Summer Term Issue 29: 8th May 2026

Flourishing in the love of God, love of life, love of learning

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Dear SJSC Families,

Even though this has been a shorter week of just four days, it has been a truly fantastic one. We have seen children taking the lead and confidently sharing their knowledge, talents, and the many wonderful qualities that make each individual shine. In doing so, they have enriched our whole school community.

A huge well done to the children who led our Deaf Awareness assemblies this week. You did a brilliant job, and we all learned so much from you.

Thank you also to our Eco Team, who supported Ms Evans with the David Attenborough wildlife photography competition. We were extremely impressed with the fabulous photographs that were sent in – what an eye for nature!

A big thank you to our School Council, who wanted to create a moment of calm and support our Year 6 children as they prepare for their tests next week. They organised a whole-school pyjama day to help everyone feel relaxed. I, for one, felt wonderfully comfortable all day!

We also had our annual SJSC Arts Festival this week. Thank you to all those who could make it and for the positive comments left in the visitor book. The children are rightfully proud of their pieces and the whole exhibition, based around our Big Idea of social justice, was world class. Well done everyone, and thank you to Ms Hanif-Banks and Mrs McGregor for pulling together such fantastic work. A special shout out also goes to the parents who ran workshops and gave their expertise and time to support art in our school.

This morning, I met with our class reps as another way for us to work closely together and for me to hear the experiences and ideas of families. Thank you for such a thoughtful and productive discussion. I will be taking your ideas away, reflecting on them carefully, and looking at what we can develop moving forward.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Warmest wishes,

Alli

Reception

This week In Reception, we have been continuing our “Izzy Gizmo” story inspired work, looking at inventions people have made to help disabled animals; a prosthetic leg for a duck, wheels for dogs and cats whose legs don’t work… and now we are having a go at designing our own inventions for animals that need support.

In RE we are looking at why religious objects are special to some people.

In Maths we are reviewing our ‘five and a bit’ structures for 6-7-8-9. Finger-patterns are really important. We are noticing that we don’t need to count all the fingers when we show 7- we know there’s five on one hand, so we just count on two more. Better still we know seven is made of 5 and 2, 5 and 2 makes 7, and we know about 3+4 =7 ( and 4+3 and 6+1 and 1+6). We are practising counting down from 30 and realising each time it is one less. We fold our fingers down for each ten numbers we count.

Next week we will be looking at “My Special Person” so please do email a photo to your child’s teacher by Monday.

Here are some photos from Himid at Forest school last week.

Year 1

Year One have had a fantastic week full of creativity, teamwork and excitement! The children planted their dwarf sunflower seeds in their very own plant pots as part of the The Dulwich Society Grow a Sunflower Challenge. Everyone is very excited to care for their plant and watch them grow over the coming weeks.

In Literacy, we were introduced to two new characters from our class text, Send for a Superhero! The children worked brilliantly in groups to describe the characters using a range of adjectives, showing some wonderful vocabulary and thoughtful ideas.

It has also been lovely to see the children bringing their learning into their play. Two groups independently created a model of the world using tissue paper, maths cubes and post-it notes, carefully labelling the seven continents and five oceans. Their creativity, collaboration and enthusiasm for learning were wonderful to see!

Year 2

Year 2 have loved starting our new geography topic, London vs Tokyo! This week, we focused on learning about the amazing city of Tokyo. The children became pilots for the lesson and explored just how far the United Kingdom and Japan are from each other. Using maps and string, we measured the distance and created our own flight paths across the world. It was a fantastic, hands‑on lesson and the children were so enthusiastic about their learning!

Year 3

In year three, we have spent the week in maths learning about fractions. We started by thinking about what makes a part and what makes a whole then deepened our understanding by learning about equal or unequal parts. We cut and sorted shapes before creating our own versions of shapes with equal or unequal parts, finding out that curved lines can still be used to make equal parts.

Year 4

Here is a sneaky peek at the year 4 lighthouse project! The children have been working so hard using all their resilience and creativity to develop these amazing structures. The ‘wow’ moments of success have been wonderful to watch and see. We look forward to inviting you in to see them in a few weeks.

