Junior School Newsletter - May 15 2020

Junior School Newsletter Friday 15 May 2020

DEAR PARENTS

@SibfordJS

“All of us in the meeting have needs. Sometimes the need will be for patient understanding, sometimes for practical help, sometimes for challenge and encouragement; but we cannot be aware of each other’s needs unless we know each other… Loving care is not something that those sound in mind and body ‘do’ for others but a process that binds us together… Careful listening is fundamental to helping each other; it goes beyond finding out about needs and becomes part of meeting them. Some would say that it is the single most useful thing that we can do.”

The official newsletter of

El Dorado High School teachers

Quaker Faith and Practice, 12.01

Meeting for Worship this week continued the term’s theme of Helping Others. As you’ll see later, our children have been pulling out all the stops in finding innovative ways to contribute to charities and their community, but my challenge to them this week has been to seek out how they can help out at home, drawing on the advice from Quaker Faith and Practice above. Specifically, I’ve called on them to listen, to look and to be aware of what is happening around them and to see how they might be able to help those closest to them. I hope they’ve taken my words to heart and that you’ve seen the benefits yourselves!

I continue to be amazed by the efforts of our pupils to help out in the community, whether that be putting up posters thanking key workers or taking part in charity fundraising challenges. On the latter point, a huge congratulations to Lieu Yen and her dad who are raising money for the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation by climbing 26,000 steps at their home. They have already exceeded their fundraising target reaching £578, with the aim of completing the challenge by the end of May. Well done to both Lieu-Yen and Chris. This means that together the Junior School have raised nearly £1500 towards a variety of different charities since the beginning of term, all of whom have had their funding streams hit by the virus.

What a wonderful thing to have helped others and shown such compassion.

Elsewhere we’ve collated a package of letters and birthday cards written and drawn by the children that are due to be sent to local care homes and elderly people in the community. Some children have already received replies and sent further responses – the start of some interesting new friendships between 9 and 90 year olds!

Over the past couple of weeks, the children in Key Stage 2 have been using all their creative verbosity to produce entries for the Society of Heads’ 100 word story competition. The two age categories – Year 3 & 4 and Year 5 & 6 – were each given a picture as a stimulus to write a short story. Congratulations to the following children who have been short-listed as finalists: Year 3 & 4 Read Emily Millie

Year 5 & 6 Connor Bertie Thea

Bonnie Lotte Oliver R Lily

Kezia Evie Niamh Susannah

Well done to all of these budding Pulitzer Prize winners! From this short list of finalists, three entries will be chosen from each category and submitted for the national competition. If you want to judge the quality for yourself, the entries will shortly be posted on a special tab on Firefly.

Away from the learning, following the Prime Minister’s announcement last Sunday, the Senior Leadership Team have begun the preparations for a partial return to school on 1st June. Initially this will only be for Early Years, Year 1 and Year 6, but we hope that the other year groups will follow a couple of weeks later. While we are showing cautious optimism and relief that the Junior School will hopefully again be ringing with the happy sounds of children learning and reuniting with friends, we want to reassure parents that we are taking all the requisite steps to make any such return as safe as possible.

Congratulations to the following children: HOJS stickers:

Connor, Emily Ha, Jago, Artie

Home Learner Certificates: EYFS - Elliot KS1 - Abby Year 3 - Eliza Year 4 - Monty

Year 5HS - Bill Year 5LM - David Year 6AP - Alice & Will Year 6NH - Meg

In friendship.

Edward Rossiter PS. In honour of Lieu-Yen’s challenge, did you know that in an average lifetime a person will climb around 3.5 million stairs?

FOUNDATION AND RECEPTION This week in Early Years the class were tasked with setting up a shop at home. We have had garden centres, toy shops, corner stores, lego and sweet shops. I heard the goods in the sweet shops sold fast and were eaten happily. The children made the labels for the goods using both their writing and number skills. It has been a brilliant way to explore money, thinking about totals, change and place value.

In our English, it was time for our Helicopter Stories which have, as always, been full of imagination. This time, with the added bonus of wonderful parents/siblings helping to ‘act’ them out. I put some of them on to firefly so they could share them with their friends.

Our ‘Out in the Garden’ topic has been about looking closely. On our daily walk we have been using cameras to zoom in on things can capture a shot. I am so impressed with the beautiful photos they have captured. The children see such beauty in the world. We have been going on bug hunts and dissecting flowers. We have also been thinking about how we have changed since we were a baby and what we might like to be when we grow up. One of the most exciting events was the emergence of some of our butterflies! It has only taken three weeks which is the fastest I think I have ever seen them emerge!

And finally, we have decided to plan in a ‘child’ led ‘Feel Good Day’. Tomorrow Jemima is going to make sandwiches and biscuits ready to go on a trip to the ‘beach’ (our sand pit). I cannot wait to see what the rest of my class get up to.

YEAR 1 AND 2 Despite the weather being a little cooler this week, this hasn’t stopped the activities for Year 1 and 2. They have continued to delve into their topic ‘Take it Outside’. This week, they’ve looked at the importance of instructions and how they have to be clear, especially when detailed on the back of seed packets. They’ve designed their own whacky plants and made a seed packet to tell you how to plant it and what it’ll grow into!

