Sally Atkins 30/04/2021 Sally Atkins 30/04/2021

Captain Tom

On 6th April 2020, Captain Tom set out round his garden to thank our NHS heroes. One hundred laps later, he’d raised an incredible £38.9 million for the NHS Covid-19 appeal.

As this Friday would have been Captain Tom’s 101st birthday, we decided to build on his legacy and take part in the Captain Tom 100 challenge. Classes were challenged to read for 100 minutes and to take part in linked Maths activities.

Yr R

We used flowers and tens frames to find 100 objects in our outside area. The children loved collecting the items and counting together to support Captain Tom.

Year 1 and 2

The year 1/2 children in Rowan and Maple were challenged to see if they could collect 100 items that they found outside into a hoop. They worked as a team to collect the items and thought about how many of each item they needed in order to make 100, some grouping in 10s, 20s, 25s and 50s. This was a brilliant way of showing all that we had learnt in our multiplication and division from this week.

Year 3 and 4

As part of our recognition of the Captain Tom 100 Day, we have been writing some futuristic descriptions of what we think that our school, house or street might be like in 100 years time. We had lots of suggestions about hovering cars, robots to bring cups of tea and even portals to take us to other worlds! In maths we were estimating using money, length and mass. We had to think flexibly about the best ways to measure based on the equipment that we had. Added into all of that, we have achieved our 100 minutes reading challenge!

To complete the Captain 100 challenge, Birch class worked in teams to collect stones, twigs, daisy or leaves: estimating when they had 100 grams in their bags. Two groups managed to estimate 100 grams correctly with a range of 50 grams to 650 grams.

Year 5 and 6

Oak and Elm class have completed their 100 minute reading challenge for Sir Tom Moore! The children loved watching the ‘ temperature’ rise on their scale to show how many minutes they had left to go. This was their way of commemorating the life of Captain Tom and classes also completed a selection of Captain Tom themed Maths and English tasks, including writing acrostic poems using the words ‘One Hundred’.

Chris Lindsay 26/04/2021 Chris Lindsay 26/04/2021

Stanmore Post - 23 April 2021

Dear Parents/ Carers,

Welcome back to the Summer Term. We have had a brilliant start to the term helped by some lovely sunny weather. With Covid restrictions easing slightly, we have taken the decision to allow the children to mix in Year group bubbles outdoors in the fresh air during break and lunchtime. It has been good to see the children playing with their friends in the good weather. During lessons the new topics have started across the school with exciting hooks to inspire the learning for the term. As we hoped, the children have returned to school much more settled after the Easter holiday. While we are remaining cautious, we are working to return to as much of the planned summer events as possible. Have a look at some of this week’s wonderful work.

I would like to welcome Mrs Emma Holland to the Stanmore Team. Emma is our new Admin Officer and she has made an excellent start, working with Mrs May Eagle in our school office this week. I hope that you get the opportunity to meet with her in person soon. She can be contacted via adminoffice@stanmore.hants.sch.uk

We have two further new members of staff who I would like to welcome. Mrs Kate Barton and Miss Amber Noel-D’Avila have joined our teaching assistant team and we are very pleased to have them in school. Finally, to complete our Stanmore family, Mrs Mason, Mrs Griffiths and Mrs McGovern have returned following the end of Covid shielding restrictions. The children and staff were delighted to see them back in school this week.

I was really proud of the school today as we had our final virtual visit from Whiteknights Primary School, the English Hub who have been supporting us with our early reading programme: Read Write Inc. This has been a two year support package which has seen our teaching strengthen and our outcomes improve by 20%. We will continue to invest time, money and energy into this programme as children throughout the school continue to benefit. As we have made such strong progress with reading, this term we have added a highly focused spelling programme to the daily lessons. In order for this to be effective for all children we need to start the English lesson at 9:05am. Children split into different groups to get teaching at precisely the right level and so for many, this means moving. Children who arrive in the office after 9am are missing their speed sounds. Over time this amounts to a lot of lost learning, affecting reading, spelling and self-esteem. It would be brilliant if this term we could see every child in school by 08:50am.

If you need any support with this please contact Mrs Fenton or Mrs Mason via the admin office email and we can look at ways to help you adjust the morning routine.

Best Wishes

Sharon Taylor

Sally Atkins 23/04/2021 Sally Atkins 23/04/2021

Welcome Back

Year 1 and 2

This week in Year 1/2 we have begun our new topic 'Is there anybody out there?'. We started our topic by analysing images and portraits of people of the past. We then focused on Neil Armstrong and found that he was significant because he was the first man to step foot on the moon. This week we also began our art focus. The children were tasked with recreating the same image 4 times and found it very tricky to make each image exactly the same.

