Newsletters

George Spicer Newsletter - 29th November 2024


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


George Spicer Newsletter - 29th November 2024

Last week the School Ambassadors met with Feryal Clark who is passionate about road safety around schools.  The Ambassadors are concerned that traffic is moving too fast on our local roads and that our signs need refreshing as they are very faded.  The KS1 Ambassadors wrote letters to Enfield Council asking for help and Feryal Clark was included.  She has replied already supporting our children with their campaign.

In the meantime, help keep our children safe by driving and parking responsibly.  Use the convenient park and stride locations  - please park in the car park itself rather than by the entrance.  Thank you. 

December's Article of the Month is:

Article 14: Children can choose their own thoughts, opinions and religion, but this should not stop other people from enjoying their rights. Parents can guide children so that as they grow up, they learn to use this right correctly.

At home, have a discussion about who or what influences the way you think about the world and how this shapes your thoughts and beliefs. You may want to think about the influence of:

  • Your cultural background and heritage
  • Friends 
  • Family 
  • TV 
  • School  
  • Where you live 
  • Your religion 
  • Your health 
  • Social media 
  • Personal life experiences 
  • Your family history 
  • Politicians 
  • Celebrities 
  • Education  

Year 5 and Year 6 Author Visit: Susan Cahill

This Wednesday, Year 5 and Year 6 were lucky to have a visit from Susan Cahill, esteemed author of the book - The World Between The Rain. She talked to the children about her childhood, how she developed a love of writing and her experiences that moulded her ideas.

Over 100 children had pre-ordered her book and many were lucky to have it signed by Susan! Those children who missed out this week will have their book signed next week when Susan returns.

Year 5 and 6 Writing Competition:

Susan has set all of Year 5 and 6 children a writing challenge: to write an opening of a ‘portal story’, using experiences to guide their writing. Susan will judge the pieces of writing and present 3 winners with a certificate next week! Please send your pieces of writing to Mr Rasheed by Wednesday 4th December.


Important Dates for Diary

Monday 2nd December - Flu Vaccine Completion 12:30-3pm 

Monday 2nd December - Daffodil Nativity 2:30pm

Tuesday 3rd December - Snowdrop Nativity 2:30pm

Wednesday 4th December - FGB Meeting

Thursday 5th December - Primrose Nativity 2:30pm

Friday 6th December - Poppy Nativity 2:30pm

Friday 6th December - Y3&6 Carol Service 10am at St Andrew's Church

Wednesday 11th December - Christmas Jumper and Christmas Dinner Day

Friday 13th December - Y4&5 Carol Service 10am at St Andrew's Church


Quote of the week

“When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.” - Dalai Lama

Attendance week ending 29/11/2024

Overall school = 95.01% Lates = 130

Best attendance: 1st Rhine 98.68% 2nd 98.48% 3rd 98.18%

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


Breakfast and After School Club

Breakfast and After-School Club Arbor Payment- A kind reminder if your child attends Breakfast and After School Club please ensure that your account is paid in advance and up-to-date.  

Breakfast and After-School Club Spring 1 Invoice - If your child attends Breakfast and After School Club, Your Spring 1 2025 invoice will be shared with you next week w/c 02/12/24


Reception

Reception: No Pens Day

Reception have had a busy week, practising writing their letters to Father Christmas and also posting their letters in a post box. On Wednesday, we had a 'No Pens Day'. We practised asking and answering questions, and used pictures that teased out challenging vocabulary. 


Year 1

'No Pens Day' was very exciting in Year 1.  For English, the children cut and sequenced sentences using the conjunction 'and'.  In Maths they practised subtracting using a number line.  

To develop their inference skills, the children were challenged to think of questions about a picture and they also participated in a class debate:

Comments from the children included: " I enjoyed no pens day because we didn't need to use our pens to learn".   "It was nice to not use pens every day".  "I didn't like no pens day because I missed drawing!"   "No pen's day made recording our maths work very tricky!" 


Year 2

Last week we had a very exciting week in Year 2! It was Road Safety week. We discussed how to keep safe on the road and designed our own brightly coloured helmets to ensure that we could be seen whilst out and about. The children said that always wearing your seat belt was important as well as looking both ways when it is time to cross the road. 

