Southfield Primary School Summer 1 Newsletter

‘Ex Corde Vita’

HEADTEACHER INTRODUCTION

Dear Parents, I have great pleasure to introduce the school newsletter.

We have been extremely busy around school, children have received extensive enrichment opportunities and visited many places for example, The Greenwich Observatory, Year 5 Shakespeare production and The Globe Theatre to name but a few. The schools’ commitment to developing children’s cultural capital has been extensive, with nearly all pupils in all classes visiting galleries, museums and other cultural areas of significance.

This term we also began our commitment to supporting our community further through monthly donations to Ealing Food bank. Our first donation was a fantastic 149Kg of items which we know will benefit the community hugely. We will continue to develop this relationship over the coming years as part of our personal growth model of teaching.

Year 1 Haydn’s class assembly based on ‘Taking care of Earth’ was a huge triumph of wonderful acting and singing skills. Similarly, Year 4 Bach entertained us with a delightful assembly on the Romans and was a joy to watch.

We are also very proud of our Year 6 entrepreneurs who have begun the Bits and Bobs Enterprise buying and selling school items and treats. This is a venture they are totally responsible for and are learning many business skills.

Year 2 and 6 successfully completed their SATs tests and we were extremely proud of all their hard work.

All best wishes Dr Jones Headmaster

CLASS ASSEMBLIES This half-term we had 1 Hayden’s Class Assembly. ‘Taking Care of the Earth’ was the theme of the assembly, as the children had greatly enjoyed their work on this topic during their Science lessons. The children of 1 Haydn put on a fantastically informative and entertaining show; they told us a story about keeping our environment clean; they shared the different ways we can look after our environment and the assembly ended with a brilliant rendition of the Louis Armstrong classic, What a Wonderful World.

Well done 1 Haydn, it was a great assembly!

4 Bach also led a class assembly based on the Romans. In the assembly, they looked in depth at the famous city of Pompeii and discussed how pivotal the discovery of its remains has been in helping historians understand more about life during that time. They explained the Roman social class system in greater detail, as well as looking in depth at the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and its importance for historians. It was a wonderful assembly, well done 4 Bach!

CONTEXTUALISED CURRICULUM This half term we have continued to provide children with a range of experiences as part of the topics they are learning.

Year 1 have visited Kew Gardens as part of their Science topic on Plants.

Year 5 have continued to develop their acting and speaking skills during their Shakespeare workshops; they will perform ‘Macbeth’ next half term and we can not wait to see the performance.

Year 5 have been at Forest School and have really enjoyed the outdoor activities.

Year 6 had a talk from Transport for London about being safe on London Transport and they also spoke to children about travelling alone as many children will be doing this when they move into Year 7.

FOOD BANK This half term with the help and coordination of our dedicated Head Boy and Girl along with their deputies and house captains in Year 6 we participated in a special Southfield school project by donating to our local foodbank.

We would like to thank everyone for their contributions, we were able to provide a variety of things for the foodbank and help people in need.

We will collect items for the foodbank every month, our dedicated Year 6 children will send out list of items needed.

WHAT HAVE WE BEEN DOING? EYFS NURSERY

This term our topic. was Transport We learnt about transport: On land we focused on buses and trains.

In the air we focused on aeroplanes and in the sea we focused on a pirate ship.

Our role play area was a bus or train station and for the last week it was a pirate ship.

The children really enjoyed learning about them.

Each week we used a story based around a form of transport. ‘Oi get off our train’ was a favourite.

EYFS

NURSER

We acted the story out and joined in with the repeated refrain.

In Maths we have continued with our counting skills: Recognising numerals and understanding one to one correspondence alongside repeating patterns and shape recognition We have also started phonic sounds and I am very impressed with the children’s ability to remember the sounds!

RECEPTION Summer 1 in Reception was full of exciting activities around our topic of Minibeasts.

In our Literacy lessons, we continued to explore the topic of insects and other small creatures through Creative Writing stories, for instance: ‘The Very Busy Spider’, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘The Bad Tempered Ladybird’ by Eric Carle and Julia Donaldson’s ‘Superworm.’Having learned about bees and how important they are to us and the world, we decided to celebrate the World Bee Day by making some information posters.

