Skerton St Luke's CE Primary School

Newsletter 17th October 2025

It has been an exciting week in school with lots of fantastic learning and wonderful opportunities for our children to try something new: Live- Learn- Thrive! Year 6 have transformed the school hall into an art gallery to share their amazing school portraits whilst Year 4 have been making apple juice by hand at Leighton Hall! As a staff team, this week, we have shared our vision for what we want for every child that attends Skerton St Luke’s and how we, as professionals, ensure that we do our very best every day for every single child. We are so passionate about this and really love it when we can provide opportunities to learn out of the classroom therefore really bring learning to life. We will be working now as a Senior Leadership Team to reflect on your survey feedback about how we communicate about what your children are learning so watch out for those updates soon!

Newsletter 3rd October 2025

Headteacher’s Message Thank you to all of you who managed to complete our parent survey last week. Your feedback is really important to me. It was lovely to hear about all the things that are going well and how you think we can continue to get better. We will now take some time to consider our responses so look out for our response in a couple of weeks! Please remember, you never have to wait for a survey to share your ideas or concerns with us. I’m out in the gate whenever my diary will allow and I love to chat to you all so please come and talk with me. This week, in Worship, we have explored our school vision: Live, Learn, Thrive: Love God, Love each other Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…Love your neighbour as yourself. (Luke 10:27) As a new addition to the Skerton family, I have certainly felt the power of the ‘love’ at our wonderful school and I am certain that is what makes it feel so very special. Through God’s love and by following the example of Jesus Christ, we continue to build together a community centred on love, respect and care for one another which can only get stronger

Newsletter - 19th September 2025

Message from Mrs Gaffiney What a lovely start I have had in my first few weeks at Skerton St Luke’s! I have been humbled and extremely grateful for the very warm welcome I have received, from pupils, parents and staff alike, and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have been appointed the Headteacher of such a fantastic school. Thank you all. Having settled in, I am now beginning the exciting work on the priorities that we will be focussing on over the next academic year. More information will follow on this in the coming weeks so watch this space! Wishing you all a fun-filled weekend of family time, Mrs Gaffiney

Newsletter - 10th September 2025

A message from Mrs Gaffiney A very warm welcome to you all to the new academic year 2025-2026. I am absolutely delighted to be writing to you as your new Headteacher, a position which I feel very proud and privileged to hold. I first qualified as a teacher in 2003 and join you, at Skerton, from my most recent position as Headteacher at a primary and nursery school in South Derbyshire. My values and principles are very much aligned with Mrs Armistead’s so, in terms of the feel and ethos of the school, I hope you will experience very little change. I am passionate about education and believe that all children should be given every opportunity to reach their potential. Beyond classroom learning, I believe it is important to support the children in becoming positive, respectful and responsible young people, with the confidence and resilience to tackle any new challenge. Communications with our parents and carers is very important to me and I believe that if a concern arises the best way to solve it is to talk to us in school as early as you can. I feel very lucky to be working with such a capable staff team, who are equally committed to the all-round education of your children. Mrs Gaffiney

Newsletter 13th June 2025

HEADTEACHER’S MESSAGE There are lots of fun activities and trips organised for the last half of the summer term. Please keep an eye on ParentApp and Class Dojo to receive all of the latest information, including dates for special events. On Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th July, our new headteacher, Leanne Gaffiney will be visiting school to get to know everyone. Please come along to the Summer Fair on the afternoon of 3rd July. Come and introduce yourself to her so that we can make her feel really welcome as the amazing school community that we are. Mrs Armistead

Newsletter 7th May 2025

HEADTEACHER’S MESSAGE Welcome back to the Summer Term. Although it has still been quite cool in the mornings and some days, please be aware that the sun is as hot now as it is in the middle of August. Please ensure that your children are taking all precautions for sun safety. All children should have a hat or a cap, please put sun screen on your child before school. If they need to top up their sun protection throughout the day, please teach them how to do this independently. Children can have small tubes of sunscreen that can be kept in their book bags or trays. There are many activities planned for the Summer Term including lots of outdoor learning opportunities. Please keep an eye of information for this from the teachers as some of these need your permission via ParentApp in order to allow your child to take part. These activities along with swimming, residentials etc. are not just a fun time for the children, they are also a huge part of the National Curriculum and allows children to learn outdoor skills as well as resilience and team work. When these opportunities come up please ensure children dress in appropriate clothing and arrive at school on time. Whilst Sports Funding covers the cost of the activities we are holding extra fund raising to cover the cost of transport to and from the venues. Mrs Armistead

