Congratulations to all who made it to the school gates this week without being blown away in the process! I do hope you have all managed to (literally) weather the storm this week. At one point, I did lay awake in fear of my 220 year old chimney! 

As always, a whole host of exciting activities have been taking place in our classrooms this week. Year 1 have been experimenting with primary colours and using these to create artwork inspired by Piet Mondrian. Year 3 have learnt all about how shadows are formed in Science, and have investigated whether opaque, translucent and transparent objects cast them. Year 4 have been learning about different parts of the digestive system and have new words in their vocabulary bank such as Bolus, Oesophagus and Enzymes. For more information on all of our latest learning, please visit our X (formerly Twitter) page! 

Your child may have come home and mentioned a new resource that we have introduced this week called Reading Plus. This is designed to increase reading fluency and also improve comprehension. We will be allocating time within the school day for your child to access this, but they are also able to do so at home. Before your child can really get their teeth into it, they must sit an initial assessment which we have timetabled over the past week. Once they have completed this, you will receive further information including your child’s login details. Please feel free to use this in addition to, or instead of, your child’s Reading Record. Thank you for your continued support.  

Last week, at the time of writing my Blog, our boys’ football team were battling against Brough Primary and it was a narrow defeat at 4-3 to Brough. Once again, a huge well done to our brilliant team. 

In other news: 

As previously mentioned, when driving on the school site, please remember that there is a 5mph speed limit. There is a sharp, blind bend on the drive, and we have staff who cycle along this daily. Please note that if this limit is not adhered to, permission will not be granted to access the drive. Thank you for helping to keep us safe. 

All that remains is to wish you a fantastic weekend. See you next week! 

Mrs Preston

Head of School

It was lovely to welcome parents and learners back this week after what I hope was an enjoyable and restful break.  

We have launched back into our sporting fixtures this week with the Year 5/6 girls cup match Vs Anlaby Primary on Friday afternoon. At the time of writing this, the match had not yet taken place so I will keep you posted on the results next week.  

Speaking of PE, previously, we have communicated that thanks to your generosity, we now have plenty of spare uniform at school (bigger sizes still welcome). However, we would be very grateful if you could donate any PE kit items that no longer fit your child (e.g. house-coloured or white t-shirts, shorts, jogging bottoms etc). Black school shoes would also be welcomed. 

Why do people go into teaching? Obviously, there are many different reasons, but I’m fairly confident that should you ask staff at Penshurst, the most common ones would be a love of spending time with children and making a difference to their lives, and a desire to support younger generations to better themselves and reach their full potential. You put your trust in us each and every day by leaving your children in our care, and it is an honour to be able to educate, nurture and support them. Daily, we reflect on our school values with the learners, and the staff work tirelessly to role-model these to them. Furthermore, we absolutely love chatting to our parents and believe that we have a positive, respectful relationship with our local community. Mutual respect is paramount in maintaining this type of relationship and staff carefully consider their approach towards parents in any difficult circumstances. We are very fortunate that in 99% of our conversations with parents, staff receive the same mutual respect back. We politely remind you that we all want the best for your children and that the only way to achieve this is to ensure mutual respect and consideration is present. Thank you.  

Enjoy the weekend and I look forward to seeing you next week.  

Mrs Preston

Head of School

Our penultimate week has been yet another busy one.  

We kicked off the week with a wonderful performance from Chaplins Panto. ‘Oh no you didn’t!’ we hear you cry! (Sorry!!).  

Our beautiful Reception / Year 1 productions were held this week and I would like to thank all who attended to support the pupils in their superstar roles. 

Our annual Christmas lunch was held on Wednesday and I thoroughly enjoyed boogying down the aisles to festive music whilst the pupils tucked into a delicious Christmas Dinner.  

Today, our wonderful Rocksteady Band will perform to their parents after rehearsing for months to reach stardom. As I type this, this event is yet to happen but I am sure it will have been a fabulous one.  

In other news: 

'Responsibility' is one of our core values and I have recently spoken to all our pupils about the need to take a collective responsibility for ensuring that all rubbish and packaging is properly disposed of in the dining hall at lunchtime.  I am pleased that the pupils have responded positively to this.  I was particularly pleased that Year 6 pupils engaged with this discussion maturely and saw the need for everyone to take responsibility and to respect our school.  We have also added some additional supervision into the canteen to ensure that these standards are maintained. 

Reminders: 

Once again, I have been asked to remind parents about safe driving and parking down Winthorpe Road and Penshurst Avenue. Thank you to parents who are now reporting any dangerous activity to the police – they are the ones that can enforce fines etc so please ensure this is the step that you take should you see something of concern. A powerful way to look at it is ‘What if it were my child that was involved in an accident that I caused?’. Thank you for supporting us in ensuring all pupils are safe. 

Next Thursday (21st), please remember that school closes at 2pm. As this is not the normal finishing time, pupils will not be allowed to walk home alone and will need to be collected. Thank you in advance.  

