Junior School Newsletter - June 28 2019

JUNIOR SCHOOL

NEWSLETTER

Friday 28th June 2019 Dear Parents

The penultimate week of the year comes to a close with the school bathed in clear sunshine.

Such is the case that during three of the show rounds I have carried out this week, I have shown parents empty classrooms as children have been taking their learning outside. This has included Year 6 sailing, Year 4 making ice-cream and Year 3 harvesting produce from their raised bed to name but a few.

Elsewhere we were delighted to welcome parents and guests to our inaugural Discovery Award presentation evening. The children had worked extremely hard on their presentations which focused on one of the five themes they have been working across the year. They have shown an incredible level of creativeness, independence and endeavour and watching Toby Spence awarding them their badges and certificates was a proud moment indeed. Those who’ve completed it in Year 6 now have the opportunity of achieving the Gold level in Year 7!

Of course, the children’s work with the Discovery Award is not fully completed as they have their expedition taking place on Monday. They have spent time this week planning and preparing their routes and honing their map-reading skills. One group took the pragmatic choice and chose to avoid the steep hills and walk via Hook Norton – only to find that their detour had left them with a final route that was double that of the targeted 10 kilometres!

Thursday saw the Junior School gather in the Nash-Ensemble Room where, after a couple of moments reflecting on the year gone by, they were sprinkled with the magic dust that turned them (for a short time only!) a year older. This having taken place they then went to meet their new teachers for the remainder of the morning. We were pleased to welcome Lynne McArdle for the day. Lynne is joining us in the Junior School in place of Helen Arnold who as you know is off to “pastures new” – not sure what the Italian for that is! The full class teacher list for September 2019 therefore is:

• EYFS – Sukey Symes • Year 1 and 2 – Becca Edwards • Year 3 – Megs Allen • Year 4 – Katy Stotesbury • Year 5 – Hazel Sykes and Lynne McArdle • Year 6 – Nick Hadley and Alice Pennell We will be concluding the week with our Year 6 Leavers’ Meeting. The children have worked extremely hard on the presentation (around their many other commitments!) and consequently the show has steadily grown. It looks to be a very exciting and entertaining event, but if it’s anything like the last couple of years some tissues wouldn’t be amiss!

I hope you all have a restful weekend – enjoy the sunshine!

In friendship Edward Rossiter Head of Junior School

PS. Did you know that 90% of the World’s population live in the Northern Hemisphere?

Foundation and Reception As Plato said of music…. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

As Lily skipped into Early Years on Monday she had music in her bones and just wanted to dance. We set up the role play area as a theatre, with Amelie drawing a lovely backdrop on the whiteboard and played some simple classical piano music. The children took their seats and watched as she moved rhythmically feeling the natural beat. They all took there turns while Rita caught the whole thing on video. It was such a lovely way to start the week and capture all the wonderful energy small children have.

We have had all sorts of Super food and super worms so far this term. We even had a little look at how brilliant bees are when we made our honey bread using the outdoor oven. This week it was the turn of the children to become superheroes. They have been thinking about what powers they might have. One child chose the power to blow chocolate bubbles – now that is a superpower I would like! We have been designing and making capes and masks and are working towards creating some helicopter stories to act out. In maths we have been playing with beebots and working on our number skills.

We ended up linking our maths to some great ‘play’ we had been having.

Finding a bit of fabric Toby decided to make himself into a snow leopard.

The other children quickly got him some silver and blue fabric and made him an icy mountain to live on and some water to drink. They wondered what to feed him so we looked up what a snow leopard might eat. They like to eat any animals they can catch from deer and sheep to small mouse like animals called Pika. The children improvised giving him lots of our soft animal toys!

One child was concerned for everyone’s safety so wrote a sign saying, ‘Danger Snow Leopard – Stay Away’ and put it up. Some other children used linking elephants to create a fence around him and one child even put a protective suit on! Anyway…back to the maths… we decided to make some number stories about a snow leopard that had lost its spots and had to travel around looking for them.

Year 1 and 2 G’day for a final time of the academic year from KS1! They’ve had a great week finishing off their topic Awesome Australia. Following on from their work on non-fiction last week, they focused on how they could now use their knowledge of (Australian) animals from their science work to create non-fiction information pages using PurpleMash in their English work. They thought about the importance of writing in factual style and making sure the information was in the correct place.

