Clapgate Primary School

What’s going on at Clapgate?

Who is our Therapeutic Leader?

Miss Shires is our therapeutic lead and is also an important point of contact for parents seeking support and advice. On this page you will find information about her role and about events that are coming up, workshops that are being made available and any useful numbers and links. Throughout the year, there will be regular coffee mornings. This is where you can come and enjoy a free tea or coffee in our community cabin (near year 2). At the coffee mornings, it will be a chance to speak to Miss Shires and other members of staff. Other members of the community may also be there such as family support workers, health for all, BITMO, family learning and many more. Additional events that are up and coming will be parent workshops focusing on a range of issues such as challenging behaviour, cost of living, mental health and much more. Stay and plays for younger children will also be made available for those wanting to come to Clapgate.

One of the main focuses of Parent Support is looking at mental health and building relationships within the community. Miss Shires will be trying to help build strong, positive relationships between parents and staff, ensuring that we are all working together effectively. If you would like any more information or would like to arrange a meeting, please ring the school office. Alternatively, there is now a school mobile that you can ring to speak to Miss Shires. The contact number is 07562439187. This will be in use Monday to Friday between 8.30am to 4pm.

Previous Events

The Community Cabin

On Thursday 26^th January, we held our launch event for our new, exciting Community Cabin. We were lucky enough to have Jamie Jones-Buchanan (Leeds Rhinos Legend) visit school. He spoke to the children about his personal journey to success and was a real inspiration to our children. He cut the ribbon to open this fantastic space to a huge round of applause.

Our Arts Council welcomed a range of visitors, including Councillor Wayne Dixon, BITMO, Wooden Spoon, Flourishing Families, as well as lots of parents. We served bacon and sausage sandwiches, cakes and tea and coffee in our new community kitchen and everyone enjoyed the chance to look around the new space. We had a reporter from the Yorkshire Evening Post visiting too, so look out for the publication in the paper.

We are looking forward to continuing to host a range of exciting workshops in the cabin. Last year our events programme included cooking with Flourishing Families, behaviour workshops to support parents, and reading workshops. The Community Pantry takes place in the Community Cabin every Friday afternoon.

Cooking with Flourishing Families

This Cookery Club equips families to make long lasting changes in their diets by teaching foundational cooking skills and nutrition.

This develops resilience against food poverty, poor diet and childhood obesity. The parents or carers are invited to join their child for a series of friendly and fun sessions. The emphasis is on improving confidence to cook from scratch and providing families with the skills and tools they need to repeat this at home, enabling long-term change in family diets.

The sessions include an engaging 6 week nutritional education programme, based around the NHS Eatwell Guide and we also incorporate food budgeting and meal planning.

Each family pays just £1 per session and leaves with a nutritious meal for the whole family. We often include fun and healthy snacks for the children to make as well. Flourishing Families provide all the equipment, fresh ingredients and recipes for each session.

The recipes are healthy, simple to follow, economical and easy to repeat at home.

Stay and Play

Stay and play takes place every Friday in our community cabin. Parents of pre – nursery age children are invited from the community to come with their parents or carers to enjoy a range of games, activities, snacks and refreshments. Its a perfect opportunity to meet parents in the local area and to keep your toddler entertained. It is run by two EYFS trained staff members who provide exciting activities week on week. If you would like have more information. Please ring the school office on 01132716700.

Story tellers with Flourishing Families

Taken from their website:

Story Tellers works in partnership with local primary schools to provide a space for children and their parents and carers to build confidence in their literacy skills. In a friendly and relaxed environment, children and parents/carers take part in different ‘story corners’ in which they share a story through a book, craft or educational activity.

Not only do the children benefit, but the parents and carers are able to engage in their child’s learning and literacy skills, making the connection between home and school even stronger. The power of sharing a story together significantly boosts literacy skills, but it goes beyond that, resulting in children’s wellbeing and social mobility being rapidly enhanced.

One of our partnering schools estimates that 60% of their parents have literacy levels below that of an average 10-year-old. These challenges are enormous barriers to employment and play a key role in the persistent inter-generational poverty that Flourishing Families is seeking to overcome. Story Tellers makes a real difference for both children and adults.

By taking part in these story corners at a pace that suits each child and adult, families are provided with tools to: