ISBURN PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

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1 ISBURN PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER Thursday, 21st December 2017 In the Primary Performance Tables 2017, our Yr. 6 Pupils achieved 100% in Reading, Writing, Maths and Spellings, Punctuation & Grammar. The National Telegraph have placed Gisburn School as 29th in the top 1000 schools in the Country!!! Farewell from Mrs. Feber As my time at Gisburn School comes to an end, I would like to say what a pleasure and privilege it has been to be the Headteacher. I have enjoyed every moment of my work here at Gisburn and will miss you all tremendously all children, colleagues, governors, parents and being part of such a lovely community. Thank you for your support, good wishes and gifts, and to all of you who Mingled and Jingled with me last Friday at the White Bull! I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and my very best wishes for the future. Thank you. Catherine x This Month s Attendance Below is a table showing Gisburn School attendance percentages during December 2017 for each class, and an overall school attendance of 96.6%. Our target is 97%. Thank you for your support. Group Authorised Absences Unauthorised Absences Possible % Attend ROBINS KINGFISHERS OWLS DOVES EAGLES Totals

2 Yrs. 5 & 6 Basketball Competition. On Thursday, 30 th November the Yrs. 5/6 basketball team took part in a Ribble Valley event at Oakhill College. Nine teams made up a round robin competition where all teams played each other and earned points toward their final total. The competition started with a tough opposition, Oakhill. From the tip off, Gisburn were on the front foot, as Maud leapt into action to guide the ball towards Samuel, who in turn dribbled the ball up court. After a sharp pass to Benji, he then shot, earning Gisburn 1 point for hitting the rim of the basket. Countering quickly, Oakhill travelled speedily down the court to score 3 points (the ball going into the basket). Both teams continued to exchange blows at a frantic pace, making it hard for the officials to keep up with the game. With two minutes of the game remaining, and with Gisburn trailing by a single point, Amelia intercepted an attacking Oakhill. Astonishingly, she managed to spot the run of Benji, who carried the ball closer to the basket, before sinking a 3 pointer of his own. Gisburn managed to see out the game and get off the mark with a vital win! In their next three games, Gisburn continued in a remarkable fashion. Even with a change of personnel (Charlie and Cyrus), the children continued to work in harmony to score a wealth of points against Brennands and Chatburn. Many of these points came from what seemed to be routine play, consisting of Charlie intercepting the ball and playing quickly to the attacking trio of Maud, Amelia and Cyrus, who all scored their fair share of points. Amelia, especially, seemed to take pride in scoring numerous 3 pointers in succession. Using her height to her advantage, Maud made excellent gathers from high balls thrown into the key, before turning them into points; Cyrus preferred to dribble toward the basket before putting up the ball to score. Eventually, Gisburn were going to meet teams with an equally impressive record as their own and this team was in the form of Barrow. Both teams were unbeaten to this point and, as they matched up, it quickly turned into a difficult and fascinating match. Barrow attacked early and scored with both of their first two attacks with both shots finding the edge of the basket, before falling in and earning them a quick 6-0 lead. Benji began to spur on those around him and Amelia managed to grab another loose ball before sending Samuel on his way: he sent the ball on the fly to Maud, who

3 scored the first points of the game for Gisburn. Gisburn kept the pressure up but never surpassed Barrow s score. In the closing minute, Gisburn finally returned the early pressure with a few of their own scores, leaving Barrow struggling to get out of their own half. In the dying embers of the game, with Gisburn looking to close the game out at 17-15, Barrow carried the ball up the left hand side of the court. Benji managed to halt their progress and one player quickly found himself surrounded by yet another two Gisburn players, with no room to manoeuvre; they sent up a shot from way out Unfortunately, the ball rattled the basket before dropping into the net, leaving Gisburn no time to respond and, consequently, they lost the game A cruel defeat: one that Gisburn didn t shake off. In the final two games, the flow and smooth interplay seemed to cease. Tiring legs possibly caused Gisburn to lose their two final games by only 1 point each time. All that was left were the results, where Gisburn learned their final position was to be 4 th, with the top teams all drawing on the same amount of wins and losses. Oakhill took the top spot based on their total number of points scored throughout the tournament. A wonderful achievement by all the children: one they will aim to improve in years to come. Thank you to all the parents who supported the team throughout the competition.

4 Doves & Eagles thoroughly enjoyed taking part in African Drumming & Dance workshops on Monday, 4th December... Danny and Rome from 'Bangdrum' taught the children energetic West African dances and how to play African rhythmic music using djembe drums, bongos and a gogo bell. They also learnt several African songs and chants. At the end of the day, Eagles and Doves presented their performances to parents, teachers and KS1 children who all joined in with the dancing at the end! KS1 Kurling Competition On Thursday, 7 th December 8 children from KS1, enjoyed taking part in a Curling competition at St. Augustine s High School. Well done!

