Welcome to another week here at Copthorne. Spring has well and truly arrived and our children are enjoying the opportunity to play outside in the sunshine.
Sports Relief
This week we are enjoying a number of activities organised by Mr Robinson in aid of Sports Relief. On Monday a Soak the Teacher event was held at lunchtime. This involved Mr Waddington, Mr Robinson and, later, Mrs Whalley and myself having soaked sponges thrown at us. There was such a large queue of children waiting to sponge us that the event is being continued on Wednesday lunchtime! Having experienced the skill with which many of our children were throwing those sponges I think that we may have some potential world class cricketing bowlers in our school!! Luckily for us the sun was shining so we didn't get cold!
On Monday afternnon all of our Key Stage 2 children walked up to Horton Park to take part in our Run a Mile activity for which a large number of our pupils had been sponsored. All of the children ran the mile, behaved well and were a credit to Copthorne and their families: we are very proud of them.
It looks as though the total raised is going to be a very high one and, once we have completed the final calculations, we will let you know. Thank you for all your help and support in helping us to help others less fortunate than ourselves.
Year 3 LAP Residential
A group of very tired but happy Year 3 children returned from their two days of adventure at Bewerley Park Outdoor Education Centre last Thursday. The children, accompanied by Mrs Robinson and Miss Parveen, had a brilliant time canoeing, rock clinbing, doing bushcraft and going on a night walk. Once again, our children made a very good impression on everyone there. Thanks so much to the staff who gave up their time to take the children away.
The Copthorne family is growing
Last Wednesday morning Mr A Khan, one of our learning mentors, welcomed a baby daughter to his family. She was born at approximately 6.15am. The whole family are happy to welcome their new arrival. Congratulations from everyone at Copthorne!
Sustainable Schools
By 2020, all schools in the UK should be 'sustainable'. Sustainability is about finding ways of living and working that support a high quality of life without compromising the future of generations to come. It involves thinking about how we need to change our lifestyles and habits to ensure that we take the very best care of our planet and its resources.
At Copthorne we want our children to be caring UK and global citizens. We believe that the whole idea of sustainable schools supports this and provides even more opportunities for our pupils to enjoy and engage further with their own learning and so achieve even higher standards of attainment and progress.
How are we making Copthorne a sustainable school?
As you will be aware, we have been working for a long time to develop our links with schools in a range of communities within both the UK and the rest of the World. At the moment, we are part of a linking schools project with All Saint's Primary in Ilkley, Eastoft Primary in Lincolnshire, Doha College in Qatr and Westfield Community Primary in York. Where possible, our children have spent time at each other's schools and are writing to each other. This is helping to form friendships, foster mutual respect and understanding and give our pupils a clearer understanding of other cultures.
Caring for each other has always been central to Copthorne's ethos and we continue to promote this on a daily basis through the high standards we set for behaviour and through events such as Sport Relief. We have also introduced a range of ways to encourage pupils to become actively involved in caring for each other through schemes such as befrienders, form leaders and administatrive assistants.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, we have managed to secure an allotment which is helping to give a children a hands-on view of how to look after their environment amd how to grow their own food - along with the benefits of such activities to their health and to the environment. It's been really interesting to hear the children talking abour the poor state of the allotment when they first went there and how this has impacted on their attitude to litter and the care for their local area. Our weekly visit St Ives Woods at Bingley is also helping to develop our children's environmental awareness and responsibility for environmental protection.
Our creative curriculum is another way in which we are promoting sustainability. Every creative curriculum theme has 4 'drivers' thrunning right through it. These are the issues that pupils, staff and parents have identified as being of vital importance to Copthorne's children: Environmental Awareness, Cultural Awareness and Understanding, Outdoor Learning and Community. Each time our teachers plan a new theme of work they consider the activities, content and skills that they can include in order to address these drivers. E.g. In Year 1, they have been studying 'Transport through time' - As part of this our children investigated the environmental issues arising from the overuse of cars on our roads and thought about more environmentally friendly solutions. The children also looked at the amount of traffic near our school and thought about ways of staying safe.Our curriculum is one of the most effective ways in which we are beginning our journey towards sustainability.