RECEPTION

In Maths we kept very busy looking at money: recognising coins and their value as well as making 10p in different ways. We loved playing shopping games where we had to think how to pay for different fruit.

We also explored doubling to 20 through practical and art activities. Finally, we discussed the concept of time through understanding our daily routine, events from the past, present and the future.

Last but not least, we had lots of fun exploring the life of minibeasts. We had our own wormery and a butterfly lab in the classroom. We observed the changes in the life cycles every day. After a few weeks, the caterpillars turned into gorgeous butterflies and we released them into their natural habitat. And on the last day of term, we received a very special visit from a ZooLab zoologist. During the visit, we met some minibeasts: Ava, the African snail, Tilly, the African millipede, Marty, the cockroach and Dahlia, the tree frog. We also met two rat brothers; Hendricks and Oats as we compared mammals to minibeasts. We talked about internal and external skeletons as well as how their senses are located. We shared and learned lots of new facts about minibeasts.

KEY STAGE 1 YEAR 1 YEAR 1 The children were incredibly excited for our first school trip of the year to Kew Gardens, and it did not disappoint! From the tube journey there and back to the fun in the ‘Children’s Garden’, the children had an amazing time in what was an action-packed day! The children took part in a fascinating ‘Plant Scientists’ workshop, where they learned all about the amazing variety of plants which are housed in Kew Gardens, from the different parts of plants to the ways in which different plants disperse their seeds. ‘Plants’ was the theme of our Science work this half term, so it was amazing for the children to have the chance to see in reality what they had been learning about in class.

In terms of our curricular work, ‘The Seven Continents’ was the theme of our Geography work, while the children learned all about ‘Plants’ in Science, as was mentioned above. Dyan Sheldon’s The Whales’ Song was this half term’s class text, and this wonderful book acted as a brilliant context around which to centre our English lessons. Maths saw us continue our work on counting in 2s, 5s and 10s, while the children were also formally introduced to multiplication and division for the first time.

KEY STAGE 1 YEAR 1

YEAR 2 This half term, in English, we have been writing a range of non-fiction texts, directly linked to our Science and Geography topics, ‘Materials and Matter’ and ‘Northern Europe’. The children have used their knowledge to write in a range of genres, including, non-chronological reports, instructions and explanations.

In Maths, we continued to use our knowledge to multiply and divide numbers and explored the relationship between fractions of an amount and division. We learnt about the properties of shape and further explored length, mass and capacity. We also continued to explore the concepts of time and money and solved problems pertaining to them.

Our Science topic this half term saw us learning about Materials and Matter.

Building on their understanding of materials and their properties, the children were introduced to the idea that everything we can see is made from many tiny things we cannot see, called atoms.

The children also studied how we can change solid objects through actions such as bending, twisting and squeezing.

KEY STAGE 2 YEAR

This term in Geography, year 2 studied Northern Europe. They learnt about its human and physical features and also features that are unique to the region.

They also explored how the Sami people have adapted to live in extremely cold regions. They also learned about the migration of animals, building an the understanding that animals move to areas more suited to their needs as the seasons change.

Key Stage 2

Year 3

KEY STAGE 2 YEAR 3 This half term in English we read ‘Stig of the Dump’ where we followed the adventures of Barney and his unlikely friend – a caveman named Stig. We used the novel to write character descriptions, an informal letter, a play script and an adventure story to name a few. In Maths we have worked on our time skills, recognising and counting money and also developed our confidence on the column method for both adding and subtracting.

YEAR 4

In our Science lessons we learned about rocks. We looked at how rocks are formed, different types of rocks and the permeability of rocks. We were able to use rocks and a glass of water to look at the permeability of the rocks. We also made predictions of what we think properties of different rocks are. We looked at sandstone, granite, marble and slate as well as chalk.

In history we looked at Law and Power where we discovered interesting facts about when the Magna Carta was formed as well as why. In Geography we ‘traveled’ around Western Europe Where we learned about which counties make up Western Europe as well as the capital cities and the languages spoken in those counties. We also looked at the different popular foods in France and compared the food to what we are used to in England.. As well as this, compared the human and physical geography of Paris and compared this to London.

