Newsletters

PRESCOT PRIMARY SCHOOL

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FEBRUARY 2023

Welcome

We can't believe how quickly that half term flew by! The sunnier days will soon be here.

Everyone in school has made an amazing start to the new year. It has been a bustling start, with Y6 completing wartime re-enactments and Y5 travelling back in time to Ancient Egypt! Y4 have recreated the Bayeux Tapestry, Y3 have completed their best writing yet and Y2 have mastered basic division! Well done to Y1 who have pieced together dinosaur skeletons, Reception have painted some wonderful 'Starry Night' pictures and Nursery have mastered the art of the marble run!

All this and more goes on each and every day within our school walls - learning made real!

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Early Years Update

We have been so excited to welcome our new families to Nursery this half term. We hope your children enjoy our outstanding EYFS environment and are excited to continue their journey with us!

If you know anyone who is looking for an EYFS place in Nursery or Reception, here is information about our next open evening in March. We still have places!

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Hamlet

Y5 and Y6 had the pleasure of watching the National Theatre perform Shakespeare's Hamlet after an invitation from The Prescot School. This was a great way to make connections with our local secondary provision but also a fabulous step in to the world of the great 'Bard'.

Thank you The Prescot School for the invite!

Attendance

School attendance has fluctuated this half term, but we have managed to stay above the national average for this time of year. Our attendance average since Christmas is 95%.

You will know that we have introduced some motivational rewards for attendance that allows children will 100% attendance a weekly chance to celebrate together. All 100% attenders are put into a raffle with one child from each year group being drawn out of the hat. So far we have enjoyed afternoon teas, 'Chocolate Friday' and a special breakfast.

There are some reminders that we always feel are important to share:

Please contact school by email or phone as soon as you know that your child is unwell and will not be attending school. This will reduce the calls our 'first response' team make each morning.
Our gates and classrooms open at 8.30am or 8.40am in Reception. They will close promptly at 8.50am. Late arrivals will always miss something important as active learning begins as soon as your child comes into school.
Lates are recorded and we will be in touch if your child is frequently late.
Please avoid picking up your child early, unless for unavoidable medical appointments. We have seen an increase in occurrence of this, and it does, again, impact negatively on your child's day.

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Reading success

At PCP we have very high expectations of our children as readers, as we know the benefits of being a fluent reader who enjoys reading. Many of life’s opportunities are improved if reading is prioritised throughout childhood. Our children live up to and exceed our expectations time and time again. They access books and reading materials independently across our school and across all of our reading opportunities. The library is busier than ever: 4300 books have been borrowed this year and carefully looked after. Accelerated Reader has been used to quiz on 8470 books, and over 51,000,000 have been read! These numbers continue to astonish us.

We have three new Word Millionaires: Gemma from Y6 Dragons, Harry from Y5 Kangaroos and Kanishka from Y4 Tigers. Congratulations to them all. We also have two Double Word Millionaires: Teju and Jessica from the Dragons. We don’t think we have heard the last of these two!

130 children reached or exceeded their Accelerated Reader targets this half term. We love having the chance to reward their commitment to their reading. A new challenge begins next half term and we look forward to even more success.

The library has a growing number of books which are suitable for mature readers. They may contain more teenage themes than the books we usually loan. With parent/guardian permission, Year 6 children can be allowed to access these books. Please pop an email to our admin team.

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Rights Respecting School News

We now have our very own RRS Pupil Steering Group, with leaders from across school. One of our staff leaders, Miss Grensinger, had the pleasure of hosting the first meeting and was blown away by how committed our new leaders are. The agenda of the meeting encouraged our children to connect over our new playground charters, how we can ensure that our lessons run 'like clockwork' and also how we can all be even more welcoming. This all feeds into our work on behaviour and relationships; pupil voice is so important to capture.

Our RRS group also spoke confidently about accessibility around school and how we need to make sure all children can access every aspect of school life. We take about needing more ramps for wheelchair users and having multi-lingual signage and braille. The leaders were also keen to see children trained in British Sign language.

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Safer Internet Day 2023

As an Apple Distinguished School, we take online safety very seriously. Our children learn how to stay safe in the online world from an early age. This is taught on a regular basis, with children in KS2 having daily conversations about how best to use their iPads.

