Habs Weekly: Junior School edition - Friday 20 May

Habs Weekly Junior School edition Friday 20 May 2022 Summer Term

Head of Junior School’s Message Mrs L Flynn

Next week in the Junior School we are really looking forward to coming together as a community to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee.

As a school, community is incredibly important to us all because it provides a sense of belonging, connection and security, playing a crucial role in an individual’s wellbeing.

We know that within the Junior School, we celebrate a diverse range of communities to which our pupils belong. Children are encouraged to reflect upon these communities, such as their family, class, year group, House, school, the wider Haberdashers’ schools’ network, faith, and country.

Through our curriculum, assembly programme, and structures within the school day, pupils are taught about the importance of being community minded: knowing who is within their communities; what matters to them as an individual within that group; what matters to the group as a collective; celebrating successes and providing support in times of need. This extends to communities here and beyond the school gates.

This focus helps to develop a deep and meaningful understanding of the child’s role as an individual in supporting their own and other people’s communities and we look forward to Mrs Wright’s assembly on Monday morning where we will be discussing this value further.

Junior School Looking ahead...

Y1

Year 1 Picnic with Habs Boys W E D N E S D AY 2 5 M AY We are looking forward to joining Year 1 pupils from Habs Boys for a picnic and some afternoon activities!

Normal school uniform is to be worn. If the weather is hot, please provide your child with a sun hat and apply suncream before school. Please also ensure that your child has their raincoat - if it is raining, an alternative location will be used.

Pupils will be provided with a vegetarian school packed lunch. Should you chose to provide your child with their own packed lunch (no nut, sesame seed or products with nut traces and no glass bottles), please provide it in a disposable bag.

Y3

Year 3 Camp W E D N E S D AY 2 5 T O T H U R S D AY 2 6 M AY

We are very much looking forward to the Year 3 camp night experience next week, where pupils will be off timetable enjoying a range of bushcraft and outdoor activities. They will not have swimming on Wednesday.

Please click here for more information about the camp: drop off and collection times, kit and medication.

We are excited to welcome parents and guardians to our Rainbow and KS1 Sports Day!

Friday 24 June 2022 Rainbow: 10.30am start KS1: 1.45pm start Click here for more details

Junior School Sports Day Save the date

Junior School Looking ahead...

Y6

Year 6 Play REHEARSALS AND FINAL PERFORMANCE Year 6 are so excited to come together to perform Madagascar: A Musical Adventure. They will be spending the week commencing Monday 16 May rehearsing the play, ready for show week.

The dates for rehearsals and the final performance are as follows: Sunday 22 May, 10am to 3pm: Rehearsal Please ensure that your child comes to school that day with a water bottle, snack, and a packed lunch, that does not contain nuts or sesame.

Tuesday 24 May, 7pm to 8pm: Performance 1 Please ensure that your child arrives at school at 6.30pm and comes to the lecture theatre.

Refreshments will be served in the dining hall at this time.

Wednesday 25 May, 9.15am to 10.15pm: Performance 2 Refreshments will be served from 8.30am in the dining hall.

You can book your tickets for the Performances on our School Box office from Thursday 19 May, 9pm. Click here to do so.

Y5

Year 5 class assemblies M O N D AY 1 3 A N D M O N D AY 2 7 J U N E We are excited to invite parents to our Year 5 class assemblies on Monday 13 June (5Aleph) and Monday 27 June (5Aesc), 8.45am to 9.15am, in the Performance Space. Please come past the Junior School and enter through the DT doors.

We are all looking forward to having you join us!

We are excited to welcome parents and guardians to our KS2 Sports Day!

Monday 20 June 2022 Click here for more details

Junior School Sports Day Save the date

Whole School Reminders Class and Sports Team photographs M O N D AY 2 3 M AY Class and Sports team photographs will take place on Monday 23 May. Students should come to school wearing their summer uniform and have full PE kit in school if they are part of a team.

Platinum Jubilee Celebrations T H U R S D AY 2 6 M AY We are excited for our celebration of the Platinum Jubilee on Thursday 26 May. The Junior School will be off timetable all day and will join the whole school Platinum Jubilee Garden Party in the afternoon.

Please click here for more information.

Author visit: Jeremy Strong W E D N E S D AY 1 5 J U N E Later in the term, we are excited to announce we will be hosting author Mr Jeremy Strong in the Junior School Library.

