Elm enter Birds in Flight competition

After being awarded a 3rd prize place last year,  in the Birds in Flight competition, Elm class have been invited to partake in the competition again! ( No pressure!)

The competition is run by The Cameron Bespolka Trust - a trust that was set up in memory of a former pupil at pilgrims' School. The competition is a superb opportunity to encourage children to be curious about nature, observe wildlife and explore their art skills.

As a class, we decided that we would like to observe and draw garden birds. Using white card, charcoal and dark pencils we created silver-birch like tree branches, ready for our birds to perch on. With water colours, black ink and crayons, we painted several pieces of paper and waited for them to dry. Once dry, we then cut out simple shapes which we could layer up to make our birds.

The competition closes on the 28th February! Wish us all luck!

Birch have been exploring wildlife and sound this week

Birch class enjoyed investigating the school pond this week as part of our longitude study in science. On a cold Monday afternoon, we were surprised to see the pond teaming with life. We found; water bugs, midge lava (blood worms) and water beetles.

In science we investigated ‘seeing sound’  using cling film. a bowl and hundreds and thousands. You could try this at home!

We are really enjoying learning the play samba and the big drums are our favourite!

Stanmore Post - 24 January 2020

Dear Parents,

Our Stanmore Curriculum is based on the National Curriculum which is set out by the Department for Education. It provides an outline of core knowledge, but each school must then consider how that content is taught. This week I enjoyed hearing from some of our subject leaders during a presentation to Governors, on the strengths and next steps of our Stanmore Curriculum.  The rapid improvement that we are continuing to make in subjects like Geography, History, Science, Art and Music, as well as in reading, writing and mathematics, is evident. Find out more about our Stanmore Curriculum at https://www.stanmore.hants.sch.uk/the-stanmore-curriculum

Maple, Hazel and Birch class have had an introduction to Samba and African Drumming this week. During the year all of our children in Year 1, 2, 3 and 4 will have the opportunity to learn two different instruments. The rhythms were sounding good this morning. Parents can look forward to a Listen to Me concert later this term. Check our School Calendar for all events. 

Our School Library Volunteers are continuing to make the library a place where children can develop a lifelong love of reading. Children are very welcome to change their library book independently on a Wednesday when the Library Volunteers are in school. This is in addition to their weekly class session. Please remind your children to have their library book in school on these days so they can make the most of their library time. New books will be arriving later this half term from the school library service. If you would like to volunteer to hear a child read on a regular basis please let Mrs Jones in Rowan Class know. Mrs Jones will give you further information on how to support us in our determination to make every Stanmore Child a fluent reader. 

Best Wishes

Sharon Taylor

Our reading bag for Year 1 and 2 - Spring Term

To make sure all our children are getting a rich diet of varied texts to read we have our ‘reading bag’. The books for this term are:

The Snail and the Whale - Julia Donaldson

How to catch a star - Oliver Jeffers

Captain Beasties Pirate Party - Lucy Coats & Chris Mould

Molly Rogers Pirate Girl - Cornelia Funke

Paddington at the Carnival - Michael Bond

The Pond - Nicola Davies

Whales providing inspiration for our learning

Year 5 and 6 have been studying a picture book called  'The Whale' by Ethan and Vita Murrow.

The story is about two young people who follow in the footsteps of their grandparents. The story of how they discover and prove the existence of a Blue Spotted whale has inspired us to explore many aspects of language including: relative clauses, descriptive settings and figurative language including idioms.  

Zac and Luka gave it a five star rating - 'We love it!'

Friends of Stanmore update - 17 January 2020

Hi Everyone, 

Firstly, due to all the amazing support we have received, and the funding we have raised, the FoS have been able to help support the school and teachers in providing them with a chance to ask for resources and extra items that they would like. We have already successfully provided year 6 with some books and the Ready to Learn room with some games and fun resources, this is something we feel very passionate about and hope we can continue to keep supporting.

We received a few gifts from our gift amnesty collections this week. These were very gratefully received and will be sorted through for our upcoming fairs, thank you for your kind donations. If you missed our dates, any further donations can be left in the school office. 

On Thursday 23rd Jan, from 3pm, the Friends of Stanmore will be hosting a year 5/6 cake sale.  Letters should be out by the beginning of next week including an ingredients form, please can year 5/6 children and parents provide nut free bakes with a full list of ingredients to the office on the morning of the cake sale or straight to the stand. We will hopefully be bringing out the second hand uniform for any of you that are interested and I did see some water proof coats hiding within the racks, as it seems they have been very much needed this week. Please can I also add that we hugely appreciate any unwanted good condition logo uniform that you  no longer need, this will go towards more fundraising for your school and I am sure gratefully received by other parents!

