This Week's News from the Lower School

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Friday, 16th September 2016

Lower School Newsletter

Learning in the Lower School

This week several parents have been in to school to discuss what their children will be doing over the remainder of this term at the meet the teacher mornings. Our students are now well and truly into their routines and I have been privileged enough to observe some great learning this week. One of my highlights was visiting 4BR. Year 4 are finding out about children's rights as part of their Unit of Inquiry and about different numerical systems as part of their Maths. They have set good questions to prompt their learning in both areas and Noy, Ethan and Emma all confidently explained issues with children's rights and anomalies with different numerical systems. I also learned that some of the more ancient numerical systems didn't even have a zero!

All of the curriculum content that has been shared with parents is now available on the website. For the Kindergarten and Reception overviews, please click here. For the Year 1 to 6 curriculum overviews, please click here. Year 6 will have their Meet the Teacher Meeting to go over their curriculum content on Friday, 23rd September at 9.30am.

Super Year 6!
I have to say a big congratulations to all of the Year 6 team of teachers and students. They are having a great time in France this week. They have made rafts, completed muddy assault courses, learned more French, eaten French foods, visited Mount St Michel, and much more. All of these have been completed with smiles, good manners and great teamwork - Well done Year 6 we are looking forward to seeing you all again on Monday, 19th September.

Parent Workshops
Throughout the year the Lower School will be hosting Parent Workshops. The workshops are specifically designed to help parents learn about how and what we teach so that they can support their child's development further. All workshops are free of charge and our plan is to host one per term. The first one will be on Phonics - what it is, how we teach it and how you can support your child in this area. It is particularly aimed at parents with children in Kindergarten, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. It will take place on September the 29th from 9am-10.30am in the school library. Please make a note of the date and register your interest here.

Clubs
Our Clubs start this Monday, 19th September. We have now set up the attendance lists here and we expect the children to commit to the clubs for the duration of this term. Our clubs will run every week and finish on the week ending 2nd December. All clubs run from 3.50-4.45pm and parents are expected to come and collect their children at that point. Every night we also run a DASH club (formerly Homework Club) this takes place in the library for children in Year 1 to Year 6.

As well as our clubs we are also running LAMDA classes on Wednesdays. LAMDA stands for London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts https://www.lamda.org.uk Ms Abi Tallack Cain will be leading the Speech and Drama course and to join her please click here.

Super Question
Each week we set a super question - This week we asked which author would have celebrated his 100th birthday today? The person who correctly answers gets a Sparky for being Knowledgeable. Last week we asked what world event started on September 7th - It was the Paralympic Games in Rio Brazil which was correctly answered by Marika and Miya in Y5GR.

Lower School Lunch

If you have not already done so please sign up for our school lunches here. Our kitchen staff offer a great range of food served in a friendly hall for that family dining experience. The children become more independent and responsible by using chosen utensils and tidying away after themselves. Our kitchens have a 5 star rating and they use red tractor assured meats and local produce where possible.

Autumn Fair

We look forward to seeing at the Autumn Fair tomorrow. It is on from 11am-2pm at our Sports Field on Dale Green Road, N11 1DL and promises to be a great family day.

Jeans for genes( J4G) www.jeansforgenesday.org
You may have seen some posters in and around the Upper and Lower School advertising that it is Jeans for Genes day on Friday, 23rd of September. We ask that all students come to school wearing denim (including staff) and for this we ask for a donation 50p to £1. All monies raised go straight to the J4G charity - see you in denim on Friday!

Upcoming Trips in The Lower School

This is a new section in the newsletter informing you of all trips in the Lower School. Trips are longer charged and all permissions have already been sought during the admissions process. Here is a reminder of what trips there are next week.

If you have any additional questions about the upcoming trips please contact your child's class teacher

Year 5 Trip

Next week as part of their Unit of Inquiry on Beliefs and Values, Year 5 will be visiting two more places of significant interest. They will be visiting an Islamic Centre on Wednesday, 21st and St Barnabas Church on Thursday, 22nd September.