Year 4 - visiting King Alfred
Year 4 visit King Alfred’s statue in Winchester
Year 4 children walked in to Winchester to see the famous King Alfred statue. The children followed their instructions, and didn’t lose Mrs Ruddick smith on the way! They kept each other safe by identifying risks along the route, and supporting one another, sharing their findings.
The children enjoyed sketching different parts of the statue, and showed off their artistic skills beautifully. They also counted how many fingers King Alfred had, to check he hadn’t lost any in battle! They represented the school in a positive way, listening out for traffic and walking along the pavement allowing for members of the public in their path. To celebrate, when we arrived safely back at school, we had hot chocolate and marshmallows which warmed everyone up nicely.
Thank you so much to the parents and carers who walked with us, it is very much appreciated when people spare us some of their valuable time to help us.
Year 1 - a four day week
In Year 1, we have managed to pack lots of exciting learning into our four-day week!
In maths, we have been using sweets to support our learning of multiplication and division. We have started to create arrays to represent our multiplication, which has helped us to start to understand that it is commutative (can be done in any order).
For example:
2 x 4 is the same as 4 x 2
We have also started to look at division, to understand that this means to share equally between a given number. We will be continuing to develop our division skills next week, leading into fractions (halves and quarters).
The children have worked extremely hard this week to plan and write their own version of a traditional story, including some of the features that we have been learning about. These include traditional story starters and closers, use of the past tense ‘ed’, use of comparatives (er) and superlatives (est), and similes (it was as tall as a skyscraper). We have been amazed by the children’s imagination as well as the progress that has been made in their writing. Well done Year 1!
As part of our topic of ‘Go Bananas’, we will be learning about plants. To start off this topic, we worked independently to plant bean seeds in our classrooms which we will be observing carefully over the next few weeks. We have thought about the conditions necessary for the beans to grow and planted some beans in the dark and without water. We hope to be using these bean plants for our learning later on this half term.
In geography, we have been refreshing our knowledge of the 7 continents; we created a floor sized ‘map’ using masking tape and used hoops to represent the continents. We used this to sort out where different animals came from and why this might be.
In RE, we have been learning about the Jewish story of the Passover, and what this means to Jewish people. We learned about the Seder plate used at the Seder meal, and what the different items on the plate represent.
We have been building on our recorder skills in music, and as always, work on our reading and phonics skills daily.
Very many thanks to everyone who clearly labelled their child’s recorder and case – it really does make clearing away after recorder lessons so much easier!
We look forward to seeing you on Monday!
Notes:
PE lessons are on Tuesday and Friday. Please ensure that your child has a named PE kit in school on these days.
Home learning is due on 7th February.
If you are having difficulties accessing My Maths homework, please see your class teacher who will be able to print out a copy of the homework for you.
Going the extra mile
Raising expectations and challenging ourselves to continually improve our work
Since the beginning of term, we have been working on raising expectations through increasing the positive challenge in lessons. The children are enjoying this. It may be that we are asking them to edit and improve their work, like the portraits in Year 2, or the writing in Year 5 and 6; or encouraging our children to be inquisitive, by thinking of their own questions to ask about a subject and then researching the answers. As a school we are developing our approach to a ‘Stanmore lesson’ where we can help the children to ‘go the extra mile’ with their work.
As I am sure we all know, sometimes it can be difficult to ‘go the extra mile’ when we already feel that our work is the best that it can be. We are encouraging our children to take on this challenge through our Stanmore Keys for Success: confidence, resilience, organisation, persistence and co-operation. These learning behaviours will be strengthened in the coming months and we would really appreciate your support at home by re-enforcing the words so that children realise that they can get more confident and resilient by practising and developing some strategies.
As leaders and teachers we are also striving to improve, open to learning, and we are continuing to work in partnership with the local authority and Kings School amongst others to take and act on the best advice. Another really important example of this is the partnership with our parents. I have been able to meet with a number of parents this week and some parents have also met with Mrs Fenton our new SENCO. By working in partnership, we can focus together to achieve the best that we can for our children.
Friends of Stanmore - Santa fund raising and quiz time!
Our Friends have been raising more money, and have a few questions for you.
The FOS would like to thank all of the parents, carers and children who braved the cold to collect money on behalf of the FOS on Santa’s Sleigh. We can now reveal a snowtastical sum of £485 was collected. Well done to everyone that took part.
In new news, the FOS are very delighted to announce an exciting adult social event.
We are thrilled to be reintroducing our social evenings, kicking off with a quiz night on the 8th February at 7.30pm!! There will be paying bar and a raffle available on the night. Tickets will be on sale at £5 per person, time to start thinking about quirky team names.
So get that babysitter in place and get ready to channel your inner Beast or Governess and join us for a child free evening of quizzing, and a chance to catch up with other parents child free!!
Lots more will be happening over the coming term, so keep an eye on the notice board outside the office.!!
