Announcements

• Recent events and news
• Appointments to view the school and vacancies within year groups
• Climbing Wall for Whittaker Moss!
• Primary Quality Mark
• School Council
• Nursery Application forms and admissions guidance
• 'Healthy School' status
• Golden Grin Award
• Healthy School Dinner Menus and more Healthy Eating Information!
• Eco-School status
• Yellow Pages Recycling
• Elmsfield Avenue playground entrance
• Bring a Coat
• P.E. and Games kit

Recent/forthcoming events and news

The school citizenship cup has been presented to those children who have managed 100% attendance at school throughout the whole of this school year. Very well done -

George Armistead - Year 6
Sophie Byrne - Year 6
Benjamin Heywood - Year 6
Hope Bleasdale - Year 5
Samantha Hibbert - Year 5
Mollie Ingram - Year 5
Callum Knox - Year 5
Anna Wilkinson - Year 5
George Kean - Year 3
Shannon Moorhouse - Year 3
Olivia Bryning - Year 2
Eden Walker - Year 2
Jack Ashton - Year 1
Lucas Bulmer - Year R
Anna Kershaw - Year R
Lucy Turner - Year R

Elections took place on 26th June for School Council class representatives (2008 to 2009). Click here to see the results.

Building work on the office extensions has started and is progressing well. The offices have been re-located into the central area. Access to the school during the school day (after 9.10am) is via the door into the hall next to the changing rooms. Thank you for your patience!

Just a reminder that the school nurse is available (monthly) on the last Thursday in each month at 3.30pm in the PPA room (off the Nursery Cloakroom) for parents who have any health or development concerns about their child that they might like to discuss or ask about.

Please check out our new children's page. It's packed with fun and interesting activities and games. Our new parents' page is full of useful information and links and you can read those letters that never arrived home!!

Appointments to view the school

Mrs Williamson, the Headteacher, is very happy to show interested parents around the school. Please contact Amanda Wilson (Bursar) anytime to make an appointment. There are also occasionally, vacancies within existing classes in school due to families re-locating. Currently we have 1 place in both Year 2 and Year 4 and a further 2 places in Years 5 and 6. Please contact Amanda Wilson (Bursar) for details.

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Climbing Wall for Whittaker Moss!

The school has a climbing wall constructed in the hall.

The wall is a ‘traversing wall’ which means that children (or adults) climb along from end to end rather than upwards.

Climbers are never more than approximately half a metre from the ground. A variety of colour coded hand and foot holds enables easier routes along the wall for younger children and more challenging routes for older children. There is also an ‘overhang’ section which makes the traverse even more exciting.

The wall is used as part of our P.E. curriculum and promotes stretching, balance, agility, strength and stamina as well helping children to develop self confidence and team work.

Mrs Williamson, Headteacher said, “We are obviously delighted to have this piece of equipment available for our children. There are very few indoor walls of this type available to Primary School children anywhere in the country and it will certainly enable us to make P.E. lessons even more exciting".

We must also express our grateful thanks to the Whittaker Moss PTA who have raised the necessary funds to pay for the wall and of course those of you who have supported PTA events and provided the funds.

Thank you all and we hope the children enjoy this new and exciting experience.

Basic Skills Agency Primary Quality Mark

Whittaker Moss Pupils and Staff have hit the mark yet again!

Following a recent re-assessment in December 2007, Whittaker Moss Primary School has, once again, been awarded the highly acclaimed ‘Primary Quality Mark’ by the National Basic Skills Agency.

The Quality Mark recognises schools that demonstrate high standards in the teaching of Reading, Writing, Spelling and Maths. To achieve the award, schools must successfully meet ten elements which show that they are on an upward trend in terms of basic skills teaching for example, they must have strategies and plans in place to improve children’s reading, writing and number work, they must use a range of teaching styles in the classroom to raise standards in basic skills and they must involve parents in developing their children’s basic skills.

The Quality Mark has been awarded for a further three years (until December 2010) after which the school will be reassessed to see if it still meets the high standards required. The school has received another commemorative plaque and certificate, posters, badges and stickers for all its children. 

