   © North and South Cowton Community Primary School 2009 - 2012
| NewsYear 4 Dance This morning our year 4 pupils joined with other year 4 pupils from the schools in our cluster, to take part in a dance session at the village hall. The session was run by Amy from AJ Academy of Performing Arts, who runs our Thursday night after school club. After a couple of games to warm the children up, they were taught a street style dance which was great fun although a little fast in places. Following that, they learned a song about never giving up and following their dreams, to the theme of a song from the movie Hercules. Their session ended with a piece of drama on the theme of the Olympics. At the end of the session, the dance, song and drama were all put together to make a performance to be proud of! A video was made of this performance which will be fantastic to watch. As you will see from the photograph, we do have some great movers and groovers! After School Clubs summer term 2012After school clubs for the summer term are as follows: Monday - Craft club with Mrs Charlesworth, Tuesday Multi-sports and outdoor fun club with Miss Tyerman, Wednesday football club with Jeff, Thursday Performing arts with AJ Academy. There will be a Friday after school club but the activity has not yet been confirmed. All clubs are at a cost of £30.00 per half term.
Easter Egg Activities
What a busy morning we had in school today! The morning began with our Easter Service at the Methodist Chapel during which the whole school did readings and songs to an audience of parents, grandparents, friends and neighbours. They performed beautifully, as usual. The Easter Service was swiftly followed by the judging of the Decorated Easter Eggs. The infant children did theirs during their art and design & technology lessons with Miss Wright whereas, due to time constraints, the juniors did theirs at home. The standard of entries was fantastic and eventually the winners, chosen by Rev. Andrew Stobart, our Methodist minister and Jen from the New Life Baptist Church were Harry White & Issie White. Harry created a fantastic Eggheads Rock group and Issie designed a beautiful bee. Runners up were Ellie Garbutt for her underwater scene and Ella Liddell for her tiger creation. Finally the children took part in our annual Easter Egg Hunt in and around the school grounds. They were split into groups and challenged to find as many eggs as possible. These were then shared out for the children to enjoy at home.
Sports ReliefThe children have been doing some work on distances in maths this week and worked out that 6 laps of the playing field is equivalent to 1 mile. In order to raise funds for Sport Relief, each child brought a donation in to school and the aim was to run a marathon, as a school. The children were so enthusiatic that in the end we excelled our goal and completed more than 2 marathons in total. All the children took part and worked as a team, encouraging and helping each other along the way. A fantastic effort from everybody with more than £50 raised for Sports Relief. World Book Day 2012 Today the children and staff all came to school dressed as book characters, to celebrate World Book Day. We had some fantastic outfits and it was clear that the children had thought long and hard about who to be and had made a great effort to look the part. Parents were invited to assembly where the children all took it in turns to guess who their friends had come dressed as. During the morning the infant children came up to the junior department and the children then shared their books with one another. The infant children read to the junior children and then the juniors read to the infants.
OFSTEDWe are having an inspection of the school by OFSTED from Wednesday 29th February 2012 until Thursday 1st March 2012.
After school club provisionOur after school clubs for this half term are as follows: Monday - Craft Club, Tuesday - Games Club, Wednesday - Football Club, Thursday - Performing Arts and Friday - Cookery Club. The cost for Peforming Arts is £28.00 for the 6 week block and the other clubs are £30.00 for the six week block. Please try and book in advance where possible, to secure a place. Reflection Time We have recently started to have 10 minutes "reflection time" for the junior children, at the end of the school day. This is an opportunity for them all to join together, in a relaxed and calming atmosphere, around a candle,and reflect on their experiences throughout the day, both good and bad. It is also a chance for them to look forward and think about events tomorrow. Christmas Carol Service This morning the children held their annual Christmas Carol Concert at St Lukes Church. Their repertoire included Christmas carols and songs from Hosanna Rock, their Christmas production. The children sang beautifully and parents and visitors were very impressed. This afternoon the children invited their parents into school for coffee and mincepies whilst they watched Cowton's Got Talent. And Cowton does indeed have talent - especially at North & South Cowton CP School.
Hosanna Rock! Last night the children performed Hosanna Rock to an audience of parents, grandparents, governors, ex-pupils etc. at a packed village hall. In fact there was standing room only! The children sang and acted beautifully and there were one or two solo performances which were exceptional. A huge thank you to all the children for learning their lines off by heart and to the budding seamstresses who made some fantastic costumes.
