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Dear Parents,
It’s been a lively start to the term, with so much learning and fun going on already! The children came back from the holidays rested and energised, and many, looking decidedly bigger! It’s been a joy to see their excitement at being back together with their friends, making the most of the activities set out in the playground. This week has seen many letting off steam on the climbing frames or in a football or hockey game, and at the quieter end near the gate, folding origami cats and dogs in the Wendy house, stalking with toy dinosaurs or taking some calm time for mosaic art. As the weather brightens, teachers are planning more outdoor playtime activities relating to their termly themes. You may have noticed that we have installed new floodlights in the playground as well. Aside from a blip earlier in the week, these are working well, bringing light to those darker pickups.
Kate, our new Year Three teacher, and Laura, our new SENCo (who has written to you below) have settled into school so smoothly that it’s hard to believe they’re brand new to the team. With Martin Luther King day coming up on the 16th January, Kate led a fantastic whole school assembly on Wednesday about this special man. It was quite inspiring to hear the children reflect on whether one person could make a difference to the world, and their thoughts on how they would make the world better. Ideas included rewriting rules and laws so that they are always fair and encouraging people in every country to be more environmentally friendly. We can certainly start with those at school.
I’ve encountered several wild and scary animals in my visits to classrooms this week. Year One were designing Wanted posters for the wolf in the Three Little Pigs, who has apparently been seen in our playground! Year Two were reading about giant slugs and in Reception, a man- eating ogre was chasing Jack on the beanstalk. Fortunately I haven’t run into any of these in person, but the children’s writing, drawing and excitement in sharing these stories with me brought them to life. Such wonderful work!
I write this newsletter piece from a hotel in Hertfordshire, where, set in beautiful countryside, I’m enjoying the London North ISA (Independent School’s Association) Head’s conference. The workshops and talks have been stimulating and thought provoking, exploring the latest ideas on school leadership. The opportunity to share thinking with knowledgeable and talented school leaders from across the sector is also immensely beneficial. Fantastic to be part of this wonderful organisation, which offers many benefits to our school.
I wish you a restful and enjoyable weekend.
Ellie
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Upcoming Dates - the school calendar can be found here (no login required)
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Nursery Dates
* Tuesday 17th January
Welcome Drinks for new parents
* w/c 23rd January
Lunar New Year Week
* Thursday 2nd February
Parents Evening for new children
* Friday 3rd February
Children’s Mental Health Pyjama Day.
Money raised going to Young Minds
* Tuesday 7th February
Open Morning 8.15-9.00am for Aatika and Jess' class
Safer Internet Day 2023
* Wednesday 8th February
Open Morning 8.15-9.00am for Maddy and Mihaela’s Class
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Upper School Dates
* w/c 23rd January
Lunar New Year Week
* Friday 3rd February
Children’s Mental Health Pyjama Day.
Money raised going to Young Minds
* Tuesday 7th February
Safer Internet Day 2023
* Thursday 9th February
Open Classrooms
Friday 10th February
Half term
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Hello everyone,
I am delighted to be joining The Children’s House this term as the newly appointed SENCo and More Able Coordinator. In these roles, I will be supporting your children, helping them to thrive and reach their full potential. I will be working to ensure that children who require that little bit more support will be catered for, alongside finding opportunities to challenge and develop those exceeding in certain areas of the curriculum.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my first few weeks and thank you all for making me feel so welcome! I am absolutely delighted to have been appointed to this role and feel excited and privileged to join such a nurturing school. I am looking forward to building upon the strong foundations already in place and continuing the dedicated work that Julia has done over the years.
A bit about me… I have worked within education for seven years now, supporting a variety of children with additional needs. I am a creative person and I have a passion for supporting children with their mental health. This I will continue to develop as The Children’s House Senior Mental Health Lead.
I am very enthusiastic about my new position and I look forward to meeting you all in the coming weeks. Please do come and say hello – I’ll be on the gate in the mornings for the next couple of weeks.
I look forward to meeting you all,
Laura
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Dear parents,
Welcome to the PE section! Here I will be updating you about the different contents and skills that the children are learning in PE throughout the year.
We have had such a fun, busy and productive autumn term in PE! I had the pleasure of seeing how the children from the very little ones to our Y3s have been exploring, improving, and learning new skills.
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In Reception, we have been working on gymnastics (shapes, jumps, turns and rolls) together with spatial awareness and coordination through games.
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In Y1 and Y2 children have been learning about how to warm up, laterality, and spatial awareness (measuring distances and predicting trajectories), as well as static and dynamic balance, and gymnastics (being able to perform in pairs a short routine with the skills learnt).
