Autumn Term Issue 09: 7th November 2025
Flourishing in the love of God, love of life, love of learning
Dear families,
Welcome back! It was so lovely to see everyone after the half-term break — I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable time with loved ones. It was great to see so many enjoying the Black History Month exhibit- well done to the children for creating such engaging work.
Next Friday (14th November at 9:15am), I will be hosting our first Headteacher’s Parent Café of the year, and you are all warmly invited to join. These sessions begin with a short 10-minute overview of a key aspect of school life, followed by an open forum for questions, ideas, and discussion on topics that matter to you. This time, we’ll be focusing on our curriculum and teaching approaches.
Looking ahead, we are excited to introduce a new Parent Café session to pop in your diary:
“Growing Up Online – What Every Parent Should Know About Social Media and AI” on Tuesday 6th February 2026.
We hope this will be a really informative and supportive session for families navigating the digital world with their children.
Next week is Anti-Bullying Week, and we will be marking it in school with special assemblies and workshops to help children understand kindness, respect, and how to support one another.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend,
Alli
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
This week in Reception we have been learning all about the mysterious world of Ning and the Night Spirits from a book by Adriena Fong. The classroom has been filled with mysterious lights and rustling sounds! We have enjoyed making our own sound scape with natural objects and written about night spirits and even had a go at writing letters. In Maths we are looking at representing 5 in different ways. In RE we have been finding out that people celebrate different festivals around the world. In our classes some people celebrate Christmas, some celebrate Eid and all celebrate birthdays. In phonics we learned some more double letter digraphs and 4 new tricky words. Have a read through the new letter in the phonics packs.
We are really looking forward to Forest School next week. We still need a few more helpers- and remember we all need the right clothes- we go in all weathers except high winds!
Year 1
This week in Year 1, our learning has been full of creativity and curiosity! In English, we have been focusing on ‘Iggy Peck, Architect’ which has inspired the children to think like an architect. They have been designing and building their own imaginative models, including a “Conker Spaceship House” and other fantastic creations. It was wonderful to see children challenging themselves by using noun phrases to label their designs– just like real architects!
We have also been learning to use the conjunction ‘but’ to compare characters. The children enjoyed exploring the differences between Iggy and Miss Greer, composing sentences such as “Iggy loves to build, but Miss Greer does not,” and discussing how the characters behave differently. This has helped them make their writing more detailed and exciting.
In RE, we have been learning about saints and how they help Christians make good choices. The children shared their own ideas about what makes a great role model and reflected on how they can follow good examples in their own lives.
We are also very excited about our trip to the Transport Museum next Tuesday! The children can’t wait to see how transport has changed over time and link what they discover to their history and English learning.
Year 2
This week, Year 2 began reading our new book, Grandad’s Camper by Harry Woodgate. The children were captivated by the story and especially enjoyed exploring a special memory box filled with items inspired by the book. Each object held a unique significance to the character Grandad, sparking thoughtful discussions about how everyday items can hold powerful memories.
Inspired by this, the children are now eagerly preparing to bring in their own special items from home. These treasures will help them share personal stories and memories and will be used as a springboard for writing expanded noun phrases in class. We can’t wait to see the meaningful objects they choose and hear the wonderful memories they’ll share!
Year 3
This week, our Year 3 children have been diving into the exciting world of Scratch programming! Using this fun, block-based coding platform, pupils have been learning how to create their own interactive stories, animations, and simple games. Through hands-on exploration, they have begun to discover how to use coding blocks to control movement, add sound, and bring characters (called “sprites”) to life. From animated animals to space adventures, each project showcases growing confidence in computational thinking — breaking problems into steps, testing ideas, and debugging when things don’t go as planned.
Children were also thrilled to welcome a coach from Surrey Cricket Club! The children enjoyed an energetic session developing their batting, bowling, and fielding skills through fun games and challenges. The coach inspired everyone to work as a team, stay active, and enjoy the spirit of cricket. It was a fantastic sporting experience for all!
Year 4
Year 4 Set Sail with Shackleton!
