Stanmore Post - 13 December 2019
Dear Parents,
It was a pleasure to see so many parents attending the outcome in KS2 this week. The children have worked so hard and they are very proud of their topic work. I am sure that, like me, you are noticing the improving quality of their writing.
Christmas has really started this week with the Dress Rehearsal of the Year R Nativity at Level 10 Church. All of the children attended and really enjoyed seeing the younger children in their performance. Today the children looked very festive in their Christmas Jumpers. There are several events next week so please check the calendar at the end of this newsletter.
This weekend the children will be asking you to complete some homework. There are five carols that we will all be singing next Thursday at our brand new Christmas event ‘Carols in the Courtyard.’ Please can you learn the words of: Midnight, Unto Us a Child is born, No Room at the Inn, Silent Night and Away in a Manger. We will finish with ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas.’ The children should have a copy and the words can be found on the website https://www.stanmore.hants.sch.uk/calendar/2019/12/19/carols-in-the-courtyard
Carols in the Courtyard is a community event, and you and members of your family are very welcome to take part. It will be a much more festive and wonderful occasion if everyone participates. Please do your homework.
Best Wishes
Sharon Taylor
Year 5 and 6 - Saying thank you to the NHS
Year 5 and 6 have entered the Step into the NHS competition, where we will be designing a piece of art to say thank you for all of their hard work.
To inspire us we had a visit from an ambulance crew along with an ambulance. We were able to ask questions, sit in the front of the vehicle and even see how the equipment in the back of ambulance works. We all thoroughly enjoyed setting the sirens off and watching the blue lights flash.
Year 5 and 6 - Does justice whirl in equal measure outcome
Thank you to all the parents who joined us for our children in Year 5 and 6. They were very proud to share our work justice, crime and punishment.
Centred on The Tower of London, the outcome featured work the children had produced giving profiles of people who had been held in The Tower over the centuries. From monarchs, to Guy Fawkes, to the Kray Twins.
Throughout the term the children have been learning about crime and punishment throughout the ages, learning about some gruesome punishments and strange ideas of justice along the way!
Year 3 and 4 - Raiders and Traders Outcome
Thank you to all the parents who joined us for our children in Year 3 and 4. They were very proud to share our work on the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings.
The children showed everyone their topic books where they had written stories, researched facts and made time lines of who ruled when. The learning was centred around key questions that the children had asked about the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings.
Anglo-Saxon Lapbooks
Year 3 and 4, Stanmore Primary School, Winchester
Anglo-Saxon Poster
Year 3 and 4, Stanmore Primary School, Winchester
Models of a Viking long house
Year 3 and 4, Stanmore Primary School, Winchester
Viking long houses, Viking helmets and Rune tablets
Year 3 and 4, Stanmore Primary School, Winchester
Stanmore Post - 6 December 2019
Dear Parents,
As part of our continuing school improvement journey, the school is visited by Local Authority representatives on a termly basis. They are able to agree that an accurate school improvement strategy is in place and that this is having impact in strengthening consistency and improving provision. The leadership team, including Governors, are focused on making sure that all children get exactly the right level of challenge for them to be able to make strong progress. I am proud of the hard work of the teaching and support team this term and also appreciate the support from parents in making Stanmore the best we can be.
Thank you for your support with attendance. I am pleased to see an improvement in the percentage of children who have attended school every day this term. We still have some lateness which I would like us to improve. If you need support with getting your child to school on time and you feel that there is something the school can do to help, please let Mrs Taylor or Mrs Fenton know. It is so important that children don’t miss the start of the day. The early morning work is always targeted at helping children fix mistakes from the day before or preparing them for the tricky part of the lesson ahead. Children who regularly miss this session will inevitably fall behind in their learning.
The deadline for applying for Year R school places for September 2020 is January 15th. This will come round very quickly and there is always pressure for places across the City. If you, or someone you know is thinking of applying for a place in September 2020 then please make your application at https://www.hants.gov.uk/educationandlearning/admissions
Prospective parents are warmly welcomed to visit our school. Please make an appointment with the school office.
Best Wishes
Sharon Taylor
Author Anne Wan reads her book to Year 1 and 2
As another week draws to a close, we are happily reflecting on a superb week of learning! On Wednesday, we were fortunate to enjoy a visit from Anne Wan, a local author, who has written a children’s book, ‘Manners for the Queen’. This fits beautifully into our current topic; the children loved hearing Anne (with help from her puppet, Isobel), about the inspiration for her book, hearing the story and even seeing the letter that Anne received from the Queen!
In maths, we have been learning about addition and subtraction, and using different methods to record and show understanding, such as a bar model, part-part-whole and a number line. We will be building on this learning next week as we move into empty box problems and worded addition and subtraction questions.
We continue with RWI daily; some of the children have moved groups; the new groups will start on Wednesday next week. Well done to all of the children (and parents/carers) for trying so hard in phonics and reading lessons, and for those who continue to practice at home. This makes such a huge difference to the children’s accuracy and fluency, as well as developing their love of reading.
In science, we have been thinking about how humans grow from babies into the elderly, and what needs and behaviours they may show during these stages of life.