Newsletter 4th April 2025

Happy Easter Following the recent appointment process, it gives me great pleasure to let you know that governors hve appointed Mrs Leanne Gaffiney who will join the staff at Skerton St Luke’s as Headteacher in September. Mrs Gaffiney is currently headteacher at Walton-on-Trent CE Primary and Nursery School in Derbyshire. She and her family will be relocating to the area over the summer. Governors, staff and children were all involved in the recruitment process in some form and it was a resounding ‘YES’ from everyone. I have also met Mrs Gaffiney and I know she is going to fit right into St Luke’s and is full of new ideas and enthusiasm to continue to move our wonderful school forward. Congratulations and welcome! Mrs Armistead

Newsletter February 2025

HEADTEACHER’S MESSAGE It has been another busy half term in school. The children have been busy with their learning and taking part in lots of activities. We have been involved in many sporting fixtures including netball, athletics and bench ball. The children in Years 5 and 6 took part in Young Voices at the Co-op Arena in Manchester and we have had a visit from Harold the Giraffe and Katie from Life Education. As the weather improves, we will be planning lots of outdoor adventure activities and learning beyond the classroom for all of the children to take part in. Mrs Wood has started her maternity leave and we wish her the very best as she gets ready for her family to grow. We welcome Miss James who will be joining the staff as the Year 3 teacher during Mrs Wood’s maternity leave. I hope you all have a lovely Half Term holiday and I look forward to seeing everyone back in school on Monday 24th February. Mrs Armistead

Newsletter 10th January 2025

HAPPY NEW YEAR Welcome to 2025! I hope you all had a wonderfully relaxing and joy filled Christmas break and are ready to get back to normal and routine as we head into 2025. It has been lovely welcoming the children back and hearing their excitement and Christmas stories. We are talking to the children about New Year Resolutions and helping them to think about the things they want get better at this year. We have had some excellent plans including learning times tables, getting better at handwriting, turning up to football practice every week to getting better at Fortnite! During Collective Worship we will be thinking about Courage in the first half term and Forgiveness in the second half term. Our next Parents Evenings will be in March but please remember that, should you wish to talk to your child’s teacher about learning or behaviour, you can make an appointment to see the teacher at any time. Please contact the school office should you wish to do this.

Newsletter 18th December 2024

Thank you so much for your support throughout this term, especially in the lead up to Christmas. The children have worked hard and made some wonderful contributions through nativity performances and carol concerts. The support you show the children and the staff means the world to us. I wish you all a happy and safe Christmas and New Year!

Newsletter - 20th November 2024

This year has flown by and we are now entering the season of Advent in the church year. We will be learning a lot about preparing for Christmas through the story of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe during our Worship in school. This is a lovely story about learning compassion, honesty and love for each other. Please feel free to support this learning by sharing the story with your child/ children through books or films. We have lots of activities coming up in school, please check the website and parent app as well as the ‘Dates to Remember’ on this newsletter.

Newsletter 4th October 2024

Welcome to October 2024 News

Newsletter 20th September 2024

It’s Harvest Time! It’s the time of year when we celebrate, with gratitude and thankfulness, all the great things we have in life. Each year in September and October churches and schools all over the country celebrate our natural world and say thanks.

Newsletter 17th July 2024

Thank you! In the final Newsletter of 2023-24 I would like to offer my thanks to a number of people. Firstly, thank you to the amazing staff who go above and beyond to meet the needs of children, parents and each other in school. We are very fortunate to have dedicated teachers, teaching assistants, pastoral staff, office staff, kitchen staff, welfare staff and premises staff. Without these people St Luke’s would not be the wonderful school it is. Thank you to the children for their hard work and excitement in learning. It is their enthusiasm to learn new things that makes us all work so hard for them. I am so proud of the progress that every child has made this year. Thank you to all of you parents. A school only succeeds when we work in partnership with staff and parents to provide opportunities for children. Thank you for keeping communication open, for helping your child in their learning both academically and socially and thank you for supporting us in all that we do.

Newsletter - 12th January 2024

Happy New Year! It has been lovely to welcome all the children back and to hear their Christmas stories. I hope that everyone had a good Christmas and managed to find some time to relax during the holiday period. The term has started smoothly and I have been impressed with how quickly the children have got back into the routine of school. There is always a lot happening at school so keep an eye on the dates, newsletter, Parent App and Dojo as we always try and give as much notice as possible to the things that are happening and any changes to planned events. Mrs Armistead

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