The School New Year

The School's Christmas Fair was once again a huge success raising a fantastic £615.00 - a big thank you to everyone who helped and supported this event. Children from Class 1 and 2 performed Ned's Christmas Discovery to a packed audience and were wonderful - we really do have some talented children. On the last day of term we attended St Nicholas' Church for our Carols by Candlelight Service followed by Christmas lunch at School - a truly lovely way to finish for the Christmas holidays.

Everyone arrived back in school in early January ready to start the new term on a positive note and keen to get back into school life. A whole school maths challenge day was planned for the first week. Various activities were given to children that were designed to enhance their learning through a hands-on approach to solving puzzles. Children attended a church service conducted by Rev Liz at St Nicholas' Church that was based on a traditional family service. Siblings sat together and pupils without brothers or sisters were grouped accordingly to enrich the value of a family service.

Class 3 have worked with a creative writer through our links with Shandy Hall. They visited both Coxwold and Husthwaite Churches where they explored the architecture and surroundings of both buildings. They then participated in creative writing workshop writing what they had seen visually and transforming that into the written form

KS2 children took part in a Cluster Cross Country competition during the Autumn Term and did fantastically well. Nine children will be representing the school at the next round which takes place at Catterick in March. We wish them luck. Cluster netball and football matches will resume in March and our sports coach, Mr Duffey, is continuing to develop the skills of both children and staff across a range of different sports.

The first half of the Spring Term's school topic is ‘keen to be green' focussing on looking after our environment. So far kitchen waste has been made into compost; Hambleton District Council's kerbside recycling collection team will visit Class 1; visits to the recycling bin have been frequented by all children; Class 2 had a field visit into the village to see how much litter there was and will be designing posters to put up in the village. The whole school will also take part in the Big Birdwatch.
An enrichment afternoon has been taking place each week in Class 3 giving pupils the freedom of choice to explore new skills or supplement their learning Children change their choices each half term. So far pupils have been able to participate in boxing, sewing, cooking, first aid, bird watching, art and no-cook cooking.

If any member of the community would like to share their expertise with children during these enrichment afternoons, please let the school know - we would welcome the opportunity to provide our pupils with the choice of learning a broad spectrum of skills.
A Chinese New Year lunch was served to children which also incorporated a fun fundraising idea. During Chinese New Year it is common for children to receive a red envelope containing money or a gift from family members. Children chose an envelope and paid £1. The envelope contained a note of which gift they would receive - ranging from chopsticks to Chinese coins. A Valentine Disco for the children has also been organised for this term as another fundraising event.
We continued to host the monthly Orchard Club lunches in school whilst the new village hall was being built. We are proud of our community links and it was lovely to welcome the community into our school. It was also great that we were able to help ‘house' some of the other village events during the period of the new build.
Monthly drop-in toddler sessions continue to take place for both youngsters and parents to have a taster of the nursery education we offer to children aged from 3 years. We are also able to offer full day care for children aged from 3-11 years from 8am-6pm through our links with an out of school club provider. Please enquire at the school office for further details. The next toddler drop-in-session is on Wednesday 5 March 9.15-11.30 am.
Visits to the school are always welcome, or if you would like more information please feel free to contact us (01347 868371) or visit our website on www.husthwaite.n-yorks.sch.uk