It was also Parliament Week! We took an online tour of the Houses of Parliament and learnt about the House of Commons and the House of Lords. We then learnt the importance of voting and how everyone has the right for their voices to be heard. Year 2 each had a referendum in their classrooms to decide which genre of music  to be played at the start of each day. Mrs Fitzpatrick took her role as Polling Attendant very seriously! 

In Year 2 for 'No Pens Day', we were learning to partition different numbers using manipulatives and whole parts. We used manipulatives and objects to create different pictures that represented a number.


Year 3 

Parliament week

Last week, Year 3 had a very special parliament week! They had a chance to hold their own mini referendum in school.  

We started by learning some facts about parliament and what happens at the palace of Westminster. We event learnt the real name for Big Ben! We wrote about our new facts in little booklets.

Image

We also learnt about the history of Parliament and looked at three important events: 

1. The signing of the Magna Carta

2. Guy Fawkes 

3. Suffragettes 

We then filled in polling cards with our class name and our name. This meant that we could vote. Once we had done this, we found out about the Year 3 referendum. Unfortunately, none of the Year 3 teachers could agree on what to do for half an hour on Friday afternoon. They disagreed so much that the teachers asked the children to vote. 

Ms Williams kindly volunteered to run out polling station and took her job very seriously. Before the children were allowed to vote and receive their ballot papers, they had to hand their polling cards to Ms Williams, who crossed checked their names and told them how to vote.

We then had the chance to vote! The children had four options to choose from and ended up having a 30 minute drawing session with this winning 50% of the votes! 

On Wednesday, Year 3 took part in 'No Pens Day'. There were lots of discussions about dreams, what dreams are and whether they can teach us anything. An image of a cat watching a girl stuck inside a tank led to lots of great conversation and the sharing of many interesting ideas. We all had a great day!


Year 4 

On Wednesday 27th November, we had 'No Pens Day'. This was such a fun day full of activities. Firstly we played Maths games. Then we completed some Lego challenges. We had to work as a team to make the tallest tower and a Lego maze. After, we played ‘Spot the Difference’ using making tape to mark the differences. We learnt how to use sign language for the song Jingle Bells. We really enjoyed this activity and have been practising it since! In the afternoon, we listened to a variety of songs and discussed how music without words can make us feel different emotions. We were shown a picture and had to think of questions. Some of our questions were:

Why is the cat staring at the jar?

How did the girl get inside the jar?

Is the cat going to tip the jar?

We cannot wait for the next ‘No Pens Day’. It was the best day!


Year 5 

This week was another wonderful week in Year 5. The highlight this week was certainly - 'No Pens Day', where the year group thoroughly enjoyed moving from class to class to experience different activities, including: Monopoly inspired Maths, British Sign Language to the tune of 'Shake it Off' by Taylor Swift, Team Building Games and a Picture and Inference Inspired Reading activity. The children really enjoyed the freedom of 'No Pens Day' and the many opportunities to discuss, take turns, take risks, build trust, communicate effectively to reach a common goal, as well as reason, challenge and enquire effectively. Roll on No Pens Day 2025! 


Year 6 

In RW Year 6 have started their new study of Humanism. Humanists believe human beings should try to live full and happy lives and help others to do the same. To begin the unit, the children debated what it means to be naughty. They thought about the consequences this might have for themselves and for others. They then considered positive ways they could behave which might make a good Code for Life. To illustrate this, the children came up with key positive words and sentiments which would make a good Code for Life and created posters that would encourage others to do the same. These are some of the uplifting and inspiring thoughts they came up with.  

 

This week we had our first ever 'No Pens Day'. All our lessons were activity-based and hands-on learning only. No writing of any kind! In Maths, Year 6 had a fabulous time using different resources to create a cube. Their mission was to find as many different nets as possible which would fold into a cube. They loved investigating and found several different ways to complete the puzzle. 







Music Lessons


Sports2Inspire

Please see below for after-school activities taking place from Monday 13th January. 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




FoGs News   

For more information about FoGS (Friends of George Spicer), details of our upcoming events, information on how to join our meetings or to read our newsletter, please visit our website