This week has seen Safer Internet day, when we have got together for assemblies and completed activities on personal information, thinking before posting, positive comments and what to do if you don't feel safe.

As always, when a school holiday is imminent, we would like to remind you of the importance of online safety, especially when your children may spend more time on-screen during their holiday.

Our own website now has a stock of online newsletters that could prove useful:

http://www.prescotprimary.org.uk/information/online-safety

http://UK Council for Internet safety

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/

https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

https://beinternetlegends.withgoogle.com/en_uk/buildyourlegend/

Please do get in touch if you have any worries about your child's online activity. We must work in teams to protect our children from any dangers that the online world may present.

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SEND Update

In our weekly assemblies, we have started to invite pupil 'Guest Speakers' to come and share their news and stories with each other. Our aim is to strengthen the connections between pupils across school but also encourage our curious children to ask sensitive questions about things they may not understand. Two of our children with SEND recently presented in assembly as 'Guest Speakers' and they wowed our audience with their clarity and openness. They have led the way and inspired others to tell their stories too.

We have read a great book together that encourages children to ask questions: 'Just Ask!' by Sonia Sotomayor.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43671311-just-ask

Online Safety for SEND

All children enjoy the online world but it can be more tricky to talk about the dangers of life online with children who have SEND. WE have found some useful websites that you may find useful:

NSPCC

Internet Matters.org

If you are a parent or carer of a child with SEND there is support available through the Knowsley Local Offer. Please click the link below to access information on what is available.

https://www.knowsleyinfo.co.uk/content/parentcarer-support

The Knowsley SEND team would like you to share your experiences as a parent or carer of a child with SEND in order for them to improve their services around Preparing for Adulthood. Although we are a primary school, this is still relevant for our children. Please click the link below for more information.

http://https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/knowsley-pfa-survey-pc

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Careers Showcase Shout-out!

Before the pandemic, we regularly held a 'Careers Showcase' that introduced our children to the world of work. We loved inviting employees from lots of different job groups, professions and industries into school - and we would love to do it again!

If you know someone who can give up an afternoon of their time to come into school to talk about their job with our children, in a 'market-style' event in the hall, please ask them to email their details to admin@prescotprimary.org.uk

More details will follow but we expect the event to take place at the end of May or mid June once we return from the half term break.

Celebrating success

David from Y6 recently appeared on BBC Breakfast as Liverpool launched the Eurovision Song Contest. As a proud Ukrainian, he sang last year's winning entry brilliantly. We are very proud of him and his contribution to our school community!

Oscar from Y5 is an amazing poet and has written a fantastic poem based on his class text, 'Last night I saw the city sleeping'. Watch his version here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7DnSG6uoBk

Y4 Tigers worked together to perform poetry during their PSHE Conference. You can see their version of 'Together' by clicking this link:

https://youtu.be/JgnS4EVXzFA

We love sharing success! Well done everyone!

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Mr Jones' Challenge!

I have some exciting news that I would like to share with you all!

On Sunday 23rd April I will be running in the London Marathon. I am running for a very special charity called ‘Young lives Vs Cancer’ which has a very special place in my heart. This charity recently helped a close family friend after she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 13. After a very short, brave fight, Maddy sadly passed away in September leaving us all devastated.

I will be running the London Marathon in Maddy's memory and hope to raise lots of money in the process. I will be holding some fun activities over the next few months for all the children to take part in to help me reach my target. Mrs Higgs will also be out on the gate with her bucket for any change that you would like to donate - big or small! I also have a Just Giving page should you wish to donate on there, (see below). I will be sending the children a link to track my run on the day and the finish line will be live-streamed on iPlayer. Any support will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Mr Jones

https://www.justgiving.com/team/marathon-for-maddy?utm_source=whatsapp

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Dates for the diary:

World Book Day - Thurs 2 March

Red Nose Day - Fri 17 March

Y4 Kingswood Colomendy - 23 - 24 March

Y5 Puberty Workshop - Thurs 16 March

The Great PCP Bake-off Competition - Wed 29 March

Parents' Evenings - 18/19 April. More details to follow.

We will return on Mon 20th February when it will be our second 'Monarch Monday of the year. This time, all children across school will explore the family tree of their key monarch. You may wish to spend some time exploring parts of your child's family tree over the holidays!

Have a wonderful break.

TEAMPCP

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