Maths was focused on multiplication with Year 1 learning how to count in 5s and Year 2 using their multiplication knowledge to solve problems using number lines and arrays. In science we continued with our longitudinal study, assessing how the weather affects the animals that live on our school grounds. We went to the pond and discussed how tadpoles are a sign of Spring as the weather has become sunnier and warmer which provides better conditions for animals to have offspring. We are very proud of how Year 1/2 have settled into school and are of the work that Year 1/2 have done this week!

Year 3 and 4

This week, Year 3 and 4 enjoyed our Hook Lesson for our new topic 'What makes Chocolate Unique' and what better way to start a unit about chocolate, than tasting chocolate?

Funnily enough, everyone was very eager to take part! Even the adults! We started by developing our vocabulary. Before we could eat any chocolate we had to look at it carefully and describe it's appearance. We then had to smell it and finally we could taste it! We came up with words like; rich, creamy, bitter, milky and delicious.

As you can see, we really enjoyed ourselves, and these photos capture our 'irresistible' curriculum perfectly!

We also started a new Science unit called 'States of Matter'.

It was an exploratory session to see if we could understand the difference between solids, liquids and gases. The children came up with some amazing statements and questions, including:

Solids don't move, they just are a shape.
Liquids are runny. You can't hold a liquid.
Gases are mostly hot.
How do you know that there is gas around us?
How many particles are there in a grain of sand?
We explored with different materials, such as: jelly, custard, rice pudding, shaving foam, sand, and fairy liquid.

Year 5 and 6

This week in year 5/6, we have spent our English lessons immersing ourselves in our new text. ‘Shadow of the Minotaur’. To hook us all in we were all given a lump of clay and a short description of a Greek mythical beast, and asked to create a sculpture which matched. We thoroughly enjoyed using the clay and we were all able to produce some fantastic (and terrifying) creatures!

Nina Lindsay 04/04/2021 Nina Lindsay 04/04/2021

Stanmore Post - 31 March 2021

Dear Parents,

We have had a really enjoyable end of term. The children have been celebrating with an ice-cream, generously donated by Tony’s Ices as a goodwill gesture. Thank you! It was really appreciated. This was arranged by the FOS and I am sure that you agree it was well deserved by the children.

At Stanmore we frequently talk about the Keys for Success: Resilience persistence, organisation, confidence, co-operation, respect. This has been an exceptional term during which we have seen all of these keys used so well by the entire community. Thank you again for all of the support that you have shown towards the school. The children have recovered their stamina and are back into their routines. Looking ahead to the Summer Term, it will be good to be able re-start from the settled position we are in now.

We will be saying goodbye to Mrs Rachel Sanderson, our Senior Admin Officer. Mrs Sanderson has made a significant contribution to school improvement and we wish her well for the future. Mrs Sanderson will be leaving the school at the end of this term. Many parents will also remember Miss Norris, who worked at Stanmore for many years. Miss Norris has been working at Riders Infants on secondment for the past year and has now been successfully appointed as the Head of School and will not be returning to Stanmore. I would like to thank both members of staff for everything that they have done for the children and families at Stanmore Primary.

After Easter we welcome Mrs Emma Holland as our new Admin Officer, working alongside Mrs Eagle in the school office.

I hope that you are able to enjoy a relaxing and happy Easter.

Best Wishes

Sharon Taylor

Nina Lindsay 30/03/2021 Nina Lindsay 30/03/2021

Stanmore Post - 26 March 2021

Dear Parents,

We enjoyed seeing the children take part in the Easter Egg hunt organised by the Friends of the School. Thank you to the Friends who were involved in organising this. It is great to see children taking part in whole school activities again, even if they are still limited to their bubbles for now. After Easter, if the guidance allows, we intend to widen the bubbles to year groups and resume after school sports clubs.

One of the positive outcomes of the last 12 months is the improvements that we have seen in the way we use technology to support our curriculum. We now have 45 Chrome Books to use in school. The advantage of this technology is that children are able to find new and inspiring ways to learn about the world around them. As part of their Geography curriculum, Year 1 and 2 children have been using ‘Mote’ within Google Classroom to record their own virtual tours of Winchester, inspired by the 360 tours of London. Our curriculum is designed so that all of our children have the opportunity to ‘appreciate, participate and innovate.’ The opportunity to use technology is one of the ways that we can motivate children to ‘innovate.’

