Newsletters

George Spicer newsletter - 31st March 2023

In today’s end of the term assembly I was sharing with the children some of my best bits of the term and asked for theirs too and I was amazed at all the things we have crammed into 13 weeks, perhaps ask your children what their own best bit was.  This just reminded me of all the efforts that the staff go to, to plan inspiring things for your children and I am very grateful and lucky to lead such a dedicated and creative team.

Assemblies this week rounded off our value of Responsibility, focussing on the Keep Britain tidy ‘Big Spring Clean’.  The children have been challenged to help tidy up their houses and to safely pick up litter to look after our Earth.

I wish you all an enjoyable fortnight, filled with fun times and memories with your families.

Mr D Spong

First Day of term - Children return to school on Monday 17th April.

ParentPay/BASC - Please ensure that your breakfast and after school club is paid in advance for next term.  Also top up your school dinners account.

Meal changes - if you wish to change your child from packed lunch to school dinner or vice versa next term please inform the office via email by Sunday 16^th April.

TfL STARS Most Innovative Award - We are delighted to announce that George Spicer Primary School is the regional winner of the TfL STARS Most Innovative Award for North London!!

The judging panel was extremely impressed by our work to increase active travel and decrease the number of cars on the school run, helping to improve air quality, road safety and children’s health in our local area.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank the parents and staff who have made changes to the way they travel to school and to those who make use of the park and stride locations.  Well done!!

Welfare Donations - Please may we have donations of wipes, plasters, tissues, trousers, tights, dresses and underwear for KG.

Happy Easter Wishing you all a very happy and restful Easter.  

Important Dates for Diary

Monday 17th April - Term Starts 

Monday 17th April - Save the world week 

Friday 21st April - Year 1 FoGs disco

Monday 24th - Primrose Class Maths workshop - 9am 

Monday 24th - Year 6 Residential trip meeting - 6pm 

Tuesday 25^th April - Year 2 SAT's meeting from 3:45pm – 4:15pm in Sparrow Class

Tuesday 25th April - Daffodil Class Maths Workshop - 9.00am 

Friday 28th April - Bluebell Class Maths Workshop - 9am

Thursday 4th May -  Snowdrop Class Maths Workshop - 9am 

Educational visits/workshops

Please visit ParentPay  to consent and make payments

• Year 5 - Egyptian Artefact Workshop 2^nd May 2023 -  £7.50
• Year 3 - Whipsnade Zoo 13^th June 2023 - £25.50
• Year 1 - Walton on Naze trip - 11th July 2023 - £20.90
• Year 6 - WW2 Cheryl Moskowitz Summer 2023 - £3.50

Attendance week ending 31/03/2023

Overall school = 92.90% Lates = 42

Best attendance: 1st Robin 98% 2nd Woodpecker/Cheyenne 96.55%

3rd Navajo 96.33%

Punctuality: Well done to Hurricanes with 100% for punctuality 

Rainbow Class 

In Rainbow Class this week, we have been looking at sharing and dividing into groups. We began by looking at sharing objects into equal groups and asked the following questions:

How many objects did we start with? How many groups have we got to share into? How many objects are now in each group? Have we got the same amount in each group? Are they equal? 

During breakfast time we looked at cutting and sharing out fruit with the children. This also gave the children opportunities to work on their targets of being aware of others within our group, listening to each other and taking turns with sharing out the fruits. 

Later on, we looked at 12 beanbags being shared into 3 groups this would give you 4 beanbags in each group. Safa discovered if you take one beanbag out of each of those groups you would have enough beanbags to make another group. In other words, we discovered that 12 beanbags could also be shared into 4 groups and that would give you 3 beanbags in each group. 

Reception Class

Over the course of this half term Reception have been reading the book, 'Look Up,' it is all about a child called Rocket who wants to be an astronaut. She loves studying the stars and meteor showers. After we began the term with a 'crashed' rocket in the playground, we ended the half term with a 'meteor shower,' in the hall. We used projectors, videos, hoops, music, mats and a parachute to create a scene similar to that of the book where the phoenix shower takes place in the night sky. The children laid down to, 'look up,' used the parachute as a rocket ship and watched the colourful stars and patterns on the ceiling. A said, 'We looked up to see the stars and we zoomed to the moon, I like this its the best!'

