Staffing update

As an academy, we are delighted to welcome Mr Watkins back to Smithies Moor. We are very excited for him to be returning to teach Year 3 for the remainder of this year, starting back the week of the 9th Jan 2023.

Miss Robinson will be teaching for the remainder of the year in Year 4, starting in January. 

Miss Upton has been successfully recruited to teach in Year 1 and will begin after the holidays. 

We say a fond farewell to Mrs King, who has taught at the school for over 12 years. We wish her all the best for the future and thank her for her hard work and commitment to the children and families in the community.

Mrs Hashmi (class 5H) will also be leaving Smithies Moor. We wish her all the best in her career.  Miss Thorley and Miss Doherty will be teaching in class from January onwards.

Kind Donations

Poppy Appeal – We are delighted to let you know that as a community we have raised £303.50 towards the British legion Poppy Charity. 

Children In Need – Our fundraising for this charity in November was £86.72.

Christmas raffle- By selling raffle tickets we have made £168, which will support more exciting academy activities over the Spring term.

Thank you for your kind donations over the past months towards our good causes. 

Bridge Breakfast Club

Bridge Breakfast Club is continuing to open from 7.30am to support families who need an early start to the day.

If you are entitled to Free School Meals your child has a free place at the Breakfast club each morning. This is a project led by The Trust that will continue over the foreseeable future.

Please email the academy office (smit-office@coopacademies.co.uk) to book your child in for Bridge Breakfast Club, so that we can make provision for the number of children who will be attending before academy hours.

Attendance

Attendance matters! It is important that your child gets to school on time to start lessons at 8.50am and aims for 100% attendance!

A BCL attendance officer will be supporting the academy throughout the year to ensure our attendance is at or above the national average (96%) and that all children are attending school. The attendance officer will be present on the academy premises and will regularly visit families at their home to support our local community. 

BCL attendance officers  will continue to invite parents to meetings to discuss attendance concerns and support in place in the Spring term. Plans will be put in place and monitoring of pupil’s attendance will be a high priority for all in the academy.

Reminder – We are constantly wanting to make improvements to our academy. Due to a whole school reading training event, the INSET training day is on Friday 20th January 2023. Please make a note of this in your diaries. 

Swimming lessons

All Year 4 children are currently attending swimming lessons to develop their swimming skills so that they can competently swim unaided over a distance of 25m. The current plan is for the Year 4 pupils to continue these lessons until February half term.

After School Clubs

This term the after school clubs have been a great success. We will be offering different clubs after the holidays. A letter will be sent out in the first week back and your child can select from the options available. The clubs will start on the second week back.

Christmas Concert

The children performed fabulously at the Christmas concerts and brought Christmas spirit to us all. Thank you to all who supported the concerts and also brought children back to the after school performances on bitterly cold evenings.

Thank you for your continued support over the last term. I personally would like to wish all families and all staff a safe, restful and happy holiday time for the next 2 weeks.

The academy closes at the end of the day on Friday 16th December and reopens to pupils on Tuesday 3rd January 2023 at 8:50am. 

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

Best wishes

Mrs Catherine Brackenbury

Head of Academy