In history, we have learnt about the life of our Queen, Queen Elizabeth II, and compared her life and reign to that of Queen Victoria. This topic has inspired many of the children to discover interesting facts about both of these incredible monarchs – we love hearing such information in school!
We have been writing simple codes in ICT and continuing with our PE outside, despite the chilly temperatures this week. Many thanks for making sure that the children have the correct clothing for the weather.
We are looking forward to the final two weeks of the term, which will include watching the Year R nativity, Christchurch Christmas service, the carols in the courtyard and not forgetting Christmas Jumper Day (13 December) and our class parties on 20th December.
Have a festive weekend!
Year 1 and 2 team
Sycamore - building Viking houses
Sycamore Class have been wielding saws this week. Don't worry, we were very safe and Mrs Taylor saw the risk assessment! We have been making Viking houses ready for our outcome and Parent Share next Friday.
It gave us a chance to demonstrate all of the Keys for success:
Resilience - "We had to keep on going, even when our house collapsed 11 times!"
Co-operation - "We had to work together and talk to each other to stop our house from falling down."
Persistence - "It took us lots of tries to make sure that all of our pieces of wood were the right length."
Organisation - "We needed to make sure that we were using the resources and not losing things."
Confidence - "I had never used a saw before so Miss Evers had to show me."
Respect - "All week we have had to be extra sensible moving around the classroom so that we haven't knocked over anyone else's house."
Remember: Parents you are invited in on Friday 13th December 2019 at 9:05-9:30
Stanmore Post - 29 November 2019
Dear Parents,
It was good to see so many parents attending Parents Evening this week. Working in partnership with you is really important to us. We are aiming for 100% of parents attending a Parents Evening Meeting this half term. If you were unable to attend, then the class teacher will contact you for an appointment at a mutually convenient time.
As part of Anti Bullying week, children across the school have been thinking about similarities and differences and how these can be celebrated. Through assemblies and activities this week, children have learned how recognising and accepting similarities and differences can contribute to a sense of belonging. Today children have worked in their House Teams to reflect on this theme. During the afternoon our new ‘House Ambassadors’ had the opportunity to notice children in their house using our Keys for Success. House Ambassadors is an idea that came from our House Captains, who thought it would be a good way to promote the weekly Key for Success. The ambassadors will report back to the House Captains on a weekly basis, with additional house points added to the totals.
Finally, the school has been filled with the Christmas spirit today, thanks to the hard work of the Friends of Stanmore and all of the extra volunteers. Belonging to our school includes being part of lovely community events like our Christmas Fair. I am really grateful for all of the time, energy and effort that has gone into the planning. I hope that everyone enjoys the event and I look forward to the other exciting Christmas Events that we have planned this term.
Best Wishes
Sharon Taylor
Practising Politeness in Ready to Learn
This week’s target in R2L has been to demonstrate politeness to all people – children and adults!
The team were able to practise these skills in a variety of ways throughout the week starting with a visit from Silas Brown, child and youth worker at Level 10 church, on Tuesday.
The team warmly welcomed Silas and particularly demonstrated the RESPECT key to success as they enjoyed some playtime activities with him in the rain. In spite of the bad weather, the team continued to show politeness towards Silas and each other as well as showing excellent team skills.
The team were challenged to put their polite skills into action on Tuesday when they held a tea party and invited Mrs Taylor, Mrs Fenton and Mandy Dodds (our wonderful kitchen supervisor). Of course, the team had to work co-operatively to make jam tarts, mince pies and fruit kebabs for the party as well as serve their guests. The tea party was a huge success and the team were noticed for displaying polite manners to all guests and each other.
The week ended with the team becoming “Politeness Detectives” whereby they visited different classrooms throughout the school to discover how polite the school community were to each other. The team decided that Stanmore School is a fantastic school to be part of!
Special thanks must go to Mandy Dodds for making extra time to bake the jam tarts and mince pies. You are certainly now part of Team R2L!
By Mrs Mason, Miss Shuff, Mrs Petts, Mrs Griffiths and Team R2L
Friends of Stanmore - a cracker of a Christmas Fair
The FOS would like to say a huge thank you, to all the parent volunteers, year 6 pupils and the wonderful staff who donated their time with the preparations, setting up, manning stalls and of course clearing up, and especially to the weather which also came up trumps!!!
Without all the generosity from the Stanmore School community, our events would not be the huge success they have been, so again, we really appreciate all of your support. Well done to Rowan, Catkins and Birch classes who excelled in raffle ticket sales and won the cash prizes toward their class party.
A special thank you to Mrs Vincent for organising this year’s raffle and for all those parents who helped gather a fab selection of raffle prizes. Another special thank you to Santa for stopping off at Stanmore for an early visit, we know he is incredibly busy with the run up to the big day!
We truly hope every one of you had an absolutely magical time! We know we did! It was lovely to see so many of you supporting our event, and we hope you are now in the festive spirit, ready for the next four weeks ahead!
We will update you very soon with how much money was raised.
Our next events will be our refreshment stall at the Carols in the Courtyard on Thursday 19th December and our participation in The Winchester Round Table, Santa's sleigh on Friday 13th December, more information to follow, but we hope to see you there!
Happy Weekend,
Rachel, Hayley, Jen and Amy.