Brierley Primary School.

Mirion Street.

Crewe.

Cheshire.

CW1 2AZ

Tel: 01270 685527

Email: admin@brierley.cheshire.sch.uk

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Newsletter Update

2018 – 19 1st March 2019

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to short but packed half-term! We hope the break was restful. We have

lots of dates for your diary coming up!

Thank you to all of the egg-celent parents and carers for donating Easter eggs today.

These will all be used as prizes at our Easter Bingo on Thursday 4th April. If you know anyone

who might be able to donate prizes such as vouchers, gifts etc, please let Miss Mac (Year

5) know. Remember all proceeds will be going towards our next whole school trip. We

hope you can join us!

Next week, we will be welcoming back Mrs Bridgett for visits! She will be returning from her

maternity leave after Easter and we look forward to having her back.

We are delighted to announce that Mrs Walker has had a

BABY GIRL! Connie May Walker was born on Monday

afternoon. Both mum and baby are doing well. I am sure

that you will join me in wishing them both well.

Reminders and Announcements:

• Monday 4th March is the last day for Year 5 parents to pay for the Colomendy deposit. If

you would like your child to attend, please make sure this is completed.

• Thursday 7th March is World Book Day! Children may dress as their favourite character.

Please make sure your book characters are dressed warmly.

• Friday 15th March is Red Nose Day! The children may wear something red for a £1

donation.

• Friday 22nd March is an INSET DAY. The school will be closed.

• Thursday 4th April, early notice for the Brierley Easter Bingo! We have fantastic prizes up

for grabs!

Stars of the Week

Year 1: Ellis Shone for fantastic independent writing about a dinosaur using finger spaces .

Year 2: Natan Czuczalow for his amazing dinosaur report and for having a mature attitude towards his work.

Year 3: Phoebe Plant for always working hard and putting 100% effort into

everything she does.

Year 4: Taylor Mellor for making a fantastic start to Brierley.

Year 5: Bartosz Babula for excellent contributions in class.

Year 6: Alexis Edwards for working really hard in maths and impressing us with her fractions knowledge.

Well done, keep up the good work!

If your child is going to be absent from school, please notify the school office before

9:15am by calling 01270 685527 or sending an email to admin@brierley.cheshire.sch.uk

ATTENDANCE

Please can all parents be aware that Brierley does not authorise holidays during term-

time, and parents/carers are liable to face a fine given by the Local Authority. This also

extends to your child’s attendance – if they have 10 or more unauthorised absences,

parents/carers are liable to face a fine given by the Local Authority. Please see the table

below which provides further information.

If your child is due to take a leave of absence, please write a letter to the Head teacher

(ideally three weeks in advance) indicating the reasons why. In exceptional

circumstances, absence may be authorised.

Timeline One Child Two Children

Paid Within 21 Days

£60 per parent

£60 per child = £120 per parent

After 21 days and before 28 days

£120 per parent

£120 per child = £240 per parent

After 28 days

You will be summoned to appear before the Magistrates’ Court on the grounds that you have failed to secure your child’s regular attendance.

You will be summoned to appear before the Magistrates’ Court on the grounds that you have failed to secure your child’s regular attendance.

PUNCTUALITY

We would like to remind parents of the importance of being in school on time as there

have been numerous incidents of some families routinely arriving at school at late and/or

collecting their children late.

We are currently in the process of sending letters to families who exhibit persistent lateness.

These letters are also shared with our Local Authority Education Welfare Officer.

School starts at 8.45 a.m. every day. Children need to be in their class line at 8.40 a.m. so

that they can start their lessons promptly. Register/snack/lunches are completed within

the class line so that teaching may begin promptly as soon as your child goes into class.

We are required to monitor children’s punctuality and attendance. On-going lateness

(after the class register has been taken) is classified as an unauthorised absence and this is

contrary to The Education Act.

High levels of unauthorised absences or poor punctuality can result in a referral to the

Educational Welfare Service or other agencies, which have a duty to investigate

further and could result in legal action being taken against you.