Next week, you will receive your child’s termly report with their current grade. I know that the wording of this has caused some confusion previously so I wanted to offer some clarification on here. If your child is graded as B, this means that they are working significantly below where they should be at this point in the year. If they are a W, they are working towards where they should be but accessing some of the work successfully. If they are graded as N, this means that they are currently on track to reach National Standard (at least where they should be at the end of their year) and where they should be. If they are A, they are smashing the current work and accessing challenge activities. Should you need any further clarification on this, please contact your child’s class teacher. Thank you.  

Have a super weekend and I will see you next week for our final week of the term. 

Mrs Preston

Head of School

Things are really ramping up in the run-up to Christmas here at Penshurst! 

Nursery have held their Stay and Play sessions with parents, Year 5 have thoroughly enjoyed their visit from the Planetarium, which supports their learning all about Space. One of my favourite moments of this week was the magic that happened in EYFS on Thursday. Our little learners were all settled, listening to their teachers read a story about the first kiss of snow, when what should happen? They looked out of the window and observed a flurry of exactly that! Yes, the teachers really did make that just happen! 😊 

Today, you will have received the first of our Advent Calendar stories to share with your child. Mrs Whitaker had the wonderful idea of creating an advent calendar bursting with Christmas stories, read by our brilliant team, for you to listen to. I hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed making them! 

The East Riding Music Hub have asked us to share some information about a signing choir that they would like to create. If you feel that your child would like to be part of this, please click on the following information and complete the application form. Thank you. 

ERYC Music Letter.pdf  Application form V2 - music.docx 

I hope you have a super first weekend of December and I look forward to seeing you next week. 

Mrs Preston

Head of School

One of the highlights for me this week was seeing a sea of bright and spotty pupils supporting Children in Need. I love how creative our families are with dress-up days and thank you for your continued support

It is always so wonderful to hear about exciting and engaging activities and events that the pupils have taken part in, and this week, Year 6 welcomed a visitor from Histrionics, who captivated our learners whilst talking about World War II. I’m not sure who was more excited – the pupils or Mrs Whitaker, who beamed from ear to ear when she relayed the day’s events to me.

We were pleased to welcome parents of our Year 4 learners into school this week to learn all about the Year 4 Multiplication Check, which became statutory a couple of years ago. Thank you to all of the parents who attended this event to find out how to support their child’s learning.

Polite reminder:

If your child requires a school meal, and has an appointment or will arrive at school after 9:30, this meal must be pre-ordered, please contact the office to do so. Thank you.

One again, I must remind parents about driving and parking respectfully when dropping off and collecting your children. As communicated previously, we are unable to ‘man’ the streets as we are busy safeguarding and teaching your children in school. We are now directing residents and other parents to the police with photos of any concerns. Thank you for your understanding.

Have a super weekend, and see you all next week.

Message from the PFA – thank you for supporting our Film Night, we hope the children enjoyed it!

Mrs Preston

Head of School

We have finally reached week 8 of a very long half term, and what a half term it has been.  

There have been many changes as we have introduced a new curriculum model for Geography, History, DT, Art and Science. It was wonderful to hear so many parents telling their child’s teacher at progress evening about how much their child is teaching them, and I look forward to chatting with pupils from each year group in November to see what they have remembered. 

This week, we held our Open Evening for children starting school in September 2024, which allowed new families to come and view what we have to offer. We had many visitors, and they were even greeted by two special guests – Marlowe and Sherlock (the wellbeing dogs), which went down a treat! 

When we return from the half term break, our Reception Phonics Workshop will be held on Tuesday 7 November between 15:30 and 16:00.  

Polite reminders and notices:  

• Juice is allowed in packed lunches, but water should be sent in bottles for the pupils to access in the classroom. Teachers have been asked to check this. Thank you. 

• We have had a case of headlice in Year 5. Please check your child’s hair and treat accordingly if you notice anything.  

• Parents are not permitted on site between 3:30 and 4 as the gates will be closed then. This does include whilst football clubs are practising on the fields. Thank you for your understanding.  

Operations - we are currently changing online payment providers as mentioned in correspondence to you recently. ParentPay will cease taking payments on Thursday 26 October at 2pm. After this time, payment can only be made via ArborPay. Please do this by logging into your parent account. 

Mrs Greenley, Operations Manager 

Safeguarding - there are lots of activities and events during the school holidays in Hull and the East Riding. You can find a full list of all special events and activities at local attractions and from local clubs and classes, both free and paid for to keep your little ones entertained during the school holidays. If you need childcare then there is also a list of the school holiday workshops, clubs and camps running locally here Hull and East Riding Mumbler 

PFA - the Monster Mash Disco will take place on Wednesday 8 November. Please refer to the previous communication for times and further details. 

Have a wonderful half term, and we look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 6 November.  

Mrs Preston

Head of School