Junior School Newsletter - October 18 2019

JUNIOR SCHOOL

NEWSLETTER

Friday 18th October 2019 Dear Parents

Our final week before the half term break has hopefully been one of calm, contemplation and self-awareness (and I don’t just mean the parents’ evenings!) Following on the heels of last week’s World Mental Health Day, we have spent this week looking at how we can explore and share our worries, improve our health and look out for those around us. During Monday’s Meeting for Worship, I shared with the children an understanding of what mental health means and how we can look after it. Interestingly, we found that many things that work for our physical health are also positive for mental well-being. In particular, a good balanced diet, regular exercise and plenty of sleep. Judging by some of the tired faces towards the end of this week, that latter one is important right now for quite a few people (and I don’t just mean the teachers!)

Nick Hadley sought to address this in his Key Stage 2 Meeting on Tuesday (as you might have seen on our Twitter feed) with the children chilling out in the Ensemble Room. They also learned about the importance of at least an hour off the screen before bed and making sure they had their full 10 hours a night.

Wednesday began with us sharing the story The Huge Bag of Worries. This helped us to recognise that we all carry around worries with us – some of which really belong with other people, while others can be reduced or eradicated entirely by talking to friends or trusted adults. This led perfectly into our vertical learning morning which saw the children split in to their four House groups. Throughout the sessions they spent time on a nature walk, creating some mindful art, harvesting willow wands from the tunnel to make their own Quaker Qs (now displayed outside the main entrance) and a calming yoga session. It was wonderful to see so many of the older children supporting their younger Housemates throughout the morning.

Earlier in the week Toby Spence and I were bombarded with visitors from EYFS and KS1 delivering personalised invitations to the special opening of the Wildlife Area they have been developing over the last couple of weeks - see photos below.

Elsewhere it was great to welcome parents of children in Year 5 and 6 to our transition information evening.

Well done to the following children who received Celebration Certificates; Florin Y2, Eliza Y3, Evie F Y4, Jago Y5LM, Thomas C Y5HS, Evie B Y6AP, Sam Y6NH. Also congratulations to the children who received Head Teacher Awards; Lily, Huxx, Abby, Benjamin G, Wilf, Toby, Florence, Harry -Y1/2, Dori - Y3 and Monty - Y4

I hope you all have a wonderful half term break and look forward to seeing you all rested and raring to go in November (hopefully celebrating an England World Cup win!)

In friendship Edward Rossiter Head of Junior School Ps. In honour of the session Helen Hoy ran for us, did you know that male yoga practitioners are known as ‘yogis’, while female practitioners are known as ‘yoginis’?

Grand Opening of Wildlife Area

Foundation and Reception I cannot believe it is half term already. It is lovely to see how settled our new children are and how much the children have been developing new friendships. It can be an emotional roller coaster for young children when starting school, so we have been spending time exploring our feelings. We took part in the whole school Vertical Learning Morning and talked about how fresh air can make us feel so much better if we are feeling a little sad. It was amazing to watch the children come alive and the joy on their faces as we went outdoors for our nature walk (especially as some of them had been feeling a little sad that morning). The children were calm and focused during our ‘cosmic yoga’ session and valued the time to step back and relax.

Aside from this we have been working on telling some wonderful ‘helicopter stories’ this week. One of the best moments was when a child had to pretend to be an angle grinder. As usual, they took it all in their stride and worked together to come up with ideas. In maths we have been thinking about one more and one less. We started off the week by having some Pom-bears. The children had to add ‘one more’ to their plate and then got to eat them one at a time thinking about ‘one less’. It is amazing how well children can understand maths when food is involved!

Year 1 and 2 How is it the end of the first term already? Year 1 and 2 have whizzed through their topic Wonderful Woodland and have achieved so much! At the start of the week, some of the children were caught in the downpour, but showed tremendous spirit by building a bird bath; the children started to understand how learning can cross over with lots of subjects, especially maths and how to problem solve using measure and pattern.

Year 1 and 2 also continued to work on time, with some children completing investigations with Helen Sinton. In their English, they have looked at how to incorporate all their learning into a rewrite of Percy the Park Keeper’s Treasure Hunt for their celebration meeting. It has been fantastic for the children to evaluate and think about all the new skills they’ve learnt, particularly with the revamp of the Wildlife Area over the course of the term. They finished the week with a grand opening of it, together with their Bug Hotel at the front of the classroom, which will continue to develop during their outdoor learning sessions. It’s been a great term and Becca Edwards looks forward to what will be another busy, but fabulous new term after the holidays.

Year 3 3MA undertook the processes involved in mummification on an orange this week in order to preserve it, just like the ancient Egyptians did with their dead. First, we scooped out the inside of the orange (to represent the ancient Egyptians removing all body’s organs, except for the heart the Egyptians believed that this was where the soul was kept). Then we filled the orange with a mixture of salt and bicarbonate of soda to dry it out and added sweet smelling cinnamon and cloves. At this point, the ancient Egyptians would have left the body for between 40-50 days, before replacing the salty mixture with linen or sawdust. However, 3MA skipped to the final stage which was to wrap the orange in strands of cloth and then to secure them nice and tightly. The ancient Egyptians would have wrapped the bodies of their dead with linen before covering it in a cloth called a shroud and then placing it in a stone coffin called a sarcophagus. We are going to leave our wrapped oranges in a warm dry place for a few weeks to help our mummification process.