LITTLE BEARS NEWS

What a week we had! We really enjoyed making our bear

sandwiches using our cutting skills and it was so yummy too! We were introduced to our new book ‘We are going on a bear hunt’

which we loved reading and retelling the story with actions. We

explored and used our repeated rephrase to retell the story in our

new small world bear hunt tuff tray. The letters that we learnt this

week were ‘v’ and ‘w’, we made marks with these letters in many

different ways and found them around our environment.

In maths, we investigated many ways of categorising our bears e.g.

colour or size. We worked on our counting skills selecting the correct

numeral to quantity and practising our number

formation.

We continued to enjoy the story ‘We’re going on a bear

hunt’. We made our very own story map and retold the story

through the pictures on the map. We also enjoyed reading

bear stories in our reading den with torches and funny glasses!

We have also explored the bear hunt tuff tray independently,

feeling the different textures and using the puppets to retell

the story.

We are now vets in our role play this week! We have been

discussing what the role of a vet is and roleplaying being a

vet including looking after the animals. We have been looking

at our new letters ‘x’ and ‘z’ by focusing on the sounds, the

letter names and the letter formation.

We have worked very hard on reciting numbers to 10 through

singing our songs. We have also really enjoyed matching numbers using the cars and finding the paw prints through our

small world forest.

We loved seeing everyone after the half term holidays. The children have

had a busy week learning all about our new story ‘Goldilocks and the three

bears’. We loved reading and retelling it to our friends! We have also tried

different porridges and discussed why they are similar and why they are

different. Some liked this more than others and wanted to finish the whole

bowl! The children have enjoyed exploring our outside area, going in the

mud kitchen and constructing little bears chair.

In maths, we have been looking at size ordering our bears into groups of

‘big, medium and small’. The children have enjoyed independently talking about big medium and small with the chairs, bowls and beds. We have

also been exploring in our porridge shop discussing money, we have

matched the correct money quantity with the coin and discussed their

value.

EYFS NEWS

Before the half term, we had been learning about different farm

animals and the children have enjoyed lots of activities including

learning how to milk a cow!

In Literacy we read ‘The Big Red Barn’ and worked out which

animals are in the barn from the rhymes. The children have

worked hard to write their own rhyming part of the story as well

as continuing rhyming stings and playing games to find rhyming

pairs.

The children have continued their maths learning about shapes.

We are becoming more confident speaking about shapes and

describing their properties. We have used 2D and 3D shapes to

create repeating patterns as well as making farm animal pictures

with the different shapes.!

We had lots of fun in PE using the climbing equipment. The

children focused on jumping from a height and landing on two

feet. We also practised pencil jumps and star jumps from height

and the children really impressed Mr Foulkes.

A new half term brought with it a new topic of Traditional Tales.

Reception have been learning the story of Little Red Riding

Hood. We thought of actions as a class to help us retell the story

before creating our own story maps. Through role play and small

world play, we have been able to take on the role of the

different characters using props and puppets to help

them...there have been many scary wolves and brave

woodcutters!

In maths, we have been looking at sequencing days of the

week and events. Children have enjoyed sequencing their daily

routine and talking about what we do in the morning, afternoon

or evening.

In the afternoons, children had to help Little Red Riding Hood

with a problem; how could she get to grandma's house before

the wolf? Some children tried to distract the wolf with a pig or

placed logs in the way to slow him down whereas others placed

Little Red in a car or on a skateboard! We have also been been

exploring different textures and materials that would be suitable

for our class wolf. Everyone decided soft materials were best for

his fur but hard, smooth materials best for his claws and teeth.

PHASE 2 NEWS

The children came back refreshed and settled well back into school

routines. We have been absolutely wow-ed by their homework. They

are positively scrumptious! Thank you to all of the parents and carers who have helped.

In English, we continued working hard on writing our very own non-

Chronological reports about a dinosaur of our choice. Year 1 focused

on the stegosaurus and were able to describe lots of features and facts

about the dinosaur. In Year 2, they were challenged to research 3

different dinosaurs and write a report that describes and compares

them.

