Junior School Newsletter Friday 14 February 2020 UPCOMING EVENTS The official newsletter of
@SibfordJS
DEAR PARENTS Before Storm Ciara hit last weekend, I’d planned a Meeting for Worship about seeds, growth and how little things can come to have a huge impact. Thus, it was sadly apt that us residents of Sibford woke to find that one of the limes in the ring of the trees had blown down.
El Dorado High School teachers
As part of their STEM work, Year 3 recently concluded that it was around 156 years old and planted purposefully as part of two groups of trees (the other group sadly succumbed to disease and became “the logs” at the other end of the field). This means that it would have been happily growing during Queen Victoria’s reign, and pre-dates the discovery of electricity and the invention of the plane, car, phone not to mention computers! What a magnificent legacy, for such a wonderful tree to have lasted long after the person who planted, providing shade and a beautiful view for so many.
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Nor is the legacy quite finished: the stump has already proved an exciting mini-stage at break time, while the timber will be used to enhance the Forest School area, replenish the logs area, become seats and a table in EYFS, be locally sourced wood for the DT department – even the mulch from the smaller branches will go on to be used on paths and flower beds around the school.
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Junior School Newsletter Friday 14 February 2020 In Meeting we considered how our thoughts and words towards others can be like seeds – that they can grow into much bigger things. The tricky thing is to separate the “weed” words and the “flower” words and recognise how the former spreads unhappiness while the latter promulgates cheerfulness. We finished the week with a special Music Meeting, a tight squeeze with the stage in place for Les Misérables! As well as seeing some excellent musical performances, it was an opportunity for us to say goodbye to Mark Higgins. Mark has overseen the catering at the school for over ten years and bit of speed problem solving with some Year 5 and 6s deduced that that equates to over 1.5 million meals! In addition, he has been supportive of the Junior School, and always a willing recipient of our homegrown produce. We wish him all the best with his new adventures. And so we reach half term and it barely feels like we’ve been back after Christmas. After a week of recharging our batteries, we’ll be back with all the excitement that the second half of term has in store – more fixtures, visits to Mary Arden’s farm and Warwick Castle and all the excitement of our Book Week (including World Book Day with our ‘Seafarers’ theme) in the second week back. Congratulations to the following children who received Head Teacher Awards; Benjamin G, Florin, Yasmin, Sholto, Oscar, Bertie M, Evie F, James, William, Monty, Emma, Tom B, Oliver A, Alex D, Caleb, Tobin, Kaiya, Yitian and Tom N. I hope you all have a wonderful break (and a pleasant Valentine’s Day!) In friendship Edward Rossiter Head of Junior School PS. Did you know that every Valentine's Day, the Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet?
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FOUNDATION AND RECEPTION
It was with great sadness that we had to watch one of the beautiful old trees from the tree circle come down after storm Ciara. We used it as an opportunity to read The Lonely Tree, a beautiful story about a friendship between an old oak and a young evergreen and the continuous circle of life. I wonder what stories the old tree could tell. We did of course have another theory about how the tree came down. Another dinosaur egg has been discovered! Could it have been a dinosaur knocking it over? We had to look hard for the egg thinking about positional language and following directions (kindly given to us by Year 3). The children have taken the egg to heart and are taking such care of it. Unfortunately, after reading Tyrannosaurs Drip by Julia Donaldson we think it could well be a Tyrannosaurs egg! In the story, the Tyrannosauruses torment their duckbill brother and sing chants of hunting and war. This led to a very interesting discussion on whether we could change the Tyrannosaurus if it hatches. The children decided that they could ‘show the Tyrannosaurus how to be kind’ by ‘being kind to each other and sharing’. I was very impressed by the depth of this discussion and felt it really demonstrated Quaker values.
YEAR 1 AND 2 Year 1 and 2 are saying ‘Bon Voyage’ or ‘Abandoning Ship’ to their topic ‘Land Ahoy’! What a week to finish, especially with Storm Ciara. This made testing their pirate ships all the more challenging with the stormy conditions. They finished their designs and tested them to see if they could hold a pirate and its treasure. Some were more successful than others, but Becca Edwards was extremely impressed when the children were able to reflect and evaluate, thinking how they could improve them if they were to build them again. In their English they focused on messages in bottles; learning that pirates wouldn’t have had mobile phones, emails or the Royal Mail to get letters from one place to another! They looked at four different examples of letters sent in bottles which were collected around various places across the word; they were especially impressed with one being dropped in the North Sea and finding its way all the way to Australia, just because a four year old girl wanted a friend! Did you know that the oldest message in bottle found is 132 years old, but was hard to decipher as it wasn’t in English. This gave Year 1 and 2 some inspiration to write their own messages for various adults within the school to crack! Finishing the week by writing their own message, as if they were a pirate stuck on board a ship. In their Maths they focused on various strategies to split numbers to help them quickly add and subtract; focusing on number facts and solving other calculations. After a term focusing on different collage and colour techniques, they looked at the artist Ellie Simmons and some of her underwater/aquatic themed paintings. Using her style, they created their own original paintings to show what it might be like to be underwater rather than above on a pirate ship! A finale to the term and the week was when they thought about to make comparisons between their lives and a pirate’s life! Finding any potential similarities, but quite a few differences. This then spurred them on to design their own pirate flag, learning that the designs were representative of the ship they were sailing and the crew onboard!