Mr Strong will be conducting a book signing during his time at the school. If your child has any copies of Mr Strong’s books, please bring them in on the morning of the visit and leave them with your child’s class teacher.

Habs bookshop WEEK BEGINNING 20 JUNE We will be running our own Habs bookshop the week beginning 20 June, offering a selected range of books. Pupils will visit the bookshop during their library lesson, KS2 will also be able to visit during lunchtimes.

Most of the books will be priced at around £5; others up to a maximum of £9. To purchase books, pupils should bring cash, preferably in a named envelope.

We hope for an enjoyable week, discovering and celebrating books new and old.

Whole School Reminders Music Tuition A P P L I C AT I O N D E TA I L S CURRENT YEAR 2 TO 5 PUPILS

Tooled Up

We are thrilled that music plays such an enriching and vibrant part of student life at our school.

Nearly 400 students across the Junior and Senior School have weekly individual instrumental or singing lessons at school, provided by our team of 25 Visiting Music teachers.

Following our RSE Evening last week, here are some links to resources available through the Tooled Up platform. Please contact Mrs Lovejoy slovejoy@habsgirls.org.uk if you require assistance signing in.

If you wish for your child to begin instrumental or singing lessons from September 2022, please complete and return our application form by Monday 6 June.

RSE RESOURCES

Last term Saskia Boujo gave a talk also about how to speak with your children about sex and relationships, you can click here to watch again. Do please contact your child’s class teacher if you have any questions with regard to any of the topics.

Click here to read more about instrumental and vocal tuition at Habs.

Any other enquiries, please contact Ms Mea Jenkins (mjenkins@habsgirls.org.uk) or Mrs Jo Whiteley (jwhiteley@habsgirls.org.uk)

Warm weather P L E A S E B E AWA R E The weather looks set to be lovely next week.

Please ensure that your children have applied sunscreen before they come to school, and bring in a clearly named water bottle and school sunhat each day. Sun hats can be purchased from Junior School reception, Rainbows £5 and Years 1 to 6 £4.50

Breakfast and After School Care B O O K I N G I N F O R M AT I O N Click here to book your child into the breakfast club or After School Care (ASCF) the week commencing Monday 6 June Prearranged bookings can be made up until 12pm the Friday before.

After this time, please email ascf@habsboys.org.uk. Please note, there may be a small charge for ASCF after 4pm.

Lunch Menu WEEK COMMENCING M O N D AY 2 3 M AY Please click here to view the lunch menus for the following week.

Cornflower Assembly Friday 13 May

Friday afternoon assemblies are always a time of joy and celebration in the Junior School. Our weekly Cornflower Assembly celebrates individuals who have particularly demonstrated ways in which they have embodied our school values: Courage, Curiosity, Community and Ambition.

Without fail, the pupils in our school community celebrate the successes of their peers, as well as take time to reflect on the ways in which they have, themselves, taken risks, wondered why, supported others and aimed high. We all love Cornflower Assemblies, and hope that you enjoy celebrating weekly with us too.

Community

Ambition We set our sights high in terms of what we want to achieve as individuals and as a community, in and outside the classroom, aspiring to achieve our full potential in whatever we put our minds to.

Anya (1 Purple) Anya (3A) Aahna (6 Aesc) Caitlin (6 Aesc)

Lara (6 Aesc) Liberty (6 Aesc) Phoebe (6 Aesc) Shyla (6 Aesc)

Courage

Poppy (Rainbow Blue) Aradhya (4 Aleph)

Curiosity

We believe in the courage to face challenge, embrace opportunity and step out of our comfort zones to grow and become our best selves, whilst also having courage in our conviction, remaining true to our moral compass and what we believe is the right thing to do.

Azra (Rainbow Red) Emily (2A) Aleesha (2 Alpha)

Since we were founded, we have had an inherent responsibility to our diverse internal and wider community and continue to dedicate ourselves to nurturing it and supporting each other to be our best selves.

Elise (3 Alpha) Lara (4 Aesc) Gia (6 Aleph)

In a diverse world, we believe that growth comes from not standing still. We are driven by an unending desire to learn and improve, not standing still and having an open and enquiring mind to anything we face.

