Friday 6^th February 2026

Dear Parents and Carers,

Next week our school will be focusing on National Children’s Mental Health Week, organised by Place2Be. This year’s theme is “A Place to Belong.”

A sense of belonging plays a vital role in children’s mental health and wellbeing. Feeling welcome, valued and accepted – whether in school, with friends, or within the wider community – is a basic human need.  When children feel that they truly belong, it supports their confidence, learning, relationships and overall physical and mental wellbeing.

During the week, we will be exploring what belonging means to our children and young people, including:

• Feeling that you have a place where you are welcome and valued.
• Feeling included, not left out.
• Feeling connected to others, such as family, friends or groups.
• Feeling accepted for who you are.
• Feeling safe, secure and able to be yourself.

Through age-appropriate activities and discussions, we will encourage children to recognise that school is a place where they belong and where they can say, “This is my place.” Miss Howarth, as our ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) will be running a special lunchtime club called the Zen Club for KS1 and KS2.  In this club children will find peace and calmness where they can develop new friendships, learn strategies for dealing with situations and play some games.

Please remember that there is an Inset Day next Friday 13 January so children will not be in school.

Mobile phones – important reminder

Recent news coverage has highlighted concerns around children and mobile phone use.  We would like to remind parents of our school policy.  Only our Year 6 children who walk to and from school independently may bring a mobile phone for safety purposes.  These phones must not be used on the school site and should be handed to the class teacher on arrival, to be collected at the end of the day.

A small plea for support

To help us continue to create inclusive and nurturing learning environments – particularly in our younger classes – we would be very grateful for any donations of construction toys, figures and small world play resources that your children may no longer use.

We would also welcome hearing from anyone who may have access to large wooden cable reels, which could be used to enhance our outdoor play areas.

World Book Day – costume swap

As we look ahead to World Book Day in March, we will be holding a World Book Day costume swap.  We will begin collecting costumes from next week, and further details will follow.  This is a great way to reuse costumes and support sustainability.  As always, the focus is on ‘characters’ and the fun and enjoyment we gain from books, please do not go to additional expense.

Parent consultation meetings

Please ensure you have booked your parent consultation meeting for next week.  Appointments can be booked via the Arbor app. If you experience any difficulties, please speak to a member of our office team who will be happy to help. As always, staff are keen to speak to you all, but we politely ask that you help us keep to time for the sake of all other parents/carers.

Safer Internet Day

We will also be recognising Safer Internet Day, which focuses on helping children stay safe online. This year’s theme is “Smart tech, safe choices – exploring the safe and responsible use of AI.” Children will be learning about how digital tools, including AI, can be used positively and responsibly, as well as how to stay safe online.

We will share guidance and resources to support these discussions at home, helping families to continue important conversations around online safety.

Afterschool Club Activities

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Reading	Reading	Reading	Reading
Paper plate crafts	Princess and Pirate Crafts	Connect	Hula Hoop Games	No School Inset Day
Dodgeball	Musical Games	Lego Creations	Valentine Crafts

Please remember pre-booking is essential to enable the school to plan for adult/child ratios.  If you phone on the day, we may be unable to offer you a place as ratios need to be arranged in advance.

Eco Committee

The Eco-Committee is a group of pupils and staff working together to make our school more environmentally friendly and to encourage wildlife and sustainability within our school grounds. As part of our projects, we are hoping to build animal habitats and bird feeders, plant flowers for pollinators, and improve how we collect and use rainwater. We were wondering if you might be willing to support us by donating any spare or unwanted items that could help us with this work.

 Examples of items we are looking for include:

Off-cuts of wood, nails, screws or other suitable materials

• Seeds, bulbs or wildflowers
• Items to help build bird feeders or animal habitats
• A water butt or rainwater collection equipment
• Any other environmentally friendly materials you think could be useful

Any donation, big or small, would be greatly appreciated and would make a real difference to our projects. Your support would help us teach pupils about sustainability, caring for wildlife, and looking after our local environment.

