We know that our children love reading series books!  It can be a real comfort to read books you enjoy with familiar story structure, setting and characters.  But don’t be afraid to try something different!  See HERE for more ideas on expanding your child’s reading choices

Dear Parents and Carers,

Well, what a week! The temperature has dropped, the gloves are on, and I’m starting to wonder if my toes can could set a coldness record when I’m on the gate. The children, of course, seem immune to the cold – charging around the playground without their coats like it’s midsummer!

I very much enjoyed the colour, music and dancing in our Diwali Dance Workshop this week – I love seeing children’s learning brought to life with events like these.  It was also great to see Coleham represented so well by our U11 footballers who put in a fantastic shift against Trinity.  It’s the first game of football I’ve enjoyed watching for a while…

Away from the fun, I’ve been supporting other schools with assessment and data analysis this week. It’s always good to share ideas and learn from each other. And speaking of sharing, I’ve also been showing lots of prospective parents around our school. Talking about Coleham with new families is one of my favourite things; it reminds me just how special this place is.

A quick practical safety note: as the weather gets colder and the afternoons get darker, please please remind your children about taking care on pavements and crossing the roads on the way to and from school.  Not all drivers will follow rules or take the care they need to for us all to be safe.  On that note, please can I ask everyone to avoid driving out Greyfriars Road until all the cones have been removed. I know it’s tempting, but one car encourages the next and the next and so on.  I appreciate your patience and keeping everyone safe.

Thank you, as always, for your support. It makes all the difference. Have a lovely weekend—wrap up warm, and if you’re braving any outside activities, bring a flask!

Tom Larkham
Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

The weather has turned a little miserable this week, but that hasn’t crept into our school!  We’ve had a couple of late nights with our parent/carer evenings which are always a highlight.  As a parent, it’s great to hear about how our children are getting on, and as a Headteacher, it’s great to chat to many of you over the past two nights.  I really miss the days of being a class teacher talking to parents and carers of the children in my class – it was always a joy to talk about their achievements and share how brilliant they are.

I enjoyed taking a little time to watch our Year 1 and Year 2 children playing football on the (very soggy) field against our friends at Bowbrook earlier in the week – they did a great job and had lots of fun.  There also needs to be a huge congratulations to the boys representing Coleham at the U11 EFL Cup, reaching the semi-finals!  I’m so pleased that we have had so many sporting fixtures already, with so many children being able to represent our school this early in the school year.  There will be many more to come!

We are looking for a new Parent Governor to join our Governing body.  It is a wonderful opportunity for any parent who is keen to gain a deeper understanding of the inner workings and strategic leadership of your child’s school, and help to hold us to account through robust and supportive challenge of the Leadership Team.  Anyone who is interested can find the info here: We are looking for a Parent Governor – Coleham Primary School

Keep an eye out for lots items coming up next week, including individual children’s photos on Wednesday.

Have a super weekend, everyone.

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

🎉 Battle of the Band – Times Tables Competition! 🎉

📅 Running: Monday to Friday next week
🏫 In celebration of Maths Week!

Get ready to rock your times tables in our exciting Battle of the Band competition!

This is a school house challenge where students will compete to earn points for their house teams by answering as many times tables questions correctly as they can.
🎸 How it works:

Each correct answer earns points for your house.

The house with the most correct answers by Friday will be crowned the Battle of the Band Champions!

🏅 Individual prizes will also be awarded for outstanding effort, so every student has a chance to shine!

This is a fun and engaging way to boost maths skills and celebrate Maths Week together. So warm up those multiplication muscles over the weekend and get ready to battle!

Let’s make some noise for maths! 🔢🎶
Good luck to all our rockstar mathematicians!

All pupils have access to the Times Tables Rockstars app and Numbots app to use in school and at home and their username/password is usually pasted inside their Reading Diary covers.

Dear Parents and Carers, 

I’m writing this last weekly message after a very busy, full and fun half-term, in my office on a Thursday night waiting for the Year 5 coach from London to arrive.  It’s always a bit spooky being in school alone on an evening, but it’s a nice time to reflect on the hustle and bustle of the school day and count the wonderful things that have happened over the past half-term.

This week has been no exception to the busyness: as well as a trip to the big city, there’s been a dance show, musical robots, a guide dog learning the ropes in a school, a legion of Romans in the school AND a trip to Chester!  So much going on, and I’m left feeling really lucky to be part of such an amazing place full of opportunity and wonder where our chidren get to experience so much.

A huge thankyou must go to the brilliant team of staff who go above and beyond every day to make that all happen, AND to all of you for your support.  We felt that support last Friday at our very-well attended quiz night where we raised well over £400 for the school – THANK YOU!

Remember that we are off for two weeks so we can all have a proper recharge, ready for the run up to Christmas whic promises to be even more full!

Have a super weekend, and a super break with your families.

