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Dear Parents
How lovely it was to see so many of you at Open Morning. The children were bursting with pride and joy at showing your around their classrooms and their work, and it is wonderful for the teachers to share their pride and joy at how much pupils have accomplished. Children will certainly go off for half-term with a strong sense of achievement.
Pyjama Day last Friday kicked off Children’s Mental Health Week with dinosaurs, spider men, Harry Potter and bright patterns jazzing up the playground. I must admit I was a little jealous of those children who came into school in a fleecy onesie. I did have Igor – (my pretty old cuddly green dinosaur) to keep me company, but they looked really cosy!
In assembly we talked about all the different ways we can support our mental health, build confidence and cultivate a comfort in our skin – just like the cosiness we feel in our pyjamas! We thought about how smiling actually makes us feel better and this week, Laura continued on this theme in Wednesday’s assembly. She talked to the children about the importance of connection, as ‘Let’s Connect’ is the theme of national Children’s Mental Health Week. ‘How have you connected with someone this week?’ she asked, and pupils shared all the ways in which they have, from saying good morning to their teacher, to playdates with friends and kindness to siblings (you may want to remind them of this last one on occasion!) Emotional Wellbeing is a passion of mine, and we can never have too many of these conversations, encouraging emotional awareness and openness around mental health.
On Wednesday, the Year Twos and Threes relished an afternoon of throwing and dodging, at our very first ever interschool sports fixture with Rosemary Works. See below for more on this. This was a friendly tournament, in which mixed teams of pupils from both schools competed in a series of short games of dodgeball. The children put into practice all of the skills they had been working on, with excellent team spirit. Bravo! More fixtures to come.
Sue Garcin, our trusty administrator based at the nursery, sadly said her goodbyes at a series of celebratory events this week. Once again, we thank her for 20 years of dedicated service to The Children’s House; her friendliness and professionalism will be missed. Nicolette, however, has been soaking in her knowledge and is ready with the reins! Do say hello to her at the nursery if you haven’t already.
Have a fun and relaxing half term break.
Ellie
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Earthquake Support
The newsagents opposite the school is run by a Kurdish family from Turkey, who are collecting items for the relief effort following the devastating earthquake. If you would like to support them, they are currently asking for dry food such as rice and tins, which are being transported and then flown to Turkey via the Turkish and Kurdish Community Centre in Stoke Newington - DayMer | Turkish and Kurdish Community Centre.
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Upcoming Dates - the school calendar can be found here (no login required)
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Nursery Dates
* Monday 20th February
Back to School
* W/C Monday 27th February
World Book Week
* Thursday 2nd March
World book day - dress up as your favourite book character
* Wednesday 22nd February
Online Safety Family Workshop
* W/C Monday 13th March
Recycling Week
* Friday 17th March
Comic Relief
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Upper School Dates
* Monday 20th February:
- Back to School, Y2 trip to RAF Museum, Hendon
* No violins Monday 20th, moved to Weds 22nd
* Wednesday 22nd February
Online Safety Family Workshop from 7pm
* Wednesday 1st March
Year 1 visit to St Paul’s Cathedral
* Thursday 2nd March
World Book Day - dress up as your favourite character
* Wednesday 8th March
Year 1 visit to the Tower of London
* W/C 13th March
TCH Recycling Week
* Friday 17th March
Red Nose Day
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PE & Games News
What an incredible two weeks we have had in PE. Children have worked really hard learning a whole lot of new skills and they have shown excellent behaviour and sportsmanship.
Starting with the little ones in Nursery, the children have been developing their fine and gross motor skills by carrying, transporting and classifying all sort of different equipment, and helping each other.
Reception have been remarkable busy bees these past few weeks. In gymnastics they have performed a 'balances theatre' in pairs and have successfully completed the 'balance-track'. Games have been all about aiming and throwing to different targets, with a range of varied balls, from small and squeezy to big and bouncy.
In Year 1, children have shown how much have they improved their jumping ability. They have been able to coordinate jumps in pairs and groups and succeeded in the 'mega jumps obstacle course', challenging themselves and checking their learning.
Finally, Y2 and Y3 have been the icing on the cake. They have participated in our very first games fixtures hosted by The Children’s House! It was an extremely exciting day where children were able to put into practice all the skills they have been learning and developing throughout this term: throwing, dodging, blocking, and catching. But what is even more important, they enjoyed meeting new children and showing how mature they are becoming, demonstrating great sportsmanship, and congratulating the other teams on victory and defeat.
Let’s continue to keep our minds and bodies healthy!
Have a wonderful break.
Pablo
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Online Safety News
Free Online Safety Family Workshop
We would like to invite all parents, carers or family members to a free Online Safety Family Workshop, delivered by Katy Potts, Computing and E-safety Lead for Children’s Services Islington. This will be held at The Children's House Upper School, King Henry's Walk, on Wednesday 22nd February. Doors will open at 7:00pm for a 7:30pm start. The talk will finish by 8.15pm.
