Latest News
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
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Weekly update 26th January 2024
Fri 26 Jan 2024Diary Dates:
Wb 29th January Year 6 Bikeability
8th February MENU CHANGE – Chinese New Year
Chinese Chicken Curry or Vegetable Chow Mein, Rice/ Peas/Sweetcorn
Ma Lai Gao (Chinese Sponge Cake)
19-23 February Half Term holiday
27/28th February Parents’ Evenings – booking information will follow next week
7th March World Book Day
Beaumanor Trip Year 2
11th March Rags 2 Riches – clothing collection
Wb 11th March Year 5 Bikeability – more information to follow
18th March Whole School Cricket Day
22nd March Last day of term – Easter Holidays begin
9th April 2.50 p.m. Phonics information session for Puffin and Kingfisher parents more information will follow nearer the time.
School residential trips
This is a reminder to sign up on Arbor for the trip relevant to your child or please let us know if you do not wish for your child to take part.
BEAUMANOR (7th-8th March) Year 2 Payment due 16TH February
CAYTHORPE PGL (15th-17th May) Year 3 and 4 Payment due 26TH April
We have to provide final numbers for this trip next week.
We have been to PGL at Caythorpe Court a couple of times and have been very impressed by the accommodation and activities. The site is completely secure with meals from a child-friendly menu cooked on site. School staff are present at all times and activities are led by trained instructors. There will be a meeting for parents on Monday 15th April at 3pm for more details.
WHITBY (3rd-7th June) Year 5 and 6 Payment due 17TH May
The children will stay at the Seacliff Hotel where we have stayed many times before. It is 15 minutes to walk into Whitby. The children will visit Whitby Abbey, the Sea Life Centre in Scarborough, go on a boat ride, visit the Captain Cook museum. We will stop at Eden Camp Museum on the way and return via a visit to York. There will be a parents’ meeting on Monday 29th April at 3pm for more details
If you have any questions, or are struggling with the cost for these residential trips, please get in touch. Thank you.
Reminder Cross Country – Ratcliffe College 9-11.30 Saturday 27th January plus fun run for Years 1 and 2. Years 3,4,5,6 usual Cross-Country route. Please sign up on Arbor.
Year 4 Boys
Well done to Jack R, Harlan, Nathaniel, Will, Oscar, Leo and George B who won the cross-country league at Mallory Park. All boys received a gold medal. Photos to follow next week on our Facebook page.
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Weekly update 19th January 2024
Mon 22 Jan 2024Diary Dates:
25th January Fire Service – Year 1 and Year 5 Fire Safety talks
8th February MENU CHANGE – Chinese New Year
Chinese Chicken Curry or Vegetable Chow Mein, Rice/ Peas/Sweetcorn
Ma Lai Gao (Chinese Sponge Cake)
19-23 February Half Term holiday
27/28th February Parents’ Evenings – booking information will follow
Wb 29th February Year 6 Bikeability – please return consent forms
7th March World Book Day
11th March Rags 2 Riches – clothing collection
Wb 11th March Year 5 Bikeability – more information to follow
18th March Whole School Cricket Day
22nd March Last day of term – Easter Holidays begin
Reminder Cross Country – Ratcliffe College 9-11.30 Saturday 27th January plus fun run for Years 1 and 2. Years 3,4,5,6 usual Cross-Country route. Please sign up on Arbor.
School Trips
This is a reminder to sign up on Arbor for the trip relevant to your child or please let us know if you do not wish for your child to take part.
BEAUMANOR (7th-8th March) Year 2 Payment due 16TH February
CAYTHORPE PGL (15th-17th May) Year 3 and 4 Payment due 26TH April
We have been to PGL at Caythorpe Court a couple of times and have been very impressed by the accommodation and activities. The site is completely secure with meals from a child-friendly menu cooked on site. School staff are present at all times and activities are led by trained instructors. There will be a meeting for parents on Monday 15th April at 3pm for more details.
WHITBY (3rd-7th June) Year 5 and 6 Payment due 17TH May
The children will stay at the Seacliff Hotel where we have stayed many times before. It is 15 minutes to walk into Whitby. The children will visit Whitby Abbey, the Sea Life Centre in Scarborough, go on a boat ride, visit the Captain Cook museum. We will stop at Eden Camp Museum on the way and return via a visit to York. There will be a parents’ meeting on Monday 29th April at 3pm for more details.
If you have any questions, or are struggling with the cost for these residential trips, please get in touch. Thank you.
Clothing collection
We are having another clothing collection to raise money for our school. Do you have clothes in your wardrobe you no longer wear? Please help us fundraise by donating your good quality, unwanted, re-usable clothes and accessories. Bags to fill will be sent home in the next few weeks.
Please bring your donations to school on the morning of Monday 11th March.
We really appreciate your support in helping raise additional funds for our school for the benefit of all our children. Thank you
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Weekly update 12th January 2024
Fri 12 Jan 2024PE change next week
Penguin Class on Tuesday 16th
Hummingbird Class on Thursday 18th
School Trips
Just a reminder of the final dates for payment for the residential trips this year:
BEAUMANOR (7th-8th March) Year 2 16TH February
CAYTHORPE PGL (15th-17th May) Year 3 and 4 26TH April
WHITBY (3rd-7th June) Year 5 and 6 17TH May
Thank you.
