Newsletters

Newsletter 26th November 2021

Dear Parents,

What a week it has been at the Upper School.  Whilst we have all been aware of the ongoing presence of covid in the community, we returned to school this term with class bubbles and playground barriers removed.  We loved the return to a whole-school playground, mixed year-group after school clubs and whole-school assemblies.  One of my greatest pleasures has been the presence of parents in the playground.  The arrival of covid in the school is not entirely surprising, but the rapidity of its spread of through Year 1 has been a real shock.  Every member of staff is double vaccinated, yet Aisha and Pablo have been quite unwell this week.  Fortunately, most children who tested positive have had relatively mild symptoms.  It was a surprise when the local health protection team advised closure of the class, but hopefully it has created a break in the infection cycle.

As you know, both the auction and open classrooms have been postponed.  The children at both sites are rehearsing for nativity and end of term carol concerts.  I can hear the sweetest rendition of ‘away in a manger’ floating through the office door as I write. I haven’t yet decided what form the children’s performances will take, although we might be forced to meet in the chilly playground. If this happens, we will also send you a filmed version of the concert to enjoy at home.

Upper School parents will have noted the return of Ainsley to the office.  Sadly, after a long absence, Lilly has left the school and will work part time for a charity.  Ainsley is still project managing the school expansion, but is working from the office three days per week.  The timing has worked out well, as building work will begin soon and Ainsley will be on-site.  We have had very high levels of interest in the school as word of the expansion project has reached the wider Islington community.  There is a long waiting list for next year’s Reception class and we even have joiners for Years 2 and 3.  I am certain the new school will be a success.

Thank you to everyone who sent get well wishes to Taiba.  She is on the mend at last and is hugely grateful for your kind words.  She should return to Reception after the Christmas break but thank you to Zoe, Lucy and the Reception team for providing the children with a seamless and happy experience since half-term.

Wishing you all a very happy weekend.  Keep warm and healthy!

Kate

 

Thank you so much to those of you who have made food bank donations this week. Your generosity is very much appreciated. Food Bank Aid will be collecting the items on Tuesday 30th November, so if you still would like to participate, please drop off your items by Monday.  The upstairs children have enjoyed exploring the theme of kindness these past few weeks and have been excited about filling up both their imaginary and real 'kindness bucket' with little hearts representing their acts of kindness - we hope you are able to continue this with your child at home. 

Wishing you a relaxing weekend.  

Salima 

Year 2 

We have had a lovely few weeks in Year 2 continuing our studies of poetry and habitats.  

Last week, the children wrote kennings about their favourite animal using excellent adjectives, alliteration and rhyme.  

In small groups, the children worked collaboratively to choose a native animal and independently design and build a habitat for it. They used recycled materials form home and showed great teamwork skills.   

This week we wrapped up warm and identified microhabitats in the playground and outside areas where minibeasts might like to hide. We carefully uncovered hiding spots and were delighted to find flies, spiders, centipedes, woodlice and a few snails. We recorded our findings by using tally charts and then created pictograms to present our data. 

It’s beginning to feel quite festive in our classroom as we are now studying playscripts and have started to plan our nativity puppet show. The children are completely in charge of writing the script and it is safe to say that it will be a comedy!  

The hard work and determination shown by the children in Year 2 is inspiring to see and I know it will continue in the run up to Christmas.  

Keep it up, Year 2! 

Sinead 

Year 1, 

It’s most unfortunate that we have had to close the class due to Covid this week, and we wish all those affected a speedy recovery.  

Last week saw the class do some fantastic collaborative work making stables for The Polka Dot Horse, and the children were free to let their imaginations run wild! We also held democratic elections for the School Council and Eco-Committee, with children nominating themselves for the roles and then voting accordingly. We also had a lovely PSHE session about the impact of our words. To practically demonstrate the importance of kindness and how difficult it is to take back what we say, the children squeezed toothpaste out of tubes and then tried to put the toothpaste back in using only toothpicks – quite the challenge! 

Despite not being in the classroom this week there has been some fantastic work achieved at home, with lots of creativity being seen. We are starting to think about Christmas and one of the tasks was to design and make an advent calendar – and there have been some fantastic results! It’s also been great to see such involvement with the shape activities, with some nice 3D shape hunting going on! Songs for the Nativity are online ready to be rehearsed and we will be looking at the Nativity story in more detail next week. 

We hope everyone gets well soon, and that everyone else remains safe at home. Can’t wait to see all the children back at school! 

The Year 1 team. 

Reception

Over these past weeks Reception have been busy exploring space! Reception have jetted around the Milky Way on their own rockets, encountered aliens made using blow painting and blasted off to the moon. Reception have also been visiting the planets of our Solar System, discussing and hypothesising which substances may be hotter than the sun, using their literacy knowledge to describe which planet they enjoyed exploring and why, as well as engineering their own satellites. Reception have truly been astounding astronauts!

Upstairs Nursery News 

Our theme Upstairs over the past 2 weeks has been ’Kindness’. The children have discussed what being kind means to them and have learnt how little acts of consideration can break down barriers and brighten the lives of the people around us.  

The Supertato stories proved to be very popular! The children put their Kindness capes on and, led by Supertato, immersed themselves in various problem solving challenges to help save the vegetables from the wicked pea. They have then tried to use various strategies to teach the pea how to be a good friend- reading a book about kindness, sharing favourite toys and saying please and thank you- being some of them. 

Every day this week the children had ‘a kindness challenge’ to complete and they rose to this task with great enthusiasm. They shared books with friends, wrote letters to someone special, complimented one another and worked together to complete puzzles and games. Their very own invisible ‘kindness buckets’ must be bursting with love hearts! 

Adeline: “My kindness power is to be nice and make people feel welcome.” 

QB: “Giving friends a hug is kind.” 

Arthur: “I’m kind when I help my mummy and daddy cook.” 

Thank you so much for all you generous Food Bank Aid donations! Helping our community, sharing and being big-hearted will be an ongoing focus throughout the year. 

Best wishes, 

The Upstairs Team 

Downstairs Nursery

During the last two weeks the children have been exploring feelings. We identified and copied facial expressions that show emotions, and the children tried to draw happy, sad and angry faces on mirrors. We talked about situations that make us sad or angry and practised calming techniques to help us relax and be happy again. The children created beautiful sensory bottles to keep at Nursery which they like to look at when they need help to feel calm again.

We have also been focusing on families. We looked at the children’s family pictures and identified similarities and differences between different families and amongst family members. The children made family spoon puppets and used them in their imaginary play. They also created lovely family portraits. We read stories related to the topic and we talked about less fortunate families and children and how we could help them.

Thank you all for your kind donations to the Food Bank Aid!

 

The Downstairs Team

School Calendar

We are constantly adding new dates to the school calendar, please find it on our website here.