The content covered in the workshops is aimed at adults and not appropriate for children.
The workshop will help parents, carers and other adults understand their child’s online world, build confidence to have those important conversations that can help keep children safe online and provide guidance on where to go for help and advice.
Please follow the links to our online Display board
In year 1 we are working on the differences between traditional books and e-books and we create our own E-books.
In year 2 we are working with spreadsheets to add amounts creating a table and block graph, and learning very useful tool like copying and pasting.
In Year 3 we have been designing and using our coding knowledge to create an Interactive Scene.
Online Safety Reminders
Safer Internet Day 2023 was on the 7th of February and so here we have some resources from the Safer Internet family centre https://saferinternet.org.uk/safer-internet-day/safer-internet-day-2023/parents-and-carers
Follow this link: https://parentsafe.lgfl.net for Parental control and monitoring tools including Google Family Link, Apple ScreenTime and Microsoft Family Safety.
Screen Free Ideas
From Islington Libraries Winter Reading Challenge until 28 February.
London Zoo Community Access Scheme £3 per person https://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/visitor-information/community-access-scheme
Get Moving – Family MoodBooster area “Moving for Mental Health and Wellbeing https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/moodboosters
David
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Year 3 News
Phew - what a busy start to 2023! True to form, Year 3 have worked exceptionally hard right to the end and I'm sure will be looking forward to a well-deserved rest.
The past two weeks have flown by, and the children have shown real resilience when tackling some difficult learning. During Maths, the class have got to grips with division, focusing on partitioning numbers using place value grids and part whole models. In addition, they have identified the links between multiplication and division, showing that they understand that if you know 1 times table calculation, you in fact know 3 others.
During English, Year 3 produced some beautiful winter and spring-themed haikus following the traditional 5-7-5 syllable format; I was hugely impressed by some of the adventurous vocabulary used. Since then, the class have gone on to study the life of a Roman soldier and demonstrated sound understanding of the features of a diary.
I have also had some very proud moments over the last two weeks, most notably, their brilliant attitude towards non-verbal and verbal reasoning and the incredible sportsmanship demonstrated in Wednesday's dodgeball competition. I hope the children are looking forward to next half term as much as I am.
Well done, Year 3!
Kate
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Year 2 News
It has been an action-packed fortnight for Year 2, which included a wonderful trip to The Estorick Collection in Highbury.
On Monday 6th February, Year 2 piled onto the number 30 bus, and we went to have a great workshop on our topic ‘Movement in Art’. We looked at some paintings from Giorgio Morandi who was famous for creating still life paintings and had a basic lesson on how hand-eye coordination is particularly important when creating masterpieces. We had fun trying to draw pictures using our weaker hand and then we looked at ways to make still life paintings come alive with some interesting techniques. Finally, we had the opportunity to look at how a zoetrope was used to create movement in the pre-film era. We all had a wonderful time, and the children were extremely mature and responsible during the visit and during the journey.
In Literacy we have been learning all about George Stephenson who is also known as the ‘Father of Railways.’ We thought about different questions we would ask him in preparation to do our own research on the Chromebooks. We sorted out a jumbled-up timeline and eventually wrote our own mini biographies. Finally, we also recreated the Rainhill Trials, which was one of the main events to propel George Stephenson into fame for his son’s steam train invention called The Rocket in 1829.
In RE we learnt about the Sabbath and how followers of Judaism enjoy time with their families on a Friday night and Saturday. We had a chance to taste some of the special bread called ‘Challah,’ which is especially important for those respecting the Sabbath. Ellie came to speak to Year 2 as we shared the bread.
I hope everyone has a lovely and well deserved half term break.
James.
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Year 1 News
As we come to the end of our first half term of 2023 it is wonderful to reflect on how driven the children have been, striving to meet the targets we have been setting for them this year, and having a lot of fun along the way! The children should feel very proud of what they have achieved in this time.
The past two weeks have been full of exciting activities, from days in pyjamas for children’s mental health week, to visits from local architect aka Beatrice’s mum, to first adventures on public transport.
As Geographers the children looked at maps of the local area, first focusing on the UK and its four countries. This led to discussion around what our own locality is like. We considered building uses in the area around King Henry’s Walk, and jobs that local people may do. Following this, the children created maps of the areas around their houses, using keys to locate places and compasses to think about direction. In literacy they have been looking at letter writing conventions, and how postcodes are used to send letters and locate places with accuracy. The children will have the opportunity to write and post their own letters too.
