School News & Events

 Our Vision

We believe that our children should have the aspiration and opportunity to ‘Live life in all its fullness’ and ‘Shine like stars in the sky’.


New this week…
 
Please note our weekly update will now be sent out on Friday mornings.
 
Easter Sharing and Celebration Tea
Wednesday 25^th March 2026 2.00pm at school
Just a reminder that are warmly invited to join us for a special Easter Sharing and Celebration Tea.
During this joyful gathering, we will celebrate Easter together and children are invited to share a special achievement if they wish to.
Your child may pick one personal achievement/award they are especially proud of. This will be a wonderful opportunity to share this with family and friends.
We look forward to sharing tea and treats, as we celebrate the children’s achievements together.
 
World Book Day – Reading Buddies Invitation
Thursday 5th March at 9.00 am in the school hall.
We are excited to invite you to celebrate World Book Day with us! The theme for World Book Day this year is 'read what you love' and it is the perfect opportunity to share and recommend books to each other. 
Come along and share a special reading time with your child in our school hall as part of our reading buddies' session. Our library will also be open. It’s a wonderful opportunity to enjoy a book together and celebrate the joy of reading.
Children are welcome to come:

• In their school uniform with a prop from their favourite book, or
• Dressed as a prop/character from their favourite book.

We can’t wait to see all the creative costumes and share some fantastic stories together!
Children will bring home a £1 book voucher which can be exchanged for a free WBD book or put towards a different book at bookshops.
 
Happy Reading! 🌟
 
Class Collective Worship
 
Each week one of our Collective Worship sessions takes place in class with a focus on something in the news. Attached in a take home that you might like to think about and share with your child at home, there is no need to return this to school.
This week’s take home…  -Take Home 27th Feb.pdf-  
 
Spotlights from Learning…
 
Homework
Our class homework pages have been updated. Please take a moment to look at the page for your class. If you have any questions, please speak to your child's class teacher. 
 
Poetry and word of the week
 
https://poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/isnt-my-name-magical
 
This week our word of the week is 'name'
 
Names are magical, according to James Berry’s poem, and the word name is magical too because it combines with so many other elements to make new words and phrases. How many of these combinations do you know, or can guess, the meaning of? How many others can you add?
 
code name, household name, maiden name, nametape, name-drop, namesake, stage name, username
 
 
Acorn Class
Acorn Class have been busy this week thinking about our 3 B's; being ready, being respectful and being safe and how we are going to work together to use these to help our learning grow even more this half term!
We have started to think about our new writing project this week - we have some great ideas of poems that we would like to write, we would love to share our ideas with you!
In music we have been trying to keep a steady beat, we have found this is really challenging, we could try doing this with you at home for some fun!
 
Oak Class
To complement our learning about healthy eating and food groups, we have been learning more about fruit and vegetables in DT this week.  We have learnt adjectives to describe fruits decided on ingredients to use in a fruit smoothie.  Children are looking forward to making smoothies next.  Are there any new fruits that children could try with you or perhaps they could use their knowledge to try their recipe ideas at home.
 
Palm Class
Palm class have enjoyed their first forest school session this week. They have been inspired by Chinese New Year and have been creative with making chopsticks and lucky horseshoes as well as enjoying some noodles cooked on the fire. A group of children each week will also be enjoying a cooking session with Mrs Brassington, learning how to cook cottage pie - I wonder if they can show you some of their skills at home and I hope you get to taste their delicious cooking at home! 
 
Cedar Class
This week in Cedar we have enjoyed learning more about the meaning of the Kingdom of God through our RE lessons. We have studied the 'The parable of the banquet' from Luke 14 and thought about the reasons why the Kingdom of God might be compared to a banquet. Why not ask your child, if they can explain more to you about the parable of the banquet and what it has in common with the Kingdom of God. 
 
Bolton Castle Trip – KS2
 
Please remember the following for Monday 2^nd March
Packed lunch required
School uniform, including a waterproof coat, as some activities will take place outdoors
A refillable water bottle.
No electronics, including mobile phones, tablets, or gaming devices.
 
A polite reminder that we have members of both school with severe allergies and therefore we request that you do not include any of the following items in your child’s lunch:
Nuts (of any kind), beans, lentils, chickpeas, peas, prawns and sesame seeds.
 
