Newsletters

George Spicer newsletter - Thursday 24th February 2022

Welcome back! We hope you've had a restful week. It's been lovely to see everyone back in school, busy and ready to work hard in the second half of the Spring term.

As always, if your contact details have changed, please email us via the Office email. We must have up to date telephone and email addresses for 3 contacts per child. If you move house, you must notify us of your change of address.

Year 5 Bikeabilty - starting weeks commencing Monday 7th & Monday 14th March, Year 5 children will be bringing in their bikes.  Please can children in other year groups who bring their bikes/scooters to school put them in the racks by the pencil playground, for both these weeks.

School Value - Responsibility 

Our whole school assembly this week introduced our new value of Responsibility. The children were involved with deciding what it means and how they can be more responsible. 

Being responsible means being dependable, keeping promises and honouring our commitments. It is accepting the consequences for what we say and do. It also means developing our potential. People who are responsible don't make excuses for their actions or blame others when things go wrong.

Our first focus was on looking after our planet and the impact we as humans have had upon it. We encouraged the children to make a difference by not dropping and picking up litter. The message of reduce, reuse and recycle is hopefully one the children bring home. If we don’t take care of our planet then who will?

Parent Consultation Day - Friday 25th March 2022

Our Spring Term Parent Consultation Day will be held on Friday 25th March 8.30am-6pm. This is a designated INSET day, meaning that your child will only attend school for their learning review meeting. 

The purpose of this 15 minute meeting is to discuss your child’s learning so far; their progress and targets for the remainder of the year.

At George Spicer, all children to attend and be present at their meeting, in order to give them the opportunity to understand and contribute to the development of their learning.  Meetings will be held on your child’s site in the hall. 

Appointments will be available from 10am Monday 28/2/22 via School Cloud.  

If you have children on both sites, please ensure you leave a minimum of a 30 minute gap between the appointments you book in order to give you time to walk between the sites.  

World Book Day - Thursday 3^rd March 2022

Next week is World Book Day on Thursday 3^rd March! We are excited to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of World Book Day and we can't wait to see children and staff dress up as their favourite book characters. 

To make sure this year's World Book Day is extra special and exciting, we are planning a competition, where we would like you to write a 100-word story on a topic of your choice. We look forward to receiving your stories! 

Attendance week ending 24/02/2022

Overall school =  95.27% Lates =64

Best attendance: 1st Elm 99.14% 2nd Oak 99.11% 3rd Willow 98.13%

Punctuality: Well done Lancasters, Heracles, Apache & Primrose with 100% for punctuality

Reception

Lost and Found - by Oliver Jeffers 

Our new learning is all about going on a journey and we have been enjoying our first core book this week. We have immersed ourselves in the land of Antarctica, feeling ice on our small world tables and a PE lesson of interpretive dance! We acted out the story and pretended to be penguins, rowed our boats over huge waves and used our bodies to make sounds to match. 

A big thank you from Reception. 

Thank you to Ms Vieira for making two weighted snakes for Reception. 

Thank you to Mrs Kilic for the generous donation of Amazon vouchers. We have purchased a giant easel for the children to enjoy art activities outside. 

Year 1

Year One had their Phonics workshop this week. It was great to see so many parents attend the sessions. Parents had an opportunity to complete different activities with their children. There was a sound hunt, Phonopoly game, Snakes and Ladders, Read and Roll games and lots more fun activities. Games are a good tool to use to support phonological development. Please promote Phonics games at home!

We would like to thank parents for attending the workshops this week. Children were very excited to have you all there! Look out for more workshops in the near future!

Year 2

Year 2 have started their brand new topic on The Plague.  During writing, the children began thinking about what the role of a plague doctor is and what equipment was needed.  

In our history lesson, we discussed the changes to the City of London from 1665 to 2022.  The children talked about similarities and differences and how the disease spread.   The children thought about what influences the environment had on the spread of the disease and then the things we have done to stop the spread of Coronavirus. 

For our greater depth question, the children looked at the Global Goals (GG) and thought about some of the reasons why Coronavirus was not as deadly in London as the Great Plague. 

GG3:Good health and wellbeing, “people lived close together and there were not many doctors” (Georgia).  

GG4:Quality Education, “the coronavirus stopped us from attending school” (Ezra).   

GG6: Clean Water and Sanitation, “the plague spread more as the houses had rubbish outside on the streets”   (Elsie).

Year 3 

Art - Year 3 have been using clay to create an Anglo-Saxon coin. Before we made our coins, we looked at what features Anglo-Saxon coins had and noticed they all had a king/ruler, letters (runes) and a religious symbol. We designed our coins before moulding, shaping and carving them in class.

Science and PSHE

In Science, we have been looking at light and this week we were looking at the dangers of the sun. We wrote a letter to explain the dangers of the sun and how to keep ourselves safe. In PSHE, we began our 'Healthy Me' unit and kickstarted our learning by thinking about fitness challenges. We all chose a fitness challenge and are going to see if we can improve it each week! Our learning this week has been linking to to Global Goal 3 - Good Health and Wellbeing. 

Year 5

Science: Animals, including humans!

In Science, we finished our Animals, including Humans topic! During our Science lesson, we began by looking at photographs of well-known figures (Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Whoopi Goldberg and Mahatma Gandhi) throughout their lives and noticed how their physical characteristics changed over time. We then discussed and identified the changes that take place in older age, both physically and mentally, referring to our own experiences with elderly people. Based on our prior knowledge and independent research, we were given a list of statements to refute or support, based on scientific evidence. In pairs, we explained why we either refuted or supported each statement. This linked to Global Goal 3 - Good Health and Wellbeing, as we discussed the importance of making healthy lifestyle choices when we are younger, to help maintain our health as we age. 

