Newsletters

George Spicer newsletter - 21st March 2023

Welcome to the Summer Term everyone, it is hard to believe we are in the final term of the academic year already – although they do say time flies when you are having fun!

Our value for this half term is Respect – something that we can all show and model to one another.  This coincides with our theme this week – Save The World – and our assemblies have focussed on showing respect to the earth and environment.  Tomorrow is Earth Day and you can use this link to let your children take some of the quizzes to see how much they know about helping the planet.  Hopefully your children will be inspired to make a positive change by reducing their use of plastics, picking up litter or by switching off the lights.

Please help them to understand what our value of respect is and why it is important by modelling respectful behaviours towards your fellow parents, staff and the local environment.  There are lots of events for parents this term so I look forward to seeing as many of you as I can in the coming weeks and months.

Absences - must be reported in writing by email or by phone by 9am daily. Please leave a brief message with your child's name, class and the reason for their absence.  It will be recorded as unauthorised if you do not leave a reason or say your child is 'unwell'. 

Attendance - As a school we do not authorise absence for family holidays during the school term.   Parents / Carers who choose to take their child out of school for holidays should be aware that their child’s absence will be recorded as ‘unauthorised’ and a penalty notice will be issued.  A Penalty Notice costs £60 per parent and per child, if payment is made within 21 days. £120 if paid after the 21 days but within 28 days.

Appointments - You must provide an appointment card / letter for your child’s absence to be classed as medical, otherwise it will be marked as an unauthorised absence.  Please note we expect your child to attend school either side of their appointment where possible.

Year 6 Journey Meeting - During this meeting, we will go through all of the final details ahead of our upcoming trip and answer any questions that you may have.

If your child needs to take medication, including travel sickness medication (for the journey home), please bring it to the meeting, with clear instructions in a clearly marked bag. Miss Mulenga and Mrs Truong will be there to greet you, take the medication and discuss any medication questions. 

Welfare Donations - Please can we have any donations of wipes, tissues, plasters, boys and girls jogging bottoms and boys and girls underwear, for both of our sites. Many Thanks.

Reception Admissions September 2023

If you have applied for a place in Reception at George Spicer for September, if you have a child born between 1^st September 2018-31^st August 2019, please remember that you have to accept the place on the e-portal then click submit to secure the offer. Some parents are advising us that the website is not very easy to navigate. This needs to be completed by Tuesday 2nd May. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

 If you require a Reception place for your child for September 2023, or know someone who does, but haven’t yet applied, we still have limited number of places available.  Please apply online https://www.eadmissions.org.uk/ or contact the School Office if you need assistance.

Important Dates for Diary

Monday 24th April - Primrose Class Maths Workshop

Monday 24th April - Odysseus Strings Concert 10:00-10:30am

Monday 24th April - Achilles Strings Concert 11:15-11:45am

Monday 24th April - Heracles Strings Concert 1:45-2:15pm

Monday 24th April - Theseus Strings Concert 2:45-3:15pm

Monday 24th April - Year 6 School Journey Meeting at 6pm

Tuesday 25th April - Year 5 2024 Residential Meeting at 3:30pm

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 

Wednesday 26th April - Heracles class assembly

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

Wednesday 3rd May - Snowdrop Class Parent's Consultations

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

Attendance week ending 21/03/2023

Overall school = 91.34%  Lates = 64

Best attendance: 1st Navajo 96.34%, 2nd Odysseus 95.82% 3rd Defiants 95.65%

Punctuality: Well done to Heracles, Defiants, Anubis, Thoth and Bluebell with 100% for punctuality.

Reception Class

Reception have been finding out and exploring how we can look after our environment as part of 'Save the World' week. The children discovered a huge pile of rubbish in our playground and found out the rubbish had all come from our households! We came up with ideas of how we could put the rubbish containers to better use. We decided to sort the materials into categories and created a 'Clean up crew' to highlight the importance of looking after our local environment. We noticed the impact littering can have to local wildlife. E said "If we don't recycle our rubbish or put it in the bin, animals could get caught in the plastic and injure themselves". 

We have started to create a transient art piece using the discarded waste. We are working as a team to put the waste to better use! You can look forward to seeing the finished result in next week's newsletter.

