Newsletters

Important Dates for Diary

Thursday 16th January - Census Day

Maths Workshops:

Year 5:

Monday 20th January - Ms Tighe & Ms Sinclair group 9:15am

Tuesday 21st January - Mr Crook's group 9:15am

Wednesday 22nd January - Ms Keceli's group 9:15am

Thursday 23rd January - Miss Helman's group 9:15am

Year 2:

Monday 27th January - Sparrow 9:15am

Tuesday 28th January - Woodpecker 9:15am

Thursday 30th January - Owl 9:15am

Friday 31st January - Robin 9:15am

Enfield Music Service lessons:

Saxophone/Flute - Mondays - starting Monday 20^th January

Violin/Viola - Tuesdays - starting Tuesday 14^th January

Guitar - Fridays - starting Friday 10^th January

Piano/Keyboard - Tuesdays/Fridays - starting Friday 10^th January

Attendance week ending 10/01/2025

Overall school = 93.85% Lates = 62

Best attendance: 1st Mediterranean 99.26% 2nd Kingston 99.23% 3rd Snowdrop 98.89%

Punctuality: Well done to Robin, Mediterranean and Kingston with 100% for punctuality.

Tesco Stronger Starts Scheme 

George Spicer have been selected to take part in the Tesco Stronger Starts Scheme, with votes being collected from Mid-January 2025 until the end of March 2025.

Our vision is to upgrade the playground, so it is a more exciting place to play and be active. It will improve both the children's physical and mental health.

The stores which will vote on our project are:

London - Enfield 2467 Enfield Southbury Rd Large unit EN1 1NW
London - Enfield 2473 Enfield Express Small unit EN3 5UT
London - Enfield 3032 Ponders End Extra Large unit EN3 4DP
London - Enfield 3361 Bullsmoor Ln Wal X Exp Small unit EN8 7RS
London - Enfield 5042 Enfield Lock Express Small unit EN3 6GS
London - Enfield 5477 Windmill Hill Enf Exp Small unit EN2 7AE

Please support us. The more tokens we receive, the greater the chance of winning the £1,500 reward.

Social Media

I wanted to take a moment to share an important update regarding our school's social media presence.

After careful consideration, we have made the decision to move our primary social media platform from X to Instagram.

This change is driven by our commitment to providing a safe and inclusive online environment for our school community. Over the past 18 months, we have witnessed concerning instances of X exposing its users to more extremist content and the transformation of X has been significant under its current leadership and the platform’s alignment with values that don’t reflect those of our community.  Twitter used to be the place for open dialogue and community building, but X has been a platform increasingly associated with controversy and spreading misinformation.

As a school, we believe that our values and vision no longer align with the current state of X. We are committed to fostering a positive and nurturing online community that reflects the inclusive and welcoming spirit of George Spicer Primary School. By transitioning to Instagram, we aim to provide a more secure and controlled platform where we can share updates, celebrate our pupils' achievements, and engage with you, our valued parents, in a meaningful way. We believe this change will help us better protect our school community and ensure that our online presence aligns with our core values.

From today, we will completely cease activity on X and will be providing insights into your children’s learning solely on Instagram. We will continue to monitor and review this as we are not sure if Instagram is the right platform and, ultimately, we may have to consider that social platforms are not suitable for schools to communicate on.  You can find us at @George_Spicer_School

We understand that this transition may require some adjustments, and we appreciate your support and understanding as we navigate this change. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your continued partnership in providing the best possible educational experience for our pupils.

Missing Scooters

It has come to our attention that several bikes and scooters have gone missing from our school premises in recent weeks. This is deeply upsetting, as it goes against the core values of kindness and respect that we hold dear at George Spicer Primary School.

As a Rights Respecting School, we believe it is essential to develop our community into well-rounded, globally aware citizens who are prepared to make a positive impact on the world around them. The theft of personal property is in direct conflict with these principles, and we simply cannot allow such incidents to continue.

To address this issue, we will be reviewing our CCTV footage and, if necessary, involving the police. I urge all parents and carers to ensure that any bikes or scooters brought to school are securely locked up. Additionally, if you have inadvertently taken home a scooter or bike that does not belong to your child, please return it to the school immediately.

I know this is a disappointing situation, but I am confident that, by working together, we can find a resolution.   If you have any concerns or information that could assist us in this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me or a member of the leadership team.