In their maths, the children looked at place value, quickly solving challenges directed by Becca Edwards and then using this to work independently, showing off their number skills. This also helped them to think about place value when once again measuring and weighing the ingredients to make Australian Damper bread once again. However, this time, they were allowed to add extra ingredients to make it more flavourful, such as raisins, cinnamon, apple or even a little bit of sugar. Previously, they had only just the simple plain ingredients, as that they would have been limited when travelling through the outback of Australia. Though this time, they didn’t cook it in the oven, but Helen Arnold kindly allowed them to take advantage of the oven in the living history area. They were able to think about how the bread would have been cooked if out camping. Some children were very generous, as they devoured their bread in the playground, Toby Spence by chance came across them and asked from some remains which he too enjoyed!

Linking PSHE and their artwork together, they read ‘Part of the Party’ looking at how families are different but using the animal characters to inspire them for their paintings. They chose an animal to paint, but this time being given more opportunity to get creative and interpret how their animal might be feeling or dance at the party!

They finished the week by drawing their own zoo map, including a range of Australian animals which they would like to see in their own zoo if they had one. Hopefully this will mean that they’ll easily be able to navigate around Cotswold Wildlife Park next week… Becca Edwards has truly been impressed by all the fabulous work which KS1 have completed not only this term, but the whole year and is sure that there will be more great work to come in 2019/2020!

Year 3

A very exciting start to this week, as Year 3 had a go at measuring, mixing, kneading and proving as they made their own delicious bread which they baked in our own rustic earthen oven (made by a previous Year 3 group). They were pleasantly surprised to taste the warm smoky bread which Lieu Yen described as being ‘scrumdiddlyumptious’!

They have also been reflecting upon their trip to the Rollright Stones which they visited last Friday. They had such a fantastic time and learned so much! This was all made possible because of the dedication, enthusiasm and (huge wealth of) knowledge of the volunteers, George and Hattie. Year 3 decided to write some thank you letters to express their gratitude, so they have been writing and decorating neat copies which will be sent to the volunteers.

In Science, Year 3 have continued to learn about pollination. Unfortunately, Tuesday’s lesson meant that the pupils were not too keen on going outside to examine the beautiful flowers, so instead, they made their own version in the classroom which included all of the parts involved in making a seed, including the stigma, anther and filament. Luckily the weather cheered up later on in the week, and Year 3 transformed into Helen Arnold’s bee patrol! Not only did they examine the beautiful flowers outside but they had a go at actually being buzzy bees and flying to the brightest most sweet-smelling flowers (in the same way that insects would). This helped them to understand that in the insect’s search for sweet nectar, their bodies become covered in pollen, which sometimes drops into the stigma of other (or the same) plants which then fuse together with ovules in the ovary to form a seed.

Finally, Year 3 have been working hard to finish their 3d Mosque and their Celtic shields which I must say are looking fantastic!

Year 4

4MA And 4KS were busy this week, in Science, the children discovered that Changing State can be fun because ice cream can be made in a bag as long as you are prepared to shake it for 10 minutes. Not a problem - Year 4 children like their ice cream!

4MA Maths were out and about measuring perimeters and pottery was also completed.

Year 5 In Science, Year 5 have continued finding out about what life-forms need to survive but this week the focus was not on plants but on themselves! We have been exploring what food and drink humans need for health and growth and have used the “Eat Well Plate� as a guide. The children have been learning all about the different food groups that are necessary for them to grow and keep strong and also the proportions of each food group they need that form the basis for healthy eating.

I look forward to our conversations over food in the dining hall and hope that knowledge and understanding of what foods and drink they need will encourage the children to make healthy choices when they select food themselves at lunch time. If you are interested in finding out more, do visit the NHS website using the link below. https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-eatwell-guide/

Year 6 Year 6 have had a very busy week, finishing their sailing course on Monday and preparing and rehearsing their Leavers Meeting. We hope you enjoyed their presentations today!

Lunch and Before/After School Clubs Booking Forms – Autumn 2019

Forms for Junior School Clubs will be sent out w/c 2nd September 2019 and will commence Monday, 9th September 2019. After School Care and Prep will be available from Wednesday, 4th September.

Junior School Eco Council Don’t forget we are still waiting for your Eco-Bricks!

Any completed bricks can be brought to the Junior School office, where there will be a collection box after half term. Once you have placed your bottle in the box, you can collect a sticker to put on the display outside the office to help keep track of our total number of bottles! Thank you in advance for all your help.

Saturday, 29th June 2019 – 2pm to 6pm – PSFA Summer Fun in the Sun – Family Day CANCELLED

It is with regret that the above event has been cancelled.

Sibford Junior School has so much to sing about and share that it now has its own dedicated Twitter page. Give @SibfordJS a follow on Twitter and keep up to date with all the Junior School news and daily activities. https://twitter.com/SibfordJS’