Newsletters

Dear Parents, 

The last couple of weeks have been filled with both challenges and bright moments.

Some of you may already know that Ellie has been absent from school due to a recent bereavement in her family. In these trying times, Ellie has dedicated herself to providing and seeking support within her family. Your understanding and empathy during this difficult period mean a great deal to Ellie and the entire school. During her absence, our team, including Chris, Mihaela, and myself, will continue to collaborate closely across both offices to ensure the school operates smoothly.

The children always capture our attention, and the last couple of weeks were no different, allowing us plenty of opportunities to celebrate their achievements. One particular highlight of their hands-on learning experiences, was putting on the first whole-school mini farmer's market. The children explored fresh fruits and vegetables and made everything from jam tarts to hand soap. It was a lovely gathering and a total sell-out within minutes! At the Nursery, Bronia's performance of 'The Enormous Turnip' captivated everyone with puppetry, storytelling, live music, and interactive elements. Even the youngest attendees remained attentive and engaged throughout the entire performance.

As I walked through the Upper school, I had the opportunity to see various aspects of the children's development and learning. Whilst in the playground, I noticed the Year 3 and 4 children practicing for their football tournaments with great enthusiasm and sportsmanship. In the classroom, I was impressed by Year 2's geographical knowledge of the UK over the course of a week; they've been keen to learn and eager to show off their knowledge! In Year 1, I was struck by the level of scientific thinking. Thanks to the children's boundless curiosity, the team members are doing a great job of keeping them engaged. During my visits to Reception, I've been delighted to see the progress through their display work and writing, all of this happening so early on in the term. Joining them for Breakfast Club on Wednesday was a great experience, filled with lovely conversations. 

For updates in between newsletter publications, please keep an eye on our Instagram, where Zoe regularly shares more of the great work and experiences happening at school.

Have a great weekend,

Taiba

Dear Parents,  

In Ellie’s absence, I have been given the opportunity to share the amazing things that have been happening at The Children's House Upper Site in the last two weeks. This week, I have spent some more time out of the classroom and on the playground and it has really highlighted what a tightknit school The Children’s House is. I am proud to say that our children are so kind and caring towards one another. When things don’t go to plan, they support each other with kind words and, when disappointed about losing, they offer words of encouragement.

This support really shone through with our Year 3 and 4 girls who represented the school in a football tournament this week. Not only have they been practicing hard on the playground, but they have also been such sources of support for each other when team members aren’t feeling particularly confident about their position or their skills. Thank you to Pablo and the Admin team for their hard work in organising these inter-school competitions – they are so incredibly worthwhile and valuable for our children. 

Naturally, I have to highlight the amazing Farmers' Market on the 29^th September! It was a joy to watch all of the children share their hard work with parents and carers and we managed to raise a total of £260 for St Jude and St Paul's Food Bank. A big thank you for your generosity financially and an even bigger thank you for supporting the event with your time.   

Looking forward, we have begun work on ‘Our Wonderful World’ week. The teachers and children will be exploring other cultures through literature, music and art. The children, like last year, will also be performing something from one of the cultures they have been exploring. Whilst we may not be able to host parents for this event, David is working hard in the background looking at live stream/video options. To expose our children to a diverse range of cultures, I know that teachers are making room in their timetables for parents and carers to share their own experiences and cultures. Please do sign up with teachers and if you’ve shared with a class previously, feel free to approach another class as well!     

Finally, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for their warm welcome. It has been wonderful getting to know all your children and if there is anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to get in touch either via email or in person.  

Have a wonderful weekend, 

Chris  

PE and Games News 

It's been an action-packed few weeks in PE at The Children’s House, filled with exciting sports events and physical activities! 

First up, we had the Girls' Football Tournament, which was an amazing experience for all involved. Our girls showed incredible teamwork and sportsmanship throughout the tournament, setting the bar high for the boys and encouraging them in their upcoming Boys' Football Tournament scheduled for next Monday. We can't wait to see them in action. 

 

 

In our early years program, our Nursery children have been having a blast improving their spatial awareness, learning about colors, and exploring basic gymnastics shapes using colorful spot markers. They've even had their own personal "pets" in the form of bean bags during their lessons. 