Year 1

This week Year 1 have been looking at different types of poems. On Tuesday, we practised reading poems and thought carefully about our choice of vocabulary and expression. On Wednesday, we thought about all of our favourite things about Spring, as as a class, we wrote an acrostic poem today. As the week has progressed, we have started to write our own acrostic poems. Here is some of our work so far: 

In Maths we have been looking at multiplication and division. We have been learning about the 'x' symbol which we know means multiply, times and groups of. When reading the number sentences we say 5 x 3 as "5 groups of 3". We then draw our groups to represent our answer. As part of our division learning, we have looked at sharing and grouping. It is important to make sure that our groups are equal. 

Year 2

This week Year 2 have completed the last part of our topic ‘How do the seeds grow’ and seen our bean plants growing strong and healthy with light, warmth, air, water and soil.  We have also begun our new topic all about Australia. The pupils have started to learn about Australia’s human and physical features, focusing on the city of Sydney. We have also plotted the largest cities and rivers on a map.  In writing, we learned all about Tiddalik the frog who is a character from an Aboriginal tale.  The children enjoyed retelling this hilarious story- ask if they can remember the main parts!

Year 3 

This week in PSHE, the children created an infographic (a type of poster). They used this to give top tips on how to stay safe and healthy. Their infographic demonstrated everything we have learnt in our 5 Healthy Me lessons. 

Lesson 1: Exercise and fitness

Lesson 2: Healthy foods

Lesson 3: Drugs (good and bad) 

Lesson 4: Keeping safe in emergency situations

Lesson 5: Identifying when something feels unsafe/taking responsibility

After recapping each lesson and creating an example as a class of how our infographic could look, the children began to design theirs. 

Year 5 

This week, we set about creating our final Henry VIII portraits. Once our sketching was completed, we blended water colours to match Henry’s skin tone, as well as blending other shades to match the lips, beard, background and other features to make our final pieces as realistic as possible. They children used mapping techniques to get the proportions right when sketching the facial features. They also remembered to use, “light until it’s right!” when sketching. At the time of going to print, we had not fully completed our pieces.  Once complete, we will send the final pieces home for you all to see. The children are incredibly proud of their work. Well done all! 

Year 6 

Battle of Britain – Year 6

At the start of the week, the Year 6 looked at historical sources during World War II. As historians, Year 6 analysed the primary sources to see how a key event impacted the RAF pilots that defended Britain. Have a look at a sample of the work below.

The pupils used this information to help write a first person narrative about being a pilot during the Battle of Britain, for their writing sessions throughout the week. It was fantastic seeing all the pupils use their creativity to tell their own version of a pilot getting ready for their battle in the sky. Below is an example of pupil’s piece of writing for this week. Well done to all the Year 6 pupils for all their hard work and effort in their history and writing.

Netball

Very well done to the girls' netball team who have shown incredible resilience, progress and determination during this season culminating in a strong performance against St Michael's in their final game. You should all be very proud!

Spanish Club 

Smart Raspberry are able to offer classes again at George Spicer School for children in years 3-6 on Tuesday afternoons. Please click the link below for a letter with all the booking details. Smart Raspberry

HAF Holiday Camp

Learning Hive are working on behalf of Enfield Council to deliver the Holiday Activities food programme (HAF) within the Borough.

This will take place from Monday 3^rd April – Thursday 6^th April 2023.

Please click this link to find out more and to register. HAF Easter Camp

The Discover Children's Story Centre

The Discover Children's Story Centre in Stratford has an exhibition open during the Easter holidays which may be of particular interest to the children in Reception. The children will recognise a familiar character that we have been learning about this term. It's Rocket from 'Look Up!' If you are looking for a way to entertain the children over the holidays, this would be a great experience to help embed our learning and I'm sure it will be lots of fun too! Please follow the link below for booking details. 

https://discover.org.uk/event/the-box-rocket/