In Maths we have been finishing our work on measurement. Year 1 have

enjoyed our practical work on measuring time through different timed challenges whilst Year 2 have been reading scales and working on

estimation. The children have shown confidence in measuring length,

weight, capacity, time (Year 1) and temperature (Year 2).

In curriculum the children have been really engaged in our unit on

Judaism. We have learnt about Jewish family life and compared that

to our own family. The children have learnt about the features of a

Synagogue and we looked at the Holy book for Judaism. Next week we

will be learning some special Jewish celebrations and stories.

In PE we have been working on our throwing and catching skills. They have taking part in challenges to see how high they can throw and

how long they can keep the ball in the air.

In maths, we were very busy doing lots of different measuring activities.

We investigated and compared capacity, length, height and weight.

Year 1 did this very practically whilst Year 2 applied this to reasoning

problems and reading scales. We began to look at division by sharing

and grouping. The children have been practically sharing using

counters and then moved onto written sharing methods.

The children continued writing their own versions of Harry and the

Bucketful of Dinosaurs. We enjoyed getting into the characters and

putting ourselves into the story! Finishing our story, we began learning

about non-chronological reports in English! We researched facts about

a T-Rex and then used these facts to make our own report.

In Science, we investigated and completed experiments. The children

have really enjoyed our investigation where they were asked to use

dinosaur poo samples as clues to whether the dinosaurs were

herbivores, carnivores or omnivores. The children produced great

discussion and vocabulary around this. In Geography we learnt how to

use maps! We looked in some atlases and found different places. We

also looked at Google maps and found the symbols. We then used

those symbols to make a key of things to do in Crewe!

PHASE 3 NEWS

Year 3 and 4 started the new half term by visiting the

Grosvenor Museum in Chester. We had a fantastic day

learning about Roman Britain and training as Roman

Soldiers in Chester's Amphitheatre. We took part in a

variety of workshops: we were able to dress as soldiers

and emperors, built bath houses and mosaic flooring,

and we became archaeologists. We made sure to pop

some on social media and we hoped those that made

it to the assembly enjoyed looking at all the photos!

Also this week, we have been finishing off our work on

volcones and earthquakes which was linked to our text

'Escape from Pompeii'. Year 4 have been researching

different volcanoes and Year 3 have been identifying

the cause and effects of earthquakes.

Before the holidays, Year 3 and 4 began work on our new

text, Escape from Pompeii. We used key details from the

book's front cover and blurb to make inferential predictions

about its plot.

On Monday, Year 3 visited the library to learn more about

both Roman civilisation and volcanoes which they later built

on by conducting research about different volcanoes using

online resources. Year 4 also learnt about volcanoes by

considering what happened during the eruption of Vesuvius

and the destruction of Pompeii in AD 79.

In addition, Year 4 continued their work on forces

by planning, conducting and explaining their findings from

an investigation which asked Does changing the size of

a parachute affect the speed at which it falls?. They worked

together to make parachutes using household materials

before timing their fall from a height.

PHASE 4 NEWS

We have really impressed our teachers with the homework we

have produced linked to our reading. There have been many

super book reviews, front cover designs, photos and models

linked to a wide variety of books.

In Year 5 we have been busy beginning to look at identifying

parts of plants and learning about their functions whilst in Year 6

we have been revising classifying living things. This has included

microorganisms and an investigation into what conditions cause

mould to grow the quickest. We are all looking forward to

making observations on this!

In English, we have all continued to write our own version of

‘Time Flies’ (a story set in the Tudor times) and in maths we have

continued with our work on division in year 5 and begun our

new topic of fractions in year 6.

You may have heard us talking about our new year 6 book club.

We have been enjoying reading a range of new and exciting

books with each group reading a different book (both in school

and at home). This has really helped with out writing as we have

been discussing and learning lots of new vocabulary and ideas

for story writing.

In Year 5, we have been enjoying taking part in various team

building activities during our forest school sessions and we have

even been looking at (and measuring) different types of trees.

During the last week of school, Phase 4 were very busy!

We finished off our English topic of ‘Time Flies’ and all of the

teachers were really impressed with Year 5 and 6’s imaginative

writing.

