Newsletters

Prescot Primary School Newsletter            December 2019

Dear Children, Parents, Carers and Community,

Welcome to the final newsletter of 2019! We really do have lots to share and are pleased - and proud - to say that some of our Y6 Leaders have been active journalists, helping to research and write some of the articles you will read. Thank you to those budding writers, and well done!

Early Years Highlights

Nursery and Reception 

Nursery went on a magical walk to the special Christmas post box. Matthew and Gabryella talked about the magical postbox, with excitement. They told us,“It was magical, it had glitter and tinsel. It was very exciting. We loved walking to the magic postbox with our friends. We had cookies and mince pies to eat in nursery. Footsteps were everywhere when we got back to nursery, we think it was Santa. We could put our hands in the glitter. The glitter was red and yellow.”

Nursery children have also loved exploring the school grounds this term, looking at the changing seasons. Harry could tell us all about Autumn, “The leaves fall off the trees and it gets colder.”

In Reception, Tilly and Charlie told us about the balance bike session and said, “We loved going on the balance bikes, we learnt how to ride bikes with two wheels.  There were instructors to teach us. We got off and on without stabilisers. It was scary at first, but fun and the instructors were funny too!”

Nursery and Reception have also enjoyed telling us about their nativity, The Sleepy Shepherd. Jude said, “We liked singing and the sheep were running around. Our favourite songs are the sheep song and the camel song. We liked doing our lines!”

The nativity was an amazing performance, all the children were great and we can’t believe they are only 3, 4, and 5 years old! Well done to our Early Years Reception and Nursery.

Written by Blue House Leaders, Sienna & Harriet

KS1 & KS2 Christmas

School is always such a bustling place in December and it's wonderful to see this busy month culminate in some wonderful performances.

KS1 were amazing in their nativity - such wonderful singing! Our KS2 Carol Concert went down a storm once again for the third year in a row. The Prescot School are extremely supportive and we really feel the benfit of having a larger space in which our singers can shine. The market stalls were also a success - thank you for donating what you could and supporting us as always. 

Across all events, our fundraising activities raised £1200! This is our grandest total yet and we are planning to invest this in our outdoor areas.

The pantomime came to school on Thursday. M&M Productions performance of 'A Christmas Carol' went down a storm, with Mrs Watts and Mr Atherton taking starring roles! Not every child will get to see a panto with family this year so it was a lovely experience to share together. 

The KS2 Talent Show was once again a roaring success with everyone in school. This year's theme was 'Songs from World War II' and the children loved singing these songs with pride. Y6 sang 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy', Y5 sang 'Chattanooga Choo Choo', Y4 sang 'Thingy-me-bob' and Y3 sang a 'It's along way to Tipperary' mashed up with 'Pack up your troubles'. 

Our judges this year were Mrs Soo, Mrs Loftus and Mr Sunter from Reception - all of whom were impressed. The teachers even joined in with their own dance during the interval, whilst the judges deliberated their decision.

In the end, the result was unanimous - Y3 were the winners! And well-deserved too!

Well done everyone.

Supporting charities at Prescot Primary.

This half term our school has done a substantial amount of charity work . One of the causes was Children in Need. £399 in total was raised for this amazing cause. This was raised by all of the children dressing in Pudsey ears, onesies, pyjamas, face paint and socks .Ben in Y4 said he liked this day because he had a chance to donate money to children who need it most. Maisie in Y3 said she enjoyed Pudsey Day because she could wear her Children in Need pyjamas. In assembly, we talked about how we can help our friends in need at school.

Another cause that we have supported was 'Go Neon for Neo' Day. This was extremely popular because you could wear fun accessories like neon hair extensions or scrunchies . We raised £189.00 for neo-natal babies at the Liverpool Women's Hospital. Lili-Rose in Y5 said she really enjoyed the assembly that Mrs Seddon did. Betsy in Y3 said she enjoyed helping babies.

The next cause is the  Poppy Appeal - we managed to raise £72.75 by selling poppies in our office and hosting the beginning of Prescot Parade. We also had a great assembly where we also respected the two minutes silence at 11am. We think that it is really important to remember what others have given for us to live in peace.

The last cause was Y2's sponsored Welly Walk - they managed to raise a whopping £775.50! Emily Pye in Y2C raised £185.00 and Riley Ankers raised £125.00 . They did one walk in the morning at which time it was only lightly raining however by the afternoon it was heavy rain (very heavy rain!) . The children really did need their wellies!

We are very proud  of our school's charity work this half term and we thank you for supporting all of these wonderful causes .

Written by Red House Leaders, Ruby and Joseph.

HMRC visit

All of our KS2 children were fascinated to learn about how taxes are paid and what services they fund. Thanks to the staff from HMRC, the children started to learn a little more about the world of work, wages and contributions. It was an eye-opener and certainly got our learners talking!

Prescot Pilots 

Our Prescot Pilots scheme is our way of promoting and celebrating learning that takes place out of school hours; we also love to see children leading areas in school and are proud of the work they do. We are now at the end of the first term and all of our Pilots should have been logging their hours on their individual Pilot Logs.

James Tigwell Y3W: ” I like it because you can get badges on your jumper to show you are bothered. You can also get certificates and awards. I am a Prescot Pilot because I am a ball boy at Prescot Cables.”

Maisie Carville Y3W- “I like being a Prescot Pilot because I get to do activities that are outside of school hours. I also like it because you get certificates and awards. 

Scarlett Burns Y4T - “I like being a Prescot Pilot because we get to do sport. I also love it because I get awards for all my hard work. My favourite sport is karate.

Aiden Jenions Y4T - “I like being a Prescot Pilot because I love playing sports. I also like it because you get awards and certificates,”

Niamh Mason Y5G - “ I like to be a Prescot Pilot because of the parties where we celebrate our hard work and we get badges and certificates. I am a Prescot Pilot because I go to dancing and ice skating which I love.

