Twelve children from William Leech took part in Northumberland Schools 10 pin bowling competition organised by SMILE Through Sport and Pentathlon. The competition consisted of 16 teams across Northumberland. They got to meet Stephen Miller MBE, British athlete who competes in the fields of paralympic club and discus throwing and who has won three gold, one silver and one bronze medal at the Paralympics. Like Stephen, one team from William Leech finished in first place, winning gold medals to take home. The children developed leadership skills which they will use to lead sporting activities for other children in school in the Spring term.
As the Admissions Authority, NCEA Trust are proposing a change to the school Admissions Policy for 2024-25 and onwards. This is our formal notification of a consultation period from 10th October 2022 until 29th November 2022.
We propose to change the oversubscription criteria in the following way:
Remove criteria 5 “Children who already have a sibling at the school and are living outside the catchment area” and amend criteria 2 “Children who already have a sibling at the school and are living within the catchment area” to simply “children who already have a sibling at the school”.
This change would mean that sibling families are ensured a place at the same school. This is important for attendance, punctuality and transportation to one school destination by the most efficient method.
For any queries or comments please contactconsulation@ncea.org.uk
Reception children at William Leech Primary went to visit Farmer Thompson at Broxfield Farm near Alnwick who showed them the wheat and weeds growing on his farm. He explained that the roots drink the water from rain and the green leaves soak up sunshine. He doesn’t use weed killers, so they helped him by picking some weeds and made a bunch!
Farmer Thompson explained when the wheat is grown up, it gets cut and you can rub the ear at the top to get the grains out. He blew the chaff away and taught the children how to grind the grains into flour. They all had a turn. He explained that flour is used in bread and they pretended to eat a slice of toast, which was naturally delicious!
William Leech Primary welcomed parents into school this week for our Easter Music showcase, featuring performances by children and adults. Children in Years 4, 5 and 6 showcased their talents in toots and flutes as well as ukulele. Some staff even joined in by forming a beginners flute group and a band.
It was a pleasure to have parents back in school for such a celebration of the children’s learning and progress. Special thanks to staff who teach our children music lessons; Miss Butler, Mrs Glanville and Mrs Straughan.
PS, following on from last week’s update, we now have 13 healthy chicks and our butterflies all hatched in time to be released into the sunshine last weekend!
Click on any image below to view in a slideshow
Reception children at William Leech Primary have been very patient indeed as they have waited for just over 20 days to welcome some very special visitors to their class.
Mr Kennedy came to visit the classroom at the beginning of March, bringing eggs and explained that they would hatch in 3 weeks and would be in an incubator in the classroom to stay warm. He also explained to the children what they would need to do to look after the chicks once they hatched. The children started their countdown and were very EGGcited to arrive in school yesterday to find 6 baby chicks! By the following morning they counted 14 chicks in their incubator and are looking forward to taking the lid off so they can care for them over the next two weeks.
This is all part of their Egg Enquiry learning this half-term where they have been thinking about new life, have read a number of different story books linked to eggs and have also learned about life cycles of frogs and caterpillars. The EGGcitement isn’t over yet though, as the class are also eagerly awaiting for butterflies to emerge from their chrysalises in the next week. What an EGGxellent end to term that will be!
We’re delighted to share with you more information about our new school logo!
An investment into state-of-the-art sensory equipment is reaping rewards for children enrolled in the early years provision at a primary school in South East Northumberland.
Having seen the benefit of a sensory ‘safe space’ for its older pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to use during school hours, staff at William Leech C of E Primary School in Lynemouth – part of Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust, set about sourcing capital to create something similar for its youngest learners.
Often referred to as ‘reset rooms’, sensory rooms are used in two different ways; to provide a safe place for children to calm and regulate their behaviour when they become overwhelmed, or as a reward space for children where they can develop their sensory needs.
Part-funded by the school itself, an additional £500 was sourced from Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust’s Endowment Fund to complete the project.
Amy Thompson, Headteacher at William Leech C of E Primary School, commented:
“Children with SEND requirements can easily become dysregulated in classroom environments. Lights, sounds and too much activity can cause what we call ‘sensory overload’ which can result in children exhibiting behaviours which might be harmful to their wellbeing.
“Several children within our two-year old and nursery provisions have sensory needs due to SEND, some of which are quite profound, so we knew that we had to do something to ensure that there was a safe space in school for them to go to should they become distressed, angry or upset. This is beneficial for the child displaying these behaviours and also allows the other children in the setting to continue with their learning.
