Spring Term Issue 23: 14th March 2025
Flourishing in the love of God, love of life, love of learning
Dear Families,
What a week! We've had lots of exciting things happening here at school, and I wanted to share some of the highlights with you.
First off, we are absolutely thrilled with the progress on our new sandpit! It’s been so much fun, and we want to extend a huge thank you to the PTFA for funding this wonderful addition to our playground. A special shout-out to the amazing parents who dedicated their time and skills to help build it, and to Sally for being the driving force and organisation behind it. We’ve been jokingly referring to it as Costa-Del-Peckham, though the weather didn’t quite live up to the name this week!
On Tuesday, we were honoured to welcome The Rt Rev Alistair Cutting, Bishop of Woolwich, for a tour of the school. He was keen to hear about the fantastic learning that takes place at SJSC, how our school values shape everything we do, and to hear about some of the challenges facing education today.
Today, we hosted a Maths Parent Café for KS2 parents, thank you to those who could join us. A big thank you to Ms Berry for leading such an engaging session. If there are any other topics you would like us to cover in future Parent Cafés, do let us know — we’d love to hear your suggestions!
Looking ahead, next week promises to be just as exciting with class photos on Tuesday, a ‘Bird Man’ visiting us for Science Week, Comic Relief (you will receive information about non-uniform on Friday and how to contribute to fundraising), and our bulbs being judged on Wednesday — wish us luck!
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend ahead.
Alli
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
This week Reception have been reading The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. We have used this to inspire our science learning. We planted some bean seeds and sunflower seeds and now we are waiting! We found out that seeds need to MOVE to grow somewhere away from the parent plant (like the seeds in the story), did you know that some seeds blow in the wind, and some get moved by animals? We made some super cool seed packets and wrote our own Tiny Seed books. We found out about all the ways to make 7 in maths.
Next week is Forest School for Himid class on Thursday 20th and for Stik class on Friday 21st. Volunteers needed please.
Year 1
This week, we have been observing how our beans have grown. The children have used their scientific skills to make observations and record data on the bean’s growth. We discussed what plants need to grow and how they would grow outside.
In RE, we have started to learn about the Christian festival of Easter. We looked at Palm Sunday and discussed what a celebrating crowd might’ve been like. The children made palm leaves to recreate the movement and excitement of a celebration.
Year 2
We had the best time at London Zoo on Thursday! The children were full of excitement as we explored the zoo seeing lots of amazing animals and creatures. We enjoyed learning more about our topic on endangered animals and conservation as we get a better understanding of the Big Idea of ‘Sustainability’. It was a great trip, everyone had lots of fun!
Year 3
This week we have delved into column addition and begun to understand the process. To start, the use of dienes helped us manipulate and regroup our ones and tens. This allowed us to grasp the concept of carrying a group of 10 over into other columns to add this later. Children found this useful as it allowed them to visualise what the process was. We then moved onto drawing our own column addition calculations.
Year 4
In English this week, year 4 have been inferring emotions of the characters in our book. Being an immigrant in a new land has had many positive and negative aspects for them and the children were able to discuss and explore these experiences and use conjunctions to compare. They will use this work to then write a letter as a character informing their family back home about their encounters.
Year 5
This week, in Year 5, we were investigating how craters were formed on the surface of the moon. We discovered from our experiment that the higher a meteor fell (or the further away it traveled from) the faster it would travel, therefore the bigger the impact. We also learnt that the mass of the meteor significantly changed the size of the crater.
Year 6
This term in PE, Year 6 are hitting the pitch as we start our hockey unit! We will be learning key skills like dribbling, passing and shooting, as well as working on teamwork and strategy. Whether they’re new to the sport or have played before, everyone will have the chance to build confidence and enjoy the fast-paced game. To put our new skills to the test, we’ve been playing against each other in mini tournaments. It’s been exciting to see our hard work and enthusiasm pay off! Stay tuned for updates on their hockey journey! 🏑💪
Hearing Resource Base
We have been thinking about ways to support each other with communicating, which can be especially challenging for our deaf children. The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) is a leading charity for deaf children. They provide support for families, deaf children and young people and professionals, giving expert support on childhood deafness including raising awareness and campaigning for deaf children’s rights. You can find out more information here: https://www.ndcs.org.uk/
See the poster for NDCS’s top tips for communicating with deaf children.
