Newsletters

George Spicer newsletter - Thursday 20th January 2022

• Covid procedure update - Please click here  for the latest letter from Mr Spong on covid procedures.
• Persistent lateness - The amount of late arrivals has not improved and is becoming a concern.  Outside agencies are being consulted and letters have been sent to some families regarding absences this week. The school starts learning as soon as the register is completed at 9 am. Please leave earlier and allow your child to have a calm, settled start and not miss any learning.                                                                                                              Thank you to those families who have made an extra effort last week to be here on time. All children that are late must report in at Reception.
• Absences - all absences must be reported by 9am, either by phone or email, with a reason.
• Payment of Breakfast & After School club - a reminder that we accept all childcare vouchers, Tax free childcare and if you work for London Borough of Enfield you may be entitled to support with childcare that can be sent directly to our account. Please contact the office for details.
• Donations of books and games - we are still improving classroom bookshelves which are looking so much better, but we always welcome good condition books which all the children can access. Likewise for games for BASC and the Learning Mentors. Please leave at the offices. Thank you in advance.
• Donations of baby wipes and tissues - Please may we have any donations of wipes and tissues for welfare. Thank you 

Message from Year 5 - "Thanks for volunteering!"

Just to say a huge thank you to Mrs Howlett and Mrs Truong - (Evie and Amena-Santi's mothers) our Year 5 swimming parent helpers as they really are fantastic!

Attendance week ending 20/01/2022

Overall school =  93.24% Lates = 76

Best attendance: 1st Sparrow 98.79% 2nd Robin 97.88% 3rd Ra 97.65%

Punctuality: Well done Heracles, Apache and Sioux with 100% punctuality

Reception

In Reception this week, we discussed the frost that we see every morning. When we went outside for independent learning, we noticed that the sun melted some of the frost but not all of it. The shadows created by our outdoor games had kept some of the frost! The children conducted some small experiments by moving the objects and counting how long it would take the frost to melt. We spoke about how shadows are made and what the sun does to the ice. We hope Jack Frost visits again soon! 

Year 1

Year 1 have been learning about Stone Age. They are thoroughly enjoying their topic. This week, children began writing a fact file on the Stone Age. Jakub stated that the ‘Stone Age people were so clever as they learnt to use resources that they had’. For Science, they completed an investigation on which material is the most stable. Children bought in sticks and pebbles from home. They had to make a house out of stones, sticks and straw.

We then investigated which material is the most stable by blowing air using a hairdryer on each house to see which was the most stable. Guess what? The house made out of stones was the most stable.  We know this because the house didn’t move. We had so much fun! We cannot wait to continue our topic on Stone Age and explore our role play area.

Year 2

As part of our Roman Britain topic this week, we had an assembly showing how the Romans conquered Britain initially. Did you know many of the Romans thought there were terrifying sea monsters in the English channel? We were also shocked to find out that the Romans did not trust women to be leaders (Global goal 5 – Gender equality).  Boudicca, the leader of the Iceni tribe, was equally as outraged and began plotting her revenge after her kingdom was taken.

We will attempt to capture her fury in a character description of Boudicca this week. We have started by creating word banks on the different aspects of her appearance.  

We have also discussed what this symbol means - making links to our Global goals

 “This is recycling and it means using things more than once to help look after our planet.” – Zara

 “We must put rubbish in the correct bin so we can recycle everything.” – Bounty

Mrs Mangiapane wanted to find out which class at Kimberley Gardens was the most eco-friendly. We sorted the rubbish bags to collect data about the different materials that were found. We also made sure we knew which bin they should go in to help us recycle. In Maths, we have been looking at statistics so we were able to create a bar chart to represent our data clearly for her afterwards.

