Junior School Newsletter - October 4 2019

JUNIOR SCHOOL

NEWSLETTER

Friday 4th October 2019 Dear Parents

I began last week’s newsletter with fingers-crossed (which makes typing tricky!) for a dry Apple Day. Unfortunately, for the first time out of the fourteen I’ve done, the heavens well and truly opened sending us running for cover. After some hasty rearrangements we managed to move many of the stalls inside and a break in the weather saw those that had to be outside managing to start a little later. While Year 7 were unable to join us as normal reducing our potential customers, I am pleased to report that we raised a staggering £333.90 which is being shared between Young Dementia UK, RSPCA and Make-a-Wish UK. Well done to all of the children on the resilience they showed (they’ve all received a Learning Power!) and thank you to parents for their help in organising.

Aside from recovering from drying out from Apple Day, our focus this week has been on Quaker Week. The theme this year is one of Quaker Stories and this has been interpreted by the staff as looking at the evolution of the key testimonies of Peace, Equality, Truth, Simplicity and Stewardship. This has inventively involved outdoor education, gardening, cooking and, in Year 3’s case, even chocolate! More from each of the classes below.

Today we held our first whole school Open Morning and some of our Year 6s performed wonderfully as guides for the prospective parents looking around.

Congratulations to the following children who received Celebration Certificates: Y1/2BE Lily Y3MA Alice Y4KS Loki Y5LM Joseph Y5HS Yitian Y6AP Niamh Y6NH Logan I hope you’ll all be tuned in at 9:00 tomorrow morning to catch England’s crunch match against Argentina!

In friendship Edward Rossiter Head of Junior School Ps. Did you know that Argentine cartoonist Quirino Cristiani made and released the world's first two animated feature films in 1917 and 1918?

Foundation and Reception We started off Quaker week with a lovely afternoon working with Year 1 and 2 thinking about how to look after the world around us, especially woodland animals (particularly hedgehogs).

We made our own dens, used natural materials to make hedgehogs and worked in the new ‘wildlife’ area to make a home for a hedgehog. Our class story has been about a hedgehog who was looking for a home. We used actions to help us learn the story off by heart. The children have been amazing and can all retell the story themselves!

In maths we have been thinking about shapes this week and had great fun going on a walk around the school looking for them. Some children have been thinking about whether they are solid (3d) or flat (2d). Harry Wragg let us into his vegetable patch to find some vegetables and we thought about what shapes they looked like and described them. We then used all these yummy vegetables to make a vegetable pie. The children were experts at peeling and chopping the vegetables and rolling out the pastry, so it was the right size to cover their ramekin. It was a lovely way to warm themselves up after their swimming lesson on Thursday.

Year 1 and 2 Year 1 and 2 had a great start to Quaker Week by using ‘Don’t Hog the Hedge’ as their inspiration. This book focuses on woodland animals, how they hibernate, what they need and how to work as a team. In their English, they continued to look at settings of woodlands, sequencing the story in the correct order, thinking about how to impersonate an animal using speech marks and finishing by writing information pages about hibernating animals. The focus on hedgehogs helped them think about how to help our native hedgehogs and their plight.

At the start of the week they had an afternoon of activities with EYFS to start to transform an area of their playground into a better habitat for animals in the local area, along with some activities in the classroom. In their maths, hedgehogs weren’t far away either but looking at subtraction; they continued to use their number bonds with some of the children thinking about inverse operations. In between the weather, they managed to get outside to work on their bug hotel.

They scavenged the school grounds to find a variety of different materials to make a number of different habitats for minibeasts. Over time, they hope to add to this and improve it for any potential residents who may visit. They also received a letter from Percy the Parkkeeper as the latch on his door was broken. They were asked to investigate how to fix it and came up with a selection of different ways to keep it shut.

Year 3

Year 3

Following on from last week, where in Forest School children creatively moulded the mud into the “Valley of the Kings” children continued the History theme by starting to build models of boats/rafts fit for the river Nile. Back in the classroom mummification was explored as children completed messages to enclose in Canopic jars.

Year 4

Children considered the Quaker value ‘Simplicity’ as Quaker Week progressed. We wanted to create a simple geometric repeating pattern. First, we drew a square. Next we found North, South, East and West. We then drew lines joining North with South and East with West. We marked where North East, South East, South West and North West are and drew diagonal lines to join these points. On these lines we plotted a star working out how big we wanted our points of the star to be. Finally, we agreed the colours we would use.

But that’s not the end …. we had some visitors in our classroom this week and they all had a go at completing a star. We hope to show our simple geometric repeating pattern on Friday afternoon during Celebration Meeting.

Finally, after investigating some earlier Quakers, children realised the importance of chocolate making. They even managed to filter chocolate into packaging, bar charts and tasting.

Year 4 This week 4KS have been working with the ‘beats’ of the spoken language, breaking words down into their syllables. They all surprised themselves by writing several syllabic poems and were happy to share their creations with the rest of the class.

In Maths it’s all been about time this week. We’ve been looking at analogue and digital clocks and flipping between the two. Our human digital clock helped the children practise converting the times, no snooze button needed!

As part of our Quaker Week work, the children have enjoyed exploring the idea of truth and truthfulness. Talking about what truth means, one observation encapsulated the feeling…

“Truth is what has happened, what is happening and what will happen.” There was a natural link between truth and our recent work on fables, can you guess which one…? If not, you’ll get the chance to see the class perform it in the whole school Quaker Week Celebration at the end of the day on Friday.

Half term projects have also come home this week, be sure to speak to your child about the options to help them pick something that excites them.