Throughout the school this week there are examples of high quality writing inspired by the curriculum. In Catkins, children have received letters from a fairy who comes to school at night. The children have been inspired to write to the fairy, named Fabian, to ask him questions. In Year 3 and 4 children are writing balanced arguments about whether hunting was acceptable during the Stone Age. Children in Year 5 and 6 have been writing persuasive letters to the organisers of the UK film festival, encouraging them to include the short film Alma in the festival. Children are still recovering their stamina for writing after lockdown, but the quality is there which is fantastic. Where we are noticing a slight dip, is in reading in Year 3, 4 and 5. Please support your child to read independently, perhaps one of the Stanmore 30 books that we have in the library or a book of their choice that they can really enjoy. Reading a range of high quality texts helps children to have an ‘author’s voice’ in their head. Not only is this important for children’s spoken language it leads to better writing too. It can be hard to motivate children to read at home when there are more instant sources of entertainment. If you aren’t sure how to help, please speak to Mrs Kempson our English Leader or Mrs Jones our early reading leader who will have lots of good ideas to share.

You can see more of our work at: https://www.stanmore.hants.sch.uk/news/2021/03/26wonderfulwriters-fg2zp-jzxg

Best Wishes

Sharon Taylor

Sally Atkins 26/03/2021 Sally Atkins 26/03/2021

Wonderful writers

This week we have been celebrating the fantastic writing that has taken place in school. Our English curriculum is based around high quality texts such as Stig of The Dump and The Wonder Garden, and it is wonderful to see the enthusiasm and care that our children are taking in their work. Here are just some examples of the writing from this week.

Nina Lindsay 20/03/2021 Nina Lindsay 20/03/2021

Stanmore Post - 19 March 2021

Dear Parents,

There has been a lively atmosphere throughout school today as all our ‘rock stars’ enjoyed our Comic Relief event 2021. Thank you for supporting this event. The children looked amazing and so far we have raised £213.72 The day brought a smile to everyone’s face from the start of the day at morning drop off. It reminded us of how important these events are in the school calendar and how much children and adults need to have something different to look forward to. After Easter, we have many more exciting events planned as, gradually, we work towards a more familiar school term.

The children all have a log in to Times Tables Rockstars online. Please ask your class teacher if your child has forgotten theirs. The format of the online program successfully boosts times table recall speed. Knowing the multiplication and division structures help children to become competent mathematicians. It is a key component of mathematical fluency. Younger children can benefit from practical experiences of increasing quantities and equal sharing. Find out more about how we teach maths.

Our curriculum work this week has included a virtual tour of Winchester in KS1, with children continuing to strengthen their technology skills using Google Earth to explore their locality. In KS2 children have been learning more about the stone age using our school grounds to collect materials to create cave paintings inspired by the books ‘Stig of the Dump’ and ‘How to train a Woolly Mammoth.’ Children in Oak and Elm finished their literacy unit on ‘The Wonder Garden,’ with a fantastic double page feature on their own Island designs.

Thank you to parents who joined us for online Parents Evening this week. We are always available if you want to have a conversation about your child. Our open door may be virtual or socially distanced at the moment, but it is still open. At the moment there are children who are understandably still struggling to settle either at home or at school after such a disrupted period of time. If school and home are working together to re-introduce high expectations and clear boundaries, there is likely to be a better result. We are reminding children about our values: Belonging, excellence, support and trust. We are continuing to strengthen our keys for success: resilience, persistence, organisation, confidence, co-operation and respect. At the moment, we are focusing on respect, which includes the way in which we treat each other and school property. This includes special areas like the Willow Domes and the new resources that the Friends of the School have bought for us. Thank you for your ongoing support with this.

Best Wishes

Sharon Taylor

Chris Lindsay 19/03/2021 Chris Lindsay 19/03/2021

Comic Relief 2021

School had a very different feel today as Staff and pupils came to school dressed as rock stars to raise money for Comic Relief. The theme rock stars was chosen to celebrate all the children’s hard work on Times Table Rockstars and children with the highest scores in each class were given certificates. Everyone looked amazing and it was great to see all the fabulous wigs, stylish bandanas, colourful tutus and even some fishnet gloves!

The school managed to raise £213.72 for Comic Relief and we know that this will go towards people and organisations who need our help in the UK and around the world.

Many thanks to all the parents and carers who supported with this event: the children had a brilliant time and managed to raise money for a great cause. We hope you enjoy the photos below.

