Junior School Newsletter - May 8 2020

Junior School Newsletter Friday 8 May 2020

@SibfordJS

DEAR PARENTS The official newsletter of

Today we are commemorating 75 years since the cessation of hostilities in Europe at the end of six bitter years of conflict that spread hardship, death, discord and misery around the globe. That peace had been hard fought and hard won and I can only imagine the sense of relief and joy that the news must have been greeted with. The end of the war of course heralded a long, slow and painful path back to a life that was never the same as before the outbreak. My father was born in Deptford in March 1948 and clearly remembers rationing still in place for some everyday consumables. On a personal note the end of the war has a huge significance; my French grandmother met a young RAF Corporal while he was stationed briefly in Fontainebleau on the way back from North Africa.

El Dorado High School teachers

In his famous speech on the day Churchill talked of the end of fighting marking the beginning of further obstacles: "We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead.� The global struggle we face at present sees us in situation not dissimilar to 75 years ago. The challenge the world is facing with coronavirus is, at least, against a common enemy, but will have a long-lasting impact. Just as in 1945, there are questions to be answered as to how we find ourselves in this predicament; but more importantly there are a great many people to thank for their selfless role in battling against the pandemic, whether that be scientists searching for a vaccine, front-line health staff or other Key Workers.

Connected to the VE Day celebrations, we have posted some activities on Firefly should you and your children wish to have a go. They are entirely optional and, though there are House Points on offer for any carried out, they should just be seen as a fun way for the children to engage with the topic, rather another task.

@SibfordOxon

@SibfordOxon

Junior School Newsletter Friday 8 May 2020 Elsewhere this week we continue to be amazed and the children’s aptitude in getting to grips with technology – an unexpected bright point in the crisis. Live lessons, work submission and online research are all going well and, though a poor substitute, teachers and children being able to see each other on screen has helped. The staff and I continue to be extremely grateful for all the work parents are putting in to make remote learning a success, particularly coupled with the challenges of working from home. That said, we are conscious that it is a difficult and challenging time for all and we ask you to be mindful of your children’s well-being (and yours!) – missing one or two lessons is less important than anxiety and stress at home.

With that in mind, please take time to enjoy the sunshine and each other’s company.

Congratulations to the following children who were awarded Home Learner Certificates: EYFS - Rafferty Year 1 & 2 - Benjamin RW Year 3 - Eleanor Year - Thea Year 5HS - Alex M Year 5LM - Henry Year 6AP - Sophie Year 6NH - Erin In friendship.

In friendship.

Edward Rossiter PS. Did you know that a design accident in the manufacture of the Spitfire meant that, when banking, the wings would vibrate at a particular pitch? This gave the pilots a guidance of how far they could push a turn and therefore a great awareness of their manoeuvrability.

FOUNDATION AND RECEPTION We have had a very creative and imaginative week in Early Years. Thinking about the story ‘Stick Man’ the children have been making up their own versions. We have had Plate Man, Cup Lady, Paper Mummy, Noodle Girl and Bee Man (who lives in a hive, with his bee children 5) to name just a few. The poor objects have been confused for all sorts of things and have gone on some great adventures. Poor Paper Mummy got made into a boat and put in a stream (she was later rescued). The parent’s got a Blue Peter style lesson into how to make a beautiful hand stitched book and the ones I have seen look very impressive.

In maths we have been exploring doubling, sharing and halving. The children got a lesson in how to be a magician, making a magic doubling box. Whatever you put in one side, it came out doubled the other side. One child even decided to see what would happen if they put it in backwards and it halved! Some children have been face timing relatives to show them the magic.

For our ‘Out in the Garden’ topic we have been making nature bracelets, creating family trees, planting old potatoes, making bug hotels and best of all a bit of junk modelling. One child made a rocket from an old bottle that even ended up on the roof at one point. Check out @SibfordEYFS for more photos.

YEAR 1 AND 2 Year 1 and 2 continue to impress with their super work whilst learning from home. They have continued to look at rabbits this week, following on from work on Peter Rabbit, but in the guise of non-fiction writing. Having been given a video and information about rabbits, they were then asked think about how to create an information page using this information. Becca Edwards has thoroughly enjoyed a variety of Teams sessions with some of the children, supporting them with their understanding of multiplication and division for their maths this week. Understanding that the two operations go hand in hand and that actually number facts such as doubles can help too! Luckily we’ve had some sunny weather this week too, as one of the tasks from their ‘Pick n Mix’ was to make a ‘Shadow Catcher’ to help tell the time! Thankfully again for the sunshine as they also looked at the festival of Sukkot and made their own Sukkahs. After focusing on animal groups in their science, they have now started to look at how they can group them based on what they eat. This might help with work to come later in the term! They also thought about Peter Rabbit for their music activity, choosing containers and filing them with water to make different sounds or sounds to match the movements Peter Rabbit might make when running away from Mr McGregor…

YEAR 3 This week children in Year 3 started working on their chronological reports.

Researching barn owls, links well with the little book they have been reading at in English called the Owl who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. In maths children have, among other things, worked on fractions walls to compare fractions and order fractions. Hopefully the lessons all added up as children found combinations of fractions that total one whole number. Our Rainforest topic explored branching databases to classify animals, making animal masks and interrupting climate data.

YEAR 4 This week has been another busy one for 4KS, full of lots of fantastic work, great effort and whizzy IT skills.

In RE when looking at ‘how to make the world a better place’ we have thought about volunteering – particularly poignant in these times when lots of people are finding normal things difficult. We looked at how volunteers make the community a better place and the children were tasked with inventing a volunteering scheme for their community. They thought about: why it is needed, where it is needed and how it would help the community and the individual. We had some lovely ideas coming through including: playing music outside people’s houses, raking up leaves, second hand toys/clothes sale and a community ‘lunch for everyone’.

