Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Pancake Races 2017

  Tue 28 Feb 2017 Mr Phoenix
  After learning about Shrove Tuesday and thinking about our sense of taste in Worship Time, we held our annual Pancake Race during morning playtime. The children were great racers, with both speed and stamina to keep going! Yellow Team did the best at racing fast and keeping their pancake intact, and it was Yellow Team who were brilliant at flipping their pancake without dropping it too!

  

• Reception Open Morning

  Thu 16 Feb 2017 Miss Herrington
  Last Tuesday we had a very busy morning in Team Dragon as parents joined us for our Open Morning. We started the morning by reading a story to introduce our new topic on Dinosaurs. The children and their parents then had an opportunity to learn and play in the provision areas inside and outside.

  Together they did activities such as making clay dinosaurs, making a map linked to the book, reading tricky words on large dino footprints, adding together dinosaurs, printing with dinosaurs in the paint and many other things.

  It was great to see how proud the children were of their learning, asking to show their parents their learning books and showing them their work on the displays. The children then had an opportunity to show their parents their learning journeys on the iPads and could discuss their achievements observed and recorded by the staff during their play.

   

  It was a lovely busy morning of learning and sharing together. 

   

  

• Yorkshire Museum visit

  Wed 15 Feb 2017 Mr Phoenix

  Dinosaurs became reality as our children explored all things extinct at the Yorkshire Museum! Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 had a super day in York, learning about and experiencing pre-historic life.

  We took part in workshops to learn about fossils, and the difference between dinosaurs and ancient reptiles. As 'palaeontologists', the children searched for fossils and created their own out of plaster of paris. We also completed puzzles, read books, made playdoh dinosaurs and had a race on dinosaur stilts!

  In the museum, we saw lots of interesting extinct animals and learned about skeletons and more fossils. We weighed ourselves against a dinosaur and found out it took 8 of us to balance a Velociraptor. We even dressed up as cave people from the stone age!

   

  Have a look at more of our photos from the day in the Gallery.

   

  http://www.hampsthwaite.n-yorks.sch.uk/yorkshire-museum-visit-2017/

  

• Team Phoenix at Henshaws and Harlow Carr Gardens

  Mon 13 Feb 2017 Mrs Borchard

  Last week, Team Phoenix had a visit to Henshaws Art and Craft Centre. It is always a pleasure to introduce children to the art-makers in the various workshops. Most of the art-makers have some difficulty with their sight and some also have mobility and cognitive difficulties.

  Many love to chat with the children and love it when we visit. The children loved meeting Simon and admiring his colourful drawings. Layla remembers another workshop: "I liked the jewellery workshop and meeting Dolly, who has lots of keyrings." As part of our topic work at school we are thinking about environmental art and reusing materials to make art, so a walk around the Knaresborough centre gave us all an ideal chance to see what wonderful art can be created from junk materials and gather some ideas to bring back to school.

  We look forward to collecting our individualised bird feeders and pottery plaque which we have commissioned the art-makers to produce for us. The art-makers are so proud of their work - seeing Jenna's face light up, as we chose her own pottery owl to bring back to the classroom, was the highlight of the day for me.

  The centre is free to visit and there is a super café if you fancy a coffee and a bacon sandwich over half term.

  In the afternoon, we had a super trip to Harlow Carr Gardens. Three activities - a sculpture hunt, sketching plants and labelling their parts and an eco-friendly building tour - kept us focused and busy. The children loved exploring the gardens and noticing aspects of the building which were made from recycled materials. There are fantastic examples of environmentally friendly energy sources too.

  What a super day!

  

• 30 hours nursery provision

  Wed 08 Feb 2017 Mr Phoenix

  We are currently carrying out a survey to assess the likely level of demand for 30 hour nursery provision under the new government 30 hour entitlement for working families.

   

  Results from the survey will help us understand the level of need for 30 hour provision in this area. We can then look at possible ways this could be implemented. This could, for example, mean that we consider opening our school nursery for longer hours so that children can continue on from the morning session into the afternoon. 

  If you live in the Hampsthwaite area, and you have a child who may be eligible for 30 hour funding in the near future, or you would wish to pay for up to 30 hours at our nursery, please complete the online survey here on our website (on the 'Have your say' page under the 'Parents' menu)

   

  Many thanks, Mr Phoenix.

• Hampsthwaite becomes an Academy

  Wed 01 Feb 2017 Mr Phoenix

  1st February 2017 marks a key point in the history of Hampsthwaite CE School, as the school converted to Academy status, to join Yorkshire Causeway Schools Trust (YCST).

  As an Outstanding school, we had been looking for some time for opportunities to collaborate and work with other schools. When the opportunity arose to join YCST, the governors held a full consultation which had very positive responses, and then resolved to join the Trust.

  A special assembly marked the occasion of Academy Conversion. We looked back at the history of the school, from 1861 to the present day, and reflected on the changes in our world over time. After a crossword quiz to see who could recall the names of all the schools in YCST (which was a draw with the children and adults scoring 4 each!), children from the School Forum shared their thoughts and ideas about future work we might do with the other YCST schools. Staff also described some of their experiences of working with staff from the other schools so far, and things that may happen in the future, as this new chapter in the school's history unfolds.

  Unveiling a new school sign, school governors were delighted to take part in the celebrations.

  We look forward to many new and exciting opportunities in the future to share, work and learn with and alongside the other schools, and to build many new and lasting relationships between us all.