This week, Year 4 embarked on an exciting literary adventure as we began reading Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill. Our classroom was alive with curiosity and creativity from the very start, when we discovered a mysterious recruitment poster reading: “MEN WANTED”.
We stepped into the shoes of three real-life women—Peggy Pegrine, Valerie Davey, and Betty Webster—who famously applied to join Shackleton’s expedition. The children wrote powerful and persuasive letters in role, trying to convince Shackleton to break convention and accept them onto the crew. Despite their best efforts, Shackleton remained unconvinced, and the women were sadly rejected.
To end the week, we brought history to life through role play, imagining an interview between Shackleton and Frank Worsley, one of his eventual crew members. The children asked thoughtful questions, gave confident answers—and then role played these interview donned in moustaches and captains hats!
Year 5
This week in Year 5, we examined a range of old photographs, documents, diary entries and sources to discover who we would be learning about this half term. We asked questions and made inferences about Anne Frank, where and when she lived, what she enjoyed and what kind of person she was. We were also lucky enough to have a Black History Month workshop, where we learnt about protests and standing up for people that are discriminated against and enjoyed seeing our work in the Black History Month exhibition.
Year 6
Before half term, Year 6 enjoyed an unforgettable week away at PGL! From the moment they arrived, they threw themselves into every challenge with enthusiasm, courage, and a brilliant sense of fun.
Throughout the week, the children developed a wide range of skills — from teamwork and communication to resilience and problem-solving. Whether they were tackling the climbing wall, navigating obstacle courses, or supporting one another during team challenges, everyone showed fantastic determination.
It was wonderful to see so many step outside their comfort zones, try new experiences, and grow in confidence. Most importantly, they encouraged and celebrated one another every step of the way.
We are incredibly proud of Year 6 for the way they represented our school — their teamwork, positivity, and willingness to give everything a go made the week truly special.
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the art studio, 1S completed their paintings exploring complementary colours, inspired by Albert Irvine.
Year 6 explored different forms of lettering to create affirming messages on their Lakwena Maciver-inspired posters.
Years 4 & 5 studied tone and how to create different tonal effects using hatching and cross-hatching, I love the way they have all approached this task in their own unique way- true artists!
Music this week…
This half term the focus for Music Lessons will be looking at music in stories.
Children in Year 6 will be learning about Leitmotifs in film music. A Leitmotif is a melody which represents a character (think of Darth Vader’s famous theme in Star Wars). This week we played a game where children were grouped as characters and played instruments to represent the sound of those characters (eg sprites on triangles, soldiers on drums) when their names were mentioned in a story. They then attempted to compose a simple melody for a hero using the C Major scale on the keyboards and tuned percussion.
Soundscapes will be the focus for Year 4 as we think about how music can set a scene for a film, story or a book.
In Year 3, children will be reading the story Leon and The Place Between and will be looking at how music can be created to add dramatic impact to the text.
Children in Year 2 were revisiting Carnival of the Animals to think about why certain instruments could represent specific animals in stories. We thought about how the low sound of the double bass was a good match for the steady stomping of the Elephant.
Year 1 children will be learning about the timbre of different instruments and what feelings different qualities of sound can evoke. This week they were introduced to the Djembe and DunDun drums. Most children found that the repetitive beats made them want to move and smile.
Year 5 will be continuing to work on their composition project, Finish This; Blue Red Yellow…… We have to submit their work by Christmas and the children are starting to experiment with music technology to represent words from their class word banks.
Friends of SJSC
A reminder to order your personalised cards and gifts from Xmas4Schools. You should have received your unique ordering link to your email/phone. Deadline for orders is Sunday 9th November and each order raises some money for the school.
Our Christmas Fair is right around the corner and our Friends of SJSC Elves have been busy pulling together this year’s Christmas Raffle. There will be some amazing prizes up for grabs once again, and if you or your business can donate a prize please do let us know by 13th November via email: SJSCraffle@gmail.com
Thanks for your support.
Stars of the Week
See you next week!