Weekly Blog Friday 7th February 2025
Date: 6th Feb 2025 @ 7:53am
Attendance
Every week in our Celebration Assembly, we celebrate the class who has achieved the highest attendance for that week. This week Mrs Birkinshaw and Mrs Ward's class had the highest attendance with 98.15% - well done Year 1!
Please see below for the attendance figures for this week. The target attendance for all children is currently set at 97%.
Nursery - 93.75%
Reception - 97.85%
Year 1 Mrs Birkinshaw & Mrs Ward - 98.15%
Year 2 Mrs Davies - 95.30%
Year 3 Mrs Parkes & Mrs Ronan - 97.85%
Year 4 Mrs Wood & Mrs Walker - 98.04%
Year 5 Mrs Pickersgill - 96.46%
Year 6 Miss Dunn - 97.39%
Celebrating fantastic attendance!
Each week, each class with 100% attendance on a particular day will receive one letter from the word MAYFLOWER to put on their classroom door. Once a class has spelt out the word MAYFLOWER, a member of the class will bring all their letters down to the office to claim their prize from our box of Awesome Attendance Activities!
Please see below where each class stands at the end of today:
Nursery - M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A
Reception - M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L
Year 1 - M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R
Year 2 - M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L
Year 3 - M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M
Year 4 - M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L
Year 5 - M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L
Year 6 - M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R M A Y F L O W E R
This week, Year 3 earned their third reward and chose bingo and hot chocolate which they will be enjoying next week. Year 1 earned their fifth reward - wow! - and had their reward today. Nursery enjoyed playing with the parachute earlier this week to celebrate their recent reward. Finally, Year 6 earned their fourth reward today and will be choosing their activity next week. Well done everyone!
Stars of the week
Each week in our Friday Celebration Assembly, we celebrate our stars of the week. Each class teacher chooses 2 children from their class each week who have really impressed them. Here are the children who have been chosen this week.
Nursery & Reception
Ada is Nursery's star of the week this week. Ada has been doing some fantastic learning. She has thought of lots of kind words to go in our kindness garden. In addition to this she has done some lovely writing with Miss Limb, listening to the sounds that she can hear and matching them to the letters. Ada always does fantastic listening and sets a fantastic example for the other children.
In Reception this week, we have chosen two superstars.
Sylvi - This week Sylvi has tried her best to make the right choices, sharing, taking turns and being considerate to other children in the class. Sylvi has been a super star looking at different emotions and explaining how they can make you feel during class discussion for children's mental health week. She has also worked collaboratively with her friends to create a piece of art work "a kindness garden" We are super proud of you, well done 🙂
Sinead - you have been enthusiastic in phonics this week, taking part and trying hard to recognise your set 1 sounds. Sinead has been proud of herself during phonics lessons and wanted to share with her teachers what she has been learning. Sinead has been a fantastic friend including other children in her activities. Well done 🙂
Year 1
Luke - This week is Children's Mental Health Week which we have been thinking about in school. Luke has shown a great understanding of how to make himself and others happy and we have seen great examples of him acting on this in school. He is kind to the other children, patient, and loves to make others smile!
Evie - Evie is a little ray of sunshine! Her smile is infectious and makes all of us happy. She has shown kindness to all the other children. She shares well, tells stories and asks others questions to show them she is interested. If anyone is sad, Evie is straight over to them to cheer them up. We love having Evie in class!
Year 2
This week we have been thinking about our mental health. In Year 2, we believe that we are ok to feel however we are feeling. We all know what to do when we are feeling alright and what to do when we are feeling angry, so we focused our time on thinking about what to do when we are starting to wobble and are feeling a little anxious. As a class, we redesigned our classroom to make it a feeling friendly classroom. All of the children contributed ideas but two children in particular were able to suggest lots of things, not only to help themselves but to support everyone's good mental health. Thank you for your contributions, Seren and Henry!
Year 3
Laroti - Laroti has shown high levels of self-awareness this week. When writing a poem about emotions, he was able to share lots of examples about how your body feels when experiencing happiness, anger and worry. I was very impressed with his ability to create effective similes. Laroti consistently shows respect and tolerance towards his peers and all adults in school.
Florence - Florence has been a shining star this week. Her ability to support others shows her growing confidence but also shows her empathetic nature. Florence is an amazing partner and takes her time to help others to achieve their goals. I am really impressed with how hard Florence is working and this is enabling her to make good progress.
