Spring Term Issue 17: 23rd January 2026
Flourishing in the love of God, love of life, love of learning
Dear Families,
I hope you have all had a week of curiosity, play, challenge and learning that we have at SJSC! It was a real pleasure this morning to welcome back the rosy‑cheeked, muddy‑booted children of Himid Class from Forest School, absolutely bursting with stories about their adventures, learn from the year 6 children about grit and resilience in learning, and be inspired by the amazing art pieces Ms HB and Alison have been pinning up - if you have 5 minutes to pop in next week please do. In the meantime, have a great weekend,
Alli
Reception
This week we have been continuing our “Little Red” adventures, the children have been doing puppet shows and retelling the story in their own version. One pair playing outside had picked toy lions and tigers for the wolves (that were just gobbling everything!). The story developed and soon I overheard one boy “Ok well then I will be the storyteller”. The children are developing their negotiating, language and story skills all the time.
Inside we were practising how many words does my sentence have? Rehearsing and counting them on our fingers so we could check we had written what we planned. In phonics we learned ur, ow, oi ear.
In maths we have been looking at the composition of 5 with ‘Five Little Speckled Frogs’, perfect to inspire thinking if I can see this many frogs on the log, how many must be in the pool?
Next week we have our International Story Day on Friday 29th and we welcome volunteers to come and tell or read a story in your home language.
Stik Class need volunteers for Forest School the following Friday 6th February please.
Year 1
Year One have had a wonderful week of learning and exploration!
In our Judaism topic, we had a lovely opportunity to try challah bread, which sparked lots of thoughtful discussions. In English, the children enjoyed retelling The Naughty Bus, using time adverbs and expanded noun phrases. We have also been exploring materials in science and investigating 3D shapes in maths.
As part of our 3D shape learning, the children have been counting faces and building, constructing and deconstructing different shapes. They showed great curiosity and teamwork during these activities.
To support your child at home with Mathletics this week, you might like to use real-life objects when counting faces on 3D shapes. For example, a cereal box is a great way to represent a cuboid, and a ball works perfectly for a sphere.
Year 2
In Year 2, our P.E. lessons this term are all about problem solving through physical activity. Children will be developing key skills that help them work together and think creatively while being active. Here’s what this looks like in practice:
Working in Teams: Pupils will take part in group challenges where success depends on cooperation and communication. They’ll learn to listen to each other, share ideas, and make joint decisions.
Finding Their Own Space: Activities will encourage children to be aware of others and move safely in shared spaces. This helps build spatial awareness and respect for personal space.
Thinking Creatively: Children will tackle tasks that require them to find different ways to solve a problem, such as moving equipment from one area to another without using their hands or creating a route through obstacles.
Leadership and Turn-Taking: Some challenges will involve taking turns to lead the group or suggest solutions, helping pupils build confidence and responsibility.
Resilience and Reflection: We’ll focus on trying again when things don’t work the first time and discussing what strategies were successful.
These activities not only develop physical skills but also promote teamwork, communication, and perseverance—important life skills for every child.
This week in Year 3, the children have been learning all about angles, direction and movement in maths. The children explored clockwise and anticlockwise movements, using objects, clocks and practical activities to help them understand the difference. They then moved on to learning about turns, including quarter turns, half turns, three-quarter turns and whole turns before exploring right angles. We also practised giving and following instructions, using directional language such as left, right, forwards, and backwards. The children worked well explaining their thinking and checking their instructions carefully.
Year 3
Year 5
Year 4 at Young Voices!
This week, Year 4 took part in the incredible Young Voices concert—and what a fantastic time we had! After an afternoon of rehearsals at the O2, the children performed as part of a 9,000-strong choir in front of a huge audience of parents and families.
We are so proud of every single child for singing their hearts out. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
A huge thank you to our wonderful parent volunteers, and to Jackie and Veronica for all their support throughout the day.
Year 6
This week in science we learnt about air resistance. We made paper helicopters of two different sizes and investigated how the surface area of the object affected the speed that it travelled. We learnt that the larger the surface area, the slower it travelled as the larger helicopter encountered more air resistance when travelling to the ground.
News from the Art Studio…
Class Artist Exhibition
Next week in the Old Dining room, each class will be exhibiting their work inspired by their class artist.
Years 2, 4 & 5 – Monday 26th January 9am – 9.30am & 3.30pm – 4pm
Years 1, 3 & 6 – Tuesday 27th January 9am – 9.30am & 3.30pm – 4pm
Come in through the main school office and you will be directed to the Old Dining Room to have a look at the wonderful pieces created.
We look forward to sharing the children’s wonderful artwork.
Music this week…
CONGRATULATIONS TO YEAR 5 LICHTENSTEIN
Last term, year 5 were part of the English National Opera’s Finish This Project. Huge congratulations to Year 5 Lichenstein who had their composition piece, A Creepy Horror selected by the English National Opera from over 100 applications and turned into an animation. You can watch this by clicking on the link below.
https://youtu.be/GXu0K9oS22ohe
Composer Omar Shahryar said about your piece;
“Woah, you really understood the horror assignment! Those childish chimes were super creepy, as well as those ghoulish ascending voices and skeletal scrapes forced to keep time with the zombie-walking drum... *shudder*!”
Activity to try at home; Making a box stringed instrument.
The simplest version they might make is this -simply stretching elastic bands around a box, lifting the bands up with a pencil, which acts as the bridge.
Some children might want to make a neck for their
instrument, but with elastic bands and cardboard it is
difficult to make the strings stretch that far and not make the instrument implode! Therefore, the neck is cosmetic.
The two bridges shown here will give a very clear sound to the instrument, stopping the elastic band from rattling on the cardboard as it is played.
Split pins can be used to secure the elastic bands as shown in the next picture.
N.B. It is easier for younger children to loop one elastic band around two split pins
at each end, rather than cutting and tying them, as shown here.
YEAR 1
In Year 1, children were looking at the String Family and having listened to Saint Saens’ piece, The Swan from the Carnival of the Animals, the were experimenting with rubber bands to see how they vibrate when stretched over the container. The children were also looking at changing the pitch depending on how tight the rubber band was stretched.
Friends of SJSC
If you are feeling the January blues, then why not start looking ahead to summer and join our Summer Fair Organising Group! We need a bunch of volunteers to make the event happen and the more helpers we have, the easier it is. So if you have ideas and want to help, please do let your Class Rep know and we can get the group going.
We are also on the hunt for some key Committee Members as our Treasurer Dave Rayment, and our Comms person Lou O’Riordan, are stepping down from duties at the end of this academic year. Ideally we’d have some new faces getting to know the roles ASAP so please let your Class Rep know if you are interested. The Treasurer role does NOT need an accountancy background - just to know your way around a spread sheet and be able to count is enough! Likewise, the Comms role is about writing snappy messages, creating easy posters on Canva and generally galvanising the school community to get involved. There is a large Committee at the moment so there are lots of other wonderfully enthusiastic team members who are there to support. More than one volunteer can take the roles on so if you and a friend(s) fancy it please do come and chat. Being involved in the PTFA is a great way to meet people and be a part of our school community. Thanks for your support.
Stars of the Week
See you next week!