Isabella (Rainbow Yellow) Ariyana (1 Orange)

School Community Year 6 Play Madagascar: A Musical Adventure - Costumes

Year 6 are so excited to perform next week. A lot has been happening behind the scenes to make it happen. This includes work on our amazing costumes. Here is a note from our seamstress, Mary Galvin: With 75 parts and 49 pupils, the costumes for Madagascar are all about the hats (56), tails (35) and accessories. The majority of girls have a basic, black uniform of leggings and t shirts which makes it easy to change quickly from one character to another by adding or taking away a hat, tail, waistcoat or jacket. Many pairs of large luminous googly eyes were added to the headwear as I wanted to keep to the cartoonish nature of the film. Some of the costumes were in stock, having been made or donated for earlier productions but the vast majority of animal accessories were made specifically for Madagascar. One notable exception was the giraffe head which I made for a production about Noah in 2004! Keeping track of all these separate bits and making sure every pupil had the right thing at the right time is challenging, to say the least.

My thanks go to Sarah Deamer and Georgia Randhawa for their help.

Year 5 Skern Lodge “We have had the best experience at Skern Lodge, such as doing fun activities including river rafting, talent shows, roasting marsh mallows and so much more. On a scale from 1 to 10, we would score the food 10 in a heartbeat! We have learnt a lot from this trip physically and mentally, such as expanding our independence and relying on ourselves.”

From the Year 5 Form Captains – Alexa, Astrid, Inari and Aria

Year 4 British Schools Museum Year 4 thoroughly enjoyed finding out about life as a Victorian child. Each class had an authentic Victorian lesson in a schoolroom, with a dunce’s hat involved! It was fascinating to find out about home life by looking round the Headmaster’s Victorian house and to handle artefacts such as iron cherry stoners and hooks for boot buttons. Victorian playground games and drill completed the day.

“I loved writing with a quill pen” Aradhya (4 Aleph) “My first proper school trip and I loved it! The lesson was brilliant” Tanisha (4 Aesc)

Sport

Football - Watford and District Cup semi finals On Monday 16 May, Habs Junior School footballers played Yorke Mead primary school in the semi final of the Watford and District cup competition.

It was an amazing match, filled with end-to-end football played at the highest level. The tackling, running and skilful play of the Habs team kept the score at 0-0 until the last three minutes where two late goals from Kings Mead saw them advance to the final. It was a tremendous achievement to have reached the semi finals and everyone in the Junior School are incredibly proud of the team.

Well done to all those involved!

Rounders versus NLCS Year 5 played their first rounders match of the season against NLCS. All the rounders players showed determination and sportsmanship throughout the match. Their learning of the rules and tactics greatly improved throughout.

Well done to all the players!

ACE focus – Climbing Wall Year 6 have been enjoying climbing wall club every Monday. The pupils said the sessions are “captivating and exhilarating and pushes them out of their comfort zone” and they feel an “incredible sense of achievement is evident when they reach the top!”

CALENDAR DATES M O N D AY 2 3 M AY Class and sports teams photos T U E S D AY 2 4 M AY Year 6 Play (first performance) W E D N E S D AY 2 5 M AY Year 1 picnic with Habs Boys’ pupils Year 6 Play (second performance) W E D N E S D AY 2 5 T O T H U R S D AY 2 6 M AY Year 3 overnight camp T H U R S D AY 2 6 M AY Years 2 and 5 grades Rainbow and Years 1, 3 and 4 reports The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebration F R I D AY 2 7 M AY Inset day M O N D AY 3 0 M AY T O F R I D AY 3 J U N E Half term M O N D AY 6 J U N E Inset day M O N D AY 6 T O F R I D AY 1 0 J U N E Year 6 Norfolk Trip F R I D AY 1 0 J U N E Rainbow Family Friday

* Selected pupils will be invited to participate in fixtures via Evolve

CALENDAR DATES W E D N E S D AY 1 5 J U N E Parents’ Evening Year 6 Rounders Author visit - Jeremy Strong T H U R S D AY 1 6 J U N E * Years 3 and 4 Swimming S AT U R D AY 1 8 J U N E * Year 6 Swimming * Year 5 and 6 Football - Watford and Distrct tournament M O N D AY 2 0 J U N E Year 3 to 6 Sports Day T U E S D AY 2 1 J U N E Junior School changeover day Year 1 to 6 Induction evening W E D N E S D AY 2 2 J U N E * Years 5 and 6 Rounders W E D N E S D AY 2 2 T O F R I D AY 2 4 J U N E Year 4 Norfolk Lakes Residential F R I D AY 2 4 J U N E Rainbow Family Friday Rainbow, Year 1 and 2 Sports Day T U E S D AY 2 8 J U N E Year 2 Playstrings Performances