Our Reception class has been getting creative with shapes, discovering new ways to make them while lying down, upside down, on their sides, and even while sitting down. They've been working in pairs to put together sequences and perform them in our very own "Shapes Theatre." Plus, they've been enjoying fun and interactive games like "Land, Sea, and Air," which have been enhancing their spatial awareness and coordination. 

In Year 1 and Year 2, our students have been learning about proper running techniques and have been supportive mini-coaches for each other. They've had a chance to participate in team races, showcasing just how much they've improved. Additionally, they've explored creative movements such as cartwheels, crabbing, and rolling. 

The TCH Olympics have been an outstanding experience for our Year 3 and Year 4 students. They've shown enthusiasm and dedication, demonstrating skills learned in sports like running, javelin throwing, jumping, passing the baton, and hurdles work. In teams of 4/5, they supported each other, showing strong teamwork and resilience. They celebrated their achievements with humility and displayed excellent sportsmanship. Below, you can see a photo of our first winners! These games have not only been a sporting event, but also a valuable lesson in sportsmanship and learning. Congratulations to our young athletes! 

Have a wonderful weekend, and here's to more exciting adventures in learning and sports! 

Warm regards, 

Pablo 

 

Spanish 

Hola! We want to share some of the exciting activities that have been happening in our Spanish classes over the past two weeks. 

In Reception, the children are singing the song "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in Spanish (Estrellita Donde Estas?) and they are also learning about sizes. It's amazing to see how much they can learn as they have fun!  

     

  

  

In Year 1, the children continue to explore a range of jungle animals (like leopards and elephants). They are excited to share what they have learned.  

  

  

   

In Year 2 and Year 3, the children continue to work with shapes and numbers. They love playing memory games to find teh different shapes and learning how to write them in Spanish. They have also begun working on understanding the difference between singular and plural.  

  

  

  

In Year 4, our students are exploring the topic of weather. They are learning how to describe the hot and cold  weather and they are enjoying writing and answering questions related to this. We are excited about the progress of the children and look forward to more Spanish learning adventures... !Hasta la proxima!! 

 

Martha 

Year 4

As we enter October, it’s hard to believe that we’re only one month into the academic year. So much has happened in the Year 4 Classroom. Last week, a massive highlight for me was our Farmers' Market. The children worked incredibly hard to get everything ready with their handmade soaps and on Friday afternoon, the classroom looked like a packaging warehouse getting all of our soaps into the right bags ready for sale. A big thank you must go to Emily who valiantly led the soap making effort followed by a special shout out to Camilla for her heroic selling. Camilla manned the stall for almost the whole Market and was even upselling parents to those larger soaps to raise as much money as possible.  

In English, we completed our final recount about our Egyptian adventures. I am immensely proud of the incredible effort the children have put into these. In just 4 weeks, it is clear to see their progression with some great added detail through adverbials, expanded noun phrases and conjunctions.  This week, we have moved into Narrative Writing. Although the structure is the same, some language features are notably different. For example, children will be shifting from writing in the 1st person (I, me, my) to the 3rd person (he, his, she, her, they, their). As a class, we are also going to be focusing on writing consistently in the same tense. I wanted to share Oscar’s writing with you this week. I am so proud of the grammatical skills that Oscar has included in this writing, particularly in his first couple of paragraphs. He wrote this, completely indepedently with such amazing focus – well done Oscar!  

 

In Maths, following on from our Place Value work, we have been looking at Addition strategies. Children have been learning to use a range of mental and written strategies to add up to 5-digit numbers. We have used the language ‘regrouping’ to describe when an addition calculation should be done in our heads or written down. If the children need to ‘regroup’ (move digits between columns), then it is safer to use a written method. For some children, they found it is easy to mentally add 2 numbers as long as there was only one regroup – they chose to only use column method for 2 or more regroupings.  

In Topic, Year 4 have been learning about the process of mummification. On Friday, we will begin creating our own mummies and placing them in pupil designed sarcophagi. This has been complemented by our science learning on the digestive system. Children have learned about the way that our body takes nutrients from foods before excreting the waste. I’m sure they would love to answer all questions you have on this process! Here’s a diagram drawn during the lesson to help. 