Year 5 have had an exciting week, looking further at William

Morris artwork and how the printing press changed the world.

We then printed our own designs in the style of William Morris. In

Year 6, we have been practising our sketching skills using

viewfinders on William Morris wallpaper.

The Year 5 children also had an exciting week at forest school,

making fire with Mr Foulkes! In Year 6, We have also been

conducting a science experiment based on mould, putting

bread in different conditions and seeing how much mould we

can cultivate, then wrote up our findings.

There has been lots of excitement this week as a time capsule has been found full to the

brim with items from years ago.

In the capsule (left by pupils from over 20 years ago) we found

lots of fascinating things to look at including a letter from an old

pupil, old photos, an old games console and much more. We

even found a punishment book which contained entries

from an old headteacher detailing when a pupil had

misbehaved, what they had done and what their punishment

was.

The time capsule has triggered a new topic for us as we are now learning all about how

Brierley has changed over the years. We are focusing on such topics as how the building

has changed, how lessons and teaching has changed, how technology has changed

and how punishments have changed. In order to put all of our research to good use, we

are now planning and writing our own non-chronological reports comparing Brierley then

and now. To further support this we are also learning about how technology has

changed over the years and our local area.

In order to add to the information gathered from the time

capsule, we also had a tour around the school looking at clues

around the building of what the school used to be like. With

this in mind, we would appreciate any items or information you

may be able to provide to help us with our learning –

particularly if you are an old pupil of Brierley yourself!

PHASE 4 NEWS

Well done to Lucas Jones, Ashton Degnen,

Matthew Thompson, Trinity Palin, Travis

Wilcox, Adam Wright and Harvey Lindsay for a really great performance.

and 4-0) to near enough seal the win. Even with a 5-2 loss in the final game, it was still enough for us to win 16-12 overall. Round three was another series of games where we struggled to get a grip early on. We were 11-10 down after three games and a 1-1 draw in the fourth- thanks to some

great dodging from Adam kept us in with a chance in the last game. Some stunning play by Harvey and Ashton to changed the course of the game and a Trinity catch gave us a 3-1 win and a 14-13 victory!

Our perfect victorious was going to be tested against Berkeley. In game one, we recorded a priceless 4-0 victory and then every other game ended with either the scores level or a single point between the two teams. The 4-0 at the start proved the difference as we won 19-15 and were set up nicely for a shot at winning the competition against another strong sporting school- Mablins Lane. The tension and nerves were really kicking in as this had double importance: deciding the Crewe Champions for the year. Mablins took the game to us from the off, but we found top gear just when we needed it most. There was still the odd moment where we had a rush of blood and

got out trying to make a worldy of a catch, but we were now throwing with power and venom. We were up 14-9 with two games to play and we blew Mablins away with a 4-1 and 3-1 win to win 21-11 overall. In the last game there was again some great, accurate throwing from Lucas, Travis and Matthew. We picked off the Mablins players one by one.

After 10 matches of Dodgeball this year, our record reads played 10, won 10, lost 0... which is unbelievable!! The squad produced some outstanding dodgeball and deserved to come home with two trophies as Crewe Champions and Crewe & Nantwich Champions! Each player contributed massively and the teamwork they showed throughout was great to see. They were a credit to the school and I am sure the parents who were there at both events would agree.

After our success in qualifying from the Crewe Dodgeball Competition, we went on to play in the Crewe & Nantwich finals (the winners of each section from Crewe,

Nantwich and Shavington) on Wednesday 6th February at Sir William Stanier School. We opened with a fixture against Pear Tree and a 5-0 win in the first game put us in a great position! We

consolidated our lead with a 3-2 win in the next, only for us to lose our way a little and allow Pear Tree back into the match at 10-10 with one game to play. We held our nerve and a couple of game-changing catches saw us win the last game 3-2 and take an overall win 13-12

Next , it was a fiery round against Weaver, who won in the first game (3-1) thanks to some deadly throwing. We responded well by winning the next three games, (4-2,5-0

Brierley Netball

Brierley A

We took two squads to take part in the Crewe Netball

Competition at Sir William Stanier School on Wednesday

13th February. The players had been working hard in

both PE lessons and in netball club on a Monday in

preparation for the competition and it was great to

have 17 enthusiastic pupils playing competitive netball.

