Newsletters

George Spicer Newsletter - 23rd February 2024


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T: 020 8363 1406 
E: office@georgespicer.enfield.sch.uk 
W: www.georgespicer.enfield.sch.uk 
Twitter: @GeorgeSpicerSch 


George Spicer Newsletter - 23rd February 2024

Attendance – you are now able to view your child’s attendance by logging into the Arbor App.  Please note that if your child’s attendance is below 90%, we will not authorise any absence without medical evidence (e.g., doctor’s certificate or letter, hospital appointment card, prescription or the prescribed medication, or text message appointment).

Reporting Absences - You must call in every day if your child is absent. Please, when reporting absences, leave a message with your child's name, class and the reason for absence.

Lateness - The number of children arriving late in the mornings is high. Unfortunately, it is the same children repeatedly.  Gates close at 9am and learning starts promptly at this time.  If your child is 5 minutes late every day, this equates to nearly 3 whole days of missed learning, plus it’s disruptive for other children.  Please try to drop your child/children at least 5/10 minutes early to avoid this continuous lateness.

Be prepared - Please can you make sure you are sending your child in with all their belongings in the morning to prevent disruptions in class during the school day.

Breakfast and After-School club queries - Please note that all communication with basc is via their email basc@georgespicer.enfield.sch.uk NOT the office email.  

Playleaders - We are currently looking for lunchtime playleaders. For more information please visit our website. George Spicer website

Sickness - If your child is unwell due to vomiting/diarrhoea, please ensure you do not send them to school for at least 24 hours since their last spell of sickness.


Important Dates for Diary

Monday 26 th February - Reception Story Cafe & Phonic Workshop Daffodil

Tuesday 27th February  - Reception Story Cafe & Phonic Workshop Snowdrop

Thursday 29th February – Year 1 elm & Willow class trip to Enfield town library AM

Friday 1st march - Reception Story Cafe & Phonic Workshop Poppy

Parents Consultations - Spring Term 2024 is Thursday 14th March 2024 from 8.30am – 6.00pm.  

Appointments are open from 4pm on Monday 26th February and will close on Sunday 10th March at 10pm. See separate email from SchoolCloud on how to book. For families who need to book separate appointments, please contact the school office at office@georgespicer.enfield.sch.uk  Note the school is closed to all pupils and instead your child is invited to attend the meeting.  Both sites will be open and the meetings will be held in the halls for Y1 – Y6 except for the Reception class which will be held in the Daffodil classroom.  Please note school is closed to pupils. 

Year 6 SATs Information – Parent Meeting: Wednesday 6th March 2024 6-6.45pm

World Book Day – Thursday 7th March

This year we hadn’t planned to do a whole school dress up as a book character day, however we are aware that some parents/carers have been making or buying costumes.  Therefore we will make it an OPTIONAL day to dress up as a character from a book, otherwise it is school uniform or PE kit as per usual.  More details will follow about what we are doing to celebrate the day, but these will be in-school and focused on the enjoyment of books and reading.

Friends of George Spicer (FoGS) will be selling pre-loved costumes for World book day on Friday 1st March, click here to find out more!

Year 6 PGL School Journey Information – Parent Meeting: Thursday 25th April 2024 5.30-6.15pm


Quote of the week

“Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.” - Laurence Sterne

Attendance week ending 23/02/2024

Overall school = 94.51%  Lates = 88

Best attendance: 1st Elm 97.41% 2nd Anubis 97.15% 3rd Daffodil 94.06%

Punctuality: Well done to Willow and Osiris with 100% for punctuality 


Our Value - Respect 

It is hard to believe that we are now over half way through the academic year, back in September I set the children the challenge to make this year they try to focus on being their best version of them – setting themselves some goals for things they wanted to improve.  I shared the story of the pencil this week which teaches the morals that we all have to bear pain, learn from our mistakes, it's what’s inside that counts, and leave a mark in everything we do.  Hopefully these words will inspire the children to use their remaining time this year to achieve their goals.  If your child attends Sketty Road, ask them about the unconventional inspirational figure I showed them that embodied so many of our values this week.  I also introduced the new half-termly value of Respect, at KG I shared them a story all about the different ways we can respect ourselves, our surroundings and each other.  Respect is one of our most important values and teaching our children about it, one of our most essential roles. 


Reception

Reception: People who help us.

This week Reception have been looking at people who help us. We read a book called ‘Riley can do anything’ and then had a discussion about what we would like to be when we grow up.

