Spring Term Issue 17: 17th January 2025
Flourishing in the love of God, love of life, love of learning
Dear Families,
Today, I thought I would give you an insight into our collective worship sessions. We started this week by focusing closely on this half-term's value of aspiration. Many people make New Year's resolutions at this time of year, but before we set our own resolutions, we are taking time to explore various aspects of aspiration in our collective worship. This week, we discussed the power of words on our mindset and behaviour and looked at some fascinating scientific research on the priming effect.
To kick off our exploration, we looked at how the words we use can influence the way we approach challenges and achieve our goals. Below, you can see the aspirational words chosen by Lichtenstein Class to help them get into the right mindset for success.
By Friday, we celebrated our Stars of the Week—each one of them an inspiration to us all through the aspirational way they have challenged themselves and given their very best. I feel incredibly lucky to be in this role, surrounded by such inspiration and joy each day.
I hope that you all have a lovely weekend ahead
Alli
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
This week Reception have been reading Little Red by David Roberts… we love to get fully emersed in a story and it’s been great seeing the children clinking tankards in our role play inn (Ye Olde Belch) and rushing around in a red jacket carrying a basket; pretending to be Little Red (or the whispering trees in the deep, dark wood). We have even made our own ginger beer, using fresh ginger and lemons!
We have had lovely RE lessons, talking about our special people and sharing our photos with the class; it has been great to see children flourish when speaking to the class and sharing their stories.
In maths we were looking at the pattern of one more… how using blocks like the number blocks make a staircase pattern each time you add 1 more… this knowledge helps us order numbers or spot what’s missing.
Next week we are off to Forest School again… so far though we have had 3 or 4 volunteers for each class which is fantastic- we always need more! Please do see if you can come. Each half term we swap who gets to go on a Friday, to try to make things easier.
Year 1
Year 1 have been really enjoying learning all about the Naughty Bus’s antics! We had a go at ordering the story and added our own adverbials to the story sequence. In RE, we learnt about important symbols to Jewish people and created our own symbols based on what is important to us. In History, we have started looking at how toys have changed over time and what toys were like in the past.
Year 2
This week in Year 2 we have started looking at equal and unequal groups. As part of a task, children had to work in teams to find different ways to group their objects and see if they could make equal and unequal groups with the number of objects they had been given. Lots of children used their knowledge of their 10, 5 and 2 times tables to help group. Well done everyone!
Year 3
We created timelines using key periods of history we have already learnt about before adding in where we thought the Stone Age should go. We next found out about the three main periods of the Stone Age and some key events that happened before finally including the Bronze Age and Iron Age in our timelines. We have been brilliant historians this week and can’t wait to find out more about the Stone and Bronze ages.
Year 4
This week in English, Year 4 students have been delving into the fascinating world of characterisation through role-playing activities. They discovered that what a character says aloud doesn’t always reflect what they’re thinking. By exploring speech and thought bubbles, the students developed a deeper understanding of how characters express themselves.
Once they had explored these ideas, they transformed their work by 'popping' the bubbles and writing direct speech using proper punctuation, including speech marks. They also took it a step further, linking what characters say and think with conjunctions to form complex sentences.
This activity not only sharpened their writing skills but also brought characters to life in new and exciting ways. We’re so proud of their creativity and attention to detail!
Year 5
This week, in Year 5, we have been learning out about the planets in our solar system. We made salt dough and then had to use this to calculate the size of our planets in relation to one another. We learnt that the Earth is actually quite a small planet in our solar system. We had so much fun making these models and we are looking forward to finding out more about the planets in the coming weeks.
Year 6
TfL’s Good Citizenship and Independent Travel Workshop
This week, Year 6 had the opportunity to take part in a special workshop run by Transport for London (TfL), focusing on good citizenship and independent travel. The workshop helped children develop the skills to travel confidently and safely around London, with a strong emphasis on being respectful and responsible on public transport. They learned how to plan their journeys, stay safe, and be considerate of others while using the Tube, buses, and other forms of transport. It was a fantastic way to prepare them for increased independence and to foster a positive attitude towards city travel ahead of secondary school!
Hearing Resource Base
The Hearing Resource Base has started an exciting project, providing BSL lessons for parents and carers of deaf children in the local area. The lessons are provided by Remark, a leading Deaf-led organisation for British Sign Language services and training. Remark already teach our KS2 children BSL, and now there is an adult’s lesson after school too. Ten parents are working towards their Signature Level 1 certificate in BSL.
We are very grateful to both the Birkdale Trust and Chloe’s and Sophie’s Special Ears Fund for helping us to fund these lessons for parents and carers of deaf children in the local area.
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the art studio Year 2 made their own brushes from man-made materials found in the art room. They used these along with their natural brushes to make a variety of marks.
Music this week…
Year 1 this week were listening to Colonel Hathi’s March from The Jungle Book. The children were practising finding the beat and marching in time. We looked at and discussed why Brass instruments were a good choice for marching bands.
ECO TEAM
🌟 Empowering Change: Our Eco Team Leads the Way! 🌟
This week, our Eco Team took centre stage during collective worship to launch the Duracell Big Battery Hunt Project across the school. Through their inspiring message of stewardship and sustainability, they encouraged us all to take action in caring for our world. Their leadership is a shining example of courageous advocacy, reminding us that small steps, like recycling batteries, can create a big impact for our planet. Let’s join them in making a difference! 💚🔋 #CourageousAdvocacy #EcoChampions #BigBatteryHunt"
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 …
Friends of SJSC
Please make a note in your diaries that our next Bake Sale & Uniform Swap is taking place on Friday 7th February at 3.25pm in the top playground by the shed.
We are also looking ahead to our Summer Fair and School Disco planned for the summer term. If you have any ideas or would like to volunteer to help organise those events, please do get in touch with your Class Rep or someone from the PTFA Committee. The more brains and hands we have to help out in the planning process, the better the events will be!
Thank you for your support.
Have a lovely weekend. See you next week!