Governors’ report to parents and guardians of children at Old Dalby Primary School – January 2024
As we begin a new calendar year, the Governors felt that it was important to write a summary of the autumn term for parents and guardians, both to remind us all of the outstanding achievements and hard work put in by pupils and staff and to energise us for the spring term ahead. There have been both academic and pastoral achievements as well as changes to the fabric and supporting environment for our children.
Starting with sport, Mrs Bryan has maintained the school’s Platinum School Games Award for high quality PE and sport provision. Activities have included traditional sports like football, tennis, and basketball as well as more unusual games like dodgeball, which have gone on alongside swimming lessons. A trip to the Nottingham Panthers ice hockey arena in Nottingham and an Aston Villa football day were also on the menu. Despite being limited by the partition wall in the school hall, Mrs Bryan has found innovative ways to provide indoor PE and afterschool sports club – cardio drumming, glow stick Zumba and yoga being some of the activities on offer. All have been received with great enthusiasm by the children!
The Governors have been impressed by the wide-ranging topic work delivered during the autumn term, including ‘Around the World in 80 days’, the Tudors, ‘Splash!’ all about rivers, seas and oceans, ‘Survivors’, and ‘To Infinity and Beyond’ which focuses on toys and superheroes. There was also a Mental Wellbeing Day and the establishment of Zones of Regulation which help children to discuss their feelings and understand how to begin to self-regulate their emotions.
We said goodbye to Reverend Jamie during our Harvest festival and found new ways to take part in Collective Worship as our hall has temporarily shrunk. Our military children recorded a Remembrance Day video which was watched by every class and formed the basis for each class’s act of remembrance. For the last couple of months, we have welcomed representatives from the Melton Lions Club, as children in Osprey and Hummingbird classes have taken part in their ‘8 Billion Ideas’ competition to design the next ground-breaking invention. Ten members of Osprey Class also visited KS Composites on the industrial estate to see science and engineering in the real world. They had an amazing time watching cutting edge technology in operation and seeing the outcomes. The company is keen to foster stronger links with us, as a result we are coming up with ways for them to support our curriculum as well as enrich it.
In the run up to Christmas, the EYFS and KS1 Nativity went ahead as usual despite the building work and lack of space. The children performed admirably and there were more than a few tears of laughter shed by parents who came to watch screenings of the production filmed by staff. The staff also went out of their way to produce some festive cheer. The Christmas service, held in St. John’s church, was well supported by parents. A number of children participated in the service, which explored the true meaning of Christmas, wrapped inside a very large cracker!
It is hard to miss the changes to the school buildings. The new school classrooms are finished – complete with air conditioning for the hot summer months, skylights and interactive whiteboards. A new multi-weather play area for Puffin Class has been finished and the newly refurbished extended staffroom is now providing the staff with much-needed accommodation for breaks and meetings. The outside is returning to normal, with grass seed and replacement trees and hedges having been planted for those damaged during the building process. The hall extension is still undergoing some work and is expected to be complete midway through this Spring term.
Most parents may not realise it, but Mrs Browne has been heavily involved in this process, spending time in addition to her normal job, to ensure that the project is proceeding according to plan and meeting the needs of the pupils and staff. It would be easy to think that all of this was organised externally and simply done for us but it wasn’t – thank you, Mrs Browne!
During the first two months of the term, we hosted two coffee mornings. The first was for MacMillan Cancer Support, the second for Prevent Breast Cancer. The two have combined to raise over £600. The latter was particularly close to our hearts as it is the charity for which Mrs Keast’s children also fundraised over the summer. Her chemotherapy continued until Christmas, with positive results and further treatment is expected in the new year.
The school’s place in the community was reinforced in the autumn term; our Harvest and Children In Need collections gathered food and monetary donations for local good causes. But equally our village community has been incredibly supportive too, with fundraising restarting for the community meals project which supports a number of children in the school.
It would be remis not to make special mention to Mrs Debs Wright who has been Chair of the PTA for the past 6 years. She built up the PTA from a very small group of committed parents to the large and enthusiastic group that it is now. Money raised has benefitted children, past and present, by providing trips to the theatre, theme parks and much more paid for in their entirety – we can only say thank you and best wishes Debs! Ms Julia Birkin has taken on this role with alacrity and will surely do us proud.
So, as you can see it has been a term packed to the brim with amazing opportunities and experiences. All of the staff – teaching and non-teaching staff - have contributed greatly to this, as well as all of the volunteers and community around school. The governors wanted to share this record with you and extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributes to making Old Dalby School such a special place for our young people.
As we anticipate a new calendar year and the beginning of the Spring term, what can the children look forward to in the coming months? Well, there is plenty in store! A school wide village history curriculum unit will take place, topic work on dinosaurs, the world wars, ‘Marvellous Machines’ as well as the year 2 residential trips to Beaumanor Hall and Bikeability training for pupils in Years 5 and 6.
The Governors plan to write at the end of each term with an update on the school’s activities. In the meantime, we extend our very best wishes to all in our school community for a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!
Diary Dates:
18/19th January Life Education bus in school
25th January Fire Service – Year 1 and Year 5 Fire Safety talks
19-23 February Half Term holiday
27/28th February Parents’ Evenings – booking information will follow
Wb 29th February Year 6 Bikeability – more information to follow
7th March World Book Day
11th March Rags 2 Riches – clothing collection
Wb 11th March Year 5 Bikeability
18th March Whole School Cricket Day
22nd March Last day of term – Easter Holidays begin