AJ Academy Performing Arts Yesterday those who attend the AJ Academy Performing Arts after school club did a performance of popular songs for the rest of the school. Parents were also invited. The children were very enthusiastic and it was obvious that they had put a lot of effort and rehearsal time in to make the performance as good as it was. In fact, it was so good that they had to do a repeat performance later in the afternoon for those who could not make the first performance. Cookery club We have, this half term, started an after school cookery club on a Friday. Each week the children cook or bake something and so far they have made fairy cakes, biscuits and rock buns. The children and the dining hall do sometimes get a little messy but the smell from the kitchen and the finished product is well worth all the mess. Another good point is that the children even learn how to wash up! And we have photographic evidence ! Children In Need A lot of the children came to school today looking like they had just got out of bed!! They were allowed to dress in pyjamas or as a superhero as part of our Children in Need Day celebrations. The children enjoyed lots of different fun activities throughout the day. Staff also joined in the spirit of things by dressing up and everyone had a great time. The children were each asked to bring a minimum of £1.00 to donate to Children in Need and we raised a fantastic £40.00. Anti-Bullying Week Blue Monday This week is anti-bullying week in school. Today is blue Monday and the children were allowed to come to school dressed in something blue. Assemblies this week have had an anti-bullying theme and the children will be following this up with work in the classroom. Hi 5 Netball TournamentOn the 8th of November year 5, 6 and Ella went to play in a netball competition. It was held at Hambleton Leisure Centre. They were 6 teams, Osmotherley, South Otterington (two teams), Croft, Swainby and Potto and us. Hi 5 netball is a game of netball but with 5 players. We had a player rota to make it fair. In the end Croft were 3rd, South Otterington B team came 2nd andSouth Otterington A team won. By The Netball Team Mini hockey This week some of the junior children took part in a mini-hockey tournament at the Allertonshire School. As a school, we have never played hockey before so it was a bit of a challenge to say the least. The children, however, excelled themselves and we came a very respectable fifth out of ten teams. The children enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to the tournament again next year. HMS Trincomalee This week we went to HMS Trincomalee at Hartlepool. We split into two groups, year fours went with Mr Briggs and the rest of us were with Miss Tyerman and Mrs Hughes. The ship had four decks. The storing deck was inder the water level, then there was the top deck, gun deck and mess deck. My favourite decjk was the gun deck because i could picture it the most. After seeing the ship we had lunch. Next we had an archaeology workshop. We dug up treasure from a box of sand with a brush. I found a goblet in the bottom of the box. After we split up into our two groups again. We went to the gift shop first. The other group went to the play ship. In the gift shop Lewis, Archie and I bought a sword each and had a great sword fight outside the play ship. After that we went home. By Matthew Clark, Year 6. School Fundraising Webshop CLICK HERE to visit our webshop and help raise funds for the school. You can buy from leading retailers, including Littlewoods, M&S, ELC, Amazon.co.uk, CD Wow, and many more. All you have to do is buy via our webshop and we earn commission on every purchase you make. You can support us by using the BrightMinds website. Just Click Here and remember to enter our code, FR-2477, at the checkout. Royal Wedding Celebrations What a fantastic day!! The whole school took part in Royal Wedding celebrations today which started with the children decorating the school with bunting, balloons and flags. They then enjoyed a special Royal Wedding lunch followed by a Tea Party on the green with parents, friends, grandparents and neighbours. The children enjoyed Royal Wedding themed games and all were dressed in red, white and blue clothing. Visitors were also suitably dressed in 'Royal' colours. Year 3 Aerobics Last Friday the year 3 children spent the afternoon at the village hall, taking part in an aerobics workshop. This event was run by Claire Rochester, our after school club dance teacher. Five other schools brought their year 3 pupils along and all in all the children had an enjoyable if not somewhat exhausting time!! They stretched and strutted and jogged and jigged to some modern dance tunes and those who were not too worn out by all the exercise also managed to sing along!! Fronter Junior pupils at our school can access the School's Learning Platform here, using the same username and password they use at school: Women's World Day of Prayer Today the junior children were invited to the Methodist Chapel to take part in the Women's World Day of Prayer Service, which was written by the women of Chile. The children all made their own flag of Chile to wave as they walked into the chapel. They