Year 4
Ellie-May - Ellie-May has shown how respectful she is of others every day in class. She has used excellent manners when asking permission to do something and has listened carefully to adults. She has worked well with other children and has tried her best!
Belle - Belle has demonstrated her excellent understanding of the needs of others with her contribution to pupil voice. It is clear that she respects and understands that everyone has different needs and she has thought carefully about what these might be. Belle is always respectful in the way she speaks to children and adults.
Year 5
This week has been Children's Mental Health Week. The theme for 2025 was Know Yourself, Grow Yourself, with the aim to equip and empower children and young people to embrace self-awareness and explore what it means to them.
With this in mind, Year 5's stars of the week are two children who have shown good self-awareness; they have been able to identify how their body feels and reacts when feeling big emotions, but more importantly how they can help themselves to control them. Well done Frankie and Hermione.
Year 6
This week in school, we have been focusing on Children's Mental Health Week and the children in Year 6 have shown fantastic awareness of themselves and the things that impact negatively and positively on their mental health. They have also written some amazing poems using this theme as a stimulus. The Year 6 Stars of the Week have been chosen with this in mind.
Wynter - Wynter contributed well to our discussions this week and showed good awareness of the things that could impact on mental health and well-being. She wrote an amazing poem, inspired by The River by Valerie Bloom, about the things that can impact on well-being and shared some insightful messages and recommendations with others. Your poem really moved and inspired me, Wynter.
Freddie - Freddie has contributed well to our discussions this week and I have seen him really grow in confidence when speaking in front of the class. He wrote an amazing poem, inspired by The River by Valerie Bloom, about the things that can impact on well-being, really highlighting the progress that he has made in this area of the curriculum. You have worked so hard to improve Freddie and your writing this week really impressed me.
Headteacher Award
Each week in our Celebration Assembly, Mrs Powell chooses someone who has really impressed her during the week and presents them with her Headteacher Award trophy.
During Children’s Mental Health Week, the focus has been know yourself, grow yourself and this young man is certainly an advocate of quietly knowing his strengths and giving 100% commitment to the Mayflower Way. He is quietly confident, and he helps others in his class and friendship group to feel the same. Well done Mason, this does not go unnoticed!
Makaton Sign Of The Week
The children are continuing to learn Makaton's 'Sign of the week' each week. Each Monday, the children learn the new sign for that week. We thought it would be useful to share the following week's sign with parents/carers on our Friday blog so you can get involved too if you wish. Please click on the link below to see the sign for the coming week.
https://makaton.org/TMC/News_Stories/SOTW/SOTW_Pizza.aspx
Safer Internet Day Tuesday 11th February
What is Safer Internet Day?
Safer Internet Day is the UK’s biggest celebration of online safety. Each year Safer Internet Day covers online issues or themes that speak about the things young people are seeing and experiencing online. The day is co-ordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre in partnership with Childnet.
The 2025 Safer Internet Day theme is: ‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online.'
During the day our children will explore this theme by accessing age appropriate lessons and activities. We will be using the following websites;
Our Foundation stage children will be exploring and learning about keeping themselves safe online.
Please feel free to take a look at some of the key points we will be discussing with your children in order to keep themselves safe when using the internet or being online.
Many thanks,
Mrs Ronan and the Digital Leaders
World Book Day
This year, World Book Day is on Thursday 6th March. To celebrate, we are planning a week of book-related activities for the children to enjoy.
On Monday 3rd March, we will be joined by the author Phil Sheppard.
On Tuesday 4th March, we will be holding the final of our school Danum Read Aloud competition. Our Key Stage 2 children have been invited to take part and those that are chosen will select their favourite from a selection of extracts available. They will then perform to Key Stage 2 and the winners will go through to the school final on Tuesday 4th March. The overall winner will then go through to the Doncaster final at Danum Museum and Art Gallery on 27th March.
On Wednesday 5th March, Boggledybook Children's Bookshop will be in school during the school day.
For our World Book Day celebrations on Friday 7th March, we would like the children to dress up as their favourite Roald Dahl character. There is no expectation for parents/carers to spend a significant amount of money on a costume for their child - please try and utilise what you have at home wherever possible.
Also on Friday 7th March, to round off our week of everything book-related, we would like to invite our families in for 'Breakfast with a book'. Parents and carers are invited in to school to share a special reading session with their children. Whether it's enjoying a book together, listening to your child read, or reading to them, immerse yourself in the joy of literacy while savouring a delightful breakfast. It's a wonderful opportunity to strengthen the bond through the magic of storytelling. Further details will follow regarding this.
