Pollington-Balne Church of England Primary School

January Newsletter

31st January 2025

Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe we are at the end of January already! It is great to welcome everyone back for the spring term. What a lot we have crammed in already!

Attendance

Our Attendance to date is: 94.4%

Authorised Absence: 3.2%

Uauthorised Absence: 2.4%

Scooter, Pedestrian and Moving on Training

Year 2 - Scooter Training - All the children passed their scooter training and had fun in the lesson learning how to ride their scooter safely. They could describe what they need to do to keep themselves safe.

Year 4 - Pedestrian Training - A massive well done to Year 4 children who have learned how to be safe pedestrians. The team from ERYC Road Safety commented on how responsible and well mannered the children were.

Year 6 - Moving on Talk - All of Year Five and Six had a 'Move Up' talk from East Riding Council this morning. Mark, our guest from the East Riding Council, discussed with the children the importance of road, cycle, coach and car safety whilst travelling to and from places, particularly high school. The children impressed him with their recall of the ABCD check for their bikes, and their understanding of what it means to keep safe.

Mini Police

PCSO Chandler came into school to work with the Mini Police from Pollington-Balne and Cowick. The children learned all about 'Safe Strangers' and what to do in different scenarios. The next lesson was all about 'Bullying' where the children were able to identify what constitutes bullying behaviour. They shared strategies for how to deal with this. PCSO Chandler was super impressed with the maturity in which the childrern approached the lessons.

Next week, the lessons will take place at Cowick. We are looking forward to learning about crime scenes and online safety!

Litter Pickers!

Joshua and Ellie have been out and about with the new Litter Pickers of Pollington! Although it was dark, they still managed to find a whole bag full of rubbish on the streets of Pollington. They were very surprised to find 2 big McDonald's bags in the hedge at school! Congratulations on all your hard work and keeping the community clean and tidy.

Goal for the Gambia - 'Fill a Suitcase' with Mrs Burton

Mrs Burton and her family are flying to the Gambia for their holiday in April. They have planned to visit a school with a suitcase full of donations to support the childrens education. We are therefore holding a non-uniform day on the 14th February 2025 and asking children to bring in 1 small item for the suitcase. Please see below a letter from the Mrs Burton with more information about the charity and suitable donations to fill her suitcase. Thank you for your support!

Giving Opportunites to Achieve and Learn letter [docx 843KB]

Oak Class

Oak class have had a fantastic start to the new year. We have really enjoyed reading Stick Man and the children have written their own adventure for him. We have continued our personal history work. The children have loved looking at each other's baby photos and guessing who the baby is. They have also compared photographs of themselves as babies to how they look now and talked about the similarities and differences. We have had a fantastic response to our stay and Learn afternoons. The children have enjoyed exploring maths and capacity with a variety of objects from around the classroom. They have really started to improve their recording skills, including writing numerals to ten and using the number lines!

Mrs Batty

Ash Class

Computing

The children have enjoyed developing their computing skills with a focus on ‘Creating Digital Media’.

PE

The children have been working on Gymnastics this term and have been developing shape and balance. The children have led warm up stretches and gymnastic 'experts' have coached their peers.

Music

The children have been exploring 'beat' in their music lessons with Mrs Lawrence.

Mrs Blades and Mrs Pears

Maple Class

Maple Class have been enjoying learning about the Ancient Egyptians, focusing on Howard Cater and his discoveries.

In Science we are learning about plants. We have linked this to our work in Art, where we have been exploring 'plant art' by famous artists. We have also created our own interpretations of their work.

Mrs de Bethel

Willow Class

We have made and described ancient Sumer houses from Lego. We were very surprised how modern they were for 5000 years ago!

In RE we have been learning about the significance of Good Friday looking at the event through Mary's eyes. This has required us to show empathy.

I have attended an exciting course on Reading for Pleasure and look forward to sharing what I learned soon! Willow Class have started by enjoying our first 'Big Up Your Book' Session!

Miss Habbishaw

Birch Class

Spring term has certainly started on a high note! Both year five and six listened to officers from the East Riding to hear about how to keep themselves safe when journeying to and from high school. Both year groups listened well and asked, as well as answered some very tricky questions.

As we began back, year six were invited to attend SATs Club, the turn up has been fantastic with all members of year six attending.

Last Sunday was World Religions Day, and Birch Class have demonstrated some wonderful independent learning skills, learning more about the common things between the major world religions as well as the importance of prayer amongst them too.

We are currently practicing for our next PE competition at The Snaith School - this will be held on 12^th February. Good luck Birch Class!

Mrs Foster

Governors

New governor roles have been approved at the last Full Governing Body Meeting on the 22.01.25. Our New Chair and Vice Chair are

Chair of Governors - Mrs Kay Ray

Hello!

