Pollington-Balne Church of England Primary School

Spring 2 Newsletter

26th March, 2026

This has truly been a fully packed term. The children continue to impress us with their enthusiasm and positive attitude towards learning, and we are incredibly proud of all they have achieved. Despite it being a short term, we have managed to fit in so much - from exciting sporting events to welcoming visitors, as well as an amazing Science Week that inspired curiosity and discovery across the school.

It was particularly special to end the term with our wonderful pilgrimage, which was a meaningful and spiritual experience for all involved. We would also like to warmly invite parents and carers to experience the Easter Pilgrimage after our Easter service on Monday 13th April at 2.30pm. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support - it is greatly appreciated.

Wishing all our families a very Happy and peaceful Easter. We look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 13th April.

Kind regards

Mrs Rawes and Mrs Batty

Attendance as at 25.03.26

Our Attendance to date is: 95.7%

Authorised Absence: 3.3%

Unauthorised Absence: 1.00%

	FFTAttAwardNatAut25 8113331 KS2	[pdf 236KB]
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	FFTAttAwardNat2425 8113331 KS2 (1)	[pdf 176KB]

Fire safety talk Yr 6

Humberside fire brigade came and gave the year 6 pupils a comprehensive talk regarding fire safety and keeping safe in the home. The fire officer was very impressed with the knowlege and mature questions and responses given by all the children.

Please follow the link below where you will find a home fire safety booklet and details to request a fire safety visit to your home.

Humberside Fire and Rescue

Read Write Inc School

We are pleased to announce we are now officially an accredited Read Write Inc School.

Welcome to - Mrs Barnby

This month we have welcomed Mrs Barnby to school as a 1:1 TA supporting children across the school.

Meet the Governors and SLT

We will be holding another SLT Drop in session on 14th April 2026. Don't forget to sign up to meet with the team for a 10 minute chat which is from 3.30 to 4.30pm.

Our next Meet the governors and SLT session will take place after Sports Day on 11th June. We hope to see you there.

Oak Class

This month Oak class have been learning the Easter Story. We have listened to the story from the bible that tells us how Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. We know that this special day is now called Palm Sunday and is the start of Holy Week. We enjoyed making palm leaves and used them to wave and cheer Hosanna as we re-enacted Jesus and his donkey walking into Jerusalem.

Through our Science work on materials the children have been exploring different building materials, including clay, plastic bricks and wood. They investigated how to make bricks out of sand and what would happen if we added PVA glue. The results were amazing and the children enjoyed making structures from their sand bricks when they had dried.

Thank you for your support.

Mrs Batty & Mrs Bodle

Maple Class

It’s only been a short half-term, but Maple Class have been incredibly busy! We’ve celebrated World Book Day, Red Nose Day, TT Rockstars Day, and British Science Week. We are also enjoying our rugby sessions with Wakefield Trinity and are fully immersed in our new writing unit, creating explanation texts on 'How to use a teacher pleaser machine!'.

We have also been focusing this half term on our Christian Value of 'forgiveness'. This has included working on our own self-esteem and being forgiving of our own flaws and mistakes and celebrating our strengths and qualities.

Miss Yates and Mrs Firth

Ash Class

What a busy and fun filled half term in Ash Class! We have had a wonderful time learning across our different subjects. The children have all worked hard and shown great enthusiasm in their lessons.

In History we have learnt all about the Great Fire of London and the children have really enjoyed discussing the cause and how London has changed after the event, (Thankyou to Zara for bringing a photo of visiting Pudding Lane).

Science has been amazing. We have been celebrating science with some wonderful creatures and talks with parents and staff. The children have really enjoyed the practical side of their learning and carrying out experiments and comparing different materials.

We are very proud of you Ash Class!

Mrs Stone and Mrs Poskitt

Willow Class

Willow Class have thoroughly enjoyed their recent science learning, where they took on the challenge of designing and building shelters for a mouse. The children carefully selected their materials, thinking about which would be the most suitable for creating a strong and waterproof structure. They explored different properties of materials and worked collaboratively to create shelters that would keep their mouse safe and dry.

As part of their investigations, the children also learned about carrying out fair tests. They tested their shelters to see how well they stood up to different conditions, such as water and weight, making sure each test was fair by keeping variables the same. The children then recorded their results and discussed what they had found, helping them to understand which materials and designs were the most effective. It has been fantastic to see their enthusiasm, teamwork, and growing scientific thinking throughout this project.

Mrs Jones

Arbor Parent App

Please can parents check for any meal debts in the Arbor App for school meals, as the financial year end is upon us. Please try to keep up with regular weekly payments for school meals as these can soon mount up quickly. Obviously, this helps the kitchen with ordering, paying invoices to our suppliers and the school paying wages to kitchen staff.

If you have any issues with meal payments please do not hesitate to contact Ms Warren via the school office.

Further information about Free School Meals can be found on the website. If you are entitled to free school meals please apply for this even if you child is in Reception, year 1 and year 2 receiving universal free school meals. Further funding helps us to support your child in school as well as receiving a free school meal.

Sports

In recent months our focus has been on target games and now cricket. All children have worked hard to achieve lesson stars with additional PE certificate winners.

Last term, Italy were our successful winter olympics in-school competiton winner and due to the excellent effort and attitude, we look forward to our cricket school ashes battle to finish off the Spring Term.

Jak

Mrs Willden from the Snaith School visited recently to give some of our Year 4-6 children the opportunity to play kin-ball. She was so impressed with our children that she emailed:

Hi Mrs Rawes

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed teaching Kin-Ball to the Year 4, 5 and 6 pupils yesterday morning. They worked really hard, listened brilliantly, and I was very impressed with their enthusiasm throughout.