Maths has been building on our fraction work from last week… this week sequencing fractions, finding fractions of amounts and adding and subtracting fractions.

As well as this… PE challenges continue, driven by sunny weather and competitiveness. Typing talents have been tested and I received a plethora of superb contributions for the 100 word writing competition – watch this space to see which ones are going forward to the national competition.

I will end by saying enjoy your long weekend and have safe and happy VE day celebrations.

YEAR 5 Children in Year 5 have certainly had a busy week!

Not only do they continue to amaze us with their ever-increasing IT skills, they have also worked diligently to complete a whole range of tasks, from English and Maths to PE and French.

This week’s art task was to make an observational drawing of wild garlic. We were inundated with incredible pictures created using a range of media, from pencil sketches, to oil pastels, chalks and watercolours. Each creation is different and each one is beautiful. Some children even took the task one step further, and went hunting for wild garlic in their local area. I know that at least one person has even tried cooking with it. Well done to you all for being so creative!

In History, DT and English, we have been continuing with our work on the Victorians. This week, we have continued our work on Victorian toys by making our own thaumatropes. We found out that these worked best when they were made out of card and that elastic bands gave better results than string.

Most people also agreed that modern day toys are more fun than Victorian ones!

In History, we investigated a range of Victorian inventions and in English, we put our persuasive writing skills to the test by preparing Dragon’s Den style presentations on an invention of our choice, from the Penny Farthing to the gramophone. The children did a great job of their presentations – showing all that they have learned both about Victorian inventions and persuasion. They should all be very proud of their hard work this week!

Many of you have also been telling us about the things you are doing to keep fit whilst you are learning at home. We love hearing about your creative ways to keep active, from walking the dog to running, cycling and even juggling. Well done everyone for keeping active – you are doing a great job! Hazel Sykes and Lynne McArdle would like to wish you all a very happy Bank Holiday weekend.

YEAR 6 Week 3 of term – it seems to be flying by.

The classrooms remain very quiet (and very tidy!), but we have all still been as busy as usual.

In English this week, the children have written some fantastic Greek myths – full of intrepid heroes and courageous heroines, not to mention some very blood thirsty mythological beasts. Quests to find missing golden tridents and fight Chillimarnians while wearing invisibility cloaks have been elaborately told in a style that would make Homer proud (and we don’t mean Mr Simpson!).

In 6NH maths the have been bravely battling algebra, while in 6AP maths they have been reflecting on angles!

We were treated to some fantastic Greek outfits as part of our Ancient Greek topic. Did you know that the ladies used to wear bright red lipstick and used charcoal and olive oil to make eyeliner? The mixture was also used to draw a line to connect both eyebrows together – a popular look at the time. (After finding this rather an appealing idea, we will be closely monitoring Alice Pennell’s appearance next week!)

Our unit on Graffiti led us to study Satirical art this week – a difficult concept, that the children talked about with great maturity and understanding. This thoughtfulness carried over into RE where we have been thinking about how faith can play an important part in influencing people’s decisions. We also thought about people who inspire us, and the important inner qualities we need to nurture in ourselves, whether we have religious belief or not. In relation to both these units of work, we talked about some of the values that underpin the Quaker faith, for example, justice, equality, peace and respect.

Once again, we round off with a big thank you to our classes for working so hard on their Home Learning, and to parents and carers who are facilitating and encouraging such successful outcomes.

Don’t forget to check Firefly for our (optional) VE Virtual Vertical Learning morning on Friday.

YEAR 6

YEAR 6

JUNIOR SCHOOL MUSIC Music in the Junior School this week has seen some of our KS2 students looking for instruments, elements and composers or singer/songwriters beginning with the letter E. This is not as easy as it sounds! Oliver, in Year 5, had to find his E for his element part way through his word – he chose ‘Middle Eight’. Year 4 also did some work just after the Easter break on ballet. Many of them watched some of Tchaikovsky’s ballets and interpreted them with artwork.

Year 6 have been to the opera through the Magic Flute by Mozart. They then created their own storyboard for an opera and some costumes. As you can see there were a wonderful selection of operas. I just hope one might get composed for real!!

This week they went back in time to just after the second world war. Linking in with the VE day theme, they have been looking at music from the late forties and early fifties.

The music of the Skiffle band and the ‘make do and mend’ culture led to a lot of ‘homemade bands’. I hope that next week I will have lots of photographs to show you of their “make do and mend”, Skiffle bands.

SKIFFLE - NIAMH, YEAR 6 Rationed: Rationed means where you have your own share of items for example food, material or toiletries. This share is limited so there is enough to go around everybody.

Disposable income: This is the money that is left over after you have paid your bills, mortgage, tax and car expenses. This money can be spent on things you want to give you a treat or pleasure.

Make do and mend: This means that whatever you have in your house you should use instead of buying new things, for example having old clothes and turning them into something you like or need. It can mean darning socks if they have a hole instead of buying a new pair. The saying encourages people to recycle and make new things out of old things. This was important during the war when it was difficult to get hold of household items.

During lockdown: I think it is relevant during lockdown because normally if we want something new we would pop over to the shops and buy it but recently during lockdown we have to only go out for essential items like food or medicine. Lots of the shops are also closed since the workers are in lockdown too. So we need to make do with what we already have at home and not search on Amazon and get excited! If we can fix things rather than replacing them then this helps the country get over the virus because we can all stay at home. An example of how I have ‘made do and mended’ is that I wanted to make a heart rainbow in my window and instead of going to Hobbycraft to buy coloured card, as I would have done before lockdown, I cut the hearts out of the covers of old school exercise books.