Spring Term Issue 22: 7th March 2025
Flourishing in the love of God, love of life, love of learning
Dear Families,
You could sometimes wonder how you ended up dressed as a wolf, welcoming in the BFG, astronauts, and an array of book characters on the school gate – but that’s the magic of World Book Day at SJSC! It’s always a highlight of the calendar and so much fun for everyone involved. A special mention to Mr. Evans, who never fails to impress with his costume – this year’s inflatable flamingo was a huge hit! We were blown away by the creativity in both the costumes and the entries for the book in a jar competition. Well done to everyone who took part!
A big thank you to Miss Cosby for organising such a fantastic day.
Looking ahead, next Friday is our KS2 Maths Parent Café, which will kick off at 9:15 am. We look forward to seeing you there!
Messy Church is taking place this Sunday at St John’s, 3.45-5pm, with crafts, games, story and children’s tea. All are welcome.
And finally, a huge thank you to those parents who are volunteering their time and skills to build our new sandpit this Saturday. They’ve already carried in a huge pile of sleepers, and that is just the start!
Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Warm regards,
Alli
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
This week we have been loving getting ready for World Book Day, and preparing our doors for the class competition. Stik class tried out bubble painting and drew themselves as astronauts for their look up inspired door. Himid class experimented with water colours and how to get more intense colours, to paint dragon scales for our magic paintbrush inspired door. They used their newfound skills to paint Shen too.
We loved Dressing up and we were so impressed by everyone’s costumes. We all made little books inspired by the Nutshell Library by Maurice Sendak. And the best part was sharing some stories throughout the day… with snacks!
Year 1
Year 1 had an exciting week learning about Wales! We looked at the Welsh flag and flower and learnt about Cardiff. The children impressed us with their culinary skills and attempted some fab Welsh cakes! They practiced measuring, mixing and rolling.
In PSHE, we have started looking at how to keep healthy. The children could name lots of ways such as, getting enough sleep, drinking lots of water and spending time outside.
World Book Day was such a treat! The children were so impressive with their outfits, we loved sharing their books with them and their dancing blew us away in the parade!
Year 2
This term the Year 2’s are starting to deep dive into division! They have been using lots of hands on manipulatives to solve division problems and physically share the items into groups. They been concentrating on understanding the language:
Year 3
This week we learnt about soil types and explored how organic matter can differ in different soils. We learnt about the soil cycle and thought carefully about how soils are created. In doing so, we conducted a test which explored the consistency of different soils, looking at sandy soil, rocky soil and clay soil. We sieved each and then looked at how they react to water. We shall observe this over time and continue to become budding soil scientists!
Year 4
This week, Year 4 has been hard at work exploring a variety of exciting topics. In Maths, they’ve been plotting vertices, while in English, they've been crafting engaging diary entries. Additionally, the children have been learning about the significance of Holy Communion.
To celebrate World Book Day, the children enjoyed some quality time in our beautiful Reading Room, where they continued to nurture their love for reading. Over time, we’ve seen their passion for books grow stronger, and it's been wonderful to watch!
Year 5
This week, in year 5, we started a very exciting Architecture project, where the children will be re-designing Peckham Rye Park, considering its sustainability, alongside input from professional architects. This week we learnt about the role of an architect and the different viewpoints that architects drew from. We then drew our school and our classroom from these different architectural viewpoints.
Year 6
This week, we had a fantastic time working collaboratively to design and create our World Book Day inspired door! We chose to base our door on one of our favorite books, The Matchstick Girl Strikes Back, and are so proud of the final result. The project was a wonderful blend of creativity and teamwork, and we had a lot of fun bringing the story to life in a unique way.
Music this week…
In Music, Year 2 have been listening to a piece of music called The Orawa (pronounced ‘Arva’) by Wojciech Kilar. The music describes the journey of the huge river Orawa as it flows through Europe. The children were listening carefully to think what the music could be describing as the river makes its journey. Did they think it was passing through peaceful villages, noisy towns or did the music hint at fast flowing rapids and whirlpools. The children drew images of what they thought the piece of music might represent.
A link to the music can be found below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7PSVEWD6Rs
As part of Women’s History Month, I am attaching a Listening Calendar which celebrates a number of Female Composers. The QR code can be scanned in order to listen to the playlist. For those of you who are interested, The Only Girl In the Orchestra is a short film being shown on Netflix. This short documentary celebrates trailblazing double bassist Orin O'Brien, the first woman to become a full-time member of the New York Philharmonic.
News from the Art Studio…
There was lots of talk and sharing ideas this week in the art studio. Stik class created monsters using oil pastels, it was lovely to listen to their conversations about colour and how to use it. There was much debate during Lichtenstein’s lesson as the children explored innovations, old & new.
Hearing Resource Base
This week the Hearing Resource Base had a work experience student from Oak Lodge School for the Deaf. This was a great opportunity for us to have a Deaf role model in the school helping with various jobs and activities across the different year groups.
We have developed a very good partnership with Oak Lodge having taken a number of students for their work experience recently. Many of the students at Oak Lodge use British Sign Language as their main form of communication so this is also a great opportunity for our children to practice their BSL skills.
World Book day
Everyone at SJSC had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day this year! In the lead-up to the day, all classes worked together as teams to turn their classroom doors into displays inspired by their favourite books from this year. The creativity was amazing!
The character parade was, as always, a big highlight. All of our classes (and adults) strutted down the catwalk to show off their costumes, with plenty of cheers from the rest of the school – such a fun atmosphere!
Throughout the day, children enjoyed delightful tea parties while listening to stories and took part in a range of book-related activities. It was a wonderful reminder of how much we love reading here at SJSC.
A huge thank you to everyone for making World Book Day such a special occasion!
SJSC Stars
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
SJSC Quiz Night - Friday 28th March
The time has come - get your SJSC Quiz Night tickets here: https://square.link/u/6uYZvYan
For just £5 per ticket, enjoy a relaxed and fun night out whilst meeting other SJSC families.
There will be a bar selling drinks and snacks and we hope to raise some money for the school.
Tickets are limited due to capacity in the school hall so don’t delay - click and buy today! Quiz teams will be grouped at random but if you would like to be sat with a particular year group, there is an option to specify which one when you buy your tickets.
We hope to see lots of you there, thanks for your support.
See you next week!