Summer Term Issue 34: 20th June 2025
Flourishing in the love of God, love of life, love of learning
Dear Families,
What a wonderful way to end the week—with the inspiring words of guest speaker Cath Prisk talking about the power and importance of play. It was the cherry on top to see so many reception parents joining your children in the playground, getting a glimpse into the joy and creativity that play brings to life at SJSC.
One parent asked about the impact of OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) since its introduction, and it’s a great question. We’ve seen a clear reduction in playground accidents and behavioural incidents, just as the approach promises. But beyond that:
Children are deeply engaged in their play
There’s more interaction across age groups, fostering kindness and collaboration
Creativity and problem-solving skills are flourishing and feeding back into classroom learning
Play is inclusive—every child can join in
An improved readiness for learning after lunch
And perhaps most importantly, there’s a visible sense of joy
This success wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of Sally Oliver and Jo Davies, who work tirelessly to enrich our playground and the experiences our children have every day. A huge thank you to both of them!
Remember the Y3, 4, 5, and 6 Stay and Play session takes place on Wednesday 2nd July, and the Y1 and 2 session is on Friday 4th July, both at 9:15-10.
Looking to the weekend, we’re all excited for the Summer Fair this Saturday from 1–4pm. The PTFA has been hard at work preparing a fun-filled afternoon with stalls, games, delicious food, and a great community atmosphere. It’s a fantastic opportunity to come together, celebrate summer, and raise funds for trips, workshops, playground resources, gardening, and more.
We can’t wait to see many of you there!
Warm wishes,
Alli
Upcoming Diary Dates
This week has ended with the most wonderful morning of Stay and Play for the children from Reception and year 2. We had the best time outside today, showing off all our cool play and learning to our parents and our younger brothers and sisters.
In the classroom we have been making brilliant pirate books and consolidated our maths learning. We are experts on how to make numbers up to ten and can explain what we know.
In RE we have been learning about special objects that are used in Church, and why they might be important to Christians.
Next week we have Jobs Day on Thursday 26th June (2.30) , Superhero day on 1st July, and Forest school for Himid on 3rd July.
Reception
Year 1
Year 1 have been exploring different values made from identical coins. They have been using the skill of counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. Please continue to practice this at home as it makes a real difference! In RE, we have been looking at how people of other faiths look share the world. The children have come up with some great suggestions for what they could do. In History, we moved on from Emily Wilding Davison to Rosa Parks. We recreated the scene and spoke about how she might have felt.
Year 2
In R.E this term, we are learning about why prayer is important to some people who have faiths. The children thought about how prayer can be connection with God, giving thanks, asking for help, and showing love for others. This week we looked at the Lord’s prayer that Christians use - we sorted it into the main themes of prayer: forgiveness, asking for help, saying thank you. At the end of our lesson, each child wrote their own personal prayer or reflection.They were encouraged to think about something special to them, say thank you, or ask for forgiveness. It was a beautiful moment of quiet reflection, and we were so proud of the thoughtful and heartfelt words they shared.
Year 3
Year 3 had an exciting trip to the Natural History Museum this week, where we explored the Earth’s power through volcanoes and earthquakes.
We began in the Volcanoes and Earthquakes gallery, where we learned how tectonic plates cause eruptions and quakes. The highlight was the Eruption Show, where we learnt about the monitoring of earthquakes and volcanoes with scientific equipment and delved into what causes these natural phenomenon’s to occur.
The children were fascinated by the story of Pompeii and saw real casts of people caught in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It was a powerful and memorable part of the trip.
Well done to Year 3 for being such curious and respectful learners. What an explosive day!
Year 4
Year 4 children have been planning, editing and publishing their innovated stories of the Selfish Giant. Withing their stories, the children are attempting to use personification and a range of noun phrases. We are hoping to use AI to make their stories come to life in pictures based on the words they have chosen to describe their scenes an characters.
Here are a few sneaky peeks into some of their stories.
Year 5
Since the beginning of the summer term, Year 5 have been lucky enough to be taught Samba by specialist music teachers coming into school. They have had the opportunities to play all the different instruments and now are working collaboratively to learn several different grooves. In our sessions, we are now getting ready for our concert on Goose Green on July 3rd. We hope you can make it; you are in for a treat!
Year 6
This week in Science, Year 6 have been developing their understanding of light through an exciting investigation into refraction. As part of our learning, we made predictions and tested how light behaves when it travels through different materials – in this case, water!
Children explored how light bends, or refracts, when it moves from air into water. We used simple materials like plastic cups, pencils, and water to observe fascinating effects—such as an object appearing to bend or even disappear when placed in water.
Before carrying out the experiment, children made thoughtful predictions based on their prior knowledge, practising their skills in scientific reasoning. They then carefully recorded their observations and considered how the direction of light changes due to the change in density between air and water.
Music this week…
Next week, Year 2 will be watching a relaxed CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) concert performance of The Wizard of Oz. If your children wish to dress up, they are welcome to bring in a prop (homemade or otherwise) to join in the fun eg:
Wicked Witch and Wizard of Oz - hats, capes and broomstick
Good witch- tiara, wand
Scarecrow - straw and hats
Tin Man - anything silver
Lion - mane, tail and ears
Dorothy - basket, red shoes
Toto - ears, tail
Please don’t worry if you don’t have any of these things, we will have items in school and all will have a great time.
Children in Reception (Himid) have been listening to Beethoven’s Symphony Number 5 as we look at examples of music with contrasting dynamics. They have really enjoyed watching the following animation which follows a penguin moving along a series of lines in time to Beethoven’s rhythms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcBn04IyELc
This week, Children in Year 4 were looking at Papegeno’s (the birdcatcher) song from Mozart’s Opera, The Magic Flute. They were having to use movement to express their timid approach to the Papegena (the female version of himself) who has caught their eye whilst singing at the same time.
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the Art studio, Year 3 completed their Matisse-inspired cut-outs. Their brightly coloured collages tell the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. Stik class turned their classroom into a rollercoaster inventing room. They used the paper building techniques they have learned to create their own rollercoasters. It was wonderful hearing them using the paper building vocabulary – looping, twisting. folding, bending and ripping.
Star of the week
Well done to this week’s stars - children who have demonstrated our school values in wonderful ways.
See you next week!