Newsletters

George Spicer Newsletter - 3rd May 2024

Book Fair - The Scholastic Book Fair event will begin on Friday this week until Friday 10^th May. Both Sketty Road and Kimberley Gardens will have books for you to buy. As this is a cashless event, you will be able to pay for your books by card or by QR code. If you pay via the QR code, proof of purchase will be required before we can provide you with the books. Every book that you buy earns points for our children to have more books at school. Thank you for your support with this event. Please see link to poster. School Book Fair

Gold Travel Award - We have achieved the Gold Award for the TFL Travel for life programme for another year running.

Park and Stride - Walk to school week is coming up on 20th-24th May. Please visit the link to a map of the park and stride areas. Park and Stride Map

Reporting Absences - Just a reminder, you must call or email 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.

Important Dates for Diary

Monday 6th May - Bank Holiday - NO School

Wednesday 8th May - Trip to ENFIELD NAGAPOOSHANI AMBAAL TEMPLE for Theseus and Achilles

Thursday 9th May - Trip to ENFIELD NAGAPOOSHANI AMBAAL TEMPLE for Odysseus and Heracles

Friday 10th May - Reception Family Reading Sessions

Monday 13th May-Thursday 16th May - Year 6 SATs Week

Wednesday 15th May - Obi the clown circus skills for Reception

Thursday 16th May - Census Day

Thursday 16th May - Odysseus class assembly 2:45pm

Monday 20th May-Friday 24th May - Year 6 School Journey

Friday 24th May - Reception Family Reading Sessions

Monday 27th May-Friday 31st May - Half term

Maths Workshops:

Tuesday 21st May - Apache class 9:15am-9:45am

Wednesday 22nd May - Navajo class 9:15am-9:45am

Thursday 23rd May - Cheyenne class 9:15am-9:45am

Friday 24th May - Sioux class 9:15am-9:45am

Census Day - Thursday 16th May

Attendance week ending 3/5/2024

Overall school = 94.72% Lates = 109

Best attendance: 1st Apache 98.79% 2nd Thoth 97.36% 3rd Sioux 96.98%

Punctuality: Well done to Robin, Osiris, Ra and Hurricanes with 100% for punctuality.

Eid themed lunch

This week we were finally able to hold our Eid-themed lunch.  Two Year 6 pupils came to Mr Spong with the idea during the Christmas lunch back in December. Reem in Year 6 designed the menu and our wonderful catering team brought it to the table. It was good to see so many children trying the Chicken Biriyani - which had some punch - although most preferred dates in the form of sticky toffee pudding to their natural state! We are committed to making our inclusive school better reflect our community with more days and ideas like these.

Our school is taking part in Walk to School Week. The nationwide event is to help pupils experience first-hand the importance of active travel to school.

By walking, scootering or cycling to school, children will be well on their way to reaching their recommended minimum 60 minutes of physical activity per day before even reaching the school gates! Not only will it set them up for a positive day in the classroom, but it will also help create healthy habits for life.

This year’s challenge, The Magic of Walking, encourages children to travel actively to school every day of the week. If you live far away from school and need to drive or take public transport, try parking the car in one of our convenient park and stride locations, or hopping off the bus/train ten minutes away and walking the rest of the journey.

Start thinking now about what you can do to join in the Magic of Walking challenge.

Please see link to our park and stride leaflet. Park and stride

Reception

As the weather is becoming warmer and Spring is beginning to appear, Reception have been reading ‘The Hungry Caterpiller’. This story encapsulates life cycles, change and growth of a caterpillar. 

The children have enjoyed cross curricular learning activities. We have used number sequences in writing and are beginning to explore  science topics such as healthy eating and mini beasts.

“the caterpillar is greedy” Victoria said 

“he made a cocoon to sleep in” Woody said 

Year 1

The children in Year 1 have thoroughly enjoyed using the story “The Sea Saw” by Tom Percival, to support their literacy.  This week they practised using the conjunction ‘and’ to join two clauses and learnt how to use the suffix ‘ing’ and prefix ‘un’ when writing sentences.  Y said “un means not – like you’re not doing it” and M said “if I put ‘un' before ‘kind’ it means I’m not being kind.”  The children wrote letters to the sea to thank it for rescuing the bear and they were very excited to put their letters into real envelopes.

Year 2

Year 2 have been learning about the Stone Age. This week we learnt about pre-historic cave paintings and had a fun lesson pretending to draw as if we were from the Stone age.  Children learnt that pre-historic means the time before history, before humans began to write things down.  In Science we also went on a lovely walk to the playing fields. We explored the Woody Habitats and went on an insect hunt. Everyone did a good job at observing closely and classifying their findings. They enjoyed discovering new things about the woody habitat and found all sorts of bugs! 

Year 3 

Year 3 have been developing their knowledge of the Stone Age in history. They have been learning about human ancestors who were nomadic - moving from place to place. They also found out about what they used to hunt (mammoths) and what they would gather (wild vegetables).

In PSHE this week, they have been learning how to keep safe online and how to use gaming apps safely. They completed the task of ordering different strategies for keeping safe online from the most important to the least important.

In writing, Year 3 have been planning for their big write of a diary entry as the character of Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and we look forward to reading their lovely writing once they draft it, edit it and publish it!

Year 5 

This week in Writing the children have been writing information reports based around the book ‘There’s a Rang tang in my bedroom’. It is a lovely book highlighting the plight of the world’s Orangutans whose habitat is being destroyed by the production and farming of palm oil. The children were surprised to learn that almost 50% of packaged produce in supermarkets contains palm oil. It was more devastating to learn that estimates say between 1,000-5,000 orangutans die every year due to deforestation and loss of their natural jungle habitat.

In History the children have been learning and researching some more about the Ancient Egyptians. They have been researching the ancient pyramids – how they were built and their importance in Ancient Egyptian society. They also learnt about the importance of the pyramids to historians as a valuable artefact that gives so much information about the ancient Egyptians and how they lived their lives. Finally the children presented what they researched by recording documentaries on Ipads and showing them to their classmates.

Year 6 

RW: Art and Worship

Year 6 are continuing to explore the question: 

Is it better to express your religion through arts and architecture or in charity and generosity?

This week, we explored Christian art work and more particularly, artists’ interpretations of Jesus. We began by looking at 6 different paintings of this holy person. Ranging from famous depictions such as the last supper to more modern interpretations of Jesus riding the London Underground, the children made notes of the artistic style. 

After having had a chance to analyse and appreciate the differences between the six images, we began to discuss why a certain image was our favourite. Children discussed what image the artist was trying to present of Jesus and how it was effective. We ranked them in a “Gold, silver and bronze” medal style, explaining our choices. They then discussed if their own preference had changed after hearing the thoughts and explanations of others. 

Once we had discussed these in our groups, the children chose different pieces of Christian art to discuss in their book. They had to comment on what the image showed and how it linked to a Christian value taught.  

All of the children made such thought-provoking and detailed responses within this lesson. Using their analytical skills as well as their knowledge of belief systems, they were able to effectively communicate their ideas in such a mature way.