Junior School Newsletter - February 28 2020

Junior School Newsletter Friday 28 February 2020

DEAR PARENTS UPCOMING EVENTS The official newsletter of El Dorado High School teachers

@SibfordJS

Welcome back after the half term break – I hope you all find yourselves rested and ready for a packed remainder of the Easter term. Year 1 and 2 certainly hit the ground running, braving the elements for their trip to Warwick Castle on Monday – I’ll leave them to tell you more about it, but can reveal that they were as excited by the gift shop as by the dungeon!

Although we’ve had more than our fair share of rain, the winter has hitherto been relatively mild. Thus, it was quite a surprise to wake on Thursday morning to finding a blanket of snowy nimbus had embraced SIbford. Other than being a little slippery on the way in, the snow proved to be a big hit with the children and before long Early Years were busily charging around, oblivious to the cold, to build and decorate snowmen.

Unfortunately, their creations were short lived as a warm and sunny afternoon made it difficult to recall there being any snow to start with!

The cold and wet conditions did, however, draw our attention to a number of children having neither coat nor wellingtons in school and I would urge parents to make sure that the children have the correct equipment, particularly with our current seasonal weather.

EMAIL PSFA@SIBFORDSCHOOL.CO.UK FOR TICKETS

Unfortunately, today’s partnership hockey tournament fell prey to the bad weather, but I’m delighted that matches against Kitebrook on Tuesday and Wednesday involved most of Key Stage 2. Next week we have further sports to forward to as we host both an U11 netball and football tournament (fingers-crossed for good weather!)

@SibfordOxon

@SibfordOxon

Junior School Newsletter Friday 28 February 2020 In preparation for our Book Week, we’ve also had our scholastic book fair in school this week. It has been great to see the enthusiasm for it and for those who’ve not yet had the chance to browse, it will be open this afternoon and next Monday. The main reading activities though will take place next week including a vertical learning morning on Wednesday and Key Stage 2 visits to Jaffe and Neale on Thursday, when we’ll get dressed as seafaring rogues!

Year 5 and 6 will also be going to see an edited dress rehearsal of the Senior School’s production of Les Misèrables.

Our week finished with a spark as Year 4 led a high-voltage Celebration Meeting all about Electricity. When questioned about the choice of topic they said “wired” not?!

Next week we will be having a special Junior School Music Meeting that will take place in the Ensemble Room – I do hope to see you there.

Congratulations to the following children who received Head Teacher Awards; Sholto, Florence and Bertie – Y1/2; Max and Alice – Y3; Evie F and Bertie M – Y4; Joseph – 5LM; Thomas C, Oliver R, Caleb, Tobin, Mani, Alex M and Alex D - 5HS; Sophie, Kezia, Sam, Alice, Mintian, Charlotte, Niamh, Evie, Megan and Amy - 6NH. Also well done and congratulations to the following children who received Celebration Certificates: Huxx and Fergus – Y1/2; Oscar – Y3; All Y4 for their Celebration Meeting; Lucy – Y5LM; Kaiya – Y5HS; Will – Y6AP; Lily and Tom - 6NH

Have a wonderful weekend and keep warm and dry!

In friendship

Edward Rossiter Head of Junior School

PS. Did you know that the first traces of a 365-day calendar with a leap year was in the Egyptian Empire? The goal of the Egyptians was to create a calendar that mimicked the Solar Calendar allowing them to keep their seasons on track.

@SibfordOxon

@SibfordOxon

FOUNDATION AND RECEPTION

It started off with a card and an envelope. The desire to write cards and put them in envelopes spread, we even had to go and see Lynne Singer for more envelopes at one point. Then we got out stamps and addressed our letters. We dug the post box out of the loft and set our role play area up as a post office and we have been busy buying envelopes, cards, stickers and stamps. We have been weighing items to post and looking at the world map to think about where we want to send them. In maths we have been thinking about how many stamps to put on a letter, depending where in the world we want to send them. All that from a card and an envelope.

YEAR 1 AND 2

The children in Year 1 and 2 just about survived the weather at the start of the week as they ventured to Warwick Castle to start their new topic ‘Turrets and Towers’. It was a fabulous trip where the children were able to scale the castle walls, understanding the importance of how castles were built to defend from attack! They climbed up to the dizzy heights of 39m where they were able to gain 360 views of Warwick.

Life was quite different all those years ago and Ben, one of the castle guides was able to tell them some quite interesting facts. The children were a little disgusted at how washing was done (ask any of the children in Year 1 and 2!) and also amused that one of the jobs within a castle was that of a Gong Farmer…

The rest of the week saw them becoming immersed in their topic, linking it to all their other lessons. Focusing on 3D shapes and their properties, this helped them to make their role play area at the back of the classroom, create their own 3D castles and counting the shapes they’d used but also solving problems on how some 3D shapes might connect together whereas others didn’t.

Did you know that a lot of surnames originate from jobs, as people struggled to read and write, therefore they were known by their job, i.e. if you made arrows you were a fletcher, this was your surname. Becca Edwards set them the task of imagining what castle job they might have had and renaming themselves appropriately; names included Yasmin Bell, Fergus Carpenter and Amélie Gardner. Can you work out what their jobs were?

After learning that castles and their walls were built to protect the occupants, they were set the challenge of building their own castle wall but then to immediately try and use a variety of objects to break it down again! Some objects worked better than others. To finish the week, they were introduced to work of Paul Klee and how he made lines ‘walk’!

YEAR 3 In Literacy Year 3 were introduced to Myths and Legends this week. They are looking at a book called King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Marcia Williams. Year 3 discovered that not only is this a fascinating myth, but it is also a beautifully illustrated story.