Next week, we will be learning more about Our Wonderful World in tandem with Black History Month. In Year 4, we have been discussing the excellence that has come from ethnic minority communities. Specifically, the children have been learning about music by Labi Siffre – a black acitvist, singer and songwriter. The children will be performing one of his more famous hits ‘Something Inside So Strong’ during our assembly later in the half-term. If anyone would like to come and share their culture with the class, please do let me know.  

Chris

Year 1
Another busy two weeks for Year 1 have flown by! They continue to impress as mathematicians, writers, artists, and chefs! We hope you enjoyed the crumbly flapjacks they made for the Farmers' Market. They really enjoyed making them!  

Our literacy focus for the last weeks has been on getting children to write their own tales more independently. Last week, as part of the harvest week, the children used their senses to describe fruit using adjectives and then wrote a poem about a fruit. They have read the story ‘five minutes peace,’ by Jill Murphy and briefly wrote about their own families before sequencing the story and then finally, creating their own sentences predicting the end using their imagination. They are all working so well at remembering how to structure a sentence and the punctuation that is needed!  

In Maths, the children have begun to look at addition and use part whole models to help them think about numbers and number bonds. They first used cubes to create their own part whole model and have now moved on to writing equations using the addition symbol. They have shown great aptitude in using and creating part whole models!  

During Science lessons, the children have made predictions based on knowledge they already have and learnt about how scientists use predictions in experiments. We then conducted an experiment to test our eye-sight in three separate conditions: a dark room, with one eye closed and squinting. They were all very keen to come up with different ideas to test their eyesight!  

In PSHE, the children have been thinking about resilience and being part of the school and classroom. From being resilient after a football loss, to being able to fall down when practising cartwheels were great examples of how children have been resilient.  

Finally, in Art, children have explored primary and secondary colours by creating their own colour wheels to show how each secondary colour is made. They are all very knowledgeable about how to mix colours - thanks Rose!

Our focus for the coming weeks will be ‘Our Wonderful World’ and ‘Black History Month.’ We will look at how the world is made up of different continents, celebrate each other’s cultures and will explore where Shelly (our snail) is from. We will also be reading a range of books from authors such as Benjamin Zephaniah and Malorie Blackman. We look forward to celebrating our differences! 

 

 

 

Year 2

Year 2 has been turned into a bakery, a police station and a sanctuary for 5 young stick insects over the last fortnight. All the children have been brilliant and thoroughly settled into Year 2 life. We also have welcomed Arius into our Year 2 team and it’s been a pleasure to see everyone get to know him. A huge “well done” to Arius for being such a superstar in your first week at our school. 

In Literacy, we have been detectives. We watched the lovely Light Animation directed by Ming Hsiung and Charlie Short and had to predict what will happen next using evidence. The children came up with some wonderful predictions. We focussed on good sentence structure and nourishing our sentences with adjectives. We also described the setting of the opening scene and did a character description of the grumpy lighthouse keeper.

In Numeracy, we have been pushing beyond our comfort zone with our number lines, estimating on a number line and expanding numbers. Charli(e) the Crocodile has returned to help the children revisit greater than, less than and equal to. 

In Science, the children have started to observe and draw our young class stick insects. We have noted down what we have observed, and we will be doing this on a weekly basis. The stick insects aren’t quite ready to come out yet, but David helped to bring one out to show the children. We also had the pleasure of welcoming 3 kittens into our school for an observation activity. From a distance, we looked to see if the kittens had all the characteristics of a living thing (MRS GREN). We had a great time observing these playful creatures.

Our classroom also turned into a bakery and all the children helped to prepare and bake our nautical inspired shortbread. We measured out the ingredients and then it was a bustle of activity with kneading, rolling, and cutting before baking. The children also helped to design amazing posters and I think we have some serious young marketing experts in this class. 

 

  

 

  

  

 

   

 

James

Year 3

The Year 3 children have certainly been getting hands on with their learning over the last two weeks. From baking Stone Age crumble, to observing rock formation as geologists, they have worked extremely hard and should be proud of how much their brains have absorbed! 

