Newsletters

George Spicer Newsletter - 9th February 2024

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T: 020 8363 1406 
E: office@georgespicer.enfield.sch.uk 
W: www.georgespicer.enfield.sch.uk 
Twitter: @GeorgeSpicerSch 

George Spicer Newsletter - 9th February 2024

Wishing you all a peaceful and safe half term break. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday 19th February 

ARBOR PARENT APP - Thank you to all parents/carers who have logged in to the ARBOR App. Currently, 87% have now logged on and for those who have not yet logged on please check your email subject “ Welcome to ARBOR” and follow the instructions.  ARBOR App allows you to receive the latest messages from your child’s school, track attendance and update the information we hold about you and your child. IMPORTANT: Please allow notifications when installing the app. The notifications will alert you when you receive a message from the school.

Messages will no longer be sent via Marvellous Me - only via Arbor.

Please ensure you communicate with the school via office@georgespicer.enfield.sch.uk and do not reply to ARBOR messages.  Please see at the bottom for help with setting up your app.

Attendance – you are now able to view your child’s attendance by logging into the Arbor App.  Please note that if your child’s attendance is below 90%, we will not authorise any absence without medical evidence (e.g., doctor’s certificate or letter, hospital appointment card, prescription or the prescribed medication, or text message appointment).

Reporting Absences - You must call in every day if your child is absent. Please, when reporting absences, leave a message with your child's name, class and the reason for absence.

Lateness - The number of children arriving late in the mornings is high. Unfortunately, it is the same children repeatedly.  Gates close at 9am and learning starts promptly at this time.  If your child is 5 minutes late every day, this equates to nearly 3 whole days of missed learning, plus it’s disruptive for other children.  Please try to drop your child/children at least 5/10 minutes early to avoid this continuous lateness.

Be prepared - Please can you make sure you are sending your child in with all their belongings in the morning to prevent disruptions in class during the school day.

Breakfast and After-School club queries - Please note that all communication with basc is via their email basc@georgespicer.enfield.sch.uk NOT the office email.  

Year 6 residential trip October 2024 - Thank you to all of the parents who have signed up for the trip to Kingswood Grosvenor Hall. Its lovely to see so many children being able to attend!

Please contact Mr Rasheed or Miss Eberle if you need any more information on support regarding the trip.

To secure your child’s place a £50 NON-REFUNDABLE deposit will need to be paid by Tuesday 20th February 2024. All deposits will go through Parent Pay  For more information about Kingswood Activity Centre please visit the school website Kingswood Activity Centre

Playleaders - We are currently looking for lunchtime playleaders. For more information please visit our website. George Spicer website

Sickness - If your child is unwell due to vomiting/diarrhoea, please ensure you do not send them to school for at least 24 hours since their last spell of sickness.

Donations - please may we have donations of underwear, joggers/trousers/skirts for KG (small sizes)

Important Dates for Diary

Monday 12th-Friday 16th February - Half Term

Boreattan Park - final payment 16th Feb 2024 £100

Monday 19th February - First day back after half term

Thursday 14th March - Parent Consultation day (school is closed to pupils).

Year 6 SATs Information – Parent Meeting: Wednesday 6th March 2024 6-6.45pm

Year 6 PGL School Journey Information – Parent Meeting: Thursday 25th April 2024 5.30-6.15pm

World Book Day – Thursday 7th March

This year we hadn’t planned to do a whole school dress up as a book character day, however we are aware that some parents/carers have been making or buying costumes.  Therefore we will make it an OPTIONAL day to dress up as a character from a book, otherwise it is school uniform or PE kit as per usual.  More details will follow about what we are doing to celebrate the day, but these will be in-school and focused on the enjoyment of books and reading.

For Friends of George Spicer fun events for your children, please click here

Determination Value 

As this half-term draws to a close, I wanted to say how nice it has been to see so many parents and carers attending the various workshops and class performances.  Thank you for supporting the children and your children – community is everything.

Assemblies this week continued with the value of Determination – never giving up.  Mr Spong shared the story of a man who had been a failure at most things and only really turned his life around at the age of 65, winning back his family and becoming a multi-millionaire by the age of 74 – proving you are never too old to give up on your dreams.  Ask your children, who and what he is known for.

This week has also been Children’s Mental Health Week and Safer Internet Day; the themes of both very much being about speaking up and using your voice.  Talking with a trusted adult if they see or get sent something via social media or the internet, being mindful of what information to share to keep them safe.  My Grandma always told me that a problem shared is a problem halved, at 103 she’s pretty wise – it’s definitely the foundation for both the initiatives we have been looking at – talking with your children and letting them share things with you promotes good habits and positive well-being.

Have a wonderful half-term break and we will see you in a week’s time.

Quote of the week

“I've only had two rules: Do all you can and do it the best you can. It's the only way you ever get that feeling of accomplishing something.”