Year 1

Year 1 have been focusing on the question ‘Is ballet only for girls?’ for our stereotypes week. We all voted and done some research to get a better understanding. We have even learnt some ballet moves and created information posters! The children have voted again since the start of the week and have expressed their understanding of inclusivity.

Year 2

During Challenging Stereotypes Week Year 2 have been working with the book 'My Shadow is Pink' by Scott Stuart. We discussed the idea that only boys can have blue shadows. The children agreed that anybody can have a blue shadow; all of our shadows are different and special, regardless of who we are or what we look like. We did some hot seating in class to think about what we would say to the characters in the story. T said 'You should always be yourself so that you can make friends with people who really love you!'. 

We thought about our shadows and ventured outside to draw them. We worked in pairs to fill our shadows with all the ideas that make us who we are. 

The Year 2 team would also like to ask for donations of cardboard boxes. We need boxes that are around the size of a shoebox for our upcoming D&T lessons. 

Year 3 

In Year 3, for Stereotype Week, our stereotype was – Is Africa a country? The children worked well challenging this stereotype and some of the one-sided impressions of Africa. They learnt that there are 54 countries in Africa and that it is the second largest continent in the world after Asia.

The children also spent some time researching different countries in Africa - from Algeria to Senegal, from Somalia to Namibia and created their own poems on their chosen African country. Their learning also linked to their Geography, where they explored a number of different rivers that flowed through different parts of countries in Africa.

One of the lessons that had the greatest impact on the children was showcasing some of the world’s most beautiful homes located in Africa which they assumed would be found in the Western World. Overall, Y3 had a great week exploring and challenging their stereotype and learning about the many wonderful things that the continent of Africa (not a country) has to offer.

Year 5 

Year 5 have kicked off the New Year by diving into Stereotype Week. The children have used a variety of different stimuli to explore different themes around stereotypes and stereotyping. We explored different female leaders who have faced discrimination based on their gender. We used the question 'Do women need saving?' as our stereotype focus and linked the content closely to our UNCRC articles. We learned how Disney have been more progressive in their thinking and how Disney's representation of women has changed for the better over the years. We used the story of Cinderfella to demonstrate how the narrative can stay the same despite the gender of the main character changing. This helped us to understand that gender should not define our abilities, aspirations or opportunities to succeed and be happy. We are very proud of how mature and perceptive the pupils have been this week! 

Year 6 

As part of our Challenging Stereotypes week, Year 6 have been asking "What defines beauty?" The children have had some incredible conversations about what beauty is, why is external appearance given so much importance, what damage does Instagram do to people's self-esteem, and why do people not care more about a person's personality rather than what they look like. They also had strong opinions on the 'ideal' body shape, and how vastly this has changed over the decades, particularly for women. They recognised that chasing an ideal body shape can be harmful to mental health, and that diet and exercise should be done for individual benefit, rather than chasing an idea of what perfect looks like. Well done Year 6. You have shown real maturity and insight in your opinions this week. 

 

The New Year is a time to start new habits, so let's make one of ours to work together to get our children reading more at home!

Oxford Reading Buddy is our online reading service which is free to all of our pupils. It can be accessed via most mobile phones, tablets, a Kindle but this has to be set up by an adult, and a laptop or desk top computer. Your child has their login in their reading log or a new login can be requested via the class teacher. Below is a guide to help you to get your child started;

Oxford Reading Buddy is a digital reading service to help your child to develop important skills in reading and to encourage them to read more. It contains hundreds of digital books from Oxford University Press’s well-known reading series including Project X and the Biff, Chip and Kipper stories from Oxford Reading Tree – all matched to your child’s reading level. It offers special Coaching eBooks to develop comprehension. As your child reads more books, they progress through the levels and can make their own avatar friend to support them with the questions that accompany each book.

Every half term, we shall announce the names of the children in each year group who have read the most books and completed the associated comprehension questions. There will be a reward for each of these children, so watch this space to find out what the reward will be!

Sports2Inspire

Please see below for after-school activities taking place from Monday 13th January. Spaces are limited so please book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. To book, please use the following link:

https://bookwhen.com/sports2inspiregeorgespicer#focus=ev-sb7r-20241107153000

Sports2Inspire will be running a half-term camp in the school during the February half term. Please see below for more information and use the following link to book.  https://bookwhen.com/sports2inspiregeorgespicer#focus=ev-sb7r-20241107153000