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Dear Parents,
It was nice to return to school this week to so much warmth and concern. Thank you for your good wishes, which are much appreciated.
Black History, as part of our Wonderful World Week, has been the highlight of the last fortnight, showcasing the dynamism, creativity and diversity of our wonderful staff and the whole of the School community. We were very happy to welcome all the parents who came into to share aspects of their cultural heritage. The children are always so proud to see you in the teacher’s chair, and we really value your efforts.
As you will read in this newsletter, children have been taken on wondrous explorations all over the world. Songs in Korean and Swahili; Samba rhythms; African art and jewellery, Ukrainian pancakes Caribbean fruit baskets and bagpipes in the playground have been some of the highlights. Today, while the children enjoyed their first day of half term, the staff took part in a full day of training entitled Beyond Black History, sharing ideas and best practice on promoting and celebrating diversity in our school. This has been incredibly thought provoking and we have lots of good ideas to implement.
Open morning was a great success, and I know that you will agree that the classroom displays and the children’s exercise books show just how hard the children have been working and the progress they have made since returning to school in September. Routines have now been firmly cemented in every year group and, across the board, teachers have been commenting on the improvement in listening behaviours and care moving around the building.
I must confess, the past week has certainly reawakened my wanderlust. Thank goodness for half term! Wishing everyone safe travels and a restful time.
Ellie
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Dear Parents,
The children had a great time participating in a variety of cultural activities, such as creating Aboriginal Art, making Andy Goldsworthy-inspired floor sculptures, crafting Mexican folk mirrors, producing art inspired by Yayoi Kusama, and weaving their very own Turkish rugs. To add to the excitement, they had the opportunity to sample food from all around the world during our 'Wonderful World Week,' which was a tremendous success.
The "Carnival of Stories Theatre Show" by the Freshwater Theatre Company provided an immersive experience for the children, featuring enchanting stories and captivating acting that transported us to different worlds. We'd like to say a big thank you to the parents who took time out of their busy days to create memorable moments for their children by sharing something from their home culture. It was a lovely way to celebrate our school community, and the children were incredibly excited about this parental involvement. While we understand that not all parents could attend, we look forward to creating more opportunities for parents to visit and collaborate in the future.
This week, we opened our classrooms to give you a glimpse into the children's learning journey so far. It's clear that both the children and the staff have accomplished a great deal; they absolutely loved showing off their achievements! Our Open Day, designed for prospective parents, provided a window into the vibrant and engaging activities that define our curriculum approach. The positive feedback from attending parents was reassuring and encouraged us to continue doing what we are passionate about: giving your children an exceptional educational experience.
Mihaela and I were pleased with the turnout at our Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (PSED) workshop. It was fantastic to see so many parents actively participating in discussions on promoting children's well-being and social development. Your engagement and insights during the workshop were much appreciated. We look forward to seeing even more of you at the next workshop in the spring.
Your increased engagement on our social media hasn't gone unnoticed please keep it up! We look forward to sharing more of what the children get up to.
Have wonderful half-term.
Taiba
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Upper School Upcoming Dates
Fri 20th Oct - Half term ** No school on Friday 20th due to an staff inset day ***
Mon 30th Oct - return to school (clubs as normal)
Fri 1st Dec - 50th Anniversary Winter Fair
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Nursery School Upcoming Dates
Friday 20th Oct - Half term ** No school on Friday 20th due to an staff inset day ***
Mon 30th Oct - return to school (clubs as normal)
Fri 1st Dec - 50th Anniversary Winter Fair
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PE and Games News
Congratulations to Pablo and his wife on the birth of their baby girl! Chloe, a wonderful supply teacher, has been in this week, covering all of the PE and Games lessons, and despite the soggy weather, most of our outdoor lessons have gone ahead as planned.
We look forward to welcoming Pablo back to school after the half term.
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Spanish
We are excited about the children's enthusiasm and progress in Spanish. Let's take a quick peek at what what we have been doing:
Nursery: The little ones had fun singing songs and learning basic Spanish greetings like "Hello, how are you?" and "Goodbye, see you soon."
Our Reception children entertained the "Wonderful Word Assembly" by singing "Estrellita, Estrellita, Donde Estas?" They have also started learning a new song called "Los Pollitos dicen, Pío, Pío, Pío." Can you sing along at home?
Year 1 learned the names and characteristics of six jungle animals and have enjoyed learning about these animals through songs and games.