YEAR 3 As the deadline for our ECO project approached Year 3 thought about how they could make their classroom more sustainable. We created one drawing to show our ideas. We decided our Eco Classroom should be energy efficient...lots of insulation and triple glazing. We liked the idea of a light pipe which would allow more light into our classroom but we would need to face it South West! A Green Roof could be a good idea meaning we would cover the Junior School roof with vegetation. The roof would need a waterproofing membrane and it could drain into a greywater tank. This tank would allow us to collect Sibford rainwater which we could use to flush our toilets. Sadly, we lost an old friend during last weekend’s stormy weather – our STEM tree. Year 3 were particularly fond of this tree since they recently worked out its age. Our old friend was 155 years old. This week we did manage a brief reading session on its stump. We took some photos of our canopic jars (from our Ancient Egypt topic) and are hoping to take then home soon! In history we thought about The Bronze Age and how it would feel to be a ‘copper child’ sent into small spaces to find copper. We did some drawings of how we might look after mining for copper - not a great look!
YEAR 4 Continuing with our list poems, we have been working on Kennings this week in English. Learning that their name comes from a Viking phrase which means "to express a thing in terms of another”. We looked at their structure and the way that they give us clues to describe an object, animal or person in an unfamiliar way. The children found them great fun to read and wrote one about an animal of their choice, and another about a secret thing that the rest of the class had to guess. The children have also had some time to research and pull together reports for the ‘eco-classroom challenge’. Identifying ways that their classroom might be designed, constructed, and used in a way that has less environmental impact. The children focussed on thinking about the three rules of sustainability… reduce, re-use and recycle – looking to create a classroom with low energy + sustainable energy + low resource use + low waste. Geography and DT combined this week with the children constructing their own wind turbines. Armed with bottles, wooden skewers, straws and card they set about making them, designing their own blades. We tested the efficiency of them with a hairdryer to see which spun up the wool the fastest. Folded blades were found to be most effective and we all decided that to improve we would weigh down our bottles with sand, in the absence of foundations.
YEAR 5 Despite the wet, windy and cold weather over the last week, Year 5 have braved the elements to develop their skills in outdoor learning. We began by using some of the harvested willow to help mend gaps in the willow tunnel. Some of the willow wands we were weaving in were 10 feet long and took a bit of skill and patience to re-plant the thick end in the ground and carefully weave the rest into the existing tunnel structure all the way up to its whippy tip! We were also put to work gathering wheelbarrow loads of both manure and compost to elevate the nutrition of the raised beds to get it ready for spring planting. It certainly raised our temperatures doing all that hard work and, to continue the theme, the smell raised a few eyebrows too! Other maintenance jobs included removing and then sorting stones from the old Japanese garden. When we lifted the ground sheet, we discovered that some persistent bindweed had taken hold; it was a tricky job removing the unwanted intruder from every corner of the bed. Finally, we had to be extra careful in digging up some small ornamental trees from the Japanese garden without damaging the roots, so that we could repot them elsewhere. Although it may not appear the most glamorous of occupations, working together we found we could get on top of lots of our essential winter maintenance and felt satisfaction knowing we were preparing the ground for the next stage.
YEAR 6 It has been a testing week for Year 6, as the children have completed the assessments that help to make their transition into Year 7 as seamless as possible. Thankfully, there has been a mixture of creative activities around these tests to make the week more fun than it might have been. As ever, there have been sports fixtures. The girls took on Kitebrook at netball on Wednesday, having a lot of fun despite the low temperature. On Tuesday, the DT group adorned boiler suits and wellies to head outside and tidy up the willow tunnel after its recent haircut. All the excess willow will be used around the school for a variety of outdoor projects. Speaking of which, Year 6 were glad to see buds appearing on the willow Anderson shelter that they built back in the Autumn term. Hopefully, by the time Spring is here the shelter will have properly taken root and sandbags and signage will be added. Speaking of history, 6NH were busy reading and writing about the history of the school, finding out more about the first pupils and the subjects they studied. The children were amazed to find that the fees started at around £6 a year in 1842 but were slightly more in 2020. 6NH were glad that they do not have to grow their own food like the children of the 1840s had to. £6 obviously did not go very far. Sticking with food, both classes enjoyed a Seder meal as part of their study of Judaism. Most of the children were happy to try the different foods on offers and were interested to find out the significance of each item. Everyone is now looking forward to a week off, after an action-packed term, but the excitement continues right to the end as we await the winner of the ecoclassroom project – see the photos of the excellent entries for this.
