Autumn term Issue 13: 8th December 2023
Dear families,
We would like to say a huge thank you to the ptfa for the wonderful christmas fair- it was a fun filled event which got us into the festive spirit. Thank you all for your time and effort - it is greatly appreciated. Thank you too for all those who attended. We feel grateful to have such a supportive school community.
For more festive feels, please join us for our Carol Service at St John’s Church on Thursday 21st December at 9.45am. Also, see below for other performances, Christmas jumper day and much more.
Year 2 Nativity: I’m Gonna Shine
Monday 18th December 9.45am
Wednesday 20th December 2pm
Reception and Year 1 Nativity: The Big Little Nativity
Tuesday 19th December 9.45am and 2pm
Wednesday 20th December 9.45am
Carol Service
Thursday 21st December 9.45 at St John’s Church
Christmas Dinner and Christmas Jumper Day
Friday 15th December
Last day of term
Friday 22nd December - 1.45pm finish
Have a great weekend.
Alli and Joe
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
We have a had a lovely week in Reception- including making lots of decorations for our classrooms! We are now expert paper-chainers! The children have really enjoyed taking part in drawing club this week with our book ‘Penguin’ by Polly Dunbar. It has been amazing to see all of the children’s personal creative interpretations of the penguin, Ben’s bedroom and what is inside of the lion’s tummy! In Maths, we have been playing ‘fast fingers’ and exploring how we can make different parts from a whole number. The children loved making their own Number-blocks and then showing us how then can be split into different parts. We now know all of our songs for the Nativity and have been practising them every day, the children are very excited, and we can’t wait to see you there!
Year 1
This week, Year 1 watched an amazing performance of The Light Princess at the theatre. We’ve also been busy rehearsing for the nativity and hope you are as excited as we are for the performances! PS. There has been an email sent regarding costumes. Please let us know if you have any questions about this! Here are some of us mapping the local area for geography!
Year 2
What a week of adventure we have had in year 2! Luckily, we had two exciting trips to go on with the first being to Southwark Cathedral. During the day, we learnt about the story of Jesus and completed craft activities relating to his journey. The atmosphere was wonderful in the Cathedral and it really got us all into the Christmas spirit. Our second trip took us to the Albany Theatre where we watched a riveting performance about a light princess and turnips! We loved joining in with the actions and learning how our differences can bring us all together!
Year 3
Year 3 have been busy publishing their wonderful stories based on the book, ‘Leon and the Place Between’. We created our own characters, settings and story maps and used our imagination to innovate. Our stories have been turned into published books.
Year 4
This past week, we started learning about Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton had asked for 26 men to apply for the job of joining him on his expedition to the South Pole. Acting as if we received a response from Shackleton, we acted out interviews-pretending to be either Ernest Shackleton or Frank Worsley (Ship’s captain).
Year 5
This week, Yr 5 students had a visit from Prof. Washington and Prof. Berry. The class were asked by the professors to collect the following data:
How long are your fingers?
how long are your feet?
How many words can you write in a minute?
How tall are you?
The children then used this data to write a balanced argument for the question ‘should data on people be collected?’.
We are looking forward to reading out new English text ‘Robot Girl’.
Year 6
In science this week we blew up balloons using yeast. We noticed that as the yeast ate the sugar it released carbon dioxide which expanded our balloon over time. We now have a better understanding of how bread rises and why there are sometimes holes in bread.
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the Art Studio, 2 Kusama created precious paintings inspired by the work of Raphael Balme. Using rich watercolours, drawing pens and gold paint, they created decorative magical worlds.
Music this week…
Year 1 continued to follow a conductor as they made soundscapes inspired by the sound of rain.
Year 2 were listening to The Firebird by Stravinsky and were putting movement to the music.
Year 3 were practising the Ukulele this week and learnt two songs about strumming and plucking. They then played a game where children had to listen to the PITCH and answer which child was playing the higher note.
Year 5s were composing their own tunes on Glockenspiels and Keyboards using the ABA structure.
Taking inspiration from Stomp The Musical, Year 5s were using basketballs to see if they could follow a rhythmic section by bouncing in time.
Year 6 were learning the basic chord structure which plays throughout I’ve Got This Feeling by Justin Timberlake.
Values Certificates
This week we celebrated children who showed our values this week.
Congratulations for the first SJSC Mathletics Platinum Award!
From the Friends of SJSC
We had a wonderful time celebrating the festive season at the Christmas Fair last Sunday. Thank you everyone for coming!
We’d like to extend an especially big thanks to everyone who volunteered to make the day wonderful. From planning and setting up to painting faces and cooking sausages to cleaning up, every bit helped. We couldn’t have done it without you!
The Christmas Raffle is still live. We have over 60 fabulous prizes. Tickets are available online until 7pm on Wednesday 13 December: http://tinyurl.com/sjscraffle
Thanks to the generous sponsorship of HH&C Wine Merchants, you can purchase a mixed case of wine, curated by Siobhan, and raise money for the Friends of SJSC. Available online until 21 December: http://tinyurl.com/sjscwine
Have a wonderful weekend - see you next week!