Rachel, Ali, Jen, Hayley and Jo
Year 1 - Oceans of the world and bar models
Find our what Year 1 have been up to this week
Once upon a time…
In Year 1 this week, we have been extremely productive! The children are very much enjoying their Early Morning Work tasks and are showing off their amazing spelling, drawing, writing and maths skills independently.
In maths, we have been using resources to help us with our addition and subtraction and have started to record our calculations on a number line. Towards the end of the week, we were finding the missing number in ‘empty box’ questions, using the part-part-whole model to support our understanding. This is quite tricky, but the children have shown great resilience and perseverance in their learning, which is wonderful!
Below is an example of the bar model used to find the missing number.
We have enjoyed using comparatives and superlatives in English this week, and have used these in our sentence writing about the Enormous Turnip. In addition, we have recapped on prepositions (position words) and adjectives, using the latter to write sentences with noun phrases. The children have also started to learn when to use an exclamation mark, and today, we were generating similes. We have been blown away by the children’s imagination and creativity in their writing this week! Please see the end of this page for grammar definitions.
In Geography, we have been learning about the five oceans of the world, finding the pieces of our ‘oceans’ map and fact file during a Treasure Hunt!
We became scientists when we dissected animals ‘poo’ (not real…) to investigate what different animals had eaten. From this, we could say if the animal was a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore. Lovely!
We continue to learn the recorder, this week progressing onto the ‘b’ note, and have started to learn some yoga moves in PE. AS there are so many germs about at the moment, we have been talking about the importance of hand hygiene before eating, after going to the toilet or blowing noses etc. The children are making posters to remind others to wash their hands carefully.
During our ‘Book Club’ sessions, we have focused on word reading (using a sound mat to support), repeated phrases and the use of contractions (can’t, I’ll etc.).
We continue with our phonics lessons daily.
Notes
Home learning
The date for the home learning to be returned is 7th February.
Recorders
If your child is bringing in their own recorder on a Tuesday for music, please could you ensure that both the case AND the recorder are clearly labelled. As you can appreciate, it is very hard to reunite the recorder to the right child when they are unnamed.
Show and Tell (Juniper Class)
To ensure that each child has a fair turn to Show and Tell, we now have a booking system. Children can book a place on the waiting list and once they have had a go, will get a tick next to their name. Children who have not had a turn will be offered the opportunity to Show and Tell if they want to (not compulsory!). Once we have been through everyone, we will start the waiting list again for children to have another go.
PE Kits
We will be having PE on Tuesday and Fridays. Please ensure that your child has their (labelled) kit in school on these days. Many thanks.
As always, please let us know if you have any questions or comments.
Grammar definitions
Comparatives
Compare one person, action, thing or state to another. Add the suffix ‘er’ to the original adjective.
This car is faster than that car.
Superlatives
Compares two or more people, actions, things or states. Add the suffix ‘est’ to the original adjective. Sometimes the root word might change.
This is the largest box I could find.
Did you get the tastiest apple from the fruit bowl?
Prepositions
Are used to describe time or place.
The books are in my book-bag.
Are you coming home before dinner?
Year 5 - Steam Trip
Year 5 learning all about steam engines and railways
On Wednesday 16th January, we went to Steam! After a rather long journey, we arrived and were all in awe when we saw the first train, the North Star, designed by George and Robert Stephenson.
Our first activity was all about the evolution of the railways in England, mainly that of the Great Western Railway. We learned about Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Robert and George Stephenson and Daniel Gouche, all engineers involved with the designing of railways and locomotives.
During this activity, we learnt about the roles of navvies – these were the men who did all the hard work, the digging, the pick axing. They were able to use dynamite to blow up land too! They were paid in beer and bread; occasionally they would get money tokens too.
We then learnt a few things about bridges and why they are used, how they are designed and we even got to build some! These will be very useful when we begin designing our own bridges.
After lunch, we had time to explore the museum. We were able to learn about the workers, the importance of the railways during wartime and how the women continued the work that the men had started. Not only did we learn all of this, but we were able to walk under a train, drive a train and work in a control centre. All that in a day!
Year 1 - Bananas, turnips and recorders
See what Year 1 have been up to in a very busy week coming back to school.
Happy New Year!
A very warm welcome back to school and the start of the Spring term. We have been extremely busy during our first week back with plenty of exciting learning going on!
In maths, we have been recapping on our understanding of number and place value. Using the 100 square and Dienes, we have been learning to find 1 more and 1 less than a given number, moving on to 10 more and 10 less. To do this, we have used the Dienes to make our number in tens and ones, then adding or subtracting a ‘one’ or a ‘ten’. We have used the 100 square to see how our number has changed. We have used this knowledge to order consecutive and non-consecutive numbers and to problem solve.
In English, we have started a unit of work exploring traditional tales, starting with The Enormous Turnip, which links to our new topic of ‘Go Bananas!’. We have enjoyed ordering the story and learning about comparatives (comparing 2 things using the suffix ‘er’ – smaller, lighter, darker etc.). Next week, we will continue to work on our grammar, including superlatives (comparing more than 2 things using the suffix ‘est’ – smallest, lightest, darkest etc.) and expanded noun phrases.