Our two teams were taking part alongside two teams

from Wistaston Academy, two teams from Mablins Lane

and a team from St Michaels.

Brierley A opened the competition with a 2-0 win against

Wistaston Academy A, thanks to goals from Ashton Degnen and Trinity Palin. The score

could have been much more, as we missed chances, however defensively we were

excellent and fully deserved our win. This was followed up with an excellent first half

against Mablins Lane A. Matthew Thompson opened the scoring with a nice shot from a

Talia Wilcox pass and then Matthew returned the favour by playing in Talia to score from

close range. Matthew rebounded a Talia shot to make it 3-1 at the half time break.

Mablins came back at us in the second period and grabbed a goal to increase the

pressure on us. A late goal from Carly Taylor after a quick pass from Harvey Lindsay

eventually sealed a 4-1 win.

In game three, Brierley A saw off St Michaels with a 4-0 win thanks to goals from Darja

Kozina (2), Ashton and Trinity. We played some excellent netball in this game and our

passing was fantastic. Next up in game four was the game with Brierley B and despite a

really good defensive performance from Brierley B, goals from Talia and Carly gave

Brierley A the win.

With four wins from four matches, Brierley A were looking good and over the next two

matches we went goal crazy with two big wins. Firstly, we had a 6-0 win against Wistaston

Academy B thanks to some clinical shooting. Darja and Ashton combined twice early on

for Ashton to score, before he sealed a hat-trick when rebounding his own shot. Good

defensive work and an excellent pass from Matthew set up Shekinah to make it 4-0 and

Trinity made it 5 with a neat finish. Quick thinking from Trinity set up Shekinah to score a 6th

goal and we moved into our final game knowing a win would make us winners overall.

Mablins Lane B were our final opponents and we were on it from the off. Talia kept up her

good form inf ront of goal by opening the scoring and then Matthew Thompson made it

2-0. Good work from Harvey Lindsay and then Talia set up Matthew for his 2nd of the

match. It was soon 4-0 with Matthew’s long pass finding Talia who scored under pressure.

Second half, Harvey Lindsay played in Carly to score, before then getting on the score

sheet himself after an incisive pass from Ashton. There was just time for Harvey to add

another goal to finish the game as 7-0 winners!

Brierley B began the competition with a match against Wistaston Academy B, which was

a good opportunity to get points on the board against another B team. The match was

even, with possession given up a little too easily by both teams early on. We settled down

in the second half and broke the deadlock thanks to a well-taken goal from Kasey

Franklin. Good defensive work from Skye Haynes and Chloe Wharton kept Wistaston out

at the other end and we recorded an excellent 1-0 win.

In game two we faced Mablins Lane B, so again another good chance for us to get a

positive result. We went ahead thanks to Lewis Plant's shot from distance but we were

pegged back to 1-1 when Mablins broke quickly to score. Both teams had chances to

find a winning goal but eventually it went our way, as Lucas Jones calmly scored from

near the post to make it 2-1 and two wins on the bounce!

The result of the night for Brierley B came in game three as we held Wistaston Academy A

to a 2-2 draw. Goals from Ellie Mae Coulson and Dorothy Isiama Mba were our reward for

some good, sharp passing through the thirds. We really upped our game in this one and

were unlucky not to grab a win. In game four Mablins Lane A were too strong for us,

despite Ellie Mae and Dorothy again linking up well. Izzabelle Roberts and Skye did their

best in defence, showing some good marking and positioning to win the ball back. We

were in the game up to the last couple of minutes, when two quick goals gave Mablins a

3-0 win.

The final game for Brierley B saw us face our very own Brierley A and we did ourselves

proud with a gutsy, battling performance. The game was even for the first 3-4 minutes and

it was only 1-0 to Brierley A at the break. We did struggle to break through a strong Brierley

A defence, but Kasey Franklin and Alexis Edwards were excellent at winning the ball back

and pouncing on any loose passes. Brierley A did manage a 2nd goal, but this was

another good performance that maybe deserved more.