Prostrike Fundraising Event
Our Prostrike fundraising event this week was a fantastic event. All the children had lots of fun and there were lots of high scores! Thank you to everyone who managed to get sponsorship. If you haven't yet paid your sponsorship money online, the deadline to do so is this Sunday 9th February at 11.59pm. The QR code to enable you to make your donations is provided below.
We will shortly be receiving details of how much each child has raised and what prizes they are due to receive. The prizes will then be delivered to school and will be taken to class for the children to bring home.
The more money the children raise, the more prizes they win. School will also receive 50% of the total sponsorship money raised.
We are just going through all our photos of the event and will share a selection of these on next week's blog.
Sporting Superstars!
Last week, some of our Year 5 and Year 6 children took part in an inter-schools sports competition at Laurel Academy in Mexborough. There were six schools taking part in the event. The activities included a sprint race, hurdles, relay, speed bounce, bean bag throw and long jump and bench throw.
Harry and Amelie shared their thoughts on the event with us.
Harry – I did long jump and a sprint race. I won my sprint race. My favourite part was hanging out with my friends. It was nice to do something different.
Amelie – I did a sprint race and a relay and obstacle relay. My favourite part was having fun.
Both Harry and Amelie said that they would really like to take part in other sports events in the future.
Congratulations!
Annie from Year 3 had a very exciting weekend last weekend! She travelled to London to perform with the rest of her teammates from her drama group at His Majesty's Theatre in London's West End. Annie wanted to share her experience with us.
We got to the theatre in the morning, went in for a rehearsal and then we chilled and played games. The show started at 6pm. All 3 academies took part in the show and did dancing, singing and acting. I like doing all of these. We have been practising for a long time. In my academy I think there are 100 people. I am in green group because that's the youngest group.
My favourite part of the whole day was doing the show at night. It was my first show. For our next show we will be doing Shrek at CAST Doncaster.
What an amazing achievement Annie, that your first ever show was in London's West End! Well done and thank you for sharing this with us.
Mae in Year 4 won her first two gold medals last weekend at her fourth ever dance competition! Wow Mae - what amazing news! We know how much you love your dancing so all that hard work has definitely paid off. Well done!
Bawtry Arts Festival 2025
Bawtry Arts Festival for this year will take place from 16th to 22nd June. In preparation, the Festival committee are looking for some feedback on previous events so that they can use this feedback to plan for the upcoming and future events. They have asked us to share the following with our parents/carers. If you do have any feedback, we will provide an email address as soon as possible to enable you to contact the committee directly.
This year will be the fourth Bawtry Festival taking place from Monday 16th to Sunday 22nd June. We are continuing to improve & develop the event to cater for ALL age groups by engaging with the local community as much as possible. We would be very interested in finding out your views as parents of children at the Mayflower School. Possibly also as parents of children at Senior Schools as well. If you could let us know your thoughts on the questions below it would be much appreciated.
- Do you believe that the festival is good for the town, and what general improvements would you like to see?
- Are there any particular type of ‘arts’ related activities/ events that you would like to see at this year’s festival either for yourselves or for the children to take part in?
- For outdoor activities on the main (Sunday) day of the festival we have a budget to purchase some large toys/games for children and young people. Any suggestions as to what would create interest?
Some members of the committee will also be joining us after school on Wednesday 26th February so that they can be available for parents/carers to speak to them and share any ideas/feedback with them in person.
Support for parents
Half Term Activities
Lunch Menu for week commencing 10th February 2025
Please see the menu below for next week. There may need to be last minute changes to the menus on occasion, to take into account availability of items or delivery issues.
Diary Dates
Please see below our current diary dates. It may be that there are dates on here that involve your child that you haven't had any information for yet. Please don't worry, information will come out in plenty of time prior to the date concerned. Dates that have been added since the last blog are shown in bold.
Sunday 9th February 2025 - 11.59pm deadline for Prostrike sponsor money to be paid online
Wednesday 12th February 2025 - PTA Discos - Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 3.10pm to 3.50pm (Nursery and Reception parents/carers to stay with their child), Years 3 to 6 4pm to 4.45pm. Entry £1 - there will also be a tuck shop at this event. Further details to follow. This is a change of date - was previously Thursday 13th February 2025.
