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George Spicer newsletter - 17th March 2023


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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 - 17th March 2023

Parent Consultation Day - Friday 24th March 2023  - Our Spring Term Parent Consultation Day will be held on Friday 24th March 8.30am-6pm. This is a designated INSET day, meaning that your child will only attend school for their learning review meeting.

Appointments will be available from 6pm Wednesday 1st March via School Cloud.  

If you have children on both sites, please ensure you leave a minimum of a 30 minute gap between the appointments you book in order to give you time to walk between the sites.  

School Street - Please click the link to read the letter from Enfield Council about the ANPR cameras on Craddock Road. - School Street Extension Letter

Summer term music lessons - If you would like your child to begin music lessons, the deadline to apply is Sunday 19th March.  Please visit https://traded.enfield.gov.uk/musicstore to book. Please see further down for more information.


Important Dates for Diary

Monday 20th March - Year 6 - Trip to RAF Duxford

Monday 20th March - Year 4 Strings Concert

Friday 24th March - INSET Day

Friday 24th March - Parent's Consultation Day

Monday 27th March - YR6 SATs Meeting at 6pm

Friday 31st March - Last Day of Term

Year 1 - George Spicer Sings Concert:

All concerts will be from 2:30pm-3pm

Monday 20th March - Ash Class

Tuesday 21st March - Elm Class

Wednesday 22nd March - Willow Class

Thursday 23rd March - Oak Class


Responsibility

This week we have been continuing to look at our value of Responsibility.  Talking about making good choices and also owning your choices.  At KG we looked at the story of Blip as a follow up to World Unplugged Day and at SR we looked at bias in search engines as part of Women’s’ History Month. There is a website dedicated to correcting the internet with a particular focus on promoting the achievements of female athletes.  Why don’t you take a look and make a difference https://www.correcttheinternet.com/get-correcting


Quote of the week

'The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you’re very courageous: be strong, be extremely kind, and above all be humble.' – Serena Williams

Attendance week ending 17/03/2023

Overall school = 92.05%  Lates = 44

Best attendance: 1st Elm 98.33%, 2nd Apache 96.98%, 3rd Sioux 96.75%

Punctuality: Well Done to Bluebell, Defiants, Lancasters, Odysseus and Owl with 100% for punctuality.


Rainbow Class

In Rainbow Class this week during our writing activity we’ve been looking at what we know about Nurses. The questions we had about their job, the equipment they use, the qualities that Nurses might have and the uniform they wear. We have also been looking at the life of Florence Nightingale who was the founder of Modern Nursing. To help us understand the role Nurses play in our community, we turned Rainbow Class into a doctor’s surgery and role-played scenarios with some of us being patients, receptionist, doctors and nurses. This activity was enjoyed by all and much was learned. The children have already requested, that they would like to do this activity again. This learning experience also gave the children the opportunity to show kindness, compassion and what it is to care for others. 


Reception Class

As the weather this week has been a little squally and wet, Reception took advantage of a break between showers to experiment with colour mixing using powder paint in the puddles. The children chose different colours to mix. J said, 'I mixed yellow and blue, it made green, can you see it? I am going to mix all the colours to see what I get!' The children spent extended amounts of time engaged in this self-directed activity.


Year 1

This week in Maths, Year 1 have been learning how to do repeated addition, such as 2+2+2+2 = 

We discussed the different approaches we could take to find the answers. Ariana said, "I could use Numicon to represent the answer!". Leo said, "I can count in 2's!". Jakob said, "I can draw dots underneath then count how many I have altogether".  Next week, we will be using our knowledge on repeated addition to learn about multiplication. 


Year 2

This week Year 2 have continued their Science sessions to see how their broad beans have grown.  They were shocked to see they would germinate in the water without any soil!  We also had the chance to plant some cress seeds which we then wrote a set of instructions for. 


Year 3 

This week Y3 were treated to an Anglo-Saxon Workshop. A historian gave the children detailed information of life in Anglo Saxon times and the battles that took place. The children were then allowed to observe and handle equipment used by the Anglo-Saxons such as clothing, weapons, equipment and utensils. A few lucky members of each class were also randomly selected to come up and see first-hand how challenging it was to be an Anglo-Saxon being weighed down by all the armour and weapons. 

The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and the experience! 


Year 4 

In one of our reading groups this week the children used their mind maps to support their understanding of the text they are reading. This helped pupils to organise what had happened so far, which characters we had met, what the characters were like and gave the children an opportunity to explore unfamiliar vocabulary. 

In history this week we have been learning about how Edward IV became King, the Medieval era is so interesting and steeped in drama. The children explored and discussed the Battle of Towton and made links to their prior knowledge from the Battle of Agincourt. 


Year 5 

In RE this week, we have been looking at a popular Passover song called Dayenu (translates to ‘It would have been enough’). We looked at the lyrics and found all the things that Jews thank God for in this song.  Then, we made a list of all the things that we were thankful for in our lives and made our own personal Dayenu verse.

