Summer term Issue 34: 14th June 2024
Dear Families
This week has been Olympic week here at SJSC. We have had the opportunity to have a go at a variety of Olympic sports, as well as hear messages from and meet Olympic champions! Thank you, Mr Evans for organising such an inspiring week.
Thank you to all of our governors who spent the day in school on Wednesday - it was fantastic to share everyday life at SJSC with you. It was great that our governors also had the opportunity to see OPAL in action. I love seeing the creativity, kindness and fun taking place on the playground where there is the opportunity for children to join in a wide variety of play from gardening, crafting, building with loose parts, sports, woodwork and much more.
Don't forget on Wednesday there is the Headteacher's Parent Cafe, and on Saturday 22nd our School Fair.
Have a great weekend
Alli
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
A’Hoy there!
Not only have we been scrubbing the deck in Reception… we have also been making Pirate grub. The children in Reception are now expert sandwich makers and washer-uppers. It is really important for children to learn life skills and be as independent as possible. The children who do chores at home were proud to share what they are responsible for.
We have been making ‘How to be a Good Pirate’ books this week, each day we have made a new page for our books (lists of what a pirate needs to pack, treasure maps, pirate outfits)
We will be having Superhero Day on Tuesday 25th June (more “my superpower is kindness” less Marvel). We will also be having “Jobs Day” on Friday 28th when we invite you to come and talk to the children about what you do. It would be great if as many parents as possible could email us a picture of you at work… saying what you do.
Year 1
This week, Olympic fever has swept through the school and to embody the Olympic spirit, Year 1 designed their own mascots. Each mascot is attempting an Olympic sport whilst many of their designs also incorporated the colours of the French flag in honour of the games being held there this year! Come on Team GB!
Year 2
In maths this week children have been exploring mass, capacity and volume. The focus of the week was getting to grips with grams and Kilograms, exploring a range of items and weighing them using scales. Excellent work from everyone to get accurate readings! A weekend challenge could be exploring the weight of items in shops. How many grams or Kilograms does each item weight? You could also explore capacity here too. Happy measuring!
Year 3
In year 3, we are continuing our learning about magnets. This week, we were very lucky as Lindsey ( a very kind parent) brought us in some magnetic sand all of the way from New Zealand! It is a mixture of titanium and iron and it comes from Mount Taranakii.
Of course, the children had to have chance to explore the sand with our class magnets. We learn something new everyday!
Year 4
To celebrate Olympics Week at SJSC, year 4 participated in a dance workshop with Coach Danni. We learned how to warm up our bodies and progressed into specific dance movements. Coach Danni even taught us how to do a side-plank headstand, and even Mrs. Hare got involved! We had so much, see us in action!
Year 5
This week in English, our year 5 classes have been thoroughly enjoying our current text, "The Sleeper and the Spindle." The students have been creatively engaging with the story by crafting dialogues between the queen and the dwarfs. They've focused on using relative clauses in their reporting clauses to enhance their writing skills. It has been wonderful to see such enthusiasm and creativity in our classrooms!
Year 6
Rehearsals are well under way for our end of year production of Madagascar and wow is it already starting to look great! Costume and prop design sessions are taking place in the art room, singing rehearsals in music - it’s a real team effort, with all the children working together with such enthusiasm and encouragement of each other. We are so proud and enjoying every minute!
Music this week…
In Music this week, Year 3 were fantastic at writing their own rhythmic compositions to be played on the Glockenspiels.
Year 5 were getting to grips with a new rhythm game and Clara amazed us all by performing her very own composition written for both hands on the piano in a pentatonic key. She had then used software to write all of the notation in the treble and bass clef staves. Very impressive!
Year 4 are starting a unit written by the Royal Opera House which introduces them to Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute. This week we met the main characters and the children can be seen playing a game where they are Pamina (a princess), walking on tip toe to escape Sarastro’s dungeon
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the Art studio, year 5 have explored the wonderful world of Op Art & optical illusions. They are practising several techniques using single and multiple vanishing points. They will use these skills to create their own Op Art.