Year 3 

We have had an exciting week in Year 3 full of interesting activities. We have been completing our fieldwork and were investigating which plants can survive in the winter conditions. We went over to the playing fields and recorded what plants we could see using a table. We have been working really hard on improving our table drawing skills! We saw lots of trees with no leaves but did not see any flowers. To help us understand why plants can survive at certain times of the year, we attended a BBC Bitesize live lesson which taught us all about plant adaptation. We hope to use our knowledge when we are making our conclusions about our investigation!    

We have also been doing some science experiments based on rocks, soil and fossils. We tested to see which soil would be appropriate for a wormery. The soil had to let some water through, but not too much, so that the worms would not drown! We used scientific equipment (filter paper, measuring cylinders) to measure the amount of water different soils let through (permeate).

Year 5 

PC Odong Visit - What is bullying?

Year 5 welcomed a visit from PC Odong on Monday 17^th January, who kindly took time out of his busy schedule to speak to Year 5 about Anti-bullying. In the session with PC Odong, Year 5 discussed bullying and how it can affect a person, both physically and emotionally. The children looked at the different kinds of bulling including physical, emotional and cyber bullying. They also discussed the importance of reporting bullying and who can help you. The children identified adults at home, teachers and sensible friends can help you if someone has been unkind to you or you are being bullied. The children worked brilliantly, and shared fantastic advice on how notice and prevent bullying and cyber bullying. 

Imani - "It is important you tell someone if you are being bullied because if you do not deal with the bullying when you are young it can affect your mental health when you’re older."

Dillan – "Bullying can affect you in many different ways such as mentally and physically."

Joshua – "You shouldn’t trust people you do not know on the internet as they are strangers."

Abbie – "If you do know that someone is being bullied but you do not stop it or do something about it, you’re as bad as the bully."

Well done to our fantastic children  for showing respect, kindness and enthusiasm in the session! 

Year 6 

As part of our Scott Vs. Shackleton topic, we are beginning to create portraits of these two men. To begin with, we discussed what the term photo-realism means and how it will relate to our work. We then thought carefully about the proportions of the face and how different positions of the head can affect how we position the features. We look forward to working on this further, adding more detail and creating wonderful portraits of these intrepid explorers.

As part of our topic on Scott vs Shackleton, we have moved on to the next part in our story, where we saw the two men each undertake a new expedition to the South Pole in their bid to be the first man to reach it. After Shackleton's poorly planned but well executed Nimrod expedition, which saw him breaking Scott's record of furthest south, it was Scott's turn to fight for this prestigious prize. In June 1910, the Terra Nova set sail for Antarctica. This week, we delved more deeply into the rivalry between the two men and learnt about the planning and beginning of the Terra Nova expedition. 

For PSHE, the Year 6 children began their new topic of work (Dreams and Goals) this week. 

The children discussed the achievements of famous, influential people like Dwyane Johnson, Serena Williams and Harry Kane, and what they needed to do in order to achieve their dreams. Then, they discussed what these people needed to do to help them maintain their achievements (Serena Williams needs to continue playing tennis every day, eating a healthy diet). 

We looked at Tom Holland, who played the famous role of Spiderman, and his achievements despite the obstacles (being dyslexic and being bullied when he was in school) he faced. The importance of overcoming obstacles helped him achieve his dream. The children then thought about their own dream/goal and wrote about the steps they would need to take and any obstacles they might need to overcome. 

We related this to our UNCRC Article 29 (Aims of Education), which emphasises the importance of helping children develop their personalities, talents and abilities to help them achieve their goals. 

Sofa available – free

We have had a donation of a large double sofa which is ex-display from Dunelm. If you are interested, please contact the office to come and see it. You will need to arrange your own transport/collection.

BeeZee Bodies - for families in Enfield

Want to make healthy habits together as a family (and have fun doing it?)

We are BeeZee Bodies, and we're here to help improve your family's health and wellbeing. Our team are experts at engaging kids around healthy eating and healthy habits (we've even won awards to prove it!) and now we're offering support to families in Enfield for FREE

SIGN UP TODAY AT www.beezeebodies.com/for-families

Family Theatre Trip

Gaelic Football for Year 6 girls