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Dear Parents & Carers,

With only one more week to go before our Autumn Half-Term Break, we are very much into the thick of the school year!

This week started off with a lovely Harvest assembly, led by Holy Trinity’s Rev. Fi, where we learned about the importance of sharing: thank you to everyone who brought in donations for our Harvest Festival.  Mrs Rank took our School Councillors along to donate the food to the Barnabas Food Bank: it’s great to see children involved in community care like this.

Our Councillors also managed to pop out and see our lovely Network Rail volunteers who helped fix up the playground over the summer: THANK YOU!

We’ve also enjoyed welcoming our EYFS families this week for lunches at in the hall with the children – we love supporting families and welcoming you all into our community.

Next week we have two big trips: Year 4 to Chester and Year 5 to London – a super busy week for lots of people next week.

Don’t forget tonight’s quiz – there’s still time to come along later and join a team!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Tuesday 14th October – EYFS Pumpkin Party

Tuesday 14th October – Yr 4 Trip to Chester

Tuesday 14th October – Relationships, Sex & Health Education Parent Information Evening

Thursday 16th October-Yr 5 Trip to London

Yr 4 Roman Day

Mon 13th to 17th October -Lunchathon meals served-pupils take over the school menu!

Tues 4th-7th November – Careers Week

Wed 12th & Thurs 13th November -Parents’ Evenings

Dear parents and carers,

The weeks are flying by and this week has been the best so far!

Huge congratulations to our football teams in action this week! I was lucky enough to spend some time cheering on the boys against Greenfields this week. I was really impressed with the mature performance and excellent teamwork. Greenfields were excellent and I can see the old derby with them coming back this year!

It was a pleasure to celebrate our very own Mrs Morgan and Mrs Butler this week as they celebrate 30 years each of long and brilliant service to our community. Well done!

This week has also seen my office full of children desperate to share their excellent work – I’ve seen maths, geography, science but the best has been the excellent writing I have seen – so much talent on show!

Thank you all for your continued support – have a lovely weekend!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Monday-Harvest Assembly & Donations

Wednesday–Foxes Family Lunch @ 11.30am

Thursday–Badgers Family Lunch @ 11.30am

Friday – Year 5 Greek Day 

Year 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 Author Visit -not too late to order signed books

Community Quiz Night @ 7.30 pm start

In order to keep everyone safe, please see these important reminders about the end of the school day.

It’s important that the site is cleared by 3:30 pm each day so that after school clubs can be safely outside with all gates locked and no one can enter school who shouldn’t be.  In order to do this, we need your help:

• The moment children are handed over by school staff, parents & carers are responsible for their safety.  Staff cannot supervise children when they are in the care of their parents or carers.  Please be aware that during collection and drop off time, the school site is open and not secure, so make sure that young children are kept close by as you would out on the street.
• Please encourage your children to not get equipment out of the boxes, or play on the adventure play equipment after school.  Staff are not able to safely supervise this play and accidents can happen.
• Please try to leave the site as quickly as possible so that the site can be re-secured at 3:30 pm for the safety of the after school clubs.
• For drivers, adults collecting & dropping off children cannot drive through Greyfriars Road when it is closed.  If you are parked up, you must wait until the road is reopened.

We have reminded the children about safety after school, and would ask that you remind your children about staying with you and staying safe.  Please also share these messages with anyone else who collects your children.

Dear Parents & Carers,

Thank you to everyone for your patience with the gates this week!  The work is due to be finished on Tuesday so hopefully we will be back to normal on Wednesday.  So that means there will still be no daily dash nor corner gate use until at least Wednesday.  We’ll let you know if there are any changes.

There’s been so much this week with open classrooms; nutritionists helping Year 1 with healthy snack; yoga; Year 4 fundraising and a visit from John the Sign Guy on Monday, showing us what real community spirit is all about!

It’s also been lovely seeing our pupil jobs working so well.  The Playground Friends, Dining Hall Assistants and the Tidy Up Team have been brilliant this week – well done to everyone involved!

Next week sees October wandering in and there’s even more happening!  Have a look at the diary dates on the website for more info.

Have a lovely weekend!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Tuesday

Hedgehog’s Family Lunch @11.30am

Year 5/6 Author Visit-signed books available

Wednesday

Yr 3 Stoneage Trip

Please make payment of £3.70 prior to the trip.

Squirrel’s Family Lunch @11.30am

Teaching Assistant Recruitment Tour @ 4.30pm

Thursday

Drumming workshop for Year 1, 4 & 6

Friday

EYFS Author Visit-signed books available

Welcome to another Friday!

The weeks are already starting to fly by, and week 3 has been another successful one where we have seen all the children get properly stuck into the term proper.

Thank you to everyone who braved the rain for the September Social last week – lots of money was raised and everyone had a great time!  Huge thanks goes out to all the wonderful children who helped run stalls and set up, and to all the brilliant staff who gave up their time to set up, organise (and tidy up!).  Miss Othen needs a special mention, too, for being the mastermind behind our community events – give her a high 5 when you see her!