Both Year 2 and Year 3 children did brilliantly learning the names of ten forms in Spanish and how to use articles, plurals/singulars and determiners correctly. They even started writing short sentences.
Year 4 students wrote short sentences about different weather conditions in various parts of Spain, including the south, east, west and north.
We're really proud of everybody's progress.
Martha
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Art
Art club completed our canvas tote bag project. It commenced with painting a background colour followed by printing to highlight the design. On the reverse the children used vinyl shapes to create an abstract design framed with fabric pens.
Year 1.
Celebrated Our Wonderful World/Black History by making Masai jewellery. They created a necklace with a range of beads then coloured in a diamond shape to enhance their jewellery.
Year 2.
Personalised their sketch book with an individual design based on painting, collage and mark making.
Year 3 and 4
Colour theory involved primary, secondary and tertiary colour wheels. This was followed up with tints, shades and tones.
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Tech For Good
As the seasons change and autumn brings its vibrant colours, we're excited to share what's happening in the world of IT at The Children's House School.
Reception:
In Reception, our little ones are making great progress in getting to grips with their logins and navigating the world of online safety.
Year 1:
Year 1 is all about saving work and understanding the importance of staying safe online. Our children are learning to save and retrieve their digital creations and exploring the ins and outs of online safety.
Year 2, 3, and 4:
In Year 2, 3, and 4, we've embarked on an exciting journey to program a Jam sandwich bot! The children's skills in writing algorithms have been nothing short of amazing. They're learning how to craft precise step-by-step instructions, and the results have been truly inspiring. As part of their homework, we're encouraging them to ask parents or caregivers for one algorithm - a set of precise step-by-step instructions - to tidy up their bedrooms. It's a fun and educational way to bring coding into our daily lives.
For all our parents and caregivers, we recommend checking out tools like Google Family Link, Apple ScreenTime, and Microsoft Family Safety to ensure a safe online environment for your children. Click here for useful resources and check out Internet Matters for more online safety tips.
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Year 4
Normally, at the end of a half term, there is a sense of relief. A gladness that we have a chance to reset after a long half term. However, in Year 4, there is a renewed sense of energy. In the last two weeks, the children have approached their work with such focus, passion and attention to detail. Whether it be rehearsals for Our Wonderful World Performance, or our Narrative Writing pieces, I have been blown away by the dedication of the Year 4 students. My personal highlight was watching the children perform ‘So Strong’ by Labi Siffre. Our intention was to show the power of music in sharing the message of equality and Year 4 delivered even bringing tears to some adults' eyes with the performance.
During Wonderful World week, Children took great joy sharing their heritages from Liverpool to London, Sweden to Sydney, Wales to Watford. The Year 4 students looked at the idea of minority people. We discussed that a minority is simply a smaller group in relation to a bigger larger group (majority). We then discussed how Black and other ethnic minorities have not always been treated as we would want them to be treated. Through song (like our assembly performance), we looked at the power of music in sharing messages. Children deconstructed these lyrics as part of their Guided Reading work. Using their understanding, they created actions to match the power of each lyric. I have been incredibly impressed with the thoughtful reflection they have given to the topic. Below is an image of the children taking part in a Windrush immersive workshop with the Freshwater Theatre Company.
In Maths, students have been focusing on addition and subtraction. They are all now confident at adding and subtracting 5-digit numbers using the column method. In addition, they are beginning to secure the use of rounding and inverse strategies to help check their answers. To finish the half term, children took part in a collaborative problem-solving task where they had to apply their strategies to an unseen context. Their teamwork, once again, shone through and it was great to see some normally quiet mathematicians acting as leaders within their groups. Here are Cooper, Clark and Arthur grappling with the problem.
English has seen us shift gears from recounts to narratives. The creativity in idea generation has been fascinating with some children taking seemingly abstract ideas and weaving a cohesive, engaging story! Year 4 have continued to look at adding detail to their writing through the use of adverbials, fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases. As you’ll have seen in Open Classrooms, the progress in their writing is fantastic.
All that remains is for me to wish you all a restful break in the coming week whether at home or on holiday. Have a great break, and I look forward to seeing you all after half-term.
Chris
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Year 3
We have had a wonderful, busy week in Year Three continuing our Stone Age Topic and working hard with our addition in Numeracy. We started our week with Jack sharing his adventures with Leo, the woolly mammoth, over the weekend.
