Autumn Term Issue 11: 22nd November 2024
Dear Families,
The temperature has certainly dropped this week, but you’ll be pleased to know that our new boiler is keeping the school toasty warm! Despite the chill, the cold weather has not stopped many of our year groups from heading out on inspiring trips.
We are incredibly proud of the children involved in the Unicorn Theatre project. Their collaboration with the production team has led to improvements in the play that will benefit many other deaf children. It’s wonderful to see their hard work making such a positive impact.
Looking ahead, next Friday will be our Parent Prayer Group, and on Saturday 30th, we will host the school Christmas Fair. The Friends of SJSC have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make this a fantastic fundraiser and a wonderful community event, and we can’t wait to see you there!
Wishing you all a fantastic weekend ahead.
Warm regards,
Alli
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
This week Reception have been on our first Forest School outings, to the Nature Garden in Peckham Rye; finding out all about the world around us, especially thinking about the seasons. In each class, we all worked together and made a mandala from all different colours and sizes of leaves. We explored every inch of the site and saw the stream that’s part of the River Peck. We sat round at the end and shared hot chocolate and a biscuit and sang our special Forest School Song. As well as a love and respect of nature Forest School encourages independence and curiosity, teamwork communication in the children, and we all had an exhausting and brilliant time.
In December we will be doing our Advent Story Basket, you are invited to send in a named story book from home, they are all wrapped up, numbered and we open one for our end of the day story. Everyone is so excited… will it be their favourite story from home? (Only one book per child, we give it back once it has been read.)
Year 1
In Year 1 this week, the children have really impressed the adults with their hard work and use of adjectives and phrases to talk write about different landmarks in London. We have become expert tour guides on The Tower of London, The Shard and Buckingham Palace. In RE we have started looking at the Nativity story and are focusing on the different roles and why they are important. As mathematicians we have been creating part whole models and looking at the different ways you can make 10.
Year 2
Over the last couple weeks of school, the Year 2’s have been busy practising their throwing and catching skills in P.E. They have been working on their coordination
and reaction times. The children have been throwing the ball underarm to their partner and catching it with two hands, as well enjoying a challenge and trying to catch with one hand or using their opposite hand.
Year 3
This week in our maths lessons, we have been diving deep into the concept of partitioning to 1000. We are thrilled to share with you how we are developing our understanding of numbers and the way we can break them down in various ways. We have also used a Gattegno chart to help us construct numbers to 100. A thrilling week of maths exploration!
Year 4
Year 4 had the opportunity to immerse themselves in nature during an exciting mini-beast hunt. Working in pairs, the children explored the outdoors, searching for mini-beasts and classifying them based on their unique characteristics. We emphasised the importance of respecting nature, ensuring that any insects we moved were carefully returned to their habitats, undisturbed. Through this experience, we learned valuable lessons about kindness and respect for all living things. It was a fun-filled adventure, with many exciting discoveries along the way! Check out our budding scientists in action.
Year 5
This week Year 5 have been lucky enough to go to the Imperial War Museum in central London to look at the Second World War exhibit and take part in workshops. The children found it fascinating to see so many primary sources (e.g. tanks, aeroplanes, videos, people’s stories etc) which deepened their knowledge of the period. They also took part in a workshop where they made mini-documentaries in small groups about different sources in the museum.
Year 6
In English this week, we started our new book ‘Can We Save the Tiger?’ by Martin Jenkins and stepped into the shoes of 'poor farmers' who were struggling with a dangerous predator threatening livelihoods. We role-played a meeting of local farmers, discussing what to do about the tiger that was killing our livestock.
The lesson allowed us to explore how language can convey strong emotions and opinions. Using emotive verbs, we communicated the impact of the predator on our lives.
After an intense (and heated!) discussion, the majority of Year 6 voted to find an ethical solution rather than resort to violence, showcasing our empathy for the tiger's well-being.
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the art studio Year 6 have used their sketchbooks to create visual notes, and explore colour. Our project this term focusses on the idea of Brave Colour and the work of artist and designer, Yinka Ilore. We’ll be using some of these ideas to create our own worlds of light and colour.
Music this week…
This week in music, Year 2 children were inspired by The Carnival of the Animals to create their own animal sounds, thinking about tempo and dynamics.
Year 4 children were learning how to accompany the song ‘I don’t Believe in Magic’ from The London Symphony Orchestra’s scheme of work for the book, Leon and the Place Between.
Children across the school were learning how to mark the pulse by passing a tennis ball around a circle whilst singing playground rhymes.
ECO TEAM
Well done to the winners of the Protect Our Planet Poster competition. Maya was part of the year 6 team who made a very informative poster but was sadly not there for the photo. They all received wonderful prizes kindly donated by a parent.
Hearing Resource Base
This week in the Hearing Resource Base, we completed our project with the Unicorn Theatre, developing live captions for their upcoming Christmas performance: Odd and the Frost Giants. We watched a preview of the performance as VIPs! We then gave feedback to the production team about the live captions.
Odd and the Frost Giants is a family performance running from now until Tuesday 31st December at the Unicorn. It is recommended for ages 7 years upwards.
To find out more visit: https://www.unicorntheatre.com/events/odd-and-the-frost-giants
Friends of SJSC
Our Christmas Fair Raffle is now live!
Tickets are just £2 each and you can win over 55 amazing prizes from local businesses, including:
£35 voucher for William Rose Butchers
£50 voucher for Artusi restaurant
Picturehouse Cinema tickets
And many many more!
Enter to win here: https://raffall.com/370624/enter-raffle-to-win-friends-of-sjsc-hosted-by-friends-of-st-johns-and-st-clements-c-of-e-primary-school
Please send to your friends, family, neighbours and help raise money for our school.
Thanks for your support.
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 …
Notices
A bunch of keys have been found nearby the school.
If you think they may be yours please contact the school office
Have a great weekend. See you next week!