Summer term Issue 7: 9th June 2023
Dear Families
This week we have celebrated World Ocean Day with our Eco Team and learnt how we can all do our part to help our Oceans.
Year 6 began their work on their end of year production, Bikeability continued in Year 5 and throughout the school each classroom was buzzing with new learning.
Next weekend is the Friends of SJSC Summer Fair, please can along and volunteer to help if you can. It’s a great event and we are looking forward to seeing you all there.
Enjoy the weekend and be careful in the hot weather, there is a national heatwave warning.
Best wishes,
Alli Crank Joseph Bell
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
This week in Reception have had so much fun running the Monster Supply Shop! They have sold ‘brains’, ‘snot’ and ‘bogies’ galore! The children have loved imagining what the disgusting content of the jars could be and using their descriptive language to persuade monsters to buy them. Thank you for sending in the fantastic videos of your monster shops at home! The children have used Rekenreks (abacus) in maths to explore subitising and composition of number. We have started the sentence a day challenge and encourage you at home to practise this in for 5 mins each night, with ‘Words and Pictures Club’.
Year 1
In science this week, we were learning about the human body. We explored what our bodies can do and discovered that some of us could roll our tongues and some couldn’t. We realised that some could stand up from a seated position without using our hands and others found it tricky! We then discussed our body parts and name them. We put our scientist caps on and in groups, labelled our different body parts.
Year 2
This week Year 2 have loved getting outside to continue exploring our science topic of living things and their habitats. We were focussing on very small habitats called microhabitats and spent time looking under stones, rocks, logs in the playground. We found all kinds of minibeasts, including, beetles, worms, spiders, slugs and snails! We then collated all of our results and produced pictograms to represent the findings.
Year 3
Gormley class have been developing their tennis skills over the last term. They have learnt to hold the racket correctly, the different ways to stand and improved their hand eye coordination. Today they were privileged to try out the brand new tennis rackets. Thank you Mr Evans for listening to our feedback and taking the time to research and order the school new rackets and balls.
Year 4
This week we began reading our new English book - ‘The Matchbox Diary’. Through the items that Grandfather kept as memories, we began learning about his life in Italy and journey to America. On the ship across the Atlantic, the standards of living accommodations were very different between the upper and lower-class people. We discussed the image from the book and then researched the differing experiences of people on similar journeys. We then worked in pairs, using a range of antonyms, to describe these differences.
Year 5
Year 5 have completed their topic ‘Greece Past and Present’ this week. We celebrated by having some food tasting and a question and answer session with our of our lovely parents who is Greek!
Year 6
This week in Year 6 we began planning our Year 6 performance with our friend Paige from Bigfoot Arts. We worked on our preforming skills in groups and then brainstormed a list of scenes which we are going to refine and turn into a dazzling play.
Music this week…
This week during music lessons in Years 1 and 2, we have taken inspiration from the Year 5 Samba sessions and have been practising call and response rhythms. We start by chanting these verbally before transferring the rhythms to percussion instruments. We will be moving on to look at Samba “grooves”.
I was impressed at KS1’s ability to listen to and appreciate a piece of music by South Korean group, Ak Dan Gwang Chil. Notice the different instruments being played.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=retobpjJDUI
Some of the Year 6 children were making backing tracks to accompany their lyrics written last half term. We have been using a programme called Quick Beats.
Year 3 and Year 4 Children have been learning to sing a 3-part song. This has required great focus and the ability to repeat a tune and rhythm over 2 separate parts. Year 3 have also been learning to sing and sign a song about the Romans which ties in with their topic this half term. Year 4 have picked up their recorders again and we will be using this half term to focus on note valuations; semibreves, minims, crotchets and quavers.
Sports News
A WEEK OF SUMMER SPORT AT SJSC
Sports Coaching
Year 4 over the next 5 weeks have a specialist football coach training them. This coach will develop the confidence, skill and understanding of the rules. This week they practiced ball control, keeping their heads up in order to focus on a target destination and did brilliantly at keeping the ball close to their feet. They also practiced dribbling also and then went onto practice shooting, striking the ball correctly. They finally took turns in goal.
Playground Sports
Children have been enjoying some wonderful skipping over breaktimes enjoying the beautiful weather.
Year 3 have been exploring the badminton rackets and the shuttle cocks. Some awesome rallies took place over the week.
New ping pong balls have allowed some of the Year 1 children to compete in Table Tennis matches. This was wonderful to see, especially with peers cheering everyone on!
The basketball hoops have been put to good use with children challenging one another to shoot as many hoops as possible in a given time. Great work!
Friday Clubs
Over the next few weeks, Year 6 will be having Netball coaching on a Friday after school. These sessions are going to be fantastic at teaching them the rules of the game and embedding excellent skills. We look forward to seeing how much they enjoy it over the course of the term
Year 5 and 6 are also having some targeted football coaching. This will put us in good stead for upcoming fixtures-Watch this space!
Science Parent Cafe
A huge thank you to all of the parents who responded to the science questionnaire and were able to attend the science morning this week. Your input and engagement is vital in helping develop our young scientists of the future. The slides from our meeting will be on the websites very shortly.
Stars of the week
Stars are celebrated because they have demonstrated the school values, or gone above and beyond.
Well done to all our stars this week …
Values Certifcates
Stars are celebrated because they have demonstrated the school values, or gone above and beyond.
Well done to all our stars this week …
Friends of SJSC Summer Fair
The Friends of SJSC Summer Fair is next Saturday 17th June 1200-1530. Our volunteers are working hard behind the scenes to make a fun community day!
We’ll have:
A Texan BBQ, bring your appetite and enjoy scrumptious sausages made by our very own talented dad Chris (Y2) (veggie + kid options available)
Refreshing drinks, including Pimms, wine selected by our knowledgeable mum Siobhan (R +Y2), and Brick Brewery beer (non-alcoholic options available)
A bake sale and ice cream sale
Fun for the kids, including a bouncy castle, summer crown making, and face painting
Games for all, including hook a duck and pint slide
A uniform swap
And more!
We rely on volunteers to make our events happen and we’re looking for some more help on the day.
We are in desperate need of one more qualified First Aider to ensure our event is safe. Please get in touch if you could do a shift.
We need some volunteers to help Chris at the grill. There are four slots left - please sign up here.
We need volunteers to sell tokens. Sign up here.
We need extra hands setting up and cleaning up. Any time you can offer between 900-1200 and 1530-1700 would be appreciated. Just report to Rebecca or Dave on the day.
We also need donations.
We will be collecting Booty Jars on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th June from 845 at the school gates. We are aiming to get to 400 jars! No nuts or chocolate (it melts if it’s hot).
We will be collecting baked goods on Friday 16th June from 845 and 1515 at the school gates, and on the day of the fair. No nuts.
We will be collecting pre-loved uniform for the swap. Please drop off washed items at the school office Monday 12th to Thursday 15th.
We look forward to having a fun day with our school community! Please invite your friends and neighbours.
Have a wonderful weekend!