In Literacy we have been learning about cause and effect, for example: “it snowed today so the school was closed”. We have then looked at how we can use conjunctions to link sentences and make them more interesting using the book ‘The First Drawing’. We have also been learning about singular and plural nouns and how we can change them from one to the other, for example: “kitten” to “kittens”. We know that sometimes we have to change the word to make it a plural, for example: “knife” to “knives”.
In Numeracy, we have been working hard to use our knowledge of place value and number bonds to help us add three digit numbers in lots of different ways. We know that if we’re adding a single digit number that crosses ten, a good method is to partition the number into a number that would get up to the next ten and then add the rest. For example, for 67 + 8, we would add 3 to make 70 and then add the remaining 5. We then used the same method to add 10s across multiples of 100 up to 1000. We have been using part-whole models, dienes and number lines to help us.
Continuing with our Stone Age topic, the children looked at examples of cave art, and made predictions about where they were found and who may have created them. They made their very own versions of cave paintings at the end of the week. They thought about how cave paintings represented very early communication and would represent the hunt, or perhaps even wishes for a good hunt.
Finally, our Wonderful World learning concluded with an assembly at which Year 3 were able to share their knowledge about the Native American Passamaquoddy tribe. We were lucky enough to have Emily talk to us about her time working with them in Maine. The children drew beautiful portraits and handled artefacts such a sweet grass, woven baskets and dream catchers. They also learned a song which was performed to the school in the Passamaquoddy language. The children’s pieces will be sent over to the Passamaquody Tribe and their letters to the children. We hope to get a response after the holiday and that they love our artwork!
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Year 2
Year 2 have flown across the globe to Africa and South America over the last two weeks for our Wonderful World week in class.
In Literacy we have been reading about the adventures of The Ghanaian Goldilocks (whose name is Kofi)! We read about all the mischief Kofi gets up to and despite occasionally causing trouble, he remains humble and polite. We came up with an amazing list of adjectives to describe him, answered comprehension questions from a text and made predictions about what would happen next. We also made some comparisons with the traditional tale of Goldilocks. The main difference is that there are no bears for Kofi to meet!
In Geography we looked closely at a profile of Ghana and the children looked to identify and name the capital city, population, and currency. They also looked at the climate, geographical features and what plants and animals can be found there.
We also had the pleasure of Ana Paula talking to the children all about the beautiful country of Brazil! The children learnt so much and asked some excellent questions! We went slightly deeper to learn about the carnivals held in Brazil. We made some masks and brought a feel-good factor to the Year 2 classroom with a samba (which was very fun for all involved!) in preparation for the Our Wonderful World assembly last week, where Year 2 did a marvellous performance!
We also looked at the eye-catching work of Romero Britto. The children loved seeing his amazing art work filled with bright colours, doodles, eccentric patterns and bold lines. We created our own masterpieces using Amazon animals as our main inspiration. Children were given the opportunity to be as creative as they wished and produced some amazing pieces. We also spent some time writing a brief reflection on our work. The classroom is certainly looking very colourful!
In Numeracy we have looking at how fact families and related facts can help us to remember our number bonds to 100. All of this will be helpful as we approach adding 1 and 2 digit numbers together after half term. I’ve been impressed by the determination from so many who found this a little tricky at the start.
I am very proud of how well all the children have started Year 2 this term. They have a real sense of independence and have approached all the challenges and tasks with maturity and calmness. We also have introduced monitors in the classroom and all the children have been extremely helpful keeping the classroom safe and tidy!
I hope everyone has a lovely and peaceful half term.
James
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Year 1
Year 1 have had a very busy end to the half term. They have all impressed me with their efforts and how they have settled into year 1! Well done to all the children!
Last week was Wonderful World Week, which gave the children opportunity to learn about the different cultures in the world. We recapped what the seven continents were. They enjoyed talking about all the places their families are from and where they've been. They also made Masai necklaces and learnt to sing Twinkle Twinkle little star in Korean for the assembly. They really impressed me with how quickly they picked it up! Thank you, again, to those parents who came in and shared about where they were from. The children could not stop talking about all the places they were shown!
In Literacy the children looked at the conjunctions so, and, because and then wrote a poem about their body using these words: so and because. This week, as a class, we read some nonsense poems about our senses and the children then wrote their own. They used adjectives well and some even tried to include a conjunction. They were all very funny!
