Spring Term Issue 26: 4th April 2025
Flourishing in the love of God, love of life, love of learning
Dear families,
As we reach the end of this term, I wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude for your continued support and involvement in our school community.
Spring is a time of renewal and growth, and it's been wonderful to see our children flourishing both academically and personally. Their enthusiasm and dedication have been exceptional.
I want to extend a special thank you to our incredible staff. Their hard work, passion, and commitment to our children’s successes is inspiring.
With Easter just around the corner, I hope you all have the chance to enjoy some well-deserved rest and quality time with your loved ones.
Thank you once again for being such an integral part of our school. We look forward to welcoming everyone back after the break, ready to take on new challenges and opportunities.
Alli
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
This week Reception had the absolute treat of being read to by the children from Year 3. They read us their stories based on “Our Tower”. Stik class hosted the Gormley Children and Himid Class went upstairs and sat in real Y3 chairs. Afterwards we got to look through their books, as they older children talked 1-1 with the children about what they were proud of! We were so impressed by their writing “It’s really small”, “They wrote lots”. The Reception children said it was “Awesome!”
We wrote our final thoughts about our amazing bean and sunflower plants before they were taken home to be safely planted… do keep us posted with their progress.
Have a wonderful Easter break, draw pictures, eat chocolate, sing loads, get outside, plant things! Don’t forget when we come back we are off to Bocketts Farm on 24Th April at, coach leaving at 8.15am so early start. Please log on to Arbour to give permission and payments if you haven’t already done so.
Year 1
Year 1 have had a lovely final week to the spring term. They have planted their beans and potatoes in our garden. We don’t need to cross our fingers for them growing because Year 1 are experts on what plants need to survive. We have learnt all about keeping ourselves safe healthy in the PSHE, from sleeping lots and drinking plently of water to how to cross the road safely. We acted out ‘Stop, look, listen, live!’ to practice crossing the road safely. We aslo discussed what we know and what we have learnt abput Easter and the Christian Easter Story. Have a lovely Easter break and we will see you in the summer term!
Year 2
This week we looked back at our bread experiment to see how quickly germs could spread. The children said it was DISGUSTING!! We found out the pieces of bread that were touched using hand sanister and rubbed all over dirty surfaces were covered the most in mold, yuk! The children reported their findings and discussed the importance of always washing your hands with soap.
Year 3
Amazing Africa! Over the course of the last few weeks, children have been looking at Africa as a continent, exploring the habits, settlements and land uses. This week, we examined how water sources on the continent, particularly those in Northern Africa, have an impact upon settlements and land use. We discovered that most of the larger settlements were based around the coastline and that of the river Nile due to the accessibility of water. We then discussed the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert, examining why these areas are habitable but people here face greater challenges. Fantastic research and ideas!
Year 4
The year four students have been thinking about acceptance and equality the past couple of weeks in English. Following the end of our story Pride, a story of Harvey Milk and his rainbow flag creation, the children wrote factual and informing news reports covering the historical pride march that took place in NYC in 1994.
We wanted to say a huge thank you to the students for their hard work during Spring 2. Have a restful break and happy Easter.
Year 5
This week, Year 5 have been editing their stories, writing and performing their own hymns for an Easter Sunday service and presenting their final designs of a nature centre to a panel of architects! We are so impressed with the way they were able to communicate their ideas and incorporate their knowledge of climate change into their presentations – from renewable energy sources to recycled materials, treehouses to art galleries to locally sourced food items in the café – they wowed us.
Year 6
Year 6 eagerly returned to the hockey field for their latest PE lesson, ready to practice their teamwork skills. As we gathered in our teams, we focused on communication and cooperation, working together to move the ball down the field. We practiced finding space, making sure to spread out and offer passing options to their teammates. We learned how important it is to anticipate the movements of others, building trust and coordination. The lesson was a great reminder of how working together can lead to success in both sports and beyond.
Hearing Resource Base
This week the Hearing Resource Base had a visit from Jeremy Hine from the Ewing Foundation, a national charity who promote inclusion and achievement for deaf children through listening and speaking. Jeremy provided specialist audiology services, balancing the radio aids with the children’s hearing aids and cochlear implant processors. This is to make sure the radio aids are at the correct setting for each child.
We use radio aids to help the children in the Hearing Resource Base to make the best use of their hearing in the classroom environment. The teacher wears a microphone on a lanyard, and this picks up their voice and transmits it directly to the hearing aids or cochlear implants of the deaf children who are connected. This helps to cut out background noise and makes the speech clearer.
Music this week…
Year 3 children have been working really hard to re create one of the West African songs that we saw performed by Mbilla Arts at the beginning of March. Some of the children were following a strong beat to perform rhythmic patterns on the drums and shakers whilst others were performing a call and response song with actions. Please see the video attached.
To the mark the end of the Spring Term, Pop Choir put on a wonderful performance for the children from Little Jungle Nursery. Well done to everyone in Choir for all of your hard work, enthusiasm and charisma.
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the art studio Year 3 have been working on their Djembe drum designs. These designs are inspired by the Djembe drums the children played in their African drumming workshop.
Values Awards
At the end of each half term we celebrate how children have put our values into action.
Well done to all our values award winners who have demonstrated fantastic KINDNESS this half term.
Well done also to our reading champions this half term - children who have shown determination and dedication to their reading journeys!
Friends of SJSC
Thank you to everyone who came to the SJSC Quiz last week. It was a sell out event, everyone had a great time and we raised an incredible £1000 for the school! Thank you to Jess K, Leesa and Bryan for all their efforts pulling it together.
After Easter, we look forward to the SJSC School Disco on Wednesday 21st May. We are still looking for volunteers to help us run the event - so please speak to your class rep or email: FriendsOfSJSC@gmail.com
Thank you for all your support.
Have a great Easter Break!