Newsletters

George Spicer newsletter - Thursday 2 December 2021

COVID 19 Procedures Update – Mr Spong has sent a letter to all families this week. Please click here  if you haven't already seen it.

Lateness – The number of children arriving late in the mornings is still high. The 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.

Christmas lunch – If your child doesn’t have school dinners and you would like them to have one on Tuesday 14 December, you must contact the office in writing by Monday 6 December. For Years 3-6 children, please ensure your child’s ParentPay account is topped up (£2.50 per meal). For Reception – Year 2 children, there is no charge.

Second hand uniform sale – Wednesday 8 December at KS2 (Sketty Site) playground from 3.15-4.15pm. We have winter coats and warm jumpers among the clothing that we have on offer. Prices start from £1 – all contributions will go to FoGS.

A reminder that dogs are not allowed on school premises. Please ensure that they are kept under control and supervised if you bring your dog to the school gates. Thank you.

Free School Meal vouchers during the Christmas holidays - £30 per child will be issued via Edenred next week. Please ensure that these are redeemed by 7 January 2022 or they will be cancelled.  

School Streets cameras and safety warning  – don’t forget that cameras are in operation between 8.30-9.15am and 2.45-3.45pm. You must not access Sketty Road during these times.  If you need to register a disabled badge for access, you must contact Enfield Council via healthystreets@enfield.gov.uk. This week, we have seen children cycling and scootering in the middle of the road. While staff in the area have alerted the families, they may not always be present. Traffic does continue to use Sketty Road, so please ensure your child stays safe.

Twitter! - Please follow George Spicer's new twitter account @GeorgeSpicerSch for regular updates and tweets of the fantastic learning that our children are doing! 

Rainbow Class - Grand Opening

On Thursday 25th November we welcomed many important people in our school community to the opening of our Nurture Intervention, Rainbow Class. We had two very special guest speakers one of which was Sylvia Lucas, who is not only the patron of Nurture International but was the first official nurture group teacher, 50 years ago in Hackney. Mr Spong supported Sylvia with the cutting of the ribbon and all those that came were able to view Rainbow class. Our school would like to thank all those in the community that donated their time, money and resources to making this classroom a warm and welcoming, safe, space to learn for not only the pupils in this class but for the whole school. 

A massive thank you from #Help for Hunger

What an incredible school community we have! Your amazingly generous donations on Monday filled 5 cars with items for the Help for Hunger hamper appeal.  A massive, massive THANK YOU to you all for spreading such kindness to others in our local area

Attendance week ending 02/12/2021

Overall school = 93.06% Lates = 97

Best attendance: 1st Owl 97.59% 2nd Osiris 97.18% 3rd Elm 97.4%

Punctuality: Well done Sparrow with 100% for punctuality

Reception

Space was the children's choice in Reception this week. We explored the planets especially earth and the sun. Discussions were had regarding all the different planets and their sizes. Henryk said, "The sun is very hot and a long way away from here." The children used foil blankets to make rockets and spaceships. 

Year 1

In Year 1, children are learning about Victorians. This week in English, the children read ‘A Christmas Carol’. The children enjoyed the book. They learnt new words such as miserly and fortune.  They had to write a diary entry as if they were Scrooge.

Nathaniel ‘I liked the book because at the end Scrooge enjoyed Christmas’.

Olivia ‘I enjoyed the book because the ending was happy as Scrooge shared his fortune’.

Ruby-Rose ‘I enjoyed the story because Scrooge changed, shared his money and gave some children presents’.

Year 2

In English this week we have been reading the classic story “The Wind in the Willows”. In the story, Toad becomes obsessed with cars and doesn’t drive them very safely! He eventually is arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In year 2 we carried out a debate, arguing for and against his sentence.

“If Toad should not go to prison, then how do you suggest we change his behaviour after he has been warned so many times? He has already crashed 7 cars!” – Ezra

“Even though he has driven fast, he has not yet hurt anyone, so he shouldn’t go to prison!”- Dassine

In Science this week, we have been looking at habitats in our local area. We placed animals on a map of the surrounding area to Kimberley Gardens, to show where their habitat may be – in woodland, urban or freshwater (pond) habitats.