Thursday 13th February 2025 – Young Voices concert at Sheffield Utilita Arena
Friday 14th February 2025 – last day in school before February half term
Monday 17th February 2025 to Friday 21st February 2025 – February half term
Monday 24th February 2025 – first day back at school after February half term
Wednesday 26th February 2025 - members of Bawtry Arts Festival joining us after school to be available to speak to parents/carers about ideas/feedback for the festival
Thursday 27th February 2025 - PTA Bag2School Clothing Collection - further details to follow
Thursday 6th March 2025 - Year 4 visit to Magna Science Adventure Centre
Monday 10th March 2025 - meeting for Year 5 residential - further details to follow
Tuesday 18th March 2025 – Year 2 visit to Austerfield Study Centre
Wednesday 19th March 2025 - Rocksteady Concert 10am - for those children taking part in the Rocksteady music sessions
Wednesday 26th March 2025 - Nursery & Reception Easter craft workshop 9am to 10am
Thursday 27th March 2025 - PTA Gifts for a loved one shop. Gifts from 50p to £3
Friday 28th March 2025 – last day in school before Easter holidays
Monday 31st March 2025 to Friday 11th April 2025 – Easter holidays
Monday 14th April 2025 – first day back at school after Easter holidays
Tuesday 15th April 2025 - Easter Service at St Nicholas Church. Setting off once the children are registered that morning. If parents/carers would like to walk to and from the church with us, please let your child's teacher know and come to the school office on the morning of Tuesday 15th April once your child has been taken to class.
Wednesday 16th April 2025 - PTA Easter Egg Hunt
Wednesday 16th April 2025 – Year 6 visit to Crucial Crew. Year 6 will do their Easter Egg Hunt on a different day this week.
Thursday 17th April 2025 - Nursery maths workshop 9am
Friday 18th April 2025 – Good Friday – school closed
Monday 21st April 2025 – Easter Monday – school closed
Wednesday 23rd April 2025 to Friday 25th April 2025 - Year 5 residential to PGL Caythorpe Court
Monday 5th May 2025 – Bank Holiday – school closed
Thursday 8th May 2025 to Friday 9th May 2025 - Year 3 residential to Austerfield Study Centre
Thursday 15th May 2025 – Y4 parents meeting for Hollowford residential in Year 4 classroom 3.10pm
Wednesday 21st May 2025 - Nursery phonics workshop 9am
Thursday 22nd May 2025 - class photos
Friday 23rd May 2025 – last day in school before May half term
Monday 26th May 2025 to Friday 30th May 2025 – May half term
Monday 2nd June 2025 – Training Day – school closed to pupils
Tuesday 3rd June 2025 – Training Day – school closed to pupils
Wednesday 4th June 2025 – first day back in school after May half term
Thursday 5th June 2025 - PTA Discos - Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 3.10pm to 3.50pm (Nursery and Reception parents/carers to stay with their child), Years 3 to 6 4pm to 4.45pm. Entry £1 - there will also be a tuck shop at this event. Change of date - was originally 26th June 2025. Portakabin on top playground open for refreshments if parents/carers have children in both discos.
Friday 6th June 2025 - PTA Bag2School Clothing Collection - further details to follow
Thursday 12th June 2025 - PTA Gifts for a loved one shop. Gifts from 50p to £3
Monday 16th June 2025 to Sunday 22nd June 2025 - Bawtry Arts Festival
Monday 16th June 2025 - Big Talk in school - further details to follow
Wednesday 18th June 2025 – Sports Day – Foundation AM, rest of school PM – timings to follow
Thursday 19th June 2025 - PTA Summer Fair
Wednesday 25th June 2025 to Friday 27th June 2025 – Year 4 Hollowford Residential
Tuesday 1st July 2025 – Year 2 visit to Cleethorpes
Wednesday 2nd July 2025 - Nursery & Reception sewing morning 9am to 10am
Wednesday 2nd July 2025 - Music Hub (guitars, woodwind and brass) Concert 9am - for those children taking part in guitar/woodwind/brass lessons in school. Change of date - was previously 9th July
Wednesday 2nd July 2025 - Rocksteady Concert 10am - for those children taking part in the Rocksteady music sessions. Change of date - was previous 9th July
Wednesday 9th July 2025 to Thursday 10th July 2025 - Year 6 residential to London
Thursday 17th July 2025 - PTA Colour Run. Change of date - was previously 10th July
Friday 18th July 2025 – last day at school before Summer Holidays
2025-2026 School Year
Wednesday 1st October 2025 - individual/sibling photos