Year 4 In History this week, 4KS have looked at the story of Romulus and Remus. They listened to it, retold it a sentence at a time as a class, picture sequenced it and then speed acted it out – power, jealousy, murder, love, deceit, salvation and rivalry – it was all happening!

As well as an end of topic test, we were able to link into Mental Health Awareness Week in Maths with times tables mindfulness colouring – who knew that maths could be so relaxing?

Finally, whilst the girls were out demonstrating their football skills in the Warriner festival, the boys were honing their dictionary and thesaurus skills for National Dictionary Day. Linking into this, the class compiled their favourite words, quite a selection!

Year 5

In the past week Year 5 have had fun in the classroom learning about different forms of nonverbal communication. We tried to organise ourselves into a line using different criteria each time (e.g. lightest hair colour to darkest, order of birthdays in the year) all without talking. Through doing this, we learned the importance of facial expression and body language and how these features are very important components of communication. We also learned that not all people who have a hearing impairment use sign language. Sign language is used most often by people who were born profoundly deaf or became deafened at a young age (perhaps through illness or injury). People who have a mild hearing loss are unlikely to use sign language as they will probably have enough hearing, possibly with the help of a hearing aid, to use speech but other aspects of non-verbal communication will be important to them. Next, we tried to introduce ourselves using signs to say, “Hello my name is…” and then used British Sign Language finger spelling to spell out the letters in our names. Have a go yourselves …

Year 4

Year 6

Our Vertical Learning Mornings are always a wonderful opportunity for our Year 6 children to show how responsible they are as they work with the younger children in the school. This latest morning was no exception as the photos demonstrate. It is clear that our youngest pupils look up to our Year 6s and this was a big part of making this such a successful event. A big well done to everyone in Year 6 as they once again demonstrate what a mature and helpful group they are.

In other Year 6 news this week, 6NH took a very quick stroll down to Sue Sabin’s smallholding as part of our study of Dig for Victory in history. The children thought carefully about all the hard work that would be involved in rearing the animals and growing the crops and agreed that it would be better than going hungry. We met the goats, chickens and geese and discussed what food they would supply us with. Hopefully Sue’s pig was not listening as we discussed turning her into bacon (the pig, not Sue). The piglets were a little too cute to think about turning into sausages just yet though. (Apologies to the vegetarians reading this!)

In English, both classes are working hard to create effective leaflets to advertise Slapton Sands in Devon. There is an interesting, but tragic, link between our class reader – Adolphus Tips – and the D-Day landings, and the children have included details of the war time history and the story from the book in their leaflets. We look forward to seeing the finished leaflets up on display soon.

Sports Fixtures U9 Girls Football Tournament Yearweather 6 have had a very busy week, their course on Monday preparingthat and The held, and the sun evenfinishing shone, for thesailing Warriner U9 girls’ footballand tournament rehearsing theirthis Leavers Meeting.

We hope presentations today!

Sibford hosted Tuesday afternoon.

The you Yearenjoyed 3 and 4 their girls stepped out with slight trepidation, with some girls never having played a match before! With six games to play, by the start of the second match they were finding their feet. I was impressed with the way the team were starting to try to make space, the determination with which they fought for the ball and the guts they showed when defending, particularly those who put on the goalie gloves! There were goals scored, marauding runs made, goals saved and some great passes made. Well done girls, super teamwork and skills shown by everyone.

Fun in the Country Holiday Club – 28th October to 1st November – Children aged 5-11 years Just a reminder that our holiday club will run during half term.

After School Clubs – Autumn Term 2 Due to the dark evenings drawing in, after half term Frisbee Club will no longer run and will be replaced with Lego/STEM Club (Max 12) on Wednesdays and Nature Detectives will be replaced with Chess Club (Max 8) on Thursdays. If you would like to like your child to attend one of these clubs, please email lsinger@sibfordschool.co.uk.

Places are offered on a first come basis.

Reading Workshops – w/c 4th November 2019 A reminder that after half term, we will be running some information meetings about how we teach and encourage reading at school. We will be explaining about how we develop reading skills and offer ideas and support for reading at home.

EYFS/KS1 Sukey Symes and Becca Edwards Thursday 7th November 3.15 – 4.00pm EYFS Classroom

KS2 Alice Pennell and Lynne McArdle Wednesday 6th November 3.15 – 4.00pm Dining Room

Refreshments will be available, and it would be great to see as many of you there as possible.

Please could you, if you have not done so already, email Lynne Singer (lsinger@sibfordschool.co.uk) to confirming whether or not you plan to attend.

Eco Bricks Thank you for all your donations, we would like to put a temporary pause on collecting Eco Bricks until further notice, as we now need to use them in our first project!

Lost Property Harry S – Y4 is missing his PE top which is named, please can everyone check their bags in case it has been picked up in error.