Music this week…
On Tuesday, Year 3 and Year 1 children were treated to an incredible performance by Mbilla Arts. Led by master drummers from West Africa and accompanied by high energy dancers, this performance explored the origins of West African music and dance styles, tracing its journey from the African Continent across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and influencing carnival celebrations in the UK today.
Year 3 participated in workshops after the performance and were able to practice call and response patterns on Djembe drums as well as learning some of the dance moves they had seen during the show.
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the Art Studio, Year 2 explored ‘ Design through Making’. The children quickly understood that by exploring materials, their properties and uses, they could decide what might or might not work, and how they might want to use them creatively .
Kusama focused on threading and hanging and Van Gogh explored light, mirrors and photography.
The Art room was fizzing with chat and ideas.
ECO Team
The Key stage 2 Eco Team delivered an amazing and informatvie assembly on recycling clothing and it's impact on the environment if you throw clothes in the bin. The assembly was to launch our clothing recycling project with The Salvation Army .
Your child will come home with a Salvation Army bag this weekend. All you have to do is fill it with your old and unwanted clothes and return it to school. The Clothes will be collected and recycled by The Salvation Army on 3rd April. There will of course be a prize for the year group that collects the most bags.
Southwark Recycling centre
This week, the Veolia team from Southwark Recycling Centre visited years 4,5 & 6. They first shared an assembly, where they explained the basics around recycling, reusing and reducing. Next, they visited each class, ensuring they all had a good knowledge of the 3 Rs and then children had the opportunity to make pledges for their future of recycling. It was wonderful to see how much knowledge the children already had.
‘Thank you so much for having us, all the children were very well behaved and engaged!
The Veolia Team
The sandpit has been created! Bringing out wonderful community spirit, children and adults have demonstrated kindness, cooperation, resilience and perseverance. At the weekend a team of dedicated and skilled parents built a wonderful wooden sleeper construction and made planters for a sensory evergreen garden behind the sandpit.
We agreed the rules that will help keep the sandpit safe and fun for everyone in the Opal Assembly on Monday. To avoid sand in the hair, we have provided plastic shower caps and offered them to everyone (they are optional).
On Monday morning a dumper truck delivered 10 tonnes of golden play sand that every child in the school helped to move into the sandpit, using every imaginable receptacle they could find! On Wednesday loads of children helped to make the rag bunting decorations. It was brilliant to watch children who mastered the cow hitch, patiently teach other children how to do it.
The children couldn’t wait for the sandpit to open- and it was joyful to watch them play there- all ages together. A huge thank you to our wonderful sandpit constructors and to YOU, the PTFA who funded this wonderful popular project!
SJSC Stars
Stars are celebrated because they have demonstrated the school values, or gone above and beyond.
Well done to all our stars this week …
Book in a Jar Winners
Friends of SJSC
Please save Friday 28th March in your diaries.
At 3.25pm we have a Bake Sale and Uniform Swap in the playground by the new sandpit and shed.
After Sally’s assembly this week about the importance of recycling clothes to help the planet, we hope all your children have been asking to pick up their summer school uniform stash from our Uniform Swap! All the items are clean and in good condition - you can really help the environment by picking up your clothes from us rather than buying new.
Then in the evening come along to our Quiz Night. Tickets are only £5 - a bargain for a fun night out meeting other SJSC families. There will be a bar selling drinks and snacks and we hope to raise some money for the school.
You can get your tickets here: https://square.link/u/6uYZvYan
We hope to see lots of you there, thanks for your support.
RED NOSE DAY
Friday 21st March is Red Nose Day!
As a way to raise money please donate £1 on the following just giving link. Please do not bring cash to school, we cannot accept it.
To celebrate raising money and awareness, wear a splash of red as mufti on Friday 21st March.
See you next week!