News from the Classes

Reception

This week, Class Reception have continued their work on The Gingerbread Man.  The children have been thinking creatively about how they could change the animals in the story to invent their own versions.  They have enjoyed sharing their ideas and using their imaginations to put a new twist on a familiar tale. In RE, the class have been learning about why a church is a special place for Christians.  On Tuesday, Rev Dave invited the children to visit the church so they could look closely at the features they have been learning about in class. 

Class One

This week, Class 1 have been working on their collage skills in Art.  Over this half term, they have been looking closely at minibeasts, sketching out key features and using chalk pastels to add bright colours.  They spent time practising continuous line drawings, taking their time to carefully draw the details.  Using their knowledge of minibeasts, they used bright coloured paper with different textures to collage their own minibeast.  They made them very bright and colourful, straying away from the usual colours of the minibeasts.

Class Two

In Class 2 we have been looking at money, the value of coins and notes and different ways to make amounts in our maths lessons.  We also celebrated number day in Class 2 by playing bingo, problem solving and looking at addition and subtraction number problems as well as playing some mathematical games.  In our English lessons, we’ve have been writing our mining sound poems based on the poem ‘The Sound Collector’. They are all amazing poems so far.  In Science, we have continued to look at our topic of plants, we have looked at the life cycle of a plant and drawn some pictures of plants as well.  On Wednesday, in Class 2 we were able to go on our school trip to ‘The National Coal Mining Museum’, we had such a great time, listening to our tour guides, meeting the pit ponies, looking at the technology gallery and going down into the time tunnel where we got to see what it was like down the mine.  We’ve have had such agreat learning week in Class 2!

  

  

Class Three

Class 3 have had a busy and productive week across the curriculum.  In maths, the children have been learning about measurement and have been using rulers to measure length in metres, centimetres and millimetres, showing great care and accuracy.  In English, they have been planning their independent writing based on the story of Romulus and Remus, thinking carefully about characters, setting and events. In science, the children enjoyed investigating what is found in soil, using microscopes to observe and identify different materials. In history, they have been researching the invasion of Emperor Claudius, learning about why the Romans invaded Britain and what this meant at the time.

Class Four

This week, Class 4 were lucky enough to take part in an a cappella workshop with Voces8, at Worksop College.  It was a wonderful day in which the children learned about the history of the school and discovered how close it came to being used as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films!  Throughout the day, the pupils learned a number of songs focused on using their voices as instruments, explored new musical vocabulary, and enjoyed adding actions to help remember the words.  The children even sang a song in Spanish!   The highlight for many was performing in the chapel, where it was a joy to sing in front of an audience that included lots of proud parents!

Class Five

It has been lovely to be back in school with Class 5 again. This week in RE, we have continued learning about inspirational people and found it really interesting to learn about Martin Luther King and his achievements.  We found his ‘I have a dream’ speech really moving.  History has focused on all of the gory bits of life in Ancient Egypt!  We have been learning about the process of mummification and written a set of instructions in English.  Our Dodgeball skills have shown even greater improvements and we have implemented tactics such as ‘The Kamikazee’ and ‘Number Attack’ successfully.  We have been working really hard to understand and work out fractions of amounts in maths as well. What an amazing week!

Class Six

This week in Class 6, they have been busy completing practice SATs papers, and I’m so proud of how hard everyone’s pushing themselves to do their best.  Keep up the great work!  We’re also diving into some exciting projects, like building our own non-chronological reports based on fictional creatures.  I can’t wait to see your creativity shine! In science, we’re exploring the fascinating world of evolution and researching Charles Darwin.  It’s a fantastic opportunity to learn about how life changes over time.