With the help of a thesaurus children looked at the many different words for ‘walked’ and improved some boring sentences.

Our choice was extensive, and children went out to play ambling, plodding, strolling, sauntering, moseying and meandering.

A delighted Year 3 discovered in Maths that everything adds up when you know your number bonds. Children had no idea they were good at adding 5-digit numbers using written column addition. We have included some photos which show our progression on our very realistic dinosaurs, modelled on toy replicas.

YEAR 4 This week 4KS have thrown themselves into rehearsals for their celebration meeting, which by now they will have performed brilliantly! I have been very impressed with their dedication, enthusiasm and patience – pulling off an entertaining recital in such a short amount of time.

In Maths, we have been getting to grips with decimals – making sure we understand the difference between tens and tenths, hundreds and hundredths.

As well as this, we are ensuring we understand their place value, have been comparing them and using ‘no-work’ methods to add them.

In Art, the children have been learning about Fauvism, “Les Fauves” is French for "the wild beasts". This was a style of painting adopted by a group of early twentieth century artists who expressed meaning and conveyed feelings through use of bold colour rather than the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. Their work is looking fantastic!

YEAR 5 Our STEM fortnight before half term spurred Year 5 on to carry out their own STEM investigations at home. The “half term projects” are always an opportunity for the children to find out for themselves more about what interests them and explore their own curiosities. They always bring back some really super examples of independent learning to share with the rest of the class. As you can see from the range of photographs, we had children conducting a variety of science challenges: how a ping-pong ball will appear to “float” inside the stream of hot air which has a low pressure compared to the surrounding air which has a higher pressure. When the upward force of the air equals the weight of the ping-pong ball, the ball is said to be in “equilibrium” so it maintains its position or “floats”.

The photos don’t show any pictures of “balloon kebabs” but we have seen video evidence that it is humanly possible to pierce a fully inflated balloon with a wooden skewer without the balloon popping. Another amazing bit of science was explored when some of the children found out that by following instructions carefully, they could get a raw egg (still in its shell) to fit into a bottle without breaking! Clearly the children have had fun conducting these investigations but when questioning them about how things worked, Lynne McArdle and Hazel Sykes both found the children have also actually learned quite a lot. Well done Year 5!

YEAR 6 There was more than the usual amount of insults flying around the Year 6 classrooms this week. “Get working, thou fobbing toad-spotted hugger-muggers!” Nick Hadley shouted. “Thou rank dizzy-eyed flap-dragon!” the children replied, followed by, “Thou lumpish pump-plucked baggage!” Alice Pennell retorted with, “Thou spongy onion-eyed moldwarps!” which set off shouts of “Rank, dizzy-eyed maggot-pie!” and “Droning milklivered hedge-pig!” In between creating Shakespearean insults, Year 6 learnt the story of Romeo and Juliet, which was much more studious but less fun. Year 6 have also used a number of sources to research the man himself and have written their Shakespearean facts into some very effective posters. At the end of each of these lessons, Nick Hadley’s class have been dismissed with a shout of “Out of my sight! Though dost infect my eyes!” or a simpler “Out, dunghills!” (Don’t worry parents, this is all educational), whereas Alice Pennell’s class have been dismissed with “Parting is such sweet sorrow!”

Year 6 have also been busy with our “Exciting Writing” project. This is an intense 10minute writing session where the children try to include as many of their targets, and as much high-level grammar, in a short piece of writing as they possibly can. Many of the children have already shown fantastic progress after only a handful of these exercises and we expect to see the evidence of these improvements appear in their next Big Writing assignment.

In History, there was much amusement from the girls when they found out that the boys at Sibford School in 1850s would have washed outside in metal troughs in all weathers, while they stayed in their rooms. They were rather less impressed to hear that the girls would have been responsible for the knitting and darning of clothes for everyone at the school, not just their own.

School fees were a vast £6.00 a year, and meals had to be eaten in silence. All this knowledge is being put to good use as the children write “letters home” in the style of 1870s Sibford School children.

Thank you for all the hard work that went into our STEM homework projects. We all enjoyed looking at the photos and videos that you sent in.

OTHER NEWS Sport Reports U9 Netball v Kitebrook – Tuesday, 25th February – Won 1, Lost 1 We drove through a hail storm to arrive at a cold and windy Kitebrook. In the first game we came flying out of the blocks, starting off very strongly - using the space well, making quick passes and linking them together tightly. This was topped off with some super goal shooting and dogged defence. It was end to end stuff, with the girls taking the advantage at the end to deservedly win the game. The second game brought different players with fresh legs. Although we tired, the commitment was still 100% all the way through. Despite a narrow loss, the progress and improvement the whole team has made is commendable – well done girls. Players of the match Eliza and Alice.

U9 Football v Kitebrook – Tuesday, 25th February On a cold and windy afternoon the U9’s played Kitebrook drawing 5-5. A great team performance with outstanding play from Loki.

U11 Football v Kitebrook – Wednesday, 26th February On a very frosty Wednesday afternoon we welcomed two football teams from Kitebrook. Against strong opposition both ultimately lost, but there were some very pleasing performances and teamwork shown. Well done to Caleb on a fantastically taken goal, to Mani for some brilliant goal-keeping and to Alex D for captaining the B team so conscientiously.

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. If you would like to top this up with some extra money, please put it in a named envelope for your child to bring with them on the day (a maximum of £6 should be adequate).

As ever we will be asking all the children in Junior School to dress up (and we will be too!) This year our theme is “Ship ahoy” (pirates and seafarers).

OTHER NEWS 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.

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.

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 28 February 2020

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El Dorado High School teachers

@SibfordOxon

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