Reception had a wonderful surprise when they arrived back at school after the Easter holiday. The woodland area has been transformed into an amazing new space for us to dig, bug hunt, climb and explore! We have a beautiful seating area to enjoy stories and the children have already loved using their imagination to perform songs and plays on the 'tree stump stage'. 

We have big plans to develop the area further with lots of new planting to support our 'growing' topic, and we look forward to using the logs to create bug hotels! 

"I can see a tiny woodlouse! exclaimed H"

"Look how many people can fit on this tree stump, said N"

Year 1

Year 1 had some great discussions today to kick off 'Save the World' week. When learning about climate change and the impact it has on habitats, Molly said, "Well, what are we doing to do about it then?"

Dominic suggested that we try to use our cars less and instead, we walk, or get public transport. Freya said, "Wait a minute...our classroom lights are on. Why are our lights on when it is so sunny outside? We don't want to waste electricity". 

Our key question is, "Why are forest fires happening in Australia?" We looked at the many reasons as to why forest fires are happening and the impact that it has on both humans and wildlife. We will be learning more about this over the week, and we will be writing a report on the forest fires. 

Year 2

This week Year 2 have thoroughly enjoyed learning all about climate change and how it has affected the world (and in particular Kenya) as part of our ‘Save the World’ week.  The pupils wrote information texts explaining what climate change is and how it is causing more extreme weather across the globe.  As part of our Science session this week, we tested soil with and without plants to see how deforestation has lead to greater flood damage in countries such as Kenya where flash flooding is occurring more often.  The pupils have also been completing work in PSHE on being healthy (both physically and mentally).  All pupils have now had the chance to discuss the different food groups and had great fun creating their own tasty and healthy fruit kebab.

Year 3 

This week was 'Save The World' week! The children have been learning about how the amount of greenhouse gases on Earth are increasing and how this is affecting climate change. We learnt about the ways that we can contribute to making our planet healthy again (using fewer cars, reducing the number of appliances we use, burning less chemicals). 

In English this week, the children learnt how sea levels are rising globally because the Earth's temperature is increasing. Ice caps and glaciers are melting, adding more water to the ocean. We focused on the country, The Netherlands. We learnt that several cities in The Netherlands have lakes, rivers or canals running through them, and these are prone to flooding as a result of the rising sea levels and the country being rather flat. Dams have been built by the government to control and hold back water, in order to protect the people from floods. 

The children were then tasked with creating their own dam using the materials provided, before we tested how effective they were at water control. 

Year 5 

During this week’s 'Save the World' Y5 Science lesson, we were perfecting our line graph drawing skills.  Unfortunately, the subject matter was shocking!  California has been in a mega-drought for 23 years and the average rain fall throughout the summer months is pretty much non-existent.  In fact, 50% of the year’s rainfall in California falls between December and February!

In Geography, we created a map of California using oil pastel or water colours to show the levels of drought across the state.  We explored the reasons why this drought is happening and the impact it is having on cattle farming, crop production and humans. We discussed the reason why people continue to live in California when it is suffering such extreme drought year after year. 

Year 6 

This week, for 'Save the World' Week, Year 6 have been focusing on the deforestation of the Amazon Rain Forest. In PSHE, we discussed climate change and some of us made some posters about saving the world. In our reading sessions, we read about why deforestation happens and the global impact of this. We also wrote a non-chronological report about this and the ways we can lessen the negative impact of deforestation. Well done to the Year 6s for a brilliant start to the Summer Term.

Family Support in Enfield

Enfield are setting up a new support group for families with children in a special guardianship or with a child arrangement order. Please see attached flyer.

Community Hubs in Enfield

Help with Languages

Chase Side Primary School are holding Language Sessions.

If you are aged 18 or older, this English for Speakers of Other Languages course is designed to give you extra support, helping you to progress to higher level study or employment. You will improve all areas of your English, whatever your starting level is. If you are interested, these sessions are Thursday morning from 9:30am (term time only). Please call Chase Side School for more information 0208 3631120

Elms Multi Sports Holiday Camp

The Elms have been providing holiday sport camps for children for over 20 years.  They are extremely popular and can be particularly helpful to working parents.  Our camps include a range of sports: tennis, football, basketball, kwik cricket, hockey, multi-sports etc., and are open to ALL children from the local area aged 4-12 years.

Please note, the reduced Early Bird Prices expire on Friday, 5^th May 2023.