Stanmore Post - 26 March 2021

Dear Parents, 

We enjoyed seeing the children take part in the Easter Egg hunt organised by the Friends of the School. Thank you to the Friends who were involved in organising this. It is great to see children taking part in whole school activities again, even if they are still limited to their bubbles for now. After Easter, if the guidance allows, we intend to widen the bubbles to year groups and resume after school sports clubs.  

One of the positive outcomes of the last 12 months is the improvements that we have seen in the way we use technology to support our curriculum. We now have 45 Chrome Books to use in school. The advantage of this technology is that children are able to find new and inspiring ways to learn about the world around them. As part of their Geography curriculum, Year 1 and 2 children have been using ‘Mote’ within Google Classroom to record their own virtual tours of Winchester, inspired by the 360 tours of London. Our curriculum is designed so that all of our children have the opportunity to ‘appreciate, participate and innovate.’ The opportunity to use technology is one of the ways that we can motivate children to ‘innovate.’ 

Throughout the school this week there are examples of high quality writing inspired by the curriculum. In Catkins, children have received letters from a fairy who comes to school at night. The children have been inspired to write to the fairy, named Fabian, to ask him questions. In Year 3 and 4 children are writing balanced arguments about whether hunting was acceptable during the Stone Age. Children in Year 5 and 6 have been writing persuasive letters to the organisers of the UK film festival, encouraging them to include the short film Alma in the festival.  Children are still recovering their stamina for writing after lockdown, but the quality is there which is fantastic. Where we are noticing a slight dip, is in reading in Year 3, 4 and 5. Please support your child to read independently, perhaps one of the Stanmore 30 books that we have in the library or a book of their choice that they can really enjoy. Reading a range of high quality texts helps children to have an ‘author’s voice’ in their head. Not only is this important for children’s spoken language it leads to better writing too. It can be hard to motivate children to read at home when there are more instant sources of entertainment. If you aren’t sure how to help, please speak to Mrs Kempson our English Leader or Mrs Jones our early reading leader who will have lots of good ideas to share.  

You can see more of our work at: https://www.stanmore.hants.sch.uk/news/2021/03/26wonderfulwriters-fg2zp-jzxg

Best Wishes

Sharon Taylor