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- FROM THE EXECUTIVE HEADS OFFICE
- LEAVE OF ABSENCE DURING TERM TIME
- NEW UNIFORM PROVIDER
- FROM ECO-GROUP: Switch Off Fortnight
- FROM SCHOOL COUNCIL: A focus on down under
- MakeLunch Club: FREE half term holiday club
- CLASS 1: Last week
- CLASS 1: This Week
- CLASS 2: Art & DT
- CLASS 2: Big Thanks
- CLASS 2: Healthy Food Topic
- LITTLE PRINCESS TRUST
- CLASS 3: Amazon Rain Forest
- CLASS 3: Squirrel Obstacle Courses & Shield Making
- CLASS 4: Brick Laying
- CLASS 4: Syd's Superstars of the Week
- HEALTHY LIVING WORKSHEET
- ONLINE SAFETY: Jan 2020
FROM THE EXECUTIVE HEADS OFFICE
Welcome to the first Newsletter of the new decade!
It is so strange to think that all our current Reception pupils will be 14 or 15 when this decade ends... they will have passed through Snitterfield and be at secondary school. Our current Year 6 will be turning 21, and possibly at university. Time moves on so quickly...
The new decade is also one when I mark my 30th year in teaching, and it has caused me to reflect on the very many changes that I've seen over the years. In my first year of teaching each class became the proud owners of their very own AMSTRAD 'green screen' computer (just the one per class), complete with built in disk drive - all the mod cons! Children laboriously typed up their work and we then had to borrow the printer from another class to print it out. How times have changed! Our new laptops have been a wonderful addition to school and well worth the money. Children are now learning new skills much faster, especially given that the new laptops actually log on to the network during the lesson now! For staff, this means that we are better able to deliver the full Computing curriculum.
In terms of curriculum delivery, schools are now tasked with preparing children for a world that we can only imagine - they will go on to employment in roles and professions that don't even exist - who even knew what an influencer was 10 years ago?
On our January Teacher Day we spent time working collaboratively on our curriculum intent statement. This is our draft version:
We want all our children to leave Snitterfield as curious, inspired young people who have a sense of their own self-worth and are able to contribute positively to society.
We watched a super clip of a TED talk given by globally recognised educationalist Sir Ken Robinson. If you get 15 minutes, have a watch (he makes reference to Snitterfield!).
We've loads of lovely things planned for this term, so keep an eye out for app notifications and sync events to your calendar if you haven't done so already. We've got class trips, assemblies, Forest School, fundraising, sports events etc. In particular we are having a Health & Safety Week at the end of February with a variety of events planned already - watch out for an app closer to the time detailing what's on the agenda for the week.
Best Regards,
Mrs Plaskitt
I have had to change our branded uniform provider because Gooddies had removed us from their main site due to our order volumes being small. Their suggested new process was insanely admin-intense for me in the office and a right faff for you as parents (paying me, me paying them, paper forms to complete blah blah etc.).
So, we're all set up with a new provider, MyClothing. You can order:
1. Via the app homescreen tile 'Order Uniform' which now takes you directly to the My Clothing ordering page, or;
2. Via our 'uniform' page on the school website.
So far they've been a dream to deal with and offer a wider array of goods, a 5% kick back to school and delivery straight to Parents' home within 14 days.
Here are the branded (embroidered) items available for you, including a few new items:
- Sweat Cardigan £9
- Round Neck Sweatshirt £9
- White Polo Shirt £5.50
- White PE T shirt £5
- Book Bag £5.00
- PE bag £5.00
- Baseball Cap £5.00
- Legionnaire Cap £6.00
- Zip fleece £11.50
- Microfleece Lined Jacket £14.50
And, you can also purchase non-branded items such as grey trousers, grey pinafores, white socks, hair bobbles etc. etc. from the same site.
Here's the official PRICE LIST, the PARENT LEAFLET and the link to the ORDERING SITE.
Any problems just let me know.
Best wishes,
Anna
FROM ECO-GROUP: Switch Off Fortnight
Eco Group have been meeting to plan our ‘Switch off Fortnight’ campaign.
We explained to everyone in assembly this week what Switch off Fortnight involves and everyone was tasked with trying to save electricity at home and school. By thinking more carefully about the energy we use, we can all save on our fuel bills and in so doing start to make a difference to climate change which is a huge problem for our world.
Here are some ideas that may help you to save energy:
1. Switch off the lights when you leave a room - even turning them off for a short while saves energy
2. Don’t leave anything in ‘stand-by’ mode. Each appliance that you leave on stand-by costs you up to £80a year, so if you have 5 items left on stand-by that’s up to £400 each year you could save, well as all the energy that you have saved.
3. When your mobile phone or laptop has charged, turn it off at the plug as it is still using energy and it is actually not good for batteries as it reduces their lifetime which means that you will need to change the battery sooner than necessary and this is not
good for the environment.
4. In the kitchen don’t over fill the kettle - only boil the amount of water you need each time. Use a bowl for washing up rather than rising dirty dishes under a running tap. Put lids on your saucepans to help them boil quicker, saving energy. When you buy any new appliances, look out for the energy rating and make sure it is as energy efficient as possible.
5. If you are changing light bulbs then try to use LED bulbs to save energy - the school have changed almost all their light bulbs to LEDs over the past few years and we are now using far less energy.
