Newsletters

George Spicer newsletter - 27th January 2023

Punctuality - The school gates open at 8.45am for a soft start to support a calm arrival to school. All our pupils are expected to be in class for registration by 09:00 am. The school gates are then locked at this point.  Pupils need to be in school by 09:00 am for registration. If your child arrives after 09:00 am, they will receive a late mark (L). If your child arrives after 09:10 am, they will receive a 'U' code (missed session) on their registration certificate which will impact on their overall attendance percentage.

Absences - must be reported in writing by email or by phone by 9am daily. Please leave a brief message with your 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'. 

Appointments - You must provide an appointment card / letter for your child’s absence to be classed as medical, otherwise it will be marked as an unauthorised absence.  Please note we expect your child to attend school either side of their appointment where possible.

Residential Trips payment reminder - Please note the dates below for payment of the final instalments for the residential trips. 

• Year 4 - Cuffley Camp June 2023 final payment due 3^rd February 2023 £80.00
• Year 6 - Borreattan Park May 2023 final payment due 10^th February 2023 £95.00

Reception School Admissions - If you have a sibling due to start Reception in September and have not yet applied for a school place, there is still time.  Please visit https://www.eadmissions.org.uk/ .  If you need any help or advice with the application, please contact the office.

Help support our school Foodbank. - In February, George Spicer will be opening a foodbank to support struggling families. As a community we are asking for donations to top up our pantry. From Monday 30^th January please drop your donations off at either the Sketty Road or Kimberley Gardens’ office.  

We are also appealing to anyone who works for or has a contact in supermarkets or restaurants, who may have any food to donate. If so, we would like to hear from you.  Please contact the school office on 020 8363 1406 and ask for Mrs Atkinson. 

Donations for welfare - We would be grateful for donations of wipes, tissues and carrier bags for our welfare rooms please.  Also, girls pants for KS2.

Be Prepared - Please can you ensure that your child/ren has all their belongings with them at the start of the day, for example lunch/water bottles, PE shoes/bags, dropping these in after 9am causes disruption to the class.  

Important dates for your diary

3rd February - Y6 Spitfires and Defiants Dharma Mandir visit

8th February - Apache class assembly - 2.30pm

Educational visits/workshops

Please visit ParentPay  to consent and make payments

• Year 3 - Whipsnade Zoo 13^th June 2023 £25.50
• Year 3 - Anglo Saxon Workshop 14^th March 2023 - £7.50
• Year 5 - Egyptian Artefact Workshop 2^nd May 2023 £7.50
• Year 6 - Dharma Mandir Temple 27^th Jan 2023 Hurricanes & Lancaster and February 3^rd 2023 Defiants & Spitfires £1
• Year 6 - Battle of the Atlantic and Codebreaking 13^th March 2023 £7.50
• Year 6 - WW2 Trip to RAF Duxford 20^th March 2023 £13.75
• Year 6 - WW2 Cheryl Moskowitz Summer 2023 - £3.50

Attendance week ending 27/01/2023

Overall school = 94.23%  Lates = 78

Best attendance: 1st Defiants 99.09% 2nd Thoth 98.18% 3rd Robin 97.81%

Punctuality: There were no classes with 100% for punctuality this week.  

Rainbow Class

Mango in the Rainbow Class-have you tried it? 

This week in the Rainbow Class some of our children went on a taste bud adventure and tried Mango for the first time.  What is it? How do we eat it? Is it a vegetable, fruit or dinosaur egg? These were just some of the questions we were asked. There were children within the group who were buzzing with excitement, keen to answer these questions and share their knowledge. They were all  eager for us to cut it open and taste the fruit. 

Mango was used as our conversation topic for this session (It was a fun way to encourage discussion, introduce new vocabulary and it also encourages children to be adventurous when eating).  The children got to practise their active listening and conversation skills in a group discussion, expressing what they thought about the mango. Some of them who had never tried it used their comparing skills to describe how it was similar in texture and flavour to other fruits they had tried. Those who had eaten it before discussed how it wasn’t as sweet as the ones they had had before. We also got to talk about other types of fruit that the children enjoyed eating. 

It was a great way to get 1 of their 5 a day and expand on their communication skills. 

Reception Class

In Reception this week, we have been busy keeping fit and getting active using some brand new and exciting equipment. We are very lucky to have been provided with some 'Action Mats' to support our PE lessons. The children worked really hard to follow the pictures and patterns to complete all the activities in the circuit. As the lesson progressed, the children improved their core stability, strength and balance which will support them with not only their gross motor development but also their strength and coordination for handwriting too! "This is really tricky!" said M. "I love swimming like a shark," remarked J. 

Year 1

 This week Year 1 made their own Neolithic spears! They worked together to follow a set of instructions. They thought carefully about their choice of materials. Lyra said, “The spearhead needs to be sharp so that it can be used for hunting woolly mammoths and catching fish!”

Throughout the month the children in Year 1 have been exploring Beebots – a programming robot used for teaching sequencing, estimation and problem-solving. The children worked together to explore this new device to see what it could do.  They completed a number of challenges by predicting where it might travel after they had programmed a series of instructions.  They then explained their results and discussed how to adjust their programming for the robot to arrive at a specific destination.  They then pretended to be a human robot and we followed instructions from our partner. They discussed which would follow instructions better - a human beebot or an electronic beebot. Ellie said, "An electronic beebot is better because it is programmed to follow the instructions straight away".

Year 3 

Year 3's skill for Science this half term is to record findings using simple scientific language and labelled diagrams. This week in Science, the children have been learning about shadows and how they are formed. Year 3 first examined how objects made of different materials can affect the amount of light passing through them, causing the shapes of shadows to differ. Next, the children experimented by using torches to create their own shadow shapes. They then created a Shadows poster, demonstrating their knowledge and understanding of keywords: translucent, transparent and opaque. As an extension, Year 3 were challenged to explain how they think the shadows differ when light is shone on different objects. The children enjoyed learning about shadows and produced some great, informative posters!

Year 5 

This week, Year 5 have been looking at the development of the foetus. There are lots of myths and misconceptions about foetal development and pregnancy, so we started the lesson off with a myth or fact game where we discussed whether or not a foetus can suck its thumb and whether the shape of a pregnant woman's stomach can indicate whether it will be a boy or a girl. 

The children then worked in groups to write a haiku, based on different points of the pregnancy, explaining how the baby is developing. The poems have come out brilliantly and are really interesting to read. 

Year 6 

Evolution and Inheritance

We have started our new topic in Science (Evolution and Inheritance) and are absolutely loving it! We began by learning about Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. When visiting the Galapagos Islands, Darwin noticed several species of Finches had varied beaks depending on their diets. 

We wrote as Darwin, explaining his observations in the form of a diary. Then we began sketching the finches to show the different beak sizes. We also looked at the evolution of the Indohyus and were shocked when we discovered what this land mammal evolved into. 

Look on our Twitter page for more of what Year 6 have been up to this week.