Newsletters

George Spicer newsletter - Thursday 10th March 2021

Punctuality – Poor punctuality leads to a poor start to the school day.  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 ensure you leave your homes in good time to be in school on time every day.

Parent Consultation day - 25th March 2022 - don't forget to book your child's parent consultation appointment via the link emailed to you.  

Please remember that dogs are not allowed on school premises. 

Please be mindful and respectful of others, children and adults alike, who may not necessarily either like or feel comfortable around dogs.   

FoGs discos for Years 3 and 5 are tomorrow evening - Friday 11th March. See further below for details to book tickets. it's a great evening for the children!

Mental Health Week

We will be celebrating the United Nations International Day of Happiness for our next Mental Health week from 21st – 25^th March.  Look out for further information! 

Attendance week ending 10/03/2022

Overall school = 94.56% Lates = 54

Best attendance: 1st Navajo 98.89% 2nd Ra 98.66% 3rd Anubis 97.31%

Punctuality: Well done Heracles, Theseus, Apache, Navajo, Ra and Primrose with 100% for punctuality

Reception

World Book Day was a resounding success in Reception! All the children entered into the spirit of dressing up as their favourite book character and spent most of the day acting just like their chosen character. We had a parade in the hall, we took part in a scavenger hunt based upon our 100-word story, 'Where is the chicken?' Throughout the day, when the bell rang, the children had to, stop, drop and read, which they all found highly amusing. Stories were read by all the adults to the children and by children to each other, it was lovely to see! Some of the children brought in their favourite books and gave the class a review of the book. We ran a 'Get Caught Reading!' competition and the entries were fantastic! Alaz was caught reading on top of a postbox! Raham was caught reading on the trampoline while Matilda was reading in the bath wearing goggles! Kit was reading outside a lion enclosure, which we all decided was a brave thing to do, thank you to all who entered. Reception had a wonderful day and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  

Year 2

World Book Day

Y2 absolutely loved World book Day last week and had so much making origami bookmarks. Some of us made them look like the birds linked to our class names, while others wanted to decorate them to look like our favourite book characters! We can’t wait to get reading at home and start using them!

We also read a book called ‘the dot’ by Peter H. Reynolds, which is all about a girl who is reluctant to draw because she thinks she is not very good. Her teacher encourages her to just make a dot and suddenly she realised her true talents! We used the Japanese technique of Hirameki, which translates as “a flash of inspiration.” We made splodges of paint using watercolours and made them into beautiful pictures.

Great Fire of London

As part of our London topic, we have been looking in more detail about the Great Fire of London. In order to fully understand why the fire spread so quickly, we needed to know what the houses were made of. We looked at some primary and secondary sources and designed what we thought the houses would have looked like. After seeing some more images of houses at the time, we have now begun making our own houses, ready to recreate the fire later in the week!

Year 3 

Computing

This week in Year 3,  we have been looking at our next computing topic - Networks and the internet. We learnt what a network is and how devices connect to the network. We went on a 'network safari' around the school and looked for devices that we thought were part of our school network. We took a photo of them on the iPad and located them on a floor plan of the school. Next, we looked at different images and definitions and sorted them into three categories - network, wireless or device. We were super impressed with all of the children's understanding of this vocabulary at the end of the lesson.

Writing

In English, we have been looking at a classic book, 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' by C.S. Lewis. We have been looking at the scene where Lucy discovers the wardrobe and goes inside, only to find out that the wardrobe is never-ending and leads to the magical world of Narnia. The children have written a third person narrative to describe the events and have produced some amazing descriptive writing. 

Year 5 

Art: Portrait of Henry VIII

This week we began to finalise our portraits, as part of our Tudors and Stuarts topic. During Art this term, we looked at the Portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger. We began by looking at propaganda within art to develop an understanding of how trustworthy a source is and to understand the role of bias and propaganda to paint history in a certain way. In our second lesson, we selected the appropriate brush for different tasks and considered how we would use a selection of brushes in one piece of work to create different effects. In our third lesson, we built on our prior knowledge of colour mixing from the previous lesson, to create colours for our final piece with a focus on skin tones. In our fourth lesson, we used a range of pencils from 4B to 5H. We discussed the important of proportion and scale in portraits, focusing on accurately sketching key elements of the face: the lips, eyes, ears and nose. In our fifth lesson we sketched out the face of Henry VIII, and added watercolour, referring back to our lesson on colour palette and mixing to select appropriate tone and shadows. Finally, we evaluated out work, discussing with our talk partners the challenges we faced and what we enjoyed about the  sequence of lessons.  Well done Year 5 for your perseverance and creative! 

Bikeability! 

