So the end of another school year and some ‘well dones’ needed!

Well done children and staff for working so hard all year and achieving their best across the whole school.

Well done to Mr McMahon and the sports team for coaching the children in sport that well that we won (almost) everything we entered! National Girls Cricket Champions and National Runners Up Boys Cricket Team. A magnificent year. Well done to Ms Baird and Ms Swinburn for gaining fantastic career promotions. You will be missed but we all wish you the best!Well done Governors - they often don’t get a mention but are always there supporting and challenging the school helping us to be the best we can be and all in their spare time!Enjoy the summer - remember to complete your Literacy and Maths Challenges!

We will see you in September!

Mrs L Sullivan - Head Teacher

Term Dates for 13/14

INSET DayWednesday 04 September

Back to SchoolThursday 05 September

Break up for half termFriday 25 October

INSET DayMonday 04 November

Back to SchoolTuesday 05 November

Break up for ChristmasFriday 20 December

INSET DayMonday 06 January 2014

(cont. on next page)

JULY 2013

HEAD’S

SPOT

DALE NEWS

Our Girls and Boys Cricket Teams - the Girls are National Champions and the Boys are National Runners-up!!

Foundation Stage News

Foundation Stage have been learning about the life cycle of frogs and of caterpillars. We began with frogspawn and watched every day until we had frogs hopping everywhere! We nurtured the caterpillars and saw the chrysalis form. It was a moment of awe and wonder when we released them! Now we are all ready for Year 1!

Year One News

What a busy half term! We have continued to grow our beans and sunflowers. We had some amazing entries in our tallest sunflower competition. We now know all about some of the trees in our school grounds. We also learned some new playground games. It was fun going to the park to play them. Sports day was amazing with lots of laughing and cheering. It was difficult to say who was most exhausted at the end of the day - the children or the teachers! Many thanks to the parents who came to watch and take part. It has been an action packed year and we hope everyone has a happy and restful holiday.

Year Two News

For our final topic, Year 2 became Pirates. We learned about pirate clothes and equipment and decided what kind of Pirate each of us would be. We researched famous Pirates from history and explored life on board a Pirate Ship. As Pirate cooks, we made sea biscuits and normal biscuits and learned about the food groups we should include in our diet. The final part of our topic saw us investigating mouldy food to learn how to store food safely and hygenically. This led us on to look at what happens when we are ill and the use of medicines. A fabulous topic!

Year Three News

We have been learning about Green Plants; how they grow and what the parts of a plant do. We have done drawings and investigations and made observations. We had a great trip to the nearby allotments and examined the variety of plants there. We have studied Charlotte’s Web and we have looked at each of the characters. Following our trip to Skegness, we have looked at how the Seaside used to be in Victorian times. We also studied changes in the local environment.

Learning Mentors

Reminder: Please can all Parents please notify school with any change of address / phone numbers as soon as they change! Learning Mentors would like to say a big thank you to all those Parents who have worked with school on Punctuality, Attendance, Behaviour and Routine. Results are evident and we hope it continues in the new school year!

Term Dates (cont.)

Back to SchoolTuesday 07 January

Break up for half termFriday 14 February

Back to SchoolMonday 24 February

Break up for EasterFriday 11 April

Back to SchoolMonday 28 April

Break up for half termFriday 23 May

INSET DayMonday 02 June

INSET DayTuesday 03 June

Back to SchoolWednesday 04 June

Break up for SummerWednesday 23 July

Year Four News

Year Four have had a creative and practical half term! We have been learning about how electricity flows and have made simple electric circuits. We can now identify and draw the correct symbols for a range of components and have investigated what happens to the brightness of a bulb when some of these are changed. Our other topic this half term was on minibeasts and we’ve been on a minibeast hunt in the playground. We used what we found to learn about the features of common minibeasts and made our very own out of clay! It’s been a fun filled ‘hands on’ term! The staff would like to thank the pupils for all their hard work and wish them the best for next year!

Year Five News

This half term we have been very busy working on our topic - The

Apprentice. We have had to create a chocolate making company with a website as well as designing and making chocolate products and packages to put them in. Two teams from each class then had to persuade ‘Lord Sugar’ that they were the best company to invest in. We also enjoyed our trip to the University of Derby where we joined with other primary schools to find out about possible jobs we could do in the future and about Secondary Schools. We had a great time at Conkers!

Year Six News

This term has been busy and exciting for everyone in Year 6. A number of us enjoyed a fantastic trip to Whitby - not to mention a very eventful journey home! We are incredibly proud of all our Year 6 pupils who have worked so hard to achieve some excellent SATs results. Their hard work continued as they prepared for and performed their Leavers Assembly and transition to Secondary School. We wish all our Year 6 pupils good luck in their new schools!

Sports News

What an amazing year for sports at Dale! Here’s just a few of our sporting achievements.

•Futsal - Year 5 Regional Finalists•Table Tennis – Year 5/6 Girls County Champions•Table Tennis – Year 5/6 Boys Runner-Up County Championships•Table Tennis – Year 5/6 – Girls County individual - 2nd, 3rd and 3rd place!•Cricket Boys A Team – City and County Champions•Cricket Girls A Team - City and County Champions•Cricket Boys – National Runners-up•Cricket Girls – National Winners!•Tri Golf – County Runners-Up•Netball - City Champions•Netball – 2nd in Regional Finals•Tag Rugby – City Champions•Girls 6-a-side – Football Winners – Cluster competition•Rounders – Year 5 – Cluster Champions•City Schools Sports Awards – Bronze Baton Award

Well done to all the teams and thanks to families for supporting the school.Lets see if we can win even more next year!

Thank you Mr McMahon, Charlie, Mr Mills and Mr Kooner for all your hard work, patience and time. We couldn’t do it without you!

How to contact us:

Telephone 01332 760070

Emailadmin@dale.derby.sch.uk

AddressDale Community Primary SchoolPorter Road, Derby.DE23 6NL

Head TeacherMrs L. Sullivan

School Information

•School meals continue to cost £2.00 per day / £10.00 per week. Money must be paid on a Monday morning. Please remember if your child brings a packed lunch to school it must be brought to school at 9:00am. We will not accept late lunchboxes.

•Please look at the school website: http://dale.derby.sch.uk for more information and pictures of school life and for copies of the Literacy and Maths Challenge booklets.

So... the formal learning of school stops for six weeks, but have you

thought about the many enjoyable informal ways there are

of keeping your children thinking and developing over the summer? Even as they play?

Simply spending time playing with them is one thing. They benefit from our attention. Talking with them is another. Talk about things that are happening around you. Read things together, whether its passing shop windows, bits from a newspaper or magazine, or some good story books. Encourage them to draw things they see; get them a pad and some pencils. Go out together to local places for walks, maybe visit bits of Derby they've not seen before. 

 Children are growing all the time and as parents we have a great opportunity to pour into their lives. Long holidays are great for that. I hope you have lots of fun and we look forward to seeing lots of you back in September - apart from those who are moving on! We wish all our Year 6 children well as they head to new schools. And we wish members of staff who are moving on all the best as well. Ms Helliwell, Ms Baird, and Ms Swinburn are moving on. We want to say a big thank you for all they have done in the school. And we wish Mrs James and Mrs Tissington well as they take maternity leave for a few months.

Anthony AdamsChair of Governors

GOVERNOR’S

SPOT

We enjoyed some well earned ice cream to cool us down!