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Y3 have been really busy learning new Olympic disciplines offside: such as relay races, javelin throw or long-distance jump; finishing with an Olympic competition in teams. In the second half of the term, we have been consolidating some gymnastics skills, and learning new ones, such as the straddle roll. The children also performed with a partner to the whole class a routine with the skills and movements learnt.
This new term comes full of surprises, new skills, and new sports that I hope both you and the children will enjoy it. Be sure to keep an eye out!
Pablo
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Online Safety News
Online Safety Reminders
Platforms like TikTok + YouTube really are the Wild West! Extreme & dangerous content is easily accessed and children don’t always understand meanings of words or impact of viewing. Until the Online Harms bill is passed, parents need to stay very involved, check your child’s devices every day, and follow this link: https://parentsafe.lgfl.net for Parental control and monitoring tools including Google Family Link, Apple ScreenTime and Microsoft Family Safety.
Tech For Good Ideas
Get Moving – Family MoodBooster area “Moving for Mental Health and Wellbeing https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/moodboosters
More Free Mind Booster Ideas (shared in The Week Magazine) Smiling Mind App
Free phone helpline for families
7-9pm school nights. (screen time/late nights) https://thesleepcharity.org.uk/
And more screen free ideas in January Big Birdwatch https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch
David
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Eco/School Council news
Welcome back! I hope you have all had a restful and enjoyable festive period.
Elections for our next teams of School Council and Eco-Committee representatives are well under way. Once in place, we will pick up where we left off at the end of 2022, continuing to find ways to improve our school for everyone, and working towards our Eco-School Action Plan goals.
As decided last term, our Eco-School focus topics this year are;
The committee decided these were the best areas for us to focus on based on the results of our Environmental Review, as well as a desire to build on some of the work we started last year.
I will keep you updated with any activities and progress we make!
Have a lovely weekend.
Rick
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Year 3 News
What a lovely start to 2023!
Year 3 have been incredibly accepting of having a brand new teacher and have shown such maturity over the last week. Our topic for the term is 'Britain the Great' and has begun with us studying the story of Romulus and Remus, whilst learning about the origins of Rome. The children worked incredibly hard to identify the difference between myth and facts and have been able to confidently share their existing knowledge of the Romans. This week, we have also begun studying the 'Animals including Humans' science topic; the class have created a wealth of interesting questions, such as 'what are bones for?' which we will attempt to answer over the term. Year 3 have also showed a keen interest in the Eatwell Plate, particuarly when discussing their favourite high fat and sugar items!
During Maths, I was pleased to see some of the excellent timestable knowledge displayed by the class. Since the beginning of term, Year 3 have been revisiting their previous knowledge and developing their understanding of the 8 timestable, as well as it's link to the other tables.
In their English lessons, the children have settled back into a guided reading routine well. The class have also begun learning the features of recounts, linked to the Romulus and Remus story, which they will perform in part next week - I am very much looking forward to seeing their drama skills!
What an amazing bunch! I am absolutely thrilled with how wonderfully Year 3 have settled back into old routines, whilst slotting in some new ones too. They really are heads of the school and I feel very grateful for the welcome they have all given me.
Well done, Year 3!
Kate
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Year 2 News
After the Christmas break, Year 2 have returned will lots of energy and a real eagerness to learn about their new topics. There is a real excitement in the air for the Spring term.
All the children discussed their goals and aspirations for the upcoming year. They reflected on things they loved from 2022 and what like aspired to achieve in 2023. Their words will be displayed on their wonderful hot air balloons. The children used water colours to paint their balloons and used techniques such as bleeding to make some amazing original designs.
In Numeracy, we have been looking at money and how we use multiplication to count quickly. All the children have been working on their times tables to be able to add up quickly and more efficiently.
In Literacy, we have been looking at different books and making comparisons between them. We have focused on using good sentences to explain our ideas and how being an active listener (listening to our friend's ideas) is really important. The children chose their favourite character from one of the books we read and wrote accompanying sentences.
Finally, Year 2 had a great time during their PE lesson with Year 3! It was fun to go off-site and Pablo and Izzy commented on how well-behaved and mature they were.