Each week I will be giving you a bit more information about our work towards sustainibility. If you have any ideas that yopu feel would help us in this area please donot hesitate to add them to the co ments section at the end of this blog or talk to me at school.
Visiting HaworthThis week both our Year 5 classes will be visiting Haworth. This is part of their creative curriculum theme 'We are not amused' which is all about life in Victorian times. This work has also included both classes baking and holding a traditional Victorian afternoon tea.
The RangeReception classes are visiting the Range superstore this week in order to learn more anbout growing plants. The children will be looking at all the different plants and gardening equipment which are sold there and learning about what the equipment is used for.
Easter Egg decorating competitionAs part of our fundraising for Sports Relief, we are running an Easter Egg decorating competition. In exchange for 50p children will receive a polystyrene egg to decorate. These will be judged by Dame Naila Zaffar and prizes awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in each class. I'm sure that with our pupils' fabulous imaginations we will have some excellent entries. Good luck everyone!
Saturday Club Celebration.This Saturday saw a very special celebration held in school. We were celebrating the achievements of all of the children who attend Saturday Club. We were joined by 2 very special guests Sajawal Hussain the councillor for City Ward amd Masood Gondal the Ward Officer for Toller and City Wards. The occasion gave us the opportunuity to say thank you to the council for the £3000 funding we received. This funding allowed us to purchase new archery and cooking equipment and means that our Saturday clubs will be able to continue after Easter. Our special guests helped to present the many awards to the children for a wide range of activities including best Wii player, best cook and best archer. The children were very pleased and excited about the event and, once again, made us all very proud.
Easter Holidays
This Friday (30th March) will be the last school day before the school holidays begin. We return to school on Monday 16th April. I would like to wish everyone an enjoyable holiday and hope that you all enjoy lots of Ester Eggs!
Mrs Shepherd
Welcome to another exciting week at Copthorne. I hope that you all had a restful weekend.
I spent Sunday with my family including my sister, my mum and my nieces and nephews in order to celebrate Mother's Day - it's lovely to be part of a big family for those occasions.
One of our teachers, Mr Darr, is celebrating the welcome new addition to his family: a baby boy, Safee, born in the very early hours of Tuesday morning,weighing 6lbs. Everyone here at Copthorne sends their congratulations to the whole family. I think Mr Darr needs some sleep though!!.
5 Willow and the BBC
Today, pupils from 5 Willow will be spending another the day at the Industrial Museum learning more about the Victorians. This time they will be able to experience all the machinery actually in action. Their day will be being filmed by the BBC as part of a documentary about positive role models in Bradford. I am sure they will have a wonderful time.
Peel Park
Reception classes will be visiting Peel Park as part of their topic on growing. they will be looking at all the plants there and thinking about what they need in order to grow.
Year 3 LAP Residential
On Wednesday, 8 children from Year 3 will be travelling to Bewerley Park outdoor Education Centre for 2 days of exciting activities. They will be staying for 1 night as part of a group with children from other primary schools across our LAP. This is a great way of giving children their first taste of a residential and helps to prepare them and their parents/carers for the 2 day residential in Year 6. I am sure they will have a great time and we look forward to hearing all about it. Thank you to Mrs Robinson and Miss A Parveen who will be accompanying the children.
School Allotment
Last Friday a group of children from 4 Beech spent an enjoyable and fruitful time at our new allotments at Cecil Avenue. They worked hard to clear the area ready for planting and were really pleased to find cabbages, carrots, potatoes and ... a caterpillar! Our aim is to develop the allotment so that each class has their own raised bed where vegetables, fruit and/or flowers can be grown. This will teach children more about the science of growing, help to develop their environmental awareness and encourage healthy eating - especially as we'll be able to cook what is grown in our new multi-purpose room once the new building is finished.
School Dinners
Some parents have expressed concerns about some of the meals presently on our menu. We always treat your concerns seriously and do our best to address them as quickly as possible. Consequently, we have now asked for the chicken pie, lasagne and apple crumble to be removed from the menu.
I hope you have a great week ahead and I look forward to reading your comments.
Mrs Shepherd
Welcome to another blog for Copthorne.
It's been another busy but enjoyable week at school. I always find it amazing that so many different things can fit into 5 days but it does make life at our school so interesting and inspiring.
