to the Summer Fayre on Wednesday after school. Thank you for the donations so far; please bring anything else to the main front Reception or pass on to your child’s class teacher.

Thank you for your ongoing support and have a lovely weekend.

Class Round Up

Read on to find out what our Early Years Team have been doing in their learning:

Reception

Last week, Reception were full of excitement as they travelled by bus to spend a fantastic day atBig Sheep Little Cow. During our visit, we met a wide range of farm animals and learnt lots of fascinating facts about them. The children helped the farmer with some of his daily jobs, including feeding the lambs and goats and brushing Raffles the pony.

We also had the chance to stroke and hold several smaller animals, such as Tommy the tortoise, which the children absolutely loved. The children impressed us with their thoughtful questions and the opportunity to explore the sights, smells and sounds of life on a real working farm certainly brought our learning to life.

We all enjoyed our packed lunches and had a brilliant time exploring both the indoor and outdoor play areas. One of the standout moments of the day was our bumpy barrel ride, pulled by Farmer Duncan on his tractor – a definite favourite with the children.

This week we have developed our understanding of why farming is important by focusing on the different types of food produced on a farm. Through sharing the story ‘The Little Red Hen’, we explored the journey of wheat to bread and learnt about the value of teamwork. The children have enjoyed a wide range of hands‑on experiences within our provision, including opening our ownmilk factory, naming and chopping vegetables, harvesting our crop of potatoes in the outdoor classroom, and voting for our favourite way to eat them.

Nursery

Nursery have had a super week of learning! We have enjoyed sharing the story ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ and talking about healthy and unhealthy food choices. The children have enjoyed lots of role play opportunities in our continuous provision, acting out their favourite parts from the story. In small groups we have discussed why it is important to have a balanced diet and worked as a team to organise food into healthy and unhealthy hoops. The children then created their own healthy food plate for the tiger to eat, if he is to ever visit their house! At carpet time we shared some of the children’s plate designs and asked the question ‘Is this a healthy food plate?’ The children used some fantastic, themed vocabulary which supported their learning beautifully.

Next week we are really looking forward to learning about Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and we hope to see you at our Parents/Carers Teddy Picnic on Friday!

Attendance

It is so important that we see your children in school every day as any missed days means missed learning.

There are our attendance figures for this week:

Overall 93.2%

A big well done to 103 for winning the attendance prize as well as Class 205, Class 512 and Class 614 who all got over 96%.

Let’s keep this up and aim for even more children getting over 96% this term.

Reminders

Reminders

Please can we remind all children and parents that bikes and scooters should not be ridden on the school playground. Please jump off your vehicle and push it along to avoid any accidents.
Please can we remind you that children should be wearing black school shoes with their uniform on non-PE days. On PE days, only black or white trainers should be worn with their PE kit.
Thank you to everyone who has named their child’s uniform; this really helps us to return any lost property to its rightful owner, and we would encourage all parents to make sure that uniform is named please.

Links to support our parents and children….

Pre Loved Uniform

Headstart

Headstart

We’re excited to bring you this week’s newsletter packed with a great range of wellbeing-focused content.

In our HeadStart Wellbeing section, we explore the importance of continuing to learn and how it supports our overall wellbeing.

We also celebrate the incredible work carried out during Mental Health Awareness Week, highlighting the powerful and valuable messages shared by our fantastic Head Starters throughout the campaign.

You’ll also find a special guest feature from Niamh, who is currently in her second year of university and completing her placement shadowing the HeadStart team.

…and much more inside!

Enjoy!

HeadStart Newsletter 18th May 2026