Newsletters

George Spicer newsletter - Friday 9th September 

Welcome back 

I hope you have all had an enjoyable summer break with your children. I would like to welcome you all back to a new and exciting academic year and for those families who are joining us for the first time we warmly welcome you to the George Spicer community and look forward to working with you.  It was so wonderful to see so many happy faces coming through the school gates each morning. The classrooms have certainly been buzzing where all the children have appeared to have settled straight back into school life once again.  My welcome assembly focused on a new year being a ‘Fresh Start’ and I asked them to think about what kind of a fresh S.T.A.R.T they wanted to make: What you Say to yourself and to others matters.  Time is an investment, don't waste it, invest it. Every minute, every day, counts.  Approach every situation/challenge with a positive Attitude. To think about how you Respond to situations - With anger/frustration or self-control and determination? Then finally for them to decide how are they going to use and develop their Talents this year.

I also shared with the children that our value for this half term is kindness, “I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I’ll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.” — Roald Dahl. It makes the world a better, brighter place and it costs us nothing and is something we can all do.  Please model our value to your children, my staff and other parents whenever you can.  “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” — The 14th Dalai Lama.

There are lots of exciting activities and learning adventures planned this year, please keep an eye on the website, social media and read the newsletter so you know what is going on and what is coming up.  I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the Meet the Teacher drop-in sessions or as the term progresses.  Many thanks for your continued support as we help your children, ‘learn well today to live a better tomorrow.’

Important Information 

• Communication with school - a reminder that the main contact with the school is via the Offices: email:  office@georgespicer.enfield.sch.uk Telephone: 020 8363 1406
• Absences - must be reported in writing or by phone by 9am daily. Please leave a brief message with 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'.  
• ParentPay – ‘we are a cashless school’ - every child at the school has a ParentPay account (If you are new to George Spicer, a login will be issued shortly). If your child attends Breakfast and After School Club or has school dinners, please ensure that your account has at least 2 weeks’ worth of payments in advance.  
• Use of childcare vouchers Please click on the letter for guidance on the use of childcare vouchers at George Spicer.
• Year 4 & 6 Residential trips - please ensure that all instalments are paid up to date 
• Labelling school uniform - please ensure that you label your child's school uniform.  Previously we have accumulated so much lost property, if you label items they can be returned to the child/ren. 
• Donations please for Kimberley Gardens - please may we have donations of tissues and wipes for our welfare room.  Please hand to your class teacher.
• After school clubs/enrichment activities autumn 2022 - to book after school clubs please click the link to book. Enrichment Activities Autumn 2022
• Year 6 walking home alone – If you would like your child to walk home alone you need to fill in a Y6 permission form and submit it to the office. To request a form please email office@georgespicer.enfield.sch.uk
• Year 6 mobile phone – Only children with permission to walk home alone are permitted to bring in mobile phones to school.

We know that the children and ​all of us will react in different ways to the news that broke yesterday of the passing of Queen Elizabeth 2^nd.  Whether you are a royalist or not it is hard not to feel something, as a constant in all of our lives is no longer present and anyone who has given 70 years of service does warrant some consideration and respect.

Many of the children will have come to school today wanting to talk to someone and share how they are feeling, or to ask questions about what has happened and what will happen now and in the future.  For others, it may have reminded them of a loss or sadness in their own lives.  For some it will have very little impact.

I want to reassure you that we are aware of the range of emotions that there will be and that we will do all that we can to listen to the children with patience and care and to answer their questions with honesty and as much thought and sensitivity as possible.

Today we gave thanks for the life in service that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth gave during assembly and there were also no doubt some age-appropriate discussions in classes about what has happened.  The assembly also commemorated and celebrated a truly remarkable life.  A stateswoman of dignity, humility and compassion.  In many ways she epitomised every one of our school values.

I await news of the impact that the national state of mourning and funeral will have on schools and will update you as soon as I am aware.

I shall leave you with a quote from her coronation speech:

"I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great family of nations to which we all belong.  I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust."

 ANPR cameras are now operational

A reminder that ANPR cameras are now operational and you will be fined if you travel into the School Street Zone between 8:30am-9:15am and 2:45pm-3:45pm during term time.  