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Primary Activemark

Whittaker Moss Primary School has gained the very prestigious Primary Activemark. The activemark rewards exceptional delivery of the National School Sport Strategy.
Our school has received the mark because at least 90% of children across the school undertake at least 2 hours per week of high quality P.E. and school sport.
We are delighted to have been awarded the Activemark and thank Miss Bentley and all our staff involved in the organisation and delivery of our P.E. and sporting sctivities.

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School Council

The newly elected members of the School Council for the 2008 to 2009 school year are -

(Class numbers below are from September 2008)

• Hope Bleasdale - C8 Secretary
• Callum Knox - C8 Chair person
• Rebecca Williams - C7
• Adam Cowley - C7
• Lani Knox - C6
• Daniel Cryer - C6
• Stephanie Lowe - C5
• Joseph Bryning - C5
• Katie Moore - C4
• Ahmed Mohamed - C4
• Chloe Davies - C3
• Joseph Brereton - C3
• Louise Farrar - C2
• Max Bentley - C2

The idea of Pupil Councils is not a new one but where they are used, a very positive effect has been found on the whole life of those schools as children are encouraged to -

• take part in some of the decisions relating to aspects of school life
• develop their own individual class 'Charters of Behaviour' from which the school council will develop a whole school charter
• improve playground time for all by, for example, adopting 'Buddy Schemes' or 'Listening / Friendship Benches'

It has also been noted that incidences of anti-social behaviour, bullying, disruptive behaviour have reduced as children have taken more responsibility as a class or school group. This, in turn, has meant relationships between adults and children have improved and consequently, so has learning.

Now the system is up and running, each class has a regular, short, class council meeting at which they discuss issues relating to school that concern them. The children produce the agenda by adding items to a list in the classroom. With help and training from their teacher, they are encouraged to run the meetings themselves with their own elected chairperson and secretary.

Younger children will obviously require more adult help and the very youngest will begin the process of talking, in turn, with their teachers about aspects of school.

We will also be holding yearly elections in each class for two children, a boy and a girl, to be class representatives on the full school council.

The election process will teach the children a little of how real elections work in that, candidates will have to be proposed and seconded and they will need to tell the class why they would make a good representative. A secret ballot will be held and votes counted by a returning officer who will then announce the result.

The elected representatives will take issues arising from their class council meetings to the school council meetings, which will be held probably every three weeks or so.

The school council will have a chairperson and secretary. There will also be a 'link teacher' at the meetings.

Following the meetings, class representatives will report all the details back to their own classes.

Mrs Williamson will continue to update parents on progress as we move further into the scheme and we hope parents will give it support as we believe it will help us in creating an environment in which learning can be even more effective and that it will become part of teaching our children to be good citizens.

Nursery applications

Applications can be made at any time for future places in our Nursery Class. We also occasionally have vacancies within our current group due to families re-locating.

Please contact Amanda Wilson (Bursar) if you require a place now or in the future.

You can download a nursery application form as an Acrobat PDF file or as a Word Document

Please download these notes with the form - Acrobat PDF file or as a Word Document

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'Healthy School' status

Our school has held this prestigious national award for the last five school years. We were re-assessed during the 2006-2007 achool year and have reaffirmed our status as a Healthy School.

In order to be allowed to use the logo, a school has to demonstrate a commitment to becoming a 'healthy school' by producing an action plan and having it approved.

They must show an effective whole school commitment in areas such as -

• Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE),
• Citizenship Education,
• Emotional health and well-being,
• Healthy eating,
• Physical activity,
• Drug and relationships education
• Health and safety

As you see, the term 'healthy school' has a much broader meaning than simply physical health.

Clearly, our introduction of water bottles available to children throughout the day in their classes, our involvement with the daily fruit scheme, our support for the provision of school milk from 3 to 7 years of age and our continued committment to sporting and other enrichment activities has helped greatly.

However, it's also about every single person in the school working hard to create an environment, both inside school and in the playground, in which all children can feel included, valued, happy, and safe and providing children with a high quality education that will equip them to make the right decisions in life and become responsible citizens - all the elements of the 'Every Child Matters' agenda.