In topic this week the children have been thinking about what life was like for the Victorians and comparing modern day life with people beyond living memory. As Historians they compared houses from the past with modern day homes, and considered what changes would have taken place since the reign of Queen Victoria that contribute to a more comfortable lifestyle for us modern folk. They really didn’t like the idea of an outdoor toilet shared with the entire street! Additionally, Bronia spent two mornings with Year 1. The children looked at examples of Victorian theatres and moving panoramas, wrote a sequel to ‘The Patchwork Quilt’ (that was so beautifully enacted two weeks prior), and used their design and technology skills to create their very own little ‘crankie theatres.’ The children attached their own moving parts, painted detailed pictures to tell the story through imagery, and designed proceniums to turn their boxes into a work of wonder. It was fiddly, but the end result is just marvellous. The children also visited the Ragged School Museum, built in 1877 to serve the children of Mile End with a basic education, and one of the first visits since its recent refurbishment. Before the journey the children looked at Victorian names and chose one for themselves. Some opted for more traditional names, such as Alfred, Florence or Hilda, whereas some preferred a more unusual name, such as Clapham. It was great to be able to take some family members with us too. Year 1 experienced a snippet of what it was like to be a Victorian school child, learning about the three R’s, reading, writing and arithmetic. The children enjoyed it so much they asked if we could acquire similar Victorian style punishments for the classroom back at the Children’s House. It’s safe to say we will be leaving those firmly in 1893...
Aisha
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Reception News
These past weeks Reception have been pirates! The class discussed what they imagined a pirate to be like and made a mind map of their ideas. We listened to the story ‘The Night Pirates’, discussed how the ‘rough, tough, little girl prates’ deviated from some of the stereotypes we had initially listed. The class used their phonic knowledge and the features of a narrative to retell the story. The children also explored Peter Pan, discussing the significance of the female characters and whether there can only be one hero within a story. The class used their phonic knowledge to write whether they would rather stay a child forever or grow up. We also explored money in maths and made telescopes, treasure maps, 3D pirate ship paintings and their own fairy friend. At the end of the week it was lovely to see the children dressed in pyjamas and discussing ways in which we can prioritise our mental wellbeing.
This week the class have been exploring ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. The children made a collaborative story map and used the features of a narrative to retell the story. Reception used real wood to create a picture inspired by the story. Pupils became engineers when tasked with creating a basket from paper that was strong enough to carry a handful of marbles. Reception then looked at a story in which ‘The Wolf’ was no longer the stereotypical ‘villain’ of the story but instead the hero.
We hope Reception enjoy their well deserved rest. We are so looking forward to diving further into traditional tales, challenging stereotypes and exploring storytelling with the children next half term.
Reception team.
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Nursery
I can scarcely believe we have already come to the end of a busy first half term. We have all cherished building rapport with the children and creating some lovely memories both in and out of the classroom.
Health and wellbeing as well as managing emotions has been the focus lately. The children have enjoyed role playing in a doctor’s surgery, and learned about the importance of dental hygiene. They have explored mindful breathwork and continued in their love of yoga. What’s more, it’s been wonderful to see how the children have taken to discussing how they manage their emotions and to express their feelings to one another.
This felt very timely with the departure of the well loved Sue upon us. The children will miss her dearly, as will all of the staff and indeed the parents and our local community. You’ve been the face of the school in so many ways and for so long, Sue, that this really does feel like the end of an era. We can’t thank you enough for all that you’ve done, and we wish you the all the very best in the next chapter.
I wish you a very happy half term, see you after the break.
Taiba
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Upstairs Nursery News
We focused on well-being and mindfulness for the past two weeks, and the children have thoroughly enjoyed exploring emotions in various ways. Stories such as ‘My Many Coloured Days’ and ‘The Colour Monster’ have encouraged the children to make links between colours and feelings. They made collages to portray their emotions, used charcoal to represent different expressions and worked in pairs to paint each other’s faces describing a feeling.
Our weekly Yoga lessons give the children an opportunity to step back, reflect and relax. With a focus on deep breathing exercises and meditation, the sessions aim to move the children from co-regulating to self-regulating, so they can learn how to manage big emotions. It has been wonderful to see the children independently applying mindfulness strategies during their interactions with their peers, especially while negotiating and solving problems.
We also talked about the importance of staying healthy and looking after our bodies and the people who help us with this. The Home Corner’s transformation into a Doctor’s Surgery sparked great interest! It was a delight to have such a fantastic team on site to look after patients and write prescriptions. We are pleased to report that all the ailments have been dealt with promptly and seriously!
Thank you for making our Pyjama Day such a success. The children loved sharing bedtime stories, having snack ‘in bed’ and learning about the importance of looking after others.
Have a lovely half term break!
The Upstairs Team
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Downstairs Nursery News
The Downstairs children were extremely excited by our pirate themed week! We ‘walked the plank,’ dressed up as pirates, and turned the slide into a pirate ship to go looking for treasure. We read lots of pirate themed stories and made gold coins and treasure maps, too!
This week our focus has been on children’s health and well-being. We have been focusing on our emotions and ways of helping ourselves cheer up and calm down. We created worry puppets to munch up our worries and made calming rain sticks and breathing wands to help us practice mindful breathing. We read stories to discuss the importance of oral hygiene and practiced brushing our teeth with our peers after snack time. The children also created beautiful cards for friends and family as we discussed the different ways to show and receive love.
We look forward to hearing about all your adventures over half term!
The Downstairs Team
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