also played a short game where they stood in a circle, greeted one another and said their names whilst throwing a ball of wool to each other. The idea was to throw the ball without letting go of the wool until a network of wool is formed. This represents the unity in prayer that links all children in the world. The children distributed bread to the congregation as this was the theme of the service. Traditional British Food As part of our Creative Curriculum initiative, the whole school has been learning about foods from around the world. As well as learning about and tasting food from Italy and India, the children have also been researching traditional British food. The junior pupils spent an afternoon making cheese pasties which oozed with flavour and colour. Many of the children had not tasted cheese pasties before but they all had a taste of the one they had made and many were surprised at how much they enjoyed them. Christening at the Methodist Chapel As part of their work in RE, the infant children recently attended a 'mock' Christening ceremony at the Methodist Chapel. The service was led by Rev. Isobel Akers. The children were very interested in what was happening and they were pleased that the baby did not cry at all!! On their return to the classroom they did a lovely piece of work about what they had learned. Santas Little Helpers Run On Friday 17th December, the last day of term, the whole school took part in a fun run to raise money for Teesside Hospice. The children dressed in santa hats and some were even dressed in full santa suits. They ran 3 laps from the junior building to the infant building and back again. Although the weather was a little cold, the children were all very enthusiastic and the running warmed them all up. School ClosuresAlthough we are experiencing some unpredictable weather at present, we will do our utmost to keep the school open every day. If a decision is made to close the school, we will contact you by telephone as soon after 8.00am as possible. Community Bulb Planting November 2010 Despite the cold weather, there was a good turnout of neighbours of the school to help the children and staff from Paddock Farm Nurseries plant bulbs on the village green. Everybody was in good spirits and worked together beautifully. Paddock Farm kindly supplied the bulbs and gave each child some crocus bulbs to plant at home. We should have an extremely colourful village green, come the spring. Remembrance Service November 2010 This week the whole school met with Isobel Akers, our Methodist minister, for a Rembrance Service at the village war memorial. The children all listened intently as Isobel spoke about those who had fought in the First & Second World Wars and joined in a prayer for them and their families. Teddy Bears Picnic July 2010Yesterday Class 1 went to Mrs Collinson's house for the teddy bears picnic. First we sang the teddy bears picnic song. After that we had our photos taken. Then we did the teddy bear hunt. I found twenty bears. Next we had a play. After that we had some orange juice and an ice-cream. Then we played Irish bingo, Joshua Kingdom won! Finally we came back to school. I liked it a lot. Good with Outstanding Features Our latest County assessment confirmed Ofsted's last rating (2006) of "Good with Outstanding Features"; indeed we've gained more outstanding ratings than before, demonstrating our continued improvement. It's recognised that our children are making good academic progress, have access to an amazing range of activities and learning opportunities, and that their personal and social development is outstanding. If you want to see how your child(ren) could benefit from being part of our learning family, why not come and see us. We have one or two places in most year groups and we know that any new starter will quickly make friends, becoming an important individual in our team. We're a small school that can make a BIG difference in a short time, by giving little people the confidence to explore the world around them. Dec 2009 - JOB VACANCY - ATA/EYFS ASSISTANTDue to the resignation of our well-respected early years teaching assistant, our small, successful village school is looking for an enthusiastic early years practitioner to work alongside the class teacher in KS1 in delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and KS1. June - The Blue Knights ride to Croatia All three of Steve Wilson’s children have attended our school and we were delighted when he decided to raise money for the school on his trip with The Blue Knights to Croatia. The Blue Knights is a worldwide motorcycling club whose members are law enforcement officers who raise money for charity whilst travelling around Europe, Australia and the USA on motorbikes. June 20 - Bubbles fly at the car wash On Saturday 20th June many of the children and families from the school turned out to support the Friends of the School Association Car Wash. Everyone had a great time, we raised £57 and some cars were washed too. Thanks for all those who helped and to everyone who supported the school by bringing their cars along. Feb 26 - Small Schools' Swimming Gala Our Junior children continued their winning streak, beating off competition from nine other schools to win the 'best school' title in the Small Schools' Swimming Gala. 2nd Feb - Our Wedding We had a wedding in school recently as part of our study into marriage in different religions. The focus of our Religious Education studies has been Christian weddings and this culminated in a service for Maisie & Adam at St Lukes Church on Monday 2nd February. Welcome to our schoolThe staff and children at North and South Cowton Community Primary School enjoyed making this video and hope you will enjoy seeing a little of our school in action. 