5 Santa Fun Run Unfortunately, due to the cold weather conditions, the Santa Fun Run event at Wilson s Playing Fields was cancelled. Mrs. Hartley, therefore, arranged for the children from Owls, Doves and Eagles, who had been selected to take part to enjoy their own Santa Fun Run on the school field, wearing Christmas fancy dress and in the snow! They also had lots of fun warming up to Christmas songs too!

6 Christmas Activities in Class ROBINS

7 KINGFISHERS OWLS

8 DOVES EAGLES A BIG Thank you to FOGS for their continued support and dedication this term and for arranging a wonderful Christmas Shopping Experience Evening; a fantastic Christmas Fair & Raffle and the amazing Secret Gift Room.

9 Christmas Performances The excellent performances, which took place on Wednesday, 13 th, Thursday, 14 th and Friday, 15 th December once again celebrated the many talents of our pupils. I would like to thank Ms Stalton, Mrs. Lund & Mrs. Longton for producing The Nativity ; Mrs. Lund for Must Be Santa and Hrs. Hartley for the African inspired music & dance. I would also like to thank Mrs. Holmes, Mrs. Watson, Mrs. Spencer, Mrs. Garbutt and Miss Newhouse for their contributions to the scenery and props. Finally: a special thank you to the parents and grandparents who have contributed towards the fabulous costumes.

10 School Christmas Lunch This Tuesday, both children & staff enjoyed a fantastic Christmas lunch together. Christmas Parties This week, children had a great time at their Christmas parties; playing games and snacking on crisps and pop! Santa came too with a gift for every child!

11 Governing Body News Firstly, we would like to thank Mrs Feber for her exceptional contribution to Gisburn School over the last ten years. She has been an outstanding leader in all aspects of the role and Gisburn School has been privileged to have had Mrs. Feber at its helm for so long. We would like to thank her for her dedication, hard work and achievements during her time at Gisburn and we wish her every success in her new role at Broadway Primary. We welcome Mr. Shepherd to the teaching staff and Mrs. Robynne Plant as a new Parent Governor, and thank Mr. Richard Gioserano for his contribution as a Parent Governor over the last 8 years. The Governing Body have appointed Mrs McCloskey as associate head who will be at Gisburn for 2 terms until the Summer and we look forward to welcoming her in January The recruitment process for a permanent head is ongoing and more updates will follow at the end of January The primary school KS2 ( ) performance tables have recently been published and this year, Gisburn has achieved incredible results 2 nd in Lancashire and 29 th out of 12,000 schools across the entire country. This is a huge achievement so congratulations to all the staff and the year 6 pupils involved. The Full Governing Body, Standards and Effectiveness Committee (SEC) and Resources Committee have met this term and reports have been received from governors on Maths, Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Able, Gifted and Talented (AGT), Governor Training, Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), PE and Robins. The Chair of Governors has attended the Chairs Forum, completed a learning walk around school and attended a school trip with Doves. Governors have established links to each class and are enjoying having a chance to follow what classes are doing feedback has included for each class how well behaved children have been, and also that children have engaged well with the Governors on those visits. We wish you all the best for the festive seasons, hope you have an enjoyable Christmas break and we look forward to seeing you in 2018! The Governing Body of Gisburn School. Mrs Kate Sherry, Mrs Vanessa Robinson, Mr Allan Clements, Mrs Christine Fish, Mrs Catherine Feber, Mrs Lisa Longton, Mrs Robynne Plant, Mr Stuart Redman, Mrs Harriet Smith, Mr David Varley, Mrs Heather Windle & Mr Frank Wrathall.

12 ISBURN GORILLAS BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL CLUB As always Gisburn Gorillas has been very busy! This month, the children have enjoyed various Christmas craft activities, including some baking and have even decorated the Christmas tree in the hall! Yesterday, as a special treat Mrs Bead came to deliver a workshop!

13 Information about HMRC Tax-Free Childcare.. From early 2017, the Government has created a scheme to allow working parents eligible for Tax-Free Childcare to set up an online Tax-Free Childcare account to pay for their childcare. For every 8 a parent pays into their Childcare Account, the government adds an extra 2. Parents could get up to 2,000 per child per year towards their childcare costs. Whilst parents cannot make payments using both Tax-Free Childcare and childcare vouchers, childcare providers who are signed up to Tax-Free Childcare can receive payments from both schemes. Gisburn School is now registered for the scheme and parents who want to apply to the scheme should go to: NB. It is important that you inform school, if you are going to use the scheme to pay for sessions at Gisburn Gorillas, thank you. END OF TERM SERVICE Tomorrow s Non-Uniform Day/Toy Day will conclude with Christmas Carols & and a farewell to Mrs Feber at St. Mary s Church at 1:00pm (all welcome). The Paythorne Bus will collect at 2:00pm, when school closes. School re-opens at 8:50am on Monday, 8th January, Dates for your Diary January: 8th - School Opens Spring Term 25 th - Young Voices 2018 School Choir Trip, Manchester Arena February: 9 th - School Closes 19th - INSET Day 20th - School Re-Opens 21st - Adrian Bowden Science Show: Forces (All Classes) March: 22nd - Parent Consultation Day 23rd - School Closes for Easter

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