Computing: Micro:bit!

During our Computing lessons this week, the children looked at how to use the BBC Micro:bit device! In our first lesson, we were introduced to the BBC Micro:bit device, investigated its function, what it does and how it works. In our second lesson, we created our own animations, as we worked out how an animation is created in a similar way to a stop motion image! We learnt how to code in a different way, building on our knowledge of Scratch from last year. We look forward to next week, where we will investigate how to turn the BBC Micro:bit into a pedometer and work on developing our debugging skills! The lesson linked to Global Goal 4 - Quality Education, as the children are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of technology in society and the important and positive role it can have on a wide range of careers! Well done to the children for showing incredible perseverance, team work and determination during a challenging lesson! Keep up the fantastic work! 

Year 6 

This week, as part of our topic on Polar Exploration, Year 6 concluded our story on Scott and the Terra Nova expedition (Global Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing, Global Goal 15: Life on Land). Mrs Wellbrook led an immersion lesson, where the children finally found out who had won the race to be the first man to reach the South Pole. They also discovered the fate of the men who they have learnt so much about. The children then wrote one word conveying an emotion that they felt after hearing the story, explaining their reason for feeling this emotion (UNCRC article 14: Freedom of Thought and Religion). The children were able to articulate their thoughts brilliantly and give well thought-out reasons to justify their points (UNCRC article 13: Sharing Thoughts Freely), demonstrating their impressive subject knowledge. We then used this information to conclude Scott's diary entries in our writing lessons. 

I feel proud when I see how determined the men were to reach their goals. Despite all the hardships they faced, they still pushed forwards and achieved a lot. - Ellia, Lancasters.

I think the word I would use to describe this event would be devastated. It is so devastating that the men came so close to realising their goals and they lost their lives when heading back to camp.  - Louie, Defiants.

I feel surprised as they planned so much yet did not reach the Pole first. I am surprised that they died as thought they were going to get back to Hut Point despite the bad weather. - Morayo, Spitfires

I feel shocked to hear about all the hardships these men faced upon their return from the pole. It was almost like luck has turned against them and nothing went their way. It’s really hard to hear about everything that went wrong despite their careful planning. - Tolga, Hurricanes.

In RE this week, we continued studying Hinduism. We learnt about Lord Krishna and his importance to the Hindu community. The children discussed similarities and difference between Hindu Gods and those from other religions that we have been studying (UNCRC article 2: No Discrimination,  UNCRC article 14: Freedom of Thought and Religion, UNCRC article 13: Sharing Thoughts Freely). After looking at the many beautiful statues and portraits used to celebrate Lord Krishna, the children used their art skills to draw their own portraits of him that could be used by Hindus when performing Puja (Hindu form of worship) (UNCRC article 31: Rest, Play, Culture, Art). First, they chose a medium that they wanted to work with and spent some time perfecting the skills that they have acquired throughout the year. After spending some time practising facial features and proportions, the children then created beautiful portraits of Lord Krishna. 

History - The Terra Nova Expedition

This week, Year 6 found out what happened to Scott and his team upon their return journey from the South Pole. The children were saddened to hear of the tragic events. Building onto the theme of tragedy, we decided to look at the factors that may have impacted the likelihood of this event happening. We clarified the word "blame" and will be making our own individual assessments on what (or potentially who) we think is to blame for the men dying. 

We were shown eight different factors (some caused by nature and others by decisions made by members of the team) and had to score them out of five. A score of five meant that we thought this was an important factor and very much to blame for the event whereas a 1 meant that the factor had little impact on the outcome. Once we had decided on our scores, we gave our reasons for this. What was interesting is that we all had slightly different opinions on a factor's importance. This shows how sometimes our own views (or bias) can impact how we view events in history. We linked this lesson to Article 6 of the UNCRC: Life, Survival and Development.

PSHE

This half term’s PSHE topic ‘Healthy Me’ covers two main areas. The first area is our emotional and mental health and looks at: relaxation, being safe, friendships, mental health skills, body image, relationships with food and managing stress. The second area focuses on our Physical health. It covers: the importance of eating a balanced diet, physical activity, rest and relaxation, keeping clean, drugs and alcohol, being safe and first aid. Most of the statutory content for Health Education is contained within this topic.  As this is a short half term, we will focus on first aid in more detail across the school during the summer term.

2022 Pearson National Teaching Awards

Last Chance to Celebrate the Teaching Heroes in your School

Entries soon close for the 2022 Pearson National Teaching Awards so don’t miss the chance to get involved! We know that schools across the UK are full of educators who go above and beyond to make things great for their community, so now’s the perfect time to celebrate the hard work of your school staff.

There are 15 award categories in total, covering primary, secondary and further education with awards for both individuals and whole school teams. This year also sees the introduction of The ‘Unsung Hero’ Award, the only award also open to entries from parents, which recognises any member of school staff including those in supporting roles.

Televised by the BBC, the Awards can act as a morale boost for the whole community, with the entire school family able to get behind their nominee and celebrate what makes their school team so great. It’s easy to enter, and it makes such a difference -so, spread the word to your school leaders and encourage them to get their entries in by 4^th March 2022. 

To find out more about how to enter, visit https://bit.ly/3FQaiee

Watch the awards entry film at: https://youtu.be/pDmXHci6XCg

TFL Stars Award

In spite of the the various lockdowns in the last 2 years we are proud to still hold our Gold STARS award.

Sustainbable Travel: Active, Responsible, Safe

If you do have to drive, please continue to park responsibly.  We are so lucky as a school to have a choice of Park and Stride locations.  Now that the finer weather and brighter days are here the car parks in King George V playing fields are an ideal place to park.