Newsletters

George Spicer Newsletter - 14th June 2024

Year 3 had a splendid week as they got to go to Whipsnade Zoo! They travelled in style by coach and got to see a range of different animals and creatures in their enclosures. They enjoyed taking a close look at the African elephants which looked very similar to the mammoth they have been learning about from the Stone Age period in history. The children were also incredibly excited by the Giraffe Behaviour Study Workshop where they examined the behaviour of a giraffe. They had such a wonderful time. One child said, "I've never seen this before, this is the best day of my life."

District Sports

Huge congratulations to all the children who represented the school at the annual District Athletics competition this year. We had children from Year 3 through to Year 6 who performed brilliantly and conducted themselves with great sportsmanship throughout the afternoon. 

Further recognition needs to go to the following children for their podium finishes:

Aaron 1^st Place Year 6 60m hurdles

Edie 2^nd Place Year 5 60m hurdles

Chris 2^nd Place 150m sprint

Amelie 3^rd Place Year 4 50m sprint

Joshua 2^nd Place 50m sprint

Kelechi 1^st Place 80m sprint

Joshua, Amelie, Levi, Lena 1^st Place Year 4 4x50m relay

Adenola, Chris, Aaron, Kelechi 1^st Place Year 6 4x100m relay

Very well done again - I'm very proud of all of you.

Summer Fun Day Raffle - you should all have received your raffle tickets home with your child this week. All counterfoils, money and unsold tickets are to be returned to the office by Wednesday 26th June.

Y6 BASC REMINDER -  Please be aware that, under HMRC rules, any overpayment of childcare vouchers cannot be refunded directly to parents due to the tax benefits received on purchase.  For more information click the link: use of childcare vouchers

Important Dates for Diary

Tuesday 18th June - Teach Rex Dinosaur experience for Reception

Tuesday 18th June - NHS Hearing Screening RE-TESTS for Reception

Wednesday 19th-Friday 21st June - Year 4 Cuffley Camp

Tuesday 25th June - Year 2 and 3 Sports Day 10:30am

Thursday 27th June - Year 4/5 and 6 Sports Day 10:30am

Friday 28th June - New Reception Sept24 Stay and Play session

Sunday 30th June - FOGs Summer Fun Day

Attendance week ending 14/06/2024

Overall school = 94.88% Lates = 123

Best attendance: 1st  Elm 98.18% 2nd Chyenne 97.85% 3rd 97.36%

Punctuality: Well done to Osiris with 100% for punctuality.

Breakfast and After School Club

Response required by 30^th June

Thanks to those that have already completed the BASC form for the new Academic Year.  Please could all the remaining parents/carers with children currently attending BASC confirm days required even if your child will remain on the same schedule.

Please follow link to complete the form.

For more information regarding BASC please see link

Reception

The Reception children had a big surprise when they came to school on Monday. There had been some strange happenings in all the classrooms such as, red, orange and yellow dust on the floor, footprints across the carpet and some huge leaves hanging from the ceiling! The children worked hard to investigate who they think made the mess. We had lots of good ideas; Arlo thought it might be a cheeky mouse, Reggie suggested the incredible Hulk because there were lots of green things dotted all over the rooms. In the end we discovered it was a friendly dinosaur who came to visit and wanted to play with all the children! What an exciting week we have had! We can't wait to find out what happens next week!

Year 1

Mr. Wolf Faces Tough Questions

This week, the children in Year 1 had a unique and exciting opportunity to meet Mr. Wolf from the classic fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood." Eager to understand more about his side of the story, the children asked curious and thoughtful questions, e.g.:

J’s Q: “How did Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma taste?”

Wolf’s Answer: “Grandma was a little bit bony. Wolves are carnivores so they were very tasty!”

It was an educational and entertaining experience that enthralled the children and helped bring literature to life.

Year 2

This week Year 2 have set up another Science experiment! We have been investigating if grass needs sunlight to grow healthily. The children have covered a patch of grass in the meadow with some fabric and we will be observing the changes over the coming weeks.  Moving our History learning onto the Neolithic Age, the children learnt that our pre-historic ancestors became farmers so they no longer needed to be nomadic and hunt for their food! 

Year 3 

Year 3 had a splendid week as they got to go to Whipsnade Zoo! They travelled in style by coach and got to see a range of different animals and creatures in their enclosures. They enjoyed having a close look at the African elephants which looked very similar to the mammoth they have been learning about from the Stone Age period in history. The children were also incredibly excited by the Giraffe Behaviour Study Workshop where they examined the behaviour of a giraffe.

Year 5 

In Science this week Year 5 have been continuing their learning on separating and changing materials. The children have been investigating what happens when you combine solids and liquids to make a solution. This time we looked at mixtures that caused a reaction which is non-reversible. We did an investigation where we mixed different liquids (water, lemon juice and vinegar) with bicarbonate of soda. Some of these mixtures produced a reaction which resulted in the production of a gas (carbon dioxide) this created a non-reversible change – meaning we would not be able to reverse the reaction to get back the materials we started with. The children investigated which liquids produced the biggest reaction compared with those that produced no reaction at all. The children used gloves to capture the gas let off in the reaction to see how much gas was produced. We were all surprised because we predicted that vinegar would produce the greatest reaction and the most amount of CO2 but surprisingly, lemon juice produced the strongest reaction – it had the most amount of bubbles and the gloves inflated the most, indicating that lemon juice reacted more strongly to the bicarbonate of soda.

Year 6 

This Tuesday was "International Day of Play". As a Gold Rights Respecting School, we understand the importance of play and the benefits this can have on our children. 

To celebrate this day, Year 6 took part in a fun-packed afternoon of educational games. We began with a game of Chess. The children worked in teams to create strategies and capture their opponents. They thought logically about their next moves and enjoyed the challenge. 

After this, we introduced many of the children to the word game: Scrabble. Many of our children had not played this before and so found it a challenge to not only make words (using the letters they had) but also to earn high points from the words selected. This was a good test of not only our vocabulary but also our spelling skills. 

Finally, we took part in a Maths game called: Stocks and Shares. We had £5 to invest in a range of companies and then heard "News Flash" stories that affected the value of our shares. We were disappointed when a news story affected the value negatively but thrilled when we found out our stock was worth more. The aim of the game was to see who had the most money at the end. 

We really enjoyed the afternoon of exploring Article 31: Rest, Play and Culture, Arts.

Sewing Club 

Sewing Club has recently finished - what a fabulous few weeks we have had! We have learned different stitches, then decorated and made pillows. Here are some of the finished products!

Music Lessons