I’m Kay and I’m the new Chair of Governors for the Federation of Pollington-Balne and Cowick Primary Schools. Newly retired, after 35 years working in education in a variety of roles, I am delighted to be stepping up to this role and being able to make a difference to the lives of future generations. I am married with three very grown up children who attended Pollington School many years ago and were set on the path to success from that solid foundation. My mission as Chair of Governors is to support the schools to thrive and continue to offer the best provision they can.

I can be contacted at federationcog@pollington-balne.eriding.net

Vice Chair - Mrs Anna Laycock-Brown

Mrs Laycock-Brown has resigned as chair, after many years of driving the school foward, but is ready for a change to focus on her family and actual job as Pollington Preschool Manager. We would like to thank her very much for all the many hours she has spent in her role as Chair. She will of course be supporting the new Chair in her role as Vice Chair and will still play an active role in our school community.

Football Club

We’re thrilled to share just how proud we are of the incredible progress the children at the After School Football Club are making! Jak and Laura are amazed by the overwhelming number of sign-ups, showcasing not only their enthusiasm but also their commitment to the sport.

As we continue to foster their love for football, we’re looking to start fundraising for a new school football kit. If any parents are interested in sponsoring the kit, we would greatly appreciate your support! Please contact the school office to express your interest. Thank you in advance.

Compliments

We are so proud of our school community and how the children conduct themselves whilst representing our school, here are a few comments from recent visitors. I think you will agree that they are all truly wonderful.

Parent - The Oak Class Maths Lesson was really good.

ERYC Safety Team - We are really impressed with the safety on the roads knowledge your children.

PCSO Chandler - The children have really impressed me with their mature answers about bullying.

Parent - Thank you so much to all the staff. My child is really thriving at Pollington.

Builder on site - The children are so well behaved here.

Communication with school and staff

The building work has well and truly commenced in the school grounds. This is being managed well by the contractors with limited disruption for lessons. Please be patient when dropping off and picking up at the beginning and end of the school day as this continues for the remainder of the spring term.

Please remember to send your child with appropriate outerwear, coats, hat and gloves as the cold weather continues. As a school we are out learning and playing in all but the worst weather! Please check out the gritting map for areas that are salted in bad weather on the website.

We have 2 large boxes of unclaimed school uniform / clothing in school. We have limited space in school to store items and we ask that parents come and check the boxes for lost property as soon as possible. Following half term this will then be disposed of via the PTA.

We continue to use Class Dojo as our main means of communication with you to share exciting news and updates. Pease note for all urgent messages for staff, the first point of contact is the school office. You can reach Ms Bainbridge or Ms Warren on 01405 861916 or email on office@pollington-balne.eriding.net.

Thank you for your support.

Reminders

Reminders

Woodwind private tuition Y3-Y5 - If anyone is interested in having private tuition for Flute, saxophone or clarinet from ERYC during school time, please let the office know and more information will be sent home.

The Termly cost is approximately £54.00 which would need to be paid via ParentPay and a commitment of 12 months is required

Help in Class - Thank you to everyone who has already completed DBS forms, once this is received, please arrange to bring it into school and discuss your available times so we can get you into school.

February 2025 - Spring Term : 17th February - 21st February - Half Term

Diary Dates for February - Please find all current February diary dates on the new tab heading.

	Sax demo IJ	[mp4 29MB]
	Flute demo IJ	[mov 78MB]
	Clarinet Demo IJ	[mov 65MB]

WTCF - Primary Rugby League Camp (February)

Community News

Wakefield Trinity Community Foundation Primary Rugby League holiday camps are back for players aged 6-11 throughout the February Half Term break!

We have sessions on Monday 17th, Tuesday 18th, Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th of February running 10am - 2pm at Stanley Rodillians RUFC, WF3 4EF.

You can book each day individually using the link below priced at £15 per day or get a discount and book the full week for just £50!

All sessions will be delivered by our Foundation rugby league coaches and will be a fun, engaging and exciting week for the youngest players in our community! All week players will develop an array of rugby league skills and knowledge through enjoyable drills and games in a positive environment!

Use the link below to secure your place! Once registered, you'll receive an email receipt. You'll get another email closer to the event with the final details.

	Wakefield Rugby
	Half Term Rugby Camps

Girls Cricket

Please see details regarding Carlton Towers Girls Cricket Team

NHS Pharmacy First Service

Did you know that the NHS Pharmacy First Service enables children and adults to get convenient access to healthcare advice and treatment where appropriate, for seven common conditions without the potential delay of having to wait for a GP appointment? Accessing the service may mean that we can help children feel better and get back to school as quickly as possible, as well as supporting parents/carers to also get better if they are unwell with one of the conditions covered under the service.

There is no need to make an appointment; parents or carers can pop into their local pharmacy with their child and ask for help under the service.

Support for the following conditions can be accessed under the service, free of charge (unless NHS prescription charges apply):

Common condition	Patient eligibility
Earache	1 to 17 years
Impetigo	1 year and over
Infected insect bites and stings	1 year and over
Sore throats	5 years and over
Sinusitis	12 years and over
Uncomplicated urinary tract	Women 16 to 64 years
Shingles	18 years and over