PERCY MAIN PRIMARY SCHOOL
www.percymainprimary.org.uk
#@PercyMainPS
NEWSLETTER
Issue 517
Thursday 11 February 2016
Don’t forget! School will close for
the half term holiday at 3.15
(3.30 for Nursery) TOMORROW (Friday 12
February). School will re-open at 9.00 (8.30 for
Nursery) on Monday 22 February. Breakfast
club will be available from 8.15 to 8.40 a.m.
Tuesday this week was Internet
Safety Day and it was a huge
success right across the school
with many lessons focusing on this
year’s theme ‘Play your part for a better internet!’
Our school started the events on Monday, a day
early, with the actors from ‘Barking up the Right
Tree Theatre Company’ presenting a show to year
5 and 6 about staying safe on the internet. The
show covered the important issues relating to
sharing online, web safety and cyber bullying in a
fun and interactive way. The show concluded with
a quiz to test the children's learning. Then on
Tuesday PC Kirsty Heslop 4036 worked with years
5 and 6 then 3 and 4. She shared information
regarding Safer Internet Day by talking to the
children about online stranger danger and cyber
bullying. She ran this workshop to highlight how
information that is shared can alter from its
original facts and cause issues. Our pupils
participated fully with this workshop and Kirsty
was very impressed with our children's responses
and knowledge.
The winning house this half term was
LIGHTHOUSE who collected an amazing
447 points. This was a very hard fought
contest as Angels were close behind them on 444
(only 3 points difference). Priory came in 3rd with 397
followed by Tyne Bridge with 372. Well done
LIGHTHOUSE. The special treat for Lighthouse was
a visit to Star Bowling on the Royal Quays. We must
thank Kirsty Patterson (Mya’s mum) for helping
to organise this super treat for our winning house.
Mrs McCarron has set up parents
logins for the software programme Foundation Stage
use called Tapestry. If you have not yet activated
your account, please do so as soon as possible.
Tapestry allows us to build up a marvellous online
learning journal which is central to recording your
child’s early childhood development. It not only
records progress it is also an invaluable online
communication tool allowing parents and teachers to
work together for the benefit of the child. DON’T
MISS OUT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE YOUR
CHILD’S LEARNING JOURNEY SPECIAL! If you have
not received your activation key or have deleted it by
mistake please speak to Mrs McCarron or Mrs Laidler
they will be happy to help.
Our children are very interested in tweeting
and would love to receive more messages. This is a
fun way to engage the pupils in ‘real time’
communication which has been proven to improve
their reading, writing and comprehension of the
written word. If you know how to use Twitter, why not
send us a Tweet. It could be about this term’s topic,
an article in the newsletter, something interesting at
home, feedback following an assembly, or comments
on an educational visit in fact anything related to
school. If you want to send a Tweet to the whole
school use @PercyMainPS. Our class addresses
are all @PMPS followed by Rec for Reception or
Year1 (replace 1 with 2 3 4 5 6 for other year
groups) and for Nursery it is @pmpsnursery
Our Year 3 pupils spent a super day at
the Great North Museum on Monday this
week. They participated in the Greek
Fighting Forces workshop and learnt all about the life
of the Hoplites (Hoplites were Greek soldiers). The
museum staff showed the children the Hoplites
armour and some of the children even tried the
armour on; they realised that the armour was very
heavy and very uncomfortable. This was a fantastic
learning experience which greatly enhanced the
children’s understanding of this very interesting topic.
On Friday this week Year 6 welcomes
Alice Evans from the Outdoor and
Sustainability Education Specialists
who will be running several workshops with year 6
which link to their current topic. They will be
learning about sustainable forestry, renewable
energies and how their carbon footprint has an
impact on the environment.
Our Year 1 pupils had a brilliant time at
Lau’s Restaurant in Newcastle’s China Town
on Monday this week.