Congratulations to our Stars of the Week this week

Class Reception – Cruz and Hattie

Class One – Kamsi and Szymon

Class Two – Julien and Amilia

Class Three – Lucas and Dominic

Class Four – Sophie and Marcel

Class Five – Flynn and Brieaa

Class Six – Ethan

Lunchtime Stars: Ella (R) and Jacob (6)

Tidy Classroom Award: Class 5

Out of School Achievements:

Teddy (3) Moved into the next swimming class and going from widths to lengths.

Winnie (1) Tap Dancing Trophies

Nottinghamshire County Swimming Championships

Georgiana (5) 8^th 50m and PB Fly, 100m Fly PB, 200m Back PB

Harriet R (5) Retford Gymnastics Club Star of the Week.  6x Nottinghamshire County Swimming Championships qualifying times and heats.

Harri (5) 3^rd in heats 50m back and 100m back and PB’s. Moved up a level in Nova Swimming Club

Gymnastics

Explore Apparatus – Milo (1)

Explore Core Skills – KiKi and Freddie (1)

Church Services

StA@10am, St Anne’s Together with Holy Communion and Sunday School led by Rev Dave, Readings: Living in Hope, Living Now.  Romans 8:18-25 & Matthew 6:25-34

6.30pm - StA@6pm, led by Rev Edith

2025-2026 Attendance

 

Class	Attendance
R	89.66%
1	97.67%
2	98.81%
3	98.21%
4	90.91%
5	96.10%
6	96.64%
ALL: 96.79%

Regular attendance and good punctuality are vital for children to achieve their best.  The doors open for KS2 children slightly earlier to enable families with younger children to walk around to KS1.  The official start of the day is 8:50 am.  If your child arrives after this time, please bring them through the main entrance so that all other external doors are closed promptly and we can secure the site.

Prayers from – Alice and Kyla (6)

Dear Father in Heaven

Help us to help and support our peers, also help us to embrace ourselves.

Amen

Dear God

Help us to stay strong, positive and resilient, even when things are tough.

Amen

With my very best wishes for the weekend,

Mrs Middleton & the St Anne’s Team

Diary Dates

Key Dates to Remember in the School Year
Inset Days			Key Statutory Weeks (Assessment)
Friday 13th February Monday 27th July			Year 6 SATS Week – Monday 11 May to Thursday 14 May 2026 Year 1 Phonics Screening – Monday 8 June 2026 (2 weeks) Year 4 Multiplication Check – Monday 1 June 2026 (2 weeks)
Please ensure your children are in school during these times as their data will count even when absent.
Looking Ahead
February	9-13	Children’s Mental Health Week
	9	Forest School Young Voices Choir (t-shirts that have been ordered are in school)
	10	Safer Internet Day Parents Evening (3:20 – 6:30 pm)
	11	Ash Wednesday Service 9:00 am – Key Stage One                                          2:45 pm – Key Stage Two Parents Evening (3:20 – 5:30 pm)
	13	INSET DAY – No children in school
	16-20	HALF TERM HOLIDAY
	23	Admissions Governors Meeting
	27	Swimming Gala (invited children only)
March	2	BPBP Drop-in Sessions at 9:00 am
	3	Y3 Swimming starts every Tuesday from today Y1 Phonics Screening Workshop – 2:45 pm in the hall
	4	World Book Day Y3/4 Rugby Festival (invited children only)
	5	Y3 Bestwood Romans Trip - Arbor Y2 Class Assembly – 2:45 pm
	6	Non-Uniform Day – pay £1 on Arbor (available nearer the time) Y3 Bikeability (more info to follow nearer the time)
	9-13	Science Week
	9	Bassetlaw Flag Raising Ceremony
	11	Mother’s Day Secret Sale 3:20 pm
	12	Y5 Assembly 2:45 pm Y1 & 2 Library Visit
	16	Y6 Parents SATS Meeting 3:30 pm
	19	Y3 Assembly 3:45 pm
	30-12	Easter Holidays
	25	Full Governing Body Meeting
	26	DAaRT Graduation 2:30 pm