In Maths, the children have built in their knowledge of part whole models and number bonds to solve addition problems written in words and in numbers. They have also looked at finding the missing part to a part whole model.
The children have begun to look at the main organs in our bodies, what they do and where they are during their Science lessons. They have really enjoyed learning about the human body.
After half term, we will be moving onto our topic of Toys. The children will look at how toys have changed and discuss what their favourite toy is. It should be another very fun topic! Enjoy your half term and I hope the children all have a well-deserved rest.
Eliot
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Reception
Last week Reception were so pleased to welcome parents and staff into the classroom to discuss their heritages. We were treated to origami, the traditional Chinese legend ‘Nian’, Colombian dancing, exotic fruits from Montserrat and the Carribean and bag pipes! Our Wonderful World Parade was the perfect way to end our week, Reception displayed their Zebras that they had made in the style of Kenyan Tinga Tinga artwork and sang the Caribbean song, ‘Yellow Bird’. Throughout the week the class also looked at the story ‘The Night Box’. We discussed what we might see on a nocturnal adventure. During our Literacy lessons we identified examples of personification from within the story and used our phonic knowledge to write them down. The class used recycled materials to create their own night box and tape to create a night time forest composition.
This week we have been looking at nocturnal animals. Reception used their phonics to write down whether or not they would want to be a nocturnal animal, and if so, which animal would they like to be and why. The class used recycled materials to create their own nocturnal animals. Reception also looked closely at the story 'The Flashlight’ and used the illustrations to inspire their own composition. It is hard to believe that Reception have completed their first half term of school. They should be immensely proud of themselves and all they have accomplished over these past seven weeks; it was a joy to invite you all into the classroom to see the children’s magnificent work.
Zoe
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Upstairs Nursery
Our Wonderful World week took us on a wondrous journey around the world, a joyful celebration of diversity, heritage, interests and beliefs. Looking at the world map and learning the continent song not only sparked the children’s curiosity to enthusiastically ask a plethora of questions about different countries and their locations on the map but also prompted them to share their knowledge about the places they have visited. We must state that they are already incredibly well travelled butterflies!
The children have explored the African culture by making collar necklaces, trying on traditional dresses and tunics, and moving their bodies creatively to African drumming beats. We looked closely at Kente cloths and discussed shapes and colours, before encouraging the children to have a go at using paint and masking tape to decorate their own fabrics by creating vivid geometrical patterns. Providing opportunities for children to make cross-curricular links in their learning in this way, helps them make connections and allows them to deepen their knowledge, skills and understanding in a creative way.
Our focus on Egypt gave the children countless occasions to learn about the rich culture, as they worked on a large scale to decorate walls with hieroglyphics and problem-solved to collaboratively build pyramids or floating devices to safely transport people down the Nile. The children have been encouraged to plan their own trip to Egypt and use their imagination to draw items needed for the adventure. They had lots of fabulous ideas- cold carpets to cover themselves if they got too hot, sunglasses that spray water to make sure they stay hydrated and a huge freezer full of ice cream!
Making tzatziki with the children has been one of the highlights of the week. Whilst carefully following the cooking instructions, they have put their fine motor and maths skills to the test to chop cucumber and mint, squeeze lemons, count spoonfuls of yogurt and then share the dip fairly. It was wonderful to see them licking their lips and asking for more!
Thank you to all the parents who came in to talk about different cultures and read us stories. You made our week extra special, and the children loved you being a part of our celebrations!
Have a wonderful half-term break.
Mihaela and Jess
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Downstairs Nursery
The Downstairs children have been busy celebrating ‘Our Wonderful World’. They enjoyed looking at world maps, creating wonderful African necklaces and exploring African patterns. They engaged in a range of fine motor challenges as they threaded large wooden fruits, used scissors to make wild animal collages, manipulated playdough to make fruit for Handa’s basket and tasted food from around the world! They had fun exploring a range of instruments and listening to traditional songs and stories throughout the week.
This week we explored the topic of transport following the children’s interest. Activities were centered around different modes of transport as the children explored travel on land, sea, and air. They created their own hot air balloons, maps and explored simple counting and addition concepts as we added passengers to trains, boats, and rockets!
They even baked their own vehicle themed biscuits.
What busy bees we have in the Downstairs Nursery!
The Downstairs Team
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