In their maths, they’ve looked carefully at place value and how to construct numbers, embedding all those vital building blocks to underpin other areas of maths. Last week they continued to look at weather and how it can change, but this week they were asked to become a weather presenter! After some fabulous detailed artwork last week, they’ve explored a slightly more abstract way of painting with nature paintbrushes! After grouping animals by what they eat, life cycles were the next area of discussion in their science, looking at how animals change and grow. In these turbulent times, it’s important to take time for yourself but also reflect how to care for the world around us and this is what they did as part of their RE/PSHE work too. Who knew they could cram so much into one week!

YEAR 3 During English lessons, children in Year 3 continued to look at the Owl who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. Their main task this week was to write and edit a nonchronological report about Barn Owls. Children looked at non-chronological reports and considered: paragraphing, style of writing and how to organise the relevant features. The reports have been a delight to look at and read. Children are now thinking about the features needed to create a diary entry.

In science, children enjoyed classify rain-forest animals according to various criteria. While in Geography they found out about the people and settlements of the rainforest. DT this week was a big task! Children were tasked to design and make a poison dart frog beanbag. Old leggings are beginning to morph into spectacular frogs. Designs are resplendent with vibrant colour and pattern. Thank you parents for all the work and comments you are sending via Teams. Thank you for facilitating your child’s home learning. Stay safe.

YEAR 4 In English this week, 4KS have been looking at The Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. After reading and listening to the book they have changed the tense of verbs, thought of synonyms to include in their writing, used the present perfect form to describe what the animals might be thinking and written a postcard from ‘Senhor’ who was persuaded not to cut down the Kapok Tree.

History was a gruesome affair looking at the AngloSaxon legal system. The children discovered some different punishments that were used for given crimes (paying a fine, stocks or even cutting bits of the body off!) They thoughts about whether they are fair or foul (unfair). They then worked out how much they would have got for the different body parts if they had lost them in a fight!

I managed to pull together the fabulous rainforest animal research that the children did into 4KS’s debut book - ‘4KS Rainforest Animals’. The children then used this as a learning tool to find out facts about all the different animals featured.

YEAR 5 Children in Year 5 have certainly been in a spin this week after enjoying DT where they made their own spinning tops and challenged their families to competitions with these favourite Victorian moving toys. One member of Year 5 even used a VE Day theme for the inspiration behind the designs of his “medal” spinners.

Continuing the theme of turning things round and round (well in a bowl anyway) one of the children made a polenta and orange cake for his dad’s birthday showing his ability to mix having fun with showing how much he cares for someone who cares for him. Actually, the children have been telling us about lots of ways they help out around the house and we are seeing a real increase in independence from our Year Fives.

This is not just confined to helping out at home, but also helping out their classmate through solving ICT problems through Teams posts when someone gets stuck A lovely sharing community feeling is developing out of the situation we find ourselves in.

YEAR 5 In Science, Year 5 continue to explore their current topic of “life cycles� ; whilst investigating how food webs function, have come to see how every living thing is connected and how much different organisms in the chain of life are dependent on each other. These two super examples show just how well the pupils are developing their ICT skills during this half term. They are making the most of learning new skills whilst doing so much more on the computer.

Lynne McArdle and Hazel wish you a very happy weekend and hope you enjoy some fun out in the open air.

YEAR 6 We have been working on creating the next Banksy in Year 6 this week, as you can see from the pictures. The children have learnt how artists use stencils to create patterns and accuracy, but also to allow them to work quickly. We did ask all the children to ask permission before painting any walls around their houses, but if they forgot before getting the spray paint out, one consolation might be that original Banksy artworks sell for more than £1 million.The children have also been creative in the kitchen; this week’s theme was bread and Year 6 have made some wonderful looking loaves. The artistic theme continued into the history lesson when the children designed Greek pots depicting scenes from daily life in Ancient Greece. They created a mixture of different ideas, from cooking food, to fashions, to a multitude of Olympic sports.

YEAR 6 It reads as if we are producing a number of artists, bakers and potters in Year 6, but it turns out that their ideas for future careers are a great deal more varied than you might imagine. As part of our leavers’ magazine, we asked the children to write a paragraph about what they thought they might do after school or university. They came out with a fantastic range of ideas, including, in no particular order: motorbike mechanic, PA, teacher, architect, RSPCA inspector, professional dancer, swimming instructor, fashion designer, chef, actress, Scientist, Interior Designer, Play therapist, Vet nurse, Ballet dancer, TV presenter and even a Rapper! Some brilliant photos of the children dressed up as their future selves accompanied the writing, but you will have to wait until the magazine comes out at the end of term to see those. In PSHE, Year 6 also learnt about the varied career opportunities in the NHS, and found that there are many more jobs than you might think. Did you know the NHS is the largest employer in Europe and one of the largest in the world?

In RE, our topic has been communities, religious and non-religious, and this week attention turned to discussing Ramadan and how this might impact upon young people’s lives when at school. It will not surprise anyone to hear that Year 6 thought of many ways they could help to support Muslims through this time of fasting. What a thoughtful and caring group they are. Ramadan Kareem!