Autumn term Issue 2: 15th September 2023
Dear families
How is week two already! We have settled into the swing of school life now and there is such a great feeling around school - a buzz of learning and enjoyment of being together as a community.
Thank you to all who have joined us for the Meet the Teacher sessions so far. If you were unable to make it, or need a reminder of what was covered, the slides and documents will be sent out next week once all the sessions have taken place.
Clubs start next week, we thank you for your patience and feedback as we work towards a new, and hopefully easier, system of club booking this year.
Our first big community event is taking place on Friday 29th September 3:30-5:00! International Evening is one of our most popular events and a great opportunity to celebrate everyone in our community. We will open with a 'flash mob' Diwali dance that we would have learned in a workshop run by 'West End in Schools' throughout the day. The children will entertain with some singing and then we will open the community feast whilst being entertained by steel pans. Please bring a dish to add to the feast (labelling and food information will be sent out next week) and the PTFA will run a bar. It would be great to see as many of you there as possible!
Have a great weekend everyone
Alli and Joe
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
We have had a great week in Reception, our first full week in school. We are super proud of how they have been trying new foods at lunchtime, cleaning their own plates, and learning to do things independently, as well as helping each other when required. We shared the wonderful Colour monster book which is helping us talk about our feelings and introduced our Zones of Regulation; teaching us skills to help us identify emotions and self-regulate. The children have drawn some amazing self portraits and been learning all about what makes us unique and special… and what we have in common.
This weekend, can you talk to your child about their family; if you would like, make a family tree together that we could share in class over the next weeks. If possible, do look at photos of your family in the past to support our history learning. (e.g. grandparents, you or them, as a baby/ child and over the years would be great) . You do not have to make something to bring in.
Year 1
Year 1 have been counting numbers up to 100 this week as well as spotting patterns on the Gattegno chart with numbers up to 900. In English, we’ve likewise been seeking patterns across traditional tales discussing similarities between our favourite stories and characters and using adjectives to describe them.
Year 2
Year 2 went to Bold Tendencies to learn all about the art work on the roof top. Children enjoyed exploring the area and learning more about the art. Finally, using team work and imagination we came up with our own games to play using the art work that was painted on the ground! We also played a game of ‘Stuck in the Lava’ which we really enjoyed!
Year 3
In Year 3 this week, we created our class charter and we ‘signed’ it with our handprints. Our motto (suggested by a child) is, “We pick people up when something is hard for them.”
Year 4
To help us understand 1,000 more, year 4 investigated measurements for length and how we could convert between measures. We first used our rulers to identify how many mm are in 1cm, then continued to investigate using metre sticks. Once we were confident with metres, we considered kilometres and enjoyed using trundle wheels to try and measure how many km there are in 1km. We realised that 1km is quite a long way and it’s tricky to keep count!
Year 5
This week we have been having great fun in Maths, building towers. We have been exploring place value. We used dienes equipment to help us visualise the structure of 1000. We then used this knowledge to help us understand the structure of 10,000. We discovered that 10,000 is made up of 100 hundreds.
Year 6
As part of our Migration topic, Year 6 have been looking at Shaun Tan’s story ‘The Arrival’ about a man’s immigration experience. We have been working hard to produce our own applications to a ‘New World’ inspired by the character’s experience. In our applications, we pushed ourselves to use a formal and persuasive tone and had to think hard about what discussion points would make our applications successful
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the Art Studio, Year 2 have been exploring colour. Using the art studio as their colour palette, they have selected and grouped colours to create colourful compositions.
Music this week…
Music has had a wonderful start to the new school year here at St John’s and St Clement’s. Years 6, 4 and 2 have had the opportunity to benefit from free workshops provided by Bold Tendencies, a local not for profit arts organisation. This has been a wonderful chance for the children to experience live music and art on the roof top of Peckham’s once Multi Storey Car Park.
During music lessons this week, each year group has been introduced to a new song which will be the entry point for this half term’s work. The themes are as follows:
Year 1 Menu Song; we will look at rhythms, beats and lyrics with food as their subject.
Year 2 Tony Chestnut; we will look at action songs with clever lyrics crafted to sound like body parts (toe, knee, chest, nut i.e. head)
Year 3 I’ve been to Harlem; a pentatonic song which we will learn to sing as a round before composing our own ostinatos
Year 4 This Little Light of Mine; we will look at the gospel music of Sister Rosetta Tharpe and other artists.
Year 5 What Shall we Do with the Drunken Sailor; we will look at Sea Shanties; their history and the importance of rhythm before composing our own song
Year 6 Hey, Mr Miller; we will be looking at Jazz/Swing music, creating and improvising syncopated rhythm patterns and melodies.
Values Certificates
Stars are celebrated because they have demonstrated the school values, or gone above and beyond.
Well done to all our stars this week …
Have a wonderful weekend - see you next week!