After school clubs
Due to the Bolton Castle trip arriving late back on Monday 2^nd March we are cancelling both Guitar and Crafty Conservation clubs.
 
Crafty Conservation will be carried over into next half term to take place on 20^th April and Guitar Club will be on 13th April.
 
Book Club
We had a fantastic book club last half term where we shared the newly published picture book 'The Wonder' by Tom Percival. After reading and reviewing we made some crafts inspired by the book. The children and grownups all really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to everyone, Mrs Pawson has a copy in Acorn Class if you would like to read it.
In book club this half term we are looking at a non-fiction book, everyone from reception to year 6 is welcome to join us (we still have graphic novels and chapter books to come in the summer term).
If you would like to join us in reading, sharing, reviewing and a project related to the book then we would love to welcome you on Thursday 26^th March 3.30-4.30pm
Every person or family group that attends will need to pay for a book via parent pay. The books will be a longer read this time so we will be sending them out in advance, books will be ordered on the 6^th March and must be paid for via Parent Pay in advance. The cost of the book will be £10 and you will also get to keep the book after the club.
Thank you
 
Whizz Kids
As there are various clubs running after half term we are asking that new Whizz Kids booking forms are sent into school if you haven’t already done this.
 
Forest School Friday
To support our Golden Threads, Helen will be running a morning forest school session for each class on a Friday morning. Dates are as follows:

• Oak Class: Friday 27^th February
• Acorn Class: Friday 6^th March
• Palm Class: Friday 13^th March
• Cedar Class: Friday 20^th March

Children should come in comfy, warm clothes suitable for forest school. They will need long trousers, water proofs and wellies. Please send uniform in a bag for the afternoon session. 
 
This half term, it is Palm class that have forest school every Wednesday afternoon. Please bring your forest school kit with you to change into.
 
PE days
Acorn - Wednesday (please come dressed in your PE kit)
Oak - Friday
Palm - Tuesday (Swimming kit required for year 4s who signed up) 
Cedar – Tuesday
 
Reminders…
 
Wellies and Trainers
We have noticed that some children’s feet have grown, please don’t forget to check wellies and trainers in school. Thank you.
 
Headlice/nits
We have several cases of headlice in school, please can you check your family’s hair and treat as necessary. Local pharmacists are a very helpful source of information and can advise on which treatment is currently the most effective in our area. Please follow the instructions on the treatment carefully and don’t forget to retreat your family, this is usually required a week after the first treatment.
 
Warm/Waterproof coats
It has been very cold and wet this week, we like to spend as much time outside as possible, children do need to have a warm waterproof coat with them every day.
 
 
Packed Lunches
Please can we remind parents of all children to continue to cut grapes and similar items such as cherry tomatoes to reduce the risk of choking for all children. Thank you for your continued support in keeping our children safe.
 
Safeguarding, Health and Wellbeing Updates…
 
School Car Park - Please do not park in the school car park. This is for health and safety reasons as space is very limited. We appreciate your co-operation with keeping everyone safe.
 
Safety on site
A polite reminder to keep to the footpaths around the school site and avoid walking on the grass when arriving at and leaving the school site, several areas of grass near to the footpaths are now coned off as they are very slippery and dangerous.
A reminder that playing on the grass at the front of school and climbing on the walls is not safe for anyone and is therefore not allowed. Thank you for helping us too keep our children safe around school.
 

News from the Wider Community…

The Little Ripon Bookshop
With just a week to go until World Book Day we thought we would remind you that we have all the WBD books in the shop ready for children to pick up in exchange for a WBD token. The books are completely free to the children when they bring in a WBD voucher (see picture of books). They can also use the voucher to take £1 off a book, if they would rather do that.
We also have a fabulous, flashy, noisy, NEW WBD Machine arriving in the shop on Thursday 5^th March, ready to dispense books to eager recipients! It’s bonkers (of course), manufactured with love out of cardboard boxes (don’t tell the kids!) and it will be in use on Thursday and Friday after school and on Saturday from 10am! It’s been very popular the last few years - please let your pupils know that a new machine will be here.