Oliver Dingsdale Y5G - “I like being a Prescot Pilot because you get to write what activities I do at home.

Ben East Y6W - I like it because you get to log what you have been doing at home.”

Evan Caldwell Y6W - “I like to be a Prescot Pilot because I am very competitive and I get to compete with other people. I am a Prescot Pilot because I do swimming and water polo. 

Heather Grant Y6S - “ Being a Prescot Pilot is fun because I get awards for doing clubs that I love to do. I am a Prescot Pilot because I do clubs and am a leader in school. My favourite club is Dodgeball but I also love Athletics.
 

Miss Watts, Sports Leader and teacher in Y3W - “The clubs are ticking over very nicely because we have enough teachers helping. I would like more competitions outside of school. I also want the BMX and morning swimming club to start again. We have a club every night after school hours (apart from Friday night), and we have running club on Wednesday and Friday morning.

We are very proud of all our achievements and hope we continue to do fun clubs with our very friendly teacher Mrs Watts.

Written by Green House Leaders, Harry and Charlotte.

Class Projects

In Prescot Primary, every year group studies subjects of the National Curriculum through a project theme. We think this helps us to make connections and remember what we have learned. Read on to find out what each year has learned about this term!

Y1 have been studying the Great Fire of London. This fire started in a bakery and so the children have learned how to bake bread of their own. It was scrumptious!

Y2 loved their 'Pirate Day' when they dressed up as sea explorers, RNLI heroes or pirates. So many geographical skills were explored during the day and everyone had great fun too.

On the 6th of December, Y5 had special day focusing on the history of the 1300s and the Black Death (a terrible disease that spread across Europe during the mid 1300s). All of the children had lots of fun dressing up as peasants, knights and doctors. We interviewed Thom and this is what he had to say about Plague Day:

“I liked the part where we had a revolt with Wat Tyler (the leader). He tried to ride away on his horse but he died half way.”

Y6 have also done some exciting things. Mrs Scott and Mrs Ward-Thompson have bought ingredients such as onions and tomatoes for them to make the classic Raw Mexican Salsa. Everybody helped make it and in the end, they all had a tasty snack. It was a bit messy but it was also fun. Y6 also made hot chocolate as they explored the importance of cocoa in the Ancient Mayan civilisation.

We interviewed a few more children from Year 5 and 6 and asked them why they like events like these. They said that they like these events because it’s something really different compared to writing. I also questioned them about how they help you learn. They answered back saying that if you experience something then it will be easier to remember them when you're writing about it.

Written by the Yellow House Leaders, JJ and Ruby.

The Renaissance Raise & Praise Award

We are so proud of our school reading community! We have all worked so hard to embed the Accelerated Reader and myOn programmes across KS2 - reading has never been so talked about!

With this in mind, we applied for the Renaissance 'Raise & Praise' Award for schools who promote and recognise reading success. Mrs Molloy and Mrs Seddon attended the ceremony in London and were astounded when PCP won the award for the primary category! Our school was recognised for the unique blend of technology and real books and for all of the wonderful initiatives we have to encourage a love of reading.

We received a fabulous glass trophy and £500 worth of book vouchers. The best part of the day, however, was meeting like-minded schools who we could pinch ideas from!

TESCO Bags of Help

Prescot Primary School calls out for votes to bag a share of Tesco’s bag fund. We are bidding to bag a cash boost from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative and we are delighted to be one of the groups on the shortlist.

Our focus is to develop the playground areas, after our success in developing the EYFS outdoor areas with the help of the Tesco’s bag fund. We know that if we are lucky enough to secure the top price of £2000, it would be a great starting point to continue to develop our outdoor areas for all of our children to enjoy.

Tesco works with Groundwork to launch its community funding scheme, which sees grants of up to £2,000, £1,000 and £500 raised from carrier bag sales in Tesco stores awarded to local community projects. Three groups in every Tesco region have been shortlisted to receive the cash award and shoppers are being invited to head along to Tesco stores to vote for who they think should take away the top grant.

Please help us achieve this, spread the word and help to get everyone you know voting for us! Voting is open in all Tesco stores throughout January, February and March. Customers will cast their vote using a token given to them at the check-out in store each time they shop.

Please see below a list of stores taking part in the voting of our project:

3065 PRESCOT L34 5NQ Extra

5791 TARBOCK WOODLANDS EXP L35 1QY Express

6442 WHISTON WINDY ARBOR RD EXP L35 3PA Express

Thank you!

Online Safety - advice for parents as Christmas approaches.

As children may receive new devices at Christmas, we think parents and carers may appreciate some links to great websites that will help to keep children safe online. Please take time to read the advice given on these sites.

https://www.childnet.com/resources/family-agreement

https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/

https://www.internetmatters.org/advice/

https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/gaming/

https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/social-media-advice-hub/

Welcome back & goodbye

It has been lovely too see Mrs Collis again as she has now returned from her maternity leave. Y1CW have enjoyed getting to know their new teacher.

Sadly, we have said goodbye to one of our much-loved staff members this week. Mrs Soo has worked within the PCP Admin Team for 8 years and has now decided to start her retirement. We would like to thank her and wish her every happiness.

Looking ahead...

Spring term promises to be an exciting one with lots of memorable experiences planned for classes throughout school. Y1 will be meeting the dinosaurs, Y4 will be living like an ancient Roman, Y5 will have Bikeability and Y6 will go back in time to World War 2. Exciting times!

Thank you for all of your Christmas wishes. The staff at Prescot Primary throughly appreciate your thoughts and festive greetings. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and wish you all the very best for 2020.