Friends of Stanmore - discos, ice-cream and Rachel takes over from Rachel
The FoS had a fantastic evening on Wednesdayas it was our annual Hawaiian disco! Thank you to all those who gave their time to help set up and run the event. It was lovely to see so many children, parents, carers, helpers and teachers enjoying themselves. As always, Andy the DJ did an amazing job at keeping over 130 children entertained for 2 hours! That man deserves a medal! His details are on the FoS page of the school website if you would like to book him. He gets a five star rating from the FoS and children!
I also want to congratulate the children on their exceptionally good behaviour. It was a pleasure to watch and chat to them all. The FoS are always very proud to see Stanmore school children being their usual brilliant selves!
Next week, bags2school are collecting any donations on Wednesday, 12th June. If you didn't receive a bags2school bag please don’t panic! You can place your unwanted items in a normal bin liner. Please bring your donation to school before school drop off on Wednesday morning.
On Thursday, 13th June we are running an ice cream and ice pop stall from 3pm...whatever the weather! We will also be selling secondhand uniform and hoping to have representatives from Kings' school attending, to give advice and answer any questions you have regarding your child's transition.
Finally, we have very exciting news! As Chair of the FoS I have decided to step down and pass on the reins to Rachel Wells. She is a young mum who has been very supportive of the FoS since her son started school last September. The handing over period will be gradual giving Rachel time to settle in and adjust to this very rewarding role. Please wish her the best of luck and support her as much as you have done with me.
Thanks again for all your support, Rachel D, Rachel W, Jen, Hayley, Ali and Jo.
It is summer - it is time for cricket!
On Monday 20th May, a team of talented, young criketers attended a cricket tornament at Hursely Park Road Cricket club. The weather was on our side, and the children hit some fantatic 4s and even some 6s. The bowling and level of play was fantastic; the children got some wickets, caught out a few players from other teams and made some great runs. Because of the highly skilled play, the mixed team of Year 4/5/6 made it to the semi final. Every child finished with a smile on their face and a new T-shirt.
This was the first of our cricket competitions. This week, on Monday 3rd June, another group of talented cricketers attended a cricket tornament at Hursely Park Road Cricket club. None of the girls in the team play cricket outside of school for a club, and some hadn't played since Year 4, but, nonetheless, there was some fantatsic bolwing, some great runs, some excellent hitting - again scoring some 4s. The team had a fantatsic day in the sun and assured me they enjoyed every game they played.
Both teams showed respect towards each other and other teams; cooperation by communicating, working together and supporting each other; resilience and persistence during the matches and every child had the confidence to represent Stanmore Primary School .
Our new house logo competition winners
The children have been busy entering logos for our new houses. The standard of entries was very high and the judges found it difficult to choose! Thank you for all of your entries, they will all be displayed within school for everyone to enjoy.
Here are the winning entries:
by Charlotte Dickel - Year 4
by Logan Stewart - Year 5
by Charlie Child - Year 5
by Grace Gunn - Year 5
Year 1 - Florence Nightingale
Phew! Another fun-packed and learning rich half term has finished and we are all ready for a lovely week off to rest and re-charge, ready for the last half term of this academic year. We have been incredibly impressed by the children’s hard work recently, despite the appearance of an unwelcome sickness bug.
In maths, we have been consolidating our learning in multiplication and division, using known facts to explain our reasoning. This week, we have applied this to measure, and have described, compared and recorded lengths and heights. We have even been using our bodies to measure the length of the playground!
The discovery of a mystery trunk in our classrooms hooked the children into learning all about Florence Nightingale. We have been revisiting our grammar learning (‘ed’ to mark the regular past tense, ‘s’ and ‘es’ to mark plural nouns), and used this to plan and write a diary entry written as if we were Florence in Scutari Hospital. We are extremely proud of the writing produced which shows their understanding of what has been taught as well as improved handwriting and presentation.
We continue to work hard on learning our phonics, which we practice using a variety of table top and interactive games. The children continue to use these skills when reading to segment and blend words.
We are speeding up with logging in during ICT lessons and are getting more familiar with ‘Purple Mash. We have been sorting shapes into categories and learning to create pictograms.