20th July - Soccer 7's This year The Legends won a tight final to take the cup back from the two times champions - Rudy's Boys. It was the 10th annual North and South Cowton Primary School Soccer 7's competition and once again it was a great success. Eight teams battled it out on a showery summers day, supported by a good crowd. 23rd May - Sponsored Bike Ride The Annual School Sponsored Bike ride was a great success. It was a lovely evening and there was a great turnout. Many of the children managed the maximum 5 laps round the block (12.5 miles), but we were particularly proud of the efforts of the youngest participants - everyone made it round at least once. The event was organised by the Friends of the School, and all the funds raised go towards supporting the school. 12th March - Open Afternoon Our open afternoon was a lovely occasion as we had parents, grandparents, governors and friends visiting the school. Michael Heseltine, our County Councillor, also attended and presented the Heseltine Trophy. 21st February 2008 Small Schools Swimming Gala Talented young swimmers from our school have won the second Small Schools' Swimming Gala. 25th Jan - School marks 130 yearsSee details of our 130th anniversary tea party - as published in The Advertiser. 19th Jan 2008 - 130th Anniversary BallOn Saturday 19th January our Anniversary Ball took place at the Croft Hotel. North & South Cowton CP School was first opened on January 25th 1878 and the Ball starts off a week of celebrations at the school, culminating on Friday 25th January with a Victorian Day on the exact day the school was opened 130 years ago. Dec 2007 - North Cowton Hoplites The spartan hoplite was a heavy infantryman, the central focus of warfare in ancient Greece. The Juniors studied Greece last term - including making their own hoplite shields. 16th Nov - Espresso Book Review of the Month Espresso is an easy-to-use and constantly growing digital library innovative, video-rich, cross-curricular resources, all tailored to the National Curriculum. We've had Espresso in our school for a year now and it has been a great benefit to all our children. 23rd Nov - National Healthy School Status We are delighted to announce that we have just been notified that our school has achieved the National Healthy School Status. A big thank you to all the staff, helpers and parents who have helped. 21st Nov - Weekly AchieversA big thank you to River Swale Organic Vegetables who have kindly sponsored our new “Achiever†yellow t-shirts. 5th October - Crucial Crew On the 5th October 2007 our Juniors attended the Crucial Crew, which is designed as a great day out and one they'll remember for the rest of your lives. School Development Plan 2007-8 PublishedThe school governors have approved the school development plan for this year, which is available for you to review here. 27 Sept - Skate School POPCORN SKATE are running this term's after-school skate school, on Thursday afternoons in the village hall. This has proved very popular and great fun. 2007/8 Prospectus is available....The new school prospectus is now available on-line. You can access it if you Click Here. 20th July - School Profile PublishedOur school profile is published and available via the Directgov website. It provides summary information about our school in the same format as every other school. If you go to the Directgov schools finder website (link below) and search for North Cowton - you'll find us. 18th July - The End of Year Show Once again the village was treated to a wonderful display of youth and enthusiasm from the children, in their pre-summer holiday celebration! 15th July - Soccer 7's Rudy’s Boys triumphed again in the 9th annual North and South Cowton Primary School Soccer 7’s competition. In the sweltering heat last year they played under the name “Baz’s Team†and beat The Cowtons in the final. Given this year’s poor summer we were lucky to have warm sunshine for the first half of the competition, before the rain inevitably came. Despite the weather, we are grateful to the loyal fans and supporters who turned out in force to watch some exciting games. In a repeat of last years semi-final, Rudy’s Boys once again put out the Legends, to set up a final with The Every Thursday Night Boys. However, The Every Thursday Night Boys, who last year struggled due to being under strength, first had to see off the league winners Mowden Park in their semi. 4th July Infant Trip to Redcar The infants enjoyed a lovely day at Redcar, where they visited the Life Boat Station and played on the beach. All enjoyed the day out. Class 2 High Force Adventure July 2007 Each year our junior class spend a couple of days away at the High Force Adventure Centre. The class had a great time this year, and when they returned they put together this presentation, which they performed for parents and friends of the school on Wednesday 11th July. 3rd June - Sainsbury’s Bag Packing Well done! A big thank you to Lucy, John, Jacob, James A, Jonathan and Jason for sparing 2 hours each in their school holidays to raise funds at the Sainsbury’s bag pack on Sunday 3rd June. They raised an outstanding £326.62 for the school. Should we get the opportunity to bag pack again let’s hope it is not when so many families are away; if 6 children can raise this amount, imagine how much the whole school could raise! 