They were all very
adventurous and bravely tried some very different
foods, including noodles, spicy chicken, prawn
crackers and ‘seaweed’. The staff at Lau’s were
marvellous; they gave the children a free Fruit Shoot
and a free soft drink to our staff. Then, as we left,
they presented us with a big bag of fortune cookies
and lollies to enjoy back at school. Before lunch the
class walked through China Town and looked at the
amazing Chinese Arch which was built in 2004 by
Shanghai craftsmen and stands 11m tall.
The
children have now produced some excellent written
work based on this special day out. We must that Mr
Crow (Kaitlin’s dad) for helping us supervise the
children on this visit he was terrific! Mr Crow said
how it had been a pleasure to help as the children
had been wonderful and behaved superbly. We must
also give a very special thank you to the staff at
Lau’s who went out of their way to make us welcome;
they were really great and their interaction with the
children was fantastic!
Our Year 6 pupils have just heard that
they have been allocated a place on a
University Safari at Newcastle University. This
course is a transition / career progression linked
event which will be held on 25 February. This is
great news as many schools apply for this event
but only a few are chosen so we are delighted that
our application has been successful. We are sure
this will be an invaluable experience for our
students when they consider higher education.
TICKETS ON SALE FROM MONDAY
15 FEBRUARY at The Parks Sports
Centre – price £4.00 (£2.00 children).
There is no charge for children who are dancing –
but parents must pay. PLEASE DON’T DELAY
THESE TICKETS SELL OUT FAST AND LAST
YEAR SOME PARENTS WERE DISAPPOINTED.
DVD’S can be ordered from Miss Oliver for £5.00.
Our footballers played in a league
match at John Spence last Thursday
evening. Our injury ridden team boldly
took to the field and, in their first match against
Waterville, shook off the Christmas break and came
through with a solid 1 - 0 win thanks to a Man. Unitedesque goal by Lewis Towers. Carrying on from this
brilliant start they grabbed an early goal over
Whitehouse (scored again by Lewis) to take a 1 – 0
lead which carried them through to the last minutes of
the second half when unfortunately tired legs lead to
a couple of goals being scored by their opponents
resulting in a hard fought 3 -1 loss. Our valiant squad
comprised of Callum Brown, Peter Roberts, Lewis
Towers, Lewis Cottiss, Holly Newby, Stewy Ware,
Josh Williams and Corey Blake-Wilson.
Congratulations team on another great performance!
On Thursday last week, and for the 2nd
time in two years, our amazing Netball
Team reached the area finals of the
North Tyneside Netball tournament – a truly brilliant
achievement. These games were played at The Blue
Flames Sports ground and our team played superbly.
They displayed some of the best passing skills during
the competition but just could not quite qualify these
into points. They played teams from Bailey Green,
Star of the Sea, Wellfield and St Stephens and
represented the school with enthusiasm and pride.
Despite not winning their group, the team enjoyed a
great experience playing against some very tough
opposition.
Our team members were Owen
Hodgson, Holly Newby, Ellie Brown, Amber Bell,
Scarlet Dent, Billy Ellis-Linden and Callum Brown.
Even to reach this stage of the competition is a
massive achievement. Well done everyone, we are
very proud of you all!
The third round of games in our Years 3/4
Archery League were played last Thursday
afternoon and, as our archers lined up their arrows
and smoothed down their flights, the target boards
were moved into position ready for the shoot-out. It
was a tough competition resulting in the following;
Sharks 20 – 21 Arrows / Arrows 24 – 27 Archers /
Sharks 20 – 24 Archers (Friendly) So our individual
winners this week were The Arrows. This means
that the Smashing Archers are top of our leader
board with 12 points but they cannot be complacent
as they are closely followed by the Percy Main
Arrows with 11. In this round the Robin Hood Award
for the best Archer went to Holly Newby Yr3 and the
Golden Arrow Award for the best shot went to Dale
Henderson Yr3. Archery is a very exacting discipline
and our students are really stepping up to the mark.
Issued with this week’s newsletter;
- Evolution Football leaflet (Yrs 3-6 only)
- School Meals Taster Day leaflet