Junior School Newsletter - January 10 2020

Junior School Newsletter Friday 10 January 2020

DEAR PARENTS The official newsletter of

@SibfordJS

El Dorado High School teachers

Happy New Year and welcome back to the new term. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas holiday and that you enjoyed time with your families. I am pleased to see that a lot of children have taken up the challenge to complete their Good Deeds calendars – if there are any outstanding please pass them to Lynne Singer and I will make sure to recognise their hard work.

It was also a pleasant start to the term to be able to award 35 Courtesy Badges in our first Meeting for Worship. We used Meeting for Worship to think about setting resolutions and we’ve thought about three promises we can make: one we’ll do for ourselves, one we’ll do for our community and one for the wider world. These resolutions should shortly be going up on display, but please do discuss your child’s resolutions with them.

School Council have also used the new term (and decade!) to think about some of the challenges facing the world at the moment and, in particular, were concerned about the bushfires currently raging in Australia and as such have suggested that we have a casuals day with the theme of the Australian flag to raise money to help the disaster effort. It’s wonderful to see the children take steps to put others first and we are more than happy to support their plan – please see note below!

Elsewhere our bluer Year 5 and 6s joined their Senior School Housemates for the annual “Nansen”dwich (doesn’t flow off the tongue quite as easily as “Fry up”!) – later in the year it will be the turn of Gillett and Clark in case they’re worried about missing out!

This morning we had our first Early Years Stay and Play session – these will be happening on the second Friday of every month so if you know anyone with a twoor three-year-old, do encourage them to pop by!

@SibfordOxon

@SibfordOxon

Junior School Newsletter Friday 10 January 2020 In the coming weeks we are looking forward to our STEM fortnight (20-31st January) with lots of exciting presentations and activities planned – we look forward to sharing some of our learning later in the term.

Congratulations to the following children who received Celebration Certificates:

Y1/2 Florin Y3 All Year 3 Y4 Emily Y5LM Ava Y5HS Oliver Y6AP Sophie Y6NH Tom Well done also to the following children who received Head Teacher Awards; Toby, Amelie and Sholto - Y1, Lucy, Caleb, Kaiya and Susannah - Y5 and Meg and Amy - Y6.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

In friendship Edward Rossiter Head of Junior School

PS. Did you know that there is a music festival every New Year’s eve in the Antarctic called ‘icestock’?

@SibfordOxon

@SibfordOxon

FOUNDATION AND RECEPTION

When you follow children’s interests, there is always a moment of slight panic the night before school starts. Will the children have ideas? Will I be able to think of ways to guide learning and challenge them?

There was no need to worry, within minutes we were setting up our role play area as a zoo. Some children were busy laying out fabric and putting the animals in the right places (polar bears in the ice, etc). Others sat and busily made named tickets, at £2 each, with a map on the back. A sign was created and rules set – nobody over the age of 4 allowed entry! While talking about some of the animals a child bought up the Australian fires and how they had seen a picture of Koala with burnt hands. They talked about how their mum had given money and we talked about ways we could raise money. The children decided they wanted to make cards and biscuits to sell, so we set to work. The children raised over £35!

Delving deeper, in meeting with Year 1 and 2, we watched some videos from Newsround looking at why the fires were so bad and their link to climate change. We thought about the small changes we could make to help stop global warming.

YEAR 1 AND 2 You might hear children from KS1 shouting ‘Aye Aye Captain’ from their classroom, this would be because there has been the arrival of a pirate ship in their classroom with this term’s topic ‘Land Ahoy’. Starting with a topic lesson, they soon realised that pirate life was not all that great, by chronologically ordering a day in the life of a pirate. Many of the children knew quickly that a pirate wishes to find ‘booty or treasure’ and created some pirate themed Beebot worlds. After Becca Edwards bossed around a few children in the classroom to get her things, they realised that she was actually looking for them to give clear and precise instructions; important when following a map to find treasure!

This helped them to think about how to programme Beebots and make sure they were giving the correct steps in order.