Global goal 15 links to life on land and how we can look after the animal’s habitats. Here are some of our ideas:

“I can make a bug house for them to live in.” – Edith

“Don’t throw plastic on the floor or in the water because the animals can become sick if they eat it.” – Almira & Natalie

“To protect the animals we can build flats instead of houses because it won’t destroy their habitats and contains more people.” – Thomas S

Year 3 

This week in Year 3 we had a visit from PC Odong! He was teaching us all about how important it is to make good choices. He told us how the police service are there to keep us safe and how important it is that we make sensible choices. 

He also showed us all the different elements of his uniform which was fascinating! It was amazing to see all the different pieces of equipment he has to keep us safe. 

We asked him some really insightful questions and it was a very interesting and fun afternoon. 

Year 5 

In English this week, we created our own court room trial and decided to put Genghis Khan on trial! We wanted to decipher, using evidence we had researched, where he was a great leader, due to his strategic and ingenious tactics or, was he a murderous dictator who led a reign of tyranny and cruelty! During the lesson, we all gathered evidence to help create our argument and brought Genghis Khan to trial! We argued against one another, using our talking frames (conjunctions and cohesive sentence starters) to ensure that we were talking appropriately within a formal setting. We took a vote to decide! Whilst we decided that Khan was guilty of horrific war crimes (his empire killing between 40 – 100 million people) we also agreed that he was a great leader: spreading tolerance, encouraging trade and for individuals to learn from one another. Our trial outcome: Genghis Khan was both a tyrant and a great leader – a complex character indeed! 

Year 6 

Our PSHE topic this term is Celebrating Differences, and last week, in our PSHE lesson, we discussed the similarities and differences people have in our society (based on their gender, age, race, sexual identity), and how everyone should be treated with equality no matter their difference (Equality Act 2010).

We then looked at what it meant to be transgender, looking at a famous, inspirational example in the media: Nikki Tutorial. We discussed some of the issues she might have faced when she revealed that she was transgender and how her revealing this information about her could help reduce inequalities (Global Goal 10) in our society.                                                   

Our RE topic this term is based on Islam. Previously, we had a look what the Hajj meant to Muslims. This week, we focused on understanding the importance of the Hajj and how this helps Muslims feel connected to Allah. We played a Hajj game in groups of four, reflecting on the actions you need to take in the game to reach the Ka'bah. As we played the game, we thought about how this game rewards Muslims for giving money to the poor (1 of the 5 pillars of Islam - Zakat). 

Also, we discussed the importance of the UNCRC Article 14, and how it is important that people have the freedom to follow the religion they choose. 

In our History lesson, we learnt about King Leopold's use of propaganda to convince others to join his International Association of Africa. This was a front. We learnt that a front is a way to disguise something bad and portray it in a positive way. Leopold wanted to colonise Congo but could not do it without the support of others. We thought about how he might convince others to join the association and how this would benefit him. 

Enfield Music Services - Deadline 

Reminder - the deadline for booking/renewing music lessons with Enfield MusicService is 5th December. Please click the link to book EMS booking form

Keyboard classes for Years 4, 5 and 6 pupils

An exciting keyboard opportunity for your Year 4, 5, and 6 pupils. We are starting a new keyboard class on Saturday mornings for complete beginners. They will learn to play from scratch in a group of 10 for one hour a week, and will learn all the usual things such as reading notation, keyboard functions, playing hands separately and together, improvisation, aural skills and music theory. However they will also benefit from learning in a large group as they will also have lots of ensemble playing opportunities and will play together as a band. This will help their development as musicians and in turn will help their development as solo players. I have taught large keyboard groups in this way before and have seen the many benefits of learning in a large group at first hand. It’s also great fun for the children to learn with others.

This class will run for one year, and EMS will provide a free keyboard for the duration of the course. The cost is £79 per term. At the end of the course pupils will be able to continue with individual EMS lessons and take their first exam if they wish. Contact paula.warren@enfield.gov.uk for more details.