The school community is getting into shape now, with new House Captains, School Councillors and Eco-Councillors across the school – well done to all the children who had put themselves forward and congratulations to the duly elected members of the Councils!  They already have some exciting projects to get stuck into.

Have a super weekend everyone!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Dear Parents & Carers,

We’ve had a brilliant week at school and I just wanted to say a big thank you to you all: parents, carers, and of course, the children, for making it such a positive one.

A huge shout-out to our EYFS pupils who’ve completed their first full week – assemblies and all! They’ve taken it all in their stride and brought so much energy and joy to the school. They can all be really proud of how they’ve settled in.

Also, a special thank you to the children in Hedgehogs class. After a big leak meant they had to move out of their classroom, they showed amazing patience and resilience. Not easy, but they handled it like pros and they really enjoyed access to the decking and conservation area.  Soon Year 1 will be having their own outside area with a new canopy being installed in a few weeks time!

We’re also celebrating our catering team, who’ve won a well-earned award this week. They work incredibly hard every day to prepare hundreds of meals and always do it with a smile. We’re lucky to have them!

And finally… we can’t wait to see you all tomorrow at the September Social, which is the hottest ticket in town! It’s going to be a fantastic event, full of fun and community spirit. Whether you’re coming for the games, the music, or just a good catch-up, it’s going to be a great way to end the week.

Thanks again for all your support. The term is properly underway now, and we’re excited for everything that’s still to come.

See you tomorrow!

Tom Larkham
Headteacher

Dear Parents & Carers,

September is always an exciting time: the start of the year welcomes everyone back to routine and friends, and we get to welcome a whole new group of families to our thriving school community.  We also welcome Mrs Bladen to our amazing TA team and Mr Hughes to our teaching team in Year 5.  Welcome, everyone!

I can’t remember a start to a school year so full of energy, excitement and a palpable buzz around the whole school…  This has been a fantastic week and I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the children back at school.  I have spent a lot of the week speaking to children, welcoming them back and finding out about everyone’s holidays – I love a holiday as much as the next person, but nothing beats being back in amongst everyone here at school.

The school is looking great with a lot of hard work over the summer on signage and the playgrounds thanks to the hard work of Miss Othen.  Hopefully you have all had the chance to see the changes around the site.

Even though we have only been at school for 80% of a week, we’re already looking forward to events coming up, including the September Social on Saturday September 13th – please do come along to help kick-start the year with some real community spirit and fun.  Please also look out for the open classrooms on Monday 22nd September where you can meet your new teachers and see the classrooms in a less formal setting than parents’ evening.

Well done on a great first week everyone, and thank you all for you support.

Have a lovely weekend!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Dear Parents & Carers,

As we move into the very final week of the whole school year, there is far too much to reflect on!  The year has been long, with ups & downs and some brilliant highs!

This week we have had the Year 6 SATs results through which have been a delight to share with the children.  The Year 6 children and the staff team have worked incredibly hard this year and they all deserve a huge WELL DONE for not only their efforts, but the brilliant results.  75% of the Year 6 children achieved the ‘expected’ standard in reading, writing & maths compared with 62% across the country.  This is a great achievement, but the effort and attitude from everyone is what really counts and the children can be very proud – everyone, and I mean everyone, achieved.  Full results can be found on our website on the following link: COLEHAM RESULTS PAGE.

There have been trips and competition winners, parties, discos (very hot discos!) and brunches this week that you can read about in this newsletter.

Have a super weekend, stay cool where you can, and we’ll see you back for the final chapter of 2024-25!

Tom Larkham

Headteacer

Dear Parents & Carers,

We’ve had a great week of sport this week – well done to Severn, Greyfriars and Darwin for lifting the cups for the EYFS/KS1, LKS2 and UKS2 Sports Days respectively!  A great competitive a fair spirit from everyone, complete with excellent performances.  There is still more competition to come with the Summer Term House Cup and the big one: the 2024-25 School House Cup for the ultimate winners at the end of the year…  It’s great each of the Houses have lifted the cup at some point this year, which I think is a first!

As well as the sports days, we welcomed our new EYFS children on Wednesday afternoon who all had a lovely time; Year 2 went to see their beaver friends; Miles raised £150 and Year 5 took delivery of a signed book!

There’s only 3 weeks left and still so much to come – next Monday, your children will spend the morning after assembly with their new teacher (except those moving to Lions Class.  They will meet Mr Hughes on Wednesday 9th July).

Have a super weekend everyone!

Tom Larkham

Headteacher

Tuesday 8th July-Dolphins Reabrook Trip

Tuesday 8th July – EYFS Alice Party

Thursday 10th July-Whales Reabrook Trip

Thursday 10th July– KS2 Disco @5:00pm

Thursday 17th July–EYFS Trip to Park Hall Farm