We do hope you also enjoyed the Iron Man newspaper articles the children wrote. We were so impressed by their editing and publishing skills. Year 4 are super!

Year 5

In year 5, we have been thinking about different people’s perspectives on the same situation and the consequences of not being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. We have focused on this in our Buddhism lessons. In maths, we have started looking at coordinates. In English we have written bold speeches as Mary Jackson from Hidden Figures.

Year 6

In PE, Year 6 have been joining forces with Year 4 for athletics carousel activities and circuits. It has been fantastic to see the children working so well together, with great teamwork and encouragement on display. Year 4 even taught Year 6 a thing or two – especially some excellent long jump techniques!

Hearing Resource Base

Deaf Awareness Week

The children from the Hearing Resource Base presented two assemblies this week as part of Deaf Awareness Week! They worked on an assembly about deaf authors and books with deaf characters.

We learned about Julia Donaldson, Samantha Baines, Raymond Antrobus and Rose Ayling Ellis. They are all deaf authors who have written books with deaf characters.

Here is part of the assembly for you to enjoy…

News from the Art Studio…

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There has been such a lot to celebrate in Art and Music this week.

Last Friday, Arlo in Year 4 Kapoor went to City Hall to collect his Borough Winner prize for his wonderful Fourth Plinth School Award submission – ‘Rising from the Ashes’. It was lovely to celebrate with Arlo’s family and friends, and a ride back on the cable cars added to the excitement of the day!

Thank you so much to everyone who came to visit our Social Justice Arts Festival. The children are so proud of their work and loved being able to share this with our community. The musical performances and song writing showed what a talented bunch our children are. The art room was buzzing with Reception children demonstrating our Nnena Kalu-inspired stick wrapping activity.

Thank you to our Year 5 & 6 children who guided, hosted and photographed the event.

Thank you to Shelley, Guy, Tansy, Hannan and Monica Giovinassi for their fabulous workshops and help curating the show.

It has been a wonderful display of community, creativity and joy.

The link below is a private YouTube link to the short documentary Hannan Majid made with Year 6 Shonibare:

https://youtu.be/StZztuzGubc

Music this week…

For those of you who were unable to attend Arts Festival this week, please find attached a couple of videos of our wonderful children singing songs about Peace and Social Justice.

News from OPAL: Outdoor Play and Learning

A wonderful aspect of OPAL is that our children help drive forward provision and help make the playground a fun place to be. This week the debate has been hotly raging…Should we have sand in the mud kitchen? The children love it… of course , what’ s better than making sand pies and sand soup? So how do we mitigate the problems that come with it? The MESS- children taking ‘good sand’ out of the sandpit, slippery floors, blocked drains, did I mention the mess?

Sand is swept up (huge thanks to Sharon) and stored as it can’t go back in the sand pit without being sifted. We have introduced wet and dry sand containers- a place to wash up sludgy stuff- and a place to dry wet sand. So far, so good!

To give more responsibility to the children we are looking for donations of sturdy dustpans and brushes please. If you have any you would like to donate please leave by the gate when you come in, or send them in with your child.

Come and play!

We have more fantastic OPAL Stay and Play sessions booked for Summer 2. This is a chance for parents to join in a playtime with their child (if the messy mud kitchen hasn’t put you off!).

9.15-10am Tuesday 16th June Yrs: 3,4,5,6

9.15-10am Friday 19th June Yrs: Reception, 1 &2

We would love to see as many of there as possible.

Friends of SJSC

‍ ‍Next Friday 15th May we have our Uniform Swap and Bake Sale after school by the ping pong tables in the top playground. Please bring homemade or shop bought cakes, bakes or cookies (no nuts please) to the school gates at drop off in the morning (or direct to the stall in the afternoon). Thank you, we couldn’t do it without your kind donations.

And we are busy planning for our Summer Fair so make sure you have the date in your diaries for a fun afternoon of games, food, drink and performances from our choir and musicians: Saturday 20th June.

A reminder that tickets for the School Disco on 20th May are available here if you haven’t yet purchase one for your child: https://st-johns-and-st-clements-ptfa.square.site/

‍ ‍Thanks for your support.

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Dear Parents/Carers,

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