“The new sensory suite has proved a huge success so far. We have already seen increased engagement with activities within the suite and in the main classroom following time spent in the sensory room. Over time, we hope to see a decrease in the amount of dysregulated behaviours in school altogether.”
The new early years sensory suite at William Leech Primary features blackout blinds and a blackout tent, sensory lighting and projections, weighted lap toys and sensory table top toys, as well as soft play equipment – everything that children need to help them self-regulate and relax.
Wendy Scott, Nursery Teacher at William Leech C of E Primary School, added:
“The new sensory room is brilliant. The children are engaged and fascinated. It gives the children quality time to regulate and develop skills.”
Dear parents/carers,
It has been brought to our attention by a parent from one of our Trust schools that a suspicious looking email, seemingly sent by members of staff within the Trust, has been issued. The emails have a ‘zip file’ attachment and password to use to open it, however, this is not a legitimate email so please do not click on the attachment.
While a thorough investigation is still being carried out by our IT team, we can confirm that this is part of a wider cyber security issue which highly likely originated from outside of NCEAT, but is now having a direct impact on our own communications systems.
We have increased our internal online security as far as possible and are working with providers to ensure that as many of these potentially harmful emails are ‘filtered out’ of our network, however, if you do receive any suspicious looking emails, claiming to be from William Leech Primary, please do not click on any links or attachments and mark the email as ‘spam’.
To help you to identify a potential scam, please see some guidance below:
- The “sent by” address will either be a jumble of random letters and numbers or have an unusual domain (not .com or .co.uk)
- The email will contain links to click to ‘confirm your details’ or ‘make a payment’
- The email may have an attachment which looks strange or unsafe to open
- The email may give you a limited time to reply
- There might be spelling mistakes, bad grammar and sentences which don’t quite make sense
- If the email contains any logos or images, these may appear ‘pixelated’ or blurry
- If requesting money, the amount will usually be quite specific, not rounded up to the nearest pound/pence to try and make it seem legitimate, eg £692.88 instead of £700,00.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We are working as quickly as we can to resolve the issue. If anyone has any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
NCEAT’s primary schools have been recognised in the UK’s top 50 schools for Accelerated Reader usage.
Accelerated Reader is an online platform which supports pupils’ reading skills. When they first start using the platform, pupils complete a STAR reading test which gives them a level based on their reading ability and advises on the books they should be reading. This allows teachers to ensure that pupils are challenged with an appropriate text and develops their reading fluency.
Once they have finished reading their book, they can then complete a comprehension quiz to assess whether they have understood what they have read. This gives teachers valuable information about pupils reading ages and also reading comprehension ability.
Prior to the summer holidays, the primary schools within the Trust had a big push on reading for pleasure, encouraging pupils to read at home with parents and carers. This push has seen pupils carry out over 28,537 Accelerated Reader quizzes online since August – that’s 28,537 books read across Bishop’s, Grace Darling, James Knott, Thomas Bewick and William Leech C of E Primary Schools!
Jack Christophers, Director of Literacy, commented:
“We’re absolutely blown away by what our pupils have achieved through Accelerated Reader. The statistics speak for themselves – our pupils have put in an amazing amount of effort and we’re extremely proud of each and every one of them.”
To find out more about reading in the primary curriculum, visit our reading corner!
Dear Parents/Carers
We would like to invite the parents/carers of all Year 6 learners to an open evening at Dukes. Transition between primary and secondary can be a difficult time and we want to make that transition smooth. Our open evening will you an opportunity to meet the staff and current students and find out more about the exciting curriculum and enrichment opportunities we provide here at Duke’s.
Year 6 Open Evening Thursday 30th September 4.00 – 6.00pm
The event will start at 4.00pm and end at 6.00pm. There will be a welcome talk given by our Principal Mr Atkinson during the evening. There will also be some current Year 7 and 8 learners supporting this event through sharing their experience and answering any questions your child may have.
Information
In the meantime if you would like any further information please visit our school website where we have a dedicated webpage for Year 6 transition. https://dukes.
Contacting school staff
If you need to speak to the staff responsible for your child please call 01670 816111 (ex. 329) or email ashleigh.mitcheson@dukes.ncea.
We look forward to seeing you soon.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs Mitcheson
Head of Year7
