Headmaster's Welcome
Headmaster's News, Friday 23th April, 2021
Apr 23, 2021
23rd April 2021
Dear Parents
Welcome to the Summer Term!
It was lovely to welcome all the children back to school last Monday. They were smartly dressed in their Summer uniform and filled with enthusiasm for the term ahead. They were also excited to learn that many of the summer events, that they missed out on last year, will be going ahead. Play rehearsals are in full swing, sports day practice is under way and Year 6 is preparing for the final round of Junior Mastermind.
School Plays
We are in the middle of rehearsals for our Year 3 and 5 play, Pandora’s Box, and have just started rehearsals for our Year 4 play, The BFG. These will be recorded and released to parents later in the term. It is lovely to see all the children take centre stage and perform confidently in front of their class and the camera. I can’t wait to see the final productions with so many children once again working and collaborating together.
Birthdays
Regretfully, children will not be able to bring treats or birthday cakes into school for the rest of this academic year. We will continue to try to make each child’s birthday as special as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
Out and About
In Nursery
Our Nursery children and our Rising 3s have had a fabulous start to the Summer term. The sun has been shining, the birds are tweeting and the Spring Forest School sessions have got off to an exciting start. Spring is a beautiful time of year for our little explorers; there is so much to stimulate all our senses! Miss Travis has planned many fascinating sessions including: observing spring flowers; exploring our new mud kitchen in the forest, which the children loved (they cooked up a storm, making lasagne, garlic bread and soup!); playing hide and seek; listening to and watching the birds and identifying new insects in our bug hotel. We have also been practising our Forest School emergency whistle with the children to keep them safe whilst they play.
In Nursery, we have been getting very messy with a wide variety of activities, including: moon sand with moulds; ice and powder paint; chalk painting outdoors and measuring quantity with oats. In Rising 3s, we have been working on 'Letters and Sounds.’ The children have participated in both a listening walk and outdoor drumming. These activities help them to develop their listening and communication skills by describing what they can hear in their immediate environment. They have also been developing their imagination and creativity through experimenting with a variety of open-ended resources.
In Year 3
Year 3 has started a new Science topic: Plants. We have been given the task to take a broad bean home and record its growth over the next few weeks. In class, we have enjoyed finding out about the role of the roots and we conducted an experiment on capillary action using celery and water with food colouring. In History, we are carrying on with our World War II topic and have created collages and poems to illustrate our knowledge of the Blitz. We have also just written our own evacuee letters which helped us to describe the feelings that children might have experienced during the war. And of course, we are absolutely loving watching Spy Watch whenever we get a chance!
In Year 4
In Year 4, we have started learning our lines and rehearsing for our play, ‘The BFG’. The children have been very excited and there are some wonderful actions and voices already in use! In general knowledge, we have continued to look at different habitats, most recently polar and ocean habitats. After identifying capital cities from our European neighbours, the children created some wonderful posters about a city of their choice and some even created a little quiz! These are now up on the classroom wall for us all to enjoy.
In Year 5
Since returning to school after the Easter holidays, 5M has been enjoying new topics. In Science, the children have begun the topic of Forces and they are looking forward to the practical activities and experiments over the coming weeks. In Humanities, we have been fascinated with the topic of Extreme Earth, particularly the extreme weather conditions across the world. 5M has also been busy practising their acting and singing for the upcoming production with Year 3, ‘Pandora’s Box’. We are all very excited about this event.
In Year 6
We've had a very busy start to the Summer Term in Year 6 as filming is underway for our Year 6 Leavers' video and the first two rounds of the Junior Mastermind competition have also taken place. In Maths and English, we are consolidating our skills in preparation for completing some past National Curriculum Test papers; alongside starting a new Year 7 spelling programme. We are continuing with our study of the Ancient Egyptians in History and have just started a new topic in Science: Light. We've had lots to do in the classroom but we've also enjoyed lots of time playing outside with our friends in this gorgeous weather we are having!
Summer Uniform
Please could I remind all parents of the uniform list below which is published before the start of the academic year. If your child would like to wear a summer hat, it should be a school hat bought from F R Monkhouse. Sunglasses should not be brought into school and children need to bring a named bottle of suntan lotion to be kept in class. Thank you for your support.
Boys’ Uniform: Grey shorts (not cargo style), grey ankle socks. Black shoes or navy closed toe sandals. Short sleeved shirts are optional.
Girls’ Uniform: Light blue and white striped dress, white ankle socks or tights. Black shoes or navy closed toe sandals.
Sports Days 2021
We are planning to hold our Sports Days this year for Pre-School, Infants (Reception-Year 2) and Juniors.
These events will be recorded and live screened (details to follow). The events will be held at school.
Junior Sports Day – Wednesday 19th May (reserve date – Wednesday 26th May)
Year 3 9 - 10.30am
Year 4 11 - 12.30pm
Years 5 and 6 1.30 – 3.00pm
Infant Sports Day - Wednesday 16th June
Reception and Year 1 9 - 10.15am
Year 2 11am - 12noon
Pre-School Sports Day - Thursday 17th June 9 - 10am
The main aim of this year’s Sports Days is for the children to enjoy themselves and to benefit from taking part in a School Sports Day. The events will vary for the Juniors from relays and sprints, to field events. The Infant and Pre-School events will vary from running and jumping to throwing events. Obviously, the traditional sack race and egg and spoon race will also appear!
Junior Mastermind
The Year 6 annual Mastermind competition is being held a little later than usual this year, but it is nevertheless a very exciting event for our Year 6 children. Last week, all Year 6s answered questions on the five set books for Round 1 and this week Round 2 took place where 9 of our Year 6 children answered questions orally - as quickly as they could.
We now have our four finalists for this year: Ariana M (6H), Diya (6P), Hasan (6H) and Olivia (6P). The final will be held on Wednesday 12th May. Good luck everyone!
Merit Awards 16.4.21
RB: Rayyan 1D: Henry 2E: Haya 2W: Aisha
3D: Lily 3M:Shreya 4J: Avni 6H: Ariana 6P: Evie
Merit Awards 23.4.21
RB: Liyaana 1D: Lailah 2E: Arthur 2W: Dylan
3D: Toby 3M: Johnny 4J: Amelia 5M: James 6H: Sam 6P: Nadia
Yours sincerely
J M Duke
Headmaster