Nina Lindsay 06/03/2021 Nina Lindsay 06/03/2021

Stanmore Post - 5 March 2021

Dear Parents,

World Book Day provided us with the perfect end to our Blended Learning Approach. Children at home and at school have had positive shared experiences over the past couple of days. Helen Griffiths, author of the book ‘Treasure beyond Measure’ led an inspiring assembly from her home in New Zealand, on the themes within her book. Children enjoyed creating their own collective nouns for different groups of animals, spotting the globe on every page. This has resulted in excellent writing, not to mention a collection of creative veget-a-pals. I was very impressed with the children’s awareness of conservation and their suggestions for ways in which humans can improve their impact on the planet.

Children will receive a £1 book token on Monday.

Thank you for your ongoing support through the lockdown this term. The new skills learned by children and parents have been quite remarkable. If your child has been learning at home, I am sure you are pleased to see them return to school but there may also be some mixed feelings. This period of time has brought families together in a way that is unique and there will be many good lasting memories. Please reassure your child that Monday is a new beginning for everyone. We are looking forward to seeing children who have been learning at home and children who have been in school ‘bubbles’ return to their usual classes. Children are remarkably resilient and capable of surprising us. It is likely that with the right support and enjoyable challenge in their school day, they will quickly adapt. If you are struggling in any way, we are here to help as much as possible. Please email the school to contact Mrs Fenton, our Inclusion Leader, Mrs Atkins, our Assistant Headteacher or Mrs Taylor Headteacher

We will be continuing to follow our Covid risk assessment to keep the school community as safe as possible. I am confident that the systems of control that we have in place are as effective so far as it is reasonably practical, if we all stick to them. We have already demonstrated how effective we are as a whole school community if we work together in the best interests of everyone. For that reason I need to ask you, as Parents and Carers to continue to support the following measures.

· No-one with symptoms of Coronavirus or self-isolating should be on the school site

· Everyone on the school site must adhere to the Government hygiene regulations to reduce the spread of Coronavirus

· Everyone on the school site must practise social distancing, being careful of pinch points like the entrance to the school and the gates.

· All visitors to the site must adhere to the one-way system without fail. If you have any accessibility or mobility issues we can arrange to collect your child from you at the entrance to the school and walk them to the classroom. Please arrange this with the office.

· All adults and visitors to the site should wear a face covering

· No child should arrive on site before 8:30am unless they are attending breakfast club. Doors open at 8:40am Gates in front of the office close at 8:55am.

· Parents and Carers should arrive no more than 10 minutes before pick up and leave promptly. Children without siblings in Catkins Maple and Rowan can continue to be collected at 3pm.

· Please leave all toys at home. Children only need their book bag with a water bottle and lunch box if necessary

· Children will remain in their class bubbles, including at break and lunchtimes

· Children may continue to wear PE kits to school on PE days. Year R children in Catkins do not need to change for their PE lessons:

Monday Maple and Rowan including all Year 1

Tuesday Oak

Wednesday Birch and Sycamore Maple and Rowan including all Year 1

Thursday Elm

Friday Willow

If your child is unwell and unable to attend, please contact the school with the reason for absence. If, for any reason, your child is showing signs of anxiety about attending school, we can help, please contact the school office. Quickly re-establishing a routine will be a priority in supporting their wellbeing.

Best Wishes

Sharon Taylor

Chris Lindsay 05/03/2021 Chris Lindsay 05/03/2021

World Book Day 2021

Despite still being in ‘Lockdown’, all of the children and staff at Stanmore Primary School participated in celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 4th March. The event was launched by two ‘live’ assemblies, featuring our guest author, Helen Griffiths, who joined us from her home in New Zealand! Helen shared her incredible book, ‘Treasure Beyond Measure’ with us, explaining how she came to write her book, and the inspiration behind it.

This formed the ‘hook’ from which the children’s writing was based on for the next two days, which included exploring animals in different biomes, developing vocabulary and learning about fascinating collective nouns. This led to some inspired poetry writing on Friday, as well as the creation of animals using fruits and vegetables. In the afternoon, the children enjoyed a ‘Pyjamarama’, sharing books with hot chocolate and biscuits. The wonderful staff at school created a ‘Hidden Reader’ version of ‘Treasure Beyond Measure’, and a ‘Virtual Library’, where the children could click on a book cover and hear the book being read aloud, which was shared with children at home and in school.

World Book Day vouchers will be distributed week commencing Monday 8th March.