13th May - Sponsored Cycle Ride Well done to the all those who took part in our annual sponsored cycle ride. 10 pupils took part, each doing from 1 – 5 laps of the 2.5 mile course. 27 laps were covered in total by John C, Matthew C, Rachel E, Harry A, Jonathan P, James A, Rebecca R, Jacob T, Hannah L & Jack W. Madeline B from East Cowton School also joined in. Pictured are Rachel and Madeline, Hannah and mum Lisa, and a rapidly departing Jonathan! 30th March - The Heseltine Trophy The Parents' & Friends' coffee afternoon as a great success and we were delighted that Cllr. Michael Heseltine attended to make the first every presentation of the Heseltine trophies; one to an infant child and one to a junior child for an outstanding piece of work. David Hill and Karen Pusey, both school governors, judged the winners, along with the annual Easter Egg competition and the Easter colouring competition. Well done to Samantha Hughes (Junior) and Jacob Tate (Infant) - the first ever winners of the Heseltine Trophy - pictured receiving their trophies from Cllr. Heseltine. Also pictured are Jonathan Parr and Alex Carter receiving prizes. March 22nd – The Legend of the Firebird The community was treated to a fantastic performance of Douglas Coombes’ musical for children. Earlier this term our year 5&6 children took part in a production of The Legend of the Firebird, which involved children from across the area. At this performance over 100 children performed for an audience of over 400. March 16th – Tree planting marks village recycling commitment The can bank at our school is one of the best used in Richmondshire and helped the district council to recycle 17 tonnes of aluminium last year. As a reward, Alupro, the aluminium industry recycling awareness group, gave the council a tree for every tonne. Five saplings will be planted in Africa, but the remaining 12 were exchanged for a mature silver birch to be planted at our school. March 2nd - Website Guide and QuestionnaireWe are keen to help you get the most out of our website. Click on the file to read the short guide and then complete the questionnaire and return it to the school office. Alternatively you can send comments to webmaster@northsouthcowton.n-yorks.sch.uk. Thanks Feb 23rd - Champions Again! Our children once again showed their talents and team spirit, competing in the first ever Small Schools Swimming Gala, against 11 other primary schools, from the area. The competition was held at Hambleton Leisure Centre in Northallerton, where the whole school go for weekly swimming lessons in the summer and autumn terms. We were the smallest school there, but under the leadership of captains Emma Donaldson and James Armstrong we brought the trophy home! 8th Feb - We are the Champions!! Those parents, grandparents and supporters who were lucky enough to watch our children play football yesterday afternoon witnessed a very special moment in the history of our school. All the odds were stacked against us to do well, as we are presently the smallest of the 12 small schools competing in the football league. However we showed great determination and spirit to come back in the final after being 1-0 down, to win 3-2! Well done to all the children. They were once again a credit to themselves, their families and of course the school. For more details see the children's match report in this weeks Newsletter. 2nd Feb - News from the Parents and Friends AssociationOur Parents and Friends Association are, as usual, working hard to support the school. In the past year they have supported us by funding a coach to Bowes Museum, leaver’s dictionaries, equipment for the juniors, playground equipment from Huff&Puff, Star Spell software and making a contribution towards swimming lessons. 1st Feb - Dates for your DiaryWe have a packed calendar for February and March. These are all our events - so far. 16th Jan - ActiveMark This week we have had confirmation that we have been awarded the Activemark 2006. This rewards exceptional delivery of the National Schools Sports Strategy and is awarded to schools that meet or better the national average for the range of sport it offers & who have a yearly sports day. OFSTED - our results are in... We are delighted to report that OFSTED have confirmed we have a Good School - in fact they rate us either good or outstanding in every category. This is an improvement on our last inspection and a reflection of the hard work put in by all those who support us. Thank you. 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