A massive Thank you to all of you who attended this weeks members meeting, our next meeting with be held on Monday 10th February from 8pm at The Queens pub in St Cross. This meeting will be very much focused on moving forward with our new volunteer structure and so if you wish to become more involved in what we do, it would be awesome if you could make it, every one welcome to come along :) 

Many thanks and have a lovely (wishfully dry) weekend,

Rachel, Hayley, Jen and Amy!

Stanmore Post - 17 January 2020

Dear Parents,

Children in Year 1 and 2 had the opportunity to take part in ‘Bedtime Stories’ on Wednesday evening. This was a lovely event for parents and children led in part by Mrs Jones with a contribution for parents by Sian from the School Library Service. The classroom looked magical with the fairy lights and everyone enjoyed the hot chocolate and marshmallows provided. It was a great way to promote a love of reading. We believe that reading is important because it unlocks children’s access to a rich curriculum now and sets them up to succeed in the future.

Children in Year 4 enjoyed their first swimming lesson at Kings this week. They all demonstrated our Keys for Success, with confidence and persistence particularly evident. We are continuing to promote sport in our school and, after our successful Bronze achievement last year, we are aiming for the Silver School Games Award. Four Sports captains have been elected from Year 5 and this term teams are participating in: Cross Country, Volley Ball and Hockey.

Best Wishes

Sharon Taylor

Bedtime Stories for Key Stage 1

Well - what an amazing week Year 1 and 2 have had!

The children are loving their new topic on pirates, titled ‘Does ‘X’ mark the spot?’. They are enthusiastically learning about the continents and oceans of the world, as well as locating the United Kingdom on maps, globes and satellite images, and discussing where we are located in relation to other countries, continents and oceans. 

In maths, we have just finished a unit on addition and subtraction, including practising the rapid and accurate recall of number bonds to 10 and 20. The children have proved their answers in different ways, such as a bar model, part-part-whole and number line. Many children are also using the inverse to check that an answer is correct.

In art, we have planned the 3D Treasure Island maps that we will be making and will be exploring the different materials and fixing that we can use to create the features. The children will build on previously taught skills of colour mixing and brush-work to decorate their work. 

Developing prediction skills, observation of an experiment and the recording of data was the order of the day in science this week, which was set in the context of floating and sinking. 

In RE, the children are learning about Shabbat, and in PSHE, about the value of money, saving, budgeting and keeping of finances. 

To link in with our topic, the children have loved their Guided reading, which has been Pirate themed, including the composition of rhyming sea shanties and translating English into Pirate language.

Many thanks to everyone who came along to the KS1 Bedtime Stories evening on Wednesday; it was a great success and another evening will be planned in for the next half term (date to be advised). 

We continue to teach phonics, reading and writing through RWI daily. You will see photocopied sheets of speed sounds, green and red words in your child’s book bag each week- these are the words that are in their RWI teaching book- please support your child at home by practising reading and understanding these words. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

The Year 1 and 2 Team 

Toilet Roll Timeline!

What better way to learn about the history of planet Earth than using a toilet roll?!

We started off outside of Miss Hurley's classroom 5 billion year ago, when Earth first began. Ed reliably rolled the toilet roll down the corridor and we started counting each square of paper...

We tracked the first traces of life, oxygen being present in our atmosphere, and after 380 squares (somewhere near Aspen Class) we met the dinosaurs!

Eventually we came into human history (the last 10,000 years or so) which was the last 3mm on the last square of toilet paper, just outside of Mrs Kempson's classroom!

We were trying to put the history of the Earth into context, so that we can start to understand more about the tricky concept of 'Chronology'.

Stanmore Post - 10 January 2020

Dear Parents,

Happy New Year! Welcome back to children, parents, staff and governors. Everyone seems to have settled back into school well this week after the Christmas break. We are all looking forward to a year of new opportunity and more irresistible learning.

We welcome Mrs Sally Atkins, our new Assistant Headteacher and hope that she will be really happy here at Stanmore. Mrs Atkins will be working closely with Mrs Kempson in Elm class to ensure a smooth handover when Mrs Kempson begins her maternity leave after half term. Mrs Atkins is part of our senior leadership team and parents are very welcome to meet with her as well as Mrs Fenton (Inclusion Lead) and Mrs Taylor (Headteacher) to discuss concerns or ideas as part of our ongoing school improvement.

We also welcome Miss Rachel Kelly who is a new teaching assistant supporting children in Year 5 and Year 6.

A new year is a good time to set expectations and so please can I ask that children come to school wearing suitable school shoes. This does not include trainers. Guidance on school uniform can be found on our uniform page.

A number of parents are expressing concerns about road safety and parking. Please can you drive, park and walk thoughtfully so that everyone stays safe.

There are a range of clubs available to book through Scopay. Thank you to all of our staff and volunteers for giving their time to ensure that enrichment activities are in place to broaden our Stanmore Curriculum.

Best Wishes

Sharon Taylor