Year 4

We took a trip to the local shop for one of our Real Life Maths lessons. The children were able to use their money skills in order to buy themselves a sweet treat.

They needed to add up the value of their treats as well as tell the shopkeeper how much change they would need. If they were correct they could but the items, if they were incorrect they needed to try the sum again.

YEAR 4 This half term in English, the children have been reading the wonderful story of ‘The Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Grahame, where we followed the adventures of Mole, Rat and Toad. We used our knowledge of the novel to write a range of fictional texts, including setting descriptions, letters and diary entries. Through our time in Science, the children have gained a deeper understanding of the water cycle and the importance of the different stages, including evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. Throughout our time in History, we have taken a deep dive into the 17th Century, looking at significant periods in time. We have discussed the English Civil War, the Gunpowder Plot and the Great Fire of London.

YEAR 5

As we continue to practice our multiplication tables, we have also spent time in Maths looking in more detail at fractions and decimals. Children looked closely at organising and manipulating fractions with the same denominator, as well as gaining a greater understanding of geometric shapes and identifying angles. In RE, we spent time looking at and understanding what sacred texts within Hinduism say about God. We explored the vast and diverse range of writings with the Hindu religion.

We have continued to build on our knowledge of London and South East England this half term, building knowledge of the counties and cities of the UK, their geographical regions, human and physical characteristics. Some of these include London, The River Thames, Canterbury and Dover, including its significance as a ferry port.

Year 5

The spotlight was on 4 Bach for their class assembly, as they demonstrated their knowledge and understanding of what they had learnt in History from terms prior focusing on the Romans.

YEAR 5 Our first half of the Summer Term has been actioned-packed! In Forest School, we have learnt key survival skills by whittling wood, constructing fires and bases, making nettle tea and even toasting marshmallows! A flagship experience in Year 5 involved channelling our ‘inner-thespian’ with the Primary Shakespeare Company and learning about the grisly, treacherous tale of ‘Macbeth.’ Our classes rehearsed throughout the term and brought Shakespeare’s centuries old play to life infront of our parents and guardians on a professional stage with lighting and sound effects!

YEAR 6

In English, we have explored the archaic language of Macbeth and written an eyewitness account of the opening battle scene.

We have also penned a twisted, macabre letter from Macbeth to Lady Macbeth with ominous tidings and recreated a historical newspaper capturing all the deceit and treachery.

In Maths, we have learnt how use a protractor and calculate the angles on a straight line, around a point and within various polygons.

In history, we have learnt about how the industrial revolution has shaped all our lives and in geography, we have learnt about location, language and customs of New Zealand. Our astronomical Science studies led us to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, where we experienced an immersive Planetarium show and we learnt about the orbital patterns of the Earth and Moon in relation to the Sun. For our art studies, we ventured to the National Gallery, where we studied Claude-Joseph Vernet’s ‘A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas’ and learnt that we own all the paintings in the gallery (although, we’re not allowed to take them out!).

Year 6

YEAR 6 Year 6 have had a bumper start to the summer term. We had our SATs tests at the beginning of term and we couldn’t be prouder of the children and how they performed. Dr Jones and Ms Mc Greal provided breakfast each morning so the children started the day well and we are sure they all their hard work over the past months have really paid off.

Well done to everyone!

We had a great talk from Transport For London which discussed being safe on public transport and supported the children with their transition to high school and making those journeys alone. 6 Vivaldi started their swimming lessons each Tuesday and we also decided on the school production for this year which will be Oliver! We will be in touch with parents about the final date for the school shortly.

Year 6

The Year 6 Enterprise Team also opened their school shop Bits & Bobs which has been a resounding success. We are very grateful for all the support from our school community so thank you. The shop will continue to run fortnightly until the end of term.

We have been studying our final novel this year The Giant’s Necklace by Michael Murpurgo. It tells the tale of Cherry, an adventurous and inquisitive young girl, whose curiosity gets the better of her and it leads to a tragic ending. We have also begun studying The Cold War in History and read Flight for Freedom as out inspiration – a tale of an East German family who build a hot-air balloon to try to escape across the city walls.

‘Ex Corde Vita’

Email: admin@southfield.ealing.sch.uk

Southfield Primary School Bedford Park Chiswick London W4 1BD Tel 020 8994 6173