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Golden Grin Award - Gold Level awarded to Whittaker Moss

Whittaker Moss has been awarded the Gold Level of the Golden Grin Award in October 2007

The Golden Grin Award is designed for schools who wish to help prevent tooth decay and improve nutrition amongst their children.The Gold Award is the highest level possible and to achieve it, a school has to satisfy all six of the Golden Grin criteria. These are –
- A healthy snack policy is implemented throughout the school,
- Food and drinks containing sugar are not provided at snack time,
- A ‘sugar free’ reward system is in place throughout the school,
- Alternatives to sugary treats are provided on special occasions eg. birthdays,
- Educational input from the dental/nutritional health services occurs at least once a year in the school,
- The school asks parents/carers not to greet children in the playground after school with sugary treats.

The award, which will be re-assessed each year, is to be presented to us very soon and there will be some accompanying newspaper coverage.

We would like to thank all parents for the part they have played and the support they have given to our efforts.

Check out our healthy school dinner menus!

Our menus are provided over a ‘three weekly cycle’.

We have met a number of times during the last few months, with School Meals Officials from Rochdale Council and with our own Kitchen Supervisors to discuss modifications to the school dinner menus in order to introduce even more healthy options.As you will see, there are two ‘main’ choices each day and also various cold choices.A range of carbohydrates are provided across each week. Jacket potatoes are available every day as an option and chips/sauté potatoes are offered once during a week.

A salad bar is provided every day and can be used either as an alternative to the vegetable/s on offer that day or to go with a jacket potato meal.

A range of sweets are also provided which includes a fresh fruit option each day.

A halal choice is available daily.

More really useful information for parents about new food standards in schools and also tips and ideas for healthy packed lunches can be found by clicking the link below -

www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk

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Whittaker Moss is an Eco-School 

Whittaker Moss working towards the Gold Level of the prestigious Eco-Schools award system having achieved the Silver award in June 2006.

Being an Eco-School is about involving the whole school community, Children, Parents, Staff and Governors in reviewing a range of aspects of the school environment.

It can involve all sorts of practical measures that will bring real and lasting benefits to the way our school is run. These measures might include, for example, reducing waste at school, saving money by cutting down on energy use, examining how we travel to and from school – and many more.

Helen Scott, our school Science Co-ordinator is leading the project which involves seven main elements –

• Establishing an eco-committee comprising of various members of the school community,
• Carrying out an environmental review of the current situation in school,
• Developing and action plan based on evidence from the review,
• Developing a system of monitoring and reviewing progress of the action plan,
• Linking the work to areas of the school curriculum,
• Involving the whole school and where possible, the wider community,
• Devising a school ‘Eco-Code’.

Whittaker Moss wins first prize in Yellow Pages recycling scheme for the third year in succession

Mrs Scott entered our school in Rochdale Council’s ‘Yellow Pages Recycling Scheme’ for the fourth year in November 2007, as a part of our eco-schools work.

We were delighted to be informed that our school came FIRST in the whole of the Rochdale Borough in terms of numbers collected for re-cycling - over 1,500. This is the third year in succession that Whittaker Moss has won the prize. What a fantastic achievement for a primary school!

The prize of £300 will be put towards future eco-school projects at Whittaker Moss. The prize also includes a 'seeds to trees' kit which the eco-group will put to good use in the grounds of the school.

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Elmsfield Avenue playground entrance

This remains a serious concern. Cars are still being parked and manoeuvred in the turning area and on Elmsfield Avenue itself. Residents complain that double parking, parking on the pavements and across driveways is causing them major access problems before and after school.

PLEASE USE THE MAIN CARPARKS AND DRIVEWAY VIA HIGHWOOD TO PARK AND WALK AROUND THE BUILDING TO THE PLAYGROUND

Bring a Coat

Could you ensure that your child brings a coat to school each day (even if it appears sunny in the early morning) as we do go outside during break and lunch times in light rain.

P.E. and Games kit

Please ensure that your child has appropriate kit / clothing in school for P.E. and Games. This can, of course, be left in school on their cloakroom peg.