Home

Posted on By



Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2019 at Holt House and Carterknowle! It has been lovely to see all the children again. I hope everyone enjoyed the festive season. We had a marvellous time celebrating Christmas in both schools. The Y4 performance ‘Straw and Order’, the Y3 singing, the KS1 nativity and the EYFS concert were all amazing and very well-received. Well done to everyone involved with these events and to the PTA for the refreshments and raffles. Thank you to the kitchen staff who produced superb Christmas dinners and Christmas party food for us all to enjoy.
Parent Partnership
Holt House and Carterknowle were awarded the Leading Parent Partnership Award just before Christmas. This is brilliant news and well deserved.
Many people have worked very hard towards the award, particularly Amanda Livesey (Vice chair of Governors) and her working group. The assessor said that the award has ‘enabled parents to see that they have a voice in the life of the school.’ This is something to celebrate, but it is not the end. Both schools will continue to develop their partnerships with parents.

In response to parents’ feedback from the writing workshops in November, maths workshops have been arranged for this term. These will be at Holt House on Tues 29 January and at Carterknowle on Thursday 31 January and will be on the sometimes tricky, but important topic of fractions. Carterknowle’s will include decimals and percentages too! They will both be 9am – 9.45am.
Parents and carers of children in the Butterflies and Honey bees classes are invited to Stay and Play one day in the week 21-25 January. Please sign up for a day on the list up in class.
Traffic Pollution
Several parents have raised their concerns about the issue of traffic pollution. I am working with governors on this issue and also have a meeting soon about the school Travel Award programme, which encourages safe and sustainable travel. If you would like to be part of a working group which looks for ways to tackle this issue, please email your interest.
Top School!
Carterknowle is in the top ten Sheffield primary schools for pupils reaching the higher standard in reading, writing and maths. When the results of all the primary schools were published in December, we were all proud and delighted to find that Carterknowle is at number 7! Well done to everyone – staff, children and parents for their hard work. What fantastic news!
www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk
School Closure Day CHANGE
We have been informed that Carterknowle will not be used as a polling station this year. This means that the schools will NOT be closed in May for polling day, but WILL be closed on WEDNESDAY 5 JUNE 2019, which is predicted to be Eid al-Fitr.
Staff News
Congratulations to Mrs Bibi at Holt House who has a new baby boy. Welcome to Mrs Tazzyman who is working in pre-school on Mondays and Mr Ley (finance officer) working in the federation on Thursdays and some Fridays, to cover Mrs Turner’s maternity leave.
Dates
February Half Term: Mon 18 – Fri 22 February.
Other dates are on the website calendar pages.

…and best wishes for the New Year. Thank you to everyone for your support for our fantastic schools – Mrs Haynes & Miss Clark.