We are looking forward to finishing our time capsules as part of our ‘When I grow up’ topic, and will be sending these home in the latter part of the summer term. A huge ‘thank you’ to the children and their families for the wonderful home learning ‘feeley’ bags that we have received. We are very much enjoying hearing the children talk confidently about the research that they have carried out.
We wish you a relaxing (and sunny) half term!
Parent Governor Vacancy
We have a vacancy for a parent governor which we need to fill as soon as possible. Stanmore Primary School has always aimed for a partnership with parents which undoubtedly brings great benefits to the children. One of the most significant ways you can help in promoting this aim is to volunteer to be a parent governor.
Dear Parents / Carers,
We have a vacancy for a parent governor.
Stanmore Primary School has always aimed for a partnership with parents which undoubtedly brings great benefits to the children. One of the most significant ways you can help in promoting this aim is to volunteer to be a parent governor.
The governing body's main tasks are:
to ensure that the school has a clear vision, ethos and strategic direction;
to hold the headteacher to account for the educational performance of the school and its pupils;
to oversee the financial performance of the school and making sure its money is well spent.
Parent governors are welcomed as valued members of the team and play a vital role in ensuring the governing body is aware of the views of parents and the local community. We feel sure that there are parents prepared to take on this important role and give their time and commitment to helping us to continue to improve the school's performance.
In looking to fill this vacancy the governors of the school have identified the following skills, experience and attributes that they feel would help strengthen the governing body:
experience in education and/or curriculum development
experience in HR
experience in customer service / hospitality / communications
Training and support will be available to help you develop into the role. This will include in-house mentoring and support as well as access to external governor training.
If you feel you can help in this capacity please download an application form or contact the school office for a copy of the form,which will need to be completed and returned to the school, care of the Headteacher, by 12.00 noon on Friday 24th May 2019.
The guidelines giving full details about how vacancies are filled can be found on the information for prospective governors on the Hampshire County Council website. You will find video, e-learning and written information on the site and all of these will provide you with further details about the role.
Please note that for the protection of children all governor appointments are subject to an identity check.
If there are more applications than vacancies, we will hold an election and you will be sent a voting paper in due course. You may return the ballot paper either via your child or by post.
Yours sincerely
Chris Lindsay
Chair of Governors
Friends of Stanmore - Cake sale makes £185
Despite the rain, Thursday's Cake and Uniform Sale was a great success. We raised £185 so thank you to those who volunteered their time to set up and run the stall, to those who donated tasty bakes and to those who bought them!
We also want to thank Maggi and Kim, two ladies representing Kings School, who joined us at the sale and were able to answer questions regarding Kings School uniform. They will be attending our next sale which will be on Thursday June 13th so please use this opportunity to come and speak to them about any concerns you have regarding your child's transition.
Our next event is the FoS Hawaiian Disco on Wednesday 5th June. Details and consent forms will be arriving in book bags soon! Thanks, Rachel, Jen, Hayley, Jo and Ali.
Year 1 - comparatives, superlatives and senses
Phew – what a week we have had!
We hope that you have enjoyed the bagels; they seem to have been a success in Year 1 so far. The children have come in quietly and sat sensibly on the carpet to eat and getting on with their early morning work when they have finished. We serve bagels at 8.40am to 8.45am to allow the children time to finish and get ready for their day of learning.
In maths, we have been using the ‘part part whole’model for addition and subtraction. The children have used equipment to help their understanding and have recorded the related addition and subtraction number sentences. We are looking forward to revisiting multiplication and division next week.
In English, we have been learning to use comparatives (longer, shorter) and superlatives (longest, shortest) in our writing. The children used their skills to write a ‘Guess Who’ information sheet for their friends to play. We have also been learning about the third person singular (he runs, she washes), and the appropriate suffix (‘s’ or ‘es’ ) to use. This forms the English homework this week.
We explored our senses in science, naming the sense, body part, and how it helps us to understand the world around us. Yesterday, we created some ‘sensory mats’ from items round outside and in the classroom, and thought about how animals use their senses to survive.
Both Juniper and Maple classes loved their first ukulele lesson – we are looking forward to performing to you all at the end of the summer term (date to be advised).
We continue with our reading and phonics work daily.