This week in PSHE, we explored how the media, social media and celebrity culture often promotes certain body types. We showed the children some photoshopped images of celebrities, in order for them to understand that what we see in the media is often not the reality! We thought about how these altered images might make people feel and discussed whether these images should be shown on social media. We then reflected on our own body image and know how important it is that this is positive.  We discussed how we should accept and respect ourselves for who we are.  We ended by sharing the ‘This girl can’ video by Sport England and discussed the positive message it has. As alsway, the children’s maturity during our discussions made these lessons impactful and a pleasure to teach.

Last Friday, Year 5 went unplugged. Throughout the day, we discussed the negative impacts too much screen time can have on our physical and mental health. Many of the children were particularly surprised to find out the effect too much screen time can have on our sleep. We looked closely at the reason for this. To end, we shared with the children some ‘Top Tips’ for recognising when they have had too much screen time and for balancing screen time. They children produced some fantastic art work to reflect their learning. Well done Year 5!

During our art session this week, the children created their first sketch of Henry VIII.  The practised sketches each facial feature first before added them to the portrait. They also used mapping and measuring to ensure the proportions of each figure was accurate. They were completely immersed in this session and produced some fantastic first sketches.


Year 6 

Battle of the Atlantic

As part of our World War II topic, John Conyard, who specialises in delivering educational historical workshops, came in to give the pupils an introduction to the Battle of The Atlantic. Through his hands-on approach the pupils were able to engage with some of the artefacts and discuss similarities and differences between them.

After a quick overview of the timeline of World War II, the Year 6 pupils looked at convoys, destroyers and submarines. They discussed the importance of sending coded messages and looked at a machine that could crack the code. They all had a go at cracking a code and worked really well at deciphering the messages. They then looked at the different uniforms worn by the different countries that fought in the war. They had a great time comparing and contrasting the uniforms and they even had a go at trying them on. The Year 6 were on top form with their level of questioning and their desire to learn more and enrich their knowledge and understanding of their current topic.

Have a look at the pictures below showing their experiences and the artefacts that were on offer to look at.


Football News

A huge congratulations to the boys' football team who finished off the season in style with a 6-0 win over St Michael's and a 4-0 win over St John's. Very well deserved, excellent performances from the whole team! 


HAF Holiday Camp

Learning Hive are working on behalf of Enfield Council to deliver the Holiday Activities food programme (HAF) within the Borough.

This will take place from Monday 3rd April – Thursday 6th April 2023.

Please click this link to find out more and to register. HAF Easter Camp


Summer Term Music Lessons

If you would like your child to begin to learn an instrument, the deadline to book lessons for the Summer term is this Sunday the 19th March. EMS are not able to accept bookings after this date. 

Please visit https://traded.enfield.gov.uk/musicstore to book.

If you have any issues or queries, contact Enfieldmusicservice@enfield.gov.uk or call 020 8807 8881.


FoGs News   

Look out for the FoGS Easter Raffle, to be drawn 4pm Thursday 23rd March.

We need your support to sell tickets.  Please sign up for a 30 minute slot, with a friend, on the gate closest to your childs' classroom.  The more tickets we sell, the more money we raise towards new Football Kit for the George Spicer Football Teams!

We would also like donations of Easter Goods (sweets, chocolate eggs, toys) taken to either office please, to make hampers for more prizes.

Thanks for your support!

 Year 1 Amazing Glow Disco

https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/ticket/3KSyi3wYpI

Year 1 - 6pm-7pm, Friday 25th April

FoGS AGM 8pm Tuesday 25th April, location tbc.  All members of the school community welcome and encouraged to attend.

I want to say a huge thank you for your help at the FoGS Amazing Glow Discos on Friday.

It was a massive success!

The Reception and Year 2 discos combined raised £700 in profit which go directly to fund enhancement of the George Spicer School Council Community Gardens on both sites which exist to benefit the whole school community.

All the adults at the disco were volunteers, including the staff.  It really is a lot of fun being involved with the running of events your child enjoys, which in turn raise money to enhance their experience of education at George Spicer.

Look out for ways you can help with the Easter Raffle selling tickets https://volunteersignup.org/HYAFF 

Please feel free to suggest new ideas you’d like to see in the future and can support.

A new FoGs committee will be elected at our AGM on 25th April, which the whole community is invited to attend.  More details coming soon.  If you are interested in becoming more involved, or finding out more information, please email friendsofgeorgespicerpta@gmail.com 


Term Dates

Year 6 - Trip to RAF Duxford
All Day
20
March
Odysseus Strings Concert
10:00am – 10:30am
20
March
Achilles Strings Concert
11:15am – 11:45am
20
March
Heracles
1:45pm – 2:15pm
20
March
Year 1 GS Sings Ash
2:30pm – 3:00pm
20
March
Theseus Strings Concert
2:45pm – 3:15pm
20
March