We have started to learn about the different classifications of animals in science (mammal, insect, bird, fish, amphibian etc.), whilst naming common animals. We will build on this next week by learning about the diets that different animals have.
In geography, we will be learning about where animals as well as fruits and vegetables come from, and to start this learning journey, we have been looking at the continents of the world.
The children have started their recorder lessons – these will be on a Tuesday afternoon. If your child has a suitable recorder, they are very welcome to bring it in on a Tuesday (clearly labelled please), but if not, each child has been allocated a recorder for the duration of the recorder lessons which they will be using exclusively.
As always, we continue with our daily phonics and reading lessons.
We have just introduced ‘Early Morning Work’ (EMW) to our Year 1 children. When the children come in in the morning, they will have an activity based at a table, which they are able to complete independently. This may include activities such as targeted letter or number formation, reading and spelling common exception words, ‘spot the difference’, consolidation of maths or writing skills etc. We have been very impressed at how quickly the children have settled into this new routine! There will not be an EMW activity on a Wednesday due to our parent reading/maths sessions.
We are having a few timetable changes which will be confirmed within the next week, but as things stand currently, Year 1 PE lessons will be on Tuesday and Fridays.
As always, please do come and speak to your child’s teacher if you have any questions or concerns.
Our BEST award winners
Our BEST award winners for Autumn Term 2
Congratulations to the children who were awarded a certificate and trophy for showing the BEST values of belonging, excellence, support and trust during Autumn Term 2.
End of autumn term and Christmas message
An end of term message from Mrs Taylor, saying a fond farewell to some and a warm welcome to others.
Thank you for the warm welcome that I have received since arriving at the school at the beginning of December. I am very happy to be here and I am beginning to feel part of the community. I would like to thank all the staff for their hard work this term; I am really looking forward to the next year.
I was extremely proud of all the children during the Christ Church Service. They participated well, sitting respectfully through the readings and singing enthusiastically during the carols. The choir were amazing, as good as any school choir that I have heard. I would love to see more children adding to our group of musicians. The children that played the violin and tenor horn performed their pieces well. The piano and flute concert was also well received. If your child is interested in learning to play an instrument, please do let me know.
No school Christmas would be complete without a Year R Christmas story and Bumblebees and Ladybirds did not disappoint. They spoke confidently and maintained their concentration really well throughout the play. I have also received very positive comments about the excellent Year 4 Narnia outcome. Well done to all of the children involved throughout the school.
On Tuesday we welcomed Mrs Laver to the school. She will be the class teacher in Oak Class from January. All the children involved in the transition afternoon seemed to be enjoying themselves and I hope that they were able to share the experience with you at home. We will continue to support them as they settle into the new routines. Please let me know if there is anything you wish to discuss once your child is back in January.
Mr Cascarini and Miss Lilly
Mr Cascarini and Miss Lilly enjoyed their farewell tea party this week with a very large cake. We are sorry to see them go, but we thank them for their valuable contribution to the school and wish them every success in their future.
Mr Johnson, Mr Davies and Mrs Greenwood
Yesterday, we also said ‘Goodbye’ to Mr Johnson, our Interim Headteacher, Mr Davies, our Consultant Leader, and Mrs Greenwood, SENCo. They have all made a significant contribution to our school improvement journey. We wish them all well. Mrs Fenton will be joining our team in January as the SENco. She is an experienced school leader and has already met with Mrs Greenwood for a handover day. The review meetings that Mrs Greenwood has held with parents will be transferred to Mrs Fenton. Any parent wishing to seek advice about provision for a child with special educational needs should contact Mrs Fenton or Mrs Taylor.
I hope that you all have a happy and peaceful Christmas and I look forward to seeing you in the New Year.
Mrs Taylor
Headteacher
Cross country running and basketball
Our children have been competing in cross country and basketball.
Our children have been active recently competing against other schools.
On Wednesday 12th December, Miss Kingshott and Miss Bell accompanied a group of children from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 to Knightwood Leisure Centre to attend a cross country event run by Kings’ School staff. Even though it was freezing cold, the children all completed their race and did brilliantly. Well done to all of you who represented our school so well, we are proud of you.
Miss Kingshott and Mrs Kempson escorted some children up to Kings’ School on Wednesday to take part in a Basketball Competition. The children’s performance was fantastic (considering they had limited practise due to the winter weather). They took each game in their stride and were able to pull two wins out of the bag!
They won their first game against Merdon 6-2.
Their second game against South Wonston 4-2
They played fantastically against St. Faiths but lost 6-0
The first half against St Peters ended 0-0 but St Peters scored at the end of the second half making it 2-0.
The children were an absolute credit to the school – they cheered for other teams and shook hands at the end of each game. Because of their sports-man behaviour and attitude, they were awarded the Fair Play award and each received a certificate.