Visitors from Peterborough
On Friday we had the pleasure of the company of 7 members of staff from Gladstone Primary School in Peterorough. They came to spend the day with us to find out about what makes our school so special and successful. The visitors spent a lot of time visiting lessons and talkng to our lovely pupils: asking them about their learning, the activities they are involved in, the opportunities for them to lead and support each other and the rewards they can achieve. Each of our visitors commented on the welcome they received and how keen our pupils were to talk to and help them. Our visitors are taking lots of good ideas back to their own school. Well done everyone!
Amazing Archers
Last Wednesday afternoon a team of archers from Key Stage 2 took part in a LAP competition. As usual our team gave an outstanding performance to become the LAP Archery Trophy winners for the second year running! This means that the only name on the trophy so far is Copthorne Primary School. In addition to achieving first place overall one of our archers achieved the 2nd highest individual score in the whole competition and another the 3rd highest. It was a fabulous team and individual effort on the part of all our archers. We are very proud of you.
Rotten Romans
Friday also saw the result of weeks of hard work by Year 3 in the form of two wonderful assemblies about the Romans and Britons. The assemblies taught us all so much about that period of history and showed how much Year 3 have learnt. The assemblies included a puppet show, some great acting and very effective use of music! Lots of parents came to watch and everyone, including our visitors from Peterborough, were hugely impressed.
Cinema visit
This week 4 Beech will be visiting Cineworld to watch an animated film from Fance. The film has been dubbed into English and tells the story of a boy who finds a book in which, when opened,all the fairy tale characters come to life. This visit will help 4 Beech with their work in Literacy and be a well derserved treat for them.
Natural sculpture
This week, as part of their creative curriculum theme 'Growing', each of our Year 1 classes will be spending the day at St Ive's Forest Schools to make sculptures from the natural materials they find. Their inspiration is the work of the sculptor Anthony Gormley who is probably best known for his huge sculpture 'The Angel of the North' in Gateshead.
I am sure they will have a great time and we all look forward to seeing the photographs of their finished work.
Learning about the Library
Friday was indeed a very busy day as it also saw 4 Poplar visiting the Central Library. During their visit they were taught about how the library works and about all the different services on offer to them through the library. Everyone is now really looking forward to visiting the library to take out books and use the computers.
Please feel free to post your questions and comments by double clicking on the 'comments' label below. I look forward to hearing from you.
Mrs Shepherd
Hello Everyone,
Welcome to Copthorne's blog where, each week, I will be telling you about some of the exciting things that have been happening and looking forward to future events and activities. You can also use this blog to post your comments and/or ask any questions about school that you may have.
Eureka!
Last Friday, Year 1 spent the day at Eureka in Halifax. During the day they had a wonderful time exploring all the different areas and particularly enjoyed their workshop in the Global Garden which links with their Creative Curriculum theme of 'Growing'.
Romans and Britons
At the moment, Year 3 are busy preparing for their assemblies about the Romans. These will take place on Friday this week (9th March) at 11am and 2.30pm. All parentsand family members are welcome to attend either or both assemblies. We look forward to seeing you.
Amazing Archers
On Wednesday afternoon (7th March) a group of Key Stage 2 pupils will be taking part in our LAP's Archery Competition. Our archers are highly skilled and have already reached some of the highest standards for their age group nationally. So, we have high hopes knowing that they will do their very best for Copthorne.
Wonder Walls
This term has seen the introduction of Wonder Walls around the school. These are areas where children can respond to a range of really interesting questions which will challenge and develop their thinking. These areas are proving very popular and are filled with children's answers and ideas within hours. We will be awarding prizes for some of the best answers at the end of each half term.
Copthorne's Chicks
A little late for Easter we know but, on the 16th April we will be receiving a set of eggs and an incubator. We will be able to see the eggs hatching, name our chicks and watch them grow. Like last year, it should be a very exciting time for our children and staff.
Last year's chicks have grown into healthy hens and cockerals and are safe and well living in North Lincolnshire. They are cared for by my sister and her family so I am able to check on their progress reguarly when I visit.
Have a great week everyone.
Mrs Shepherd
(Deputy Head)