Year 5 This week in maths we have been hard at work learning about measures. We took advantage of a break in the rain to get outside and measure a selection of different objects in our outdoor area using tape measures, metre sticks and trundle wheels.

Back in the classroom, we discussed which measurements were easiest to make and why some were harder (accurate measurements of a tree trunk proved rather tricky)! We then converted our measurements from metres to centimetres – a few children challenged themselves to convert to millimetres. We have learnt lots about measuring and problem solving this week and have had lots of fun too!

Year 6 In Literacy, Year 6 have been thinking about synonyms and antonyms and exploring ways of making their writing more interesting by exchanging dull vocabulary for whizzy words! They Year 6 have had a very busy week, finishing their sailing course on Monday and preparing and have also been examining the character of Lily Tregenza, the little girl whose diary we are rehearsing their Leavers Meeting. We hope you enjoyed their presentations today! reading together. ‘Adolphus Tips’ is a fictional story, set against the real events that happened at Slapton Sands during World War 2. We have also been learning about rationing and the Dig for Victory campaign. There was slight horror at the thought of people eating jellied intestines and pickled pig's trotters!

As part of Quaker Week, we have been listening to real life recordings of families whose loved ones were affected by their beliefs during World War 1. The children have been amazed to learn that Conscious Objectors were imprisoned, and even sentenced to death, for not signing up to fight in the war. Next week we will be learning about the invaluable contribution that many of these people made in other areas of the war. We have studied a painting called ‘The Conchie’ and thought about what the characters might have been feeling.

In preparation to our trip next Tuesday, we have been learning some songs for our Evacuation Day sing-along. ‘Run rabbit run’ has proved to be one of those songs that none of us can get out of our heads!

Sports Fixtures U11 Football A and B vs New College On Tuesday two teams made their way down to Oxford on tenterhooks due to a forecast that brought serious doubt on any fixtures going ahead. Fortunately, the weather held… at least until we were driving out along Banbury Road when the monsoon hit us! The boys played well, showing a significant improvement from their matches last week both in terms of defence and team structure. While we lost both matches, there is much to be pleased about. Well done to Mani and Logan for two strong performances in goal.

Coats, wellies and tracksuit bottoms With the heavy rain this week heralding an Autumnal change to the weather could we take this opportunity to remind you that all children should have a coat in school. This is crucial both for break times and should they be doing outdoor learning.

Furthermore, a reminder that all Junior School children should also have a pair of wellingtons in school. These are necessary both for wet lunchtimes and for outdoor education where trainers are not suitable.

Finally, with the rain has come a muddier football pitch. If your child would like to play football at lunchtime, could you please ensure that they have a pair of tracksuit bottoms from home. Their school tracksuit bottoms need to be clean should they be needed for a fixture.

Senior School Information Evening – Wednesday, 16th October from 5pm to 6pm On Wednesday, 16th October, we will be hosting a Senior School Information Evening. This is an opportunity for Junior School parents, especially those with pupils in Years 5 and 6, to find out more about Sibford Senior School. The event will take place in the Oliver Studio and will run from 5.00pm

Pupils in Year 5 and 6 are welcome to attend the event, however they can also join prep and tea.

There will be no charge for this, but we do ask that you book them in with Lynne Singer so that we can cater accordingly. It would be helpful if you could let Lynne Singer know whether or not you plan to attend by returning the reply slip below by Monday, 7th October.

Junior School Parents Evening and SFL Parent Meetings w/c 14th October Class Parent/Teacher meetings will be taking place week commencing Monday, 14th October 2019. Appointments with class teachers will be arranged at ten minute intervals. If you feel you will need longer than this, please arrange an alternative time for an appointment. Please write your name on the appointment sheets which are on display in Junior School Reception for Years 3 to 6 and on the entrance doors to EYFS and Years 1 and 2 classrooms from this afternoon. If you do not usually come into school please arrange your appointment with Lynne Singer by email: lsinger@sibfordschool.co.uk or telephone 01295 781265.

Katharine House Hospice – Annual Santa Fun Run – Sunday, 1st December 2019 Katharine House Hospice is holding its annual Santa Fun Run on 1st December at Wykham Park Academy in Banbury. It’s a great morning out for all the family, full of laughter and festive fun. If you register before 31st October, you can take advantage of their Early Bird prices (children under 6 are free). Help them raise £25,000 to cover the cost of running their inpatient unit over the Christmas period. Please visit www.khh.org.uk/santa to register and for further details.

Registration includes a free Santa Suit!

Eco Bottles If you haven’t already seen the collection outside of Reception, we are still collecting Eco Bricks.

Add your brick to the collection and don’t forget to write your name in the 100 square! Have a look on Firefly for extra information, but your donations are greatly appreciated. If you need extra plastic, please help yourself to the extra bits in the bags. It is also really important that they’re packed very tightly. They need to weigh hopefully around more than 500g or until you really can’t cram any more in, in order to be effective! We look forward to your continued donations.

Crisp Packets If you munch through any crisp packets, please save the empty packets as they can be recycled through a Crisp Packet Recycling Scheme. There will be a collection box in Lynne Singer’s office so we can help recycle these and reduce our ‘Sibford Community’ waste footprint.

Lost Property Alice from Y6 has lost her school cardigan, size 30”, unfortunately it was not named (she did however write her name on the back side of the badge, which may still be visible). Please could everyone check in case they have picked it up in error.

Also Harry from Y4 has lost his waterproof PE Jacket and Orlando from Y6 has lost his tracksuit bottoms please can everyone check in case they have been picked up in error.