In Literacy, we have continued to work with our Stone Age theme and have used the story of ‘How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth’ as a base for both our instructional writing, as well as some descriptive writing using powerful adjectives and similes. The children thought about how imperative verbs are used in commands, then ordered events in a recipe chronologically using time openers, before writing their own recipes using all of the features they had used! Once these were complete, the children were able to put their instructions to the test and created some delightful looking ‘Mammoth crumble’ (no mammoths included!) ready to sell at the Farmer’s Market!  

 

 

 

In our topic lessons, our History focus has continued to be… you guessed it! The Stone Age! The children thought about how Hunter gatherers survived during the Mesolithic period. They differentiated between threats and assets, observing how some assets may also prove to be threats, and vice versa. Although deer may pose as threats, their antlers could prove useful for tools, weapons, meat and fur for warmth. They then went on their own asset hunt in the playground, thinking about how these assets protected them from threats such as starvation or bad weather. 

During our Science lessons, the children have been geologists and have been learning all about the rock cycle. The children used starburst ‘sediments’ to demonstrate the process of how rocks are formed when they undergo heat or pressure. Their sediments were layered to form sedimentary rocks, before undergoing heat and pressure to form metamorphic rocks (they squashed theirs together to form a metamorphic ball). These were then heated in the microwave and melted. This resembled the magma found deep underground near volcanoes. Once these cooled, we could see crystals in their hard rocks, similar to those found in igneous rocks. Some excellent observations, prediction and scientific terminology was used. The children will now begin carefully observing and testing different types of rocks to determine whether they are sedimentary, igneous or metamorphic. Very impressive! 

Finally, we had our very first Year 3 birthday. Happy Birthday Michael! It has certainly been quite the food filled fortnight with much to celebrate and the children should continue to be proud of their efforts, as am I! 

Reception

As part of their topic ‘Light and Dark’, Reception looked at the Aurora Borealis and discussed the mysticism behind it. The children used adjectives to describe them and used their phonic knowledge to write how they felt looking at them. The class used chalk to create their own enchanting northern lights. The class also looked at Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’. The children worked collaboratively to create their own composition using mixed media. They discussed what we thought Van Gogh meant when he said ‘‘Looking at the stars always makes me dream". Reception used their phonic knowledge to write about what they dream of when looking at the stars. The class explored weight and measure and used these skills to create delicious treats for our farmer’s market. 

The children kick started their exploration of 'Our Wonderful World' by looking at the story ‘’At The Same Moment Around the World." The class discussed places they would like to visit and used their phonics to write about it. Reception also used mixed media to create a composition of their dream location. The children then looked at the traditional Igbo tale ‘Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky’, the class used their phonics to retell the story. Reception also explored the Kenyan artist Thandiwe Muriu, they used geometric shapes, kente prints and photography to recreate one of her compositions. We rounded off our week by exploring the story ‘How the Zebra Got Its Stripes’ and by creating our very own Zebras inspired by Tingatinga art. Reception also thoroughly enjoyed their first computing lesson; it was a wonderful way for the children to develop their ICT skills as well as their letter recognition and hand eye co-ordination. 

 

 

Downstairs Nursery 

 

Over the last two weeks, the Downstairs Children have been busy learning about the ‘Harvest Festival’ and about their homes. During this time, the children enjoyed experimenting with different fruits and vegetables and talking about where they think the fruits and vegetables come from. The children have also loved learning about life on a farm and looking closely at the harvest process. They especially enjoyed making gingerbread men, carefully following the recipe cards to measure and mix ingredients before kneading their dough. The children were mesmerised by a beautiful puppet show on ‘The Enormous Turnip’ which generated fantastic discussions about where our food comes from. 

 

This week we explored houses and homes. The children had the opportunity to talk about the people who live with them and share some of their family photos with each other. We read ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and they had the opportunity to explore the different materials the pigs made their houses from. The children worked collaboratively on a large scale to create a 3D house which led to us going on an environmental walk to look at the features of different houses. 

 

We have been so impressed with how enthusiastically the children have engaged with the variety of learning experiences on offer. 

They have been very busy!  

 

The Downstairs Team