Spring Term Issue 18: 24th January 2025
Flourishing in the love of God, love of life, love of learning
Dear Families,
What a blustery end to what has been a storming week here at SJSC! We've had some fantastic learning opportunities throughout the school. Forest School has been as engaging as ever, Year 5 working on their music maps for The London Sinfonietta’s Composition Challenge, and Coach Wilson's PE lessons have kept the children active and energised.
A highlight for me today was hearing Emily’s powerful Suffragette speech, written from the viewpoint of a matchstick girl. It concluded with the inspiring quote, “It takes one match to light a flame, it takes one woman to ignite a fire”- I’ll be taking that thought into the weekend!
A couple of dates for your diaries:
Early Years Parent Café on the morning of Friday 31st
NEW DATE: We have secured a Parent Workshop on supporting children with emotional regulation, hosted by The Nest, on 28th February at 9 AM.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend ahead!
Alli
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
This week Stik Class were off the Peckham Rye Nature Garden for our regular Forest School outing. Mud Mud Mud! was the order for the day! It’s quite a long walk for little legs and an even longer walk back, but we had a smashing time and hot chocolate, and biscuits makes everything better when you are cold and wet! As well as exploring, making dens, trying to dam the stream, we did maths at Forest School too and made our own natural number-line out of hidden tree cookies. We even spotted a woodpecker! (Sadly, Himid Class’s trip had to be postponed because of strong winds caused by Storm Eowyn.) In class we have been drawing our very first story maps, writing about our special people, and working out hidden numbers in maths… If there were 5 frogs on a log, and now there are only two, how many must be in the pool?
Next week there’s an EYFS Maths Parent café on Friday, afterwards if you are able, please do come and tell us a story in a different language for our International day?
Year 1
Year 1 have been exploring how odd and even numbers have been made. We’ve used numicom and counters to discover that an odd and odd or even and even make and even number. We’ve also learnt an odd and an even number make an odd number. In English, we’ve started writing our own naughty bus stories and the children have really impressed the adults with their great imagination.
Year 2
This week in Year 2 we started looking at plants in science. The students are so excited to start this unit, as they will be growing their own plants very soon. They began looking at the different parts of a plant and learning the role of each part.
Year 3
This week, children in PSHE thought about aspiration. We looked at how others are being aspirational and how we can be aspirational in our own lives. In doing so, we examined the necessary strategies and steps in order to reach our goals as well as discussed the possible pitfalls that could hold us back. A wonderfully community based session where we all encouraged one another to reach for our dreams.
Year 4
This week, the children have continued their learning about states of matter by exploring what happens when we add heat to a solid substance. We planned a fair test to answer our questions and learnt how to measure on a thermometer to support our enquiry.
We discovered that substances have different melting points and ended our session with many more questions that we started with! For example, why did the chocolate hold its shape but when prodded it had actually melted.
Next week we are going to making ice cream!
Year 5
This week in Year 5, we have had another busy week learning more about Space. We created our own diagrams of the solar system; this helped us learn the order of the planets and also the distances the planets are from the sun. Additionally, we took part in the Spaceship Earth Primary Show,. where we learnt so much about different satellites in space and what they do to help us on Earth.
Year 6
Year 6 have been developing their basketball skills during PE lessons. We’ve been focusing on dribbling with control, accurate passing to teammates, and effective defending techniques to block opponents. Through a mix of drills and mini-games, the children have shown excellent teamwork, improving both their individual skills and their understanding of the game.
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the art studio Year 3 have been working in their sketchbooks to finalise their designs for their characters inspired by the artist, Jon Burgerman. Jon Burgerman uses shapes, doodles and familiar objects to create characters that represent different ideas or emotions. Next week, we will create large scale cut out paintings of the characters.
Music this week…
In Music this week, Year 3 Gormley were immersing themselves in the world of green to help inspire their composition for The English National Opera’s Finish This project.
Year 2 have been thinking of actions which can accompany the song we are currently learning, Grandma’s Rap. Please watch the video.
Year 5 are thinking about Space as they are start to plot out their Music Maps for The London Sinfonietta’s Composition Challenge. We looked at the following Graphic Score which was set to Holst’s suite of music; The Planets (Mars). The children were then composing their own ostinato (a repeated rhythmic pattern).
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
A reminder that we have our Bake Sale and Uniform Swap coming up on Friday 7th February after school. We will not be taking in any uniform donations as we need to clear some of our existing stock - so please do come and help yourself to good quality uniform items - everything from trousers, skirts, shorts, dresses, jumpers, t-shirts and PE kit.
Recycle and Reuse ♻️💚🌎
Thanks for your support.
Notices
Have a lovely weekend. See you next week!