This week, children in Osiris and Ra have started their Bikeability training! During the week, the children looked at learning practical skills and understanding how to cycle on today's busy roads. They discussed with the instructors how to use cycle lanes safely and the most recent changes in the law about cyclists being given priority. In addition to this, the instructors spoke and the aim of the week was to develop their confidence to cycle and enjoy cycling! The children learnt how to correctly use brakes and about the ABCD of cycling (Air of the tyres, B for breaks, C for chain and D for direction).  The children also learnt how to use pedals and how to stop quickly and safely, in the event of an emergency.  Linking to Global Goal 3 - Good Health and Wellbeing, the children discussed the importance of cycling for both our physical and mental health. Well done to the children for showing excellent resilience and enthusiasm in your sessions! You were fantastic role models for our school and the instructors were very impressed with your maturity and teamwork. We look forward to seeing our Anubis and Thoth children taking part next week! 

Year 6 

How the Treaty of Versailles impacted Germany

This week, Year 6 began their new topic: World War Two. To understand how this major world event began, we went back to the end of WW1 and looked at the supposed peace treaty: The Treaty of Versailles. Using a range of both primary and secondary sources, we questioned the impact the sanctions had on Germany as well as why they were originally chosen. We discussed how the conditions of the treaty were to punish and weaken Germany rather than to seek peace. From this, we were able to understand the state (economically as well as morally) that Germany was in post-WW1 and how this could lead to an extreme ruler like Adolph Hitler seizing power. 

Global Goal 16 aims to promote peaceful and sustainable societies. This treaty heavily impacted Germany in a negative way and did not allow them to develop a strong institution. We ask the question, was this really an act of justice or was this to gain vengeance? 

In our Writing lesson, we read the Year 6 teacher’s 100-word stories. We discussed the stories by focusing particularly on the writing devices they used, the characters and how each story made us feel.

We then revealed the teacher who wrote the story and discussed the themes within the stories. We found a common theme of 25 and this appeared in different ways in all the stories. We made the connection that this was linked to it being the 25th anniversary of World Book Day!

Then, the Year 6 children wrote their own 100-word stories about their chosen topic. They created their own success criteria and planned their writing before they began writing. Once they finished their stories they entered the World Book Day competition too.

  Last week Thursday, for World Book Day, we combined Reading and Art. We read classic fairy tales (Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs and Jack and the Beanstalk). In groups of six, we summarised the stories into six main points, then each person focused on one of the points and created a willow pattern design depicting what happens at that point of the story. Below are some images of the plates we created.

Year 6 have been learning about creating a positive online reputation. Your online reputation is based around the online information others find on you. The information you share, post or create will be used by others to form an opinion of you.  We discussed the possible things that could contribute to our digital footprint and the importance of being aware of what we do online so that we can create a positive online reputation. After analysing some factors that can contribute to a positive or negative online reputation, we came up with tips for creating a positive online reputation. We also discussed how information can be accessed by people, organisations and companies without our knowledge, based on our digital personality. The Year 6 pupils could talk about how we can keep our information private by reviewing privacy settings. Finally, we looked at how we can reduce our digital footprint and digital personality by being more anonymous online. This could be as simple as using an avatar, creating a username or nickname rather than your real name, and never sharing personal information. How clued up are you with creating a positive online reputation? Ask the Year 6 and they can tell you all about it!

Year 6 make an exciting discovery!

After months of studying the lives and expeditions of polar explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, the children were incredibly excited this week to find out that The Endurance, Ernest Shackleton's legendary ship, has been discovered 3km below the Weddell sea, 107 years after it sank. The Endurance was famously crushed by pack ice and sank in 1915, leaving the men stranded in Antarctica. This led to one of the greatest survival stories of all time! (UNCRC article 6: Life, survival and development). We found out that the ship has been perfectly preserved due to the freezing waters and scientists claim it is the most well preserved wooden ship wreck of all time! What a fantastic way to end our topic!

Tiktok guide for parents

Easter issue of Families North London Magazine

Here is the LINK to the March/April issue of Families North London magazine for sharing with the parents of your pupils.

https://bit.ly/FNLmarch22

It has lots of What's on theatre shows and events to help your families make the most of the Easter holidays.

Twitter at George Spicer!

Following our school Twitter @GeorgeSpicerSch is a fantastic way to keep up to date with the lastest, exciting learning that takes place at our wonderful school! It is also a way that we are able to reach out to wider members of both our local, national and online community! Teachers give weekly updates on work that is taking place across year groups and our children love to see their work posted proudly on the Twitter stream! We also use the Twitter stream to promote new topics, share what are weekly assemblies are focusing on, making links to UNCRC articles and Global Goals and of course, sharing On This Day facts and growth mindset quotes to share with our wider community! It is also a fantastic tool to reach out to you, our wonderful parents and carers, as we all work together to make the best possible outcomes for our children. If you do not follow us already, please do @GeorgeSpicerSch