Year 1 and 2 had already done plenty of work with atlases and local mapping, but this time they were asked to create their own sketch map of a pirate island. They saw the importance of using a key, compass, clear signals and of course giving their map a title.

An important lesson a pirate might learn when and if their ship sinks, is how different materials behave in water. In their science they built on their existing knowledge from materials last term and investigated why some might float or sink.

‘Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister was a great book to get them thinking about underwater scenes, especially when starting the lesson imaging they were in a coral reef and relaxing to soothing underwater sounds! Using bright colours, they created their own fish to dart around the classroom washing lines.

If that wasn’t enough, they learnt about the importance of how to persuade someone using their writing. After adopting a Hawksbill Turtle through the WWF as part of their class Christmas present, they thought about how current issues of plastic are impacting the wildlife and were able to understand that it’s not just life above the seven seas we need to worry about. In addition, they learnt all about the different jobs on board a pirate ship and wrote job applications persuading a captain to employ them! Hopefully we’ll convince them that life at Sibford is a lot better!

YEAR 3 Year 3 returned after the Christmas break determined to put everything into preparations for their celebration meeting. With only a week to finish writing and rehearsing, they have been busy putting the finishing touches to it all week. Hopefully it will all come together on Friday. Their new science topic ‘dinosaurs’ created some light relief from rehearsals. Children discovered just how big and heavy some of these creatures grew to be and after having a go at pronouncing their names selected a favourite dinosaur to paint. Hopefully we will see these images on a class display board soon.

YEAR 4 Our new topic for English this half term is ‘Myths and Legends’. The class enjoyed doing some research on merpeople and compared a clip of Disney’s The Little Mermaid to a 1968 Russian mermaid cartoon story. They have been introduced to Jane Ray’s fantastically illustrated book ‘Can you catch a mermaid?’ - looking at the actions of the main character and how she changes and grows over the story. They then worked in small groups to create some striking merpeople collages, proudly displayed on our working wall.

Sparks have been flying as our Science and Geography topics collide, ‘electricity’ and ‘where does our energy come from?’ The children have been looking at renewable and non-renewable energy sources and worked in pairs to produce an informative commentary for a short video clip, Brian Cox watch out!

The children have been looking long and hard at themselves in Art, as they are going to be producing self-portraits this half term. They have started by learning the proportions of their faces, lightly sketching a draft portrait. Most were surprised to learn that our eyes are roughly halfway down our face!

YEAR 5

It is great to be back in school after the Christmas break. The children have told us excitedly about all the presents, treats and delicious Christmas dinners and are we now ready to take on the challenges of the term ahead.

In English this week, we have been using winter images to hone our sentence writing skills. We have spent lots of time looking at pictures and brainstorming vocabulary in order to give us lots of great ideas for our writing. Some of our favourite phrases include ‘forest of needles’, ‘biting wind’ and ‘chandelier of ice crystals’. We then used these to write our own descriptive sentences, for example: ‘A frozen river, hostile and icy, meandered through the majestic snowy wasteland.’ (Henry) and ‘A river of ice, that flowed faster than a hurricane, rushed through the paper white mountains.’ (Joseph)

In Maths, we have been investigating patterns. The children have worked together to predict, investigate and explain their ideas using mathematical vocabulary and have demonstrated some fantastic teamwork. In Science, we are beginning a new unit of work on Materials and their Properties. We have been busy exploring a selection of different materials and are already planning our first investigation of the term. We have certainly had a very busy week!

YEAR 6 ‘Year 6 have returned full of energy and enthusiasm, and ready for the challenges and adventures that 2020 will bring! In English, the children have been studying a narrative poem called The Highwayman, and investigating lots of unusual vocabulary, for example ostler, harry, stable wicket and cascade.

In Humanities, Year 6 have started to look at the History and Geography of our local environment. They became History Detectives by studying and comparing a variety of historical sources; making observations/deductions and finding explanations for the differences. In Geography they have looked at an Ordnance Survey map of the area and identified the different features and symbols used. They then compared the map with one of the same location from 1911.