Overall Brierley A were WINNERS of the competition after winning all of our 6 matches and

now go on to the Crewe & Nantwich Finals at Brine Leas School next half-term. Brierley B

can also be very proud of their performances and finished overall 5th place. Players of the

competition were Talia Wilcox (Brierley A) and Kasey Franklin (Brierley B).

Thank you to Miss Yardley for taking one of the teams on the night and thank you to Mrs

Proudman for all of her help at Netball Club leading up to the competition. Thank you to

all of the parents who came to support the teams - it was really appreciated.

BRIERLEY A: Talia Wilcox, Ashton Degnen, Matthew Thompson, Trinity Palin, Shekinah

Marembo, Harvey Lindsay, Darja Kozina and Carly Taylor.

BRIERLEY B: Kasey Franklin, Ellie Mae Coulson, Lucas Jones, Skye Haynes, Dorothy Isiama

Mba, Izzabelle Roberts, Chloe Wharton, Alexis Edwards and Lewis Plant.

Well done to both squads.

Brierley B

Brierley Netball

After our recent success in winning the Crewe Netball Competition, we had qualified for the Crewe & Nantwich Finals at Brine Leas alongside 5 other schools from the area. We expected the standard of our opponents to be high, as these were on paper the best 6 schools from the 20 that had entered across 4 different competitions across the area.

We started really slowly, as we struggled to get any rhythm with our passing and were a little sloppy defensively. Despite Ashton Degnen putting us in the lead after a great pass from Darja Kozina, we couldn't capitalise on this and our opponents St Anne’s came back at us with two quick goals. We had plenty of chances to even things up but our accuracy in front of goal let us down and we

couldn't find the equaliser. It was a shame as this was a winnable game and our slow start had cost us. The hangover from losing the first game carried on into the second game against Mablins Lane, a team who we had already beaten twice this season. Everything looked great when we raced into a 2-0 lead, Harvey Lindsay setting up Matthew Thompson to score and then Matthew won the ball inside the D and finished from distance. However following this, we had five minutes to forget as Mablins were clinical in the D and punished our lack of marking to take a 6-2 lead. We did show some character in the last few minutes, as Harvey set up Carly Taylor to finish well and Carly returned the favour to make it 6-4. Mablins were good value for the win and we were left frustrated by the five minute period where we lost our heads.

We needed a huge response and we got one in the form of a commanding 3-0 win against Stapeley Broad Lane. Everything clicked in the first half, with Darja scoring the opener and then setting up Ashton for the second goal. Good work from Shekinah Marembo fed the ball into Trinity Palin who made it 3-0 from under the post. Defensively, we were much better in this game and the confidence was starting to return. Next up were a determined Leighton Academy and we put in an excellent performance second half to make up for a sluggish first half. We were only 1-0 down at the break and were fairly lucky to only be one down. However, Carly and Harvey played some outstanding netball in the final third to win us the game 3-2, with Carly bagging a brace and Harvey the other.

With two wins and two losses, we were out of contention for winning the competition, but we still had pride to play for and we finished our competition with a resounding 4-0 win against Shavington. Shekinah played a neat pass into Ashton to open the scoring and then Ashton struck again to double our lead. Good work to win the ball back from Talia Wilcox led to Darja finding Ashton in the D and he completed his hat-trick. In the second half, Trinity completed the scoring and we ended the competition on a high.

Overall, we finished 4th place in the Crewe & Nantwich Finals, which is a very good achievement for our school. We had an excellent netball season and had started the competition like we ended it, we could have been in contention for a top 2 finish. Thank you to Mrs Proudman for her help with the team on the night and to the parents who made the trip to Brine Leas to support the team. Player of the competition was Ashton Degnen who took his goals well and played an

important role defensively for the team.

Well done to Shekinah Marembo, Trinity Palin, Ashton Degnen, Harvey Lindsay, Darja Kozina, Talia Wilcox, Matthew Thompson and Carly Taylor.