James
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Year 1 News
It has been wonderful to see the children back in Year 1 after the Christmas break. They seem rested, refreshed and ready to dive into their Spring term topics. On the first day back they shared Christmas holiday diaries, sang Auld Lang Syne and reminisced about the previous year. The children thought about their resolutions moving forward, and challenges they would like to work towards this year. Answers ranged from ‘trying scary things to be challenged, to skiing down a higher mountain, and not giving up when things are difficult. I can’t wait to see what they will achieve in the coming months. Our topic this term is ‘Houses and Homes’. The children began by being Scientists, as well as Architects. They looked at naming and describing common materials, and then discussed and investigated suitability of certain materials for their uses. The children helped Iggy Peck the Architect decide which material was best to create curtains and shutters using the language translucent, transparent and opaque. They also had a letter from Pippa Pig who needed help deciding which material was best to build a safe, sturdy house. They also wrote some fantastic Wanted posters to help Detective Charming at Fairy Tale Town catch a pesky wolf who has escaped. Luckily they did such a great job describing his features that the wolf was caught immediately. They will be using talk for writing to retell the story of the Three Little Pigs, and innovate it using their own ideas next.
We also have a few exciting trips booked in for the coming months. We can’t wait to venture out and see what London has to offer us!
Aisha
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Reception News
It has been lovely to have the classroom buzzing with children once again. The class eagerly shared their experiences over the Christmas break and discussed what they had received from Santa Clause. To begin our topic ‘Traditional Tales’ Reception explored Humpty Dumpty and the story ‘After the Fall’. The children used their phonic knowledge to write what materials they would use to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. The class also made their own Humpty Dumpty puzzles. They created an illustration inspired by the tale and then cut up their creations to make puzzle pieces. Reception also became inventors for the day, the class were tasked with creating a structure that would protect Humpty Dumpty from cracking when he fell. The children were given a real egg and an assortment of materials to create their inventions. They discussed the type of materials that would be needed, how dropping the egg from different heights would affect the results and made predictions regarding the outcome of their experiment. Once the children had tested their inventions they evaluated their designs, if necessary they went back and adapted their creations and repeated their experiment.
This week Reception have been exploring ‘Jack and The Beanstalk’. The class used non-standard units of measurement to estimate and measure the length of the Giants footprints and beanstalks. The class used their phonic knowledge to write whether or not they would have chosen to climb the beanstalk and why. The class were introduced to the practice of creating a story map, they worked together to illustrate the key parts of the story and then used their story maps to support their writing when tasked with sequencing the story. The children developed their fine-motor skills by cutting plates to create beanstalks and threading to create a harp. Reception also explored perspective, they created a drawing that depicted a person looking up at the Giant. We discussed how objects appear smaller the further away they are.
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Nursery
Happy new year everyone, and a warm welcome to the new children and families joining us this term. With support from a skilled and dedicated team, I am delighted to build upon Salima’s hard work in ensuring our Nursery continues to go from strength to strength. The wonderful child-centred learning environment we have here will ensure the children have a happy, successful 2023 and beyond. It is pleasing to see how quickly the children are settling into their routine this term. I am thoroughly enjoying the chance to get to know the children and witnessing them grasp with both hands the full breadth of learning opportunities on offer. Whenever I walk into one of our classrooms it is a joy to find the children positively engaged, developing new skills, exploring new ideas and concepts, and immersing themselves in the carefully planned activities. It’s been a pleasure to meet some of our parents already, and I look forward to meeting with more of you in the coming weeks as we partner in laying firm foundations for your children’s education.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Taiba
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Upstairs Nursery News
It has been a delight to see the children so excited to be back last week! Our Show and Tell sessions focused on holiday news as the children shared their Special Books and enthusiastically talked about their families, the places they have visited and the experiences they went through.
This week, the children have started their Space explorations. We watched the Moon landing and conducted our own experiments using rocks and flour to investigate craters and asteroids. The children were encouraged to make predictions and to describe what they were seeing using space related vocabulary. Some even had a go at recording their findings and investigating further by changing the drop height.
In Literacy, the children did a great job applying their phonic skills to make lists of items needed for a moon journey. We were impressed with their ability to discriminate between sounds and also with their creativity, as the lists included things such as sausages, cold gloves ‘so we don’t burn our hands when we touch shooting stars’ and even panettone!
Mae Jemison and Alma Thomas have been our inspirational historical figures this week. The children have experimented with corks and sponges to recreate the rhythmic dabbing technique seen in Thomas’ abstract artwork and enjoyed reading ‘Look Up’ and discussing the achievements of Jemison.
The Upstairs Team
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Downstairs Nursery News
This week we welcomed 10 new children to the nursery, who have all settled in really well. We focused on establishing routines and helping them become familiar with their environment.
We also focused on the story ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’. The children had a fantastic time making paper plate tigers. They enjoyed using whiteboard pens and drawing tiger faces on whiteboards. They also tried writing tea party invitations for friends and role-playing in our café. Everyone made the perfect cup of tea in the water tray, and we all had playdough sandwiches to go with it!
What a fun-filled start to 2023 for the Downstairs Nursery!
The Downstairs Team
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