ECO CLASSROOM PROJECT On Friday morning Toby spence and Ally Lynch came over to judge our EcoClassroom Project. The project was launched by Peter Samain during our STEM Fortnight and required the children to design a ecological classroom thinking about building materials, waste and energy among other things. I had asked for five finalists..... but the standard was so high we ended up with 12! (Not to mention a further load of excellent entries). All entrants received 5 house points. Honourable mentions to: Oliver R, Evie B and a group consisting of Joseph, Bonnie, Henry, Ava and Arthur. Congratulations to the winner: Ellen
OTHER NEWS
Sport Reports UU9 Football Small Schools Tournament – Tuesday, 11th February Tuesday saw the Under 9 boys competing in the annual North Oxfordshire Small Schools Partnership Football Tournament. This gave 11 of the Year 3 and 4 boys the opportunity to play 6 friendly matches against some of our local primary schools. Despite the biting wind, the boys kept smiles on their faces throughout the afternoon as they charged around the pitch. Some of their hands and legs were as blue as their Sibford tops by 4pm due to the cold, but they had managed to rack up 4 victories out of 6 matches played. Amongst this were wins against the Sibford Gower A and B teams. Many of the boys scored goals during the afternoon, but none of the Sibford School squad managed to equal Jack’s total of 11. Most of these were labelled by Jack as “screamers” as he was heard describing the games to his dad later. It is hard to think of a better way to describe them. Well done to all the boys who took part – we hope you managed to thaw out later in the evening. U11 Netball v Kitebrook – Wednesday, 12th February Year 5 & 6 girls played brilliantly in their fixture against Kitebrook this week. Of our three teams, two won their matches by a significant margin and one was defeated, although they maintained their drive and determination throughout the game. All teams demonstrated outstanding teamwork and sportsmanship and were a credit to the school. Special mentions go to Lotte and Alice for great goal scoring and Hanne-Lydia for excellent communication skills. Also, to Sophie, Hanne-Lydia, Niamh and Evie for being great hosts and serving refreshments to our guests. Thank you to all those parents, friends and family members who braved the cold to cheer us on - your support is greatly appreciated!
OTHER NEWS Junior School Parents Evening and SFL Evening – Monday, 24th February 2020 A reminder that the Junior School Parents Evening and SFL Evening is being held on Monday 24th February. If you have not already made an appointment please email or call Lynne Singer to arrange. Junior School Scholastic Book Fair – Tuesday, 25th February to Monday, 2nd March 2020 Our Book Fair starts Tuesday, 25th February and books will be on sale in the ‘Early Birds’/3MA classroom from 25th Feb to 2nd Mar - 4 til 5.20pm in readiness for World Book Day on Thursday, 5th March 2020. We are looking for parent volunteers to help run the Book fair, if anyone can help please let Lynne Singer know. For every book sold our school gets one free so your support would be appreciated. World Book Day – Thursday, 5th March 2020 – Come to school dressed as a pirate or seafarer! On Thursday 5th March the Junior School will once again be taking part in World Book Day as part of a week of other reading based events. During the morning, we have a planned visit for children in Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6) to go to Jaffe and Neale in Chipping Norton, where they will have the chance to spend their National Book tokens. As ever we will be asking all the children in Junior School to dress up (and we will be too!) and so we thought we'd give you a head's up before half term! This year our theme is “Ship ahoy” (pirates and seafarers). Junior School Music Meeting – Friday, 6th March at 3.40pm in the Ensemble Room Due to Les Misérables performances the Senior School will not be holding a Music Meeting. The Junior School will be holding their own smaller Music Meeting giving our young, and up and coming talented pupils a chance to perform. We look forward to seeing you if you are able to attend.
OTHER NEWS PSFA Pie and Quiz Night - Friday 13 March. 7.30pm. Dining hall. Join us for our popular annual pie and quiz night. Tickets are £10 and include a meal and a soft drink. Buy your tickets from junior and main school reception. Sibford School Fun in the Country Holiday Club! The Sibford School Fun in the Country holiday club is now taking bookings for 2020 school holidays in February, April, May, July/August and October. The club runs for ages 5 – 11 and costs £30 per child per day. To book, click here: https://www.sibfordschool.co.uk/fun-in-the-country/.
ARE YOU COMING TO THE BALL? The Sibford School PSFA May Ball will take place on Saturday 9 May 2020. We will be raising money for our nominated charity, Blue Skye Thinking (Children’s brain tumour charity), and PSFA Funds, which enable us to support projects within the school that add to the students experiences, including in recent years the adventure playground and climbing wall, as well as smaller projects across the whole school. The theme for 2020 is ‘A Night on the Orient Express – 1920’s’ and you are invited to come in Black Tie, or to embrace the theme! Tickets cost £65 per person and include a sumptuous four course meal plus some extra surprises.The evening’s entertainment will include a live band and charity auction. Tickets are selling well so if you would like to attend do get in quick. Tickets can be reserved with Heidi Fowler by emailing: psfa@sibfordschool.com. We look forward to seeing you. PSFA Ball Committee
Junior School Newsletter Friday 14 February 2020
DATES FOR THE DIARY
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