Thank you to everyone who has practised their computer login typing at home. Juniper class were all logged in within 5 minutes, which is excellent! We were then able to spend additional quality time in our ICT lesson.
We hope that you have an enjoyable Bank Holiday weekend!
A little bit of Hollywood comes to Stanmore
Our vision says that we are committed to purposeful and irresistible learning where our children are inspired to thrive and be the best that they can be.
This week we really went the extra mile to achieve this, inviting a Hollywood production designer into school. He is working on some incredibly well known films that I know your KS2 children will be excited to share with you. Theo even got to try on one of the costumes.
He shared his experiences with the children – growing up and attending school in Hampshire and using his hobby and skill of drawing to gradually build an amazing career for himself which takes him all over the world. He described his own resilience, one of our keys for success, coping when a drawing that he is particularly proud of doesn’t make the final cut. His message to the children was: ‘follow your dreams because you really can achieve anything.’ I was really proud of our KS2 children who showed respect by listening intently and asking some really interesting questions.
Easter message from Mrs Taylor
This term has been one of many changes and improvements. We have continued to build momentum, re-establishing Stanmore as a school where your children enjoy purposeful learning. I enjoy hearing children talking about their learning and sharing their outcomes. The corridors proudly display some high quality writing, artwork and 3D models. In the classrooms, the learning journeys that children are working on in English and mathematics are also displayed. This helps children see how a problem in maths is broken down and rebuilt, or how writing is constructed. We have a consistent approach to teaching through our ‘Stanmore Lesson.’ We know that a more consistent approach to homework is still needed.
In the summer term, we will continue strengthening the curriculum so that we are ready for new topics to be launched in September. I would like to thank all of the teaching and support staff in supporting the new initiatives.
Our Leadership team is strengthening. Parents Evenings were well attended; I would like to thank parents for your support. One of the members of the leadership team: Mrs Taylor, Miss Norris, Mrs Fenton, Mr Read, and Mrs Ruddick-Smith, are always available to meet with you and discuss concerns or ideas. We have been able to offer more support to children who are on the SEND register. Mrs Fenton (SENCO) has met with every family this term. We have a more comprehensive reporting and feedback process with parents and external agencies.
As you are well aware, there have been changes to staffing. While we have taken every measure to minimise disruption, inevitably some classes have been affected by the changes. After Easter, Miss Day (Bumblebees) and Miss Evers (Rowan) are both joining us as permanent members of staff. Miss Askwith (Ladybirds) and Miss Jessup (Birch) will remain with us until the end of the year. Mrs Mason joined us in February as a permanent member of staff and ‘Ready to Learn’ Leader. I still can’t promise that there won’t be further changes or disruption. However, we are now in a more stable position than we were at the beginning of this term.
I would like to thank Mrs McNeill for her contribution to the school, particularly in supporting small groups of children. She is leaving to spend more time with her family.
I hope that you all enjoy a happy and peaceful Easter with your families and I look forward to seeing you for the Summer Term.
Year 4 - King Alfred
All about King Alfred
Well what a busy Spring term we have had in Year 4. We started off with a visit from a member of Hampshire council, who asked us to explain who the statue in Winchester was and why he was great. We were also asked to make a sculpture of his head, as visitors to Winchester, often complained that they couldn't see it. Some of us chose to make bust of his wife.
So we got a true likeness, we planned a trip to see the statue. We wrote directions on how to get to the statue from school, which we then followed to check that we weren't going to get others lost. When we where there we used the information board, to find out that the statue was of King Alfred.
We then researched who king Alfred was and why he was so important to Winchester, that we needed a statue of him.
So we would understand the life and times of King Alfred, we had the opportunity to investigate, draw and use some artefacts during our immersion day. Below are just some of the photos we took to help us better understand life at this point in history.
After this we had lots more questions, that we wanted answered, so we dug deeper and found that King Alfred the great, managed to defeat the Vikings. This is where a learning took us next. We investigated viking village life as part of our home learning. This lead on to our class discussion about whether they would have preferred to be a Viking or and Anglo-Saxon.
Finally we had a debate about whether King Alfred's statue should be replaced. We decided that due to the impact that King Alfred had on Britain and particular Winchester that we couldn't replace it.