Freya Mae - “I want to be a police officer.”

Arya - “I want to be an artist.”

We had a little talk about how we can achieve these goals and what how important it is to keep practising our skills.


Year 1

This week in Year 1, in Computing, we have been learning about algorithms. We discussed the importance of some algorithms being in an order and some algorithms that did not need to be in a particular order. We followed an algorithm to help an insect move through the maze and found some computer bugs. We had to debug the algorithms to help the insect escape.

  


Year 2

This week in Year 2 we have started our learning on fractions. We cut out and folded shapes to explore one half. In English, we have looked at the journey of a Jazz Apple from New Zealand to the UK. We used freeze frames to help us recreate different stages of this journey and wrote diary entries from the point of view of Jazzy.


Year 3 

Year 3 have kicked of their new term by learning about money in Maths. The children have demonstrated that they know the value of coins and notes, how to add different amounts and solve money word problems.

Following on from online safety week, the children also enjoyed a lesson on how to stay safe online and how to give advice to help others stay safe online too.

They also completed their final art piece for their observational drawing work!


Year 4 

This week, Year 4 started a new unit on 'Sound'. Today's key question was, 'How are sounds made?' Children were given the opportunity to 'think, pair, share' their ideas and make observations about how some of the sounds were made. They accomplished this by listening to a variety of musical instruments and had to determine which instrument was being used, how it made them feel and remark on the pitch and volume of the individual instruments.

By the end of this lesson, children also learnt that sound is created when objects vibrate (rapid backward and forward movement). And, that the vibration causes the air around the object to vibrate, allowing air vibrations to enter their ears. 

  

Experiment: Children worked in pairs to position a ruler on the table's edge. Then, they gently pushed down on the ruler and observed the movement and sound; using sight, hearing, and touch, allowed them to describe sounds and determine what caused them. Finally, the children were required to draw and label a diagram explaining what occurred throughout the experiment.


Year 5 

This week Year 5 have started our writing based on the book, Journey to Jo’burg. The story is set in South Africa during the time of apartheid and follows the story of two siblings whose baby sister is poorly so they embark on a 300k journey to find their Mother (Mma) who works away from home in Johannesburg. We are writing dialogue between the Grandma (Nono) and the children using adverbials to extend the speech into the actions and emotions the characters are feeling.

In Science we have started our learning on plant and animal life cycles. Our first lesson involved looking at the anatomy of a flower – specifically dissecting a flower to learn how and where a flower produces seeds.  We learned and labelled the different parts of a flower and learned about the functions  of the parts and how this relates to the life cycle of a plant. Here are some of our dissected plants and the parts we labelled.


Year 6 

Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition

This week, Year 6 have concluded their topic on Scott and Shackleton by exploring Shackleton's most famous mission: The Endurance Expedition. After learning about this exciting story, we explored it further through our History lessons. 

To begin, we looked at a source that is "apparently" a job advert created by Shackleton for this mission. We analysed the source, looking at both what we could learn from it as well as what questions we would ask about this source. After this, we began to question the source's reliability and whether we thought it was real or not. 

In another lesson, we looked at the morale of the men at key points in the expedition. We plotted this on a graph to see how it changes and gave reason for our answers. We then decided on which of the events would have had the biggest impact on the men's morale. 


Headteacher Tea Parties 

The first Headteacher Tea Parties of the year have taken place this week.  Children can get nominated for a star in their weekly time to shine assemblies.  There were a full range of reasons for stars that the children proudly shared – producing great work and for either being nominated by a classmate or teacher for showing our Be’s or Values.  Hopefully this event will inspire the other children to achieve more Stars of the Week nominations


MYME Practitioners

Our school's MYME practitioners will be visiting us on parent consultation day. They will be on hand to offer advice and information about the services they offer and the referral process. No appointment necessary. 


FREE English Language ESOL Classes

St Anne's Catholic School for Girls are offering FREE English Language ESOL Classes = English for Speakers of Other Languages places available. 

The weekly course is held at St Anne's Catholic High School for girls Lower Site 50 London Rd, Enfield EN2 6EL every Thursday afternoon, from 1.00 - 3.00pm.

Please get in touch via email - GeraciM@st-annes.enfield.sch.uk if you'd like to book a place, 


Enfield Music Services

You are now able to renew and book music lessons and activities for Summer 2024 from the Music Store: https://traded.enfield.gov.uk/musicstore

The deadline for bookings lessons and hire is 10th March 2024.