The Playground Buddies helped to put together a questionnaire to find out what our pupils think about break times. Do they feel safe? What could they do if they feel lonely? Are there enough Playground Buddies? They went out into the yards to conduct a survey.
The results have been extremely positive so far! Our pupils think that the Playground Buddies are doing a great job in helping children in our three yards.
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Pupils across Year 2 to Year 6 have taken part in this year’s Premier League Writing Stars competition. This year’s theme is Ambition, and we have some wonderful poems on display. Let’s hope we are as successful as last year!
Morning everyone,
We hope that you are well and finding things to keep you busy during these unusual times.
We wanted to share with you all a fantastic resource created by The National Literacy Trust for families to support with home learning. As Harton Primary is a ‘Puffin World of Stories’ school, we have been invited to use The Family Zone. This website has been designed with you in mind and gives a range of activity suggestions, online resources and things to keep your children busy (and learning).
Simply follow the link below and select the age range of you child to find out more! 
https://literacytrust.org.uk/family-zone/
Dear Parents/Carers,
Re: Coronavirus update – school closure to most pupils
Following on from my last update, I’m now writing to let you know that we have now been instructed to close the school to almost all children after this Friday until further notice.
As advised by the government, we will do all we can to stay open for the children of key workers (e.g. NHS staff, police, others in frontline services) and children with certain needs.
We are waiting for the government to publish more information on what this means, but it would help us in the meantime if you could let us know if you think your child may fall into one of these categories. Please contact school by telephone 0191 4562150 or email office@hartonprimary.co.uk giving your child’s name and class if you think your child will be attending school from Monday. We’ll be in touch again as soon as we are sure who this does apply to.
All other children will need to stay at home, so we ask that you do not send your child into school from Monday onwards.
Please note that this is a national closure – as you may have heard in the news – so while it is a challenging situation, we are not alone. We’ll re-open fully as soon as we can and will let you know when this is by ‘Marvellous Me’ and the school website.
What we’ll continue doing while your child is at home
Your child’s learning is of course important to us, so we’ll continue to help your child to learn.
You should have received a pack of work (if not it is available to collect in school)
Staff will be in regular contact via ‘Marvellous Me’ and please check the school website regularly.
If your child usually receives free school meals we will also be in touch with more information about how we will continue to provide this, with support from a scheme that the government has just announced.
What we won’t be able to go ahead with
School trips
After school clubs
Any SATs or other planned assessments
This is as much as we know right now and we appreciate your continued patience with as we deal with this ever-changing situation. We understand that this latest news will have an impact on you and your family and it’s far from ideal, but we’ll continue to keep in touch with any updates as the situation develops.
If you want to get in touch to share any concerns, please don’t hesitate to do so via the school office, office@hartonprimary.co.uk
And remember: if you or your child feels ill and you want to know what to do next, please use NHS 111 online.
Thank you again for your continued support, and we will be in touch with more information when we can.
K Ratcliffe
Head Teacher
Well done to all of the children who have entered our Spring Reading Challenge, reading a book in an unusual place. It is wonderful to see so much enthusiasm around reading. A winner will be picked from each year group and announced in assembly on World Book Day – Friday 6th March. 
In the middle of our half term, the Harton Primary Puzzlers met at Newcastle Airport – excited for their trip to Bristol for the First Lego League England and Wales Final.
On Saturday the 22nd of February, we set off the University of West England to the competition, setting up our information board at table 50 in the pit.
After the opening ceremony, we had to quickly change into our costumes to give deliver the best and last presentation on our idea for a solar powered tram to help boost interest in South Shields town centre. After than we had to run to the Robot Game table for our first of three attempts to score as many points as possible. Lets watch:
The day was full of interesting activities, on top of the usual Core Values, Robot Design discussion and practice tables for the robot game. The teams spoke to other teams, interviewed by the IET team and, of course, had lunch.
With all our practices over, our last robot game was on table 1, with all the cameras on us. Below is the live stream of our last game (If time link doesn’t work, time is 4:42:20):
On the final tables we came 20th, out of 66 teams. But with teams with joint scores, we had the 13th highest score on the day! The Harton Primary Puzzlers worked their socks off, did themselves (and their teachers) proud, and had a great day!
A huge congratulations to Ruby, Jayden and Phoebe who are our first Word Millionaires this academic year. They have read over a million words since September! Wow! They say they have achieved this for a variety of reasons: they “just love reading” and a love of the Harry Potter books has helped them achieve their goal. They each got a certificate, an engraved trophy and they each got to select a book of their choice for their prize.
Also, well done to Ben who has achieved his “Half Millionaire” award, reading over 500, 000 words. 
Last half term Y6F won the ‘Healthy Harton Bake Off’ and made the best healthy chicken wraps in the year group. We won a prize of a wonderful class cookbook and a session with Mrs Seales, our school cook, to make anything of our choice. We chose to make double chocolate brownies and they were delicious!
We carefully measured out and mixed all of the ingredients ourselves and we worked really well in groups, taking turns in mixing and serving our brownies. They were so delicious and there were so many leftover we got two huge servings each and even the teachers got to have some!
Y6F recently enjoyed a visit to Harton Technology College to take part in a Science workshop named Witches and Wizards. The children became Hartwarts students for the afternoon and made a series of potions and concoctions with very exciting results.
We have introduced a new online learning platform called NumBots. This game is aimed at boosting addition and subtraction skills for all aged children.
Since the success of Times Tables Rockstars in encouraging children to master times table and division fact instant recall, we would like their skills with mental addition and subtraction to be just as good. NumBots will help! More importantly, children in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 can access the games.
All children start at the same place in Story mode, and when they get to a certain stage they will unlock Challenge mode. The idea is that they play little and often, and this will significantly improve their understanding of number bonds and addition and subtraction facts.
The login is exactly the same as the one for Times Tables Rockstars – Key Stage 1 parents should have received parent letters with new login details.
Times Tables Rockstars app and NumBots app are available to download on all android and Apple devices.
