Cross Country Running
On Wednesday 29th January, children from KS2 participated in a cross-country event at Knightwood Leisure Centre, Eastleigh.
The children running were very resilient, despite the muddy field, the distance and the cold conditions; they persevered! It was such a pleasure to see them support each other by either cheering from the side or running alongside their peers.
Miss Kelly and I were so pleased to see the number of children who attended and who represented Stanmore Primary in such a positive way. We were so proud of all of them for running a long distance and we are even more delighted to have seen Seth Noott take 1st place and Thomas Megoran take 3rd place in the boys’ race.
We are now looking forward to Thursday 6th February, when the cross-country team will compete for a chance to enter the district championships!
Stanmore Post - 31 January 2020
Dear Parents,
In our English Curriculum this week there has been a focus on Poetry. We are giving children the skills that they need to master reading but we also aim for them to love reading and be able to select books based on an understanding of what makes an enjoyable read. Enjoying the rhythm, rhyme and use of language in poems is a really effective way to promote this. Through poetry, the children are encouraged to make choices and engage in reading. Children across the school have been enjoying talking about their responses to the poems, and exploring their likes, dislikes and how the poems make them feel. Throughout the school I have heard children learning, reciting and performing poems.
If you would like to share any of these poems with your child/ren, these are some of those used during the week.
Year 1/2
‘Out of the Fire, a Spark’ by Michaela Morgan
Spring’ by Deborah Alma
‘The Seedling’ by Paul Laurence Dunbar
‘Child’s Song in Spring’ by E. Nesbit
‘Caterpillar’ by Christina Rosetti
‘Snow Fox’ by Liz Brownlee
Year 3/4
‘He Thinks of his Past Faces’ by John Canfield
‘Fire’ Read aloud by Brian Moses
‘The Way Through the Woods’ by Rudyard Kipling
‘Shadow Boy’ by Kate Wakeling
Year 5/6
‘Front Door’ by Imtiaz Dharker
‘Becoming the Eagle’ by Jan Dean
‘Chameleon Kids’ by Matt Goodfellow
‘Instructions for Not Becoming a Werewolf’ by Abigail Parry
Next week, parents are invited into school to find out more about the Early Years Curriculum and the Year 4 Multiplication Times Tables Check. Miss Evers will explain more about the purpose of the multiplication check, which will be used to determine whether Year 4 pupils can fluently recall their multiplication tables. Miss Day will also be explaining more about what is involved in the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. Parents are welcome to come into school to find out more on Wednesday 5th February at 2:45pm and 6pm. The meetings will be held in Sycamore and Catkins Classes.
Recently we were successful with an application to the Local Schools Nature Grant. We were one of 100 schools chosen, from 1572 that applied. As a result, we have some fantastic outdoor equipment for ‘loose parts’ sculpture and den building. Children in Catkins will begin using this next week and will start to invite other classes to join them at lunchtimes for outdoor learning and play after half term. Have a look at our photos from our excellent training session led by Learning through Landscapes.
New equipment to help out outdoor learning
Recently we were successful with an application to the Local Schools Nature Grant. We were one of 100 schools from 1572 that applied. As a result we have some fantastic outdoor equipment for ‘loose parts’ sculpture and den building. Children in Catkins will begin using this next week and will start to invite other classes to join them at lunchtimes for outdoor learning and play after half term. Have a look at our photos from our excellent training session led by Learning through Landscapes.
A great big thank you to the Friends of Stanmore
The FoS have been working alongside the school and teachers to help fund some useful and needed resources for the children, so far we have purchased lots of fun games, guided reading books and some rather cute waterproof sets. The beaming smiles of the staff tell you how great it is to be supported by a great team in our Friends of Stanmore.
Mrs Spencer-Clark and Miss Day with educational games for Year R
Mrs Mason with games for Ready 2 Learn
Mrs Laver with new books for Year 6
Hazel class have been exploring the world through poetry and geography
Hazel class have enjoyed poetry week this week. Some of the children have been writing their own poems, enjoying some classic poetry about change and listening to some of Mr Reads favourite poems, including "Chocolate Cake" by Michael Rosen.
There have been lots of smiles but also considerate reflections on the messages that the poems have tried to get across to the reader. We have also begun work on our treasure islands with the children enjoying working with mod rock, some for the first time. It has been great to hear the children's imaginations working with them saying how this part contains the secret mine shaft and this part is the misty mountain. We are looking forward to painting them and seeing them come to life.
Today we carried on with our geography, making a map of the world on the carpet. We then used our knowledge of the continents and oceans and where they are positioned to give clues for someone to guess the name of an outline of a continent. The children were using terms such as equator, hemisphere, borders and the compass directions as clues.
Test them at home, or maybe even get them to test you!
Cultural Discoveries in Ready to Learn
This week in R2L, the team have been travelling the world in search of different cultures. Earlier in the week, the team had the challenge of creating a pyramid out of spaghetti and marshmallows. The team needed to show a degree of persistence and resilience as the spaghetti was rather brittle and would break if we were not careful. Lots of different structures were designed and the team tried to be the best that they could be!
Later in the week, the team explored the significance of the Chinese New Year. We discovered that 2020 is called the Year of the Rat we immersed ourselves in the festival spirit ending the week by making paper fortune cookies, Chinese lanterns and a paper dragon made from our hand prints. Our target this week was to understand that we can’t always be first.
By the end of the week, team R2L understood that “Team work makes the dream work!”
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