Olympics Week
Monday and Tuesday
To kick the week off we had an Olympics week assembly which sent ripples of excitement to the children. We were able to look at the importance of the Olympics, look at Olympic memorabilia and explore some of the sports taking place in 2024. We were lucky enough to have a special message from Natalie Powell, judo superstar, who has competed in both the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, who wished us well for the week and gave our current Judo children a few words of encouragement.
As “Breaking” otherwise known as Breakdancing, is now part of the Olympics, we also hosted dance sessions on Monday and Tuesday for the children to take part in. Awesome moves everyone!
Wednesday- Kristian Thomas- Olympic Gymnast
On Wednesday we were so lucky to have the Olympic Gymnastic superstar Kristian Thomas come into school and host an assembly. Kristian demonstrated some outstanding Gymnastic moves to the whole school and then showed us his Olympic medal as well as two Olympic torches! Thank you, Kristian, for inspiring us all!
Thursday- French Lunch
Thursdays treat was that of a French Lunch! With the Olympics taking place in France, the kitchen staff changed the menu for us to try some delicious French food, which went down amazingly! It was brilliant to hear children trying new foods with some saying, “I don’t like mushrooms, but these are delicious”. Bon Appetite!
Other classes today complete Olympics based events such as hurdling, relay racing, gymnastics, javelin and shot put!
Friday- Skate School.
With skateboarding now taking place for the second time at the Olympics, we invited a skate school in to model some amazing skateboarding moves and to explain some tricks and skills. Children then took part in Skateboarding sessions during the morning. Awesome!
Eco Update
Gormley class were the winners of this year's walk to school week and to celebrate we held a fresh fruit picnic with elderflower and lime cordial in Peckham Rye park.
News from Governors
from Miranda Wightman, Chair of Governors
Miranda Wightman
I am Chair of Governors for the board and a Foundation governor from St Johns Church. I have 2 children who are past pupils of the school and I previously worked as a Project Manager for BT. In September last year I achieved a long-held ambition to travel the Camino de Santiago, cycling 1700 km solo on a trip through France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela.
The governing body spent the day in school on Wednesday and it was lovely to see so many exciting things happening. From Olympic athletes to great singing, a broad variety of lessons and exciting outdoor play, and entertaining conversations with children over lunch it was a wonderful opportunity to see the impact of our curriculum in action. We spent the afternoon in a training session run by Southwark Diocesan Board of Education which gave us a chance to reflect on what we have achieved and how we work going forward to continue to challenge and support the school in our shared ambition. We want to thank all the children and staff in school for sharing so much with us and making us proud!
The governing Body of St Johns and St Clements School provides strategic direction to the school. Our governors are all volunteers from the local community, as parents, staff, or from local churches who work collectively to achieve this. We have three Full Governing Body Meetings a year, in Autumn, Spring and Summer term. Our main responsibilities include monitoring and evaluating progress, approving the school budget, appointing key staff, and helping to set the school’s key aims and strategies, The Head teacher is responsible for the day to day running of the school but ultimately governors hold the Head Teacher to account in the performance of the school. We have a number of smaller committees that meet regularly throughout the year. Simon Rutland chairs the Finance and Resources Committee and Leonie Saywell chairs the Curriculum and Community committee. Governors will use the next newsletters to update you on some of our activities and also a bit more about ourselves.
The governing body is made up of:
Head Teacher - Alli Crank
Incumbent St Johns - Gill O'Neill
Incumbent St Clements - vacant
Foundation St Johns - Miranda Wightman (Chair of GB)
Foundation St Johns - Namukale Chintu
Foundation St Clements - Leonie Saywell
Foundation St Clements- Fiona Robertson
SDBE - Simon Rutland* (Co Deputy Chair of Governors)
Parent - Hannah Hickman*
Parent - Louisa O'Riordon*
Staff - Theo Evans
Local Authority - Chris Gonde* (Co Deputy Chair of Governors)
*indicates governors with children at SJSC
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 …
Summer Fair
The summer fair is almost upon us, and we need your help! We'll be collecting booty jars every morning next week at drop-off. These jars are the best fundraising items at the fair and they always sell out, so any donations will really make a difference. Please remember - no nuts or chocolate! We'll also take empty jars (with lids) if you're not able to fill them...
Have a great week See you next week!