Colonel Harland Sanders

Attendance week ending 8/2/2024

Overall school = 94.78%  Lates = 111

Best attendance: 1st Willow 99.39%  2nd Snowdrop 97.75% 3rd 97.6%

Punctuality: Well done Oak and Hurricanes with 100% for punctuality

Reception

Reception: Traditional tales- The Three Little Pigs

This week, Reception have been looking at the tale ‘The Three Little Pigs.’ It started off with an investigation of a crime scene; there were pieces of straw, sticks and wood, and bricks all over the area in front of the Reception climbing frame. The children looked for clues and spoke about who could possibly do such a thing. They wrote their ideas down using their phonic knowledge to help write any unfamiliar words. They also looked at subtraction as taking things away, and they had fun investigating different materials to make a house that can withstand the wolf’s huffing and puffing.

  

Year 1

This week in Year 1, we have been thinking about how new challenges can stretch our learning. We made flower hand prints with stretchy stems to represents us tackling new challenges and understating how this might help us to stretch our learning.  “I feel proud because I’ve never done anything by myself before”, a child in Ash Class expressing how they felt making their stretchy hand.

Year 2

This half-term, we have been completing our Gymnastics Unit: High and Low. Over the last few weeks, we have been focusing on travelling and moving our bodies in high and low ways. We then slowly added in apparatus and showed off our high and low movements on there! We always point our toes, land with our knees bent and finish our segments with our gymnast pose!

 

Year 3 

For Science, Year 3 has been learning about shadows and how they are formed. They enjoyed testing and comparing the darkness of shadows when different objects made from different materials block the light from a light source.

In preparation for our new History topic on the Vikings (after half-term), the children have made Viking long boats out of cardboard boxes, fabric, string and wooden sticks. Have a look at some of their creative replicas!

 

Year 4 

Year 4's Science topic, States of Matter, concluded this week. In this topic, we learnt about the properties of solids, liquids, and gases. Children also learned how water solidifies and then returns to a liquid. This led to a deeper discussion on how evaporation works.
This week, we focused on Condensation - What does it mean? How does this process work?  In addition, we answered the question of where water comes from. So, we learned about the water cycle and described the course that water takes as it flows around the Earth in various phases. By the end of the lesson, the children were able to  draw and label a diagram of the water cycle.

 

Year 5 

This week in Year 5 we have been writing the final part of our story based on the book Flight for Freedom. In the story a family who live in East Germany escape to West Germany by building a hot air balloon from scratch. In the final part we wrote about the actual escape and how the family narrowly escaped the German Stasi – who were in hot pursuit. We wrote in 2nd person about how the family finally carried out their daring and dangerous escape and crash landed in a field in West Germany. 

In Science we are continuing learning about the celestial bodies in our solar system. This week we have been learning about the moon, it’s orbit and how it rotates around the Earth. We learned the moon is not considered a planet since it does not orbit the sun directly – it orbits the Earth and so it is called a satellite. We were surprised to learn that it’s orbit and rotation are both the same (28 days) which is why we always see the same side of the moon from Earth. If the rotation and orbit were different we would occasionally see the other side of the moon. We did an investigation with a convex mirror to mimic the shape and reflection of the moon of the sun’s rays.

Year 6 

This week the children found out who reached the South Pole first and the events that led to the end of Scott and his crew. The children were shocked when they heard the end of the story and thought about the emotions they felt. 

In writing, we have been writing diary entries, as Scott, during his final days on the journey.

As well as this, we have looked at different factors that could be blamed for this outcome. We ranked them on a scale of 1 (little impact) to 5 (major impact) and explained why we felt this way. 

Girls' Football match 

Very well done to the girls' football team who secured an incredibly convincing win against Worcester's School this week. The team was led to an amazing 9-0 victory with 5 goals from Sophia S, including a breathtaking solo effort. Maddie added to the tally with a powerful hat-trick along with a great goal from Georgia in Year 5.

Children's Activities 

Basketball:

London Lions women’s quarter-final game on Wednesday 28th February at 7pm at the Copper Box Arena to share with your schools.

To redeem the offer, please click on ‘Book tickets here’ on the flyer and enter the code ‘LYG783’ on the right-hand side under enter promo code here.

 HOOPSTARS LISTINGS – London School Of Basketball (london-basketball.com)

 Enfield Scorpions Basketball - Youth Enfield & Free Activity Portal for Young People (taptub.co.uk)

Southbury Leisure Centre:

Also, there are free activities on offer at Southbury Leisure Centre. Please see below:

https://www.better.org.uk/leisure-centre/london/enfield/southbury-leisure-centre/news/make-a-splash-this-half-term-at-southbury-leisure-centre

Enfield Cricket club:

 

FoGs news 

 

 

 

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