Further information from Enfield Council can be found here

We advise anyone who travels by car to George Spicer Primary to park and stride from one of our convenient park and stride locations found here

PE Kit Expectations

Please check your child's PE kit to ensure it fits and you have the correct uniform. Children are expected to wear PE kits to school on their PE days, therefore it should be smart and considered part of their school uniform.

It should consist of:

• a plain red, blue, green or yellow T-shirt, depending on your child’s house group. No logos or patters please.
• navy shorts
• navy jogging bottoms for colder weather
• black trainers which your child can tie independently. If they are unable to tie their own laces please choose Velcro or elastic laces to fasten.
• school jumper or plain navy sweatshirt/hoodie.

Please do not buy branded tracksuits. These are not considered part of the school uniform and should not be worn.

• Girls should not wear tights for PE.
• Long hair must be tied back with soft bands - this includes boys.
• No jewellery, including watches and earrings, to be worn for PE activities, Small stud earrings should be removed or taped. Please do this before school as teachers are will not tape or remove earrings.
• Please note that bare feet for gymnastics and dance produces better quality work so children are expected to remove socks and trainers.

School PE kits can be puchased from Smiths Schoolwear or any other supermarkets that sell school uniforms.

Year 6

Thursday & Friday

Year 5

All classes – Monday

Ra & Osiris -Thursday

Anubis & Thoth - Tuesday

Year 4

Wednesday & Fridays

Year 3

Monday & Tuesday

Year 2

Thursday & Friday

Year 1

Monday & Wednesday

Attendance week ending 09/09/2022

Overall school = 92.36%   Lates = 20

Best attendance 1st: Robin 98.85% 2nd Odyseuss 98.52% 3rd Heracles 97.32%

Punctuality: Well done to Oak, Elm, Robin, Owl, Theseus, Lancaster, Cheyenne and Thoth all with 100% for punctuality. 

Year 1

Year 1 have been busy kicking off their new topic: All Aboard! To start with, we used pictures as a stimulus and asked lots of questions about what we want to find out.  

Edward said, "When did the first train exist?".

Chloe said, "How long is the longest train in the world?". 

We are excited to be finding out the answers to these questions over the half term.  In the afternoons, we have started to design our own train that we have put together using different recycled materials. 

Please look out for pictures next week. 

Year 2

Year 2 has made a great start to the year! We have started work on our topic 'Habitats in Britain' by making bird feeders and visiting the playing fields to collect natural objects for our artwork.

Year 3 

This week in Year 3, we have been learning about primary, secondary and tertiary colours. The children thoroughly enjoyed working together in their table groups to mix their colours and complete their colour wheels. We were all pleased with how they turned out! We are planning on using what we have learnt in our upcoming topic on our artist Princess Fahrelnissa Zeid.   

Year 5 

Year 5 have made a fantastic start to the year. They have worked hard discussing the importance of our 4 Be's (Be kind, Be safe, Be sensible, Be respectful) and have settled in superbly! 

In Science this week, Year 5 began their first Science topic on Sound. They used data loggers to measure the levels of sound in different parts of the school and recorded their results in a table and car chart. Each class discussed what is meant by noise pollution and thought about the sounds that could be heard throughout the school at different points in the day. Deniz said, "It is important to think about noise pollution and the effect this can have on areas and individuals."

Year 6 

An "arty" start

Year 6 have kicked start the year by looking at the artist Frida Kahlo. We discussed her life and how incidents in her childhood may have affected her. Did you know she contracted Polio at a young age, which left her disabled? Despite this, she began to study medicine. She took up painting after a car accident, when she was 18. After learning this about her, we looked at what rights of the UNCRC she had access to. 

"Despite being disabled, she was still given good access to education, which we can see as she began to study medicine" - Macy

We looked at her painting: The Dream (The Bed) and noted that the main theme was of "Life and Death". In our writing, we critiqued this work of art, using our evaluating and interpretation skills. We then used this theme of "Life and Death" to inspire us and will be creating our own interpretation on this theme this half term, within our art lessons. To help us, we thought about words/images we associated with "Life and Death" and collated them in our sketch book.

Our next stage was focusing on the skill of using tone. We chose to practice using tone to add depth to our work. We did this by sketching a skull, as there is one present within Frida's painting. We thought about our proportions and how we can portray the light sources within our work. We will continue this next week.

After School Drama club 

St Ignatius College Open Evening