In Maths there have been numerous activities going on, including calculations with very large numbers, long multiplication and finding the differences between positive and negative numbers.

Some of Year 6 have been busy working alongside Harry Wragg in the JS garden; compost turned, manure spread, bulbs planted, weeds pulled, thyme uprooted, holes dug, carrots harvested, worms rehomed, and Charlotte scared (by a tiny mouse)! Did you know that there are 27 different types of British garden worm?

DISCOVERY AWARD STORIES The pupils participating have come to the end of the first term and the first two themes of this year’s Discovery Award. From September to Christmas the children focussed on “Letting their life speak” (looking at supporting and addressing local issues) and “Living adventurously” (learning a new skill.

Below are just a few of the stories of their work so far – more to follow: Ava and Susannah

The girls wanted to support a local charity and chose to run a cake sale raising £44.55 for Young Dementia UK.

Bill and Harry

For their new skill Bill and Harry turned their hand to woodwork and, over several weeks, carefully created their own giant Jenga set. Not only is it very impressive handiwork, it also proved very popular with the other children when they had a go on it!

Oliver

In order to “Let his life speak”, Oliver wanted to raise money for BYHP (Banbury Young Homeless Project).

Initially he planned a sleep out to understand what it must feel like to sleep rough, but instead chose to run a marathon (in four separate runs) over the Christmas period. So far he has raised £225.

OTHER NEWS Junior School Non-Uniform Day – Friday, 17th January

To raise money to support the relief efforts out in Australia, School Council have organised a non-uniform day in Junior School next Friday 17th January.

The theme of which is the Australian flag. Children can come dressed in the Australian flag colours (red, white, blue and stars). Please can children bring in a minimum of £1 if they come in non-uniform.

On the same day, there will also be a cake sale at the end of the day, so any cake donations would be greatly appreciated. Please pass to Lynne Singer by Friday 17th January. The money raised will be split between fire-fighting efforts, relief and support efforts and an animal charity.

Sibfordian 2018/19

Copies of the 2018/19 Sibfordian have been sent home this week with pupils, however if you would like to read this online, the publication is available here: http://bit.ly/Sibfordian. The magazine is a review of student life and activities at Sibford School during the 2018/19 academic year.

Sibford School Fun in the Country Holiday Club!

Sibford School will be operating its Fun in the Country Holiday Club for children aged 5 – 11 during the February 2020 half term. The club will run from Monday 17 – Friday 21 February.

Activities include swimming, team games, cookery, arts and crafts, sport, outdoor play, and much more. £30 per day. Call 01295 781 203 to book your place.

Lost Property Kaiya, Y5 has lost her black PE Skin and 1 sports sock please can everyone check their bags in case they have been picked up in error.

OTHER NEWS

Les Misérables School Edition

Don’t miss the Sibford School production of Les Misérables, the popular West End musical based on the classic novel by Victor Hugo, set during the French Revolution. Performances take place at 7pm on March 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th 2020. Tickets are now on sale here (http://bit.ly/SibfordLesMis), priced at £8 + booking fee. Tickets can also be purchased via the main school reception from Tuesday 14 January.

Mental Health Aware Training

As a part of our commitment towards supporting our young people as they navigate our tricky world, Sibford designated the Autumn term whole staff INSET training to enabling all of the teaching/boarding staff to be trained and accredited in Youth Mental Health First Aid, delivered by Mental Health First Aid England.

In total, 73 teaching staff from both Junior and Senior Schools were taught how to recognise and support young people with a variety of mental health issues; these issues ranged from stress and anxiety to self-harm and suicidal ideation.

‘Sometimes you don’t need to do anything except just listen and be there’.

Tracy Knowles, Assistant Head-Pastoral.

Junior School Newsletter Friday 10 January 2020

DATES FOR THE DIARY

The official newsletter of

El Dorado High School teachers

@SibfordOxon

@SibfordOxon

@SibfordOxon