Newsletters

George Spicer newsletter - 12th May 2023

Reporting absences - If your child is unwell or will be absent from school, please leave a short message on the answer machine clearly stating your child's name, class and nature of the illness.  Please advise what exactly is wrong rather than 'feeling unwell'.  Absences must be reported by 9am, either by phone or email.

Appointment evidence - Please make sure you provide us with evidence of any appointments you will be taking your child out of school to attend.

Lost Property - Please make sure you label all of your child's belongings so that we can easily give lost property back to the children.

Welfare Donations - Please can we have any donations of wipes, tissues, plasters and jogging bottoms for both of our sites. Many Thanks.

Important Dates for Diary

Monday 15th May - Friday 19th May - Walk to School week 

Monday 15th May - Year 1 Maths Workshop Willow 

Tuesday 16th May - Year 6 poetry with Cheryl

Tuesday 16th May - Year 1 Maths Workshop Ash

Wednesday 17th May - Year 1 Maths Workshop Oak

Wednesday 17th May - Theseus class assembly

Thursday 18th May - Year 1 Maths Workshop Elm

School Trips Coming Up:

22^nd - 26^th May - Year 6 School journey to Boreattan Park, Shropshire

22^nd - 26^th May - Year 6 Activity Week for those not attending the school journey

13^th June - Year 3 Trip to Whipsnade Zoo

21^st - 23^rd June - Year 4 Cuffley Camp residential 

11^th July - Year 1 Trip to Walton on the Naze

Attendance week ending 12/05/2023

Overall school = 95.95%  Lates = 79

Best attendance: 1st Defiants 98.89%, 2nd Sioux 98.52%, 3rd Daffodil 98.15%

Punctuality: Well Done to Odysseus and Sioux class with 100% for punctuality.

Reception Class

This week we were treated to a very exciting visitor! We saw a very special performance by Obby the Clown and we had a great time as he made everyone laugh when he demonstrated all his amazing tricks! Obby the Clown performed his routine of juggling, plate spinning and rolled right past us on a unicycle! Later on in the day, Obby answered our questions, Eden asked 'How did you get to be a clown?' and Ava asked 'How long did it take you to learn how to juggle with 3 balls?'. We then went into the hall to practise our circus skills. We learnt how to spin a plate and began to experiment with juggling scarves. We used this wonderful experience to draw pictures and write sentences too! 

Year 1

Year 1 completed their observational sketching as part of their Art work last week. We looked at different tones of pencils and used this to experiment in the classroom first. We used the words, "defined" and "loose" to describe the type of shading/pencil grip that we used.  Luckily, the weather held out so we all went to the meadow and observed our surroundings, looking at the different proportions of what we could see.  

Year 2

This week, Year 2 have continued to learn about minibeasts and their habitats during our Science sessions.  The pupils designed a suitable habitat for a chosen minibeast, including features that the creature would need in order to survive.  They also spent time learning a fable from Australia called ‘How the Koala got its stumpy tail’ and did a lovely retelling of it using noun phrases and conjunctions.  As part of our main topic, we learned the history of Australia, in particular the British colonisation in 1788 and its impact upon the Aboriginal people.  

Year 3 

This week in Art, Year 3 were learning how to name and mix primary, secondary and tertiary colours independently. 

We first discussed the difference between the three different types of colours. Then we had a small quiz on which colours combine to make a different colour. 

In our classes we looked at this piece of artwork by the artist Claude Monet. We were tasked to pick out the different colours that can be seen, before we were given a paint palette and asked to mix colours together to create examples of the different shades.

An example of our work is shown below.

Year 5 

In Geography this week, year 5 investigated the world's deserts.  The children were fascinated to discover that almost 1/3 of the earth's surface is desert and that the one feature they all have in common in that they are arid or dry.  The children then explored and created fact files outlining the key features of the four types of deserts; Hot & Dry Deserts, Semi-Arid Deserts, Coastal Deserts and Cold Deserts.  As always, the children produced some super pieces of work. Well done year 5!

Year 6

Blitz Art

The Year 6 pupils have been on top form with their SATs. Congratulations to them all. They should all be proud of themselves.

Continuing our topic of World War II, the Year 6s have been creating art based on the Blitz. We used different medium to create the background and the foreground. We discussed the colours that should be used and used pastels to create texture. Using our scissor skills we cut out the London skyline out of black paper and used this to collage. Have a look at the pictures of their fantastic work!