6. If you are feeling cold, don’t turn up the heating but put on a warm jumper and close the windows and doors to keep your rooms warmer. Many homes are actually too warm – ideally they should be heated between 18ºC and 21ºC.
We will be educating the teachers in ways to save energy at school over the next 2 weeks and hope that we all learn to become more energy efficient. We have even suggested a day without electricity! Why not try this at home - a day without any electronic gadgets is actually really good for everyone.
In the meantime why not become an Energy Vampire Slayer at home as well as at school - have a look at the website www.jointhepod.org and sign up to join in the fun - there are lots of excellent ideas to look at on the website Have fun saving energy
From your school Eco group,
Robert, Alice. Etien, Evie, Nicholas, Eva & Lottie, with a bit of help from Hilary
FROM SCHOOL COUNCIL: A focus on down under
1. Glossy black-cockatoo (Kangaroo Island sub-species)
2. Kangaroo Island dunnart
3. Koala
4. Hastings River mouse
5. Regent honeyeater
Our Council has decided to try and help and will focus this terms' fundraising activities on raising funds towards 'adopting' a Koala bear. They presented their ideas and informed the rest of the school at an assembly last week, along with previous Australian resident Adam, who shared the same concerns
Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming fundraising events and for our very own fluffy 'Snitterfield School' Koala that is on its way to us right now! And take a look at Leyla (year 1) and Bertie's (year 2) posters that have been designed to raise awareness around school.
What an amazing week we have had in Class 1!
We have used game cards, ipad games, chalk and the interactive whiteboard to practice oa, ai and the tricky words `was’ and `my’.
Online oa and ai phonics game we have been playing: www.teachyourmonstertoread.com
The children were in stitches singing along to (and learning) the tricky word song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMyssfAUx0
We were all very excited to become handwriting superheroes on Thursday!
The children have been learning number bonds to 10 this week -
Finally, thanks from Mrs Croucher to staff, parents and children for helping to make the transition easy while Miss Findlay is away.
This week we have been thinking about dragons.
We have explored the Chinese myths about dragons and the types of dragon.
We have designed, drawn, labelled, painted and then created models of our very own dragons! As well as that, we have made dragon tooth and dragon claw bracelets, Chinese fans and used chopsticks to pick up small items.
We created some wonderful describing poems about dragons following on from reading and hearing dragon poems. This was our favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ennubYjkf10
Class 2 were ever so creative in DT the second half of last term and started this term in the same vein.
To finish off the Autumn Terms topic on castles, Mrs Brettell and Miss Lucas (thank you for helping Jayne!) guided the childen as EACH of the 30 pupils, yes 30 pupils, made individual, workable drawbridged, labelled, painted, intricate castles!! They did such a great job given the task was pretty darn hard for little hands - well done children.
Take a look at their amazing castles here:
Here are some of their fabulous pictures:
Class 2 would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Mr McGreavy and Ethan, Mrs Caerter and baby and Mrs Richards for coming into school the other week to help the children visualise and better understand the various stages of 'growing up'.
We had visitors from every stage of life: Rachel, Bertie's mum, with her blossoming baby bump, Olivia's beautiful gorgeous baby sister and Leyla's very well behaved toddler brother, Ethan, and a real life teenager in the form of Mrs Balls daughter!
The children loved the session so thanks again!
Class 2 are learning all about healthy food this term and each Friday are preparing something healthy to bring home for you try. Last week they made potato salad and this week something fishy will be swimming its way home to you!
Gwen, in Year 1, who has beautiful long hair, has made the very brave decision to get a hair cut for The Little Princess Trust because she would like to donate her hair to a child less fortunate than herself.
When a child loses their hair to cancer or another condition, the Little Princess Trust, provides a free, real hair wig to help restore their confidence and identity.
The Trust relies solely on the efforts of enthusiastic community fundraisers and they receive no formal funding.
If you'd like to support Gwens kind act and help raise money for this great cause by making a small donation, CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving donation page.
WELL DONE GWEN.
Class 3 are so engaged in their Amazon Rain Forest topic this term and thoroughly enjoying learning all about the fauna and flora in the heart of the jungle.
Last week, they all created some wonderful colourful and informative 'Rain Forest' posters which are all here for to take a look at:
CLASS 3: Squirrel Obstacle Courses & Shield Making
Class 3 enjoyed a dry and fun Forest School morning yesterday and spent the morning making squirrel obstacle courses around the schools grounds - we think the obstacles look very inventive and will challenge any nimble squirrel out there looking for some fun!
The session finished off with shield making designs.
Here are the photos:
Class 4 have been learning how to build a brick wall; laying, pointing and grouting all via the medium of art! The pattern was initially hard for the children to get their heads round but they persevered and the results are amazing. Once painted and sponged the effects look very true to life....see what you think:
CLASS 4: Syd's Superstars of the Week
Class 4's Super Stars of the week get to spend time with Sir Syd of Hiss Hall...and we're over due recognising some previous stars!
So, here is Erin, who received the Star of the Week accolade before Christmas and wore not only Sir Syd with style but also a set of pearls!
This week it's Demi who is the super star and is captured here spending some quality time with Syd. Two outstanding Syd photos still to come are for Aaliyah and Faith...next time girls!