I hope to see some of them at the competition next week! Please also pass on my thanks for making me feel so welcome at the school.

Kind regards,

Claire Willden

We really enjoyed Mrs Willden's visit, too. Well done to everyone who took part.

Birch Class

In Birch Class, we have have been learning about the circulatory system in science. We have investigated what blood is made from and the importance of each component.

We have also learned about the different sections of the heart, making our own 3D models out of modelling clay. To finish our topic, we have used books and the internet to investigate the role of blood vessels in in our bodies. We were fascinated to find out that 98% of our blood vessels are actually tiny capillaries measuring less than 1mm in length and, if we were to stretch all our blood vessels in one long line they would stretch for 62,000 - that's almost two and a half times the distance around the Earth!

Sticking with our theme, in English the children have been working on character and setting descriptions as well as dialogue by writing the opening to a story about Count Dracula, having studied an extract from the text in VIPERS!

Miss Habbishaw and Mrs Firth

Reading for Pleasure

As a school, we are having a big focus on Reading for Pleasure; research has shown that reading for fun is the single biggest indicator of a child's future. We are super proud that every class now has a book swap box (for children to bring and swap books with other children that they have read and are happy to give away!) and cosy reading area. Each class is now enjoy weekly ERIC time (Everyone Reading in Class). During ERIC, children can bring anything that they would like to read - a much loved book, a comic etc. and everyone reads as they feel comfy - even the grown ups!

East Riding Libraries launch '5 minutes a day' reading campaign

ERYC have launched a campaign encouraging residents to read for just ‘5 minutes a day’ as part of the National Year of Reading programme. The campaign is based on recent research conducted by the Queen’s Reading Room and is designed to encourage more people to make reading a part of their everyday routine. It has been found that reading for just five minutes every day can reduce stress by almost 20% and helps to manage stress levels for the rest of the day too.

Please follow the link to ERYC Library services to find out more.

	ERYC Library Sevice
	5 minutes a day

SCIENCE WEEK

What a fantastic week we had during National Science Week. We were fortunate to welcome to the school 'Go Wild' who brought with them a collection of native and exotic animals. The children had the opportunity to ask and answer questions about their habitats, diet and any adaptive features. Who knew that scorpions could glow under an ultra violet light?! Leanne gave an inspirational talk to all of the children and they even had the opportunity to touch or handle some of the animals. This was a free event for us arranged by Mrs Batty.

In order for events to take place in the future we would kindly ask you to share your child's feedback with 'Go Wild' to give them an insight into the impact this has had on our pupils. Please use the link below.

	Schools Go Wild!
	Parental feed back
	Schools Go Wild!

We would like to say a big thank you to our 3 amazing parent scientists who came into school during science week and delivered 3 presentations about how they use science in their work. The children throughly enjoyed the presentations and we were thrilled with the level of questions that the children asked.

Thank you Everyone

Pollington-Balne School and PTA would like to say a big thank you for all the Cholocate eggs donated for the Easter Hampers, the PTA where overwhelmed with everyones generous donations. Well done to the winners the Easter Hampers looked amazing.

Thank you also to Mrs Hart for donating childrens scissors and selotape, for which we can never have too much!

You raised a whopping £48.00 for Red Nose day and £47.50 for COLA! £95.50 in total.

By supporting our book fair you have raised £521.29 to spend on school books for our Library.

These amazing gestures of charity really matter and help support our children, thank you all.

Letters of Thanks

We recently welcomed Heidi in to school to work with our older children and teach them about First Aid. She was so impressed that she sent an email thanking us:

Good Morning Mrs Rawes

Thank you for allowing me to visit your lovely school yesterday to deliver the First Aid workshop. I would be grateful if you could pass on my thanks to those staff who supported me in the session and to Mrs Bainbridge for making me so welcome on my arrival.

I do hope the pupils found the lessons helpful and that they feel more confident to support those in need of first aid . Whilst I appreciate the session provides them with only an insight in to the topic, I do hope it will encourage them to develop this essential life skill further . The pupils were a pleasure to teach and a credit to the school .

With regards to the content of the session I have planned it to ensure it meets with the criteria for statutory First Aid as per the DfE policy: Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education . The section which refers to First Aid for primary pupils is on page 34 and states :

Basic first aid Pupils should know:

• how to make a clear and efficient call to emergency services if necessary

• concepts of basic first-aid, for example dealing with common injuries, including head injuries.

The policy has been updated on the DfE website for introduction in Sept 2026 , the only adjustment to the first aid section is ;

How to make a clear and efficient call to emergency services if necessary, including the importance of reporting incidents rather than filming them.

Following our recent telephone conversation, I just wanted to confirm that I also included information about Asthma , Anaphylaxis and Choking.

Apologies for the long email and thanks again for your support .

Enjoy your well deserved Easter Holiday.

Best wishes

Heidi

Reminders

Parking

We kindly remind all parents and visitors to park safely and considerately while on and near school premises. Please refrain from parking on yellow lines, as this can obstruct traffic and create safety hazards.

Please also vacate the carpark promptly to support others in using the facilities.

Play Equipment

Please do not let your children use the play equipment before and after school as we are not responsible for any injuries sustained out of school hours.

School Uniform

A gentle reminder to all parents and carers of the importance of children attending school in the correct school uniform each day, including the appropriate school PE kit on designated days. Wearing correct uniform, including the correct footwear, helps foster a sense of pride and belonging within our school community. Please also ensure all clthing is named.

We appreciate your support in ensuring all children come to school dressed appropriately and ready for learning.